Translatioin of Political Literature
Работа из раздела: «
Иностранные языки»
Plan
Introduction
Chapter I
§ I. Translation and its aims.
§ II. Translation of Political literature and terms.
Chapter II
§ I. Grammatical difficulties of translation
§ II. Lexical difficulties of translation
§ III. Stylistic difficulties of translation
§ IV. The difficulty of translation of set phrases and idioms
§ V. List of set expressions used in Political Literature
Conclusion
Summary
Introduction
In this Qualification Paper we’ve set forth to study the translation
methods of Political literature and political terms at a deeper level,
their types and ways of their translation of Political literature, to
consider the function of political literature in everyday life of the
humanity.
The object of this Qualification paper can be considered as one that
gives the detailed review of the ways political literature and political
terms can be translated into Russian language. It also helps to improve
one’s understanding of the principal rules of translation which plays
leading role while processing translation.
The aim of this work is to introduce the translation approach to
Political literature so that to make it easy to perceive for those willing
to keep up their educational and scientific carrier in the science of
translation, it was purposed to broaden their view on translation studies
and peculiar features while translating Political literature.
In this work we set the following tasks:
- to review all the sources of Political literature
- to reveal the methods of translation of Political literature
- to investigate grammatical, lexical, stylistic and phraseological
difficulties of translation of political literature
We should mention that this research work represents a great
theoretical value for those willing to take up their future carrier in the
field of translations as invaluable reference to the methods and the ways
of translation of Political literature.
And the practical value of this work involves the idea that
translation represents a field aimed at training future
translators/interpreters to translate verbal and written materials on
Political subjects basing on the study of International politics, to
differentiate the language features of English, Russian and other languages
as well as political lexicology, phraseology, syntax and style.
The source information for this research work has been carefully
studied and investigated before it was applied to the given work.
The originality of this work is in its creative approach to the study
and methods of translation, besides, it contains a detailed review of ways
and methods of translation.
The given Qualification paper contains introduction, two chapters,
conclusion and bibliography list.
The first chapter gives a detailed review of the study of the theory
of translation and also reveals the role of political literature and terms
in everyday life of the humanity which are believed to be interesting to
future translator/interpreters. It also discussed the methods of
translation of political literature with purpose to make it easier for
translator to achieve adequate translation in the target language.
The second chapter deals with the detailed study of grammatical,
lexical, stylistic difficulties involved in translation of political
literature. It also gives some hints on translation of idioms and set
expressions and their behavior in literature.
We have also attached some samples of translation of political set
expressions so that to enable the future translator to benefit from the
given paper in their further researches in the fields of translation.
In conclusion we have summed up the results of our laborious
investigation translation of political literature.
At the end of the research paper we have attached the bibliography
list to enable the future translator to use information sources used in
this Paper.
Chapter I.
§ I. Translation and its aims.
Most translators prefer to think of their work as a profession and
would like to see others to treat them like professionals rather than as
skilled or semi-skilled workers. But to achieve this, translators need to
develop an ability to stand back and reflect on what they do and how they
do it. Like doctors and engineers, they have to prove to themselves as well
as others that they are in control of what they do; that they do not just
translate well because they have ‘flair’ for translation, but rather
because, like other professionals, they have made a conscious effort to
understand various aspects of their work.
Unlike medicine and engineering, translation is a very young
discipline in academic terms. It is only just starting to feature as a
subject of study in its own right, not yet in all but in an increasing
number of universities and colleges around the world. Like any young
discipline, it needs to draw on the findings and theories of other related
disciplines in order to develop and formalize its own methods; but which
disciplines it can naturally and fruitfully be related to is still a matter
of some controversy. Almost every aspect of life in general and of the
interaction between speech communities in particular can be considered
relevant to translation, a discipline which has to concern itself with how
meaning is generated within and between various groups of people in various
cultural settings. This is clearly too big an area to investigate in one
go. So, let us just start by saying that, if translation is ever to become
a profession in the full sense of the word, translators will need something
other than the current mixture of intuition and practice to enable them to
reflect on what they do and how they do it. They will need, above all, to
acquire a sound knowledge of the raw material with which they work: to
understand what language is and how it comes to function for its users.
Translation is a process of rendering a text, written piece or a
speech by means of other languages. The difference of translation from
retelling or other kinds of transfer of a given text is that that
translation is a process of creating an original unity in contexts and
forms of original.
The translation quality is defined by its completeness and value. “The
completeness and value of translation means definite rendering of the
contextual sense of the original piece and a high-grade functional-
stylistic conformity.”
The concept “high-grade functional-stylistic conformity” clearly points
on two existing ways of rendering the form in unity with the meaning: the
first one is a reproduction of specific features of the form of the
original piece and the second one is the creation of functional
conformities of those features. It means when translating the specific
features of an original literature we should rather consider the style
inherent for the given genre but than direct copying the form of an
original. While translating, we should also remember that different lexical
and grammatical elements of an original might be translated differently if
accepted by the norms of conformity to the whole original. The translation
adequacy of separate phrases, sentences and paragraphs should not be
considered separately but along with achievement of the adequacy and
completeness of the translating piece as a whole because the unity of a
piece is created through collecting the components.
No matter how a translator (interpreter) is talented he should remember
two most important conditions of the process of translation: the first is
that the aim of translation is to get the reader as closely as possible
acquainted with the context of a given text and then second – to translate
– means to precisely and completely express by means of one language the
things that had been expressed earlier by the means of another language.
A translation can be done:
1. from one language into another, kin-language, non-kin,
2. from literary language into its dialect or visa versa
3. from the language of an ancient period into its modern state
The process of translation, no matter how fast it is, is subdivided
into two moments. To translate one should first of all to understand, to
perceive the meaning and the sense of the material.
Furthermore, to translate one should find and select the sufficient
means of expression in the language the material is translated into (words,
phrases, grammatical forms).
There are three, most identified types of translation: literary,
special and sociopolitical.
The ways of achieving the adequacy and completeness in those three
types of translation will never completely coincide with each other because
of their diverse character and tasks set to translator (interpreter).
The object of literary translation is the literature itself. And its
distinctive feature is a figurative-emotional impact on the reader, which
is attained through a great usage of different linguistic means, beginning
from epithet and metaphor up to rhythmical-syntactic construction of
phrases.
Thus, in order to preserve figurative-emotional impact on the reader
while translating a work of art, the translator (interpreter) will try to
render all the specific features of the translating material. That’s why,
on the first place one should reconstruct the specific features of an
original and the creation of functional conformities to the features of the
original play the subordinate role.
The objects of special translations are materials that belong to
different fields of human activities, science and technology. The
distinctive feature of this type of translation is an exact expression of
the sense of translating material, which is attained through wide usage of
special terms.
Thus, in order to render an exact and clear meaning while translating
such materials alongside with the selection of term equivalents, on the
first place one has to create functional conformities to the features of an
original, and the creation of specific features of the original play the
subordinate role.
And finally, the objects of social-politic translations are the
materials of propaganda and agitation character, and therefore a bright
emotional sense abundant with special terms.
Concerning the achievement of adequacy this type of translation
possesses the features of literary and special types of translation as
well.
§ II. Translation of Political literature and terms.
Political literature like any other scientific kind of literature have
languages items characteristic to them, that requires the translator to be
precise and sharp. Most books on general politics are characterized by the
passion of expression, polemic style and the specific feature is in
blending the elements of scientific speech from one side with different
emotionally colored means of expression from another side.
The translation of political literature can be considered in two ways:
as a field of linguistic activity and as a separate field in science.
As a field of linguistic activity translation of political literature
represents one of the types of special translations possessing as objects
of its activity different materials of political character.
The political translation comes out into a special field of study due
to its specific features of written and verbal speech on political topics,
which is specified by its essential character and the knowledge of this
science. Sometimes these features are so diverse that in order to
understand them (Russian and English politics as well) one should have a
special knowledge without which it would be very hard to clearly perceive
the inner sense on politics or a translated piece.
Therefore, the study of specific features of written and verbal speech
acquires great importance to translators (interpreters). To the features
mention above belong the following:
1. maximal filling the political literature with special political
terms, and in verbal speech (among the politicians) – filling it
with words of political jargon – slang.
2. presence of special idiomatic expressions and phraseological
units in verbal and written speech that are rarely used in
colloquial speech and general literature.
As an example, I should bring the following idioms: blitzkrieg –
молниеносная война, Comprehensive Program of Disarmament - Всеобъемлющая
программа разоружения, principal powers – крупные державы, status quo –
статус кво and many others. We have to mark - if the quantity of political
idioms is limited, then the amount of “politically” related phraseological
idioms is vast in English and Russian languages.
3. the presence of some stylistic deflection from general literary
norms is sometimes very great.
a) wide usage of elliptic constructions, especially in
periodically publishing materials, propaganda and other kinds
of politically important printing media.
b) preciseness and beauty of self-expression which is achieved by
the usage of elliptic constructions along with wide usage of
passive constructions and an often substitution of придаточных
предложений by absolute constructions and деепричастными
оборотами.
c) the presence of official writing style, mostly in documents of
official provisions that cover administrative and political
questions.
d) strictly regulated use of verbal forms and word phrases in
special chapters of political literature and political
documents.
As was told before, while translating a political character, like doing
any other special translation a great importance is given to translation of
special terms.
In our philological literature exist lots of definitions to the concept
of term, but the essence of majority comes to the following:
Term – is a word or a combination of words, which define a notion
(subject, a phenomenon, property, relation or a process) that is
characteristic for the given field of science, technology, art or a sphere
of social life.
Terms differ from the words of general usage by definite semantic
limitations and specific meanings they define. Its very hard to
overestimate the general and scientific meaning of terms since the concrete
knowledge demands definite expression and a term does not only fix the
concept by its notion (name) but specifies it diverging it from adjacent
components.
For better functioning, terms must express systematization of notions,
express their essence or at least be semantically neutral and at the same
time be unambiguous and precise.
The phenomenon of a separate field of science and the terms that fix
them should be systemized that offers gender availability around which
group notions are formed. Thus an English term representative which
presents a group notion and forms a group of notions that belong to this
group: representative forum (представительный форум), business world
representative (представитель делового мира), representative to the talks
(представитель на переговорах), representative to the public (представитель
общественности), representative of political circles (представитель
политических кругов), representative to NATO (представитель НАТО),
representative of various strata or the population (представитель различных
слоёв населения).
