Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Sumy State University

3821 Methodological instructions

for practical work on the subject

“Practice of Translation from the Foreign (English) Language”

for the students of speciality 7.02030304, 8.02030304 “Translation”

of full-time course of studies

Sumy

Sumy State University

2015

Methodological instructions for practical work on the subject “Practice of Translation from the Foreign (English) Language” / compiler S. V. Baranova. – Sumy : Sumy State University, 2015. – 79 p.

Theory and practice of translation department

Table of contents

Unit 1………………………………………………………….4

Unit 2…………………………………………………………13

Unit 3…………………………………………………………26

Unit 4…………………………………………………………37

Unit 5…………………………………………………………57

Bibliography………………………………………………….78

Unit 1 Change of Predicate in Translation

It is necessary to define those segments in Ukrainian texts which cannot be rendered by means of direct corresponding units in English and need to be structurally or semantically transformed. Such places are called «translation difficulties (problems)», e. g. the expediency of preserving or changing the source predicate is considered. This is a grammatical transformation.

The verbal predicate can be rendered by the predicate of state. It is based on metonymy.

The predicate denoting cause may be conveyed by that of effect. Sometimes this operation is conditioned by combinability of words in the target language. In most cases of such a type the lexical transformation of modulation joins the grammatical one.

The change of the source predicate into the predicate with both causal and temporal meanings (denoting different stages of the process) also takes place.

The same situation of the objective reality may be verbalized differently in different languages. It causes the change of predicates in translation. It is the tendency of English to prefer a predicate of state and of Ukrainian and Russian to use verbal predicates in publicistic texts when the action denotes the transition into a qualitatively or quantitatively new state that determines the transformation.

Exercise 1. Translate the sentences into English resorting to the change of predicate:

1. Це її образило.

2. Її голос затремтів від сліз.

3. Вони були на святі в честь команди, у якій грав її син.

4. Вона навчається у третьому класі.

5. – Не влаштовуй мелодрам, Бетті.

– Це я влаштовую мелодрами?

6. Світ, у якому ми живемо сьогодні, радикально відрізняється від того, яким він був у середині і навіть у кінці минулого століття.

7. Його годинник спішить.

Exercise 2. Translate the sentences into English resorting to the change of predicate:

1. Зустріч на вищому рівні у Вашингтоні виявила істотні зміни в громадській думці.

2. У рамках своєї компетенції ми вживаємо необхідні заходи.

3. Стабілізаційні процеси в економіці посилились.

4. Економіка і політика нерозривні.

5. Насамперед офіціозна література позбавилася своєї ідеологічної ролі та недоторканності.

6. Пасажири зайшли до вагона, розсілись і опинились у минулому.

7. Дві країни знаходяться на виході з тривалої конфронтації і готові позбутися її.

8. У видавництві Емілія кинулася до рукопису лише з одним наміром – прочитати його.

9. Касети із записом семінарів могли бути призначеними для місцевих ВНЗ.

10. Масовий читач кидався на ці книги з непідробним ентузіазмом.

11. Їхній крах приводить до відчутних змін у літературно-громадській ієрархії цінностей.

12. Лише знавці зможуть знайти відмінність від справжніх вагонів фірми «Бреш», закуплених в Англії у 1907 році.

Exercise 3. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian resorting to the change of predicate.

1. The writer likens the new forces in our literature to the Nazi troops who overran the Soviet Union in 1941. On the lips of a former front-line soldier, his comparison is a pretty sharp accusation.

2. Defeated many times, the drive for democracy and humanism has not disappeared.

3. These politicians find it especially difficult to leave behind the stereotypes and experience of the time.

4. This does not mean that in a year or two we won’t be able to significantly speed up economic development, remove social tensions and convince the people that we are heading in the right direction.

5. A new economic system has to be urgently built, since the old one no longer works.

6. Oil prices will be pegged to current world rates.

7. It all too often distracted Russian literature from aesthetic concerns and drew it into the realm of sermonizing.

8. Socialist Realism preferred future to the present.

9. Real artists will do what they are supposed to do.

Exercise 4. Translate the sentences from English into Ukrainian and comment on the translation difficulties of different levels:

