Lecture 7. Main devices of achieving adequacy in translation

 

The problem of translation equivalence is closely connected with the stylistic aspect of translation – one cannot reach the required level of equivalence in the stylistic peculiarities of the source text are neglected. The expression of stylistic peculiarities of the source text in translation is necessary to fully convey the communication intent of the source text.

Stylistic peculiarities are rendered in translation by proper choice of the target language translation equivalents with required stylistic colouring.

This choice will depend both on the functional style of the source text and individual style of the source text author.

The types of text distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of communication are called functional styles. Modern stylistics distinguishes the following varieties of functional styles:

1. Bells- letters (prose, poetry, drama);

2. Publicistic style;

3. Newspaper style;

4. Scientific style;

5. Official documents

Any comparison of the text belonging to different stylistic varieties listed above will show that the last two of them (scientific style variety and official documents) are almost entirely devoid of stylistic coloring being characterized by the neutrality of style whereas the first three are usually rich in stylistic devices to which a translator ought to pay due attention.

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 part, substitution, addition, and omission of words and word combinations, as well as a special type of transformation called antonymous translation.

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).

Outer partitioning is out of the question in case of translating official, legal or diplomatic documents (law, contracts, memos, etc.) but it becomes a totally justified translation option in consecutive translation combining two or (seldom) more source’s sentences into one target sentence.

Transposition is a peculiar variety of inner partitioning in translation meaning a change in the order of the target sentence syntactic elements (Subject, Predicate, Object etc.) as compared with that of the source sentence dictated either by peculiarities of the target language syntax or by the communication intent.

Substitution is any change in the target text at the morphological, lexical and syntactic levels of the language when the elements of certain source paradigms are replaced by different elements of target paradigms.

Of interest for student translators are changes observed in Complex Sentences where transposition of the Subject is combined with their mutual substitution. To prove the statement, let us consider the following example:

‘No sooner did he starts his speech than the President was interrupted. – Не встиг президент розпочати промову як його прервали’.

The substitution is necessary because English and Ukrainian possess different language systems. It goes without saying that this fact is very important for translation and explains many translation problems.

Thus substitution is a universal and widely used translation device. One may even say that substitution in that or another form are observed in any translation from English into Ukrainian and even more so – from Ukrainian translation:

1. Substitution of Noun Number and Verb Tense and Voice Paradigms, e.g. replacing Singular Form by Plural and vice versa; substitution of Active Voice by Passive; substitution of Future by Present, Past by Present, etc.;

2. Substitution of Parts of Speech (the most common is substitution Ukrainian Nouns by English Verbs when translating into English; common enough is the substitution of English ‘Nomina agentis’/drinker, sleeper, etc./ by Ukrainian verbs.

3. Substitution in translation of a negative statement by an affirmative one is an efficient device called antonymous translation.

 

For examples: depending on the function the Infinitive plays in the following ways:

The Complex Object with the Infinitive is translated as an object subordinate clause: ‘Both experiments revealed the rated dimensions to be highly interrelated’ – “Обидва екперименти показали, що розрахункові параметри дуже тісно повязані між собою.”

The Complex Subject with passive forms of the verbs “think, expect, show, see, find, argue, know, mean, consider, regard, report, believe, hold, suppose, note, presume, claim” is translated as a complex sentence with an object subordinate clause. Care should be taken about non-perfect forms of the Infinitive (which are translated in the Present time) and perfect forms (which are translated in the Past time) For example: “Still they can hardly be said to have formulated a true scientific theory.” – І все ж навряд чи можна стверджувати, що вони сформулювали дійсно наукову теорию”. The term ‘model’ is held to have important normative significance. – Вважається, що тєрмін “модель” має важліве нормативне значення.

Gerund.

Depending on the function, the Gerund plays in the sentence it can be translated as:

A noun

Banking on a loss of nerve within the board of trustee may turn out to be misguided.’ – Розрахунок на те, що члени ради опікунів втратять витримку, може віявітіся невірним”.

An infinitive

‘Under the pressure of national campaign, he showed a positive gift for saying the wrong things in the wrong words at the wrong time. – В умовах напруженої компанії, що прводиться в країні, він виявляв безумовний дар говорити не те, що треба, не так, як треба, і не тоді, коли треба.’

Inversion

The order of words in which the subject is placed after the predicate is called inverted order or inversion. While translating the target sentence retains the word order of the source sentence in many cases: ‘Also treated are such matters as theory construction and methodology. – Розглядаютьсятакож такі питання, як побудова теорії та методика дослідження. ‘Had this material been examined from this viewpoint, the regularities that he discovers would probably have gone unnoted. – Якби цей матеріал було дослідженно з такої точки зору, закономірності, які він встановлює, залишилися б, можливо, непоміченними.

Subordinate clauses of concession with an inverted predicate often serve emphatic purposes and can be translated with the help of Ukrainian combinations хоч; який би:

“Such a principle, strange as it may seem, is championed in one form or another by certain scholars. – Такий принцип, хоч він і може видатися досить дивним, відстоюють деякі вчені.

Addition

Addition in translation is a device intended for the compensation of structural elements implicitly present in the source text or paradigm forms missing in the target language.

Addition in translation from English into Ukrainian stem from the differences in the syntactic and semantic structure of these languages. In English, being an analytical language the syntactic and semantic relations are often implicitly expressed through order of syntactic elements and context environment whereas in predominately synthetic Ukrainian these relations are explicit (expressed in relevant words). When translating from English into Ukrainian a translator has to visualize the implicit objects and relations through additions. So- called ‘noun clusters’ frequently encountered in newspaper language are especially rich in ‘hidden’ syntactic and semantic information to be visualized by addition in translation:

Green Party federal election money – гроші Партії зелених, призначені на вибори на федеральному рівні;

Fuel tax protest – протести пов’язані з підвищенням податку на паливо

Peer-bonded goods – товари розрачовані на споживання певною віковою групою

Omission

Omission is reduction of the elements of the source text considered redundant from the viewpoint of the target language structural patterns and stylistics.

Omission is the opposite of addition to understand it consider the literal translation into English of the above noun clusters from their Ukrainian translation and compare these translations with the original English text.

Green Party federal election money – гроші Партії зелених призначені на вибори на федеральному рівні – Green Party money intended for the elections at the federal level.

Fuel tax protest – протести, пов’язані з підвищенням податку на паливо – protest related to the increase of the fuel tax

Peer-bonded goods – товари, розраховані на споживання певною віковою групою – goods designed for use by certain age groups.

Furthermore, the meanings of their constituents being the same a number of expressions do not require translation into Ukrainian in full, e.g. null and void – недійсний. So, as one can see, proper omissions are important and necessary translation devices rather than translator’s faults as some still tend to believe.