19. Types of transformation in translation, (pp. 78-82)

When speaking about translation equivalence, we mentioned that there are three basic types of it - syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. The students will remember that syntactic equivalence meant the structural similarity of the source and target texts. If the syntactic similarity is missing we observe a transformation.

Transformation is any change of the source text at the syntactic level during translation.

On the one hand, even for the languages of different structure general structural similarity in translation is common enough. Just compare any English text and its translation into Ukrainian and you will see much in common at the syntactic level (e.g., Subject-Predicate-Object sequences, Attribute-Noun structures, etc.). On the other one, total similarity of syntactic structures is a rare (and generally hardly desirable) case, which means that in English-Ukrainian translation we often observe transforma­tions.

One should note, however, that the majority of syntactic transforma­tions in English-Ukrainian translation are occasional, i. e. the translator transforms the source syntactic structures on case-by-case basis, each case being dependent on the context, situation, pragmatic intent and many other factors some of which are unknown and the translator's decisions relevant to the case are often intuitive.

To put it differently, it is impossible to formulate the rules for the overwhelming majority of such occasional transformations and one simply cannot list all occasional transformations that are observed in English-Ukrainian translation.

In English-Ukrainian translation occasional transformations are often the matter of translator's individual choice and, in general, strongly depend on stylistic peculiarities and communication intent of the source text.

Yet, in English-Ukrainian translation there are also cases of regular syntactic transformations, where a translator is expected to observe certain transformation rules more or less strictly.³²

Regular syntactic (grammatical) transformations are the matching rules for the grammars of the two languages involved in translation.

Detailed description of regular English-Ukrainian grammatical (syn­tactic) transformations one can find in any English manual for Ukrainian audience (for example, the matching system of English and Ukrainian Verb Tenses, Noun Numbers and Cases, Adjectives, Pronouns, etc.).

We think that the readers and users of this Manual are generally aware of these matching rules and that it is hardly a goal of a translation manual to duplicate the information of the language manuals for the beginners. Moreover, we consider that the goal of a translation manual is to show (where possible) how and why the matching rules (regular transforma­tions) of the grammatical systems of the two languages involved in transla­tion are violated.

20. Basic translation devices (portioning, integration, transposition, replacement, addition, omission, antonymic translation) (Lecture 10)

You will have already guessed from previous discussion that transla­tion is a rather individual matter brinking on art and almost in any case requiring unique and unprecedented decisions. And yet even in translation of poetry, which undoubtedly demands the most individual approach, a translator is bound to use a more or less standard set of devices which helps to convey the ideas of the source text in the best possible way and, generally speaking, makes it possible to translate.

Although the choice of particular devices depends on the text type, genre and style as well as on the translation variety (oral, written, consecutive, simultaneous) and translation direction (into or from a foreign language), the basic set of translation devices (a kind of 'translator's tool kit') usually comprises partitioning and integration of sentences, transpo­sition of sentence parts, replacement, addition and omission of words and word combinations as well as a special type of transformations called antonymous translation.

Partitioning

Partitioning is either replacing in translation of a source sentence by two or more target ones or converting a simple source sentence into a compound or complex target one.

One is to distinguish between inner partitioning (conversion of a simple sentence into a compound or complex one) and outer partitioning (division of a sentence into two or more). For example, inner partitioning is used when translating English verbal complexes into Ukrainian:

Come along and see me play one evening. – Приходь коли-небудь увечері – побачиш як я граю.

More often than not inner partitioning is a regular translation transformation accounted for by the differences in the Ukrainian and English syntactic structures, although it may be also used on individual occasions as required by the text genre and style and communication variety of the source sentence.

When translating from English into Ukrainian outer partitioning (unlike inner) is more a matter of personal translator's choice based, of course, on the proper account of stylistic and genre peculiarities and communication intent of both the source text and its translation.

Outer partitioning is out of the question in case of translating official legal or diplomatic documents (laws, contracts, memos, etc.) but it be­comes a totally justified translation option, say, in consecutive translation of a long and complex sentence.

The following example from Graham Greene is one of the cases where outer partitioning seems a proper translation device (although, of course, not a universal recipe):

There was a real game too, not a party game played in the old school hall and invented by my eldest brother Herbert, who was always of an ad­venturous character until he was changed by the continual and sometimes shameful failures of his adult life.

Була і справжня, а не салонна гра, у яку ми грали в актовому залі старої школи. Цю гру вигадав мій старший брат Герберт – людина винахідлива і сильна до всіляких пригод, доки постійні і часом ганебні негаразди дорослого життя не змінили його вдачу.