1. The notion of translation

Translation – a process of conveying or rendering the meaning (content) of SL units in the TL as well as the result of this process.

There are 2 forms of translation: 1) in writing and 2) in viva voce (orally).

Translation conveys the meaning of the following language units:

The phoneme – is a speech sound, the smallest 1-facet language unit, it has a form but has no meaning. Phonemes are graphically represented by letters. Phonemes usually do not take part in the process of translation, but they are used in translation of proper names, geographical names, internationalisms, neologisms and units of specific national lexicon.

“a”, І-в-а-н-о-в - I-v-a-n-o-v

The morpheme – is the smallest indivisible 2-facet language unit (has both form and meaning). It is the smallest sense unit.

superprofit – надприбуток, cloudless – безхмарний

The word – is the basic 2-facet language unit. The word is the smallest independent sense unit. Words are divisible (for morphemes).

blackboard – дошка, strawberry – полуниця, dog – собака

The word group/word-combination – is the largest 2-facet lexical unit comprising more that 1 word.

first night – прем’єра

The sentence – is a 2-facet unit of speech which conveys a more or less complete thought.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. – Немає лиха без добра.

A cat may look at a king. – Дивитися не заборонено.

The text – is the largest 2-facet language unit, consisting of sentences bound by the same idea.

Two languages are involved into translation process.

The Source language (SL) – is the language of the original / the language from which the process of translation is performed.

The Target language (TL) – is the language of the translation / the language into which the process of translation is performed.

Translation may imply any sense-to-sense substitution of a SL unit for its semantic (=having the same meaning) equivalent in the TL.

I live in Kiev – Я живу в Києві

first night – перша ніч

pretty woman - гарна жінка

Translation may imply any sense-to-sense conveying even if the lexical meaning of the constituents which make up a SL unit is not replaced with the identical lexical meaning in the TL.

First night - прем’єра

pretty woman - красунечка

Translation may imply any functional substitution at the text level. It is aimed at recreating the function of a SL unit. Is used in the translation of titles and stylistic devices.

“The Village” – “Таємничий ліс” (the title was changed for marketing purposes)

“Some like it hot” – “В джазі лише дівчата”

“Over the hedge” – “Лісова братва”

Significance of translation

The importance of translation in the modern society has long been recognized. Not a single contact at the international level or between 2 foreign persons can be established without the help of translation. Translation is important for functioning of different international bodies. Numerous branches of national economies can be kept up with the modern development thanks to the everyday translation. The other branches of human activity dealing with the translation are: nuclear science, exploration of outer space, ecology, mining, medicine, electronics etc. The social and political role of translation has been the most felt in the XX-XXI century when it provided the dissemination (=spreading) of political ideas. Translation is a perfect means of sharing achievements and enriching the national languages, literatures and cultures. Finally, whatever the type of matter is translated, the linguistic and social significance of translation remains unchanged because it promotes the enrichment of lexicon in the target language.