The capability of a term to express a systematic state of notions and
easily merge with new phrases that represent new group notions that
consequently appear along with the development of a definite field of
science or knowledge maybe called its systematic capability.
The systematic capability of notions helps us to clarify the relation
of notions, raise their semantic definiteness and ease their understanding
and remembering.
In terms, formed on the base of mother tongue we may differ direct
meaning and terminological meaning.
The direct meaning of a term is formed through the elements of the
language used for their formation; the terminological meaning defines the
concept of notion expressed by the term.
The terms, direct and terminological meaning of which correspond to
each other, correctly orientate and underline the so-called their
interrelation. These terms are able to express the essence of notions.
The terms, whose direct and terminological meaning does not correspond
to each other belong to semantically neutral group of terms.
And at last, the terms whose direct and terminological meaning
contradict each other, should be admitted as completely unsatisfactory
because they distort the genuine relations among the notions, disorientate
the hearer and do not possess any semantic definiteness.
Unambiguousness of a term also influences its clear semantic features
but since we do not have any researches in this field this concept cannot
always be applied. Therefore, up to 10% of English and American political
terms do not possess even a relative semantic definiteness, i.e.
definiteness in some political concerns. This situation may be explained by
the fact that the terms according to their nature are firstly simple words,
and consequently, they develop according to general laws of linguistics.
The result of this is the appearance terminological homonyms that hinder
the normal functioning of political terms in a language.
The definiteness of a term requires preciseness of an expressed idea.
It also raises the semantic definiteness of the term averting its misusage
according to it form.
Not all the terms, of course, possess the above-mentioned qualities,
but the translator/interpreter of political material should take them into
consideration while forming new terms and solving the question of
preference to one of the available term-synonyms.
The correct translation of political literature is a laborious work
despite the terms’ considerable possession of definite semantic clearness
and independence in usage.
While speaking of difficulties of translation, we imply as a matter of
the first importance, the translation general political literature, which
either do not yet have any equivalents in the translating language or have
several similar notion for the term in question or at least have one
equivalent but of doubtful adequacy. There are lots of word phrases and
idiom and terms of this kind and their number is growing with development
of technology and interrelation of people and especially with the
development of Political sciences.
To achieve a correct translation we can recommend to group the
political literature and the used in them according to their field of
application and some principles of translation of each group. All the
political terms and idioms existing in politics can be divided into three
groups:
1. terms – defining the notions of a foreign reality but identical
to the reality of the Russian language march - марш
2. terms – defining the notions of a foreign reality absent in the
Russian one but possessing generally accepted term-equivalents
National Guard – Национальная Гвардия, Territorial Army –
Территориальная Армия.
3. terms – defining the notions of a foreign reality that are not
available in the Russian language and not having generally
accepted term-equivalents: alert hanger – ангар вылета по
тревоге.
The adequacy of translation of the first group is achieved by the use
of terms implementing corresponding notions in Russian language.
At the same time, it is very important for the notion expressed by the
notion of another language to correspond in meaning rendered in Russian
language only by its main, essential attributes. The translation of an
English term poll into Russian опросы населения (голосование) is possible
only for the correspondence of their principal meaning though the
organization and methods of polling are quite different in both countries.
An adequate translation of the second group is comprised in the
selection of generally accepted Russian terminological equivalents.
Even terms, not fully meeting the above mentioned requirements due to
the terminological meaning fixed for it through the linguistic activity
will adequately fit into these rules.
An adequate translation of the words of the third group may be achieved
by means of creation of a new terms, which will have to completely merge
into the existing system of political terms underlying the systematization
of available notions, reflect the essence of the notion it expresses or at
least not to contradict it and possess an unambiguousness within its field
of application.
Thus, we have considered all the general principals in achieving and
adequate translation including translation of political literature and the
essential features of translation of political terms.
Chapter II
§ I. Grammatical difficulties of translation
The translation process of political literature from one language into
another is inevitable without necessary grammatical transformations (change
of structure). It gets great importance while making translation to add or
omit some words since the structures of languages are quite different.
Grammatical transformations are characterized by various principles –
grammatical, and lexical as well, though the principal role is given to
grammatical ones. Very often these grammatical changes are mixed so that
they have lexical-grammatical character.
The vigil of the British Embassy, supported last week by many prominent
people and still continuing, the marches last Saturday, the resolutions or
organizations have done something to show that Blair doesn’t speak for
Britain.
Круглосуточная демонстрация у здания британского консульства,
получившая на прошлой недели поддержку многих видных деятелей, всё ещё
продолжается. Эта демонстрация и состоявшиеся в субботу поход, а также
предпринятые различными организациями резолюции, явно свидетельствуют о
том, что Блэр отнюдь не говорит от имени всего английского народа.
While translating this article we have made the following changes.
The sentence was divided into two parts. We often do that when
translating short newspaper articles (news in brief) and the first lines of
the articles of informative character (leads). Practically, we are forced
to do that because the first lines usually contain main information given
in the paragraph. These sentences containing various information are not
characteristic to the style of Russian writing. The division of the
sentence made us repeat the word демонстрация.
The word vigil – бдение acquired here quite another political meaning
круглосуточная демонстрация. Since ночное бодрствование is one of the
semantic components of the word vigil the term круглосуточная демонстрация
fully renders the sense of the given word. Besides, we have to mention that
one of the words was translated like word expression получившая поддержку.
We have also added additional words like у здания (посольства),
состоявшиеся (в субботу походы), а также принятые различными (организациями
резолюции). The word last in the last Saturday was omitted because it would
make the translation more difficult, but we can conceive it by the
contextual meaning of the sentence.
The strengthening function of the phrase have done something to show
was rendered by the adverb явно свидетельствуют.
And the English cliche to speak for was translated by the Russian one
говорить от имени. And at last I should say that I metonymically translated
the word Britain into весь английские народ.
Thus, while translating this sentence we have made use of grammatical
transformations and lexical as well.
As you know, English has an analytical character and therefore the
relation between words is mostly expressed by word-order, that’s by
syntactic means, and morphological means play the secondary role. The
priority of the role of syntactical changes appears in many cases but they
do not always have similar conformities in Russian language which makes the
translator make use of various transformations while translating a piece of
political literature. Here we can point to well-known features of the
location of syntactic items in the English, e.i. the combination of
logically incompatible homogeneous part of the sentence, the essential use
of introductory sentences, the break of logical chain of the sentence, and
especially while expressing the noun and the attribute of the sentences.
The syntactic structure of a language imposes restrictions on the way
messages may be organized in that language. The order in which functional
elements such as subject, predicator, and object may occur is more fixed in
some languages than in others. Languages vary in the extent to which they
rely on word order to signal the relationship between elements in the
clause. Compared to languages such as German, Russian, Finnish, Arabic, and
Eskimo, word order in English is relatively fixed. The meaning of a
sentence in English, and in languages with similarly fixed word order such
as Chinese, often depends entirely on the order in which the elements are
placed. (cf. The man ate the fish and The fish ate the man).
The structural features of English language require structural
completeness of the sentence. One can not omit a word without supplying
another one instead. This criterion is governed by stylistic preference of
the language to prevent word and make the sentence more emphatic. Even if
the repetition is frequent in English its use in most cases is logically
required and stylistically proved to be necessary. Otherwise, repetition is
accepted as unnecessary component of the sentence or one of the stylistic
shortcomings of the translation. The demand of syntactical completeness of
the sentences and others stylistic criteria explain here the wide usage of
structure filling words (слова заместители). The structure filling words
include pronouns (one, ones, this, that, these, those) and verbs (to do, to
be, to have, shall, should, will, would, can, could, might, may, must,
ought, need, dare).
Its quite evident that the structure filling words do not have
denotative meaning, they are absolutely contextual. They should be related
to conforming nouns and the verb form the fill and only afterwards they
acquire lexical completeness. The verb-filling words are usually divided
into two parts: fully filling and partially filling ones. To the first
group belong the verb to do in the Present Indefinite which act in the role
of fully filling word. It can replace the verbs of function. To the second
group belong all other structure filling words. They act like a part of the
whole just like the representative of compound verb form.
While translating the structure filling words we have to use words with
complete meaning (sometimes pronouns) or make use of some other kinds of
functional filling.
The new British Government will face many problems, both acute and
chronic: an acute one will be Northern Ireland, acute among chronic ones
will be inflation and rising prices.
Новое британское правительство столкнётся со многими проблемами как
неотложного, так и затяжного характера. К неотложным проблемам относится
положение в Северной Ирландии, а к проблемам, носящим затяжной характер, -
инфляция и рост цен.
While translating this piece we had to decipher the structure filling
words and render their meaning by means of conforming nouns.
When comparing the grammatical categories and forms of English and
Russian languages we identify the following differences: a) the absence of
the categories in one of the comparing languages, b) partial correspondence
and c) complete correspondence. The necessity of grammatical
transformations arise only on two first cases. When comparing the English
with Russian we should mention that Russian does not have the notions like
article and gerund and absolute nominative constructions as well. Partial
conformity and unconformity in meaning and usage of corresponding forms and
constructions also demands grammatical transformations. We can refer to
this case the partial unconformity of the category of number, partial
unconformity in the forms of passive constructions, partial unconformity of
the form of infinitive and gerund and some other differences in expressing
the modality of the clause and so on.
First of all we should consider the article for article both definite
and indefinite which despite its abstract meaning very frequently demands
semantic expression in translation. As we know both these articles
originated from pronouns; the definite one originated from index pronoun
and the indefinite one from indefinite pronoun, which refers to number one.
These primary meanings are sometimes obvious in their modern usage. In this
cases their lexical meaning should be rendered in translation otherwise the
Russian sentence would be incomplete and ambiguous for denotative meaning
of articles is an inseparable part of the whole context meaning of a given
sentence. There are cases when classifying function of indefinite articles
is so obvious that one should render its meaning by some lexical item.
It is commonly stated that government should resign if defeated in a
major issue in the House of Commons which has been made one of confidence.
(The Times).
Обычно утверждают, что правительство должно подать в отставку, если оно
потерпит поражение в Палате общин по какому-нибудь серьёзному вопросу,
который оппозиция считает вопросом о доверии правительству.
In this case the indefinite article acquires the meaning of the pronoun
some. One can easily see its historical relation with the number one in the
following example:
Yet, H.G. Wells had not an enemy on earth.
Однако у Герберта не было ни единого врага на свете.
