26. Goals of Translation

Translators may be called upon to translate just about anything. Any text, message, fragment of a message or code element may need to be translated. A comprehensive list of materials that are commonly translated would include software programs, video games, software on-line help systems, insurance contracts, extradition proceedings, film sub-titles, songs, film dialogues, all kinds of soundtracks, drug dosage instructions, obituaries, mail catalogues, mobile phone instructions, marketing certificate applications, sales contracts, health certificates, user manuals (millions of them), parts lists, commercial statistics, registry office certificates, educational qualifications and certificates, confidential diplomatic memos, advertising leaflets, adverts, magazine and newspaper articles, alarms system documentation, customer complaints, the faxed minutes of a meeting before the next session starts, poems, novels, short stories, biographies, bills of lading and customs forms, post card titles, medical files, extradition requests, technical memos, annual reports, letters to the shareholders, DNA analysis reports, machine user instructions, patents, and many more. Nor is language-based material the only type of material that comes up for translation: graphic images, alphanumerical data, video graphic material or pictograms, computer code or other types of code, sound, noise, signs, colors and signals, may also have to be “translated” into other codes or languages. The translator may for instance have to inform the client that a color which is a symbol of happiness and optimism in European cultures is a symbol of death in certain Far-Eastern cultures, and that it may be worth changing the graphic chart for the documentation accordingly. The list of materials that the translator may be called on to “translate” is endless.

27. The Functions of Translation

Translation plays a very significant role in cultural development of mankind. It is only on the basis of translation that communication and mutual intercourse and interchange between peoples speaking different languages become possible. Not a single contact at the international level can be established or maintained without the help of translators or interpreters. Different international bodies (E.E.C. – European economic Council, the I.M.F. – the International Monetary Fund or the United nations Organization) can function smoothly only thanks to the army of translators and interpreters representing different states and working in many different national languages. Numerous branches of national economies too can keep up with the up-to-date development and progress in the modern world thanks to the everyday translating of scientific and technical matter covering various fields of human knowledge and activities. Thus we may outline the main functions of translation as following:

Scientific and technical – it fosters the progress in various fields of science and technology in all countries of the world.

Social and political - it provides the dissemination of political ideas, of social and political knowledge in different field of science.

Cultural - it is also a perfect means of sharing achievements and enriching national literatures and cultures.

Linguistic - it promotes the enrichment of lexicon and of the means of expression in the target language.

Educational – one of the means of teaching foreign language

28. The Objectives of the Theory of Translation

Practical translation is a creative process that should be distinguished from the theory of translation as a science. The theory of translations is rather young and belongs to linguistic disciplines. As a part of philology it is inconceivable without the organic combination of both linguistic and literary methods.

The objectives of the theory of translation are

to provide an overview of translation studies as an academic discipline.

to present translation theory as a component of this discipline and outline some of the issues it aims to address.

to outline the various perspectives from which different scholars have attempted to develop a theory of translation.

to formulate aims and tasks of rendering,

to show ways and means of solving problems of translation,

to establish lexical, grammatical and stylistic correspondences and divergences between two languages

to point out possible ways of their rendering from one language into the other.

But one has to remember that theory of translation is not and has nothing to do with a collection of recommendations how to translate. Very often the translator follows some advice the science offers but most cases in translation practice require quite original and individual solutions. The translator’s success depends on his proficiency and theoretical knowledge, as well as his ability to use the accumulated practical experience and achievements of the past.   

