Permutations

Permutation as a view translation transformation- this is a change in the location (order) of language elements in the translation text compared to the original text. Elements that can be rearranged: words, phrases, parts complex sentence, independent proposals /7/.

The permutations are due to a number of reasons, the main of which is the difference in the structure (word order) of the sentence in English and Russian. An English sentence usually begins with a subject followed by a predicate, i.e. the rheme - the center of the message (the most important) - comes first. Topic (secondary information) - circumstances are most often located at the end of the sentence.

In the translation of poetry, permutations are most often due to the need to maintain rhythm or preserve rhyme.

For example, in the translation of A. Akhmatova's poem "Consolation", in order to preserve the rhyme in the second stanza, the translator abandoned the inversion and retained the sentence structure characteristic of in English.

Let your spirit become quiet and calm, There will be no more losses: He is the new warrior of God's army, Don't be sad about him now.

May your spirit be still an peaceful, There will be no losses now: He is new warrior of God's army, Do not be about him in sorrow.

Substitutions

Substitutions are the most common and diverse type of translation transformations. In the process of translation, both grammatical units - word forms, parts of speech, sentence members, types of syntactic connection, etc. - and lexical units can be replaced.

Grammar transformations include /7/:

a) Substitutions of word forms - substitutions for the number of nouns, tense for verbs, etc. The reason for such transformations may be the discrepancy between the norms of the two languages, or the change in the grammatical form of the word is caused by purely stylistic reasons. For example, in the poem "So many stones are thrown at me" the noun plural"windows" is translated as "window", an adverb in comparative degree"earlier" is translated as "early". The tense of the verb is also replaced: “The tower has become” - “Tower stands”.

b) Substitutions of parts of speech - the most common type of substitution. “I'm grateful to” (thankful) - “thank you.” The simplest example is the so-called “pronominalization”, or replacing a noun with a pronoun.

c) Replacement of members of the proposal. When the members of a sentence are replaced in the text of the translation, the syntactic scheme of constructing the sentence is restructured.

Thus, in most cases, when translating from English into Russian, the Russian sentence does not overlap with the English one, and does not coincide with it in its structure. Often the structure of the Russian sentence in translation is completely different from the structure of the English sentence. It has a different word order, a different sequence of parts of a sentence, often a different order of the position of the sentences themselves - main, subordinate and introductory. In some cases, the parts of speech that express the members of the English sentence are transmitted, respectively, by other parts of speech. All this explains the widespread use of grammatical transformations in translation.

Syntactic transformations include: replacement of the main clause by a subordinate clause and vice versa, replacement of an essay by a subordination and vice versa, replacement allied connection unionless.

When translating poetic texts, the replacement is most often used simple sentence complex and vice versa. This kind of replacement is often caused by grammatical reasons - structural discrepancies between the sentences of the source and target languages. For instance:

V this example the comparative turnover is replaced by a clause of an unrealistic condition.

With lexical substitutions, individual lexical units of the source language are replaced by lexical units of the target language, which are not their dictionary equivalents, that is, taken in isolation, have a different referential meaning than the units of the source language transmitted by them in the translation /21/.

Most often there are three cases - concretization, generalization and replacement based on cause-and-effect relationships (replacement of an effect by a cause and a cause by an effect).

a) Concretization is the replacement of a word or phrase of the source language with a broader meaning by a word or phrase of the target language with a narrower meaning /7/. Most often, this type of transformation is applicable when translating from English into Russian, since the Russian language is characterized by greater specificity than the corresponding lexical units of the English language.

An example when concretizing when translating from Russian into English is the correct selection of the equivalent of the noun "hand" when translating various poems by A. Akhmatova:

“And the pigeon eats wheat from my hands ...” - “And pigeon from my palms eats wheat ...”

“Wax, dry hand…” - “By my dry, waxen hand…”

“Exhausted, in your arms you ...” - “On your arms, as I lost all my power ...”

b) Generalization - a technique opposite to concretization, consists in replacing a particular with a general, specific concept by a generic one.

When analyzing the translations of Anna Akhmatova's poetic texts, one can find a number of unsuccessful examples of generalization, since the general feeling of the atmosphere is lost.

In the poem "Everything promised it to me" in the line "On the rusty iron of the fence", the noun "cast iron" is translated as "iron". As a result, the reader is presented not with the old rough black cast iron, but with rust-eaten iron, which affects the overall impression.

c) Replacing the effect with the cause and vice versa. In the process of translation, there are often lexical substitutions based on causal relationships between concepts. Thus, a word or phrase FL can be replaced in translation by a word or phrase PJ, which, by logical connections, denotes the cause of an action or state indicated by the unit of FL being translated.

For example, “We don’t know how to say goodbye” - “To say goodbye we don't know”.

