Grammatical transformations

Grammatical transformations are the changes of the grammatical elements of sentence structure or grammatical pattern of the sentence as a whole according to the requirements of the target language norms. The reasons for grammatical transformation:

• Complete/partial discrepancy of grammatical categories, forms and features of source language and target language. Some grammatical categories and forms (articles, perfect tenses simply do not exist in the Ukrainian language. Thus, the article which is non-existing in Ukrainian may be impossible to render correctly lexically:

e.g. the barons were powerful enough not to need a king especially the king

• The frequency of using the correlated grammatical forms in target language and source language. The findings of contemporary linguists show that possessive pronouns in English are used 5 times as often as their counterparts in Ukrainian. The frequency factor can provoke grammatical interference even with rather experienced translators. There is a considerable frequency difference in active and possessive voice forms. Passive is four times more common in English.

• Different grammatical combinability of words in the respective languages. The same lexical unit may require different types of syntactic relationship in the source language and target language.

e.g. to kill doesn’t combine well with an inanimate noun in Ukrainian, though it’s ok in English. Recent flood killed thousands of people in Malasia. Killed – загинули.

• Differences in communicational stereotypes. Certain grammatical structures differ from the parallel structures in the target language in terms of their communicational functionality. An interrogative sentence is not always a question but often a polite request:

e.g. will you open the window?

A suppositional clause may likewise function in the role a polite request and is respectively translated not by Ukrainian supposition but by some lexically or grammatically expressed forms of politeness:

e.g. I wonder if I could borrow your pen for a minute.

Many politeness formulas are set phrases in source language and target language and differ considerably both in wording and in grammar: e.g. excuse my gloves – вибачте, що я не знімаю рукавички.

Types of grammatical transformations:

• Transposition;

• Substitution;

• Omission;

• Addition;

• Segmentation/partition;

• Intergration/join-up the sentences.

Transposition is the change of the sequence of elements in the target language text as compared to that of the source language text. The standard position of the attributive noun is English is before the noun while in Ukrainian it’s in post-position:

e.g. country music – музика кантрі

Transposition occurs very often and it’s usually accompanied by the other types of transformation.

Substitution is the change of the grammatical category to which the source language unit belongs. These type of transformation falls into a number of sub-types depending on the grammatical categories that are substituted.

• Substitution of one part of speech for another a widespread transposition is the substitution of an English verb for a Ukrainian noun:

e.g. we should have broken ten minutes before – ми мали зробити перерву ще 10 хвилин тому

Gerund is always replaced since there is no paralel equivalent in Ukrainian: e.g. he was caught on lying.

In a number of cases both transformed and untransformed variants can co-exist as equally valid options:

e.g. the American embassy – американське посольство і посольство америки

- substitution of one tense form for another is mostly caused by the need to persue the rule of the sequence of tenxes in english while there is no such rule in Ukrainian. Sometimes the source language structure may turn out ambiguous. This requires for one thing – the reconstruction of all the possible options of its rendering and for another thing – very careful choice of the variant which suits the communication best:

e.g. he said they had no money

- substitution of passive voice for active. Active voice is more common for Ukrainian language in most functional styles, especially in the oral variety of speech. That’s why we use active instead of passive while translating from English into Ukrainian:

e.g. he was told the news

- substitution of singular for plural and vice versa: e.g. the police are trying…

- substitution of a word for a word combination: e.g. since David is over 16 he can legally decide whether or not to stay on at school – має право

- substitution of the type of the sentence:

An interrogative sentence can be substituted for declarative:

e.g. Isn’t she beautiful? Вона прекрасна!

A negative sentence can be replaced by an affirmative: e.g. you can’t be so careful

A simle sentence can be transformed into a complex one:

e.g. the police examined the weapon for fingerprints

• Omission: some structural elements can be regarded redundant from the target language grammar or style perspective:

e.g. major part of Asia may keep dry. Also in politeness forms: Could I buy a street map of Atlanta?

• Addition – transformation of the target language sentence structure when new elements non-existent in the original appear in the target language text in accordance with the requirements of the structural adequacy. These additions are either structurally or contextually motivated.

Structurally motivated additions are of completely regular type and therefore predicable. Contextually motivated additions are of relatively irregular nature. They mostly reflect the differences of combinability and peculiarities of social norms of the respective languages:

e.g. haven’t you started that book yet? It’s good of you to see me.

Elliptical constructions are much common in English. The principle of language economy is the major reason of ellipsis. Instead of saying “soup opera star” they use the “soup star”

In English there is a marked tendency of making elliptical many company names as well as the names of institutions, titles of the books, films etc.:

e.g. defense language institute – військовий інститут іноземних мов

• Partition consists in converting source language sentence into two or more in the target language text. This is particularly effective in interpreting:

e.g. Tony Blare entered parliament in 1983…

Integration is joining-up of 2 or more sentences of the source language text into a single syntactical structure in the target language text.

e.g. our classes of business English will help you to solve any real-life business problems.

This could vary from making a phone call to making a formal presentation for having negotiations with someone.