- •The translation of monosemantic words
- •Translation of technical texts
- •1St approach
- •2Nd approach
- •Translation of Polysemantic words
- •Translation of pseudo international words
- •Translation of non-equivalents
- •Culture bound words
- •Translation of words with emotive meaning
- •The rendering of stylistic meaning in translation
- •Translation of phraseological units
- •Translating grammar phenomena
- •Grammatical equivalents in translation
- •*He lives in Moscow – He lived in Moscow
- •Grammatical transformations in translation
- •Transposition
- •Replacement
- •The vague nature of the English syntax
- •*Do you expect me to sleep (1) with you (2) in the room?
- •*He can go there, can’t he?
- •Clauses
- •Mixed paragraph
- •Equivalence and adequacy
- •Jacobson and his concept of equivalence
- •Naida. Theory of formal correspondence and dynamic equivalence
- •John Catford. Introduction of translation shifts
- •Substitution and ellipsis
- •Levels of equivalence and the concept of adequate translation
- •Different approaches to translation w riter
- •The classification of literature
- •Socio-semiotic approach to translation
Translation of Polysemantic words
A word acquires some new meaning bcos of the connotations that are supplied to it by the context.
Different meanings of polysemantic words are received and revealed in the context.
The context – is the minimal utterance diagnosing each of the words that is relevant to the context. So, the context individualizes the meaning and brings it out. The context reveals the concrete or abstract, direct or transferred meanings of a word. “Truth” is “правда” in “tell me the truth”, but in “corresponding to truth” it is “соответствующий истине”.
The context also reveals the free and the bound meanings of words:
*He made a pace or two forward – free
*He kept pace with the times – bound.
“Pace” forms a part of phraseological unit & is translated by a corresponding unit.
The context may not be limited to a minimal stretch of speech. Sometimes we need a paragraph or a chapter or a whole book for a correct interpretation of words. E.g. Thackeray writes, “the rich woman was in brilliant full toilet”, and here she is not “несчастная”, but “коварная”.
Translation of pseudo international words
It’s a distinct group of words that constitute a difficulty for a translator. As distinct from international words proper, which have more or less similar grammatical and phonetic form and the same meaning the pseudo international words differ in meaning from language to language either completely or partially.
Genuine international words: “electronics, algebra, etc”
Completely pseudo international words: “complexion, commutator, etc”
Partially pseudo international words: “elevator (элеватор – лифт)”
These words are known as false friends of the translator.
*We are told that BBC this autumn will give a massive coverage to the general election. - … широко освещать выборы…
The Russian word «прогресс» is monosemantic & has positive connotation. The English word “progress” is neutral & can be implied to any movement.
*Rake’s progress – жизнь повесы
*Her progress about London… – ее знакомство с Лондоном…
Sometimes the meaning of international words is identical in English and in Russian, but analysis shows that the connotations are different and this prevents us from using international words in translation.
*Secular and religious materials – светская и духовная литература
Contextual meaning arises in the context. It shouldn’t be regarded as part of the semantic structure of the word. Every word has a tremendous potential for creating contextual meanings and these contextual meanings are not arbitrary but determined by the semantic of the word. Very often he contextual meaning possible in one language is absolutely impossible in another.
* In an atomic war women and children will be the first hostages. – …жертвы
Contextual meaning produces a very strong effect, performs a stylistic function of defeated expectancy. The translator should ender the tone of it and he shouldn’t violate the terms of the TL.
Translation of non-equivalents
When we come to non-equivalents we should determine what we really mean by non-equivalents. In fact these are the words of the SL which either have no equivalents in the TL or no equivalent denotator in the TL culture.
There are 2 groups:
Realia-words (denote objects, features of national life, customs, habits, etc)
Words that have no equivalents in the TL for some linguistic reason. (“Conservationist, readership, glimpse”)
There are 3 ways of rendering their meanings.
Direct borrowing (transliteration or transcription) “mayor, know how”. But we shouldn’t use such borrowings very often.
Free-word combinations. They are used to translate all sots of realia, by explaining their meanings. They serve to explain the cultural peculiarities in which the realia is used.
*баба-Яга – an old witch from Russian fairy-tales
Neologisms. They may be old words, which acquire new meaning, or new words: coined or loan words. Neologisms are not registered in dictionaries. We analyze the structure and the context to understand the meaning of the word.
*Peacenik – one who fights for peace. The suffix shows that the word is coined. “-nik” is popular since 1960-s (sputnik)
*Bust – 1)to hit; 2)to get arrested; 3)a dope bust – облава на торговцев наркотиками
*To go straight – to quit stealing or using drugs
*To cross the house – to betray the interests of the party you belong to