It is important to take into account that in poetic texts the equivalence of translation is ensured not at the level of individual elements of the text (in particular, words), but at the level of the entire translated text as a whole. In other words, there are untranslatable particulars, but there are no untranslatable texts.

Additions

Addition is understood as the introduction of additional words or constructions into the sentence structure /55/.

The reasons for the need for lexical additions in the translated text may be different.

The most common of them can be called "formal non-expression" (absence) of the semantic components of the phrase in the source language /6/. However, in poetic texts, additions are due to other reasons.

As a rule, this is the need to preserve the rhythm and rhyme of the poem. For example, to preserve the structure of the poem “I Stopped Smiling,” additional constructions were introduced:

From the point of view of vocabulary, English speech quite allows the use of a synonymous pair of verbs that mean the same thing in Russian.

In the same way, it is not considered a mistake to introduce the preposition "Instead there", since this does not affect the meaning of the poem.

Often, lexical additions are conditioned by the need to convey in the text of the translation the meanings expressed in the original. by grammatical means. For example, when transmitting English plural forms of nouns that do not have this form in Russian /7/.

Omissions

Omission is the exact opposite of addition. When translating, words that are semantically redundant in terms of their semantic content are most often omitted /7/.

However, when translating poems by Anna Akhmatova, omission as an adequate translation transformation is not used, since the author of the translation seeks to reproduce all units of the original. The omission of any lexical units is more of a mistake than translation technique. An example of such an omission is the translation of the poem "Under the roof of a frozen empty dwelling."

As you know, Akhmatova's work is permeated with religious notes, her trees have a certain sacred meaning.

Much of the meaning is lost when the line "And in the Bible a leaf On Song of Songs is sitting."

As a result, not only the reference to the tree to which the leaf belongs, but also to the color, the symbolism of which is also important in the work of A. Akhmatova, is lost.

Permutation as a type of translation transformation is a change in the location (order) of language elements in the translation text compared to the original text. Elements that can be rearranged: words, phrases, parts of a complex sentence, independent sentences.

The permutations are due to a number of reasons, the main of which is the difference in the structure (word order) of the sentence in English and Russian. An English sentence usually begins with a subject (or subject group) followed by a predicate (predicate group), i.e. the rheme - the center of the message (the most important) - comes first. Topic (secondary information) - circumstances (place and time) are most often located at the end of the sentence.

The word order of the Russian sentence is different: at the beginning of the sentence there are often secondary members (circumstances of time and place), followed by the predicate, and only at the end - the subject. This should be taken into account when translating. This phenomenon is known as "communicative sentence division".

The most common case of permutation is a change in the order of words and phrases in the structure of a sentence, associated with communicative articulation:

Molasses buckets appeared from nowhere.

No one knows where the molasses buckets came from.

In the process of translation, a permutation of a word from one sentence to another can be observed, as in the following example:

I put on this hat that I "d bought in New York that morning. It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks.

I... put on the red hat I bought in New York this morning. It was a hunting hat, with a very, very long visor.

The need for such a transfer in this case is due to the repetition of the noun “hat”, to which the permuted adjective “red” refers, in two adjacent sentences.

Often, when translating, there is a change in the order of the parts of a complex sentence - the main and subordinate (subordinate) sentences:

If he ever gets married, his own wife"ll probably call him "Ackley".

Probably his wife would call him "Ackley" too, if he ever got married.

English subordinate clause precedes the main, in the Russian translation - on the contrary, the main precedes the subordinate clause. The opposite cases are also possible.

Independent sentences in the text can also be rearranged.

“You goin' to court this morning?” asked Jem.

We approached her fence. - Are you going to court? Jim asked.

The need for rearrangement in this case is due to the fact that the Past Perfect form in the second sentence English text expresses the meaning of the precedence of the given action in relation to the action indicated in the first sentence. Since the Russian form “came up” does not express such a meaning, the preservation of the original order of the sentences in the translation could lead to a semantic distortion (the action denoted by the verb “came up” would be perceived as subsequent, in relation to the action expressed by the verb “asked”) .

Permutations (as a type of translation transformation) are quite common, often accompanied by other types of translation transformations.

Substitutions

Substitutions are the most common and diverse type of translation transformations. In the process of translation, grammatical units can be replaced - word forms, parts of speech, sentence members, types of syntactic connection, etc.

a) Substitutions of word forms

Substitutions of word forms mean substitutions of number for nouns, tense for verbs, etc.

The Nile Valley appears to have been unfit for human habitation during the Stone Ages. (M. A. Murray)

The Nile Valley appears to have been uninhabitable for human life throughout the Stone Age (all periods of the Stone Age).

In Russian, the combination stone Age is a historical term and is never used in the plural.

The norms of the English language dictate the use of the present tense in subordinate clauses of time or condition, i.e., where the Russian equivalent verb will have the form of the future tense:

If you succeed free time, Please contact me.

If you have some free time, please drop me a note.

Nobody knew what he meant.

In other cases, the change in the grammatical form of the word is caused by purely stylistic reasons.

The candidate hopes the residents of New Hapmshire will cast their votes for him.

The candidate hopes that the people of New Hampshire will vote for him.

b) Substitutions of parts of speech

This type of replacement is very common. The simplest kind his - the so-called "pronominalization", or the replacement of a noun by a pronoun. For instance:

At first he hung in his grandfather's room, but soon grandfather drove him to our attic, because the starling learned to tease grandfather ... (M. Gorky, Childhood, VII)

When translating from English into Russian, the pronoun is replaced by a noun.

A very typical substitution when translating from English into Russian is the replacement of a verbal noun with a verb in the personal form. Here are examples of this kind of substitution:

Didn't have one of those very piercing whistles that was practically never in tune... (J. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 4)

He whistled terribly shrill and always out of tune...

(Here, as in other examples that follow, replacing a noun with a verb also requires replacing the adjective defining the noun with an adverb: piercing - piercing.)

It is natural and usual to replace the English verbal noun - the name of the figure (usually with the suffix - er) with the Russian personal form of the verb (20) when translating the English verbal noun. Examples of this kind are very common:

“Oh, I’m no dancer, but I like watching her dance.” (G. Greene, The Quiet American, p. I, Ch. Ill)

But I don’t dance, I just like to watch her dance, (translated by R. Wright-Kovaleva and S. Mitina)

I am a very good golfer. (ib., 11)

I am very good at golf...

When translating, other types of substitutions of parts of speech also take place, and often they are also accompanied by a substitution of sentence members, that is, a restructuring of the syntactic structure of the sentence.

c) Substitutions of sentence members (restructuring of the syntactic structure of the sentence)

When the members of a sentence of a word and a group of words are replaced in the text of the translation, the syntactic scheme of constructing the sentence is restructured. The reasons for this kind of restructuring may be different. Most often, it is caused by the need to convey the "communicative division" of the sentence, which was discussed above.

The most common example of this kind of syntactic rearrangement is the replacement of an English passive construction by a Russian active one, in which the English subject is replaced in a Russian sentence by an object at the beginning of the sentence; the English object with the preposition by when translated into Russian becomes the subject or the subject is completely absent (the so-called “indefinite-personal” construction); the passive form of the English verb is replaced by the active form of the Russian verb. For instance:

Was not met by his sister. His sister met him.

He was given money. They gave him money.

He is considered to be a good student. He is considered a good student.

When translating from Russian into English, the reverse substitution "active - passive" occurs.

Quite common (although they are not described in normative grammars) are also cases when the English subject is replaced by a circumstance when translated into Russian. This transformation also requires the replacement of the transitive verb of the English sentence by an intransitive verb (or, more rarely, a passive verb) in the Russian sentence. For instance:

The last week has seen an intensification of the diplomatic activity...

During the past week, there has been an intensification of diplomatic activity ... (or: Last week there was ...)

Such a turn with the verb see (devoid of a specific lexical meaning and denoting here only the very fact of the existence, existence of this or that event or phenomenon) is quite typical for the language of the English press; compare: 1973 saw... - In 1973....; The next week will see... - Next week...; Tonight sees ... - Tonight, etc. In the function of the addition to the verb see, a verbal noun of the type publication, beginning, renewal, performance, etc. is usually used, which in Russian translation is transformed into a verb-predicate: was published, began , resumed, was performed, etc.

A similar transformation takes place in other cases, when the English subject expresses different adverbial meanings. In the Russian translation, the English subject is replaced by the adverb of place:

The little town of Clay Cross today witnessed a massive demonstration...

Today in the small town of Clay Cross there was a mass demonstration...

This type of turnover is often found in the texts of the scientific genre.

Of course, when translating from Russian into English, the “opposite” replacement of the circumstance by the subject occurs, accompanied by other required replacements.

In many cases, the restructuring of the syntactic structure is determined not by grammatical, but by stylistic considerations. So, in the following example, there is a simultaneous replacement of both sentence members and parts of speech:

After dinner they talked long and quietly. (S. Maugham, before the party)

After dinner they had a long, sincere conversation. (translated by E. Kalashnikova)

Grammatical transformations

Translation from one language to another is impossible without grammatical transformations. Grammatical transformations are primarily the restructuring of a sentence (changing its structure) and all kinds of substitutions - both syntactic and morphological. Grammatical transformations are caused by various reasons - both purely grammatical and lexical in nature, although grammatical factors play the main role, that is, differences in the structure of languages.

