The main translator’s task is to transform the source language text, changing it so that it would perform the same communicative function in the target language and culture. Therefore the aim of translation is in transforming the text so that the message produced by translator has the same effect upon the target language reader (listener) as it has upon the source language reader (listener). Translation is an informational process, which means that translator should render information transmitted as fully as possible. However, this can be achieved only if certain structural and semantic changes are introduced. These changes, which are caused by lexical and grammatical differences between languages (and broadly speaking - by the differences between the respective cultures), are called transformations in translation.

The notion of transformation is defined differently in translation studies. Here are some of the definitions.

Vilen Naumovich Komissarov defines translational (interlinguistic) transformations as changes that can help you make the transition from source units to target units according to the meaning stated. Translation transformations, in his opinion, have the formal-semantic nature, transforming both the form and meaning of the initial units. That is, according to V.N. Komissarov, translation transformation are the methods of translation, which can be used to translate various originals in cases when there is no dictionary match or such a match can’t be used in the specific context.

Leonid Stepanovich Barkhudarov understands the term “transformation” as a certain relationship between the two language or speech units, one of which is the initial, and the second is created on its basis, while the term “translational transformations” as the numerous and diverse cross-language changes that are made to achieve translation equivalence ("translation adequacy") in spite of divergence in the formal and semantic systems of the two languages. L. Barkhudarov in his works notes that:

• term transformation can’t be taken literally, because the initial text doesn’t "transform" in the sense that it doesn’t change by itself ;

• the original remains unchanged, but on its basis a text in another language is created with the help of certain translational transformations;

• translation is interlingual transformation.

Yakov Iosifovich Retsker defines transformations as a) techniques of logical thinking with the help of which the translator explains the meaning of the foreign word in context and finds its correspondence in target language, which does not coincide and b) sentence structure transformations during the translation process in accordance with the norms of target language.

The attempt to comprehend interlingual transformations theoretically was first made by Retsker in 1950. He divided the translational transformation into:

• Lexical;

• Grammatical.

All grammatical transformations he divided into:

• Parts of speech replacement;

• Parts of sentence replacement.

Retsker states that the transformation can be full or partial. Usually, when the main parts of a sentence are replaced, a full transformation occurs, and if only minor parts of the sentence are replaced, a partial transformation occurs.

While speaking of grammatical transformations, he noted that they are usually combined with lexical. In many cases, a sentence structure change is caused by lexical, not grammatical reasons. Since communicative load of a sentence often requires a careful choice of words to get the correct and accurate reflection in the translation, then the resolution of the translation problem also depends on the right choice of word form, its grammar category. Replacing English verb with Ukrainian noun may entail changing the whole structure of the sentence. Yet, from a practical point of view, not to mention the theoretical, it is advisable to consider grammatical transformations separately, abstracting from lexical meaning of structures.

Grammatical correspondences between languages of different systems in most cases can only be functional, depending on a number of variables. But even when, considering all factors, the optimal sentence structure is found in translation, there is the important question of choosing the best word order, or rather, the parts of the sentence order.

Professional qualified translation begins at the stage when a sentence in a foreign language is comprehended, and therefore, its grammatical structure is disclosed. The similarity between the syntactic constructions in English, on the one hand, and Ukrainian, on the other, often enables a literal translation: without changing the sentence structure and without a significant change of word order. However, under the influence of various factors, translator has to resort to grammatical transformations, the most important of which consist of full or partial sentence reconstruction, parts of speech and parts of sentence substitution. Often the transformation is needed even though there is a similar structure in target language.

Grammatical forms of different languages only very seldom coincide fully as to the scope of their meaning and function. As a rule, there is only partial equivalence, that is, the grammatical meanings expressed by grammatical forms, though seemingly identical in two different languages, coincide only in part of their meaning and differ in other parts of the same meanings. Thus, for instance, the category of number of nouns in English and in Ukrainian seems to coincide and, indeed, does coincide in many cases: table - стіл, tables - столи, etc.

However, it should be born in mind that the content which in one language is expressed grammatically may be expressed lexically in another language. If no grammatical forms are available in the TL, the translator must look for lexical means to render the same semantic content.

On the whole the choice of the grammatical equivalent in the TL is determined by the following factors:

• The meaning inherent in the grammatical form

• The lexical nature of the word or word-group used in this or that form.

• Factors of style: for instance, both English and Ukrainian have the Passive form of the verb. However, in Ukrainian it is not used that frequently as in English where the Passive Voice is a marker of formal style.

• Frequency of use.

Speaking about this factor, the American linguist and translator E. Nida writes: "Rare forms of words may also constitute serious obstacles to a proper communication load. For example, both source and target languages may have passive forms of words but in the source language they may be relatively frequent while in the target language they are rare. If under these considerations one attempts to translate every source language passive by corresponding passive in the target language, the result will be an inevitable overloading of the communication."