As has been pointed before the most difficult are cases when
classifying meanings of indefinite articles demand semantic transfer in
translation.
We need a Government which believes in planning ahead for jobs and
which will use available labor to build homes for the British people.
Нам нужно такое правительство, которое было бы убеждено в
целесообразности планирования занятости и использовало бы наличную рабочую
силу в строительстве домов для населения.
The emphatic role of the indefinite article in its classifying function
is more expressed in the following sentence.
The Vietnam war had revealed the true nature of a U.S. foreign policy
that can be purchased ruthlessly for the benefit of a view in the “military-
industrial complex”.
Война во Вьетнаме вскрыла истинную природу той внешней политики США,
которая проводится беспощадными методами ради выгоды немногих
представителей «военно-промышленного комплекса».
Pretty often the definite article demands translation in cases when it
comes before numerals.
The two sides also signed a Treaty in the Limitation of Underground
Nuclear Tests.
Обе стороны подписали договор об ограничении подземных испытаний
атомного оружия.
The Southern nations remained quiet between 1948 and 1958 as Latin
America’s economy grew at an impressive annual rate of 4.3 percent.
С 1948 по 1958 южные страны пребывали в относительном спокойствии, в то
время как экономика Латинской Америки развивалась впечатлительным темпом в
4.3 процента в год.
In the following sentence both articles demands translation.
The influence and authority of the UN Secretariat depends to an extent
(though not nearly to the extent that is popularly supposed) on the talents
of one individual – the Secretary-General. The job is a peculiar one.
Влияние и авторитет секретариата ООН зависят в известной степени (хотя
и не в такой степени, как обычно полагают) от качеств одного человека –
Генерального секретаря. Это чрезвычайно своеобразная должность.
The lexical meaning of the article is strongly expressed when it acts
in like a link connecting parts of the sentences or two separate sentences
as given in the example above. From the mentioned above cases we can judge
that missing article translation may lead to misinterpretation or incorrect
and incomplete translation of a sentence.
The role of verb complexes in English is quite evident therefore we
will consider only some peculiar cases of verb transformations during
translation.
First of all let us consider the verb construction with the preposition
for:
…American military bases on foreign territories which are intended for
launching missiles possessed by United States’ armed forces.
… американские военные базы на территориях других государств, которые
предназначены для запуска ракет американскими ВВС.
In this case the infinitive construction is translated like adverbial
modifier of purpose.
The construction with secondary predicate (so-called Nominative with
the Infinitive) is widely used in newspaper style due to its preciseness
and because it help to avoid the responsibility for the given information.
The United States Congress is aimed to control all the financial
expenses of the Government.
Целью конгресса Соединённых Штатов является контроль всех расходов
правительства.
It is natural that transformation is required while translating
sentences with participles of absolute nominative construction.
But often enough grammatical transformations are necessary while
rendering conforming forms and constructions for some divergence in their
meaning and usage. Such differences of opinions are observed in cases of
usage of the category of number. This refers to both countable and
uncountable nouns. Countable nouns have single and plural forms in both
languages that usually coincide still we observe cases when their usage is
different, ex.:
War Atrocity on Peace Conference Eve (news head).
Зверства (интервентов) накануне мирной конференции
Concerning uncountable nouns, especially those expressing abstract
notions we may have much more difficulties because most of them are
paradigmatic. For example: ink – чернила, money – деньги and so on.
Increasingly, Southern Africa is becoming the arena of national
liberation struggles.
Южная Африка всё больше и больше становится районом национально-
освободительной борьбы.
Sometimes, despite the availability of the plural form in Russian – its
usage is impossible owing to difference in combination and usage.
The Nile Valley appears to have been unfit for human habitation during
the Stone Ages.
Долина Нила, по-видимому, была не пригодна для жизни человека на
протяжении всего каменного века (во все периоды каменного века).
In Russian the Stone Age expression is of a historical nature and is
never used in plural.
In cases when plural form is to be preserved for it carries some
inherent sense one has to apply countable nouns, ex.:
Strikes broke out in many British industries.
В ряде отраслей промышленности Англии вспыхнули забастовки.
Sometimes, owing to some reasons some of constructions has wider usage
in one languages comparing with other languages. The best example of this
is the passive form – widely used in English mostly due to disappearance of
word flexion. As a result, both indirect and predicative object maybe
transformed into the objects of passive construction.
Stones and bottles were showered upon a Negro demonstration in
Milwaukee by white racists.
Белые расисты обрушили град камней и бутылок на негритянскую
демонстрацию в Милуоки (забросали камнями и бутылками).
We should notice that the passive-active transformation can not give
sufficient result for in passive construction the stress is being made on
the object of action and in the active construction the stress is being
made on the agent of action. The widespread use of passive construction in
English happens often enough because it is explained by unimportance of the
doer of that action and it is most often in newspaper style at the same
time the most important is to attract attention to the passage. Since the
structure and word order of simple sentence is subject + predicate + object
the importance of stylistics is bigger then to distinguish the object one
chooses the passive construction.
Divergence are found in some other cases of infinitive usage –
infinitive in substantivized constructions (like post-positive attribute)
and infinitive expressing following actions, for example:
The president warned of drastic steps to be taken against racialists in
the Zambian copper belt.
Президент предупредил, что будут предприняты решительные меры против
белых расистов в Медном поясе Замбии.
The infinitive functioning as attribute is translated into object
clause with the verb in the Future tense.
The Continuative Infinitive is often mistaken for the infinitive of
purpose, but in this function it expresses the action following the after
the action expressed by predicate and represents the logical development of
things.
The Soviet Union decided to sign the Treaty with Germany and only did
to discover that Germany itself violated it two years later.
Советский Союз решил заключить договор с Германией. Но два года спустя
Германия сама нарушила его.
The Continuative infinitive very often is used with the adverb only
which stresses it. This emphatic function can be rendered in many ways.
Thus, all the considered cases – absence of conforming form, partial
correspondence, differences in character and use – urge translators to make
necessary grammatical transformations while translating some piece. Those
grammatical transformations maybe divided into following types:
1) substitution
2) transposition
3) omission (ellipsis)
4) supplementation
Substitution is one of the grammatical relations among the parts of the
sentences. In substitution, an item (or items) is replaced by another item
(or items), ex:
I like politics. And I do.
In this example, do is a substitute for like politics . Items commonly
used in substitution in English include do, one, and the same, as in the
following examples from Halliday and Hasan:
You think US will start the war against Iraq? – No one does.
We make use of substitution while translating a piece because of
several reasons: absence of similar construction in Russian language,
unconformity in usage of corresponding forms and constructions and some
lexical reasons, which include different word usage and different norms of
combinability in English and Russian and the absence of the part of speech
with corresponding meaning.
An attempted overthrow in Peru.
Попытка совершить переворот в Перу.
In Russian we do not have the conforming participle II of the verb
пытаться. And this made us change the part of speech; the participle
attempted was translated into Russian by the noun попытка. The expression
попытка переворота does not conform to the norms of Russian language that’s
why we have to apply additional word совершить.
While translating the following text we will have to use substitution
several times.
On the whole the “popular’’ press – with the New York Daily News as its
cheer-leader – is vociferous in its support of the President’s policies and
merciless toward those who attack them. But among the so-called “quality”
papers led by the New York Times there is a growing mood of doubt and
questioning.
В общем «массовые» газеты, во главе с Нью-Йорк дейли ньюс», громогласно
поддерживают политику президента и беспощадно обрушиваются на тех, кто
критикует её. Но среди так называемых «качественных» газет, возглавляемых
«Нью-Йорк таймс», всё больше растут сомнение и неуверенность (в её
правильности).
In the first sentence are used the verbal noun, verb link and two
predicative parts expressed by adjectives with object clauses. In this
translation verbal nouns very replaced by predicative ones (именные
сказуемые были заменены глагольными): поддерживают and обрушиваются. Both
predicative parts of the sentence have been translated by adverbs:
громогласно, беспощадно. In the second sentence the introductory
construction there is was translated by predicative verb and the participle
growing was transformed into the function of an attribute. The noun mood
was omitted and its attribute of doubt and questioning was turned into its
object.
The transformation of ‘active’ into ‘passive’ is also when a translator
uses substitution.
More light was shed yesterday on the effect of C.S. gas, which was
claimed by Pentagon to be virtually harmless to health.
Вчера поступили дополнительные сведения о вредном действии газа C.S.,
который, по утверждению Пентагона, якобы не опасен для здоровья.
The phraseological unit more light was shed was translated by means of
lexical transformation and the passive construction was replaced by an
active one. The passive construction in the object clause also undergone
lexical transformation – verbal construction was substituted by substantive
one: по утверждению.
This example can illustrate the fact that lexical and grammatical
transformations are closely related with each other.
Transposition, that’s, change of structure of the sentence may be
caused by several reasons. But the main of them, as it has been mentioned
before is the difference in the structure of the English and Russian
languages. The fixed order of words in English bears hierarchic character,
first come the primary parts of the sentence; noun, predicate followed by
secondary parts. In Russian the word order is not fixed but one can observe
the tendency to locate the main information at the end of sentences
expressing it be the noun. The academic grammar of Russian points that the
word order in Russian sentences follows the model: adverbial modifier,
predicate and then the noun – that’s the order absolutely opposite to
English. In Russian, the secondary part of the sentence can stand at the
beginning if it represents the starting point of expression and introduces
theme of given information, ex:
Вчера в Вашингтоне состоялась пресс-конференция.
The essence of the information is пресс-конференция – which is
expressed by the noun located at the end of the sentence. Nevertheless,
this word-order is not obligatory, ex:
Премьер-министр выступил вчера по телевидению.
Here we find the main essence at the beginning of sentence.
In English, according to fixed word order, the noun of the sentence
stands at the beginning of clause. One of the prominent English linguists,
Halliday marks that, usually (but not always) a starting point is intrinsic
to English sentences.
Still in many cases the English sentence happens to be the center of
informative message, compare A Press Conference was held in Washington
yesterday. Usually it happens when the noun of the sentence is expressed
with an indefinite article. Something, semantically new has got to be
expressed in the sentence, and the earlier one should be opposed to the new
one, which is being expressed. Therefore the indefinite article functions
represents this new information, introduces it.
A smash-and-grab raid on two of the most important nationalized
industries is being organized by the Tory Party.
Консерваторы собираются обрушиться на две самые значительные
национализированные отрасли промышленности.