When comparing the grammatical categories and forms of the English and Russian languages, the following phenomena are usually found: 1) the absence of a particular category in one of the languages; 2) partial match; 3) complete match. The need for grammatical transformations naturally arises only in the first and second cases. In Russian, in comparison with English, there are no such grammatical categories as articles or gerunds, as well as infinitive and participial complexes and an absolute nominative construction. Partial coincidence or discrepancy in the meaning and use of the corresponding forms and constructions also requires grammatical transformations. This includes such phenomena as a partial mismatch in the category of number, a partial mismatch in the forms of a passive construction, an incomplete match in the forms of the infinitive and participle, some differences in the expression of modality, etc.

First of all, we will focus on the article, because the article (both definite and indefinite), despite its extremely abstract meaning, often requires semantic expression in translation. As you know, both articles have a pronominal origin: the definite article comes from the demonstrative pronoun, and the indefinite article comes from the indefinite pronoun, which goes back to the numeral one. These original meanings of the articles sometimes appear in their modern usage. In such cases, their lexical meaning must be conveyed in translation, otherwise the Russian sentence would be incomplete and inaccurate, since the denotative meaning of the articles is semantically an integral part of the entire semantic content of the sentence (3). Its historical connection with the numeral one in the following example is very clear:

Yet H. G. (Wells) had not an enemy on earth. (G. B. Shaw)

However, Herbert did not have a single enemy in the world.

The meaning of the definite article also often requires transmission in translation, especially when it comes before a numeral.

Only in the fields where talent cannot be hidden have the young conquered - the theatre, music, football, computers, physics, fashion. ("Daily Mail")

Young people are promoted only in those cases when it is impossible to hide natural talent (meaning theater, music, football, electronics, physics, fashion).

From all the above translations, it is clear that ignoring the lexical and sometimes grammatical meaning of the article in translation would lead to an incomplete or inaccurate transfer of content.

There are no infinitive complexes in Russian, which are so common in English. Consider only the translation of the infinitive complex with the preposition for.

On its return journey the spacecraft must be accelerated to some 25,000 m.p.h. for it to enter the earth's orbit. ("The Times")

On reentry, the spacecraft's speed must be brought up to about 25,000 miles per hour in order for it to enter Earth orbit.

In this case, the infinitive complex is translated by a clause of purpose.

However, very often grammatical transformations are also necessary in the transfer of the corresponding forms and constructions due to some discrepancies in their meaning and use. Such discrepancies are observed, for example, in the use of the category of number.

United Nations Secretary General U Thant has strongly criticized South Africa, Rhodesia and Portugal for their policies in Africa. ("Morning Star")

UN Secretary-General U Thant severely criticized South Africa, Rhodesia and Portugal for their policies in Africa.

The noun "politics" does not have a plural, because the word "politics" is the plural form of the noun "politician" - a politician.

As for uncountable nouns, especially those that express abstract concepts, the number of mismatches may be higher here. For example: ink - ink, money - money, watch - watch, news - news, and vice versa: to keep the minutes - keep a record, to live in the suburbs - live in the suburbs, on the outskirts - on the outskirts, grapes - grapes, shrimp - shrimp, etc.

The discrepancy is also found in some cases of the use of the infinitive. The Russian infinitive has neither a perfect nor a continuous form.

Thus, all the phenomena considered - the absence of an appropriate form, partial coincidence, differences in the nature and use of the form - necessitate grammatical transformations in translation. Grammatical transformations can be divided into two types: permutations and substitutions.

1. Permutations

The permutations are due to a number of reasons, the main of which is the difference in the structure (word order) of the sentence in English and Russian. An English sentence usually begins with a subject (or subject group) followed by a predicate (predicate group), i.e. the rheme - the center of the message (the most important) - comes first. Topic (secondary information) - circumstances (place and time) are most often located at the end of the sentence.

The most common case of permutation is a change in the order of words and phrases in the structure of a sentence, associated with communicative articulation:

Molasses buckets appeared from nowhere.

No one knows where the molasses buckets came from.

In the process of translation, a permutation of a word from one sentence to another can be observed, as in the following example:

I put on this hat that I "d bought in New York that morning. It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks.

I... put on the red hat I bought in New York this morning. It was a hunting hat, with a very, very long visor.

The need for such a transfer in this case is due to the repetition of the noun “hat”, to which the permuted adjective “red” refers, in two adjacent sentences.

Often, when translating, there is a change in the order of the parts of a complex sentence - the main and subordinate (subordinate) sentences:

If he ever gets married, his own wife"ll probably call him "Ackley".

Probably his wife would call him "Ackley" too, if he ever got married.

The English subordinate clause precedes the main clause, while in the Russian translation, on the contrary, the main clause precedes the subordinate clause. The opposite cases are also possible.

Independent sentences in the text can also be rearranged.

“You goin' to court this morning?” asked Jem.

We approached her fence. - Are you going to court? Jim asked.

