Translation of Phraseological Units

Phraseological units are usually classified into three big groups: phraseological fusions, phraseological unities and phraseological collocations.

Phraseological fusions are non-motivated groups forming indivisible wholes both semantically and syntactically. Their meaning in Modern English does not depend on the meaning of the component elements. They seldom, if ever, have equivalents in the S and T languages and are usually rendered by interpreting translation or by paraphrasing, e.g. to paint the lily – пытаться улучшить или украсить что-л., нуждающееся в улучшении или украшении; заниматься бесплодным делом; тратить время или силы попусту. To show the whitefeather – струсить, проявить трусость.

The meaning of a phraseological fusion may naturally be rendered by different synonyms, e.g. to go the whole hog – делать что-л. основательно, проводить до конца, не останавливаться на полумерах, идти на все.

Phraseological unities are motivated units of Modern English; their components are not semantically bound. They are often figurative and the transference of meaning is either metaphorical or metonymical, e.g. to drop a brick – допустить бестактность, сделать ляпсус, промах; monkey business – всякие штучки, фокусы, глупости, дурачества; to eat humble pie – проглотить обиду, смириться.

This group of phraseological units is heterogeneous and comprises proverbs, proverbial sayings, allusions, euphemisms, professionalisms, e.g.

Little pitchers have long ears – дeти любят слушать разговоры взрослых; What will Mrs. Grundy say? – Что скажут люди?

Phraseological unities differ by their structure, by their syntactical function in a sentence and by their stylistic features.

According to the principle of their translation phraseological unities can be divided into three groups:

· Phraseological unities having Russian counterparts, which have the same meaning expressed by a similar image. They can often be traced to the same source – biblical, mythological, Latin proverbs or sayings, e.g. a living dog is better than a dead lion (bibl.) – живой пес лучше мертвого льва; not all is gold that glitters – не все то золото, что блестит; to cut the Gordian knot (myth.) – разрубить гордиев узел.

· Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings having the same meaning but expressing it by a different image.

Too many cooks spoil the broth. - У семи нянек дитя бег глазу.

To buy a pig in a poke – Купить кота в мешке.

Liberal M.P.’s claimed to be united behind their leader while, at the same time, strewing banana skins in his path.

Либералы – члены парламента – утверждали, что они объединились вокруг своего лидера, а в то же время они подставляли ему ножку на каждом шагу.

· SL phraseological unities sometimes have synonymous TL equivalents, the choice is open to the translator and is usually determined by the context, e.g.

Between the devil and the deep sea – между двух огней, между молотом и наковальней, между Сциллой и Харибдой, в безвыходном положении.

In the absence of a correlated phraseological unity the translator resorts to interpreting translation, e.g. a skeleton in the closet (cupboard) – семейная тайна, неприятность, скрываемая от посторонних.

Target language equivalents possessing national colouring though expressing the same idea should be avoided as they cannot be considered true equivalents because they introduce alien associations and alien national colouring, e.g. to carry coals to Newcastle should not be translated by the Russian proverbial saying – ездить в Тулу со своим самоваром. In such cases two solutions are possible: a) to preserve the image of the English phraseological unity – никто не возит уголь в Ньюкасл; b) to resort to interpreting translation – заниматься бесполезным делом.

The same principles are applied to the translation of phraseological unities in the form of simile: cold as ice – холодный как лед; as old as the hills – стар как мир; brown as a berry – загорелый, бронзовый.

Interpreting translation of phraseological fusions and unities is justified by the fact that their literal meaning is suppressed by what may be termed their transferred meaning which conveys the idea expressed by them.

Phraseological collocations are motivated word combinations but they are made up of words possessing specific lexical valency which accounts for a certain degree of stability in such word groups. They are translated by corresponding collocations in Russian, e.g. to make faces – строить рожи; to make amends – приносить свои извинения; to make a fortune – составить состояние; to make a bed – застелить постель; to make allowances – делать скидку.

As seen from the above examples it is always the key word which determines the choice of the Russian verb.

Lexical transformations can be reduced to five distinct types which have a purely linguistic basis. These five types are the following: concretization, generalization, antonymic translation, metonymic translation and paraphrasing.

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