Translation of attributive groups.

There is a considerable dissimilarity in the semantic structure of attributive groups in English and in Russian. This dissimilarity gives rise to a number of translation problems.

1). The first group of problems stems from the broader semantic relationships between the attribute and the noun. As has been pointed out the attribute may refer not only to some property of the object but also to its location, purpose, cause, etc. As a result, the translator has to make a thorough analysis of the context to find out what the meaning of the group is in each particular case. The following attributive groups are common both in English and in Russian: "a green tree" – “зелене дерево”. But the semantic relationships between the components of other group are broader in English, which often makes impossible a calque translation of the group into Ukrainian/Russian. As often as not the English attributive group is used to convey various adverbial ideas of location, purpose, cause, etc. Consider such groups as Madrid trial (location), profits drive (purpose), war suffering (cause). Such groups may also express various action-object relationships: cf. labour movement (movement by the workers), labour raids (raids against the workers), and labour spies (spies among the workers).

The translator must be also aware of the relative freedom of bringing together such semantic elements within the attributive group in English that are distanced from each other by a number of intermediate ideas. Thus a resolution submitted by an executive body of an organization may be described as the Executive resolution and the majority of votes received by such a resolution will be the Executive majority. If a word-for-word translation of the name of the executive body (e.g. the Executive Committee — виконавчий комітет) may satisfy the translator, the other two attributive groups will have to be explained in the Russian translation as резолюція, запропонована виконкомом, and більшисть голосів, що були подані за резолюцію, запропоновану виконкомом, respectively. So a word within an attributive group may sometimes change its meaning. So, war rehabilitation is rehabilitation of economy after the war, that is, post-war rehabilitation and Communist trials in the USA are trials of Communists or anti-Communist trials. As a result, many attributive groups are polysemantic and are translated in a different way in different contexts. War prosperity may mean prosperity during the war or prosperity in the post-war period caused by the war. The Berlin proposals may imply proposals made in Berlin (say, at an international conference), proposals made by Berlin (i.e. by Germany), and proposal on Berlin (of political, economic or other nature).

2). The second group of problems results from the difficulties in handling multi-member attributive structures. The English-speaking people make wide use of “multi-storied” structures with complicated internal semantic relationships. The tax paid for the right to take part in the election is described as the poll tax. The states where this tax is collected are the poll tax states and the governors of these states are the poll tax states governors. Now these governors may hold a conference which will be referred to as the poll tax states governors conference and so on.

3). The semantic relationships within a multi-member group need not be linear. Consider the following sentence:

It was the period of the broad western hemisphere and world pre-war united people's front struggle against fascism.

Here we have a whole network of semantic ties between the attributes and the noun: “broad” is directly referred to “struggle”, “western hemisphere” is joined with “world” and together they express the idea of location, i.e. “the struggle in the western hemisphere”; “pre-war” may be referred either to “struggle” or to the “united people's front”: “united” and “people's” belong to “front” and together they qualify the “struggle” implying either the “struggle by the united people's front” or the “struggle for the united people's front”.

In translation this complexity of semantic ties will be replaced by a number of different structures in which the hidden relations within it will be made explicit:

Це був час широкої довоєнної боротьби проти фашиз­му за єдиний народний фронт у Західній півкулі і всьому світі.

Such structures should be analyzed in terms of factors influencing the choice of Ukrainian/Russian variants rather than with the aim of listing regular correspondences.

4). The same goes true for attributive groups with latent predication where a whole sentence is used to qualify a noun as its attribute:

He was being the boss again, using the its-my-money-now-do-as-you-are-told voice.

Here correspondences can also be described in an indirect way only by stating that the attribute is usually translated into Russian as a separate sentence and that this sentence should be joined to the noun by a short introductory element.

The Judge's face wore his own I-knew-they-were-guilty-all-along expression.

На обличчі судді з`явився звичайний вираз, який говорив: “Я весь час знав, що вони винні”.

There was a man with a don't-say-anything-to-me-or-I'll-contradict-you face. (Ch. Dickens)

Там була людина, на обличчі якої було написано: що б ви мені не казали, я все одно буду вам перечити.

