7. Kinds of translation

The sense of a language unit (the content of a whole matter) can be conveyed in the TL either in writing or in viva voce (orally). Depending on the form of conveying the sense/content, the following kinds of translating/ interpreting (oral translating) are to be distinguished:

1. The written translation/-ing from a written matter/source – is a faithful conveying of a matter translating in writing from one language into another. It represents a literary or any other faithful sense-to-sense translation from or into a foreign language. It may also be a free interpreting performed in writing. The matter under translation may be different, ex. a belles-lettres passage (prose or poetry work), a scientific or technical, newspaper passage, article or even separate words (in a list) etc.

2. The oral translation/-ing from an oral matter/source – is a faithful conveying of a speech or recording (жива мова або запис).

It can proceed/ be performed in 2 ways:

• in succession - after the whole matter or a part of it was heard. Then it is consecutive translation (послідовний). There is a possibility to interrupt or stop the speaker or recording in order to clarify some obscure places. As a result, consecutive interpreting can take more or a little less time then the SL speech or recording lasts.

• simultaneously (with its sounding) – the process of translation takes quite the same amount of time as the SL matter lasts and the interpreter faithfully conveys the meaning/content (синхронний). It is usually performed with some special equipment, technical devices (microphone, headphones)

3. The oral translation/-ing from a written matter/source – is interpreting at sight. It can also proceed either simultaneously with the process of getting acquainted with the content of the written matter, or in succession (after each part of the matter is first read through and comprehended (обміркований, осягнутий). The former way of interpreting, if carried out faithfully and exactly on time with the consecutive conveying of the matter, may be considered simultaneous too. Usually it is a regular prepared beforehand kind of interpreting.

4. The written translation/-ing from an orally presented matter/source is a rare occurrence, because a natural speech flow is too fast for putting it down in the TL (except for a shorthand presentation, which would be then a regular translation i.e. (that is to say) interpretation from a written matter). Translating from an oral speech/recording is now and than resorted to for training practices. When the matter to be rendered is produced at a slower speed than the written translation, this matter/speech can naturally be performed and put down in the TL.

8-10. Descriptive, antonymic and machine translation

The process of translation may be viewed as a number of manipulations with the form or content of the original (SLText) as a result of which the translator creates the TLText.

Translation transformations are operations with the SLT aimed at conveying its meaning with maximum (-al) faithfulness in strict compliance with the standards of the TL.

Descriptive translation is a complex transformation which is used to explain the meaning of SL units, often with the help of hierarchically different TL units. For example, a word may be translated as a word-combination or vice versa.

Descriptive translation may be used:

1) to render the meaning of equivalent-lacking units, for instance:

• units of specific national lexicon:

Верховна Рада – The Ukrainian Parliament (Descriptive), Verkhovna Rada (Literal), Supreme Council (word-for-word), Supreme Rada (mixed)

вареники – a traditional Ukrainian dish, mea or fruit dumplings (Descriptive), varenyky (literal)

• neologisms:

stepwife – the current wife of a women’s ex-husband or the ex-wife of a current husband (зведена дружина – теперішня дружина колишнього чоловіка або колишня дружина теперішнього чоловіка)

leather spinster – a successful heterosexual woman who is happily unmarried (успішна гетеросексуальна жінка, яка свідомо не прагне шлюбу)

Delhi belly – a disordered/ upset stomach (розлад шлунку)

himbo – a man who is good-looking but unintelligent or superficial (хімбо – чоловік, привабливий ззовні, але інтелектуально нерозвинутий і досить поверховий)

bimbo – a girl of the same qualities (бімбо – дівчина або молода жінка таких же якостей – приваблива, але поверхова)

gaydar – an intuitive sense that enables someone to identify whether another person is gay (гейдар – здатність (дар) розпізнавати нетрадиційну орієнтацію іншої людини (геїв)

2) to render the meaning of phraseological units or idioms:

as mad as a hatter – навіжений

to have light fingers – бути нечистим на руку

to rain cats and dogs – лити як з ведра

burn not your house to rid it of the mouse – жертвувати великим, щоб уникнути малої неприємності (співвідносити засоби та ціль)

3) in footnotes to explain obscure places in narration

spiritual – спірічуел, релігійна пісня афроамериканців

Within the text the word “metrosexual” may be referred to as метросексуал or in a footnote explained – чоловік, який витрачає багато часу та грошей на свою зовнішність та спосіб життя

Antonymic translation is a complex transformation in which an affirmative in sense or structure SL unit is rendered as a negative in sense or structure but identical in meaning TL unit or vice versa.

It is a complex transformation, which describes the situation from the opposite point of view. (2^nd definition)

Take it easy. – Не переймайся. (an affirmative SL unit corresponds to a negative TL unit)

Немає лиха без добра. – Every dark cloud has a silver lining.

I mean it! – Я не жартую!

Antonymic translation is used:

1. when there is no direct equivalent for the SL units in the TL:

He was in (his) short-sleeves. – Він був без піджака. (to be in (one’s) short-sleeves – means not wearing a jacket, it has no direct equivalent in Ukrainian language and is translated automatically - без піджака)

Я думаю, що він не здасть екзамен. – I think he will fail the exam./ I don’t think he will pass the exam.

The defeat of the team was the result of its inferiority. – Поразка команди була наслідком переваги суперників.

Do you mind – ви не проти

2. when a SL unit has 2 negations which create an affirmation:

She was by no means non-elegant. – Вона була досить елегантною. (This sentence contains 2 negations: by no means and non-elegant, which corresponds to an affirmation досить елегантною)

The door was not unlocked. – Двері були зачинені.

