Introductory notes. Handling modal forms

HANDLING MODAL FORMS

Modality is a semantic category indicating the degree of factuality that the speaker ascribes to his message. A message can be presented by its author as a statement of facts, a request or an order, or something that is obligatory, possible or probable but not an established fact. Modal relationships make up an important part of the information conveyed in the message. There is a world of difference between asserting that something is and suggesting that it should be or might be.

Obviously a translation cannot be correct unless it has the same modality as the source text. The translator must be able to understand various modal relationships expressed by different means in SL and to choose the appropriate means in TL.

English makes use of three main types of language units to express modal relationships: modal verbs, modal words and word groups, and mood forms.

Modal verbs are widely used in English to express various kinds of modality. The translator should be aware of the fact that an English modal verb can be found in some phrases the Russian equivalents of which have no particular modal forms. Compare the following sentences with their Russian translations:

She can speak and write English.

Она говорит и пишет по-английски.

I can see the English coast already.

Я уже вижу берег Англии.

Why should you say it?

Почему ты так говоришь?

There is no direct correspondence between the English and the Russian modal verbs and the translator should choose the appropriate word which fits the particular context. The meaning of the verb "should", for example, in the sentence "You should go and see him" may be rendered in various circumstances by one of the Russian verbs expressing obligation: (а) Вы должны навестить его. (Ь) Вам необходимо навестить его. (с) Вам следует навестить его. (d) Вам следовало бы навестить его, and so on. For the same reason the modal meaning expressed by the confrontation of the two modal verbs in the English original may be rendered into Russian not by two modal verbs but by some other modal forms:

Were you really in earnest when you said that you could love a man of lowly position? - Indeed I was. But I said "might".

— Вы на самом деле не шутили, когда сказали, что могли бы по-

любить человека небогатого? — Конечно нет. Но ведь я сказала «может быть, смогла бы».

"It may rain today," he said. His companion looked at the sky. "Well, it might," she said.

— Сегодня может быть дождь, - сказал он. Его спутница подняла голову и посмотрела на небо. — Вряд ли, — ответила она.

Most English modal verbs are polysemantic. So "must" can express obligation or a high degree of probability. "May" implies either probability or moral possibility (permission). "Can" denotes physical or moral possibility, etc. Compare the following sentences with their Russian translations:

You must go there at once.

Вы должны тотчас же пойти туда.

You must be very tired.

Вы, должно быть, очень устали.

Не may know what has happened.

Может быть, он знает, что произошло.

Не may come in now.

Теперь он может (ему можно) войти.

I cannot do the work alone.

Я не могу (не в состоянии) один сделать эту работу.

I cannot leave the child alone.

Я не могу (мне нельзя) оставить ребенка одного.

But when a modal verb is used with a Perfect Infinitive form, it loses, as a rule, its polysemantic character. Thus, "must have been" always implies certainty, "may have been", probability, while "can't have been", improbability. It should also be noted that the Perfect Infinitive may indicate either a prior action (after "must", "may", "cannot") or an action that has not taken place (after "should", "ought to", "could", "to be to"). Cf.:

He must have told her about it yesterday.

Должно быть, он сказал ей об этом вчера.

Не should have told her about it yesterday.

Он должен был (ему следовало) сказать ей об этом вчера.

Special attention should be given to the form "might have been" where the Perfect Infinitive can have three different meanings: a prior action, an action that has not taken place and an imaginable action. Cf.:

I might have spoken too strongly. Возможно, я был слишком резок. You might have done it yourself.

108,

Вы могли бы это сделать сами.

То hear him tell his stories he might have won the war alone. Если послушать его рассказы, можно подумать, что он один выиграл войну.

Among other means of expressing modality mention should be made of parenthetical modal words: "certainly", "apparently", "presumably, "allegedly", "surely", "of course", "in fact", "indeed", "reportedly and the like, as well as similar predicative structures: "it is reported", "it is presumed", "it is alleged", etc. They may all express various shades of modal relationships and the translator cannot be too careful in selecting the appropriate Russian equivalents. For instance, "indeed" may be rendered as «более того, поистине, фактически» и т.п., "in fact" — «на самом деле, более того, словом» и т.п., "above all" - «прежде всего, более всего, главным образом».

Не was never a useful assistant to me. Indeed, he was rather a nuisance.