29. The Earliest Mentions of Translation

Word translation in general and European translation in particular has a ling and praiseworthy tradition. The earliest mention of translation goes back to aprx the year 3000 BC in ancient Egypt where the interpreters or dragomans were employed to help in carrying on trade with the neighboring country of India. The dragomans were employed to accompany the trade caravans and help in negotiating, selling and buying the necessary goods for Egypt. Also in those ancient times (2400 BC), the Assyrian emperor Sargon of the city Akkada (Mesopotamia), is known to have circulated his order of the day translated into some lands of the subject countries. In 2100 BC, Babylon translations are known to have been performed into some lang-s including Greek, Armenian, Egyptian. The city of Babylon in those times was a center of polyglots where translations were accomplished in several lang-s. There existed the first known bilingual (Sumerian-Akkadian) and multilingual dictionaries. In 1800 BC, in Assyria there was already smth of a board of translators headed by the chief translator/interpreter, a certain GIKI. The first trade agreement is known to have beeen signed in two lang-s between Egypt and its neighbour Nubia in 1200BC.

Interpreters and tr-s of the Persian and Indian lang-s are known to have been employed in Europe by Alexandr the Great, the emperor of Makedonia, during the military campaign against Persia and India. Romans in their numerous wars also employed interpreters.

The history of European translation goes back to 280 BC with the translation of some excerpts of the Holy Scriptures. The real history of translation into European lang-s is supposed to begun in 250 BC in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. The local leaders of the Jewish community decided to translate the Old Testament from Aramaic (their lang.), which was no longer understood, into ancient Greek, which became their spoken language. 72 learned Jews translated separately for 70 days and their translations became to be identical. This translation was called Septuagint, The bulk of Septuagint is known today to have been word-for –word translation (slavishly literal).

Later on, with the political, economic and military strengthening of the Roman Empire, more and more translations were performed from Greek into Latin. Roman-Greel scholar Livius Andronicus made a successful translation of Homer’s poems, the Iliad and Odyssey in 240 BC, it became the foundation for the rich Latin belles-letters traditions.

Marcus Cicero became a famous in Rome by his literary translations and for principles of sense-to-sense translations (main aim of translator –to convey the sense and the style of the source language text).

30. Translation and Interpretation during the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages (ca. 500 AD -1450 AD) are characterized bya general lack of progress and a constant stagnation in many spheres of mental activity including translation and interpretation, which continued to be practised, however, in the domains of ecclesiastic science and the church. Thus, interpreting from Greek into Latin is known to have been regularly employed in the 6

the century AD by the Roman church.

Word-for –word translation was widely practiced in the famous Toledo school in the central Spain (12-13centuries) where the outstanding translator of that country Gerhard of Cremona worked. Among the works translated there were scientific (as alchemy), mathematical works (on arithmetic, algebra, geometry, physics, astronomy), philosophy, medicine. However, in Northern Spain another school of translation functioned where “sense-to-sense” approach was predominant and translations there were mostly performed from Greek into Hebrew (usually through Arabic). These same two principles, according to Solomon Ibn Ajjub, one of the greatest authorities on translation in the middle of the 13^th century, were practiced in the southern Italian school (Rome), which had fallen under a strong Arabic cultural influence as well. Secular works were translated in this school with many omissions, additions, and paraphrases of their texts, which changed the original works beyond recognition.

King Alfred the Great took an active part in translating manuals, chronicles and other works from ancient languages and thus helped in the spiritual and cultural elevation of his people. His noble was continued by the abbot and the author Aelfric (955-1020) who would paraphrase some parts of the work while translating and adding his own part. Yet, Aelfric would consider this technique of rendering as a sense-to-sense translation. Abbot Aelfric himself admitted, that in his translation of the Latin work under the English title The Shepherd’s Book, he performed it “sometimes word-by-word” and “sometimes according to the sense”, in free translation. These same 2 approaches to translation were also characteristic of other European countries of the Middle Ages.

No less intensively practiced alongside of the free sense-to-sense rendering in Europe during the Middle Ages was the strict word-for-word translation. Its domain of employment was naturally restricted to ecclesiastic and philosophic works. By this method the first ever translation of the Bible from Latin into English was accomplished in 1377-1380 by the religious scientist and reformer John Wycliffe.

