Literal translation

Literal translation is the translation that reproduces communicatively irrelevant elements of the source text, This usually happens when the translator copies the source language form on this or that level of the language.

According to the language level, there exist various types of literal translation:

1) on the sound level: this type of literal translation results in the so called “translator’s false friends”, that is words similar in sounds but different in meaning: conductor – not кондуктор, but дирижер; herb – not герб, but лекарственная трава; computer silicon chips – not компьютерные силиконовые чипсы, but кремниевые чипы компьютера.

2) on the syntactic level: copying the structure of the source language. Sometimes an inexperienced translator is hypnotized by the source language, and, to translate “accurately”, he tries to render the meaning word for word, thus breaking combination rules of his/her own language. As an example, We often heard his name mentioned. – *Мы часто слышали его имя упомянутым.

3) on the semantic level: giving the primary meaning of the word or its part, whereas a semantic transformation is required: But outside it kept on raining. - *Но снаружи шел дождь, which is incorrect. Or под полковник - * sub colonel, the word not existing in English.

4) etymological errors: disregarding language changes. Words acquire new meanings over time and use: There, there, don’t cry. - *Там, там, не плачь.

5) following the style of the source text: different registers require different language means. Thus, to use the example by V. Komissarov32, to a Russian, who got accustomed to brief and abrupt structures in the weather forecast, an English weatherman’s sentence can sound like a poem line: Mist covered a calm sea in the Strait of Dover last night. – Туман покрывал спокойное море в Па-де-Кале прошлой ночью. Therefore, to produce the same impact upon the receptor as does the original, the translator has to partition the English sentence and make it more adaptable to a Russian: Прошлой ночью в проливе Па-де-Кале стоял туман. Море было спокойно. 33

We can see that very often literal translation is not necessarily a word-for-word translation, although it is often associated with a rather negative evaluation of the translation.

Literal translation is sometimes referred to as formal, or grammar translation, though it is not the same.

However, sometimes literal translation on this or that level is a must. The translator cannot do without it when rendering proper and geographical names (Khabarov, Nakhodka); some borrowings (Red Guards – хунвэйбины is a literal translation (on a semantic level), into English of the Chinese hong (Red) wei bing (Guard), while the Russian word is a literal reproduction of the Chinese word on a sound level.

In some works, literal translation is called ‘faithful’ translation – this term does not necessarily imply the negative connotation of slavish literalism.

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