5). There is one more peculiar feature of the English attributive group which may be the cause of trouble for the translator. It may be transformed into a similar group with the help of a suffix which is formally attached to the noun but is semantically related to the whole group. Thus a sound sleeper may be derived from sound sleep or the man belonging to the Fifth column may be described as the Fifth columnist. The translator should be aware of the derivation process and should not rack his brains trying to figure out how a sleeper can be sound or in what kind of enumeration this particular columnist is the fifth. Rather, he should consider the meaning of the original groups sound sleep and the Fifth column and then realize that the added suffix makes the group refer to a person who enjoys this kind of sleep or is one of the subversive elements. As a rule, in the Ukrainian/Russian translation the meanings of the original group and of the suffix would be rendered separately, e.g.: человек, обладающий здоровым (крепким) сном (крепко спящий человек), and человек, принадлежащий к пятой колонне (член пятой колонны).

6). As often as not, translating the meaning of an English attributive group into Russian may involve a complete restructuring of the sentence:

To watch it happen, all within two and a half hours, was a thrilling sight.

Неможливо було не захоплюватися, спостерігаючі, як все це відбувалося протягом якихось двох з половиною годин.

7). Less radical changes in the structure of attributive groups in the process of translation may include translation transformations:

a) explication or decompression:

Loyalty procedures and vile government informer system are under sharp attack.

Перевірка лояльности і огидна система шпигунства, створена урядом, викликають гостре обурення.

b) transfer of the attribute:

Wall Street`s ambitious world economic empire – світова економічна імперія, яку намагаються створити честолюбні імперіалісти Уолл-стріт.

8). Still another way of rendering these word-combinations is with the help of prepositions:

Terrorist trial – суд над террористами, profits drive – гонитва за прибутком, suffocation death – смерть від задухи.

9). Multicomponental word-combinations demand a special approach in the process of translation:

stage 1 – find the key word which is usually the last word on the right-hand side; stage2 – analyze the left-hand side of the word-combination, determine the relationship between its components;

stage3 – combine the left-hand side with the right-hand side.

e.g. The Mail Train Robbery Case. – Справа про пограбування поштового потягу. Cabin pressure regulator. – Регулятор тиску в кабіні.

 

Exercise1. Point out the possible meanings of the following attributive groups:

1. Berlin proposal; 2.Gran Chaco war; 3.Dollar export drive; 4.heavy government expenditure; 5.pre-war slump talk; 6.Liberal Party strength; 7.Middle East Conference; 8.aggressive supporter; 9.bold adventurer; 10.labour quiescence; 11.festering grievances; 12. the nation's highest homicide rate; 13.wildlife management authorities; 14.four-part program; 15.environmentalist protest; 16.provincial government decision; 17.environmental consequen­ces; 18.safety violations; 19.fish-breeding pools. 20. hearty eater; 21.practical joker; 22.conscientious objector; 23.sleeping partner; 24.stumbling block; 25.smoking concert; 26.perfect likeness; 27.vested interest; 28.tough customer; 29.foregone conclusion; 30.top trade-union leaders; 31.collective bargaining rights; 32.consumers' goods industries; 33.post-war anti-labor drive; 34.point four program; 35.Liberal Party whip; 36.public school boy; 37.Good Neighbour policy; 38.strong party man; 39.CIO auto union president.

 

Exercise2. Find the key component for translating into Ukrainian the following phrases.

a) 1.the maximum end results; 2.Western business cir­cles; 3.the two-way trade exchanges; 4. Ukrainian-British business partnership; 5.nuclear power stations; 6.the second World War; 7.Concise Oxford Dictionary; 8.local sports clubs; 9.Kyїv railway station; 10.first-ever press con­ference; 11.British trade unions; 12.Royal Court Theatre; 13.the main passenger section; 14.brilliant Zagreb cartoons; 15.major ocean routes; 16.two-seater “city cars”; 17. three-party Coalition Government; 18.the South Afri­can trade mission; 19.larger-than-local sports projects; 20.the imperialist war machine; 21.Morning Star foreign editor; 22.Good Ryder Cup start.

b) 1.the next Cabinet meeting; 2.international Motor Show; 3.a former CIA official; 4.local education authori­ties; 5.off-shore oil deposits; 6.common profit aims; 7.Bri­tish woman doctor; 8.meagre salary increase; 9.current wages negotiations; 10.the 10 percent import surcharge; 11.intensive-type crop varieties; 12.the great Ormond Street hospital; 13.the British Ryder Cup team.

c) 1.the Labour Party resolution; 2.primary school teachers; 3.Republican Party conference; 4.two-colour ribbon adjustment; 5.working class strength; 6.political committee secretary; 7.economic growth rate; 8.civil defence organi­zation; 9.social insurance expenditure; 10.folk music fans; 11.local government jobs; 12.Engineering Unions officials; 13.national protest day.

d) 1.light weight metal frame; 2.UNO General Secretary; 3.former Labour foreign secretary; 4.tou­rist class double rooms; 5.the five-party Cabinet Consul­tative Committee; 6.a State circuit court; 7.Tory anti-union plans.

e) 1.USA postal service processes; 2.London-based Bangladesh Medical Association; 3.Decimal Currency Board (Gr. Brit.); 4.former Commonwealth Secretary; 5.anti-working class policies; 6.a solid fuel system; 7.anti-Common Market groups; 8.the super-heavyweight gold medal; 9.Scottish Electrical Workers Union; 10.increasing working class militancy; 11.the London Evening Standard.