Он никогда не был мне хорошим помощником. Более того, он скорее даже мне мешал.

Some of the modal adverbs ("surely", "easily", "happily" and the like) have non-modal homonyms. Compare:

What should he do if she failed him? Surely die of disappointment and despair.

Что с ним будет, если она его обманет? — Несомненно, он умрет от разочарования и отчаяния. (Неге "surely" is a modal word.)

Slowly, surely as a magnet draws he was being drawn to the shore.

Медленно и верно, как будто магнитом, его тянуло к берегу.

The English mood forms give relatively little trouble to the translator since he can, as a rule, make use of the similar moods in Russian. Note should be taken, however, of those forms of the English Subjunctive (the Conjunctive) which are purely structural and express no modal meanings that should be reproduced in translation:

It is important that everyone should do his duty. Важно, чтобы каждый выполнил свой долг. I suggest that we all should go home. Я предлагаю всем пойти домой!

While handling modal forms the translator should not forget that while the English language has practically no modal particles, the Russian language has. Whenever necessary, Russian particles (ведь, хоть, мол, де,

дескать и др.) should be used to express modality which is expressed in the source text by other means or only implied:

After us the deluge.

После нас хоть потоп.

Не was in wild spirits, shouting that you might dissuade him for twenty-four hours.

Он пришел в неистовство и кричал, что вы можете его разубеждать хоть круглые сутки.

CHAPTER 4. STYLISTIC ASPECTS OF TRANSLATION 4.1. HANDLING STYLISTICALLY-MARKED LANGUAGE UNITS

Introductory Notes

In different communicative situations the language users select words of different stylistic status. There are stylistically neutral words that are suitable for any situation, and there are literary (bookish) words and colloquial words which satisfy the demands of official, poetic messages and unofficial everyday communication respectively. SL and TL words of similar semantics may have either identical (a steed - скакун, aforesaid - вышеозначенный, gluttony - обжорство, to funk - трусить) or dissimilar (slumber - сон, morn - утро, to swop - менять) stylistic connotation. The translator tries to preserve the stylistic status of the original text, by using the equivalents of the same style or, failing that, opting for stylistically neutral units.

The principal stylistic effect of the text is created, however, with the help of special stylistic devices (see 4.2) as well as by the interworking of the meanings of the words in a particular context. The speaker may qualify every object he mentions in his own way thus giving his utterance a specific stylistic turn. Such stylistic phrasing give much trouble to the translator since their meaning is often subjective and elusive. Some phrases become fixed through repeated use and they may have permanent equivalents in TL, e.g. true love — истинная любовь, dead silence — мертвая тишина, good old England - добрая старая Англия. In most cases, however, the translator has to look for an occasional substitute, which often requires an in-depth study of the broad context. When, for example, J. Galsworthy in his "Forsyte Saga" refers to Irene as "that tender passive being, who would not stir a step for herself, the translator is faced with the problem of rendering the word "passive" into Russian so that its substitute would fit the character of that lady and all the circumstances of her life described in the novel.

A common occurrence in English texts is the transferred qualifier syntactically joined to a word to which it does not belong logically. Thus the English speaker may mention "a corrupt alliance", "a sleepless bed" or "a thoughtful pipe". As often as not, such combinations will be thought of as too bizarre in Russian or alien to the type of the text and the qualifier will have to be used with the name of the object it refers to. 'The sound of the solemn bells" will become «торжественное звучание колоколов» and 112

"the smiling attention of the stranger" will be translated as «внимание улыбающегося незнакомца».

Note should also be taken of the inverted qualifier which syntactically is not the defining but the defined element. Such a qualifier precedes the qualified word which is joined to it by the preposition "of: "this devil of a woman", "the giant of a man", etc. The phrase can be transformed to obtain an ordinary combination (a devilish woman, a gigantic man) and then translated into Russian. The translation may involve an additional element: the devil of a woman — чертовски хитрая (умная, неотразимая и т.п.) женщина.

Stylistically-marked units may also be certain types of collocations. Idiomatic phrases discussed above (see 2.2) may be cited as an example. Another common type includes conventional indirect names of various objects or "paraphrases". A frequent use of paraphrases is a characteristic feature of the English language.