31. Translation during the Renaissance Period

The Renaissance period which started in the 14^th century in Italy was marked by great discoveries and inventions. The most significant one – invention of the moving printing press by the German Gutenberg. It caused the quick growth of the amount of printed books and at the same time – readers. And the demand for books in its turn called forth an increase in translation activity, fiction translations. Alongside of this, the birth and strengthening of national European states raised the status of national languages and reduced the role of Latin. Translations began to be performed not only from classic languages but also from and into European languages. These real changes resulted in a wider use of faithful as well as free translations which started almost in one and the same time in France, Germany and England.

Certainly the greatest achievement of the Renaissance period in the realistic approach to conveying the source language works was the translation of the Bible into several West European national languages. The first to appear was the German Bible in Martin Luther's translation (1522 -1534). That faithful German translation of the Bible wasfollowed in 1534 by the English highly realistic translation of the Holy Book performed by the theologian William Tyndale (1492? -1536). A year later (in 1535) the French Calvinist Bible came off the press.William Tyndale's version of the Bible was the first ever scientifically grounded and faithful English translation of the Holy Book.

Germany- Albrecht von Eyb (translator of Plautu’s works), Heinrich Steinhowel (translator of Aesop’s and Boccaccio’s works)

France – Joachim du Bellay (translator of Ovid’s poems)-new free/unrestricted freedom of translation, Etienne Dolet – sense-to-sense translation, Claude Fontaine

32. Translation during the Period of Classicism and Enlightenment (просвітництво)

Despite the official condemnation and even execution of some adherents of the idea of sense-to-sense translation, the controversy between the supporters of these 3 approaches to translating continued all through the period of Classicism and Enlightment.

These approaches were already mentions as follows:

1.The ancient “strict and truthful” word-for-word translation of ecclesiastic( the Septuagint) and philosophic works. The basic principles – in the transl-s of the Bible by Luther and Tyndale.

2.The unrestricted free translation introduced by Horaceand Apuleius, which established strong position in France.

3.the old trend adhering to the Cicero’s principle of regular sense-to-sense translation without the unrestricted reductions or additions to the work in their final translated version.

In the 17-18^th the unchanging of the structure of the original belles-letters texts was demanded from the interpreters.

The English author John Dryden demanded from translators faithfulness to the spirit of the original, it became the motto in the period of classicism and Enlightenment.

German translator and literary critic Ventzky put forward the idea that the translated belles-letters works “should seem to the readers to be born, not made citizens’, principle of adjustment of the source language works to the current readers by way of free, unrestricted sense-to-sense rendering.

The most outspoken defender of free adaptation translation in Germany was Frau Gottsched and her adherents Kruger, Laub and Schlegel. She recommended to modernize and nationalize the foreign author’s works, to change their scenes of events, customs, traditions for the corresponding German customs and traditions. She recommended the use of dialectal material in translation and practiced unrestricted free interpretation of original belles-letters works.

33. The Epoch of Romanticism and Establishment of the Principles of Faithful Translation in Europe

In the second half of the 18^th century the controversy between the opponents of the strict word-for-word translation and those who supported the free sense-to-sense translation continued unabated. The most outspoken opponents were Campbell and Tytler in England, Herder and Gothe in Germany.

Herder visited European countries including Ukraine and studied their national folksongs, the most characteristic of which he translated into German. Herder was captivated by the beauty of the national songs of Ukraine. He demanded that all translators of prose and poetic works render strictly, fully and faithfully not only the richness of content, but also the stylistic peculiarities, the artistic beauty and the spirit of the source language works. This new approach, or rather a new principle of truly faithful literary translation, was born during the period of Enlightenment and developed during early Romanticism.

This faithful/realistic principle was not employed in all European countries at once. The free sense-to-sense translation/unrestricted free translation as well as free adaptation continued to be widely employed in Europe in the 1^st half of the 19^th century and even later.

34. Translation in Ukraine

Biletskiy-Nosenko, Hulak-Artemovsky, Borovykovskyi’ were well-known translators of those times.

