The Translation Process

1. What kind of problems do translation strategies solve?

2. Comment on the stages of translation process.

3. What is the hierarchy of the UT in modern English? Illustrate your answer with the examples.

Practice tasks

I. Match the stages of the translating process in Column A to their commentaries in Column B.

№	№	A	№	B
1		Review the material you are going to translate to study the terminology, intent and content of the material. Make sure you have all the necessary reference material at hand, such as good dictionaries and glossaries.	a	After a short break from work checking the translation against the original to ensure accuracy of content and proofreading it to correct spelling and grammatical errors will be much more effective.
2		Analyze the ST from the point of view of employing various translation techniques.	b	Readability of the TT is the main aim of the translator.
3		Then make a draft translation. Though grammatically correct, the first version of translation may seem awkward and unsuitable in the TL. To avoid sluggishness, resort to various translation techniques, namely: contextual replacements, lexico-semantic modifications, grammatical transformations and etc.	c	Proper nouns, such as the names of the people mentioned, geographic names, historical movements, time periods, and etc. deserve an investigation phase of their own. You should make sure that they are spelled correctly.
4		Leave a little extra time to review the text after having finished the translation.	d	Remember: all transformations of the original structures you will resort to in the process of translation must be justified.
5		Read your draft again to be sure that the TT meets all the requirements of the TL norms.	e	Never leave blank spaces, question marks or other marks that may easily go unnoticed when you are making your final delivery.

II. Read the following text and comment on the stages of translation. Translate it into Russian.

Art and fashion

When one considers “fashion,” as distinct from “clothing,” “costume,” or “dress”, it is as a socially shared concept of what is to be worn at a particular point in time rather than an esoteric, ritualistic, or utilitarian cover or decoration of the body. The concept of fashion’s point of origin in the mid-nineteenth century is contemporary with a fundamental change in the market for works of art. This was not accidental, since the institution of fashion, as clothing that adheres to particular modes of production, representation, and consumption, was connected to the emergence of similar structures in the creation and dissemination of works of art. Fashion came into being with the advent of the couture industry in Paris in the second half of the nineteenth century, when a bourgeois audience began to demand constant change as an intellectual, aesthetic, and, above all, economic stimulus for modern times. This is not to say that the notion of fashion did not exist previously.

The timing qualifies the term as denoting clothing that is produced according to a certain seasonal rhythm, in quantities large enough to have an effect on sartorial appearances within a society, that can be exported as a “style,” and that is consumed according to a prescribed agenda. Correspondingly, art as an autonomous production of subjective expression not bound directly to ecclesiastical or monarchist decrees emerged through the foundation of a bourgeois culture after the European revolutions between 1830 and 1848, when artistic education, independent structures of display, and expanded commercial possibilities allowed for a new creation and distribution of art. Thus, there exists a shared point of origin due to socioeconomic foundations in Western Europe. Although fashion was produced elsewhere, too, it was this “Western” concept that eventually determined its global idiom and reception.

http://www.artandfashion.nl/

III. Indicate the stages of translation of the following Russian sentence.

Победой бастующих завершилась 4-недельная забастовка. Рабочие добились повышения заработной платы и лучших условий труда.

В результате 4-недельной забастовки рабочие добились повышения заработной платы и лучших условий труда.

4-недельная забастовка завершилась победой рабочих, которые в результате добились повышения заработной платы и лучших условий труда.

Variants of translation:

1. A four-week long strike has ended in victory for the workers, who got pay increases and better working conditions as a result.

2. Strikers can now celebrate the end of a four-week-long walkout, after winning concessions on most of their demands.

3. Strikers can now celebrate the end of a four-week-long walkout, as their demands for higher pay and better conditions were finally met.

(N. Strelkova, p. 11)

IV. Divide the following text into units of translation. Translate it into Russian.