By the way, who is Eugine Nida? What has he elaborated?

Grammatical structures of two languages are different to such an extent that word-for-word translation is doomed to failure. In the course of translation, it is necessary to perform various grammatical and lexical changes of translation to achieve translation equivalence.

During the translation, grammatical form and syntax structure are not seen as something separate, in isolation from their lexical content. However, a variety of grammatical means enables their use to highlight and strengthen certain elements of speech. This is achieved not only by emphatic sentence structure, but also by the choice of a particular structure type, which creates the most advantageous conditions for the most striking expressions of thought.

Now, let us discuss a notion of structural and connotative realia. Structural and connotative realia have more generalized character, they are more limited, and they cannot be rendered fully by means of the target language like lexical realia. If there are nine ways to render the semantic and stylistic features of realia in the target language, a structural and connotative realia is not translated at all or translators look for analogue on grammatical or lexical levels, or they use the most common method of rendering - contextual and functional compensation.

Obviously, the methods and techniques of rendering Ukrainian structural and connotative realia into English will change in the course of time as new translations with higher quality will appear. Perhaps in the future translators will find potential methods in order to reproduce some structural connotative Ukrainian realia by means of English language. However, it does not mean that we cannot translate such realia at least partially in case of absence of grammatical or word-formative means.

Prof. Zorivchak R. P. gives a definition of such realia: structural and connotative realia – are used to indicate the forms that reflect the structural and connotative peculiarities of the source language and do not have any direct correspondences in target language, that is, specifically marked grammatical and word-forming connotations that convey secondary information and they contain an artistic and aesthetic expression.

Let us have a look at the one example of such structural and connotative realia. In the works of Ukrainian literature on rural themes, in folk songs and in spoken language, we can find personal names of women with suffix – иха, which are formed from the name, surname or nickname of a woman or man, for example,

“Ні, не просила Левчиха”, “Ой, росте, росте червона калина, Ще й похилилися квіти, Ой, зосталася сотничка Харчиха, Ще й маленькії діти”.

Such word-formations with the suffix - иха create the connotation of closeness and they are Ukrainian structural and connotative realia for English language. It is understandable that translator can use only a contextual compensation of the structural and connotative realia. In translation this is often omitted or transcribed just like in the following example:

“І бабка Грициха скаржилася”

“And old Hritsikha complained”.

One more example of structural connotative realia is O. Dovzhenko’s novel “Мати”:

“Господи, синочки, йдіть мерщій”.

A. Bilenko adequately reproduced it in the translation with help of the diminutive suffix -y and the word “Lord” that has connotative potential:

“Lordy, in with you, quick”.

Among Ukrainian structural-connotative realia belongs Praesens Historicum. In the Ukrainian artistic works, especially in prose, the language usage is significantly higher than in English, where it is used relatively rarely, and in Ukrainian language it creates a structural connotative realia. These Ukrainian structural connotative realia are rendered into English with the help of extended tense forms that create an emotional connotation, visibility and intensity, for example,

“Час іде. Наближається година рушати в дорогу... Із моря звуків прорвався і пролунав над людьми різкий, суворий голос...”

“Time was passing. The hour to leave was approaching fast…Cutting through the sea of sound and echoing over the heads of the throng came a resonant, stern voice…”

On the other hand, the Ukrainian language does not have such system of tenses like English. Extended tense forms with their higher degree of explicitness and stylistic load – these are English structural and connotative realia for Ukrainian language.

English absolute constructions – gerundival, participial, with or without a preposition – in a certain context obtain adherent seme of "expressiveness" and "emotionality". Therefore, in translation they are used for compensation. In the novel “На чужину” by V. Vasylchenko we have a sentence:

«Сивий чуб його має в повітрі, з очей котяться сльози».

In translation, we have an absolute construction that has a significant stylistic potential:

“His grey hair lifted in the breeze, the tears streaming down his cheeks.”

Rather free word order in Ukrainian language gives a possibility of repetition that creates a smooth narration - it is also structural and connotative realia for English. The repetition is used in "Пилипко" by A. Golovko, depicting a portrait of a hero:

“А ще — сорочечка, штанці на ньому із семірки, полатані-полатані”.

In its English translation by T. Evans the author preserved a repetition, moreover, he used a word “over” which is quite adequate in this case:

“He wore a shirt and a pair of rough homespun pants patched over and over.”

In the Ukrainian language the address exists in two morphological forms: nominative and vocative case. Vocative case has the inherent grammatical connotation where the seme of “addressness” conveys the connotation of intimacy, credulity, immediacy and expressiveness. Sometimes the translation of Ukrainian addresses some compensation takes place due the personal pronoun “you” and “-ing” form, for example:

“Дівчино! Чародійська появо!” –скрикнув він.

