22.7. Interpretation Traps. Pitfalls and Gaffes in Grammar, Style and Lexis

In the process of interpretation from the list the main reason of gaps in translation may be insufficient ability to carry out quick and effective interpretation analysis of the text, investigate cohesion, i.e. logical relations, expressed in grammatical structures and in the structure of a sentence itself.

Sometimes we are at a loss what the pronoun “it” belongs to a subject (це, він, вона, воно), as it is hard to view connection of “it” with the previous phrase.

Violation of familiar cohesion in Ukrainian because of serious differences in this category (sometimes paradoxical) in both languages, cultures and in different language styles mostly happens in the group “Adj + Noun”: e.g. natural disaster – стихійне лихо; striking appearance – яскрава зовнішність; but striking figure – визначний діяч.

Cohesion depends greatly on the context and stylistic coloring of the message. We should quickly evaluate this factor in the process of interpretation and be able to orient ourselves.

Typical mistakes in interpreting into foreign language (at the initial stage of training) first of all are the mistakes caused by the lack of corresponding category in native language. They are as follows:

• Word order: the problem is to change quickly a free, sometimes regressive word order into a direct one with the so called “theme/rheme” being taken into consideration. This difficulty is especially noticeable in sight interpreting at the initial stage of oral translation training.

• Article: most often the difficulties occur with using the indefinite article in its meaning distinguishing functions and in complicated cases, including the cases before abstract, uncountable nouns.

• Sequence of Tenses and use of corresponding adverbs: later, two days before, etc.

Polysemantic verbs and nouns cause translation problems as well:

• пропонувати – suggest, offer, propose, put forward;

• cказати – say, tell, speak;

• відмовитись – refuse, reject, decline, give up, discontinue, etc.

Different verb coordination and the change of verb constructions: call on/for – закликати кого-небудь до чого-небудь; to be impressed by, to be amused by, to account for, etc.

Habitual collocations are often unknown in foreign language, therefore they have to be “groped after” or one should use his guess or intuition.

Perfect aspect of verb, especially Present Perfect causes problems, because very often and persistently instead Present perfect Past Indefinite is mistakenly used. This fact usually does not affect the understanding of meaning, but decreases the idiomatic quality of interpretation, both in translating press materials, and speech.

Information source, especially if it is expanded, detailed, is usually placed in the end of a sentence. Name/last name + position/status/title/rank (who/what correlation).

Thoughtless replication, ignorance or reluctance to find acceptable variant of translation: e.g. friendly fire – „дружній вогонь“ (heard on NTV, Radio-7, RTR, etc.) in fact „вогонь своїх військ“; national identity – is not „національна ідентичність“, but „національна самобутність“, etc.

We must get rid of school stereotypes:

• Країна – not only state, country, but also nation!

• Любити, подобатись – not only like, but also to be fond of, enjoy doing smth;

• Не подобатись – not only not to like, but also dislike;

Remember:

• останнім часом, в останній період – of late, lately + Perfect Tense; of late, lately – embraces a definite period; recently (нещодавно) – one-time action in near past;

• останнього разу, минулого разу – last, e.g. I saw him last 2 days ago (c.f. the last time – більше не буде, кінець);

• середня школа – high school; середня освіта – high education;

• вища освіта – higher education (university education);

• імені… (кого-небудь) – The Lenin Library, the Bauman Technical University, etc.