Билет 9.

1. Translation of marked collocations.

Marked collocations involves deliberate confusion of collocational ranges to create new images – a marked collocation being an unusual combination of words, one that challenges our expectations as hearers or readers. Marked collocations are often used in fiction, poetry, humor, news reporting and advertisements precisely for this reason: because they can create unusual images, produce laughter or irony, and catch the reader’s attention. Ideally, the translation of a marked collocation will be similarly marked in the target language. This is, however, always subject to the constraints of the target language and to the purpose of the translation in question.

To sum up, we create new collocations all the time, either by extending an existing range or by deliberately putting together words from different or opposing ranges. As well as being reinforced, the established patterns in a language can therefore be used as a backdrop against which new images and new meanings can be invoked. New collocations often catch on, are reinforced by usage and eventually become part of the standard repertoire of the language. In turn, they can be used as a backdrop for communicating new meanings by creating new collocations, and so the cycle continues.

2. Translation problems arising from non-equivalence: differences in physical or interpersonal perspective; differences in expressive meaning; differences in form. The problem of non-equivalence

The choice of a suitable equivalent in a given context depends on a wide variety of factors. Some of these factors may be strictly linguistic (for example, collocations and idioms). Other factors may be extra-linguistic (for example, cultural substitutions).

(G) Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

Physical perspective may be of more importance in one language than it is in another. Physical perspective has to do with where things or people are in relation to one another or to a place, as expressed in pairs of words such as come / go, take / bring, arrive / depart, and so on. Perspective may also include the relationship between participants in the discourse (tenor). For example, Japanese has six equivalents for the English verb to give, depending on who gives to whom.

(H) Differences in expressive meaning

There may be a target-language word, which has the same preposi­tional meaning as the source-language word, but it may have a different expressive meaning. If the target-language equivalent is neutral compared to the source-language item, the translator can sometimes add the evaluative element by means of a modifier or adverb if necessary, or by building it in somewhere else in the text.

So, it may be possible, for instance, in some contexts to render the English verb batter (as in child / wife battering: избиение ребенка / жены) by the more neutral Russian verb избить, meaning ‘to beat’, plus an equivalent modifier such as ‘savagely’ or ‘ruthlessly’.