(the metaphor smash-and-grab has not been preserved in translated
version)
Nevertheless, similar word order in English and Russian sentences are
also evident.
A meeting of firemen’s and employers’ representatives scheduled for
today has been postponed.
Намеченная на сегодня встреча представителей пожарников и
предпринимателей была отложена.
A Catholic priest in South Africa told of the malnutrition, disease and
starvation there.
Один католический священник из Южной Африки рассказывал о существующем
там недоедании, болезнях и голоде.
Transposition is required when the English sentence contains a large
group of nouns with indefinite article and then it is natural that they,
being the center of informative message are placed at the end of the
sentence. Besides, a short, compared with the noun predicate can not bear
the emphatic sense of a large group of nouns.
A big wave of actions by all sections of workers – skilled and
unskilled, men and women, manual and non-manual – for higher wages and
equal pay, for shorter hours and a greater say in shaping the environment
at work is rising.
Сейчас нарастает огромная волна забастовок трудящихся всех категорий –
квалифицированных и не квалифицированных, мужчин и женщин, работников
физического и умственного труда – за повышение зарплаты, за равную оплату
женского труда, за сокращение рабочего дня, за улучшение условий труда.
It is very frequent when grammatical and lexical transformations demand
supplementation or omission of some words or elements. Therefore omission
and supplementation are frequently combined with other types of grammatical
transformations and more frequently with substitution of parts of speech.
Supplementation of parts of speech are characterized by several factors:
difference in structures of the sentences and that short English sentences
demand spread translation in the Russian language. Absence of some
corresponding word or lexical-semantic variant in both languages is also
one of the reasons of applying additional words in translation.
The American troops were thought to be heading toward Saigon, but no
one seemed to be aware of fierce resistance of the nation.
Полагали, что американские войска направляется на Сайгон, но казалось,
что никто не знал о жестоком сопротивлении местного населения.
The construction Nominative + Infinitive with two omitted elements
(which was) was given in object clause plus introductory sentences…
который, как полагали раньше, движется… Thus, the difference in the
structure of sentences demanded supplementation in the given translation.
In the following example, supplementation was caused by absence of
corresponding word in Russian to English conservationists.
The actions of Congress and of North Carolina and Tennessee statesmen,
aided by gifts of wise conservationists, have set this land aside as Great
Smoky National Park.
Эта местность на берегу реки Смоки-Хилл была превращена в Национальный
парк благодаря усилиям Конгресса и государственных деятелей штатов Северная
Каролина и Теннеси, а также благодаря пожертвованиям любителей природы,
понимающих всю важность её сохранения.
While translating this sentence besides transposition we have made many
other transformations and as a matter of the first importance we should
mentions the supplementation we have accomplished. In regard to the absence
on corresponding word in the Russian language to the English
conservationists we have rendered it by two words любителей природы; and
taking into consideration the combinability of the attribute wise we have
translated it by adverbial modifier applying introductory words like
понимающих всю важность её сохранения, the noun сохранения renders all the
essence of the given sentence which is contained in conservationists. To
make the perception of the sentence easier we have we added the words
штатов, на берегу реки. The last supplementation was made on the basis of
its spread context. The passive participle aided was rendered by
preposition благодаря. We should also point to lexico-grammatical
transformation: have set this land aside – эта местность …была превращена.
Ellipsis involves the omission of an item. In other words, in ellipsis
an item is replaced by nothing. This is a case of leaving something unsaid
which is nevertheless understood. It doesn’t include every instance when
the hearer or reader has to supply missing information, but only those
cases where grammatical structure itself points to an item or items that
can fill the slot in question. Here are some examples of ellipsis:
The United States donated two millions dollars and Britain one and a
half millions pounds. (omitted item: donated in second clause ).
Here are four strategies. Choose any of them. (omitted item strategy)
Use of synonymy pairs is characterized to all styles of written speech
of English language. Preserving such synonymy pair is accepted as pleonasm
and it is absolutely superfluous even when translating official documents
that demand preciseness. For example:
The Treaty was declared null and void.
Договор был объявлен недействительным.
Condemned by almost all members of the United States, and regarded as
an outcast and criminal system by the vast majority of mankind, it
(apartheid) is able to exist and defy censure solely because of the aid and
support given to it by the Western imperialist countries.
Апартеид осуждён почти всеми членами ООН, и подавляющее большинство
человечества считает эту систему преступной. Апартеид существует благодаря
помощи и поддержке империалистических государств Запада.
In this example are used two synonymy pairs: outcast and criminal, aid
and support. In the first case преступный sufficiently renders the essence
of both synonyms. The lexical meaning of the attribute outcast – изгнанный,
отверженный doesn’t fit to this context neither owing to norms of
combinability nor to the power of its meaning. The second pair of synonyms
can be preserved without any difficulty – помощь и поддержка. The
participle given is omitted for its meaning is supplied by case flexion.
The battle was fierce while it lasted.
Бой был жесток.
Time complex object in this in this case functions as a clichй and
doesn’t have corresponding equivalent in Russian.
So we can see that in the majority cases of translation some piece of
political literature we have make necessary changes. We should remind you
that it is not always an English sentence completely corresponds to the
Russian one. Very frequently the structure of a Russian sentence absolutely
differs from the one English. It has different word order, parts of the
sentences and pretty often differs even the order of sentences. In some
instances, parts of speech expressed in English are translated into Russian
by the help of different parts of speech. You should remember that the
compressed way of expression in the English can not be followed in Russian
and we therefore have to “decompress” them so that to make the easy to
perceive and understand, e.i. we have to add some words or expressions or
even sentences in whole. Nevertheless, some differences in usage of some
specific features make us leave some elements unsaid while translating the
whole. And all these cases are explained by grammatical transformations we
have just investigated.
§ II. Lexical difficulties of transformation.
Every word in a language carries some concrete notion. The semantics of
a word reflects different signs of the subject and the relation of its
meanings to other objects it denotes. The semantics of a word includes word
perception characteristic to the studied language, being more precise to
the bearers of the studied language. When studying the reality of some
object we can identify that its name reveals its functions which finds the
reflection in the semantics of the word. Lets take as an example the word
glasses – очки. In English it reveals the substance of which the object is
made and in Russian firstly it reveals its function – second eyes – очи.
Despite distinguishing all kinds of differences we should say that,
both languages sufficiently reflect one and the same perception of reality.
Therefore the difficulty stylistic devices represents to a translator is
based on word play, if in corresponding words of both languages are
featured different signs.
The second reason, causing lexical difficulties to translation of
political literature is the difference in the semantic volume of a word. In
every language a word exists in a close connection with the lexical-
semantic system of a given language. It may have various kinds of lexical
meanings (lexical-semantic) variants; it may widen or narrow its meaning
and make it more abstract or concrete.
The third reason presenting lexical difficulties in translation the
difference in combinability. Words in languages have some definite
relation characteristic only to the given language. It should be mentioned
that word combinability is possible if words point to similar objects they
denote. This difference of word combinability in various languages is very
important; therefore some types of combinability are easily accepted in one
of language and are completely unacceptable in other languages.
Last but not the least is the accepted usage of words in a language. It
is, of course related to the development of a given languages and formation
of its lexical system. Every language worked out its own clichйs and some
set expressions used by speakers, nevertheless those word expressions are
not phraseological units but they possess complete form, which, in
comparison with the phraseological units, are never broken by adding some
introductory words or substitution of some of its elements.
Translation studies showed that there are cases when due to the
distinguished signs a word acquires wider semantic volume and can not be
covered by corresponding equivalent in the target language. Let us take
teenager for example: etymologically it is related to the numerals from
thirteen till nineteen. The Russian подросток does not semantically cover
its meaning in complete volume for its is narrower in its meaning.
Therefore the word teenager is usually translated by different words –
подросток, юноша, and in plural as молодёжь.
Difference in the semantic structure of a word represents one of the
main reason causing lexical difficulty in translation. These difference are
related to peculiar features of separate words or word groups. And it is
quite natural that this matter covers a wide range of examples.
Practically, even identical words in different languages are not always
equal in their meaning, they never correspond completely. Most often is the
correspondence of first lexical-semantic variants of such words – their
primary meaning – then we have various lexical-semantic variants for the
course of development of these words was of different nature.
This is characterized by different functioning of a word in language,
different in usage and combinability, but even the primary meaning of an
English word maybe wider of the corresponding one in Russian.
The semantic structure of a word predefines the possibility of its
contextual use, and the translation of contextual meaning presents a hard
task to translators.
Contextual meaning of a word in many instances depends on the character
of semantic context, on the semantics of the words combining with it.
Occasional meanings, suddenly originated in the context are not always
arbitrary – its is based into the semantic structure of the word. In
contextual usage of a word in poetry or prose – often point to the author’s
penetration into the depth of the word’s semantic structure. For
paradigmatic and semantic relations are characteristic to any words and the
lexical potential of words can be revealed in both cases. But revealing
these potentials of words is closely connected with the specificity of
lexical-semantic aspects of every language and here forth we may observe
the difficulty of translation of contextual meaning of words. What is
possible in one language maybe impossible in another because of its
difference in semantic structure and its usage.
In an atomic war women and children will be the first hostages.
The word hostage according to different dictionaries has got only one
meaning – заложник. But in the given instance the hostage acquired the
meaning жертва. Its contextual meaning probably exists in its paradigmatic
meaning; any hostage may get killed therefore while translating this
example we have to use the word жертва since заложник is not used in the
given contextual meaning.
Первыми жертвами в атомной войне будут женщины и дети.
A very interesting contextual meaning of exploitation will be given in
the following example:
Britain’s worldwide exploitation was shaken to the roots by Colonial
Liberation Movements.
The contextual meaning of the word originated metonymically – any
colonial system lives on exploitation, which comprises basis of colonial
power. The corresponding Russian эксплуатация can not be used in this
contextual meaning, the contextual surroundings of exploitation (worldwide,
shaken to the roots) also prevents it. The only possible variant of
translation is by means of metonymic transposition – substitution:
Колониальное могущество Англии было подорвано (потрясено до основания)
национально-освободительным движением во всех колониях.
Contextual meaning of a word is always effective semantically and
stylistically owing to its unexpectedness as well. It often used in
stylistic purposes and therefore a translator runs into two obstacles: he
should avoid (нивелировка) and at the same time not to break the norms of
translation.
