Translating phraseological units and set expressions.

Phraseological units are figurative set expressions often described as "idioms". Such units have an important role to play in human communication. They produce a considerable expressive effect for, besides conveying information, they appeal to the reader's emotions, his aesthetic perception, his literary and cultural associations. Whenever the author of the source text uses an idiom, it is the translator's duty to try and reproduce it with the utmost fidelity.

Selecting the appropriate method of translation the translator should take into account the following considerations:

1. Translating the SL idiom by an identical TL idiom is, obviously, the best way out. However, the list of such direct equivalents is rather limited. The translator has a good chance of finding the appropriate TL idiom if the SL idiom, is, so to speak, international, that is, if it originated in some other language, say Latin or Greek, and was later borrowed by both SL and TL. Cf. the English "Achilles' heel" and the Russian «Ахиллесова пята». Equivalent idioms may be borrowed in more recent periods, too, e.g. "the game is not worth the candle" — игра не стоит свеч (both borrowed from French).

2. Whenever the translator fails to find an identical TL idiom he should start looking for an expression with the same figurative meaning but a different literal meaning. Cf. "to get out of bed on the wrong side" -встать с левой ноги. Here the change in the literal meaning of the idiom does not detract much from its effect. Two additional factors, however, should be taken into consideration. First, here again the translator should take care to preserve the original emotional or stylistic characteristics. So, the English "Jack of all trades" and the Russian «мастер на все руки» both refer to a person who may turn his hand to anything. However, the Russian idiom should not be used to translate the English one, as they are quite different emotionally. In English "Jack of all trades" is derogatory, for he is "master of none", while the Russian saying implies that the man can do many different things well.

3. A word-for-word translation of the SL idiom is not possible unless the Russian reader will be able to deduce its figurative meaning. Therefore a caique of the English idiom "a skeleton in the cupboard" will be counterproductive, while "to put the cart before the horse" can be well rendered as «ставить телегу впереди лошади».

4. Obviously an explication cannot reproduce the semantics of the SL idiom in a satisfactory way and should be used only in the absence of a better alternative. Cf. "to cut off with a shilling" and «лишить наследства» or "to dine with Duke Humphrey and «остаться без обеда».

MAIN TYPES OF TRANSLATION

Though the basic characteristics of translation can be observed in all translation events, different types of translation can be singled out depending on the predominant communicative function of the source text or the form of speech involved in the translation process. Thus we can distinguish between literary and informative translation, on the one hand, and between written and oral translation (or interpretation), on the other hand.

Literary translation deals with literary texts, i.e. works of fiction or poetry whose main function is to make an emotional or aesthetic impression upon the reader. Their communicative value depends, first and foremost, on their artistic quality and the translator's primary task is to reproduce this quality in translation.

Informative translation is rendering into the target language non-literary texts, the main purpose of which is to convey a certain amount of ideas, to inform the reader. However, if the source text is of some length, its translation can be listed as literary or informative only as an approximation. A literary text may, in fact, include some parts of purely informative character. Contrariwise, informative translation may comprise some elements aimed at achieving an aesthetic effect. Within each group further gradations can be made to bring out more specific problems in literary or informative translation.

Literary works are known to fall into a number of genres. Translators of prose, poetry or plays have their own problems.

The translator of a belles-lettres text is expected to make a careful study of the literary trend the text belongs to, the other works of the same author, the peculiarities of his individual style and manner and sn on. This involves both linguistic considerations and skill in literary criticism.

A number of subdivisions can be also suggested for informative translations, though the principles of classification here are somewhat different. Here we may single out translations of scientific and technical texts, of newspaper materials, of official papers and some other types of texts such as public speeches, political and propaganda materials, advertisements, etc., which are, so to speak, intermediate, in that there is a certain balance between the expressive and referential functions, between reasoning and emotional appeal.

In technical translation the main goal is to identify the situation described in the original.

A written translation can be made of the original recorded on the magnetic tape that can be replayed as many times as is necessary for the translator to grasp the original meaning. The translator can dictate his "at sight" translation of a written text to the typist or a short-hand writer with TR getting the translation in written form. In written translation the original can be read and re-read as many times as the translator may need or like.

There are two main kinds of oral translation — consecutive and simultaneous. In consecutive translation the translating starts after the original speech or some part of it has been completed. Here the interpreter's strategy and the final results depend, to a great extent, on the length of the segment to be translated. If the segment is just a sentence or two the interpreter closely follows the original speech. As often as not, however, the interpreter is expected to translate a long speech which has lasted for scores of minutes or even longer. In this case he has to remember a great number of messages and keep them in mind until he begins his translation. To make this possible the interpreter has to take notes of the original messages, various systems of notation having been suggested for the purpose. The study of, and practice in, such notation is the integral part of the interpreter's training as are special exercises to develop his memory.