Near faithful versification can be observed in Hrebinka’s translation of Pushkin’s Poltava, which the poet himself identified as free translation. Both these versifictions convey almost completely the content, the iambic or choric rhythm, their vocalic and consonantal lines, their ease and melody. Despite some divergences in picturesqueness, phraseology, these translated works already bear all the characteristic features of a faithful versification.

Consequently, the first half of the 19^th century may be considered to have been the starting date in the history of faithful Ukrainian versification/translation.

Actively participating in the literary process of that period were poet Metlynskyi (translations of German, French poets) and Maksymovych (versification of the Tale of the Host of Ihor).

Other translators –Holovatskyi (Serbian songs), Hrebinka, Maksymovych, Borovykovsky, Fedkovych (Austrian and German poetry), Kostomarov (Byron’s works), Starytskyi, Potebnya, Puliuy. Kulish, Franko, Lesya Ukrainka.

In the 10^th-11^th century only the materials necessary for the church services were translated, but soon the Bible began to appear in different cities of Kyivan Rus’. Among the fully preserved Bibles of those timed today are the Reims Bible, the Ostomyr’ Bible, the Mstyslaw’s Bible, Halych Bible.

In the 11-12^th centuries there also appeared several Psalm books (Psalters) which were followed by the “Apostles”. It is important to note, that the Old Slavonic translations of Psalms and larger works as The Jewish Wars by Josephus Flavius contained several lexical, morphological (vocative case forms), syntactic features of the then old Ukrainian which are used in present-day Ukrainian.

A considerable intensification was witnessed in Ukrainian translation during the 17^th century, which could have been influenced by the activities in the Kyiv Mohyla Academy(1632). In the first half of the 17^th century there appeared the translations from the Greek (by Slilskyi and Nalyvaiko), from the Latin (by Sakovych).These translations were of high quality and were mostly free adaptations.

During the second half of the 17^th century after the domination over Ukraine was divided between Russia and Poland (Andrussovo treaty), translation practically survived only in the Kyiv Mohyla Academy.

Translators – Symeon Polotskiy, Tuptalo, Mokiyevych (Old and new Testament, the Bible of Matthew).

17-18^th century. Ivan Maksymovych translated the works of German poet Hugo.

The psalms, poetic worksof the Roman poets Ovid, Martail and of the French Renaissance poet Scaliger were often translated at the Academy as well.

A considerable intensification was witnessed in Ukrainian translation during the 17^th century, which could have been influenced by the activities in the Kyiv Mohyla Academy(1632). In the first half of the 17^th century there appeared the translations from the Greek (by Slilskyi and Nalyvaiko), from the Latin (by Sakovych).These translations were of high quality and were mostly free adaptations.

35. Criteria for Translation Classification

Though the basic characteristics of translation can be observed in all translation events we should single out different types of translation depending on the predominant communicative function of the ST or the form of speech involved in the translation process – communicative classification of translation. In consistence with the communicative classification of translations we may distinguish between literary and informative translation on the one hand, and between written and oral translation (or interpretation), on the other hand.

Literary translation deals with literary texts, i.e. works of fiction or poetry; their main function is to produce an emotional or aesthetic impression upon the reader. Their communicative value depends, first and foremost, on their artistic quality and the translator’s primary task is to reproduce this quality in the translation.

Informative translation deals with rendering into the TL nonliterary texts, the main purpose of which is to convey a certain amount of ideas, to inform the reader. We should bear in mind that sometimes this classifications is very approximate since a literary text may in fact include some parts of purely informative character and informative translation may comprise some elements aimed at achieving an aesthetic effect.

36. Communicative Classification of Translation

Though the basic characteristics of translation can be observed in all translation events we should single out different types of translation depending on the predominant communicative function of the ST or the form of speech involved in the translation process – communicative classification of translation. In consistence with the communicative classification of translations we may distinguish between literary and informative translation on the one hand, and between written and oral translation (or interpretation), on the other hand.