“Oh you girl! You bewitching apparition!” he exclaimed.

Addresses are translated into English with the help of transliteration:

“Мамо, матінко моя, де ви?... Де ви, голубко, матінко моя сива? ... Прощайте, мамо...”

“Mamo, where are you?.. Mamo, mother darliing, where are you?...Farewell Mamo!”

Now let us move to the grammatical transformations. As has been said, divergences in the structures of the two languages are so considerable that in the process of translation various grammatical and lexical transformations are indispensable to achieve equivalence. These transformations may be divided into four types: 1) Rearrangement (Partition, Integration, Transposition); 2) replacements; 3) additions; 4) omissions.

It should be born in mind that this classification is, to some extent, arbitrary and in practice it is hardly possible to find these elementary transformations in a "pure form". In most cases they are combined with one another, so that what we observe is a combined use of more than one type of transformation: transposition and replacement, addition and omission at the same time, etc. Moreover, they are accompanied by lexical transformations as well.

Rearrangement

In rearrangement we may single out the first transformation – it is partitioning. Sentence partitioning can be of two types:

• When a simple sentence in the source text is translated with a complex sentence (with some clauses):

I want you to understand this transformation.

Я хочу, щоб ви зрозуміли цю трансформацію.

This is an internal partition.

• When a simple sentence in the source text is rendered by several independent sentences in the target text for structural, semantic or stylistic reasons:

Моя машина не завелася, тому я не змогла заїхати за вами. –

My car wouldn’t start. Therefore, I couldn’t pick you up.

This is an external partition.

The next one is integration. Sentence integration is a contrary transformation to the previous. It takes place when we make one sentence out of two or more, or convert a complex sentence into a simple one:

If one knows languages, one can come out on top.

Знаючи мови, можна багато чого досягти.

In ancient Rome, garlic was believed to make people courageous. Roman soldiers, therefore, ate large quantities of it before a battle.

Перед боєм римсьі воїни зїдали велику кількість часнику, оскільки в Стародавньому Римі вважали, що часник робить людей більш мужніми.

And finally transposition may be defined as a change in the order of linguistic elements: words, phrases, clauses and sentences. Their order in the TL text may not correspond to that in the SL text. Most often this change of order is made necessary due to the necessity of preserving intact what is called functional sentence perspective, namely, the division of the sentence into two main parts from the point of view of communication: “theme” and “rheme”.

Probably, you have heard about these notions and can you explain them to me?

In Ukrainian this division of the sentence is usually expressed by means of word order: what is already known or supposed to be known to the hearer, that is, "theme" is placed at the beginning of the sentence whereas what is new, that is communicated for the first time and, therefore, what forms the semantically most important part of the message (rheme) is placed at the end of the sentence.

In English the word order is arranged, on the whole, along the same lines; however, in certain cases the "theme" is placed at the end and the "rheme", correspondingly, at the beginning of the sentence, due to the fact that the newness of the "rheme" is expressed differently, namely, by the use of the indefinite article (or with plural forms of nouns and with uncountable nouns of the zero article) with the noun which is the subject of sentence.

A suburban train 1 | was derailed 2 | near London 3 | lastnight 4 - Вчора ввечері 4 | поблизу Лондона 3 | зійшов із рейок 2 | приміський поїзд 1

The next grammatical transformation is REPLACEMENT or SUBSTITUTION.

Replacements are by far the most common type of grammatical transformations. Replacements can affect practically all types of linguistic units: word forms, part of speech, sentence elements, sentence types, types of syntactic relations, etc.

a) word forms

Replacement of word forms is quite common in translation. However, there are many instances where this is not the case, in other words, where an English plural form is rendered through a Ukrainian singular form and vice versa; this is especially common among those nouns that have only a singular and plural form whose distribution is often arbitrary and motivated only historically, (oats - овес, cherries - вишня, measles - кір, money - гроші) This type of grammatical transformations is characterized by the translator's refusal to use analogous grammatical units in TL.

The struggles of the Indian people in all parts of the USA.

Боротьба жителів Індії відбувається у всіх частина США

They left the room with their heads held high

Вони вийшли з кімнати з високо піднятою головою

b) parts of speech

This type of replacement is also fairly common. Especially typical is the replacement of English noun (derived from verbs) by Ukrainian verbs; English makes a far greater use of the so called nominalization.

“Why is he weeping?” - asked a little green Lizard, as he ran past him with his tail in the air.

“Чому він плаче?” – запитала маленька зелена ящірка, яка проповзала повз нього, помахуючи хвостиком.

The replacement of English pronoun by Ukrainian noun is also common: