15. The problem of adequacy in translation

A. refers to the understanding what a good translation means. The scholars have been tackling the problem for a long time. There are different points of view expressed by both home and foreign scholars. In the system of the language adequacy and equivalency are the synonyms. They enter the following synonymic series: identity, similarity, likeness. It means that we try to achieve the similarity (identity) of 2 texts. In science, however, Adequacy and equivalency are regarded as individual terms. Each of the stands for its own sense.

Федоров: наиболее полная передача содержания и наиболее полное функционально – стилистическое соответствие ему. (the most full communication of the content into another language and its functional and stylistic compliance with the original).

Комиссаров: соответствие перевода требованиям и условиям конкретного акта межъязыковой коммуникации (compliance of the translation with the needs and conditions of each particular interlinguistic communication)

This definitions imply taking into account individual stylistic peculiarities of the author, peculiarities of the linguistic system of the epoch, cultural component of the text. Therefore adequate translation means taking into consideration many features.

Adequacy is a very wide notion. Our scholars consider that adequacy is wider than equivalency. E.g. piglet, itchenette, doggie. We cannot add these suffixes to all the nouns  lexical ways of translation (using small, little). Equivalent means are not as rich.

e.g. пара хороших глазок – pair of perfect eyes (superlative degree!)

Russian is rich in diminutive suffixes. English – ways of ord-building is not typical for Russian.

Water – to water – without adding any prefixes to the most important niche – of the polysemantic words. E.g. She mothered him.

Considering all this, it is important to mention that adequate translation involves equivalency to some extent, on the other hand, equivalent translation is not necessarily adequate. Correlation of equivalency and adequacy in each act depends on the chosen strategy that depends on the number of factors, forming up the so-called translator’s situation: aim of the translation, type of the text, and knowing those for whom the translation is made.

The problem of adequacy is also connected with the notion of norm and the debates about its definition. Therefore here a large importance belongs to the genre of the text. Adequacy varies from fiction to non-fiction, because fiction is opposed to all other types (publicistic, technological, scientific). Fiction – the main aim is to produce aesthetic effect (the main aim in translation – to keep the aesthetic effect), scientific – transformation means are limited.

