Unit I. The Subject Matter of the Theory of Translation. The Main Directions in the Contemporary Linguistic Theory.

TRANSLATION is a means of interlingual communication, a transfer of meaning across cultures. It is encoding into TL of information decoded from SL. The users of TT identify it, to all intents and purposes, with ST functionally, structurally, semantically.

The theory of translation is an interdisciplinary area, predominantly linguistic, but also closely connected with psychology, sociology, area studies, literature, ethnography. The basis of this theory is linguistics (applied and comparative linguistics, theoretical grammar, country studies, stylistics, etc.).

The theory of translation generalizes from repeated regular or typical relations between SL text and TL text. The skill to discover these individual, single, contextual correspondences reveals the creative nature of translator’s work. “The central problem of translation practice is that of finding TL translation equivalents. A central task of translation theory is that of defining of the nature and conditions of translation equivalents”(J. Catford).

You should be well-versed in all language styles (formal, informal). Train your memory, develop and practice listening comprehension skills, study interpreter’s notation and the art of public speaking.

The aim of the course “Theory and Practice of Translation” is not to compile theoretical items in memory but to develop creative procedures for realizing the linguistic elements in context.

You should make sense as a participant in discourse whether spoken or written. Our tasks are not static, they involve a process of information manipulation (higher-thinking skills) and transfer into translation techniques, the operations required for passing over from ST to TT: replacements, conversion, generalization, modulation, compensation, etc.

The translation theory postulates a number of models, conventional representation of the translating process.

Three approaches to (or three models of) translation.

1. The Transformational Model (В.Ю. Розенцвейг (USSR), E. Nida (USA)).

The translating process is a series of transformations. There is a number of nuclear structures (fully equivalent to each other in both languages). It is used in literary translation.

1. The stage of analysis: original into nuclear structures.

2. The stage of transformations.

3. The stage of synthesis (terminal structures).

e.g. He is a poor sleeper. – Он плохо спит.

It is very strange this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. (Jerome)

1. “ domination of our intellect ” and “ domination by digestive organs ”

1. organs dominate® they dominate intellect
2. Странно, до какой степени пищеварительные органы властвуют над нашим рассудком.

2. The Denotative Model (Я.И. Рецкер, А.Д. Швейцер, А.В. Федоров) Semantic Model (semiotico-semantic). It is also used for translating scientific texts and documents.

e.g. John is a proud owner of a new car. (First realize that “ John has a new car ” and “ he is proud of that”, then transfer these ideas into Russian and translate them: «У Джона есть новая машина, которой он очень гордится.»

3. The Communicative Model (В.Г.Гак (Russia), J.Catford (UK)) Situational Model (V.N. Komissarov). It is used for translating essays, fiction and non-fiction. You juxtapose SL and TL and make something new.

Coordination of three thesauruses (sender – translator – receptor).

According to V.N. Komissarov, there are the situational (or referential) model (based on the identity of the situations described in the original text and in the translation) and the semantico-transformational model (postulates the similarity of notions and nuclear structures in different languages).

Ranking theories: Retsker’s Theory of Regular Correspondences (TRC), Komissarov’s Theory of Translation Equivalence Levels (TEL).

e.g. TRC: 1. Permanent correspondences (terms, international words, realia, geographic and

proper names):

e.g. The House of Commons, The Kremlin, gold, text, hydrogen.

2. Relative (partial) correspondences:

e.g. reliable sources – надежные источники

reliable information – достоверные сведения

3. Non-permanent correspondences:

equivalent-lacking words and phraseological units:

e.g. stiff opposition – непримиримая оппозиция

stiff whisky – неразбавленное виски

stiff necked = proud, refusing to obey

stiff sentence = very hard

frozen stiff = extremely cold (colloquial)

to keep stiff upper lip – сохранять спокойствие

TEL Theory states that while translating you pass from one of the following equivalence levels to another:

a) sign level (words and word combinations)

e.g. Evolution – of life forms or of technology – speeds up.

b) utterance level (phrase, sentence)

e.g. To kill a goose laying golden eggs.

c) message level (phrase, paragraph)

e.g. The further backward you look, the further forward you can see (Churchill).

d) situation description level (text fragments)

e.g. In two hours the vessel was half filled with water. (tank? beaker?ship?)

e) communication purpose level (whole text)

Further reading and exercises:

1. Федоров А.В. Основы общей теории перевода. М.,1983.

2. Комиссаров В.Н. Современное переводоведение. М., 2002.

3. Рецкер Я.И. Теория перевода и переводческая практика. М., 1974.

4. Швейцер А.Д. Теория перевода: статус, проблемы, аспекты. М., 1988.

5. Алексеева И.С. Профессиональный тренинг переводчика.

6. Книги серии WIT – Мир Перевода.

7. Komissarov V.N., Koralova A.L. A Manual of Translation from English into Russian. М., 1990.

1. Translate and discuss the following text:

How to Translate.

In my practice, four steps make up the act of translating.

First, I read and reread the text as a whole to absorb it, and as it were make it a part of myself. Proceeding, I do this specifically for each paragraph and sentence as I come to it.

Secondly, I write the best version I can make after weighing all possible alternatives that came to mind.

Thirdly, after putting the first version aside for a time, I came back to it and read it through without reference to the original, making changes, wherever necessary. This is a point where at least one reading aloud is essential.

In the fourth place and as an ultimate precaution, I check the resultant second version just to catch any passage where I may have deviated too far from the text. (Justin O’Brian).

1. Translate into Russian:

On translating “Eugene Onegin”

V.Nabokov.

What is translation? On a platter

A poet’s pale and glaring head,

A parrot’s screech, a monkey’s chatter,

And profanation of the dead.

The parasites you were so hard on

Are pardoned if I have your pardon,

Oh, Pushkin, for my stratagem:

I traveled down your secret stem,

And reached the root, and fed upon it;

Then, in a language newly learned,

I grew another stalk and turned

Your stanza, patterned on a sonnet,

Into my honest roadside prose –

All thorn, but cousin to your rose.

Reflected words can only shiver

Like elongated lights that twist

In the black mirror of a river

Between the city and the mist.

Elusive Pushkin! Persevering,

I still pick up your damsel’s earing,

Still travel with your sullen rake.

I find another man’s mistake;

I analyse alliterations

That grace your feasts and haunt the great

Fourth stanza of your Canto Eight.

This is my task: a poet’s patience

And scholiastic passion blent –

The shadow of your monument.

1. Translate into English:

1) Переводчик в прозе есть раб, переводчик в стихах – соперник. (Жуковский).

2) Перевод – высокое искусство. (Чуковский).

3) Подстрочный перевод никогда не может быть верен. (Пушкин).

4) Перевод в лучшем случае – эхо. (Лавенгро).

5) При переводе следует добираться до непереводимого, только тогда можно по-настоящему познать чужой народ, чужой язык. (Гете).

6) Перевод что женщина: если она красива, она неверна, если верна – некрасива. (Гейне).

7) Перевод – самый глубокий способ чтения. (Маркес).

8) Что бы ни говорилось о неудовлетворительности переводческого труда, он всегда был и будет одним из достойнейших дел, связующих воедино вселенную. (Гете).

Дата добавления: 2015-07-10