Literary translation deals with literary texts, i.e. works of fiction or poetry; their main function is to produce an emotional or aesthetic impression upon the reader. Their communicative value depends, first and foremost, on their artistic quality and the translator’s primary task is to reproduce this quality in the translation.

Informative translation deals with rendering into the TL nonliterary texts, the main purpose of which is to convey a certain amount of ideas, to inform the reader. We should bear in mind that sometimes this classifications is very approximate since a literary text may in fact include some parts of purely informative character and informative translation may comprise some elements aimed at achieving an aesthetic effect.

37. Genre Classification of Translation

Literary works are known to fall into a number of genres thus another type of classification of translations will be genre classification. Translators of prose, poetry, plays have their own problems. Each of these forms of literary activities comprises a number of subgenres and the translator may specialize in one or some of them in accordance with his talents and experience.

The translator of a belles-lettres text is expected to make a careful study of the literary trend the ST belongs to, the other works of the same author, the peculiarities of his style, manner, etc. A number of subdivisions can be also suggested for informative translations, though the principles of classification here are somewhat different. Here we may single out translation of scientific and technical texts, of newspaper materials, official papers and some other types of texts such as public speeches, advertisements, etc.

In technical translation the main goal is to identify the situation described in the original. There is a great challenge to the translator who must have a very good command of the technical terms and a sufficient understanding of the subject matter to be able give an adequate description of the situation even if it is not highly achieved in the original. The technical translator should also observe the stylistic requirements of scientific and technical materials to make the text acceptable to the specialist.

English newspaper reports differ greatly due to the frequent use of the colloquial, slang and vulgar elements, various paraphrases, eye-catching headlines, etc.

Apart from technical and newspaper materials it may be necessary to single out translation of official diplomatic papers as a separate type of informative translation. These are very important documents every word of which must be carefully chosen as a matter of principle. That makes the translator very particular about every little meaningful element of the ST which he scrupulously reproduces in translation.

Journalistic (or publisistic texts dealing with social or political matters are sometimes singled out among other informative materials because they may feature elements more commonly used in literary texts (stylistic devices) which cannot but influence the translator’s strategy.

There are also some minor groups of texts that can be considered separately because of the specific problems their translation poses to the translator. They are commercial advertisement comic scripts, film scripts, and the like. In dealing with commercial advertisements he must bear in mind that their sole purpose is to win over the prospective customers. Translating the captions in a comic strip, the translator will have to consider the numerous allusions to the facts well-known to the regular readers of comics but less familiar to the Ukrainian readers. In dubbing a film the translator is limited in his choice of variants by the necessity to fit the pronunciation of the translated words to the movements of the actor’s lips.

38. Psycholinguistic Classification of Translation

The third type of classification is psycholinguistic classification according to which translations are subdivided into written or oral.

The interpreter rendering his translation by word of mouth may have the text of the original in front of him and translate it “at sight”. A written translation can be made of the original recorded on the tape that can be replayed as many types as necessary for the translator to grasp the original meaning.

In written translation the original can be read and re-read as many times as the translator may need or like.

The conditions of oral translation impose a number of important restrictions on the translator’s performance. Here the interpreter receives a fragment of the original only once and for a short period of time.

There are two main types of oral translation –consecutive and simultaneous. In consecutive translation the translating starts after the original speech or some part of it has been completed. Here the interpreter’s strategy and the final result depend to a great extend on the length of the segment to be translated. If the segment is just a sentence or two the interpreter closely follows the original speech.

In simultaneous interpretation the interpreter is supposed to be able to give his translation while the speaker is uttering the original message. This can be achieved with a special radio or telephone-type equipment. This type of translation involves a number of psycholinguistic problems, both of theoretical and practical nature.

Though these two varieties of interpretation have much in common there are substantial differences in the working environment:

In simultaneous interpretation the interpreter is much more limited in time.

