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A lot of lexical transformations are made due to:
1) different vision of reality and its objects and different approach to them.
e.g. E.: glasses (material) - R.: oчки (function)
2) different semantic structure of a word in SL and TL (divergencies)
e.g. professional athlete - complimentary ticket –
poor management – private security –
self-evident truth - yard ¹ courtyard
3) different valency and colloquability (clichés), i.e. the aptness of the word(s) to appear in different combinations.
e.g. a bad mistake - a fly stands –
high expectations - a controversial question –
heavy rain - to be critically ill –
trains run -
Translator! Seek the similar clichés in TL!
4) different usage:
e.g. In E. figures 14,000; 0.75; in reading phone numbers; in naming people (boys go 16, girls go 13 - young men, women); in orders and requests:
e.g. Ни с места!
Осторожно, двери закрываются!
Не пейте сырой воды!
Шагом марш!
2. Emotive (connotative) meaning has reference to the feelings and emotions associated with denotative meaning. It is inherent property of some words even taken out of context.
e.g. thrifty (+)–stingy,close-fisted,penny-wise(-)-economical (o)
бережливый - скупой - экономный
Interjections like ouch!, wow!, damn!, etc. alongside with sound-imitating words possess mostly connotative meaning: e.g. Ps,Ps –кис,кис; Shoo-брысь;Woof–гав; Croak – ква(к).
What are 10 common human emotions?
What is CULTURAL CONNOTATIVE COMPONENT (CCC)?
3.Stylistic meaning is based on stylistic stratification of the English vocabulary and formal stylistic connotations. That is to say the connotative meaning has as its component a stylistic coloring.
e.g. Mister,Sir; gentleman–man; chap,guy; block,dude,squirt,snag
(formal) (neutral) (colloquial) (slang)
commence – begin – start
The greater part of the high-frequency English word-stock are words of general reference or neutral words.
Rendering of Emotive and Stylistic Meaning.
In translating emotive prose special attention should be paid to the so-called dialectal words which are usually emotionally and stylistically colored and as such should be translated into the TL.
e.g. You’ve got a goddamn bug today – you know that?
I’m not going to leave my kids in no nursery.
I’d cut and run if I were you.
That’s a pretty business!
The level of debate was abysmally low.
Horror dawned on her face.
In translation the choice of the TL correspondences depends on the availability of similar emotionally colored wordsor on the environment of the utterance. Emotional meaning can be regarded as another seme, as one of the objective features proper to words and forming a part of their referential meaning:
e.g. Well, professor Smith, come up to the blackboard! (about a poor student)
Russian is rich in emotive suffixes:
e.g. дом ишк о = a small wretched house
дом ик = a little house
The words of wide semantic structure, of vague and indefinite semantic boundaries are difficult to translate:
e.g. glamour(ous) (+, -) - блеск, пошлость; красочность the glamour of dance =?
endless (+, -) -
a proud role
bitter envy
fierce red moustache, fierce activity
to ask eagerly
a tiresome nuisance
The snake does not kill for a thrill.
He stormed the length of the room and back.
If in doubt, choose the stylistically neutral words:
e.g. “ Мы задаем им встречный вопрос: а вы готовы пустить на слом сотни ракет и самолетов, тысячи ядерных боезарядов?
We counter with a question: But are you ready/ Are you really ready to…
Most neutral: to do away with / put an end to
Semi-neutral: destroy / eliminate
More colored: wreck / dump
Most colored: consign to the garbage heap/ smash to bits
…hundreds of missiles and airplanes, thousands of nuclear warheads?”(Линн Виссон «Синхронный перевод с русского на английский»).
Further reading and exercises:
1. Козакова: pp. 103-126.
2. Koralova: pp. 75-80, 84-89.
3. A.Burak “Translating Culture”.М.,2002.
4. Find examples of synonyms with different emotive and stylistic meanings:
e.g. a speaker (o), orator (+), chatterbox, garble (-);
a journalist, correspondent (o), reporter, rep (inf. ), leap man (coll.), hack (sl.),
a cub (jarg.), paparazzo (-).
a teacher -? tired -?
favourite -? surprised -? conversation -? television -?
5. Translate:
Russian solitude = English privacy; “Finnegan’s Wake”; master of all trades; the Prom day; registration certificate; to love to distraction; Act of God; force majeur; speaker – chatterbox -windbag; to be on the sick list; suit yourself.
It was late afternoon.
It’s a scream!
Well done!
He works for peanuts.
Обещали дождь. Он просидел в тюрьме полгода. Выражение «грызть науку» принадлежит Троцкому. Закрывать глаза на … Напряженка. Блат. Поменять быка на индюка. Без вести пропавший. Она отвлекла внимание всех на себя. Велика Федора… Генофонд страны. Не бери в голову! Гололедица. Я беру тебя в жены на горе и радость. Филькина грамота. Договоренность вступает в силу с 12 января.
Unit VII. LEXICAL TRANSFORMATIONS.
The theory of translation transformations displays different approaches to the problem of their classification.
Methods of logical thinking that enable the translator to reveal the meaning of a foreign word in context and to provide it with a TL correspondence somewhat different from the original one are often referred to as LEXICAL transformations. Some linguists define them as lexico-grammatical transformations.
Roughly, all lexical transformations may be reduced to the following types: TRANSCRIPTION, LOANS, CONCRETIZATION, GENERALIZATION, ANTONYMIC TRANSLATION, METONYMIC TRANSLATION, PARAPHRASING, CAUSE-EFFECT REPLACEMENT, COMPENSATION.
