Focus on GRAMMAR

The Word Substitution

If a word or phrase can substitute a word or phrase in a sentence; that is, the sentence is grammatical with the substitute, then the substitute has the same or similar function to the word substituted in that sentence. Sometimes, we cannot substitute a word or expression in the same place in the sentence as another word or expression, although the substitutions are nonetheless equivalent. For instance, see adjectives, where an adjective usually precedes a headword, but an adjectival phrase follows it. Also, it may be necessary to change the person of the verb.

Nouns

For instance, we can substitute Tom for Hermonie in the sentence:

Hermonie went home. Tom went home.

We know that Tom is a Proper Noun, and because substituting Tom for Hermonie makes a grammatical sentence, then we can conclude that Tom and Hermonie perform similar functions in the sentence. In fact, both are Proper Nouns.

Pronouns

We can substitute she for Hermonie in the above sentence:

Hermonie went home. She went home.

Because the sentence is grammatical, we can conclude that she and Hermonie have a similar function in the sentence. We know that Hermonie is a Proper Noun, and so she must be a Proper Noun, or a Pronoun.

Verbs

In the sentence below, we can substitute ran for helter-skeltered:

Tom helter-skeltered down the road. Tom ran down the road.

helter-skelter therefore has a function similar to ran. They are both verbs.

Adjectives

We can substitute big for black in the following sentence:

The black cat crossed the road. The big cat crossed the road.

With adjectives, we might have to substitute a word before a noun with an expression after the noun.

We saw a tall man. We saw a man who was tall.

We cannot substitute the expression who was tall in the same place as the adjective tall in first sentence, but need to put it after the noun man. However, the expression who was tall has the same effect as the adjective tall, so it functions as an adjective.

Conjunctions

If we substitute however for but in the following sentence, we get:

Harry was usually mean but he always gave to charity. Harry was always mean however he always gave to charity.

Something is wrong. It isn't grammatical. If we read the sentence aloud, we have to pause before and after however, to make it sound idiomatic. In speech we have to separate the two clauses with a pause. In other words, we have to turn them into sentences. We write this as:

Harry was usually mean; however, he always gave to charity.

Or

Harry was usually mean. However, he always gave to charity.

We know and is a conjunction. It is a word that joins two clauses. And we cannot substitute however for and. So however does not join two clauses (although ";however," does). It seems that however modifies the previous sentence. It add information to or takes information away from the previous sentence. The word however is not a conjunction, but a linking adverb.

Grammatical transformations

It is well known that languages differ in their grammatical structure. Apart from having different grammatical categories they differ in the use of those categories that seem to be similar. This naturally results in the necessity to introduce some grammatical changes in the translation. These changes depend on the character of correlation between the grammatical norms of SL and TL. All these possible changes may be classified under four main types:

1/ addition - үстеме

2/ omission – түсіп қалуы

3/ substitution / replacement- ауыстыру

4/ transposition – қайта қүру

1. Addition. It is very difficult to say whether this transformation is lexical or grammatical: it is both. Lexical aspects have already been mentioned, it is necessary to make some explanations of transcribed words, describe those notions which have no names in TL, add the words which are implied but not expressed in the structure of attributive phrases, etc. In all these cases the structure of the sentence is involved, that is why the transformation is considered to be grammatical. Sometimes there is the necessity for adding new words: it happens when some meaning is expressed grammatically in the original text while there is no way of expressing it grammatically in TL.

E.g. “ We mean business” –said the Prime Minister in the Commons yesterday, announcing new Government moves to hasten Britain into Europe - Англияның Еуропалық экономикалық қоғамдастыққа кіруін тездету үшін қабылданған үкіметтің жаңа қадамдары туралы жариялай отырып, «біз ең жақсысын көздейміз»,- деді премьер министр.

The verb “to hasten” – “тездету” requires the additional word кіріс

2. Omission. This transformation is usually caused by stylistic considerations and deals with redundancy normative in SL and not accepted in TL. A typical example of such redundancy is the use of synonymic pairs in English: “...their only stay and support” –both the words mean “тірек”, “сүйеніш”. There is no need to translate them both, one is quite enough.

3. Substitution/ replacement. Substitutions are marked at different levels:

1. In order to conform to the demands of the grammatical system of TL it may become necessary to change the grammatical form of a word: “fifteen thousand dollars” – “он бес мың доллар”(“thousand”- singular,”мың”-plural), “your hair’s so beautiful”- “сенің шашың сондай әдемі”

2. A translator often has to replace one part of speech by another.

E.g. It was a common criticism of Faulkner, particularly in Britain, that he was a writer of unreal nightmares. - Әдетте Фолкнерді, өмірде жоқ қорқыныштарды суреттегені үшін, әсіресе Англияда сынады.

It was a common criticism, that he was a writer - is translated by predicate.

4. Transposition. There may appear a necessity to rearrange elements of different levels: words, phrases, clauses or even sentences. Transposition of words and phrases may be caused by various reasons: differences in the accepted word order in SL and TL, presence or absence of emphasis, differences in the means of communicative syntax.

E.g. A general plan was operated by West German reactionaries to rehabilitate Nazi criminals – Батыс Германия реакционерлерімен фашистік қылмыскерлерді қайта жаңғырту бойынша үлкен өмірлік жоспар өткізілді.

Speaking of a word order, it would be more accurate to say that to change word order really means to rearrange not so much words but parts of the sentence. When translating from English into Kazakh one has to change word-order because normally it is fixed in English while in Kazakh it is relatively free.

It is obvious that every word in the text is used in a particular form and all the words are arranged in sentences in a particular syntactic order. Grammatical forms reveal the semantic relationship between the words, clauses and sentences in the text. According to V. Comissarov¹ “they can make prominent some part of the contents that is of particular significance for the communicants.”

Though the bulk of the information in the original text is conveyed by its lexical elements, the semantic role of grammatical forms and structures should not be overlooked by the translator. Grammatical aspect of the Source Text (ST) may be reflected when using parallel forms and structures in Target Language (TL).

However, in many cases equivalence in translation can be best achieved if the translator does not try to mirror the grammatical forms used in the ST. It is natural that there are no permanent grammatical equivalence and the translator can chose between the parallel forms and various grammatical transformations. He may opt for the latter in case there is no absolute identity of grammatical forms in SL and TL.

For instance, the idea of prior action expressed by the Perfect Tense is not present in Russian Language. The similar difference can be observed if one compares the finite forms of the verb in English and Russian. Both the English and Russian verbs have active and passive forms, but in English passive forms are more numerous and often used. It is not characteristic of Russian where the Passive

Voice is used in formal style only. As a result the Passive Voice in the ST is often rendered by the Active one in the translation: He was given a cool reception –Ему оказали холодный прием.

Speaking about grammatical equivalence L. Barhudarov ² singles out two types of Grammatical Transformations: Transposition and Substitution. T. Levitskaya and A. Fitterman ³, on the contrary, do not admit that there are grammatical and lexical transformations in their pure form. They suggest their definition – Lexico -Grammatical Problems of translation.

As far as translation of Winnie-the-Pooh is concerned we think that Bahudorov‘s classification is more appropriate for our analysis.

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