Some of the paraphrases are borrowed from such classical sources as mythology or the Bible and usually have permanent equivalents in Russian (cf. Attic salt - аттическая соль, the three sisters - богини судьбы, the Prince of Darkness - принц тьмы). Others are purely English and are either transcribed or explained in translation: John Bull — Джон Буль, the three R's — чтение, письмо и арифметика, the Iron Duke - герцог Веллингтон.

A special group of paraphrases are the names of countries, states and other geographical or political entities: the Land of Cakes (Scotland), the Badger State (Wisconsin), the Empire City (New York). As a rule, such paraphrases are not known to the Russian reader and they are replaced by official names in the translation. (A notable exception is "the eternal city" — вечный город.)

Complicated translation problems are caused by ST containing substandard language units used to produce a stylistic effect. The ST author may imitate his character's speech by means of dialectal or contaminated forms. SL territorial dialects cannot be reproduced in TT, nor can they be replaced by TL dialectal forms. It would be inappropriate if a black American or a London cockney spoke in the Russian translation in the dialect, say, of the Northern regions of the USSR. Fortunately, the English dialectal forms are mostly an indication of the speaker's low social or educational status, and they can be rendered into Russian by a judicial employment of low-colloquial elements, e.g.:

He do look quiet, don't 'e? D'e know 'oo 'e is, Sir? Вид-то у него спокойный, правда? Часом не знаете, сэр, кто он будет?

Here the function of the grammatical and phonetical markers in the English sentence which serve to show that the speaker is uneducated, is fulfilled by the Russian colloquialisms «часом» and «кто он будет».

Contaminated forms are used to imitate the speech of a foreigner. Sometimes, both SL and TL have developed accepted forms of representing the contaminated speech by persons of foreign origin. For example, the speech of a Chinese can be represented in English and in Russian in a conventional way, which facilitates the translator's task:

Me blingee beer. Now you pay.

Моя плинесла пиво, твоя типель платить.

If no such tradition exists, the translator has to select some possible contaminated Russian forms to produce the desired effect, e.g.:

When you see him quid' then you quick see him 'perm whale (the speech of a Kanaka).

Когда твоя видел спрут, тогда твоя скоро-скоро видел кашалот.

4.2. HANDLING STYLISTIC DEVICES Introductory Notes

To enhance the communicative effect of his message the author of the source text may make use of various stylistic devices, such as metaphors, similes, puns and so on. Coming across a stylistic, device the translator has to make up his mind whether it should be preserved in his translation or left out and compensated for at some other place.

Metaphors and similes though most commonly used in works of fiction, are not excluded from all other types of texts. A metaphor and a simile both assert the resemblance between two objects or processes but in the latter the similarity is made explicit with the help of prepositions "as" and "like".

Many metaphors and similes are conventional figures of speech regularly used by the members of the language community. Such figurative units may be regarded as idioms and translated in a similar way. As in the case of idioms (see 2.2) their Russian equivalents may be based on the same image (a powder magazine — пороховой погреб, white as snow —

J

белый как снег) or on a different one (a ray of hope — проблеск надежды, thin as a rake — худой как щепка). Similarly, some of the English standard metaphors and similes are rendered into Russian word for word (as busy as a bee — трудолюбивый как пчела), while the meaning of others can only be explained in a non-figurative way (as large as life — в натуральную величину).

More complicated is the problem of translating individual figures of speech created by the imagination of the ST author. They are important elements of the author's style and are usually translated word for word. Nevertheless the original image may prove inacceptable in the target language and the translator will have to look for a suitable occasional substitute. Consider the following example:

They had reached the mysterious mill where the red tape was spun, and Yates was determined to cut through it here and now. (St. Heym. "Crusaders")

"Red tape" is usually translated as «бюрократизм, волокита», but bureaucratism cannot be spun or cut through. The translator had to invent an occasional substitute:

Они уперлись в стену штабной бюрократии, но Йейтс твердо решил тут же пробить эту стену.

A similar tactics is resorted to by the translator when he comes across a pun in ST. If the SL word played upon in ST has a Russian substitute which can also be used both literally and figuratively, a word-for-word translation is possible:

Whenever a young gentleman was taken in hand by Doctor BUmber, he might consider himself sure of a pretty tight squeeze.

Когда доктор Блаймбер брал в руки какого-нибудь джентльмена, тот мог быть уверен, что его как следует стиснут.