16. Translation of realia. Realia are words and word-combinations which refer to the non-coinciding fragments of the picture of the world. (Realis, sg.). Realis has two meanings: 1. An object which is specific, unique of a given culture, history, beliefs, etc. 2. Realis is a word which stands for an object typical of a given culture. If realia are referred to the lexical units with pragmatic meaning one must be aware of the fact that these words do not have any connotative elements very often and they do not have direct equivalence in another language. In translation they play a very important role (particularly in fiction) because they render a special aroma to the whole text. For instance, in Turgenev's works about the old Russian landowners such examples are vivid: Играть в дурака – to play old maid («Дворянское гнездо»); Батюшка! (as a form of address) – My dear papa! (if in the meaning of kinship). My dear old man! So our choice will depend upon context. Realia are discovered in comparison with two cultures and it is known that these lexical units refer to the so called non-equivalent lexis. They are studied in the theory of tanslation in lingual-cultural studies because these units cxan be properly analysed only against the background of a given culture. Sometimes realia are called exotisms or even barbarisms. As for the form of realia they are really various. They can be represented with seperate words, for instance, щи, пятак, декабристы, майовка, abbreviations (АПН, ТНТ), word combinations (Мамаев Курган, дом отдыха, коммунальная квартира),H. U. (Harvard University); or words: an apple-pie order, an Irish stew, a double-decker bus, a bed-and-breakfast hotel, G.O.P. (grand old party). Those scholars who studied realia seriously mark that in trying to get a good command of a foreign language it becomes natural to master a new system of notions, ideas typical of a given culture. Thus people acquire new associations connected with the picture of the world. Ex.: blue room – голубая зала – комната для отдыха. ('Airport' by A. Heyley). In one of the sentences the 'Blue Room' is used as a room where the snow crew could find a short rest. The 'Blue Room' is used humorously as the author marks. And it is wrongly translated into Russian with the word «вытрезвитель». There are several mistakes here arising: a notion «вытрезвитель» doesn't exist in the States; the word 'blue' in English has got rich associations. There are a few authors very popular here whose books are devoted to the investigation of realia and ways of rendering the cultural-national colouring. The choice of one of the ways depends upon a class of type of realia which these authors single out. Such authors as: Влахов, Флорин, Томахин single out groups of realia which is an attept to systematize a very big corpus of words denoting culturally marked words. Томахин includes the following classes into his clasification: the names of clothes, dishes, drinks, names of transport, names of ideas and notions connected with rest, leasure, entertainment, communication, traditions, customs, holidays, everyday life, gestures, superstitions; speech etiquette, geographic realia, toponyms, names of specific flora and fauna, characters of folklore and literary characters, the names of trusts, companies (cold-dry cereal – овсяные или кукурузные хлопья с молоком; a waik-in-kitchen – a very small kitchen; a drugstore – a farmacy combined with a snackbar together with some other goods; Indian Summer). Ways of translating realia. There are some ways of translating realia which are very well described in numerous text books. They are as follows: transliteration; transcription (Wales – Уэльс); calques; a translator's commentary or descriptive phrases. Transliteration is to render a realis by means of another alphabetical system. A graphical form of a realis is rendered by means of another graphic system. Ex.: London – Лондон – Ланден         Johnson – Джонсон         Peter – Питер Trancription is rendering the sound shape of the word of the word, not the way it is written but the way it is pronounced. In any language there is a tradition to render very famous names (geographical names (toponyms), the names of outstanding political figures, actors/ actresses, literary characters). In the XIXth century Wales was transliterated and sounded like: Валлис (валлиец, валлийское наречие). A calque is a mask of a foreign word because i.e. A step by step reconstruction of a foreign word by the corresponding elements of another language. Ex.: a double-decker bus – двухэтажный автобус;         a sky-scraper – небоскреб. A translator's commentary. In many situations both transliteration and transcription are not sufficient for translating realia. Then one of these ways, either transliteration or trancription is supplied with a descriptive phrase which is very often called a translator's commentary. It is supposed to cover all the semantic components of the content of the translated realis. For instance: brain drain – «утечка мозгов» (этот процесс связан с тем, что специалисты одной страны уезжают в другую, чтобы получить лучшие условия труда и работы). A translated phrase is resorted to either in the text or in the form of a footnote or commentary in the text or at the end of a book when neither transliteration nor transcription is sufficient. Ex.: They put up at one of the B & B hotel.         Они остановились на ночь в небольшой сельской гостинице.         Они остановились на ночь в гостинице, которую англичане называют B & B hotel. (Можно сделать сноку и комментарий). Analogues are sometimes included into the above described set of the most important realia. An analogue is a semantic substitute. It means that a translator chooses an equivalent of a translated word only partially. Ex.: борщ – cabbage soup         небольшая гостиница – B & B hotel         джигит - a horseman         аул – a village

17.False friends of interpreters. In any language there exists a part of the vocabulary which consists of international words, the units of the lexemes which appeared as a result of interlinguistic contacts. As a rule, the majority of them is represented with the words of Greek and Latin origin. Ex.: телевизор конференция доцент         коммуникация трансфер кандидат         экспорт маникюр         импорт педикюр         транспорт аспирант A big layer of internartional words in many languages is represented with English words as a result of the process of globalization of English. English has become Lingua Franca (a language for everybody). But some international words, travelling around the world and becoming borrowings, change their semantics. In fact some of them having similar phonetic shapes differ absolutely on the semantic level. Ex.: a magazine – магазин         a journal – журнал (a scientific) 'A journal' refers to a scientific one, and 'magazine' in English only for entertainment. 'A baton' – батон – дирижерская палочка. 'Order' – ордер – легальное разрешение на к.-л. действие. These words have various names: false friends, misleading words. Бархударов marked that false friends of interpreters can be traps for even professional interpreters because the similarity of forms make a great influence upon translators.False friends of interpreters can be regarded as interlinguistic synonyms, paranyms and homonyms. Interlinguistic homonyms can be absolutely different semantically. Ex.: complexion         artist But sometimes couples referring to homonyms can be homonymic meanings alongside with coinciding meanings. Ex.: officer офицер               a bank officer               a custom officer               a medical officer Interlinguistic synonyms differ in some semantic components or in connotations (connotations are semantic components). False friends of interpreters as interlinguistic synonyms differ in some semes very often in some connotative elements. Ex.: speculation – спекуляция (but in Engish 'speculation' – размышление). The Russian word «спекуляция» has a negative component of evaluation. But an English word 'speculation' means 'a transaction which usually refers to the activity of stock exchange.' Routine – рутина. In English 'routine' means 'a habitual order of things, one has got accustomed to.' It is positive. In Russian it has a negative component of evaluation. But under the influence of English one can observe a certain semantic change in the russian word «рутина» and its derivative «рутинный» (т.е. «по плану, предусмотренный»).