2. Грамматические особенности современных англоязычных научных текстов

Chain attributes

Препозитивные атрибутивные словосочетания, образованные при помощи соположения ряда существительных, очень распространены в английском языке. Они представляют трудность для перевода из-за многообразия смысловых связей между членами словосочета­ния, а в ряде случаев из-за многозначности словосочетания, а также из-за различия структур английского и русского языков.

Для правильного перевода словосочетания необходимо проана­лизировать внутренние смысловые связи между его членами.

I. Двучленные словосочетания. Первый член двучленного атрибутивного словосочетания может переводиться на русский язык:

А) прилагательным: emergency meeting внеочередное/экстрен­ное заседание; power station электрическая станция; factory com­mittees фабричные комитеты.

В) существительным в родительном падеже: incomes policy по­литика доходов; wage rise повышение зарплаты; budget increase уве­личение бюджета.

С) существительным с предлогом: strike warning предупрежде­ние о забастовке; disarmament conference конференция по разору­жению (предложное дополнение); Coalbrook disaster несчастный случай в Колбруке (обстоятельство места).

В отдельных случаях первый член атрибутивного словосочетания может переводиться придаточным предложением или при­частным оборотом: wage deadlock тупик, в который зашли, переговоры о повышении заработной платы (в вопросе о заработной плате).

В ряде случаев двучленные словосочетания могут быть многозначны­ми. Например: university books университетские книги; книги об универси­тете.

II. Многочленные словосочетания. При переводе многочленных словосочетаний надо придержи­ваться следующего правила: 1) перевести определяемое существительное (последнее слово словосочетания); 2) проанализировать смысловые связи между чле­нами словосочетания и разбить их на смысловые группы (анализ проводится слева направо); 3) перевести словосочетание, начиная с определяемого слова, и затем переводить каждую смысловую груп­пу справа налево.

В зависимости от смысловых связей многочленные словосочета­ния могут переводиться по принципу двучленных словосочетаний.

В некоторых словосочетаниях одно из существительных, вы­ступающих в функции определения, может переводиться на русский язык причастием: raw material production countries страны, произво­дящие сырье.

Атрибутивная группа может состоять не только из существи­тельных, в ее состав могут входить и другие части речи: числитель­ные, причастия, глаголы и т. д. Некоторые элементы этих словосо­четаний соединяются между собой дефисом или заключаются в ка­вычки. Такие атрибутивные группы обычно переводятся причаст­ными оборотами или придаточными предложениями: the Labour-controlled city council городской совет, в котором большинство при­надлежит лейбористам; a six-point control plan контрольный план, состоящий (который состоит) из 6 пунктов; take-it-or-leave-it draft resolution проект резолюции, носящий (который носит) ультима­тивный характер.

TASK 1. Translate the phrases and sentences, paying attention to the chain attributes.

1. Cultural resources management; history preservation program; State Historic Preservation Office;

2. Archaeological Resources Protection Act; Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act; repatriation candidate;

3. Palaeocontact theory or Ancient astronaut theory; health and safety and indemnity insurance issues; plant domestication age

4. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; a return-to-work order; chin-on-fist Rodin figures.

5. Local heritage awareness is aimed at increasing civic and individual pride through projects such as community excavation projects, and better public presentations of archaeological sites and knowledge.

6. Only one-quarter of the world's synoptic surface weather obser­vation posts are below the Equator.

7. China attacked a US Senate resolution condemning Chi­nese human rights violations, adding to tensions between the two giants.

8. A week of county council election opened in England and Wales when Monmouthshire and Norfolk went to the polls.

TASK 2. Test translation.

While archaeology can be done as a pure science, it can also be an applied science, namely the study of archaeological sites that are threatened by development. In such cases, archaeology is a subsidiary activity within Cultural resources management (CRM), also called heritage management in the United Kingdom.

Cultural resources management was, however, criticized. CRM is conducted by private companies that bid for projects by submitting proposals describing the work to be done and an expected budget. It is not unusual for the agency responsible for the construction to simply choose the proposal that asks for the least funding. Archaeologists face considerable time pressure, often being forced to complete their work in a short period of the time that is allotted for a purely scholarly endeavor. Handling the time pressure is a major problem reflected in site reports which are required to be submitted by CRM companies to the appropriate State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). From the SHPO's perspective there is no difference between a report submitted by a CRM group operating under a deadline, and a multi-year academic project.

Substitute words

TASK 3. Translate the sentences paying attention to the ways of translating substitute words:

a) this/these/that/those

1. Every man has three characters: that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has. 2. The procedure that has been fol­lowed has many disadvantages. 3. That these patterns can be critical has been demonstrated by Fogg. 4. It is necessary that the criteria should be made explicit. 5. This solution has the disadvantage that it is too complicated. 6. The Greeks in the fifth century B.C. had the idea that the Earth was the sphere. 7. If one believes that one will believe anything. 8. The most extensive investigation was that of Lehman. 9. The job of a teacher is not so exciting as that of an actor. 10. The life of a caveman was much shorter than that of a modern man.

b) one

1. One is never old to learn. 2. One should see the situation with one's own eyes. 3. The reduced problem has the same structure as the original one. 4. One may postulate that this hypothesis holds under the circumstances. 5. In Fig. 2 one can see the negative influence of the strategy. 6. As one turns the pages one is im­pressed by two aspects of the work. 7. Such an overall approach is ob­viously a long-term one. 8. This chapter considers the alternative ways in which one could try to bring about such an improvement. 9. The largest countries are not as specialized as the smaller ones.

c) do

1. Sugar dissolves in water. So does common salt.

2. Gold does not tarnish in the air as do most metals.

3. A wise man seldom changes his mind, a fool never does.

4. Some writers include zero among the natural numbers, while others do not.

5. As the project size increases, so does the project duration though not at the same rate.

d) it

1. 1. I have read your paper and found it very interesting.