 

Exercise3. Translate the sentences with special attention to attributive word-combinations.

1. Fleet Street misses no effective opportunity, it is true, to attack Russia; but it knows also that the British reader has no natural animosity to Russia and has no natural appetite for these attacks.

2. Maria, in her excitement, jammed the bedroom and bedroom closet doors together...

3. Right-wing trade union policy is expressing itself in a bankrupt helpless dithering before this capitalist offensive.

4. Thompson and Stein were fugitives from punitive measures inflicted by a fascist-minded judge on the basis of a verdict rendered by an intimidated and hand-picked jury and sustained by a reactionary Supreme Court majority.

5. The great demonstrations and actions against the Tory cuts in the Budget by the miners and other workers prepared the way for this electoral victory of the Labour Movement,

6. “Workers of Britain! In the Municipal elections elect Labour candidates and inflict an even more crushing defeat on the Tories than they suffered in the county council elections”.

7. Paris underground and bus transport services were stopped today by a 24-hour warning strike called by the C. G. T. (French T.U.C.) with the support of other unions.

8. The preoccupation with selling papers against fierce competition leads to the American practice of an edition every thirty seconds. This mania for speed, plus the man-bites-dog news formula, works to corrupt and discourage the men who handle news.

9. Finch keeps a hats-cleaned-by-electricity-while-you-wait establishment, nine feet by twelve, in Third Avenue.

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CHAPTER3.

PHRASEOLOGICAL (IDIOMATIC) AND STABLEWORD-

COMBINATIONS.

 

According to A.Kunin phraseological/idiomatic expressions are structurally, lexically and semantically stable language units having the meaning which is not made up by the sum of meanings of their component parts. An indispensable feature of phraseo­logical (idiomatic) expressions is their figurative i.e. meta­phorical nature and usage. It is this nature that makes them distinguishable from structurally identical free combinat­ions of words like: hot air – гаряче повітря (free comb.) and hot air – пустопорожні теревені (idiom.), to kick the bucket – копнути ногою цаберку (free comb.) and to kick the bucket – врізати дуба (idiom.). On rare occasions the lexical meaning of phraseologially bound expressions can coincide with their direct i.e. non-figurative meaning, which facilitates their under­standing as in the examples like: to make way дати дорогу, to die a dog's death здохнути як собака, to receive a hero's welcome зустрічати як героя.

Some single words (especially proper names) can also have figurative meanings and possess the nece­ssary expressiveness which are the distinguishing features of idioms: Croesus, Tommy (Tommy Atkins), Yankee, Mrs. Grundy, Jack Ketch, etc.These proper names can not be confused with usual (com­mon) proper names of people. As a result their figurative meaning is conveyed in a descriptive way. So Mrs. Grundy means світ, люди, існуюча мораль, Jack Ketch кат, Croesus Крез, надзвичайно багата людина, Tommy Atkins англій­ський солдат, Yankee (in Europe) янкі, американець, etc.

Phraseological (idiomatic) expressions should not be mixed up with other stable prepositional, adjectival, verbal and adverbial phrases the meaning of which is not an actual sum of meanings made up by their constituent parts either: by George, by and by, for all of, for the sake of, cut short, make believe; or compounds like: topsy-turvy, higgledy-piggledy, high and dry, cut and run, touch and go; Tom, Dick and Harry, etc. These and a lot of other stable expressions can very often be treat­ed as standardized collocations, i.e. phrases having components with limited combinative power and retaining their semantic independence. Their meaning can be conveyed in a descriptive way too, like that of genuine phraseological expressions: fifty-fifty так собі: ні добре, ні погано, O.K. все гаразд, на належному рівні, cut short обірвати, присікти.

But we must bear in mind that these units quite often acquire a certain additional modal meaning and only the context will help to translate them adequately: for that matter стосовно цього, у цьому відношенні, власне кажучі, можна сказати, по суті, фактично, etc.