1. But just when they need time to work through their promising changes and help from the United States in completing them the European allies risk running into political static in Washington because of U.S. wishes to recast NATO in a role approximating a global policeman – a futuristic vision of the alliance that European policymakers see as premature now and perhaps forever. 2. The European Commission argues that «unfair tax competition» among EU countries distorts the single market – by allowing low-tax countries, or heavens, to attract capital from high-tax jurisdictions – and indirectly contributes to Europe’s high unemployment rates by shifting taxation from capital to labour. 3. Europe seemed to find its footing in NATO’s post Cold-war posture, finally making a promising start on European military cooperation demonstrating a new readiness to use force and pulling down barriers to consolidating its national defence companies into Europe-wide industries. 4. «Truths!» Charles de Gaulle is supposed to have shouted. «Did you think I could have created a [Free French] government against the English and the Americans with truths? You make History with ambition, not with truths». 5. Taken with the smooth closure this year of alliance enlargement to include new members from Central Europe, there seems to be much to celebrate next year when Washington hosts ceremonies marking the anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 6. If the Parliament insists on pushing through a policy forged in the heat of an election campaign rather than out of the calm consideration and consultation that the Parliament’s committee structure is supposed to encourage, ministers in London will have to accept the anomaly, or follow suit. 7. Attempts to strengthen common foreign and security policy, the EU’s «second pillar» by importing majority voting or incorporating the Western European Union, Europe’s defence club, into the EU, look like failing. The biggest changes are likely to come in the «third pillar»: justice and home affairs. 8. Considered on the fringes of legality because of its liberal views, the Freedom Movement (of Iran) has been allowed to field four candidates for the 15 municipal council seats in Tehran. 9. Built-in encryption also could make it easier to add access controls to PC’s and routinely scramble all stored data, making it harder to steal computer resources or files. 10. The deal struck by European Union governments at their Berlin summit leaves both their budget and their enlargement plans in a worse state than before. 11. «The Brazilian government move highlights the difficulty of implementing a deep belt-tightening in a country in which more than 40 percent of the population live in poverty», – said an analyst in New York. 12. In remarks focusing heavily on his so-called new Labour government policy – which seeks to marry social justice and workers’ rights with a pro-business market-oriented economic policy – Mr. Blair heaped praise on South Africa. 13. Thousands of people rampaged Friday through the town, hurling stones at police stations and looting shops. Police fired plastic bullets at the mobs, killing at least one person and wounding nine. 14. «Boston college has wronged me and my students by caving into right-wing pressure and depriving me of my right to teach freely and depriving them of the opportunity to study with me», – said Mary Daly, 70, an associate professor of the college in a telephone interview. 15. No sooner had the European Commission resigned than the Prime Minister popped up in the House of Commons to tell MPs that this was no setback but a golden opportunity to push through «root and branch» reform of a Commission whose failings had been tolerated for far too long. Stretching a point, he boasted that it was his lot that had brought the Commission down. 16. The vice-president began by allaying fears that he would burden business with a green and heavy hand: government has its place as long as government knows its place, he said, adding that slump in the developing world makes growth a top priority for governments. 17. Until then [1918] the infant Labour party had been the junior of the Liberals, helping them to win their landslide victory of 1906 and to enact a sweeping programme of social and constitutional reform in great part inspired and led by Lloyd George. 18. These universities (Oxford and Cambridge) were rural rather than urban, and therefore residential, they took a collegiate form. Their function was not only to train the young for the professions, but to preserve the heritage of the past and transmit it to succeeding generations and to prepare them morally as well as intellectually for the larger duties of government and society. 19. Boeing executives suspect commission officials of passing on inside information about airline contracts to airbus officials in Toulouse. For that reason the Seattle company has been rather vague in some of its answers to the commission’s requests for information, while formally cooperating with its inquiry. The commission is making a habit of interfering with firms from outside the EU when it thinks that competition is likely to be lessened. 20. Germany has complained strongly to Washington about restrictions facing foreign companies seeking to enter the US telecommunications market. Germany’s finance minister expressed concern at the discretionary powers of the Federal Communications Commission to restrict access which, he said, could result in foreign companies being denied access to the US market «for general foreign policy or trade policy reasons». 21. A college education is often a collection of courses without any connecting fiber. Yet decision-making is a function of being able to integrate what seems like unrelated variables, and understanding the balance between analytical and intuitive skills. Without knowing these variables, it is impossible to determine what information is needed, know how and where to get the information and select the information that is pertinent. 22. In facing up to the dangers, and living up to the importance of his task, President Kim [of South Korea] has made a good start. But to understand that start, and to get the measure of what is required of him in future, it is vital to ditch the idea that he is a «left-winger» who is becoming, or has to become, a convert to free-market ideas once anathema to him. That is so partly because such labels are everywhere much less helpful than they were, but partly, also because in South Korea’s circumstances (and Mr. Kim’s) they are especially misleading.

Exercise 5. Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following words and phrases:

promising changes; the European allies; to recast in a role; unfair tax competition, to distort; the single market; low-tax countries; heavens; to attract capital; high-tax jurisdictions; high unemployment rates; capital; labour; to find one’s footing; a promising start; military cooperation; to pull down barriers; Europe-wide industries; smooth closure; alliance enlargement; to include new members; to host ceremonies; to mark the anniversary; to push through a policy; in the heat of an election campaign; the Parliament’s committee structure; to follow suit; foreign policy; security policy; to import; majority voting; justice; home affairs; municipal council; built-in encryption; stored data; to strike the deal; to move highlights; a deep belt-tightening; Labour government policy; a pro-business market-oriented economic policy; to heap praise on; to rampage; to deprive of; «root and branch» reform; to stretch a point; to allay fears; a green and heavy hand; a top priority; to win the landslide victory; a sweeping programme; collegiate; to transmit to succeeding generation; vague; a habit of interfering with; competition; telecommunications market; finance minister; at the discretionary powers; pertinent; to face up to; to live up to; to ditch the idea; a left-winger; a convert; free-market ideas; misleading.

Exercise 6. Translate the texts into Ukrainian, find out translation difficulties and comment on your translation decisions. Summarize the problems raised by the author.