In s.i. the length of the text translated is much shorter than in consecutive.

Unlike consecutive interpretation where the interpreter may correct mistakes and slips of the tongue, simultaneous interpreter has no time for corrections and redoing.

Long stretches of speech to e translated do not allow the consecutive interpreter to keep close o the ST, whereas the simultaneous interpreter is forced by the time limitations to translate by small fragments of the source text transforming them accordingly to the target language grammar.

However, both during consecutive and simultaneous interpretation interpreters use text compression and text development as basic translation devices.

Basic compression devices used in Ukrainian-English translation comprise:

Transformation of nominative structures into the verbal ones;

Converting prepositional constructions into noun clusters;

Omission of transformation of words and word combinations typical for Ukrainian style and considered redundant according to English speech standards.

Limited knowledge of the foreign language does not permit free interpretation of the ST and English way of expression is more concise and often English text contains no redundant words, which is explained by the analytical structure of the language.

Text development is reflected in note-taking procedure, which usually includes the following information items:

main ideas (skeleton outline) – subject , verb, object;

links and separations;

viewpoints of the speaker;

tenses and modalities;

proper and geographical names

Thus, compression and development are the basic interpretation tools and they should determine the methods of interpretation training.

39. Equivalents in Translation: the Notion of Equivalence

Equivalence – a measure of semantic similarity between the ST and the TT.

Equivalence the same linguistic content between 2 lexical units into 2 languages. There are three main types of equivalents: permanent/complete/linguistic/formal, regular/ incomplete/textual/semantic, and occasional/contextual/situational.

Two words are called permanent equivalents if their meanings exactly correspond and they may reciprocally substitute each other in any context. Therefore this is a rare case. Full equivalents, which are mostly monosemantic words, can be found among antroponyms (Тяпкин-Ляпкин Slap-Dash, Humpty-Dumpty Шалтай-Болтай, Brown - Браун), geographic names (the Cape of Good Hope Мыс Доброй Надежды, the English Channel Ла-Манш), names of institutions, organisations, periodicals (General Motors Дженерал Моторс, The Red Lion гостиница Красный Лев), scientific and technological terms (sodium натрий, potassium калий).

Dealing with permanent equivalents a translator may rely on

-transliteration (Michigan Мичиган),

-transcription (Wall Street Journal Уолл Стрит Джорнал),

-word for word translation (the Republican party Республиканская партия), and

-loan translation (magnetic field магнитное поле).

-Regular equivalents, polysemantic words, are of several types: a SL word may cover the meanings of several TL words (deer олень, лань), a TL word is broader in meaning than SL word (бухта, залив, железнодорожная платформа, тупик, стойло bay), the meanings of the corresponding words overlap (layer слой; слой stratum, couch, coat; layer напластование, уровень), a SL word is a lacuna (сутки 24 hours), a SL word is a culture-bound unit (самовар Russian samovar).

Occasional equivalents are words that acquire similar meanings in a context (понедельник день тяжелый Mondays are a crapper). With regard to implications of all these terms on translation quality assessment (TQA), however, two significant developments in these notions would be Nida's (1964, 1969) distinction between formal vs. dynamic equivalence, and the functionalist's orientation from referential equivalence towards pragmatic or functional equivalence.

40. Formal vs. Dynamic Equivalence

Nida shifted attention away from translation strategies. He distinguishes formal equivalence (the closest possible match of form and content) and dynamic equivalence (principle of equivalent of TL reader).

Dynamic equivalence (also known as functional equivalence) attempts to convey the thought expressed in a source text (if necessary, at the expense of literalness, original word order, the source text's grammatical voice, etc.), while formal equivalence attempts to render the text word-for-word (if necessary, at the expense of natural expression in the target language). The two approaches represent emphasis, respectively, on readability and on literal fidelity to the source text. There is no sharp boundary between dynamic and formal equivalence. Broadly, the two represent a spectrum of translation approaches.