V.Komissarov includes into this group phrases like to take a fancy, to have a rest, to have a shave, to break silence, to take heed, to take into account, etc. But the translator still should remember the difference in the combinability of words in different languages: to jump at conclusions робити поспішні висновки, to bearresemblanceбути схожим.

The stable expressions like standardized collocations, according to V. Vi-

nogradov's classification, have mostly a transparent meaning and are easier to translate than regu­lar idioms, phraseological word-combinations. It is simply impossible to guess, for example, the meaning of the English idiom Hobson's choice from the seemingly transparent meanings оf its component parts. A philological inquiry and context only help establish the meaning of the name and the real meaning of the idiom – nо choice whatsoever, acceptance of what is offered. Ya.Retsker emphasized the possibility of mistaking a free word-combination for a phraseological one and vice versa.

There exist different classifications of phraseological word-combinations the most widely used groups are phraseological unities and phraseological fusions.

Phraseological unities are the word-combinations where the meaning of the whole is not the sum of the meanings of its components but it is based on them and the motivation is apparent. They are often metaphoric and their metaphoric nature is easily seen. They may vary in their semantic and grammatical structure, not all of them are figurative. Here we find professionalisms, trite phrases, alliterations, coupled synonyms, etc. A.Kunin divides phraseological unitiesinto figurative and non-figurative and introduces an intermediate group between phraseological unities and phraseological fusions though other scientists do not do that. Examples of phraseological unities are: apple of discord, Pyrrhic victory, a drop in the ocean (bucket), birds of feather, bird`s eye view, to catch at a straw, to dance on a tight rope, to fish in troubled waters, to hold a trump card, to ride a hobby horse, sharp as a needle, cold as charity, to go to bed, in the twinkling of an eye, at hand, far and away, in full swing, through thick and thin, etc.

Phraseological fusions are the word-combinations where the meaning of the whole is not the sum of the meanings of its components and it cannot be derived from them. These phrases are semantically indivisible stable combinations; they are the most synthetic phraseological word-combinations; their meanings look unmotivated though sometimes we may find them by way of historical/etymological analysis. In other situations it is useless to try and recreate the image of the fusion because it may not be clear even to the native speaker. Examples of phraseological fusions are: devil`s advocate, to blow one`s own trumpet, white elephant, Dutch courage, Dutch bargain, Dutch treat, Dutch feast, to dance attendance to, to show the white feather, gray mare, to cry wolf, above board, at 6s and 7s, on the nail, spic and span, etc.

Many English and Ukrainian idioms, proverbs and sayings, preserving national literary images and reflecting the traditions, customs, the mode of life due to absence of similar idioms in the target language, can be con­veyed by way of regular explanation sometimes with the help of a single word: an odd/queer fish дивак, Canter­bury tale небувальщина, вигадка, blue bonnet (синій берет) шотландець, ніде курці клюнути crammed, зубами тре­тяка вибивати to freeze. Most often, however, the meaning of this kind of phraseologisms is conveyed with the help of free word-combinations: to dine vith Duke Humphrey залиши­тись без обіду (нічого не ївши), to cut off with a shilling позбавити когось спадщини, ноги на плечі to go quickly (or very quickly) on one's feet, зуби з'їсти на чомусь to have great experience in something, кивати/на­кивати п'ятами to run away quickly, hurriedly.

It goes without saying that none of the phraseologisms above can be translated word-for-word since their images would lose their connotative i.e. metaphorical meaning in the target language. So, пообідати з герцогом Гамфрі or обрізати шилінгом could be understood by the Ukrainian language speakers in their literal meaning. The same can be said about our idiom ноги на плечі i.e. with one's legs on the shoulders which would never be understood by the English language speakers. Therefore the component images when transferred mechanically to the target language can often bring about complete destruction of the phraseological units.

The choice of the way of translating may be predetermin­ed by the source language text or by the existence/absence of contextual equivalents for a phraseologism/stable express­ion in the target language. Thus in the examples below units of this kind can be translated into Ukrainian either with the help of a single word or with the help of a standardized phraseological expression: to give a start здригнутися, to give heart to one підбадьорювати, морально підтримувати когось, the weaker vessel/facet жінка (прекрасна стать, жіноцтво).

Quite often the meaning of a standardized collocat­ion can have synonymous single word semantic equivalents in the target language. The choice of the equivalent is pre­determined then by the meaning of the standardized collocat­ion/phraseologism and by the style of the sentence where it is used: to make sure впевнитися (переконатися), забезпе­чувати, to make comfort втішатися, to take place відбуватися, траплятися.