In simultaneous interpretation the interpreter is supposed to be able to give his translation while the speaker is uttering the original message. This can be achieved with a special radio or telephone-type equipment. The interpreter receives the original speech through his earphones and simultaneously talks into the microphone which transmits his translation to the listeners. This type of translation involves a number of psycholinguistic problems, both of theoretical and practical nature.

EQUIVALENCE IN TRANSLATION

There are 5 levels of equivalence.

First level: (1) Maybe there is some chemistry between us that doesn't mix.- Бывает, что люди не сходятся характерами. (2) A rolling stone gathers no moss. - Кому дома не сидится, тот добра не наживет. (3) That's a pretty thing to say. - Постыдился бы!

From the examples we can see that common to the original and its translation in each case is only the general intent of the message, the implied or figurative sense. This part of the contents which contains information about the general intent of the message, its orientation towards a certain communicative affect can be called "the purpose of communication". Thus we can deduce that in the first type of equivalence it is only the purpose of communication that is retained in translation.

The second level of equivalence can be illustrated by the following examples:

He answered the telephone. - Он снял трубку.

It was late in the day. -Близился вечер.

This group of examples is similar to the first one, as the equivalence of translations here does not involve any parallelism of lexical or structural units. Most of the words or syntactical structures of the original have no direct correspondences in the translation. Besides the purpose of communication there is some additional information contained in the original that is retained. Thus in this group of translations the equivalence implies retention of two types of information contained in the original — the purpose of communication and the indication of the situation.

In the third level of equivalence the part of the contents which is to be retained is still larger. This type of equivalence can be exemplified as follows:

London saw a cold winter last year.- В прошлом году зима в Лондоне была холодной.

You are not serious? -Вышутите?

In this case the translation retains the two preceding informative complexes as well as the method of describing the situation. In other words, it contains the same general notions as the original. This means that the translation is a semantic paraphrase of the original.We can now say that the third type of equivalence exemplified by the translations of the third group, implies retention in the translation of the three parts as the purpose of communication, the identification of the situation andthe method of its description.

The fourth level of equivalence can be illustrated by the following samples:

He was never tired of old songs. - Старые песни ему никогда не надоедали. I don't see that I need to convince you. He вижу надобности доказывать это вам.

The fourth type of equivalence presupposes retention in the translation of the four meaningful components of the original: the purport of communication, the identification of the situation, the method of its description, and the invariant meaning of the syntactic structures.

Last but not least, comes the fifth level of equivalence. Here we find the maximum possible semantic similarity between texts in different languages. These translations try to retain the meaning of all the words used in the original text:

I saw him at the theatre.- Я видел его в театре.

The house was sold for 10 thousand dollars.- Дом был продан за десять тысяч долларов.

Here we can observe the equivalence of semes which make up the meaning of correlated words in the original text and the translation; parallelism of syntactic structures implying the maximum invariance of their meanings; the similarity of the notional categories which determine the method of describing the situation; the identity of the situations; the identical functional aim of the utterance or the purport of communication.

HANDLING STYLISTIC DEVICES.

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

Metaphors and similes though most commonly used in works of fiction, are not excluded from all other types of texts.".

Many metaphors and similes are conventional figures of speech regularly used by the members of the language community. Such figurative units may be regarded as idioms and translated in a similar way. As in the case of idioms (see 2.2) their Russian equivalents may be based on the same image (a powder magazine — пороховой погреб, white as snow — белый как снег) or on a different one (a ray of hope — проблеск надежды, thin as a rake — худой как щепка). Similarly, some of the English standard metaphors and similes are rendered into Russian word for word (as busy as a bee — трудолюбивый как пчела), while the meaning of others can only be explained in a non-figurative way (as large as life — в натуральную величину).

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

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

Some stylistic devices may be ignored by the translator when their expressive effect is insignificant and their reproduction in the target text would run counter to the spirit of TL. One of the oldest and most commonly used stylistic devices in English is alliteration. Many headings, strings of epithets and other phrases in English texts consist of words which begin with the same letter. As a rule, the formal device cannot be reproduced in the Russian translation where it would look rather bizarre and often distort the meaning of the phrase. There are, however, infrequent exceptions when the repetition of the initial letters assumes a particular communicative value.

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

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

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

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

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

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