Because dynamic equivalence eschews strict adherence to the grammatical structure of the original text in favor of a more natural rendering in the target language, it is sometimes used when the readability of the translation is more important than the preservation of the original grammatical structure. Thus a novel might be translated with greater use of dynamic equivalence so that it may read well, while in diplomacy or in some business settings people may insist on formal equivalence because they believe that fidelity to the grammatical structure of the language equals greater accuracy.

Formal equivalence is often more goal than reality, if only because one language may contain a word for a concept which has no direct equivalent in another language. In such cases a more dynamic translation may be used or a neologism may be created in the target language to represent the concept (sometimes by borrowing a word from the source language).

The more the source language differs from the target language, the more difficult it may be to understand a literal translation. On the other hand, formal equivalence can sometimes allow readers familiar with the source language to see how meaning was expressed in the original text, preserving untranslated idioms, rhetorical devices (such as chiastic structures in the Hebrew Bible), and diction. Thus, according to Nida and Taber (1969), a normal translation should aim at the comprehension of the message of the original which is defined as 'the total meaning or content of a discourse; the concept and feelings which the author intends the reader to understand and perceive’.

41. Referential vs. Functional Equivalence

Functionalist approach is a kind of cover term for the research of scholars who argue that the function or purpose of the TT is the most important criterion in any translation. Referential equivalence seeks to reproduce the meaning of the words as symbols which refer to objects, events, abstracts, relations. Implicitly, such an approach is based on the assumption that normally one can imitate syntactic structures and semantic-lexical distributions fairly closely (Hönig 1998: 7).

referential equivalence: the TL text should refer tothe same segment of reality, to the same facts, events and phenomena as the SL text

functional equivalence: the TL text should play the same role in the community of TL readers as the SL text in the community of SL readers (this role may involve transfer of information, provoking certain emotions, appeal, etc.)

Translation equivalence is now defined in terms of the function or purpose which the original text intended to achieve in a specific communicative situation. As the result, the notion of equivalence involves far more complex terms than before. Translators do not just apply linguistic rules, nor is translation a purely linguistic activity. Knowledge and methods from other disciplines, notably psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, communication studies, and even brain-physiology, are integrated into translation studies to describe the goals and activities (cf. Snell-Hornby 1988).

42. Transformations in Translation

   At the sentence level, the most common transformations every translator makes are 1) omission, 2) addition, 3) transposition, 4) change of grammatical forms, 5) loss compensation, 6) concretization, 7) generalization 8) antonymic translation, 9) meaning extension, 10) metonymic translation, 11) sentence integration, and 12) sentence fragmentation. These transformations are caused by differences in the grammar and vocabulary of the source language (SL) and target language (TL). In order to avoid an inadequate, word-for-word translation (grammatical “over-literal rendering”) it is necessary to apply translating grammatical transformations. As a result a literal translation is adapted to the standards of the language of translation and becomes adequate. Under grammar transformation one envisages a change of the grammatical characteristics of a word, word combination or a sentence in a translation.

They differentiate a few grammatical transformations: a transposition or permutation, a replacement or substitution, addition, exclusion, complex transformation, generalization, integral transformation etc. Here are some examples of them cited below. Permutation is a grammatical transformation due to which the word order in a word combination or a sentence changes, e.g:

   1. Omission.

   2. Addition.

   3. Transposition. Transposition involves changing the order of words in the target text (TT) as compared to the Source text (ST).

   4. Change of grammatical forms.

   5. Loss-of-meaning compensation involves adding to or reinforcing a TT in one place to compensate for something that hasn't been translated in a different place in the ST:

   6. Concretization is used when something in the TL is usually expressed using concepts with narrower meaning or when preserving the original concepts with broader meaning would result in an awkward translation:

   7. Generalization is used when something in the TL is usually expressed using concepts with broader meaning or when pre­serving the original concepts with narrower meaning would result in an awkward translation:

   8. Antonymic translation involves trans­lating a phrase or clause containing a negation using a phrase or clause that does not contain a negation or vice versa: I don't think you're right. - Я думаю, что вы не правы.