The same holds true about the traditional combinations which have in the target language several stylistically neutral equiva­lents (words or word-combinations) like to run a risk ризи­кувати, йти на ризик.

Faithful translation of a large number of phraseological expressions on the other hand can be achieved only by a thorough selection of the variants having in the target language a similar lexical meaning, the picturesqueness and expressiveness. The similarity can be based on common in the source language and in the target language component images and on the structural form of them. As a result these phraseologisms are easily guessed by the students which facilitates their translation: a grass widow (widower) солом'яна вдова (вдівець), not to see a step beyond one's nose далі свого носа нічого не бачити, measure thrice and cut once сім раз одміряй, a paз одріж, not for love or money ні за які гроші, ні за що в світі, не знати/тямити/ні бе, ні ме, ні кукуріку not to know А from В, вночі що сіре, те й вовк all cats are grey in the dark, etc.

It often happens that the target language has more than one semantically similar phraseological expression for that of the source language. The selection of the most fitting va­riant for the passage under translating should be based not only on the semantic proximity of the phraseologisms but also on the similarity in their picturesqueness, expres­siveness and possibly in their basic images. The bulk of this kind of phraseological expressions belong to so-called phraseological unities. Here are some Ukrainian variants of English phraseologisms: either in the saddle or lose the horse або пан, або пропав, або перемогу здобути, або дома не бути, manу hands make work light де згода там і вигода, гуртом і чорта побореш, гуртом і батька добре бити, гро­мада – великий чоловік,; a man can die but once від смерті не втечеш, раз мати народила, paз і вмират, раз козі смерть, двом смертям не бути, а одної не минути.

A number of phraseological units due to their common source of origin are characterized in English and Ukrainian by partial or complete identity of their components, their component images, the picturesqueness and expressiveness (and consequently of their meaning). These phraseologisms often preserve a similar or even identical structure in the source language and in the target language. So they are understood and translated without difficul­ties: to cast pearls before swine кидати перла перед свиньми; to be born under a lucky star народитися під щасливою зір­кою; to cherish/warm a viper in one's bosom пригріти гадюку в пазусі.

One of the peculiar features of such phraseological expres­sions is their international character. Only few of them have phraseological synonyms with national flavour. They are restricted to corresponding speech styles whereas inter­national phraseologisms mainly belong to the domain of higher stylistic level:

an apple of discord/ a bone of contention—яблуко розбрату, чвар, strike the iron while it is hot— куй залізо, доки гаря, make hay while the sun shines—коси коса,

поки роса, neither fish nor flesh—ні риба ні м`ясо/ні пава ні гава.

Therefore national colloquial variants of international phraseological equivalents always differ considerably in their picturesqueness, expressiveness and in their lexical meaning. They are analogous only semantically to genuine equivalents which may sometimes lack absolute identity in the source language and in the target language too (cf. to cross the Styx канути в Лету).

As can be seen some international phraseological units slightly differ in English and Ukrainian either in their stru­ctural form and lexical meaning or in the images making up the idioms. So the phraseological expression to fish in troubled waters has the plural of waters whereas in its Ukrai­nian equivalent the component to fish is specified and ex­tended to ловити рибку/рибу у каламутній воді. Slight divergences are also observed in some other Eng­lish and Ukrainian international equivalents: the game is worth the candle гра варта свічок, a sound mind in a sound body у здоровому тілі здоровий дух.

There exists in each language a specific national layer of phraseological expressions com­prising proverbs and sayings. These phraseological ex­pressions are based on the component images found in the national language only. They are dis­tinguished by the picturesqueness, the expressiveness and the lexical meaning of their own. Due to their specificity the phraseologisms have no traditionally established lite­rary variants in the target language. As a result their stru­ctural form and wording in different translations may often lack absolute identity. In the word-for-word variants of translation they mostly lose their aphoristic/idiomatic nature and thus need a literary perfection: the moon is not seen when the sun shines місяця не видко, коли світить сонце, it is a great victory that comes without blood велика та пере­мога. яку здобувають без пролиття крові.

Still we find in different languages a number of phraseological expressions which are mainly of the sentence type and have common component parts. Hence their lexical meaning nothing to say about their component images, their pictures­queness and their expressiveness, is identical as well. This is predetermined by their common source of origin in Eng­lish and in Ukrainian: if you run after two hares, you will catch neither якщо побіжиш за двома зайцями, не впіймаєш жодного; a drowning man will catch (snatch) at a straw пото­паючий хапається за соломинку, Bacchus has drowned more men than Neptune Вакх утопив більше людей, ніж Нептун (вино загубило більше людей, ніж море).