3. to achieve a necessary expressiveness:

A bomb fell close. – Бомба впала неподалік.

No, it makes all the difference in the world. – Ні, не все одно!

I don’t think it will hurt you. – Думаю, вам це не зашкодить. (I don’t think – Думаю, will hurt you - не зашкодить)

I hope you will stay. – Сподіваюся ви не втечете.

She was a woman of character. – Вона була жінкою не без характеру. (експресивне речення)

4. to avoid the repetition of the same structure close to each other in the same text:

She didn’t utter a word and he said nothing. – Вона промовчала і він нічого не сказав.

Machine translation is a procedure in which a computer program analyzes a SLT and produces a TLT without further human intervention.

Human interference into machine translation is represented with pre-editing, proof-reading and post-editing practice.

Machine translating has made considerable progress in recent years. Nevertheless, its employment remains restricted because machine translation can be performed only on the basis of programs elaborated by linguistically trained operators.

Machine translation may be successful at the level of separate words, sometimes word-combinations and simple sentences and quite seldom at the level of text.

Advantages of machine translation are: its speed and rich lexicon of its dictionaries, which can be useful for translation at the level of words.

Disadvantages: preparing programs for any matter is connected with great difficulties and takes much time, when the quality of translation is far from being always satisfactory even at the lexical level – at the level of words, which have direct equivalent lexemes in the TL.

ex. London – is the capital of GB. – Лондон – капітал Великобританії

Greater difficulties are connected with morphological elements (endings, suffixes, prefixes) and syntactic units (word combinations, sentences) with various means of connection between their parts. There are frequent violations of syntactic agreement and government between the parts of the sentence in the machine translated texts. Neither can the machine translator select in its memory the correct order of words in word-combinations and sentences in the TL.

As a result, any machine translation needs a thorough proof-reading and editing, which can take even more time than the hand-made translation.

11-12. UNITS OF TRANSLATION

Since the formal description of any language is based on distinguishing a system of interrelated language units, it is possible to assume that the process of translation may be viewed on the basis of distinguishing certain units (units of translation). There are different approaches to distinguishing units of translation.

APPROACH # 1

The unit of translation is the smallest unit of the SL text, functioning in the process of translation more or less independently. The units of translation may be different for different languages and different kinds of translation. There are 2 kinds of translation: written and oral.

In written translation the unit of translation is usually represented by a sentence or sometimes 2 consecutive sentences – if one of them is structurally or semantically incomplete. These sentences usually contain all the information necessary to recreate the structure of a corresponding sentence in the TL. The sentence – is a speech unit which contains a more or less complete thought and that is why it may function more or less independently in the process of translation.

ex. After all they all have day jobs. Not so Seed. – Зрештою, у них у всіх є робота, окрім Сіда. (the 2^nd sentence is incomplete)

Your presence at the meeting is not necessary. Nor is it desirable. – Ваша присутність на зустрічі є необов’язковою і навіть небажаною.

In oral translation, especially synchronized translation, the unit of translation is usually represented by a sense group (a group of words, which expresses the main idea) or a sentence, especially if elements important for understanding are located at the end of the sentence.

ex. Mediators from 3 west African ECOWAS nations planned today to visit rebels in Ivory Coast as France flew in 70 more soldiers to assist the Ivorian government. – Сьогодні посередники від 3 африканських країн-членів ЕКОВАС планували зустрітися з повстанцями в Кот-д’Івуарі. В той час як Франція відрядила до країни ще 70 військових на допомогу івуарійському урядові.

(This sentence represents 2 units of translation, since it consists of 2 sence groups. The 1st unit of tr. is ..., the 2nd - …)

APPROACH # 2 (= LEVELS OF TRANSLATION)

The unit of translation is the smallest SL unit which is translated as a whole. It means that in the TLT it is impossible to discover TL units reproducing the meaning of the constituents, which make up the SL unit.

ex. pretty woman – красунечка (не можна віднайти безпосереднього відбиття лексичних одиниць)

help yourself – пригощайтеся (translated as a whole)

Each unit of translation belongs to a certain language level. So, every translation is performed at a definite language level.

The phoneme level

The phoneme – is a speech sound, the smallest 1-facet language unit, it has a form but has no meaning. This unit of translation is mainly relevant to the translation of proper names, geographical names, internationalisms, units of specific national lexicon and neologisms.

Bush – Буш (а не Кущ), гривня – hryvnia, dollar – долар,

computer – комп’ютер, вареники – varenyky

The morpheme level

The morpheme – is the smallest indivisible 2-facet language unit (has both form and meaning). It is the smallest sense unit.

superprofit – надприбуток, cloudless – безхмарний

The word level

The word – is the basic 2-facet language unit. The word is the smallest independent sense unit. Words are divisible (for morphemes).

blackboard – дошка ( - if translated at a word level, if translated as чорна дошка – it is a morpheme level)

strawberry – полуниця, dog – собака

The word-combination level

The word-combination – is the largest 2-facet lexical unit comprising more that 1 word.

first night – прем’єра

to come up roses – чудово виходити

The sentence level

The sentence – a 2-facet speech unit which conveys a more or less complete thought.The sentence may express a statement,a command or a question.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. – Немає лиха без добра.

A cat may look at a king. – Дивитися не заборонено.

Будь здоров! – Bless you!

The text level

The text – is the largest 2-facet language unit, consisting of sentences bound by the same idea. This unit of translation may function in poetry.