The most difficulty presents the translation of emotional coloring that
demands lexical changes. There is a wide range of words in a language that
besides their logical meaning have emotional meanings or co-meaning. One
should not mix emotional co-meaning with the multiple meaning words.
Emotional meaning of words usually presents in paradigmatic meanings of
words, that is it is objective and but subjective, like in the words: hate,
love, friendship. But it is not an exception when emotional meaning
originates from contextual usage. Emotional meaning, based in the word is
usually created by association – positive or negative – which a word causes
and the associations that exist in it despite the context of perception.
A peculiar group of words demanding transformation in translation are
the words that possess different volume of meaning in Russian and English
languages. To this group belong international words, some words of human
perception, mental activity.
But we should mention that the words that belong to these groups are of
different semantic structure. International words and the words of human
perception, mental activity represents polysemantic words in English.
International words are words that are used in a wide range of
languages in one or several forms. These words express scientific and
social-politic notions. The volume meaning of these words does not usually
coincide (except term-words). Though it is well-known that they comprise
the false-friends of translators and the mistakes in their translation are
frequent. These mistakes are caused not only by difference in their
semantic structure but by the difference of their usage as well which
demand lexical changes:
We are told that television this autumn will give a massive coverage to
the General Election.
Сообщают, что нынешней осенью передачи по телевидению будут широко
освещать парламентские выборы.
The word massive along with the meaning массивный, has other meanings
like массовый, грандиозный, огромный, широкий and so on. For example:
massive success – огромный успех, massive problems – важные проблемы.
Since international words possess wider meaning volume they are more
used in English if comparing to Russian:
Never before in the history of the world have there been so many
persons engaged in the translation of both secular and religious materials.
Ещё никогда в истории человечества столько людей не занимались
переводом как светской, так и духовной литературы.
Russian words религиозные материалы are absolutely unacceptable in this
case because of their different usage. In this instance the usage plays the
main role though their meaning is identical in both languages.
Lexical transformations are also caused by necessity to concretize a
word while translating. It is characteristic to English language the
availability of words with wide spread meaning. They can be nouns,
adjectives and verbs, for example: thing, point, stiff; nice, fine, bad; to
say, to go, to come, to get.
Translation of these words depends on the context, which helps to
identify their concrete meaning. Usually they are translated by various
Russian words that have concrete meaning (importance). Practically it
refers to verbs — to verbs of speech and verbs of movement. Concrete
lexical meaning(importance), this or that the lexical-semantic variant of a
verb depends on structure and lexical meaning of words that distribute
them.
At the by-election victory went to the Labor candidate.
На дополнительных выборах победа досталась лейбористам (победу одержал
кандидат от лейбористской партии).
Among nouns of wide meaning a special group comprises abstract
nouns, that frequently demand concrete definitions in translation. So, for
example, despite the presence of a word президентство in Russian - English
word presidency usually refers to the words a пост президента or
президентская всласть.
An ageing Speaker cannot take on the burdens of the presidency.
Престарелый спикер не может взять на себя бремя президентской власти
(в случае смерти президента).
The use of words of abstract meaning strongly differs in various
languages. Therefore follows the necessity of concrete definition in
translating.
The Saigon regime used every form of pressure and violence to compel a
reluctant electorate to go to the polls.
Сайгонский режим прибегал ко всем видам давления и насилия, чтобы
заставить упрямых избирателей принять участие в выборах.
Sometimes it is necessary to concretize some word due to different
qualitative distinction (valeur) the generalizing words have in languages.
The following words belong to them: meal and трапеза that usually
illustrate the this phenomenon and the words limbs and члены, from which
limbs is widely common, and Russian word the члены has much narrower usage.
In the given translation, besides concrete definition of руки and ноги,
we also had to use fixed word phrase.
The following problem which demands careful consideration in lexical
transformations of translation is problem of word combinability. In all
languages there are typical norms of word combinability. The concept of
norm is relative, on the one hand, with system of language, and on the
other hand, it is closely connected with speech, in which the originality
of speech formation is displayed. Each language can form uncountable
number new word combinations that will be understood by its bearers. In any
language there exists generally accepted tradition of word combinations,
which do not coincide with the corresponding tradition of word combinations
in the other languages.
And it makes look for similarly accepted word combinations in the
target language. The main part combined words usually coincides in
translation, but the second one is frequently translated by a word
possessing other logical meaning, but performing the same function, as for
example, trains run — поезда ходят, rich feeding — обильная пища.
Labor Party protests followed sharply on the Tory deal with Spain.
За сообщением о сделке консервативного правительства с Испанией
немедленно последовал протест лейбористской партии.
The wider is the semantic volume of a word, the wider is its
combinability, thus due to this feature it can interact with various word
forms and word combinations. And this features enables the translator to
use his creativity in translation.
Along with traditional combinations in languages unexpected
combinations are also possible, but they are quite clear, for they follow
generally accepted semantic models of word combinability. This phenomenon —
the connection of words with completely various semantic features - is
peculiar to all languages, but in each language it has various rules and
traditions. In English language such unexpected word combinations are
formed very easily. It is probably caused by conversion and easiness in
formation of new words in various ways, heterogeneity of languages
vocabulary and some other reasons. Not only poets and writers, but also
journalists frequently create unexpected word combination that makes their
statements significantly vivid and original. The unexpectedness of word
usage is closely connected with expressiveness of the statement.
Unexpected usage of word combinations hardens the task of translators,
for words interrelate in combinations not only with one word, but also with
a large number of other words of the sentence, for example:
The use of an adjective sharp in this context is unexpected: none of
its meanings given in dictionaries gives the description of a hand. The
difficulty of its translation is aggravated by presence of the second
definition white, which excludes translation by words костлявый and сухой.
Белая, сухощавая рука мадам лежала на широком колене Адама.
In the given translation the sense of the sentence has been rendered
but the unexpectedness of the used word was lost.
The last feature of lexical transformation to be discussed in this
Paper is traditional word usage for every language and which causes
frequent lexical transformations. This traditional usage is to some extent
related to another approach to the phenomena of reality. For example:
The military base is built on terraces rising from the lake.
For Russian the traditional use will be:
Военная база построена на террасах, спускающихся к озеру.
In this case preposition is omitted in translation because as the
originality of the English word usage required complete transformation.
To the traditional word usage can also be referred the so-called
clichйs — order, and the clichйs in wider sense.
Hands up!
Руки вверх!
Long live America!
Да здравствует Америка!
The assault of the castle was followed by continuous bombing. Loss of
life was uncountable.
За штурмом крепости последовала длительная бомбардировка. Жертвы были
бесчисленны.
The Commonwealth countries handle a quarter of the world's trade.
На страны Британского содружества приходится четверть всей мировой
торговли
As you can see from the examples given above – in translations
corresponding Russian clichйs are also used.
§ III. Stylistic difficulties of translation
In the previous chapters we carefully considered the grammatical and
lexical transformations that occur while translating political literature
from English into Russian. And we have figured out that most of these
reasons are rooted in national and cultural settings of both languages.
Practically, stylistic devices in almost all languages are similar
still though their functions in speech vary. Identical stylistic devices
are used differently in languages; they perform different functions and
have different value in stylistic system of their language what actually
explains their necessity when transformations in translation occur. The
stylistic changes are as necessary as grammatical or lexical ones. While
applying some grammatical or lexical transformation in translation the
translator is guided by principle of rendering grammatical of lexical
meaning. When rendering stylistic meaning of the source text a translator
should be guided by the same principle – to recreate in translation the
same impression that might be left by the original text.
A translator should not try to preserve the stylistic device given in
the sentence, but reproduce its function in the target language.
We should not forget that almost all stylistic devices are multi
functional. It is like when polysemantic words in English and Russian
languages do not coincide in their lexical-semantic variants and the same
is when differ the function of identical stylistic device. Thus when
comparing stylistic devices we can easily identify complete correspondence,
partial correspondence and even sometimes absence of correspondence and
their functions.
To illustration it we can compare alliteration in the English and
Russian languages. The function of alliteration coincides in both languages
— in this function alliteration is one of the basic devices of poetic
speech. However the usage of alliteration for pleasant sounding in prose is
more characteristic for the English language, than for Russian. The second
function of alliteration is logical. Alliteration emphasizes close
relationship between components of the statement. Especially brightly
alliteration shows the unity of an epithet with an attributed word.
The third function of alliteration in English language – to attract
attention of the reader — is widely used in the names of literary works,
newspaper headings and often in articles.
The use of alliteration is a convincing acknowledgement that various
functions of stylistic devices in different languages do not always
coincide in usage.
We have already discussed functional translation of stylistic devices.
But it is extremely important to distinguish in the translated text
original and imagined alliterations so that to avoid unnecessary
emphasizing and to keep stylistic equivalence which presents necessary
component of adequate translation. there is a constant danger to smooth and
de-color the original text or, on the contrary, to make translation
brighter and stylistically colored. But sometimes a translator consciously
applies some '«smoothing' or neutralization in other words.
Repetition as you know is a more widespread stylistic device in the
English language, than in Russian.
In some cases repetition as the stylistic device should be necessarily
kept in translation, but for the difference in combinability and various
semantic structures of polysemantic words or words of wide meaning in
English and Russian languages the translator has to change and replace some
of elements.
The repetition is widely used with stylistic purposes in newspaper
publicity. In these cases the translator is compelled to apply stylistic
changes, make substitution or omission.
A policy of see no stagnation, hear no stagnation, speak no
stagnation has had too long a run for our money.
Слишком долго мы расплачиваемся за политику полного игнорирования и
замалчивания застоя в нашей экономике.
The triple repetition of no stagnation has been omitted in
translation, though is partially compensated by the use of synonymic pair
at a word (stagnation), but neutralization is evident in translation. The
neutralization happened when translating the phraseological unit to have
(too long) a run for our money.
Among stylistic devices used in political literature rather frequent
there are synonymic and alliterated pairs. The use of such pairs is
traditional for all styles of the English language including business style
as well. When translating official documents such pairs are frequently by
one word. For example, the just and equitable treatment of all nations from
UN Charter is given in Russian as справедливое отношение ко всем нациям,
for in Russian there is no absolute synonym for the word just.
Metaphor is used in all emotionally – colored styles of speech.
However in style of fiction the metaphor always carries original character,
whereas in political literature the original metaphor is used rather seldom
and basically — copied metaphors. Nevertheless in advanced clauses of the
English and American political literature, the purpose of which is to
assure, to make people believe and to impress the reader, that is to force
him to agree with the point of view given in the article, one can often see
rather bright and colorful metaphors.
