11. The Main Types of Translation Transformations (Tr Transf)
Transcription. Transliteration. Loan Tr
The description of the process of Tr consists in the identification of different types of operations performed by the Tr-or. The Tr process can be viewed as a number of manipulation with the form or content of the original. As a result, the Tr-or creates the text in the TLg. The type of operation is identified by comparing the initial and the final texts.
3 Groups of Transf
I. the 1st is characterized by imitation of the form of a word or of a collocation. In case of Transcription (Transcr) the Tr-or tries to represent the pronunciation of a foreign word with the pronunciation of the TLg word.
In the case of Transliteration (Translit) the Tr-or tries to represent the spelling of the foreign word with the TLg letters.
e.g.: клептократия – cleptocracy (is produced by Transcr and Translit)
skateboarding – скейтбординг
English-Russin tr-ions most often transliterate some unpronounced consonants:
e.g. Campbell –[kæəl] – кэмпбэлл (only Translit)
Traditional exeptions: they are mainly the tr-ed names of historical personalities and some geographical names:
e.g.: Charles – Чарльз
Charles I – Карл I
William III - Вильгельм III
The Tr-or creates a w-for-w collocating by using a Loan Tr. In Rus it goes under the name “калькирование”. It’s tr-ing an original lg unit by means of replacing its constituents morphemes or words by their lex TLg correspondences. A loan Tr results in creating a new word or set-phrase in TLg which copies a structure of a SLg unit:
e.g.: brain-trust – мозговой трест
superpower – супер держава
It is not purely Loan Tr but also Translit and Transcr.
P
etrodollar
– нефтедоллар
purely Loan TR
People of good will – люди доброй воли
The 2nd includes all types of Lexical Transfs which involve certain semantic changes.
As a result the meaning of a word or word-combination in ST may be made more specific, more general or somewhat modified as a way to discovering an appropriate eq-t in the TLg.
specification (конкретизация) – the choice of a more specific word in Tr which gives a more detailed description of the idea than does the word in the SLg is a very common case in the Engl-Rustr-ing process. Engl often makes use of general terms to describe very definite objects or actions:
e.g.: My mother had left hr chair in her agitation and gone behind it in the corner. – a frightened woman tries to hide from the intruder who burst into the room where she was thoughtfully looking into the fire. – матушка оставила свое кресло и пошла за него в угол. The Tr-or has to use a tr-ional substitutes which may be created by describing how the woman performed those actions instead of naming them – Взволнованная матушка вскочила со своего кресла и забилась в угол позади него.
2) generalization (генерализация) – the use of eq-t with a more general meaning instead of specific one. It is not so common in Tr from Engl into Rus than the 1st one. For some reasons the Tr-or prefers the generic man to specific name of a certain object that the Rus render in unfamiliar with.
e.g.: I packed my two gladstones. - я упаковал свои 2 чемодана. – The author replaced the more specific term by a more general.
3) modulation (модуляция or смысловые развития) – an eq-t is created by replacing a unit in SLg with a TLg 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. In such cases the substitute often has a cause-and-effect relationship with the original.
e.g.: I don’t blame them. – Я их понимаю. – th cause is replaced by the effect. The Tr-or has a certain logical thinking. I don’t blame them because I understand them.
He’s dead now. – Он умерю – demodulation of the meaning. – He died, so he’s dead.
She’s always late. – Она всегда опаздывает. – the state is replaced by the action.
Grammatical Transf comprises all types of Transf involving SLg gram. units. The Tr-or may solve the problem by preserving the syntactic ctructure of ST and using the analogous gram-l forms or a word for word Tr. In Rus this type of Tr is called “zero-Tr” (синтаксическое уподобление, дословный перевод).
e.g.: John took Mary by the hand. – Джон взял Мэри за руку. – (5th level of eq-ce).
Usually such kind of Transf may be accompanied by some structural changes. The Tr-or can omit articles, linking verbs, some functional elements of forms, morphological forms and lexical units.
Grammatical substitutes may be subdivided:
partitioning (членение предложения) – it may so happen that the Tr-or has to resort to breaking an original sentence into 2 parts in order to solve some structural and semantic problems. That is one sentence in the original is tr-ed by 2 sentences in the Tr.
e.g.: The annual surveys of the Labour Government were not discussed with the workers at any stage, but only with the employers. – Ежегодные обзоры лейбористского правительства не обсуждались среди рабочих ни на каком этапе. Они обсуждались только с предпринимателями. – partitioning is used in this case in order to make original opposition more distinct.
Partitioning may be used in the following cases:
in case of Engl syntactic complexes (complex object, ….) which have no eq-ts in Rus.
e.g.: I want you to spek English. - Я хочу, чтобы вы говорили по-английски.
She hates his behaving in this way. - Ей очень не нравится, что он так себя ведет.
another type is integration (компрессия) – integrating 2 or more original sentences into 1 or compressing a complex sentence into a simple one.
e.g.: That was a long time ago. It seemed like fifty years ago. – Это было давно, казалось, что прошло лет 50.
Sometimes 1 of the sentences is grammatically incomplete and so it can’t be reproduced separately in Tr.
e.g.: It’s not possible to do the work in 2 days. Nor is it necessary. – Выполнить работу за 2 дня нет ни возможности ни необходимости.
3) …………………….. or the type of a sentence. Sometimes the Tr-or refuses to use analogous gr-l units in the TT. He tries to render the m-ing of SLg units by changing the gr-l form of a word, the part of speech or the type of a sentence. Such changes are very common.
e.g.: We are searching for talent everywhere. – Мы повсюду ищим таланты.
He is an early riser. – Он рано встает.
He doesn’t mind your joining our group. – Он ничего не имеет против, чтобы ты присоединился к нашей группе.