Chapter 8. Translation studies and lexis (cont.)

8.1. Lexical problems of translation at word level

In translation studies it has been stressed that most lexical problems of translation arise at word level. According to V.S. Vinogradov [Виноградов 2004], a word occupies the central place on the level of lexis for several reasons:

• a word is the basic unit of information which is expressed, conveyed, stored in the language as a result of human cognition of the outside world;

• a word serves as the basic unit of thought and a means of transferring a message in the form of an utterance;

• a word possesses a broad scope of informative value which is made up of extralinguistic and linguistic information: extralinguistic information includes denotational, connotational, sociological, chronological, background, differential; linguistic information includes functional information (grammatical and formal);

• a word acquires different kinds of textual occasional information which are very important to understand in a SLT and retain them in translation.

The range of lexical translation problems which are important to solve at word level is very broad as here refer both general questions of translation studies and concrete practical matters involved in the process of word choice.

As has been shown above, different types of lexical correspondences are usually described in regard to words [Рецкер 2004; Виноградов 2004], various kinds of information are usually associated with words that embody them.

Concrete translation strategies connected with the problem of word choice in TL are usually established on word level. St. Campbell [Campbell 1998] in his monograph “Translation into a Second Language” describes in detail word-choice strategies that are open to translators who may choose to preserve or shift the sense of a word used in a SL text. It is important to stress that some of the word choices reflect the ability of a translator to operate beyond the sentence in order to understand the word properly and translate it appropriately.

Cf. В богатых странах Запада огромны запасы зерна в закромах. The word богатые could be translated by one of the following words: affluent, wealthy, rich. The difference between these English correspondences is largely due to a cultural connotation and context, in addition to the linguistic difference: affluent may connote the style of life resulting from wealth rather than wealth itself; the use of wealthy could reflect a neutral attitude; the word rich would be the best as it carries a negative judgement by the speaker and would fit best in the text that takes an accusatory line against the West. In view of this the given sentence could be translated in the following way:

The rich countries’ stores have a surplus of a huge reserved quantity of grains.

The discussion of translation problems at word level is often connected with establishing several large groups of words related in a certain way that offer similar difficulties for a translator. Such groups may be singled out on the basis of various criteria and so they do not coincide in different classifications. V.S. Vinogradov differentiates between the following groups:

1. lexis comprising background information,

2. lexis containing chronological information,

3. proper names.

The first group is represented by words denoting nationally specific concepts, i.e. designations of unique objects. This category of words is heterogeneous and there are many classifications of this lexis which were made in countrystudy papers. For the purposes of translation S. Vlakhov and S. Florin established over 10 classes of words that denote nationally specific notions [Влахов, Флорин 1980]. This approach did not take into account such words that denote objects partially similar in different communities, that’s why it was supplemented by V.S. Vinogradov who described several new classes including units of measurement, monetary units, musical instruments, folk dances and songs, forms of address, etc [Виноградов 2001].

The second group of words containing chronological information includes archaic words and neologisms. These are opposed to each other in the character of information: archaisms are obsolete units that are employed in a book of fiction for special stylistic purposes which must be retained in translation while neologisms are created for other purposes and they must also be rendered properly in translation.

The third group comprises proper names which are also unique words in the vocabulary systems of languages, and though they have a peculiar semantic structure their use in a book of fiction can become a source of additional information to a TL reader. This informative value of proper names used in their primary function (that is in regard to their first bearers with the aim of singling them out) grows perceptibly when they are used in the secondary (transferred) function for the sake of characterizing a person in question [Ермолович 1999], so it is important to perceive all information introduced into a SLT by proper names.

All the groups of lexical units possess some common features when they are approached from a translator’s point of view, yet each offers some peculiarities in translation that should be considered separately.