Sometimes the difficulty of translation of metaphor consists in
translating some word combination or a phraseological unit, which does not
have figurative equivalent in Russian.
We have already discussed the necessity of neutralization of means of
expressiveness when translating English or American politics. Let us
consider the problem of extended metaphor. The extended metaphor represents
a chain of the logically connected figurative components. Sometimes such
components of the extended metaphors pass through the whole clause. The
below-mentioned example is taken from clause of the American observer James
Reston.
The latest official explanation of the President's Indochina policy is
that ' he is backing out of the saloon with both guns firing ', but there
is a catch to this.
He insists that the guys in the white hats keep control of the saloon
before he leaves town. He wants a non-communist bartender, and a non-
communist sheriff, and a secure non-communist town before he rides away
into the sunset of November, 1972.
In the final paragraph of the article the elements of one metaphor are
partially repeated: but all this is a little more complicated than '
backing out of the saloon '.
The images of this extended metaphor are taken from so-called 'western'
— of film about cowboys in 'wild' West. In this case all elements of the
developed(unwrapped) metaphor, perhaps, can be kept in translation.
Согласно последнему официальному объяснению политики президента в
отношении Индокитая, «он хочет выбраться из бара, пятясь к двери и
отстреливаясь из двух пистолетов». Но за этим кроется что-то еще.
Он хочет, чтобы парни в белых шапках следили за порядком в баре до тех
пор, пока он не уедет из города. Он хочет, чтобы бармен не был коммунистом
и чтобы шериф не был коммунистом и чтобы город заведомо не был в руках
коммунистов. И только тогда он поскачет навстречу ноябрьским сумеркам 1972
года.
And at the end of clause — «но все это несколько сложнее, чем пятясь
к двери, выбраться из бара».
However there are cases, when the preservation of all figurative
components of the developed(unwrapped) metaphor is impossible, as well as
preservation of both components of synonymic pair, for it would break the
stylistic norms of Russian.
Being purely linguistic and stylistic device – metonymy is used more
and more in political literature, perhaps, even more than metaphor.
Metonymy translation presents one of numerous problems for the use of
metonymy significantly differs in English and Russian languages. Due to
this fact the translator is often forced to go back to the primary meaning
of a word, that is to the meaning that was firstly created by metonymy.
It is a widespread case of metonymy usage – substitution of concrete
notion by an abstract one, which can not always be preserved.
'It (the flood) has hurl us a great deal, ' the Pakistan Prime Minister
told correspondents last week as he toured the destruction in the flooded
provinces. ('Newsweek')
«Наводнение нанесло нам огромный ущерб»,—сказал корреспондентам премьер-
министр Пакистана, на прошлой неделе во время поездки по пострадавшим от
наводнения районам.
Concerning the translation of comparison as a stylistic device, the
difficulties arise only if the words of English and Russian languages are
various in the semantic structure. We have already considered in the
chapter of lexical transformations the question of translation of such
terms and now we would like to give the example of stylistic comparison.
Instant history, like instant coffee, can sometimes be remarkably
palatable. At least it is in this memoir by a former White House aide who
sees L.B.J. as ' an extraordinarily gifted President who was the wrong man
from the wrong place at the wrong time under the wrong circumstances '.
Современная история, как и такой современный продукт, как растворимый
кофе, иногда может быть необыкновенно приятна. По крайней мере, такой ее
преподносит в своих мемуарах бывший помощник президента Джонсона, считающий
его «исключительно одаренным президентом, который был неподходящим
человеком, из неподходящего места (штат Техас), в неподходящее время, при
неподходящих обстоятельствах».
In order to preserve this playing comparison, the interpreters were
forced to apply additional words.
We discussed above the importance of articles in translation and now
we should mention once again that they can serve in stylistic purposes.
An expressiveness gets the definite article, before a indefinite
pronoun one.
... this is the one way we can achieve success in elections.
...это единственный способ достигнуть победы на выборах.
The given synonyms compensate render the stress contained the original
text.
There is another kind of stylistic transformation – actualization –
which involves transition of something simple into something unusual,
strange. It reveals potential expressiveness put in the lexical morphologic
and syntactic means of a language.
Actualization of the passive form often occurs while translating
political literature but it is not as colored as in the translations of
fiction.
The General Assembly was gaveled to order by its outgoing President.
Уходящий со своего поста председатель Генеральной Ассамблее навел
порядок в зале, энергично стуча молотком.
The expressiveness and emphasis created by the passive form of the verb
that had been formed as a result of conversion are compensated by lexical
means. The compressed nature of sentence was lost for the verb to gavel has
two semantic components one of action and an instrument that were to be
rendered in translation.
Now from everything that has been discussed above we can infer that
the usage of some of stylistic devices in English is peculiar – and bears
specific national character, therefore their direct translation in many
instances is impossible. Moreover, the impression left by some of stylistic
device maybe different in both languages, compare soft panic and тихая
паника. It can be explained not only by national features of stylistic
means and devices of some of the language but by the their multi
functioning character also – that do not always coincide – as it was shown
on the matter of alliteration. This is the main criteria causing the
necessity of stylistic transformations that involve substitution and
changes. Therefore we should warn the future translators and interpreters
that it is not important to classify the device itself but the point is to
be able to realize their ongoing effect and to identify the purpose of
their application in the translation they are working on.
§ IV. The difficulty of translation of set phrases and idioms
As far as idioms and phraseological units are concerned in translation,
the first difficulty that a translator comes across is being able to
recognize that s/he is dealing with an idiomatic expression. This is not
always so obvious. There are various types of idioms, some more easily
recognizable than others. Those which are easily recognizable include
expressions which violate truth conditions, such as It's raining cats and
dogs, throw caution to the winds, storm in a tea cup, jump down someone's
throat, and food for thought. They also include expressions which seem ill-
formed because they do not follow the grammatical rules of the language,
for example trip the light fantastic, blow someone to kingdom come, put
paid to, the powers that be, by and large, and the world and his friend.
Expressions which start with like (simile-like structures) also tend to
suggest that they should not be interpreted literally. These include idioms
such as like a bat out of hell and like water off a duck's back. Generally
speaking, the more difficult an expression is to understand and the less
sense it makes in a given context, the more likely a translator will
recognize it as an idiom. Because they do not make sense if interpreted
literally, the highlighted expressions in the following text are easy to
recognize as idioms (assuming one is not already familiar with them):
This can only be done, I believe, by a full and frank airing of the
issues. I urge you all to speak your minds and not to pull any punches.
Provided a translator has access to good reference works and
monolingual dictionaries of idioms, or, better still, is able to consult
native speakers of the language, opaque idioms which do not make sense for
one reason or another can actually be a blessing in disguise. The very fact
that s/he cannot make sense of an expression in a particular context will
alert the translator to the presence of an idiom of some sort.
There are two cases in which an idiom can be easily misinterpreted if
one is not already familiar with it:
(a) Some idioms are 'misleading'; they seem transparent because they
offer a reasonable literal interpretation and their idiomatic meanings are
not necessarily signalled in the surrounding text. A large number of idioms
in English, and probably all languages, have both a literal and an
idiomatic meaning, for example go out with ('have a romantic or sexual
relationship with someone') and take someone for a ride ('deceive or cheat
someone in some way'). Such idioms lend themselves easily to manipulation
by speakers and writers who will sometimes play on both their literal and
idiomatic meanings. In this case, a translator who is not familiar with the
idiom in question may easily accept the literal interpretation and miss the
play on idiom.
(b) An idiom in the source language may have a very close counter
part in the target language which looks similar on the surface but has
a totally or partially different meaning. For example, the idiomatic
question Has the cat had/got your tongue? is used in English to urge
someone to answer a question or contribute to a conversation, particularly
when their failure to do so becomes annoying.
Apart from being alert to the way speakers and writers manipulate
certain features of idioms and to the possible confusion which could arise
from similarities in form between source and target expressions, a
translator must also consider the collocational environment which surrounds
any expression whose meaning is not readily accessible. Idiomatic and fixed
expressions have individual collocational patterns. They form collocations
with other items in the text as single units and enter into lexical sets
which are different from those of their individual words. Take, for
instance, the idiom to have cold feet. Cold as a separate item may
collocate with words like weather, winter, feel, or country. Feet on its
own will perhaps collocate with socks, chilblain, smelly, etc. However,
having cold feet, in its idiomatic use, has nothing necessarily to do with
winter, feet, or chilblains and will therefore generally be used with a
different set of collocates.
The ability to distinguish senses by collocation is an invaluable
asset to a translator working from a foreign language. It is often subsumed
under the general umbrella of 'relying on the context to disambiguate
meanings', which, among other things, means using our knowledge of
collocational patterns to decode the meaning of a word or a stretch of
language. Using our knowledge of collocational patterns may not always tell
us what an idiom means but it could easily help us in many cases to
recognize an idiom, particularly one which has a literal as well as a non-
literal meaning.
Once an idiom or fixed expression has been recognized and interpreted
correctly, the next step is to decide how to translate it into the target
language. The difficulties involved in translating an idiom are totally
different from those involved in interpreting it. Here, the question is not
whether a given idiom is transparent, opaque, or misleading. An opaque
expression may be easier to translate than a transparent one. The main
difficulties involved in translating idioms and fixed expressions may be
summarized as follows:
(a) An idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the target
language. The way a language chooses to express, or not express, various
meanings cannot be predicted and only occasionally matches the way another
language chooses to express the same meanings. One language may express a
given meaning by means of a single word, another may express it by means of
a transparent fixed expression, a third may express it by means of an
idiom, and so on. It is therefore unrealistic to expect to find equivalent
idioms and expressions in the target language as a matter of course.
Like single words, idioms and fixed expressions may be culture-
specific. Formulae such as Merry Christmas and say when which relate to
specific social or religious occasions provide good examples.
Basnett-McGuire (1980: 21) explains that the expression say when 'is
... directly linked to English social behavioral patterns' and suggests
that 'the translator putting the phrase into Russian has to contend with
the problem of the non-existence of a similar convention in either
culture'. Less problematic, but to some extent also culture-specific, are
the sort of fixed formulae that are used in formal correspondence, such as
Yours faithfully and Yours sincerely in English. These, for instance, have
no equivalents in Arabic formal correspondence. The same mismatch occurs in
relation to French and several other languages but in Russian we have
similar expression Ваш верный!