The need for rearrangement in this case is due to the fact that the Past Perfect form in the second sentence of the English text expresses the meaning of the precedence of this action in relation to the action indicated in the first sentence. Since the Russian form “came up” does not express such a meaning, the preservation of the original order of the sentences in the translation could lead to a semantic distortion (the action denoted by the verb “came up” would be perceived as subsequent, in relation to the action expressed by the verb “asked”) .

Permutations (as a type of translation transformation) are quite common, often accompanied by other types of translation transformations.

§ 51. Permutation as a type of translation transformation is a change in the location (order) of language elements in the translation text compared to the original text. The elements that can be rearranged are usually words, phrases, parts of a complex sentence (clauses) and independent sentences in the structure of the text.

The most common case in the translation process is the change the order of words and phrases in the sentence structure. It is known that the word order in English and Russian is not the same; this, of course, cannot but affect the course of translation. Wed the following example:

(The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 indicate the main members of the sentence - subject, predicate, adverb of place and adverb of time, respectively.) In this example, the order of the components of the Russian sentence is in a certain sense "directly opposite" to the order of the components of the original English sentence. This phenomenon, quite common in translation, is explained by the fact that in an English sentence the order of its members is determined by the rules of syntax - subject

the general (in sentences without inversion, which occurs in a limited number of sentences and is always structurally and functionally motivated) precedes the predicate, while circumstances are usually located at the end of the sentence, after the predicate (and object, if any), and the adverb of place usually precedes the adverb of time ( this latter is often also located at the beginning of the sentence, before the subject - last night a suburban train was derailed near London). As for the Russian language, in it the order of words in the structure of a sentence, as is known, is determined not by the syntactic function of words (this latter is quite clearly indicated by morphological indicators), but by what is known as the “communicative division of a sentence” (see above, § 28 ). At the end of the sentence, as a rule (with non-emphatic intonation), “new” is put, that is, words that carry the first reported in this proposal information (in our example, commuter train derailed). Secondary elements - circumstances that indicate the time and place of action - are usually located at the beginning of the sentence (with the exception of those cases when they themselves turn out to be “new”, that is, when they account for the semantic center of the message). Wed other similar examples: 1

The communicative division of a sentence is by no means the only factor that determines the choice of one or another word order in a sentence during translation. Changing the word order in the process of translation can be caused by other reasons. In most cases it is accompanied

1 In English sentences, “new” is distinguished here not by word order, but by the indefinite article (see Yu. Kattser and V. Kunin, Ukaz, soch., p. 27).

transformations and of a different nature, in particular, substitutions, examples of which will be given below.

Sometimes, in the process of translation, one or another word is rearranged from one sentence to another, as, for example, in the following case:

I put on this hat that I "d bought in New York that morning. It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks. (J. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 3)

I… put on red hat I bought in New York this morning. It was a hunting hat, with a very, very long visor.

The possibility of such a transfer here is due to the repetition of the noun hat, to to which the permuted adjective belongs red, in two related sentences.

When translating, it is also often the case the phenomenon of changing the order of parts of a complex sentence(clauses) - main and subordinate clauses. See for example:

If he ever gets married, his own wife "ll probably call him "Ackley". (J. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 3).

Probably his wife would call him "Ackley" too, if he ever got married.

In the English text, the subordinate clause precedes the main clause, while in the Russian translation, on the contrary, the main clause precedes the subordinate clause. There are also opposite cases. In the following two examples, in the English sentence, the main clause precedes the subordinate clause, while in the Russian translation the order of the sentences changes and at the same time the complex sentence is replaced by a compound one, that is, the permutation is accompanied by a change in the type of syntactic connection characteristic of translation from English into Russian (see below in the section " Substitutions"):

The silver saucer clattered when he replaced the pitcher. (H. Lee, to kill a mockingbird, 3)

He quickly put down the pitcher, even the silver stand clinked.

Didn't take another look at my hat while he was cleaning them. (J. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 3)

He cleaned them, and he looked at my hat.

Finally, as was pointed out, the permutation can also be independent sentences in the structure of the text. As an example, consider the following:

"You gain" to court this morning?" asked Jem. We had strolled over. (H. Lee, to kill a mockingbird, 16)

We approached her fence. 1 - Will you go to court? asked Jim.

Here the need for rearrangement is due to the fact that the Past Perfect form in the second sentence of the English text expresses the meaning of the preceding action of the action indicated in the first sentence. Since the Russian form approached does not express this meaning, the preservation of the original order of the sentences in the translation would lead to a semantic distortion (the action denoted by the verb approached, would be perceived as following rather than preceding the action denoted by the verb asked) hence the need for permutation of sentences. (Compare another way of conveying grammatical meaning in Russian English form Past Perfect - lexical type additions before, before etc., described above in § 37.)

