- •Theory of translation
- •Contents
- •Part I. General issues of translation chapter 1. What Is Translation? § 1. Translation studies
- •§ 2. Semiotic approach
- •§ 3. Communicative approach
- •§ 4. Dialectics of translation
- •Inseparability of form and meaning.10
- •4.Translation and culture are inseparable.
- •§ 5. Translation invariant
- •§ 6. Unit of translation
- •Chapter 2. Types of translation § 1. Classification criteria
- •§ 2. Machine translation
- •§ 3. Translation and interpreting
- •§ 4. Functional classification
- •Chapter 3. Evaluative classification of translation § 1. Adequate and equivalent translation
- •§ 2. Literal translation
- •§ 3. Free translation
- •§ 4. The concept of ‘untranslatability’
- •Chapter 4. Translation Equivalence § 1. Types of equivalence
- •Equivalence
- •§ 2. Pragmatic level
- •§ 3. Situational level
- •§ 4. Semantic paraphrase
- •§ 5. Transformational equivalence
- •§ 6. Lexical and grammatical equivalence
- •§ 7. The levels of equivalence hierarchy
- •Chapter 5. Ways of Achieving Equivalence § 1. Types of translation techniques
- •§ 2. Translation transcription
- •§ 3. Transliteration
- •§ 4. Cаlque translation
- •§ 5. Grammar transformations
- •§ 6. Lexical transformations
- •§ 7. Complex transformations
- •Chapter 6. Translation Models § 1. Translation process
- •§ 2. Situational model of translation
- •§ 3. Transformational model of translation
- •§ 4. Semantic model of translation
- •§ 5. Psycholinguistic model of translation
- •Notes to part I
- •Part III. Grammar problems of translation
- •Chapter 1. Formal differences between source text and target text
- •Chapter 2. Translating finite verb forms §1. Translating tense and aspect forms
- •§2. Translating passive voice forms
- •§3. Translating the subjunctive mood forms
- •Chapter 3. Translating non-finite verb forms §1. Translating the infinitive
- •§2. Translating the gerund
- •§3. Translating the participle
- •§4. Translating absolute constructions
- •Chapter 4. Translating causative constructions §1. Types of causative constructions
- •§2. Constructions with causal verbs
- •§3. Constructions with the verbs to have, to get
- •§4. Causative constructions with non-causal verbs
- •Chapter 5. Translating pronouns §1. Translating personal pronouns
- •§2. Translating possessive pronouns
- •§3. Translating relative pronouns
- •§4. Translating the pronoun one
- •§5. Translating the pronouns каждый / все
- •§6. Translating partitive pronouns some / any
- •§7. Translating demonstrative pronouns
- •Chapter 6. Translating the article
- •§1. Translating the indefinite article
- •§2. Translating the definite article
- •§3. Translating the zero article
- •Chapter 7. Translating attributive clusters §1. Features of the attributive phrase
- •§2. Translating the attributive cluster.
- •Chapter 8. Syntactic changes in translation §1. Communicative structure of the english and russian sentence
- •§2. Word order change due to the functional sentence perspective
- •§3. Sentence partitioning and integration
- •Chapter 9. Difference in english and russian punctuation §1. Principles of punctuation in english and russian
- •§2. Differences in comma usage
- •§3. Using the dash
- •§4. Using quotation marks
- •§5. Using the colon and semicolon
- •§6. Using the ellipses
- •§2. Interaction of word semantic structures
- •§3. Word connotation in translation
- •§4. Intralinguistic meaning
- •Chapter 2. Translating realia §1. Culture-bound and equivalent-lacking words
- •§2. Types of culture-bound words
- •§3. Ways of translating culture-bound words
- •§4. Translating people’s names
- •§5. Translating geographical terms
- •§6. Translating published editions
- •§7. Translating ergonyms
- •Chapter 3. Translating terms §1. Translation factors
- •§2. Translation technique
- •§3. Terms in fiction and magazines
- •Chapter 4. Translator’s false friends
- •Chapter 5. Phraseological and metaphorical translation §1. Metaphor and the phraseological unit
- •§2. Interlingual metaphoric transformations
- •§3. Ways of translating idioms
- •§4. Challenges in translating idioms
- •Chapter 6. Metonymical translation §1. Definitions
- •§2. Lexical metonymic transformation
- •§3. Predicate translation
- •§4. Syntactic metonymic transformations
- •Chapter 7. Antonymic translation §1. Definition
- •§2. Conversive transformation
- •§3. Shifting negative modality
- •§4. Reasons for antonymic translation
- •Chapter 8. Differences in russian and english word combinability §1. Reasons for differences in word combinability
- •§2. Translation of adverbial verbs
- •§3. Translating condensed synonyms
- •Chapter 9. Translating new coinages: differences in russian and english word building
- •§1. Compounds
- •§2. Conversion
- •§3. Affixation
- •§4. Abbreviation
- •Notes to part IV
- •Part V. Pragmatic problems of translation
- •Chapter 1. Translation pragmatics
- •§1. Concept of pragmatics
- •§2. Text pragmatics
- •§3. Author’s communicative intention
- •§4. Communicative effect upon the receptor
- •И молвил он: «в былое время
- •На голове стою.»
- •§5. Translator’s impact
- •Chapter 2. Speech functions and translation §1. Language and speech functions
- •§2. Interpersonal function and modality in translation.
- •§3. Expressive function in translation
- •§5. Conative function in translation
- •Chapter 3. Functional styles and translation §1. Functional style, register: definition
- •§2. Translating scientific and technical style
- •§3. Translating bureaucratic style
- •§4. Translating journalistic (publicistic) style
- •Chapter 4. Rendering stylistic devices in translation
- •§1. Translation of metaphors and similes
- •§2. Translation of epithets
- •§3. Translation of periphrase
- •§4. Translation of puns
- •“Bother! Said Pooh… “What’s that bit of paper doing?”