2. I tried the door. It was locked.

3. He knew that his father was dying but he didn't want to speak with anyone about it.

e) the former...the latter

1. We have Dr. Arthur and Walker's opinion on this question, the for­mer being a scientific worker of a well-known laboratory, and the lat­ter director of a large plant.

2. In this paper, we shall take the former approach.

3. This latter case is considerably more difficult to represent.

4. It is a mistake to believe, as does the author, that the latter activity was peculiar to the government.

5. Of Nigeria and Ghana, the former has the larger population.

6. Did he walk or swim? The former seems more likely. The latter seems unlikely.

7. Of pigs and cows, the latter are more valuable.

TASK 4. Translate the sentences, paying attention to the function of the verb «to do».

1. Our desires for what we do not have keep us from enjoying what we do have. 3. The book does not simply discuss what you must do, but gives you effective tools for how to do it. 4. Every force does its own job no matter how many other forces are acting. 5. The fact that the theory does not fail in some other cases is irrelevant. 6. It does indeed lead to problems. 7. People would agree that education has something to do with economic growth. 8. The difficulty has nothing to do with these changes. 9. More educa­tion does not necessarily mean faster growth. In general, however, it probably does. 10. It cannot be done satisfactorily. 11. Only then did it work perfectly. 12. The investi­gation does, however, illustrate two basic approaches to the problem. 13. We do not possess any accurate understanding of cause and effect. Nor do we know how to evaluate the performance of the system. 14. These effects can be done away with the help of the new model.

Passive Voice

PASSIVE FORMS

		Active forms	Passive forms
SIMPLE (INDEFINITE)	Present Past Future	do/does did will do	am/is/are + V3 was/were + V3 will be + V3
CONTINUOUS (PROGRESSIVE)	Present Past Future	am/is/are doing was/were doing will be doing	am/is/are + being + V3 was/were + being + V3 --------------------
PERFECT	Present Past Future	have/has done had done will have done	have/has + been + V3 had + been + V3 will + have + been + V3

TASK 5. Translate the sentences and define the tense form:

1. The experiments were made last year.

2. New technique has been developed. .

3. An interesting phenomenon was registered by Dr. N.

4. The result of the experiment is shown in Fig. 11.

5. Expert systems are widely used in medicine, chemistry and other fields of science and technology.

6. Some pressing problems will be discussed at the symposium.

7. We were informed that a new idea had been advanced at the closing session.

8. Some of the results were shown in a simplified form.

9. Recent discoveries have been greatly assisted by the development of the research technique.

10. The terms were agreed upon.

11. The matter was referred to.

12. The new discovery is being much spoken about.

13. Many materials now in common use were not even thought of thirty years ago.

14. The quality of the instruments used can be safely relied upon.

15. The war was followed by the revolution.

16. Special attention has been called to the research work.

Sequence of Tenses

TASK 6. Translate the sentences, paying attention to the rules of Sequence of Tenses:

1. It was announced at the commencement of the congress that a special mission would leave to investigate the crisis.

2. Nobody knew what it meant.

3. He came to see how my progress was.

4. They were concerned with why the machine had not run the day be­fore.

5. The projections were that in 1975 more than a million couples would probably divorce – pushing the rate to more than 20 per 1,000 for the first time in history.

6. On Monday, news agencies, citing RF Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky, reported that the perpetrators of the terrorist act had been identified.

7. After many years of hard work he was able to show that when a magnet is placed near a coil of wire it makes an electric current flow for a moment through the wire.

8. Hundreds years ago the English pronounced words as they spelt them.

Modal verbs and their equivalents

TASK 7. Translate the sentences, paying special attention to the meanings of modal verbs:

1. I will direct some critical remarks to the author of the article.

2. The following points shall, however, be mentioned.

3. These problems were to be considered together.

4. Such a search will have to be undertaken.

5. He was allowed to perform the operation.

6. The longest day must have an end.

7. They who lose today may win tomorrow.

8. You ought by all means to do something.

9. A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be.

10. Liars need to have good memories.

11. Do as you may if you cannot do as you would.

12. They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

13. He that can have patience can have what he will.

14. Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived for­wards.

15. What the businessmen need to know is how the new developments can be applied to industry.

TASK 8. Translate the sentences, paying attention to the meanings of the equivalents of the modal verbs:

1. Children should be seen not heard. 2. We shall see what we shall see. 3. None are so deaf as those who will not hear. 4. None are so blind as those who will not see. 5. He that would eat the fruit must climb the tree. 6. He who would write heroic poems should make his whole life a heroic poem (T. Carlyle). 7. What we have to learn to do, we learn by do­ing (Aristotle). 8. It has to be seen to be believed. 9. My people and I have come to an agreement which satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please (Frederich the Great).

Non-finite Verb Forms.