Lexical transformations in translation.

Lexical transformations are divided into formal and lexical and semantic ones.

10.3.1. Formal lexical transformations provide for changing the form of the source language unit by using devices of the target language. Here belong transformations at the phonetic and graphic levels (sometimes called "transcoding") such as:

1. Practical transcription - reproduction of the S L lexical item phonemes by the TLgraphemes (letters), e.g., file — файл; interface — інтерфейс; Jack — Джек; Russel — Рассел, etc.

2. Transliteration - reproduction of the letters of the SL lexical item by the TL graphemes (letters), e.g., broker— брокер; London - Лондон; Disney — Дисней, etc.

3. Traditional phonetic and graphical reproduction, e.g., Texas — Texac; Walter— Вальтер, etc.

4. Combination of the three ways of reproduction described above, e.g. Shakespeare — Шекспір; Москва — Moscow, etc.

5. Loan translation (калькування), e.g., skyscraper — хмарочос; Merry Monarch — Веселий Король (nickname of Charles IT), Верховний Суд — Supreme Court; вотум недовіри — non-confidence vote, etc. '

10.3.2. Lexical and semantic transformations:

1. Generalization of meaning, which is substitution of the SL words (phrases) of a narrow meaning by the TL words (phrases) of a general (broader) meaning. E.g.: My baby is 18months — Моїй дитині півтора року. This car costs seventeen hundred pounds — Ця машина коштує тисячу сімсот фунтів; The soldiers walked in the ankle-deep dust — Солдати йшли по коліно у пилюиі: wristwatch — наручний годинник, etc.

2. Differentiation of meaning, which is caused by the fact that many English words with broad meaning do not have direct equivalents in Ukrainian. In such cases dictionaries give a number of meanings that only partially cover the meaning of the SL word and translators have to choose one of the options, which suits the context best of all. Thus affection may be rendered as щиросердя but not obligatory as любов, прихильність, симпатія; challenge — as проблема, нагальне завдання

{питання) but not only as виклик; sustainable — as безперервний, непохитний, придатний, обгрунтований, остаточно визначений but not only as сталий, усталений, стійкий, etc.

3. Substantiation of meaning is substitution of the source language words (phrases) with a generic meaning by the target language words (phrases) with a more specific (narrow) meaning. Substantiation is often combined with differentiation. E.g.: Run for the presidency — Змагання за посаду президента. Have you had your meal?—Ви вже поснідали? Networking — спілкування. Student — not only студент but also учень, слухач (depending upon the context).

4. Modulation (also called sense or logical development) is replacement of the SL word of phrase by TL item, which is logically connected with the original item, e.g., Then this girl gets killed, because she's always speeding — А потім ця дівчина гине, оскільки постійно порушує правила дорожнього руху.

It's worth mentioning that modulation provides for various metaphoric and metonymic changes performed on the basis of the notion of intersection, i.e. when a part of the content of one notion is included into і he content of another notion and vice versa. In conveying the same sense by means of another language there is often no difference what forms of the word express this content. Thus the object may be replaced by its feature, і he process — by the object, the feature — by the object or a process, etc. Ya. I. Retsker [Рецкер 2004: 52] gives the following example of modulation (logical development): The Liverpool by-election was an acid test for the I abour candidate which can be hardly translated as Довибори у Ліверпулі були випробуванням на кислотність для кандидата від лейбористів. І evidently it is necessary to substitute the process by its nominal equivalent - були лакмусовим папірцем. This presumes substitution of the process by the object and occurs within the framework of intersection because лакмусовий папірець is only a part of випробування на кислотність.

When modulation is applied to translation of verb combinations there can be established clear interrelationships between processes (actions or slates), causes and effects (consequences). Thus the theory of permutations a I lows singling out six possible variants of modulation (logical development) [see ibid.]: a) substitution of the process by its cause, b) substitution of the process by its effect, c) substitution of the cause by the process, (I) substitution of the cause by its effect, e) substitution of the effect be its cause, f) substitution of the effect by the process.