   9. Meaning extension or sense development involves translating a cause by its effect or vice versa:

   10. Metonymic translation. A metonymic translation is similar to meaning extension.

43. Differentiation of Meaning

Sometimes to achieve adequacy the translator must considerably change words and phrases of the original and instead of formal Ukrainian correspondences to English words and phrases he must use the functional ones. This sort of change is called “contextual substitutions” or lexical transformations. Differentiation and concrete definition of meaning is such a transformation which presupposes the word of a broader semantics being substituted for a word with narrower semantics.

The choice of a more specific word in translation which gives a more detailed description of the idea that does the word in SL is a very common case in the English-Ukrainian translating process. English often makes use of general terms to define very definite objects and actions. It is used to render such words that have one common invariant meaning, disintegrating into several particular meanings and having different correspondences in Ukrainian. For example, the word “meal” means “any occasion of taking food” and corresponds to Ukrainian “їжа”, “сніданок”, “обід”, “вечеря”. Practically concrete definitions are always accompanied by differentiation of meaning. “it is argued here that none of these criticisms is successful” “Тут робиться спроба довести, що жодне з зазначених критичних зауважень не є обґрунтованим”.

Ukrainian context usually differentiates the meaning of such English words with a so-called blurred semantics: thing affair, matter, piece, entity, unit, item, challenge, claim, fine, good, useful, to be, to go, to get.

44. Generalization of Meaning

It is opposite to differentiation of meaning. The meaning of such words as “foot”, “leg”, ”arm”, hand” is never differentiated in Ukrainian. Their Ukrainian correspondences are the words of generalized meaning…

“The American society was the ideal vehicle for industrialization” “Американське суспільство було ідеальним середовищем для проведення індустріалізації” “The first factories were driven by water” “Перші фабрики працювали на воді”

45. Semantic Development of Meaning

Semantic (logical) development of meaning (modulation) consists in using contextual correspondences instead of dictionary ones, as a logical result of the development of their notion.

Modulation involves the creation of an equivalent by replacing a unit in SL with TL unit the meaning of which can be logically deduced from it and which is just another way of referring to the same object or an aspect of the same situation.

“Additional evidence comes from comparative studies of living animals and plants” “додаткові докази можна отримати через порівняльні дослідження існуючих тварин та рослин” “Only when quantum theory became available in the 20s was it possible to understand more complicated problems” 2Лише коли в 120х роках було опрацьовано квантову теорію, стало можливим розуміння складніших проблем.

The substitute often has a cause –and –effect relationship with the original.

46. Antonymic Translation

Antonymic translation is employed for the sake of achieving faithfulness in conveying content or the necessary expressiveness of sense units. It represents a way of rendering when an affirmative in structure language unit (word, word-combination or sentence) is conveyed via a negative in sense or structure but identical in content language unit, or vice versa: a negative in sense or structure sense unit is translated via an affirmative sense unit. Cf.: to have quite a few friends мати багато (немало) друзів; mind your own business не втручайся не в свої справи; take it easy не хвилюйся, не переживай.

The antonymic device is empolyed in the following cases:

1) when in the target language there is no direct equivalent for the sense unit of the source language.

2) When the sense unit of the source language has two negations of its own which create an affirmation: In those clothes she was by no means non-elegant. (S.Maugham) У цьому вбранні вона була досить елеґантна.

3. In order to achieve the necessary expressiveness in narration: I don't think it will hurt you, baby. (E.Hemingway) Думаю, вам воно не зашкодить, люба.

4. In order to avoid the use of the same or identical structures close to each other in a text (stylistic aim and means):

Mrs. Strickland was a woman of character. (S.Maugham) Місіс Стрікленд була жінкою не без характеру (тобто, була жінка з характером).