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Курс лекций по актуальным проблемам перевода.doc
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It acknowledged that childhood is a complex, evolving reality and that it merits now a specific consideration. The child is a fragile being, but his autonomy should not therefore be disregarded…

Compare Example of English text (the original text) and back-translation of Russian version in English and note the changes across clause and sentence boundaries and reflect on why these might have occurred and how the information structure has been preserved, or altered, in the process.

In the case of some texts, such as legal documents, or some authors, sentence length plays an important stylistic or functional role. Thus, Hemingway’s preference for shorter sentences and avoidance of subordinate clauses, or L. Tolstoy’s tendency for long elaborate sentences, are fundamental not only to their style but also to the view of the world that is being depicted. A translator working with the sentence as the translation unit would therefore need to pay particular care to preserving the features of the STs.

Above the level of the sentence, Newmark considers paragraph and text (incor­porating chapter and section) as higher units of translation. At a functional level, this means that the TT must perform the purpose associated with it:

  1. a translated piece of software must work perfectly on-screen and enable the user to perform the desired action;

  2. advertisements, most particularly, and poetry need to be translated at the level of the text (or even culture) and not the word if their message is to function in the target culture;

  3. medicines and other foodstuffs must carry instructions and warning notices that satisfactorily alert the TT reader to possible dangers, such as the basic and simple one in an example: Warning notice on medicines: Keep out of reach of children.

Look at the corresponding warning notice printed on medicines and other products in your language. Is the same wording always used, whether or not the instructions are original SL or part of a translated text?

Of course, texts themselves are not isolated but function within their own socio-cultural and ideological environment. Equally importantly, at the intertextual level, texts are influenced reworkings of earlier texts.

The unit of translation is normally the linguistic unit, which the translator uses when translating. Translation theorists have proposed various units, from individual word and group to clause and sentence and even higher levels such as text and intertextual levels. Importantly, Newmark makes the crucial point that «all lengths of language can, at different moments and also simultaneously, be used as units of translation in the course of the translation activity». While it may be that the translator most often works at the sentence level, paying specific attention to problems raised by individual words or groups in that context, it is also important to take into account the function of the whole text and references to extratextual features. These are crucial.