Chapter 5. Phraseological and metaphorical translation §1. Metaphor and the phraseological unit

A phraseological unit is a set expression consisting of a group of words in a fixed order having a particular meaning, different from the meanings of each word understood on its own.¹⁶⁶ Metaphor is a figurative expression, transferring the meaning from one thing to another based on their similarity: table legs – ножки стола; to strain one’s memory –напрягать память. 

Phraseological units may be both metaphorical (keep to the beaten track – идти по проторенной дорожке; make a mountain out of a molehill – делать из мухислона) and non-metaphorical (to live beyond one’s means – жить не по средствам; to take part in – принимать участие в). Metaphorical phraseology is usually called idioms.

^Chapter 7. ANTONYMIC TRANSLATION

§1. Definition

Antonymic translation is a complex transformation when a source language construction is shifted to a target language construction, whose components are of opposite meanings. There are three major types of antonymic transformations:

1. substituting a word with its antonym (^ Snowdrifts are three feet deep. – Сугробы высотой в один метр. ) or conversive (Some of the country’s art treasures have been secretly sold to foreign buyers. – Покупатели-иностранцы тайно скупили некоторые из художественных шедевров страны.)

2. substituting a negative sentence with an affirmative one and vice versa: I never heard of it! – В первый раз слышу!

3. shifting the position of a negative component: I don’t think I can do it. – Думаю, я не смогу этого сделать.

§4. Reasons for antonymic translation

Antonymic translation may be caused by a lack of a regular one-word equivalent in the target language. For example, the word inferiority is equivalent to the explicatory translation ‘более низкое качество, положение’. But this phrase is very awkward in some translations, so translators have to apply the antonymic translation: The adoption of the defensive does not necessarily mean the weakness or inferiority of our troops. – Переход к обороне не обязательно означает слабость наших войск или превосходство сил противника.

§2. TRANSLATION OF ADVERBIAL VERBS Adverbial verbs are verbs of complex semantics: they express simultaneously two meanings – that of an action and that of its characteristics. For example, to stare – смотретьпристально; to shrill – пронзительно кричать. A translation equivalent is usually represented in the dictionary either by a verb and adverb or by a simple verb of complex semantics (to stare – уставиться), or by a verb and prepositional phrase: to rumble – ехать с грохотом. Semantically, adverbial verbs can be classified into the following groups:¹⁸³

1. verbs expressing movement accompanied by some sound: to jingle – мчаться, звеня бубенцами; to creak – двигаться со скрипом; to bang – с хлопком, etc. These verbs are usually translated with the help of an adverbial participle (деепричастие) or a prepositional and nominal group.

2. Verbs expressing a shift from one place into another: ^ He danced her out into a quiet corridor. – Танцуя с ней, он увел ее в пустой коридор.

3. causative verbs: The slaves were whipped into work. – Рабов заставили работать с помощью кнута. (translation with a prepositional phrase). The threat angered him into activity.. – 

4. verbs expressing cause and effect: Quietly she sang herself that night into fame. – Она так пела, что незаметно для себя в тот вечер стала знаменитойпевицей. (translated through a sentence partitioning). 

§3. TRANSLATING CONDENSED SYNONYMS There are rare cases when English proves to be more wordy than Russian. One of these cases is synonym condensation,¹⁸⁵ or usage of a number of parallel synonyms which are very close in meaning: The government resorted to force and violence. In Russian linguistics, this phenomenon is called «парная синонимия».  One of these synonyms is usually of Romance origin, the other is Germanic: ^ Elvis Presley denied being lewd and obscene, with lewd being a Germanic word, and obscene a Latin borrowing . Элвис Пресли не признавал себя непристойным. As is seen in this example, a translator into Russian normally reduces the synonyms to a single one: the very first sentence in this paragraph might be translated as Правительствоприбегло к насилию. If the synonym condensation is used in an oratorical register, to make speech more emphatic and expressive, it is compensated by intensifiers: I have been open and sincere … - Яабсолютно искренен… I am safe and sound. – Я жив-здоров. (This is, probably, the only case of synonym reduplication in Russian)

b.     Borrowing

Concerning borrowing, we can say that this task refers to a case where a word or an expression is taken from the SL and used in the TL, but in a ‘naturalized’ form, that is, it is made to conform to the rules of grammar or pronunciation of the TL. An example of Borrowing is the verb 'mailer', which is used in Canadian-French utterance; here, the French suffix-er is added to the English verb 'mail' to conform to the French rules of verb-formation (Edith Harding & Philip Riley, 1986).[2]

Borrowed words may sometimes have different semantic significations from those of the original language. For instance, the Moroccan word ‘tammara’, which is borrowed from Spanish, means in Moroccan Arabic 'a difficult situation', whereas in Spanish it conveys the meaning of a 'type of a palm tree'. The same thing can be said about the word ‘flirter’, which refers in French to a sexual foreplay, while in English the term means behaving towards someone as though one were in love with but without serious intentions. (The last example is used by Bayar, 2007).[3] Borrowing in translation is not always justified by lexical gap in the TL, but it can mainly be used as a way to preserve the local color of the word, or be used out of fear from losing some of the semiotic aspects and cultural aspects of the word if it is translated.

Chapter 9. DIFFERENCE IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN PUNCTUATION