Permutations as a type of translation transformation are quite common, however, they are usually combined with various kinds of grammatical and lexical substitutions, which will be discussed in the next section.

Substitutions

§ 52. Substitutions are the most common and diverse type of translation transformation. In the process of translation, both grammatical units - word forms, parts of speech, sentence members, types of syntactic connection, etc. - and lexical units can be replaced, in connection with which we can talk about grammatical and lexical substitutions. In addition, not only individual units, but also entire constructions (the so-called complex lexico-grammatical substitutions) can be replaced, examples of which will be given below.

1 Here the transfer strolled over like approached her fence is an example of contextual instantiation, which will be discussed below.

a) Substitutions of word forms

Examples of substitutions in the process of translation of grammatical forms of a word (word forms) - number of nouns, tense of verbs, etc. - were given above (see §§ 36 and 38, ch. 3).

b) Substitutions of parts of speech

This type of replacement is very common. The simplest form of it is the so-called "pronominalization", or the replacement of a noun by a pronoun, of which the following passage is an example:

At first he hung in his grandfather's room, but soon grandfather drove him to our attic, because starling, learned to tease grandfather...(M. Gorky, Childhood, VII)

At first the bird hung in my grandfather's room, but soon he outlawed it to our attic, because it began to imitate him...

There is also a reverse replacement of a pronoun by a noun , such as:

I took possession of his effects after his death", I explained. "They were done up in a parcel and I was directed to give them to you." (S. Maugham, A Casual Affair

- Everything that was left of him after his death was given to me,” I explained. - Letters and cigarette case were bundled. On it was written: to pass lady Castellan, personally, (translated by M. Litvinova)

Here, the specification of the pronouns they and you is carried out on the basis of data from a wide context; cf. a few pages up:

I took the parcel... Inside was another wrapping, and on this, in a neat, well-educated writing: ...Please deliver personally to the Viscountess Kastellan ... The first thing I found was a gold and platinum cigarette cases... Besides the cigarette-case there was nothing but a bundle of letters.

Thus, here we have one more example of the establishment of semantic equivalence at the level of the entire translated text as a whole, expressed in the redistribution

semantic elements between separate sentences of the text in FL and TL (see above § 3, 4).

A very typical substitution when translating from English into Russian is the replacement of a verbal noun with a verb in the personal form. Here are examples of this kind of substitution:

He had one of those very piercings whistles that was practically never in tune... (J. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 4)

Whistle he's awfully shrill and always fake

(Here, as in other examples that follow, replacing a noun with a verb also requires replacing the adjective defining the noun with an adverb: piercing - piercingly.)

It is our hope that the Human Rights Commission will he able to establish a presence in Guyana. ("The Canadian Tribune", 21.III.73)

We hope that the Commission on Human Rights would be able to send representatives to Guyana.

(Here the replacement is based on the identity of the deep structure of the nominalized group our hope and the sentence we hope; see above, § 39 and the example given there of replacing the verbal noun abandonment with the personal form of the verb left.)

It is natural and usual to replace the English verbal noun - the name of the figure (usually with the suffix -er) with the Russian personal form of the verb when translating. 1 Examples of this kind are very common:

"Oh, I" m no dancer, but I like watching her dance." (G. Greene, The Quiet American, p. I, Ch. Ill)

But I'm not dancing, I just love to watch her dance, (translated by R. Wright-Kovaleva and S. Mitina)

I'm quite a heavy smokers, for one thing... (J. Salinger, The Catcher In The Rye, I)

First, I I smoke like a locomotive...

I "m a very rapid packer.(ib., 7)

I am very fast fit in.

He's not a terribly good mixer.(ib., 8)

1 See M. M. Falkovich. Possible directions of comparative lexical research. "Foreign languages at school", 1973, No. 1, pp. 19-20.

He is not very converges with people.

I am very good golfer.(ib., 11)

I am very well playing golf...

I "m a very light eater.(ib., 15)

I eat very little.

The funny part was, though, we were the worst skaters on the whole goddam rink. (ib., 17)

But the funny thing is that on this whole damn ice rink we rode worst of all.

Naturally, I never told him I thought he was a terrific whistler.(ib., 17)

Of course, I never told him that he was wonderful. whistles.

Wasn't a pretty heavy drinker.(ib., 24)

He...drank like a horse.

There are cases of substitutions and other parts of speech. Quite common is the replacement of an adjective (most often formed from geographical name) to a noun:

Australian prosperity was followed by a slump. one

For economic prosperity australia followed by a crisis.

Wed also the british government- government England; the American decision- solution USA; the Congolese Embassy - Embassy Congo etc. (The replacement is everywhere accompanied, according to the rules of Russian grammar, by a rearrangement of the definition from preposition to postposition to the word being defined.)

