GRAMMATICAL TRANSFORMATIONS

In the process of translation

1. The notion of equivalence-lacking units

2. The concept of grammatical transformations.

3. The reasons which call forth grammatical transformations.

4. Types of grammatical transformations.

5. The cases in which a translator resorts to grammatical transformations

REFERENCES

1. Korunets’ I.V. Theory and Practice of Translation. – Vinnytsia: New Book, 2000. – PP. 377-382.

2. Komissarov V.N., Koralova A.L. A Manual Of Translation from English into Russian – М.: Высшая школа, 1990. – CС. 97-105.

3. Miram G.E., Daineko V.V., Taranukha L.A., Gryshchenko M.V., Gon O.M. Basic Translation. – Київ: Ельга Ніка-Центр, 2003. – СС. 90-96.

4. Бархударов Л.С. Язык и перевод. – М.: Международные отношения, 1975. – СС. 190-209.

5. Левицкая Т.Ф., Фитерман А.М. Проблемы перевода. – М.: Международные отношения, 1976. – СС. 7-27.

6. Рецкер Я.И. Теория перевода и переводческая практика. – М.: Международные отношения, 1974. – СС. 80-87.

7. Швейцер А.Д. Перевод и лингвистика. – М.: Воениздат, 1973. – СС. 77-94.

I. The notion of equivalence-lacking units.

No small number of SL units have no regular equivalents in TL. These may be equivalent-lacking words and equivalent lacking grammatical forms. The absence of regular equivalence does not imply that the meaning of an equivalent-lacking SL unit cannot be rendered in translation or that its translation must be less accurate.

The translator, coming across equivalent-lacking words or grammatical forms, resorts to occasional equivalents or occasional substitutes.

Occasional equivalents can be created in different ways:

1. using loan-words imitating in TL the form of the SL word or word combination: wall newspaper – стінгазета;

2. using approximate equivalents: drugstore – аптека. The Ukrainian аптека is not exactly a drugstore where they also sell such items as magazines, soft drinks, ice cream, etc., but in some cases the approximate equivalent can well be used;

3. using an explanation to convey the meaning of the SL unit: brinkmanship – мистецтво ведення політики на грані війни; conservationist – прихильник збереження навколишнього середовища;

4) using all kinds of lexical and grammatical transformations – the kind of major and minor alterations in the structural form and meaning of language units performed with the aim of achieving faithfulness in translation.

As it has been already mentioned, the right choice of an appropriate TL equivalent for a SL sense unit is not an easy task. A translator should remember that this choice is predetermined by some factors:

• by its semantics in the context;

• by the stylistic or genre peculiarities of the text;

• by the text’s pragmatic orientation/ toning.

Any disregard of these requirements may bring unnecessary distortions into the author’s conception.

II. The concept of grammatical transformations.

!!! Total similarity of syntactic structures is a rare case, which means that in English-Ukrainian translation we often observe grammatical transformations.

By grammatical transformations we mean changes in the grammatical structure of the sentence in the process of translation.

These changes are carried out either because of the incompatibility of the TL means of expression, which makes the transplantation of some SL units to it impossible, or in order to retain the style of the SL passage and thus maintain the expressiveness of the source language sense units.

Some transformations are objectively required, conditioned by the peculiarities of the TL. Others are subjectively introduced at the translator’s own will and therefore not always unavoidable.

The majority of 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.

But: 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 can’t 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.

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

There are the following main types of grammatical transformations – the basic set of translation devices, a kind of ‘translator’s tool kit’:

1. Rearrangement (permutation) (Miram: transposition)

2. Substitution (replacement)

3. Addition (transformation through extension)

4. Omission

5. Reduction

6. Integration (merger – (Korunets’))

7. Partitioning (breaking)

NB: It is necessary to remember that even for the languages of different structure general structural similarity in translation is common enough, which means that not all sense units need to be structurally transformed in the process of translation. A considerable number of them are transplanted to the TL in the form, meaning and structure of the original, i.e. unchanged or little changed. The translator may preserve the syntactic structure of the SL by using the analogous TL grammatical forms or a “word-for-word translation”. This may be called “a zero transformation”: John took Mary by the hand – Джон узяв Мері за руку.