As an illustration, Ya.I. Retsker [Реикер 2004: 53] gives quite a straightforward example from A.Christie's book: "I don't thinkshe's living here at the moment. Her bed wasn't slept in". It is quite appropriate in translation to substitute the process by its effect: instead ої вона не спала у своєму ліжку to use її ліжко не зім 'яте.

10.4. Grammatical translation transformations

1. Word for word reproduction of syntactic structures, which is regarded as a "zero transformation".

2. Transposition is a change in the order of words in phrases and sentences, which is often caused by the structural differences in expressing the theme and the rheme in different languages. E.g.: A girl entered the room

— У кімнату увійшла дівчина; An old man was sitting by the side of the road — Біля краю дороги сидів старий; A column 185feet high with a statue of Admiral Nelson on top was erected in Trafalgar Square in 1867

— У 1867році на Трафальгарській площі була споруджена колона 185 футів заввишки, на верхівці якої була встановлена статуя адмірала Нельсона.

3. Replacement is substitution of a word belonging to one part of speech by a word belonging to another part of speech (morphological replacement) or substitution of one syntactical construction by another one (syntactical replacement). E.g.: He is a good runner — Він гарно бігає; Isaw her standing there — Я бачив, що вона там стояла; The Times wrote editorially (...) — У передовій статті газета Тайме писала (...).

4. Addition is used to compensate for semantic or grammatical losses and often goes along with transposition and grammatical replacement. E.g.: His wife had been beautiful — Його дружина колись (або у молодості) була красунею. Workers of al l industries — робітники всіх галузей промисловості. Candidates will purchase a logbook listing all the modules — Бажаючі прийняти участь у програмі купують облікову книжку учасника курсів, яка містить перелік всіх навчальних модулів.

5. Omission is a transformation opposite to addition and is used with the aim to avoid redundant information. E.g.: the right to rest and leisure — право на відпочинок. Equality in trade and commerce — рівні права у галузі торгівлі. (...) regardless of age, education, experience or background — незалежно від віку, освіти та досвіду роботи.

10.5. Lexical and grammatical transformations in translation

The transformations listed below have been labelled as lexical and grammatical because lexical changes often are caused by the need to adapt l he meaning to the grammatical peculiarities of the target culture. M ost of the scholars single out the following transformations of this kind:

1. Antonymic translation is the substitution of the source language notion by its opposite in translation with the relevant restructuring of the utterance aimed at faithful rendering of its content. Here belong such techniques as the use of an affirmative construction instead of a negative one or the use of semantic antonyms. E.g.: Lei a sleeping dog lie - He чіпай лиха, коли воно спить. The woman on the other end asked him to hang on - Жінка на іншому кінці проводу сказала, щоб він не вішав трубку. Keep foreign goods out — He допускати імпорту іноземних товарів or підтримувати вітчизняного виробника.

2. Total reorganization of the text segment (Rus. целостное преобразо-вание) [Рецкер 2004:59-68]. This transformation rearranges the inner form of any segment of the text: starting with a word, a phrase and ending up with a complete sentence. Such reorganization is of an integral nature, so that visible structural relationships between the inner form of the source and target languages segments cannot be traced any more. However, total reorganization does not mean that logical and semantic relationships between the two segments disappear. If it were so, translation would not be equivalent. On the contrary - total reorganization presumes that equivalence of the content is retained in translation, though it is achieved by different means. Total reorganization is very often used in rendering colloquial set expressions and idioms. Examples are: be my guest—ласкаво прошу; bottleneck — вузьке (слабке) місце; don't move!, freeze! — ані руш!; I'll be damned! — провалитися мені на цьому місці, хай йому чорт!; out of the blue — несподівано, раптом, як грім серед ясного неба, як сніг на голову; shut up! — заткни рота!; to sort things out — ставити все на свої місця.