English adjectives in the form of a comparative degree can, when translated into Russian, be replaced by verbal nouns with the meaning of increasing or decreasing volume, size or degree (such as increase, decrease, increase, decrease, decrease etc. 2), for example:

The stoppage, which is in support of higher pay and shorter working hours, began on Monday.

1 Example taken from T.R. Levitskaya and A.M. Fiterman "Theory and practice of translation from English into Russian", p. 62 for other examples of such a substitution.

2 See Y. Katzer, A. Cooney n. Decree, op., p. 73.

The strike, the participants of which demand raise wages and cuts working day, started on Monday.

Adjectives in translation can also be replaced by a group "preposition + noun", acting in an attributive function, such as:

You always got these very lumpy mashed potatoes... (J. Salinger, The Catcher in Ihe Rye, 5)

They were always served with mashed potatoes. with lumps.

An adjective in a predicative function (with a linking verb be or another) is often replaced by a verb: to be glad - rejoice to be angry- be angry, to be silent be silent etc., for example:

I really happy to see him. (ib., 4)

I told him rejoiced.

He was too conceited,(ib., 4)

Too he imagines.

c) Replacement of the members of the proposal

(restructuring of the syntactic structure of the sentence) -

When the members of a sentence are replaced, words and groups of words in the translation text are used in syntactic functions other than their counterparts in the original text - in other words, the syntactic scheme of the sentence is restructured (“restructured”). The reasons for this kind of restructuring may be different. Most often, it is caused by the need to convey the "communicative articulation" of the sentence, which was discussed in the previous sections. 1 We have already noted that in a Russian sentence the word order is determined almost exclusively by factors associated with “communicative articulation” - “new”, that is, a word or group of words that carry information for the first time is placed (in non-emphatic speech) at the end of the sentence, and "given" -

1 This question was developed in detail in the dissertation work of L.A. Chernyakhovskaya in relation to translation from Russian into English.

a word or group of words that carry information already known (usually from the previous context) - at the beginning of a sentence. As for the English language, in it the order of words in a sentence, as was said, is determined primarily by syntactic factors, that is, the function of a particular word as a member of a sentence: the subject in the vast majority of cases precedes the predicate, while the object follows the predicate.

On the other hand, in the English sentence, in general, the same order of arrangement of the elements of “communicative articulation” (given and new) prevails as in Russian, except for the case when the “new” is a subject-noun with an indefinite article (examples which were given in § 51), in the English sentence the order "given - new" dominates. This is achieved mainly by bringing the syntactic scheme of the English sentence in line with its communicative division: “given” in the sentence is in the overwhelming majority of cases the subject, and “new” is “the predicate group or some of the members of the predicate group (for example, addition). This necessitates a syntactic restructuring of the sentence when it is translated into Russian - the English subject is replaced by some minor member (addition or circumstance) standing (as "given") in the first place, and one of minor members the group of the predicate of the English sentence (complement or, more rarely, the predicative member of the linking verb) becomes the subject of the Russian sentence. Often this also requires an appropriate replacement of the verb-predicate.

The most common example of this kind of syntactic rearrangement is the replacement of the English passive construction by the Russian active one, in which the English subject in the Russian sentence corresponds to the object at the beginning of the sentence (as "given"); the subject in the Russian sentence becomes the word corresponding to the English addition with by, or the subject is absent altogether (the so-called “indefinitely personal” construction); the passive form of the English verb is replaced by the active form of the Russian verb. Wed, for example:

Was not met by his sister.

His sister met him.

He was given money.

They gave him money.

I was offered another post.

I was offered a new position.

Visitors are requested to leave their coats in the cloakroom.

Visitors are asked to leave outerwear in the cloakroom.

The door was opened by a middle-aged Chinese woman… (S. Maugham, A Casual Affair

A middle-aged Chinese woman opened the door for us.

Such transformations (“passive → active”) are quite common and are described in many grammars of the English language intended for Russians. 1 Like the other transformations described in this section, they are “reversible”, that is, when translating from Russian into English, the “opposite” transformation “active” → “passive” is used in appropriate cases.

Quite common (although they are not described in normative grammars) are also cases where the subject of an English sentence is replaced by a circumstance when translated into Russian. Often this transformation is performed when there is a subject-noun or substantive phrase in the English sentence with the meaning of time; in the Russian sentence it is replaced by the circumstance of time, and the subject becomes a word or phrase that is the equivalent of the complement of the English sentence. This transformation also requires the replacement of the transitive verb of the English sentence by an intransitive verb (or, more rarely, a passive verb) in the Russian sentence. Wed the following examples:

The last week has seen an intensification of the diplomatic activity...

During the past week, there has been an increase in diplomatic activity ... (or: Last week there was ...)