In other cases the translator tries to find in TL another word that can be played upon in a similar way:

He says he'll teach you to take his boards and make a raft of them; but seeing that you know how to do this pretty well already, the offer... seems a superfluous one on his part.

Here the word "teach" is intended by the owner of the boards to mean "to punish" but the man on the raft prefers to understand it in the direct sense. The Russian equivalent «учить» does not mean "to punish" and the translator finds another word which has the two required meanings:

Он кричит, что покажет вам, как брать без спроса доски и де-116

лать из них плот, но поскольку вы и так прекрасно знаете, как это делать, это предложение кажется вам излишним.

A very popular stylistic device is to include in the text an overt or covert quotation. Unlike references in scientific papers the stylistic effect is usually achieved not by citing a complete extract from some other source, giving the exact chapter and verse and taking great care to avoid even the slightest change in the original wording. In literary or publicist texts quotations often take the form of allusions with a premium put on a general impression. It is presumed that the cited words are well known to the reader and can readily suggest the sought-for associations.

Translation of such allusions is no easy matter. The translator has to identify the source and the associations it evokes with the SL receptors and then to decide whether the source is also known to the TL receptors and can produce the similar effect. He may find the allusion untranslatable even if the source is sufficiently popular. For instance L. Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" was many times translated into Russian and is much enjoyed both by children and adults in this country. However, the translator will hardly preserve the obvious allusion to the book in the following sentence:

The Tories were accused in the House of Commons yesterday of "living in an Alice in Wonderland world" on the question of nuclear arms for Germany.

Вчера в палате общин консерваторов обвинили в том, что они питают призрачные иллюзии по поводу ядерного вооружения ФРГ.

As a rule, previous translations of the source of the allusion are widely used to render it into Russian. This can be exemplified by S. Marshak's translation of the popular English nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty which is often cited in Britain and USA. In the translation Humpty Dumpty who "sat on the wall and had a great fall" was called «Шалтай-Болтай» and "all the king's men" who "cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again" became «вся королевская рать». And ever since all allusions to the rhyme have been translated on the basis of Marshak's version. So, when C. Bernstein and B. Woodward called their famous Watergate story "All the President's Men", it was unquestionably rendered into Russian as «вся президентская рать».

Some stylistic devices may be ignored by the translator when their expressive effect is insignificant and their reproduction in the target text would run counter to the spirit of TL. One of the oldest and most commonly used stylistic devices in English is alliteration. Many headings, strings of epithets and other phrases in English texts consist of words which begin with the same letter. An Englishman seems to be very happy if he can

call an artificial satellite "a man-made moon" or invent a headline like "Bar Barbarism in Bars". As a rule, the formal device cannot be reproduced in the Russian translation where it would look rather bizarre and often distort the meaning of the phrase. There are, however, infrequent exceptions when the repetition of the initial letters assumes a particular communicative value. A much cited example is from Ch. Dickens "Little Dorrit":

'Тара is a preferable mode of address," observed Mrs. General. "Father is rather vulgar, my dear. The word Papa, besides, gives a pretty form to the lips. Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, are all very good words for the lips, especially prunes and prism."

Obviously the Russian equivalents to the "good" words should all begin with the letter «n» even if they referred to quite different objects, e.g.: папа, пряник, персик, просьба, призма, etc.

Still more infrequent is the reproduction in translation, of another common English stylistic device, the so-called zeugma, when a word enters in several collocations within one sentence each time in a different sense, e.g.:

(The man)... took a final photograph of Michael in front of the hut, two cups of tea at the Manor, and his departure.

In Russian such usage is outside the literary norm (cf. Шли три студента: один - в кино, другой - в сером костюме, а третий - в хорошем настроении).

A stylistic effect can be achieved by various types of repetitions, i.e. recurrence of the word, word combination, phrase for two times or more. A particular type of repetition is the reiteration of several successive sentences (or clauses) which usually includes some type of lexical repetition too, e.g.:

England is a paradise for the well-to-do, a purgatory for the able, and a hell for the poor.

Англия — рай для богачей, чистилище для талантливых и ад для бедняков.

Repetition is a powerful means of emphasis. It adds rhythm and balance to the utterance. In most cases the translator takes pains to reproduce it in TT. Repetition, however, is more often used in English than in Russian and the translator may opt for only a partial reproduction of the English long series of identical language units.