Translatioin of Political Literature - Иностранные языки - Скачать бесплатно
words like у здания (посольства),
состоявшиеся (в субботу походы), а также принятые различными (организациями
резолюции). The word last in the last Saturday was omitted because it would
make the translation more difficult, but we can conceive it by the
contextual meaning of the sentence.
The strengthening function of the phrase have done something to show
was rendered by the adverb явно свидетельствуют.
And the English cliche to speak for was translated by the Russian one
говорить от имени. And at last I should say that I metonymically translated
the word Britain into весь английские народ.
Thus, while translating this sentence we have made use of grammatical
transformations and lexical as well.
As you know, English has an analytical character and therefore the
relation between words is mostly expressed by word-order, that’s by
syntactic means, and morphological means play the secondary role. The
priority of the role of syntactical changes appears in many cases but they
do not always have similar conformities in Russian language which makes the
translator make use of various transformations while translating a piece of
political literature. Here we can point to well-known features of the
location of syntactic items in the English, e.i. the combination of
logically incompatible homogeneous part of the sentence, the essential use
of introductory sentences, the break of logical chain of the sentence, and
especially while expressing the noun and the attribute of the sentences.
The syntactic structure of a language imposes restrictions on the way
messages may be organized in that language. The order in which functional
elements such as subject, predicator, and object may occur is more fixed in
some languages than in others. Languages vary in the extent to which they
rely on word order to signal the relationship between elements in the
clause. Compared to languages such as German, Russian, Finnish, Arabic, and
Eskimo, word order in English is relatively fixed. The meaning of a
sentence in English, and in languages with similarly fixed word order such
as Chinese, often depends entirely on the order in which the elements are
placed. (cf. The man ate the fish and The fish ate the man).
The structural features of English language require structural
completeness of the sentence. One can not omit a word without supplying
another one instead. This criterion is governed by stylistic preference of
the language to prevent word and make the sentence more emphatic. Even if
the repetition is frequent in English its use in most cases is logically
required and stylistically proved to be necessary. Otherwise, repetition is
accepted as unnecessary component of the sentence or one of the stylistic
shortcomings of the translation. The demand of syntactical completeness of
the sentences and others stylistic criteria explain here the wide usage of
structure filling words (слова заместители). The structure filling words
include pronouns (one, ones, this, that, these, those) and verbs (to do, to
be, to have, shall, should, will, would, can, could, might, may, must,
ought, need, dare).
Its quite evident that the structure filling words do not have
denotative meaning, they are absolutely contextual. They should be related
to conforming nouns and the verb form the fill and only afterwards they
acquire lexical completeness. The verb-filling words are usually divided
into two parts: fully filling and partially filling ones. To the first
group belong the verb to do in the Present Indefinite which act in the role
of fully filling word. It can replace the verbs of function. To the second
group belong all other structure filling words. They act like a part of the
whole just like the representative of compound verb form.
While translating the structure filling words we have to use words with
complete meaning (sometimes pronouns) or make use of some other kinds of
functional filling.
The new British Government will face many problems, both acute and
chronic: an acute one will be Northern Ireland, acute among chronic ones
will be inflation and rising prices.
Новое британское правительство столкнётся со многими проблемами как
неотложного, так и затяжного характера. К неотложным проблемам относится
положение в Северной Ирландии, а к проблемам, носящим затяжной характер, -
инфляция и рост цен.
While translating this piece we had to decipher the structure filling
words and render their meaning by means of conforming nouns.
When comparing the grammatical categories and forms of English and
Russian languages we identify the following differences: a) the absence of
the categories in one of the comparing languages, b) partial correspondence
and c) complete correspondence. The necessity of grammatical
transformations arise only on two first cases. When comparing the English
with Russian we should mention that Russian does not have the notions like
article and gerund and absolute nominative constructions as well. Partial
conformity and unconformity in meaning and usage of corresponding forms and
constructions also demands grammatical transformations. We can refer to
this case the partial unconformity of the category of number, partial
unconformity in the forms of passive constructions, partial unconformity of
the form of infinitive and gerund and some other differences in expressing
the modality of the clause and so on.