The eight years from 1963 through 1970 saw the publication of relatively eight full treatments of the subject. ("Language", v. 48, No 4)

1 See, for example, L.S. Barkhudarov and D.A. Stehling. English Grammar, §§ 229, 232-234.

Such a turn with the verb see (devoid of a specific lexical meaning and denoting here only the very fact of the existence, existence of this or that event or phenomenon) is quite typical for the language of the English press; cf.: 1973 saw... - In 1973 G....; The next week will see... - Next week...; Tonight sees... - Tonight etc. In the function of the addition to the verb see, a verbal noun of the type publication, beginning, renewal, performance, etc. is usually used, which in Russian translation is transformed into a verb-predicate: was published, started, resumed, was performed etc.

A similar transformation takes place in other cases, when the English subject ("given"), standing at the beginning of the sentence, expresses certain adverbial meanings. So, often in the Russian translation the English subject is replaced by the adverb of place:

The little town of Clay Cross today witnessed a massive demonstration... ("Morning Star", 4.XII.72)

Today in the small town of Clay Cross there was a mass demonstration...

The room was too damn hot. (J. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, 3)

The room was extremely hot...

V last example there is also a replacement of parts of speech - the transformation of the adjective hot into a noun heat.

A similar syntactic transformation is observed when translating into Russian typical constructions of the English press: The communique says...- The communiqué says...; The resolution declares... - The resolution says...; The note strongly protests... - The note expresses a strong protest... etc. Compare:

The memorandum accuses the present government with violations which include the rigging of elections... ("The Canadian Tribune", 21.III.73)

The memorandum accuses the current government of a number of violations of the law, including electoral fraud.

The same type of turnovers are often found in the texts of the scientific genre, for example:

Chapter 8 discusses some general considerations with regard to semantic structure. (W. Chafe, Meaning and the Structure of Language

Chapter 8 sets out some general considerations regarding semantic structure.

Fig. 50 shows diagrammatically a single-phase induction wattmeter. (M.A. Belyaeva et al., Collection of technical texts in English)

On fig. 50 shows a diagram of a single-phase induction wattmeter.

(Here there is also a replacement of parts of speech - adverbs diagrammatically with a noun scheme.)

Here are a few more examples of the replacement of the English subject by the Russian circumstance, which is typical for the translation of newspaper and informational texts:

The careful reconstruction of the last years has unearthed many historic treasures. ("Morning Star", 23.III.73)

During the ongoing last years careful restoration, numerous historical values were discovered.

Military operations carried out by them in some cases have involved whole divisions, (ib.)

Entire divisions sometimes took part in their military operations.

Often Russian circumstance has the meaning of cause, as for example:

The crash killed 106 people, (from newspapers)

The plane crash killed 106 people. one

Of course, this type of syntactic transformation is also “reversible”, that is, when translating from Russian into English, the “opposite” replacement of the circumstance by the subject occurs, accompanied by other required replacements. Here is just one example (large

1 The indicated type of translation transformations is described in the article by O. Meshkov “On one type of translation correspondences”, “Translator's Notebooks”, no. 9, 1972. p. 45-50.

the number of similar examples is given in the dissertation of L.A. Chernyakhovsky):

In the chests he had a lot of outlandish outfits ... (M. Gorky, Childhood)

His trunks were full of many extraordinary costumes...

The restructuring of the syntactic structure of a sentence during translation may be due to other reasons, in addition to the need to transfer the communicative articulation of the sentence. A detailed description of this translational transformation and the reasons behind it can be found in existing translation manuals. one

It should be borne in mind that in many cases this kind of restructuring is determined not by grammatical, but by stylistic considerations. So, in the following example, there is a simultaneous replacement of both sentence members and parts of speech:

After dinner they talked long and quietly. (S. Maugham, before the party)

After dinner, they had a long, sincere conversation, (translated by E. Kalashnikova)

The grammatical norms of the Russian language quite allow here the preservation of the structure of the original sentence: After dinner they talked long and sincerely; however, the first option is stylistically much more acceptable.

d) Syntactic substitutions in a complex sentence

In the structure of a complex sentence, the following types of syntactic transformations are most often observed: 1) replacement of a simple sentence with a complex one; 2) replacing a complex sentence with a simple one; 3) replacement of the main clause by a subordinate clause and vice versa; 4) substitution of subordination by composition and vice versa; 5) replacement of an allied type of connection with an allied one and vice versa.

1 See, for example, the following manuals: V.N. Komissarov, Ya.I. Retsker, V.I. Tarkhov. Manual for translation from English into Russian. Part II; T.R. Levitskaya, A.M. Fiterman. Manual for translation from English into Russian. M., Higher School, 1973.

What is the name of the permutation of the main parts of the sentence. Semantic and stylistic meaning of word order in a sentence. Anaphrasia as a generator of metaphors and a literary device

Permutations

Substitutions

Additions

Omissions

1. Permutations