Idioms and fixed expressions which contain culture-specific items are
not necessarily untranslatable. It is not the specific items an expression
contains but rather the meaning it conveys and its association with culture-
specific contexts which can make it untranslatable or difficult to
translate. For example, the English expression to carry coals to Newcastle,
though culture-specific in the sense that it contains a reference to
Newcastle coal and uses it as a measure of abundance, is nevertheless
closely paralleled in Russian by в Тулу со своим самоваром. Both
expressions convey the same meaning, namely: to supply something to someone
who already has plenty of it.
An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the target
language, but its context of use may be different; the two expressions may
have different connotations, for instance, or they may not be pragmatically
transferable. To sing a different tune is an English idiom which means to
say or do something that signals a change in opinion because it contradicts
what one has said or done before. To go to the dogs ('to lose one's good
qualities') has a similar counterpart in German, but whereas the English
idiom can be used in connection with a person or a place, its German
counterpart can only be used in connection with a person and often means to
die or perish.
c) An idiom may be used in the source text in both its literal and
idiomatic senses at the same time. Unless the target-language idiom
corresponds to the source-language idiom both in form and in meaning, the
play on idiom cannot be successfully reproduced in the target text.
d) An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the
target language, but its context of use may be different; the two
expressions may have different connotations, for instance, or they may not
be pragmatically transferable. An idiom may be used in the source text in
both its literal and idiomatic senses at the same time. Unless the target-
language idiom corresponds to the source-language idiom both in form and in
meaning, the play on idiom cannot be successfully reproduced in the target
text.
Using idioms in English and American politics is very much a matter of
style. Languages such as Arabic and Chinese which make a sharp distinction
between written and spoken discourse and where the written mode is
associated with a high level of formality tend, on the whole, to avoid
using idioms in written texts. Fernando and Flavell discuss the
difference in rhetorical effect of using idioms in general and of using
specific types of idiom in the source and target languages and quite
rightly conclude that 'Translation is an exacting art. Idiom more than any
other feature of language demands that the translator be not only accurate
but highly sensitive to the rhetorical nuances of the language’.
§ V. Samples of translation.
Blitzkrieg молниеносная война.
Comprehensive Programme of Disarmament n Всеобъемлющая программа
разоружения.
International Nuclear Information System n международная система ядерной
информации.
National Guard n Национальная гвардия.
abet resistance v оказывать поддержку движению сопротивления (vi) .
abrogated a treaty v расторгнул договор (vi) .
1. abrogating a convention n расторжение договора.
2. abrogating a convention v расторгающий договор (vi) .
absolute rule n самовластие.
absolute war n решительные боевые действия.
accelerate upon an agreement v ускорять достижение соглашения (vi) .
1. adhering to treaty provisions n соблюдение положений договора.
2. adhering to treaty provisions v соблюдающий положения договора (vi)
adjustment of disputes n урегулирование разногласий.
administration of peace-keeping operations n осуществление операций по
поддержанию мира.
bar the way to war v преграждать путь к войне (vi) .
basic war plan n основной стратегический план.
beam the opposition v подавлять сопротивление (vi) .
brush blaze n локальная война.
brush fire war n местная война.
call to the colors v объявлять мобилизацию (vi) .
carried the day v одержал победу (vi) .
challenge to the world community n вызов международному сообществу.
change in a policy n смена политики.
chemical warfare agreement n соглашение о запрещении химического оружия.
circumvention of an agreement n обход соглашения.
claims to world superiority n притязания на мировое господство.
comparison of military expenditures in accordance with international
standards n сопоставление военных бюджетов по международным стандартам.
compensation allowance n денежная компенсация.
competitive co-existence n сосуществование в условиях соперничества.
completion of talks n завершение переговоров.
compliance with commitments n соблюдение обязательств.
conduct an arms race v вести гонку вооружений (vi) .
conduct diplomacy v проводить дипломатию (vi) .
conduct of disarmament negotiations n ведение переговоров по разоружению.
consolidation of peace n укрепление мира.
construction of all-embracing system of international secutity n создание
всеобъемлющей системы международной безопасности.
consultative board n консультативный совет.
contending nation n воюющее государство.
contest the air v оспаривать господство в воздухе (vi) .
control agency n орган управления.
convene a meeting v созывать совещание (vi) .
convene the UN Security Council v созывать Совет Безопасности ООН (vi) .
conventional armament n обычное вооружение.
desperate situation n отчаянное положение.
detentist n сторонник разрядки международной напряженности.
deterioration of resistance n ослабление сопротивления.
deterioration of resistance n ослабление сопротивления.
diminished international tension n спад международной безопасности.
diplomatic attack n дипломатическая атака.
diplomatic co-operation n дипломатическое сотрудничество.
diplomatic decision n дипломатическое решение.
disarmament issue n проблема разоружения.
disarmament negotiation n переговоры о разоружении.
disaster control n меры по ликвидации последствий нападения.
1. drafting an agreement n составление текста соглашения.
2. drafting an agreement v составляющий текст соглашения (vi) .
ease international tension v смягчать международную обстановку (vi) .
entered into alliance v вступил в союз (vi) .
established an organization v создал организацию (vi) .
financial service n служба финансового довольствия.
graves registration service n похоронная служба.
1. heading off the arms race n воспрепятствование гонке вооружений.
2. heading off the arms race v воспрепятствовавший гонке вооружений (vi) .
implement a goal v осуществлять цель (vi) .
in-depth assessment n глубокая оценка.
isolationist posture n изоляционистская политика.
large-scale production n крупномасштабное производство.
1. leading to positive solutions n приведение к положительным результатам.
2. leading to positive solutions v приводящий к положительным результатам
legal branch n юридическая служба.
ligitimate rights n законные права.
maintain mastery v удерживать господство в воздухе (vi) .
maintain neutrality v соблюдать нейтралитет (vi) .
maintain stability v поддерживать стабильность (vi) .
maintained a status quo v сохранил статус-кво (vi) .
making demands v выдвигающий требования (vi) .
1. managing non-compliance n урегулирование вопроса о несоблюдении.
2. managing non-compliance v урегулировавший вопрос о несоблюдении
mandatory embargo n обязательное эмбарго.
meet an aggression v отражать нападение агрессора (vi) .
meet the demand v отвечать требованию (vi) .
militarese n военный язык.
military high court n верховный военный суд.
mounting of international tension n усиление международной напряженности.
moved a resolution v предложил резолюцию (vi) .
mutual co-operation n взаимное сотрудничество.
mutual commitment n взаимное обязательство.
mutual deterrence n взаимное сдерживание путем устрашения.
mutually acceptable agreement n взаимоприемлемое решение.
mutually advantageous treaty n взаимовыгодный договор.
mutually beneficial reductions of armaments n взаимовыгодные сокращения
вооружений.
mutually beneficial treaty n взаимовыгодный договор.
negotiated treaty text n согласованный текст договора.
negotiating atmosphere n атмосфера на переговорах.
negotiating forum n форум для переговоров.
negotiating parties n договаривающиеся стороны.
negotiating priority n приоритетный вопрос на переговорах.
negotiating process n процесс переговоров.
negotiating stalemate n тупик на переговорах.
negotiations behind the scene n закулисные переговоры.
new mentality n новая психология.
no-cities strategy n стратегия избежания поражения крупных городов.
noble goal n благородная цель.
non-aligned status n статус неприсоединившегося государства.
non-alignment with military blocs n неприсоединение к военным блокам.
non-armament agreements n соглашения о невооружении.
non-governmental expert n неправительственный эксперт.
non-interference in internal affairs n невмешательство во внутренние дела.
non-strategic a нестратегический.
nuclear co-operation agreement n соглашение о сотрудничестве в ядерной
области.
observed a status v соблюл статус (vi) .
observer status n статус обозревателя.
1. observing a truce n соблюдение условий перемирия.
2. observing a truce v соблюдающий условия перемирия (vi) .
1. observing to treaty provisions n соблюдение положений договора.
2. observing to treaty provisions v соблюдающий положения договора (vi) .
occurrence of nuclear war n возникновение ядерной войны.
offensive-arms agreement n соглашение о наступательных вооружениях.
offer co-operation v предлагать сотрудничество (vi) .
1. overcoming the deadlock n выход из тупика.
2. overcoming the deadlock v выходящий из тупика (vi) .
overcontrol n чрезмерная централизация управления.
overhead expenses n накладные расходы.
prolongation of a treaty n продление договора.
1. putting a stop to the arms race n остановка гонки вооружения .
2. putting a stop to the arms race v останавливающий гонку (vi) .
putting in jeopardy v ставящий под угрозу (vi) .
random surprise verification n выборочная внезапная проверка.
range of measures n комплекс мер.
1. re-establishing equilibrium n восстановление равновесия.
2. re-establishing equilibrium v восстанавливающий равновесие (vi) .
reduction of military budgets n сокращение военных бюджетов.
1. rendering assistance n оказание содействия.
2. rendering assistance v оказывающий содействие (vi) .
severe contraction n резкое сокращение.
system of declaration n система объявлений.
tables of information and characteristics n информационно-
характеристические таблицы.
1. tabling for consideration n представление на рассмотрение.
2. tabling for consideration v представляющий на рассмотрение (vt) .
tactical program n программа оперативно-тактической подготовки.
take a series of unilateral steps v предпринимать серию односторонних
шагов (vi) .
take-it-or-leave-it approach n бескомпромиссный подход.
1. taking the strain off n разрядка напряженности.
2. taking the strain off v разряжающий напряженность (vi) .
tangible progress n ощутимый прогресс.
throwdown v 1) свергать (vi) ; 2) свергать (vt) .
top level forum n высокий форум.
top priority n высший приоритет.
top secret adv секретно.
top-priority a первоочередной.
topical problem n актуальная проблема.
topicality of proposals n актуальность предложений.
treaty assessment n оценка действия договора.
treaty of unlimited duration n бессрочный договор.
turn down a resolution v отклонять резолюцию (vi) .
turn out data v выдавать данные (vi) .
turned down a resolution v отклонил резолюцию (vi) .
ultimate truth n истина в последней инстанции.
ulterior motive n скрытый мотив.
ultimate reply n решительный ответ.
unacceptable conditions n неприемлемые условия.
unacceptable damage n неприемлемый ущерб.
unacceptable terms n неприемлемые условия.
unattainable goal n неосуществимая цель.
unavailing efforts n тщетные усилия.
unbridled escalation of the arms race n неконтролируемая гонка вооружений.
unchangeable status quo n неизменный статус - кво.
uncontrollable situation n неуправляемая ситуация.
under the agreement adv по соглашению.
under the conditions of glasnost adv в условиях гласности.
under the conditions of openness adv в условиях гласности.
under the conditions of peace adv в условиях мира.
under the eagis of the United Nations adv под эгидой ООН.
under the treaty adv согласно договору.
undermine an agreement v подрывать соглашение (vi) .
undermine stability v подрывать стабильность (vi) .