In CONCRETIZATION a word or word-combination with a wider primary meaning in the SL is replaced by a word or word-combination with a narrower meaning. Such words as thing, point, stuff, affair, matter, to come, to go, to make and many other English words with abstract notions must be rendered concrete in the TL. In this case we deal with linguistic concretization.
e.g. He came in sight of the lodge, a long, frowning thing of red brick.
Even though the Prime Minister’s speech made a few new points, it was statesmanlike.
At the by-election victory went to Labor candidates.
The rain came in torrents.
… died in floods.
… for a bigger readership
The US’s record in medical care…
“They sometimes have hair at birth”, said the sister.
They were probably no religion at all, poor souls, though gifted with faculties.
It is more or less typical of Russian to use less abstract notions and the translator must be conscious of this fact.
As for contextual concretization, it usually occurs when the meaning of a lexical unit depends upon the given context and some stylistic characteristics to be expressed in the TL.
e.g. He died of exposure (we need macrocontext to translate properly)
I gave it up as a bad job.
The moon had freed herself above the poplars…
She was an usherette at the Odeon (explicatory translation).
What has eyes yet never sees?
Can you show me the way? – I am a stranger myself.
What a silly thing to say!
Take that goddamn thing off your face! (Salinger)
He goes to school. (age)
She went to Mary A. Wordruff.
At this I entirely lost my temper ( Maugham ).
As it can be deduced from the above examples, contextual concretization is accompanied by additions.
GENERALIZATION is a kind of lexical transformation that substitutes the word of narrow semantic volume of SL for the word of wider semantic volume in TL, i.e. the word is generalized on the basis of its contextual environment.
e.g. practically every weekend ®
hand & arm ®
foot & leg ®
finger & toe ®
Who won the game? – It’s only a half. ®
Since the shooting of Rob Kennedy 5 days ago, about 90 Americans have been shot dead.
She had expressed an admiration for Lou’s hat, bag, gloves and shoes which were navy-blue.
The tenacity which had once made and undone Soames…
(tenacity: цепкость, стойкость, упорство, твердость воли)
She ordered a daiquiri.
In generalization the translator often replaces a SL word with some special meaning by a TL correspondence with a more general meaning for a receptor to understand it.
e.g. hot water and Dettol (a disinfectant)
the noise of Hoover
fringe benefits
METONYMIC TRANSLATION is a grammatical and lexical transformation based on contiguous concepts in SL and TL. It is similar to meaning extension. Use a part for the whole, the whole for one of its parts.
e.g. the Kremlin, the White House, # 10 Downing Street
(but: It is the ELYSEE which exercises control over the interministerial committee of Europe)
the PENTAGON
Prices have rocketed.
Coalfields go into action.
School broke up for the summer recess.
Отечественная литература, особенно в лице Достоевского, Толстого, Гоголя и Чехова, видела эту черту и презирала.
Рига, ток, амбар всегда были предметом наипервейшей заботы к рестьянина, да и занятие ему давали с осени до весны.
ANTONYMIC TRANSLATION is a grammatical and lexical transformation which substitutes an affirmative construction for a negative one and vice versa.
e.g. Truth machine; to deter rust; to steer clear of the limelight
Even reckoning makes long friends.
God’s eyes are not shut.
I am not kidding.
I don’t think you are right.
The style of written speech limits the number of negatives. You should either balance or replace negatives for affirmatives wherever possible in translating.
Russians like to express negation point-blank:
Не сорить!
Не курить!
Не входить!
Translate by clichés in TL:
Keep them away from children!
No parking.
Keep the child out of the sun.
Transfer of negation:
She did not go to Paris daily.
I don’t suppose Ms Strickland wants to be bothered with me now.
Negation of negation (for expressiveness):
not unlike =
not until =
What I said, after all, was not wholly inaccurate.
Complete PARAPHRASING is made by a phrase in the TL consisting of non-correlating lexical units. We change or adapt unknown for something well-known.
e.g. a n authoritarian grip on =
to swim with a new tide =
Beware of the dog! Help yourself! He will not set the Thames on fire.
CAUSE-EFFECT or EFFECT-CAUSE REPLACEMENT. In this case a SL word or word combination may be replaced by a TL lexical unit which is the cause of the action expressed by this lexical unit and vice versa.
e.g. Grey-white curtains
He had always been easy-going.
I don’t blame them.
He was the kind of the guy that hates to answer you right away.
No one can join a political society by himself.
He always made you say everything twice.
These plants make people sick.
Loss-of-meaning COMPENSATION (компенсация смысловых потерь) is used when some SL units do not have correspondences in the TL. The translator uses this technique in translating puns, substandard grammatical forms, low colloquial language. You should find equivalence at the level of the text, but not at the level of its separate items element. Add or reinforce a TT in one place for something that has not been translated from the ST.
But your job is damn risky!
He made a speech that lasted about 10 hours!
What are you talking ‘bout? Just zip it!
Whatcha meen? (What do you mean?)
John Lennon did a cold turkey.
You got a gun? Oh, come off it!
I ain’t got no time for that kind of thing!
You ain’t seen nothing yet!
Further reading and exercises:
1. Козакова Т.А. Р1, Ch. 3, pp 50-62; P 2, Ch. 3, pp 103-127.
2. Komissarov V.N., Koralova A.L. pp 32-42.
3. Translate the following paraphrases:
The States, Down Under, the Land of the Rising Sun, the Land of Morning Freshness, Sri Lanka, Eire, Ulster, the Third World.
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| III. Word combinations: collocations, idioms, locutions, phraseological units. | | | Grammatical Transformations: Transpositions and Replacements (Partitioning), Additions and Omissions (Integrating). |