First of all we should consider the article for article both definite
and indefinite which despite its abstract meaning very frequently demands
semantic expression in translation. As we know both these articles
originated from pronouns; the definite one originated from index pronoun
and the indefinite one from indefinite pronoun, which refers to number one.
These primary meanings are sometimes obvious in their modern usage. In this
cases their lexical meaning should be rendered in translation otherwise the
Russian sentence would be incomplete and ambiguous for denotative meaning
of articles is an inseparable part of the whole context meaning of a given
sentence. There are cases when classifying function of indefinite articles
is so obvious that one should render its meaning by some lexical item.
It is commonly stated that government should resign if defeated in a
major issue in the House of Commons which has been made one of confidence.
(The Times).
Обычно утверждают, что правительство должно подать в отставку, если оно
потерпит поражение в Палате общин по какому-нибудь серьёзному вопросу,
который оппозиция считает вопросом о доверии правительству.
In this case the indefinite article acquires the meaning of the pronoun
some. One can easily see its historical relation with the number one in the
following example:
Yet, H.G. Wells had not an enemy on earth.
Однако у Герберта не было ни единого врага на свете.
As has been pointed before the most difficult are cases when
classifying meanings of indefinite articles demand semantic transfer in
translation.
We need a Government which believes in planning ahead for jobs and
which will use available labor to build homes for the British people.
Нам нужно такое правительство, которое было бы убеждено в
целесообразности планирования занятости и использовало бы наличную рабочую
силу в строительстве домов для населения.
The emphatic role of the indefinite article in its classifying function
is more expressed in the following sentence.
The Vietnam war had revealed the true nature of a U.S. foreign policy
that can be purchased ruthlessly for the benefit of a view in the “military-
industrial complex”.
Война во Вьетнаме вскрыла истинную природу той внешней политики США,
которая проводится беспощадными методами ради выгоды немногих
представителей «военно-промышленного комплекса».
Pretty often the definite article demands translation in cases when it
comes before numerals.
The two sides also signed a Treaty in the Limitation of Underground
Nuclear Tests.
Обе стороны подписали договор об ограничении подземных испытаний
атомного оружия.
The Southern nations remained quiet between 1948 and 1958 as Latin
America’s economy grew at an impressive annual rate of 4.3 percent.
С 1948 по 1958 южные страны пребывали в относительном спокойствии, в то
время как экономика Латинской Америки развивалась впечатлительным темпом в
4.3 процента в год.
In the following sentence both articles demands translation.
The influence and authority of the UN Secretariat depends to an extent
(though not nearly to the extent that is popularly supposed) on the talents
of one individual – the Secretary-General. The job is a peculiar one.
Влияние и авторитет секретариата ООН зависят в известной степени (хотя
и не в такой степени, как обычно полагают) от качеств одного человека –
Генерального секретаря. Это чрезвычайно своеобразная должность.
The lexical meaning of the article is strongly expressed when it acts
in like a link connecting parts of the sentences or two separate sentences
as given in the example above. From the mentioned above cases we can judge
that missing article translation may lead to misinterpretation or incorrect
and incomplete translation of a sentence.
The role of verb complexes in English is quite evident therefore we
will consider only some peculiar cases of verb transformations during
translation.
First of all let us consider the verb construction with the preposition
for:
…American military bases on foreign territories which are intended for
launching missiles possessed by United States’ armed forces.
… американские военные базы на территориях других государств, которые
предназначены для запуска ракет американскими ВВС.
In this case the infinitive construction is translated like adverbial
modifier of purpose.
The construction with secondary predicate (so-called Nominative with
the Infinitive) is widely used in newspaper style due to its preciseness
and because it help to avoid the responsibility for the given information.
The United States Congress is aimed to control all the financial
expenses of the Government.