- •§5. Translation of allusions and quotations
- •Chapter 5. Translation norms and quality control of a translation §1. Norms of translation
- •§2. Quality control of the translation.
- •Chapter 6. Translation etiquette §1. Professional ethics, etiquette, and protocol
- •§2. Code of professional conduct
- •§3. Protocol ceremonies
- •Notes to part V appendix 1. Russian-English Transliteration Chart
- •Appendix 2. Russian-English-Chinese Transliteration Chart
- •Учебное издание Зоя Григорьевна Прошина теория перевода
- •Part II. History of translation Chapter 1. Western traditions of translation § 1. Translation during antiquity
- •§ 2. Translation in the middle ages
- •§ 3. Renaissance translation
- •§ 4. Enlightenment translation (17-18th c.)
- •§ 5. Translation in the 19th century
- •§ 6. Translation in the 20th century
- •Chapter 2. History of russian translation § 1. Old russian culture and translation
- •§2. Translation in the 18th century
- •§ 3. Russian translation in the first half of the 19th century
- •§4. Translation in the second half of the 19th century
- •§5. Translation at the turn of the century
- •§6. Translation in the 20th century
- •Notes to part 2
§ 5. Psycholinguistic model of translation
Translation is a kind of speech event. And it develops according to the psychological rules of speech event.58
The scheme of the speech event consists of the following phases:
The speech event is motivated.
An inner code program for the would-be message is developed.
The inner code is verbalized into an utterance.
Translation is developed according to these phases: a translator comprehends the message (motif), transforms the idea of the message into his/her own inner speech program, then outlays this inner code into the target text.
The point of this theory is that it considers translation among speaking, listening, reading and writing as a speech event. But there is evidence to suggest that translators and interpreters listen and read, speak and write in a different way from other language users, basically because they operate under a different set of constraints.59
While a monolingual receiver is sender-oriented, paying attention to the speaker's/writer's message in order to respond to it, the translator is essentially receiver-oriented, paying attention to the sender's message in order to re-transmit it to the receiver of the target-text, supressing, at the same time, personal reactions to the message.
There are two essential stages specific to the process of translating and interpreting: analysis and synthesis60– and a third stage, revision, available only to the translator working with the written text. During the analysis stage, the translator reads/listens to the source text, drawing on background knowledge, to comprehend features contained in the text. During synthesis, the target text is produced. Then the draft written translation is revised /edited.
However, the explanational force of this model is very restricted, inner speech being the globally disputable problem in both psychology and linguistics.
Notes to part I
Part III. Grammar problems of translation
Chapter 1. Formal differences between source text and target text
Source language and target language texts differ formally due to a number of reasons of both objective and subjective character. Objective reasons are caused by the divergence in the language systems and speech models. Subjective reasons can be attributed to the speaker’s choice of a language form.
Thus, systemic dissimilarity of forms takes place when one of the languages lacks some grammar category and, therefore, has no corresponding form. For example, English possesses the morphological categories of the article or the gerund lacking in the Russian language; whereas in Russian there is a category of adverbial participle (деепричастие) missing in the English language. To translate these forms, one has to compensate them or restructure the sentence. Unique categories in one of the languages can occur at the syntactic level as well. For example, English absolute constructions, complex object and complex subject (with the infinitive and participle), are alien to the Russian language. Therefore, they require special attention from students of English.
On the other hand, there are linguistic phenomena that exist in both languages but differ in some details, which also causes difficulties in translation. For example, passive voice is found both in English and Russian, but in English it is represented by the indirect and prepositional passive construction (He is given a book. He is asked for.) but the Russian language has only the direct passive construction (Книга дана ему).
Objective reasons for formal dissimilarities include differences in word combination norms and models that make up language traditions. For example, in English it is possible to say Table I lists… but in Russian the similar structure is ridiculous (*Таблица 1 перечисляет…). It is much more “Russian” to verbalize the source of information as the adverbial modifier of place: В таблице 1 перечислены…
Similar structures in both languages can be used with different frequency in different types of text. Violation of the frequency rate can lead to awkward language usage. For example, an English scientific text utilizes more simple sentences, whereas in Russian one can find an abundance of complex sentences.
Thus the objective reasons for formal dissimilarities can be classified into those caused by the language system, by norm and by usage.
Subjective reasons for formal alterations in the target text are accounted for by a communicator’s (or translator’s) personal intention, emphasis or preference. These reasons include the communicative structure of the utterance, that is, emphasis on the logically stressed word that can lead to the change of syntactic structure:*A woman entered the room. – В комнату вошла женщина.
They also include pragmatic adaptations of the sentence to the receptor by adding or reducing some information in the utterance (which results in complex rather than grammar transformations): WSU is located in Pullman, WA. – Вашингтонский университет расположен в городе Пулман, штат Вашингтон.
Translator’s idiolect, or his/her individual language system distinguishing him/her from another person, is also responsible for the difference in formal alterations: He fell a week before Armistice was declared. – Он пал за неделю до того, как объявили перемирие. The translator chose here a complex sentence instead of a simple one (Он пал за неделю до объявления перемирия), perhaps because this structure was more typical for his idiolect than the second one.
Thus, difference in formal structures of the source and target texts can also be accounted for by the communicator’s logical accentuation, as well as by the pragmatic adaptation of the utterance to the receptor and translator’s idiolect. These reasons are of a subjective character, as compared with the first group.