Translating demonstrative pronouns

The difference between the English this/these – that/those can be traced in four aspects which should be known to a translator:

a) distance

b) direction

c) time

d) connotation

This indicates something within the speaker’s reach; that, out of speaker’s reach, is separated from him by space. This difference is not as evident in Russian: (on the phone) Hello, this is Clair. Who is that speaking? Is that Mike? – Алло, Клер слушает. Кто это? Это Майк?

When English-speaking people refer to this country, they mean their own country. In translation it should be substituted by the proper name: almost 53 years later, the King’s abdication has come to be widely seen as an inevitable event. At the time, it was a shock to many in this country and the Commonwealth. – Спустя почти 53 года всем стало очевидно, что отречения короля было неизбежно, а в то время многих в Англии и в Содружестве это приводило в ужас.

This and that also indicate different directions of motion. Despite the space between the speaker and a person, the approaching person will be called this man. If a person is going away, he is referred to as that man. Compare the usage of the pronouns in the following sport commentator’s remark, which became a joke: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Stirling Moss, that was. Construed as the juxtaposition of the two pronouns, the joke could be rendered in Russian by means of compensation: Дамы и господа, к нам приближается Стирлинг Мосс… и вот его уже нет.

The temporal difference between this and that is illustrated by the contrast between the present/future, on the one hand, and the past, on the other: This is odd. This will be interesting. That was nice. (Compare the Russian: Это странно. Это будет интересно. Это было неплохо.)

In informal speech, notwithstanding space and time, this/these is used with positive connotations, to emphasize a good attitude to somebody/something, whereas that/those indicates a negative attitude: Then I saw away in the distance, this lovely girl. The speaker’s positive attitude to the girl can be compensated by an emphatic adjective or by some emotional affix, typical of Russian: И тогда я увидел вдалеке прелестн(ейш)ую девушку. Here is that awful Jones and those ugly children of his. – А вот и гадкий Джоунз и его скверные дети.

A typical mistake made by Russians attempting to translate into English is overuse of the pronoun such corresponding to такой. Such is much more emphatic than the Russian такой. It can be used in emotional speech: Это такой хороший фильм! - It’s such a good film! But in neutral speech it is better to substitute такой by the pronouns this/that, that kind of, like that. For example, Он опять сделал такую же грубую ошибку. - He made that kind of blunder again. He made a blunder like that again.

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