Целью конгресса Соединённых Штатов является контроль всех расходов
правительства.
It is natural that transformation is required while translating
sentences with participles of absolute nominative construction.
But often enough grammatical transformations are necessary while
rendering conforming forms and constructions for some divergence in their
meaning and usage. Such differences of opinions are observed in cases of
usage of the category of number. This refers to both countable and
uncountable nouns. Countable nouns have single and plural forms in both
languages that usually coincide still we observe cases when their usage is
different, ex.:
War Atrocity on Peace Conference Eve (news head).
Зверства (интервентов) накануне мирной конференции
Concerning uncountable nouns, especially those expressing abstract
notions we may have much more difficulties because most of them are
paradigmatic. For example: ink – чернила, money – деньги and so on.
Increasingly, Southern Africa is becoming the arena of national
liberation struggles.
Южная Африка всё больше и больше становится районом национально-
освободительной борьбы.
Sometimes, despite the availability of the plural form in Russian – its
usage is impossible owing to difference in combination and usage.
The Nile Valley appears to have been unfit for human habitation during
the Stone Ages.
Долина Нила, по-видимому, была не пригодна для жизни человека на
протяжении всего каменного века (во все периоды каменного века).
In Russian the Stone Age expression is of a historical nature and is
never used in plural.
In cases when plural form is to be preserved for it carries some
inherent sense one has to apply countable nouns, ex.:
Strikes broke out in many British industries.
В ряде отраслей промышленности Англии вспыхнули забастовки.
Sometimes, owing to some reasons some of constructions has wider usage
in one languages comparing with other languages. The best example of this
is the passive form – widely used in English mostly due to disappearance of
word flexion. As a result, both indirect and predicative object maybe
transformed into the objects of passive construction.
Stones and bottles were showered upon a Negro demonstration in
Milwaukee by white racists.
Белые расисты обрушили град камней и бутылок на негритянскую
демонстрацию в Милуоки (забросали камнями и бутылками).
We should notice that the passive-active transformation can not give
sufficient result for in passive construction the stress is being made on
the object of action and in the active construction the stress is being
made on the agent of action. The widespread use of passive construction in
English happens often enough because it is explained by unimportance of the
doer of that action and it is most often in newspaper style at the same
time the most important is to attract attention to the passage. Since the
structure and word order of simple sentence is subject + predicate + object
the importance of stylistics is bigger then to distinguish the object one
chooses the passive construction.
Divergence are found in some other cases of infinitive usage –
infinitive in substantivized constructions (like post-positive attribute)
and infinitive expressing following actions, for example:
The president warned of drastic steps to be taken against racialists in
the Zambian copper belt.
Президент предупредил, что будут предприняты решительные меры против
белых расистов в Медном поясе Замбии.
The infinitive functioning as attribute is translated into object
clause with the verb in the Future tense.
The Continuative Infinitive is often mistaken for the infinitive of
purpose, but in this function it expresses the action following the after
the action expressed by predicate and represents the logical development of
things.
The Soviet Union decided to sign the Treaty with Germany and only did
to discover that Germany itself violated it two years later.
Советский Союз решил заключить договор с Германией. Но два года спустя
Германия сама нарушила его.
The Continuative infinitive very often is used with the adverb only
which stresses it. This emphatic function can be rendered in many ways.
Thus, all the considered cases – absence of conforming form, partial
correspondence, differences in character and use – urge translators to make
necessary grammatical transformations while translating some piece. Those
grammatical transformations maybe divided into following types:
1) substitution
2) transposition
3) omission (ellipsis)
4) supplementation
Substitution is one of the grammatical relations among the parts of the
sentences. In substitution, an item (or items) is replaced by another item
(or items), ex:
I like politics. And I do.
In this example, do is a substitute for like politics . Items commonly
used in substitution in English include do, one, and the same, as in the
following examples from Halliday and Hasan:
You think US will start the war against Iraq? – No one does.