3. Compensation for the losses in translating. According to A.V. Fedorov ІФедоров 2002: 169-170] in the practice of translation there are instances when a word or another element of the source text is not rendered at all or is substituted by a formally different one. However I his omission does not contradict the principle of translatability because

such elements belong to the text as a whole unit of language. These elements are essential for understandi ng of the text fragments as parts of a system, which are formed by their interrelationships and links, thus ensuring cohesion of the text. Within this coherent system there is a room for replacements and compensations. Therefore if a separate element, which doesn't play a key role in text organization, is lost in translating, it may be of no importance for the text as a whole because this element is dissolved in the general context or substituted by other elements, which sometimes do not exist in the source text.

1. Therefore compensation for losses in translation should be understood as substitution of the "untranslatable" source element by a different target language element in compliance with the general contents of the source text and in the place, which is in line with the rules of the target text.

2. Compensation is often applied to rendering of such "untranslatable" elements as culture-specific units of the source language culture and specific national idioms but not only to them. Mona Baker [1992:78] writes that the strategy of compensation "means that one may either omit or play down a feature such as idiomaticity at the point where it occurs in the source text and introduce it elsewhere in the target text. This strategy is not restricted to idiomaticity or fixed expressions and may be used to make up for any loss of meaning, emotional force, or stylistic effect which may not be possible to reproduce directly at a given point in the target text".

3. If it is necessary to sacrifice either stylistic colouring or expressiveness of the text element in translation, it is worthwhile to retain at least its expressive characteristics. However, if stylistic colouring is essential for the source text, it should be by all means rendered in translation at least in some other "place" of the target text, which the technique of compensation is aimed at. The following example from "Life and adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit" by Ch. Dickens illustrates an attempt to compensate for certain losses in translation: The education of Mr. Jonas had been conducted on the strictest principles of the main chance. The very first word he learned to spell was gain, and the second (when he got into two syllables), money Виховання пана Джонаса було саме суворе та із народження мало на увазі передусім користь. Перше слово, яке він навчився складати, було «гроші», а друге (коли він дійшов до трискладових слів) — «нажива».

In the original text Ch. Dickens writes not about the strictness of education as such but about " the strictest principles o f t he main cliance ", i.e. about" ' чіткі принципи не втратити свій шанс'' or " чіткі принципи отримати наживу ". Unfortunately this hypocritical idiomaticity has not been rendered in translation. However, the translator tries to compensate for this loss by increasing the level of irony further on in translation. Translation of the words gain and money also illustrates the technique of compensation: in the source text the first word Mr. Jonas learned to spell is gain and the second - money. In the Ukrainian translation гроші appears to be the first and нажива — the second due to the different number of syllables in the target language. Correspondingly the translator substitutes the phrase when he got into two syllables by коли він дійшов до трискладових слів І Контекстуальні заміни при перекладі].

10.6. Buzzwords, weasel words and textspeak items as translation challenges

Further on it seems worthwhile to discuss briefly the problem of rendering the so-called "buzzwords" in translation. Ways of rendering

I mi //words can be in the most general terms viewed as specific kinds of lexical and semantic transformations. A buzzword (also a vogue word, catch phrase or «слово сьогодення») is a vague idiom, usually a neologism (often an abbreviation or acronym), that is common to the mass media, managerial, technical and administrative discourse. Although meant to

II npress the listener with the speaker's pretence to knowledge, buzzwords often make speech messages difficult to understand, translate or interpret 11 Іалажченко 2006: 255; Buzzword].

Traditional linguistics uses the term neologism (from Greek neo "new" і logos "word") with reference to a "newly coined word that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into the 11 її і і nst ream language. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event. According to the Oxford English І Hctionary the term neologism was first used in print in 1772" [Neologism]. Quite a lot of academic literature deals with neologisms, however the focus la I icing made mainly on the structural and semantic models of coining (building up) new words [see, e:g., Английские неологизмьі 1983], though lately some new English-Ukrainian dictionaries of neologisms and I mzzwords started to come to the agenda [Запний, Янков 2008].

Дата добавления: 2015-08-27