Taking into account all above-mentioned, the following ways of adequate conveying of phraseological (idiomatic) expres­sions are tobe used:

Translation by Absolute Equivalents.

This is a way of translating by which every component part of the source language idiom is retained in the target language as well as the main images, the expressiveness and the figurative (connotative) meaning. Translating with the help of equivalents is resorted to when dealing with phraseological expressions which originate from the same source in both languages.

The phraseological expressions may originate:

1) from Greek mythology: Augean stables авгієві стайні (занедбане,

занехаяне місце); Cassandra warnings застере­ження Кассандри (застереження_у на які не звертають уваги, але які збуваються); Hercules' Pillars (the Pillars of Hercules) геркулесові стовпи (Гібралтарська протока); a labour of Sisyphus сізіфова праця (важка і марна праця); Pandora's box скриня Пандори, Пандорина скриня (дже­рело всіляких лих); the Trojan horse троянський кінь (при­хована небезпека);

2). from ancient history or literature: an ass in a lion's skin (назва однієї з

байок Езопа) осел у левовій шкурі; to cross (pass) the Rubicon перейти Рубікон (прийняти важ­ливе рішення); the die is thrown/cast жеребок кинуто (рі­шення прийнято); the golden age золотий вік (золоті ча­си); I came, 1 saw, I conquered прийшов, побачив, переміг;

3). from the Bible or based on biblical plot: to cast the first stone at one

першим кинути у когось каменем, to cast pearls before swine розсипати перла перед свиньми, the golden calf золотий телець, ідол, a lost sheep заблудла вівця; the massacre (slaughter) of innocents винищення немовлят, the ten commandments десять заповідей, the thirty pieces of silver тридцять срібняків.

A great many of absolute equivalents originate from con­temporary literary or historical source relating to different languages (mainly to French, Spanish, Danish, German, Italian, Arabic): French: after us the deluge після нас хоч потоп, the fair sех прекрасна стать, the game is worth the candle гра варта свічок, more royalist than the king більший рояліст, ніж сам король, to pull the chestnuts out of the fire вигрібати каштани з вогню, one's place in the sun місце під сонце; Spanish: blue blood блакитна кров, the fifth column п'ята колона, to tilt at the windmills воювати з вітряками; Italian: Dante's inferno Дантове пекло; Arabic: Alladin's lamp лампа Алладіна, etc.

Some belle mots belonging to prominent English and Ameri­can authors have also turned into idiomatic expressions. Due to their constant use in belles-lettres they have become known in many languages. Especially considerable is the amount of Shakespearian mots: better a witty fool than a foolish wit (W. Shakespeare) краще дотепний дурень, ніж дур­ний дотепник, cowards die many times before their deaths боягузи вмирають багато разів, something is rotten in the state of Denmark (W. Shakespeare) не все гаразд у Дат­ському королівстві, vanity fair (J. Bunyan) ярмарок марнославства/суєти, to reign in hell is better than to serve in hea­ven (J. Milton) краще панувати в пеклі, ніж слугувати в раю, the last of the Mohicans останній з могікан, to bury a hatchet (F. Cooper) закопати томагавк (укласти мир), the almighty dollar (W. Irving) всемогутній долар, the iron heel (J. London) залізна п'ята (ярмо), gone with the wind (M. Wilson) пішло за вітром, the cold war (W. Lippman) холодна війна.

Only minor alterat­ions may happen but they do not change either the denotative meaning, or the component images, the picturesqueness, the expres­siveness or the connotative meaning of phraseologisms: appetite comes while eating апетит приходить під час їди, kings go mad and the people suffer from it королі божево­ліють, а народ страждає, the last drop makes the cup run over остання краплина переповнює чашу, let the cock crow or not the day will come співатиме півень чи ні, а день на­стане, money is the sinews of war гроші – м'язи війни, of two evils choose the least з двох лих вибирай менше, out of the mouths of babies speaks the truth (wisdom) устами немовлят говорить істина/мудрість, the pen is mightier than the sword перо могутніше за меч, etc.

Not only regular idioms but many standardized word-combinations which also often originate in the two languages from a common source can be translated by absolute equi­valents: to give help подавати/надавати до­помогу, to win/gain a victory здобути/здобувати перемогу, to make an attempt зробити спробу.