We make use of substitution while translating a piece because of
several reasons: absence of similar construction in Russian language,
unconformity in usage of corresponding forms and constructions and some
lexical reasons, which include different word usage and different norms of
combinability in English and Russian and the absence of the part of speech
with corresponding meaning.
An attempted overthrow in Peru.
Попытка совершить переворот в Перу.
In Russian we do not have the conforming participle II of the verb
пытаться. And this made us change the part of speech; the participle
attempted was translated into Russian by the noun попытка. The expression
попытка переворота does not conform to the norms of Russian language that’s
why we have to apply additional word совершить.
While translating the following text we will have to use substitution
several times.
On the whole the “popular’’ press – with the New York Daily News as its
cheer-leader – is vociferous in its support of the President’s policies and
merciless toward those who attack them. But among the so-called “quality”
papers led by the New York Times there is a growing mood of doubt and
questioning.
В общем «массовые» газеты, во главе с Нью-Йорк дейли ньюс», громогласно
поддерживают политику президента и беспощадно обрушиваются на тех, кто
критикует её. Но среди так называемых «качественных» газет, возглавляемых
«Нью-Йорк таймс», всё больше растут сомнение и неуверенность (в её
правильности).
In the first sentence are used the verbal noun, verb link and two
predicative parts expressed by adjectives with object clauses. In this
translation verbal nouns very replaced by predicative ones (именные
сказуемые были заменены глагольными): поддерживают and обрушиваются. Both
predicative parts of the sentence have been translated by adverbs:
громогласно, беспощадно. In the second sentence the introductory
construction there is was translated by predicative verb and the participle
growing was transformed into the function of an attribute. The noun mood
was omitted and its attribute of doubt and questioning was turned into its
object.
The transformation of ‘active’ into ‘passive’ is also when a translator
uses substitution.
More light was shed yesterday on the effect of C.S. gas, which was
claimed by Pentagon to be virtually harmless to health.
Вчера поступили дополнительные сведения о вредном действии газа C.S.,
который, по утверждению Пентагона, якобы не опасен для здоровья.
The phraseological unit more light was shed was translated by means of
lexical transformation and the passive construction was replaced by an
active one. The passive construction in the object clause also undergone
lexical transformation – verbal construction was substituted by substantive
one: по утверждению.
This example can illustrate the fact that lexical and grammatical
transformations are closely related with each other.
Transposition, that’s, change of structure of the sentence may be
caused by several reasons. But the main of them, as it has been mentioned
before is the difference in the structure of the English and Russian
languages. The fixed order of words in English bears hierarchic character,
first come the primary parts of the sentence; noun, predicate followed by
secondary parts. In Russian the word order is not fixed but one can observe
the tendency to locate the main information at the end of sentences
expressing it be the noun. The academic grammar of Russian points that the
word order in Russian sentences follows the model: adverbial modifier,
predicate and then the noun – that’s the order absolutely opposite to
English. In Russian, the secondary part of the sentence can stand at the
beginning if it represents the starting point of expression and introduces
theme of given information, ex:
Вчера в Вашингтоне состоялась пресс-конференция.
The essence of the information is пресс-конференция – which is
expressed by the noun located at the end of the sentence. Nevertheless,
this word-order is not obligatory, ex:
Премьер-министр выступил вчера по телевидению.
Here we find the main essence at the beginning of sentence.
In English, according to fixed word order, the noun of the sentence
stands at the beginning of clause. One of the prominent English linguists,
Halliday marks that, usually (but not always) a starting point is intrinsic
to English sentences.
Still in many cases the English sentence happens to be the center of
informative message, compare A Press Conference was held in Washington
yesterday. Usually it happens when the noun of the sentence is expressed
with an indefinite article. Something, semantically new has got to be
expressed in the sentence, and the earlier one should be opposed to the new
one, which is being expressed. Therefore the indefinite article functions
represents this new information, introduces it.