1. undermining a meeting n подрыв совещания.
2. undermining a meeting v подрывающий совещание (vi) .
unit veto n всеобщее вето.
universal annihilation n всеобщее уничтожение.
unofficial meeting n неофициальная встреча.
unproductive conference n безрезультатное совещание.
unswerving supporter n непоколебимый сторонник.
urgent demand n настоятельное требование.
urgent problem n неотложная проблема.
vote for a resolution v голосовать за резолюцию (vi) .
voted-down draft n отклоненный проект.
1. waging operations n проведение боевых действий.
2. waging operations v проводящий боевые действия (vi) .
1. wandering away n уклонение.
2. wandering away v уклоняющийся (vi) .
wanton aggression n ничем не вызванная агрессия.
wanton interference n ничем не вызванное вмешательство.
war by proxy n война чужими руками.
war diplomacy n дипломатия войны.
war of annihilation n война на уничтожение.
war of attrition n война на истощение.
war of liberation n освободительная война.
war preparedness n готовность к войне.
war propaganda n пропаганда войны.
war-time diplomacy n дипломатия военного времени.
widening of international ties n расширение международных связей.
won with wide recognition v получил широкое признание (vi) .
working language n рабочий язык.
Conclusion
In the given Qualification Paper we have investigated various
translation methods of political literature from English into Russian. We
tried to give a detailed study of the features of translation of Political
literature for it is one of the types of translation that has not been
studied in details in our country up to this time.
Moreover, we’ve studied the translation methods of Political
literature and political terms at a deeper level, the types and ways of
translation of Political literature; we’ve also considered the function of
political literature in everyday life of the humanity.
The aim of this work was to introduce the translation approach to
Political literature so that to make it easy to perceive for those willing
to keep up their educational and scientific carrier in the science of
translation, it was purposed to broaden their view on translation studies
and peculiar features while translating Political literature.
In this work we’ve completed the following tasks:
- we’ve reviewed all the sources of Political literature
- methods of translation of Political literature have been carefully
studied
- the grammatical, lexical, stylistic and phraseological difficulties
of translation of political literature were discussed
The originality of this work is in its creative approach to the study
of methods of translation, besides, it contains a detailed review of ways
and methods of translation.
The given Qualification paper contains introduction, two chapters, and
samples of translations of political set expressions, conclusion and
bibliography list.
Summary
Most translators prefer to think of their work as a profession and
would like to see others to treat them like professionals rather than as
skilled or semi-skilled workers. But to achieve this, translators need to
develop an ability to stand back and reflect on what they do and how they
do it. Like doctors and engineers, they have to prove to themselves as well
as others that they are in control of what they do; that they do not just
translate well because they have ‘flair’ for translation, but rather
because, like other professionals, they have made a conscious effort to
understand various aspects of their work.
Unlike medicine and engineering, translation is a very young
discipline in academic terms. It is only just starting to feature as a
subject of study in its own right, not yet in all but in an increasing
number of universities and colleges around the world. Like any young
discipline, it needs to draw on the findings and theories of other related
disciplines in order to develop and formalize its own methods; but which
disciplines it can naturally and fruitfully be related to is still a matter
of some controversy. Almost every aspect of life in general and of the
interaction between speech communities in particular can be considered
relevant to translation, a discipline which has to concern itself with how
meaning is generated within and between various groups of people in various
cultural settings. This is clearly too big an area to investigate in one
go. So, let us just start by saying that, if translation is ever to become
a profession in the full sense of the word, translators will need something
other than the current mixture of intuition and practice to enable them to
reflect on what they do and how they do it. They will need, above all, to
acquire a sound knowledge of the raw material with which they work: to
understand what language is and how it comes to function for its users.
In this research work we have completed the following tasks:
- we have reviewed all the sources of Political literature
- we revealed the methods and ways of translation of Political
literature
- and we have also investigated grammatical, lexical, phraseological
and stylistic difficulties of translation of Political literature.
In this Qualification paper we have reviewed almost all the
grammatical, lexical, stylistic difficulties of translation of Political
Literature.
While reviewing the grammatical changes we considered the following
transformations: substitution, omission, transposition and supplementation.
Substitution is one of the grammatical relations among the parts of the
sentences. In substitution, an item (or items) is replaced by another item
(or items), ex:
I like Politics. And I do. or
Will the United Stated start the war against Iraq? – No one knows.
The words like do, one, the same are usually used in substitution.
Omission, as you know is when an item is replaced by nothing. This is a
case of leaving something unsaid which is nevertheless understood. The
example is:
In the World War II the Soviet Union lost over 70 millions of life. And
the United States less than 10.
A hearer will easily infer what happened to the United States during
the war.
Transposition is required when the English sentence contains a large
group of nouns with indefinite article and then it is natural that they,
being the center of informative message are placed at the end of the
sentence. Besides, a short, compared with the noun predicate can not bear
the emphatic sense of a large group of nouns.
A big wave of actions by all sections of workers – skilled and
unskilled, men and women, manual and non-manual – for higher wages and
equal pay, for shorter hours and a greater say in shaping the environment
at work is rising.
Сейчас нарастает огромная волна забастовок трудящихся всех категорий –
квалифицированных и не квалифицированных, мужчин и женщин, работников
физического и умственного труда – за повышение зарплаты, за равную оплату
женского труда, за сокращение рабочего дня, за улучшение условий труда.
Supplementation happens to be very frequent when translating texts
on International politics because we do not always have corresponding words
for some English or American notions like:
During the World War II one of the basic changes in the US military
bases was the construction of emergency hangars in case of sudden attack.
Одним из немаловажных перемен в военных базах США во время Второй
Мировой Войны была разработка конструкции ангаров для срочного вылета в
случае внезапной атаки.
There is no corresponding word in Russian military system for
emergency hangar therefore we had to make use of supplementation.
Thus, we have come to conclusion that the above mentioned changes
are necessary while processing a translation of Political literature from
English into Russian.
While discussing the lexical problems of translation we considered
lexical-semantic features of both languages and investigated such cases as
difference in word volume, word combinability, generally accepted tradition
of word usage, we have also considered contextual meaning of words in the
process of translation. In addition we investigated the emotional coloring
that plays an important role while processing a translation of Political
Literature. We have studied the translation of international words and
unexpected usage of word combinability that makes the translation task
harder.
A very interesting contextual meaning of exploitation was in the
following example:
Britain’s worldwide exploitation was shaken to the roots by Colonial
Liberation Movements.
The contextual meaning of the word originated metonymically – any
colonial system lives on exploitation, which is the basis of colonial
power. The corresponding Russian эксплуатация can not be used in this
contextual meaning, the contextual surroundings of exploitation (worldwide,
shaken to the roots) also prevents it. The only possible variant of
translation is by means of metonymic transposition – substitution:
Колониальное могущество Англии было подорвано (потрясено до основания)
национально-освободительным движением во всех колониях.
The use of words of abstract meaning strongly differs in various
languages. Therefore arises the necessity of concrete definition in
translating.
The Saigon regime used every form of pressure and violence to compel a
reluctant electorate to go to the polls.
Сайгонский режим прибегал ко всем видам давления и насилия, чтобы
заставить упрямых избирателей принять участие в выборах.
In the study of stylistic transformation during translation we found,
that the repetition is widely used with stylistic purposes in newspaper
publicity. In these cases the translator is compelled to apply stylistic
changes, make substitution or omission.
A policy of see no stagnation, hear no stagnation, speak no
stagnation has had too long a run for our money.
Слишком долго мы расплачиваемся за политику полного игнорирования и
замалчивания застоя в нашей экономике.
The triple repetition of no stagnation has been omitted in
translation, though is partially compensated by the use of synonymic pair
at a word (stagnation), but neutralization is evident in translation. The
neutralization happened when translating the phraseological unit to have
(too long) a run for our money.
Still, studying the difficulties of translation of Political literature
we have come to conclusion that the most difficulty to a translator
represent set expressions and phraseological units that are widely used in
American and English politics. In most cases we do not have corresponding
notions in Russian or have some words that do not sufficiently cover the
whole meaning of the word in question: for example:
The Cold War last for more than forty years.
Холодная война длилась более сорока лет.
In this case we used word for word (verbatim) translation for we do not
have any words that would convey the sense the Americans put in this
expression.
Therefore a translator, majoring in the translation of Politics should
have a good command not only of English itself, but should know the
principles of International politics and other Political sciences.
To wind up this discourse, we would like to remind you, that while our
country is rapidly integrating into the International community, the need
of highly experienced translators of Political literature will be evident
to make the International Events easily accessible to general public.
Bibliography
(information sources)
1. Fathy A. Osman. Senior interpreter/translator, IMF, Washington, DC
2. In other words – a course book on translation. Mona Baker, London and
New York, 1992.
3. The Craft of Translation, John Biguenet & Rainer Schulte, The
University of Chicago Press.
4. Translation features, Basnett-McGuire, New York Publishing house 1980.
5. A course book on Military Translation, Ministry of Defense of the
USSR, Moscow 1962.
6. Translation difficulties, T.R. Levitskaya & A.M. Fitterman,
“International Relations” Publishing house, Moscow 1976.
7. Difficulties of translation from English into Russian, Zrajevskaya
L.M. & Belyaeva, Moscow Publishing House, 1972.
8. Translation and linguistics, Schweitzer A.D.
9. English Grammar, L.S. Barhudarov & D.A. Schteling, Moscow 1965.
10. Exercise book on translation of humanitarian texts, Malchevskaya,
Saint Petersburg 1980.
11. America and Russian and the Cold War, Walter LaFeber, 6th Edition,
Cornell University 1991.
12. Comparative Politics, Washington State University, 1996.
13. International Conflict Cooperation and Management, Slippery Rock
University, Pennsylvania, 2000.
14. www.worldtranslationservice.com
15. www.translateweb.org
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17. www.chicagopress.com