A smash-and-grab raid on two of the most important nationalized
industries is being organized by the Tory Party.
Консерваторы собираются обрушиться на две самые значительные
национализированные отрасли промышленности.
(the metaphor smash-and-grab has not been preserved in translated
version)
Nevertheless, similar word order in English and Russian sentences are
also evident.
A meeting of firemen’s and employers’ representatives scheduled for
today has been postponed.
Намеченная на сегодня встреча представителей пожарников и
предпринимателей была отложена.
A Catholic priest in South Africa told of the malnutrition, disease and
starvation there.
Один католический священник из Южной Африки рассказывал о существующем
там недоедании, болезнях и голоде.
Transposition is required when the English sentence contains a large
group of nouns with indefinite article and then it is natural that they,
being the center of informative message are placed at the end of the
sentence. Besides, a short, compared with the noun predicate can not bear
the emphatic sense of a large group of nouns.
A big wave of actions by all sections of workers – skilled and
unskilled, men and women, manual and non-manual – for higher wages and
equal pay, for shorter hours and a greater say in shaping the environment
at work is rising.
Сейчас нарастает огромная волна забастовок трудящихся всех категорий –
квалифицированных и не квалифицированных, мужчин и женщин, работников
физического и умственного труда – за повышение зарплаты, за равную оплату
женского труда, за сокращение рабочего дня, за улучшение условий труда.
It is very frequent when grammatical and lexical transformations demand
supplementation or omission of some words or elements. Therefore omission
and supplementation are frequently combined with other types of grammatical
transformations and more frequently with substitution of parts of speech.
Supplementation of parts of speech are characterized by several factors:
difference in structures of the sentences and that short English sentences
demand spread translation in the Russian language. Absence of some
corresponding word or lexical-semantic variant in both languages is also
one of the reasons of applying additional words in translation.
The American troops were thought to be heading toward Saigon, but no
one seemed to be aware of fierce resistance of the nation.
Полагали, что американские войска направляется на Сайгон, но казалось,
что никто не знал о жестоком сопротивлении местного населения.
The construction Nominative + Infinitive with two omitted elements
(which was) was given in object clause plus introductory sentences…
который, как полагали раньше, движется… Thus, the difference in the
structure of sentences demanded supplementation in the given translation.
In the following example, supplementation was caused by absence of
corresponding word in Russian to English conservationists.
The actions of Congress and of North Carolina and Tennessee statesmen,
aided by gifts of wise conservationists, have set this land aside as Great
Smoky National Park.
Эта местность на берегу реки Смоки-Хилл была превращена в Национальный
парк благодаря усилиям Конгресса и государственных деятелей штатов Северная
Каролина и Теннеси, а также благодаря пожертвованиям любителей природы,
понимающих всю важность её сохранения.
While translating this sentence besides transposition we have made many
other transformations and as a matter of the first importance we should
mentions the supplementation we have accomplished. In regard to the absence
on corresponding word in the Russian language to the English
conservationists we have rendered it by two words любителей природы; and
taking into consideration the combinability of the attribute wise we have
translated it by adverbial modifier applying introductory words like
понимающих всю важность её сохранения, the noun сохранения renders all the
essence of the given sentence which is contained in conservationists. To
make the perception of the sentence easier we have we added the words
штатов, на берегу реки. The last supplementation was made on the basis of
its spread context. The passive participle aided was rendered by
preposition благодаря. We should also point to lexico-grammatical
transformation: have set this land aside – эта местность …была превращена.
Ellipsis involves the omission of an item. In other words, in ellipsis
an item is replaced by nothing. This is a case of leaving something unsaid
which is nevertheless understood. It doesn’t include every instance when
the hearer or reader has to supply missing information, but only those
cases where grammatical structure itself points to an item or items that
can fill the slot in question. Here are some examples of ellipsis:
The United States donated two millions dollars and Britain one and a
half millions pounds. (omitted item: donated in second clause ).
Here are four strategies. Choose
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