Translation of Polysemantic Words

Different meanings of polysemantic words are revealed in the context. The term "context" is understood as the minimum stretch of speech diagnosing each individual meaning of the word. The context individualizes the meanings, brings them out.

The context reveals concrete or abstract meanings of a word, its direct or transferred meaning, e.g. the word "truth" is used in its concrete everyday meaning in the phrase "Tell me the truth" - «Скажи мне всю правду», while in the following sentence "To understand and to know the reality, it is necessary to have a theory of knowledge corresponding to truth (R. Fox, Marxism and literature) the word "truth" is used in its abstract philosophical meaning «истина». Для того, чтобы постигнуть и понять действительность, необходимо иметь теорию познания, соответствующую истине. In the following examples the context reveals direct and transferred meanings of the word "to cripple". "Smith was crippled in the war" - «Смит был искалечен на войне» (direct meaning), "Reactionaries cripple the national movement in Africa" - «Реакционеры подрывают национально освободительное движение в Африке» (transferred meaning).

The context also reveals a free or bound use of the word. He made a pace or two forward, (free) - Он сделал шага два вперед. Не kept pace with the times (bound) - Он не отставал от века. In this latter case the word "pace" forms part of a phraseological unity and is translated by a corresponding phraseological unity.

Here are some more examples. The adjective "brittle" developed a new figurative meaning used to describe "tone", "looks", "temper", etc.

"He has a brittle - easily loses his temper. (Hornby)

A brittle smile -деланная улыбка - (a forced smile) Kathleen was as white as Cade had been the day Scarlett called, white and hard and brittle(M. Mitchell) Катлин была бледна как Кейд в тот день, когда Скарлет заехала к ним. На её лице было застывшее, жестокое выражение. The context is not always limited to a minimum stretch of speech (microcontext). Sometimes macrocontext (a paragraph, a chapter or even a whole book) is necessary for a correct interpretation of the meaning. Describing Becky Sharp Thackeray writes: "The wretched woman was in a brilliant full toilet". Knowing Thackeray's negative attitude toward Becky, of the two meanings of the word "wretched" - (1) несчастная, (2) негодная the latter should be used in the translation of this sentence: Негодная/коварная/ женщина была в ослепительном туалете.

14)§1. METAPHOR AND THE PHRASEOLOGICAL UNIT

A phraseological unit is a set expression consisting of a group of words in a fixed order having a particular meaning, different from the meanings of each word understood on its own.166

Metaphor is a figurative expression, transferring the meaning from one thing to another based on their similarity: table legs – ножки стола; to strain one’s memory – напрягать память.

Phraseological units may be both metaphorical (keep to the beaten track – идти по проторенной дорожке; make a mountain out of a molehill – делать из мухи слона) and non-metaphorical (to live beyond one’s means – жить не по средствам; to take part in – принимать участие в). Metaphorical phraseology is usually called idioms.

Metaphors can belong to language and speech. Language metaphors (Дождь идет. I had my teeth capped because they were in a terrible state.) are common and hardly expressive. Normally, a native speaker is not conscious of the image, though foreign learners of the language often find it rather expressive, since its figurative meaning may be new to them. Dead metaphors are not difficult to translate, as they are provided by the dictionaries.

Speech metaphors are brighter, for they are mostly situational, individual metaphors: A stubborn and unconquerable flame creeps in his veins and drinks the streams of life.167 Спит Земля в сиянье голубом. Speech metaphors conjure up a certain image. They are called genuine metaphors.

Metaphors may be single (one word) and extended (a collocation, sentence, proverb, complete imaginative text).168

Language and speech metaphors may be prolonged or sustained. In this case their figurative meaning is livened up and played upon: It was raining cats and dogs and two little puppies fell on my writing table.

15)§4. ABBREVIATION

Abbreviation, or shortening a word, is one of the most noticeable features of the English language, and it is used both in formal and informal registers.

Based on the level of their usage, abbreviations can be divided into three groups:

* Graphical abbreviations, used only in writing, and, therefore, pronounced and translated in its full form. These abbreviations are widely employed in faxes: e.g., agst = against, f/b = feedback, ETA expected date of arrival, ETD = expected date of departure, etc. However, though rarely, some of these abbreviations enter the common stock of vocabulary and, pronounced in a shortened way, they become new words of the language: asap = as soon as possible, AGAP = As Gorgeous As Possible.

* Phonetic abbreviations, or a non-standard way of writing some common words based on their pronunciation; typical of advertising. For example, u = you, thru = through. Of the same type is the word OK (all correct). Normally, in translation this type of abbreviation is lost.

* Lexical abbreviations, including initialisms, spoken as individual letters (BBC, MP, USA); acronyms, pronounced as single words (NATO, UNESCO, AIDS; WAP = Wireless Application Protocol); clippings, or parts of words which serve for the whole (ad, phone, sci-fi = science fiction; m-commerce = mobile-commerce, business conducted over a mobile telephone system; e-bucks = electronic money); blends, or words made out of the shortened forms of two other words (brunch= breakfast + lunch, smog = smoke + fog, Eurovision = Europe + television; anetsitized = anesthetized + net + sit = numb from spending many consecutive hours on the Internet).Initialisms and acronyms may be rendered through transcription (BBC - Би-Би-Си, IBM – Ай-Би-Эм, IREX - АЙРЕКС), transliteration (NATO - НАТО, USIS – ЮСИС, UNESCO – ЮНЕСКО), or their full form can be translated with a calque and then abbreviated (USA – США, AIDS – СПИД, CIA – ЦРУ). To make the word clearer to the receptor, an abbreviation may be deciphered and/or explained: USIS – Информационная служба США, TESOL – международная ассоциация преподавателей английского языка как иностранного. To translate words of this type, it is necessary to consult a special dictionary of abbreviations, both monolingual (e.g., J. Rosenberg, McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Wall Street Acronyms, Initials & Abbreviations. – New York a.o.: McGraw-Hill, 1992;

A standard form of a translation, if it exists, should be used by a translator. It must be kept in mind that sometimes a standard form can require some shifts, for instance, a change of letters in the initialism: PRC (People’s Republic of China) – КНР (Китайская Народная Республика).

Clippings usually have a regular equivalent in the dictionary (ad – объявление, phone – телефон, sci-fi – научная фантастика).

Blends are either transferred into the target language (through transcription / transliteration (smog – смог), explained (brunch – плотный поздний завтрак; coffee-zilla < coffee + Godzilla – очень крепкий кофе), or substituted by an analog (physed – физкультура).

When translating abbreviations, one should pay attention to the style of the text. Whereas in English abbreviations are mostly neutral and can be used both in formal and informal speech, in Russian abbreviations are strongly separated by styles. For example, clippings are typical of very formal style: тяжмашстрой, совнархоз, универсам; these require explanatory translation, which is sometimes combined with transcription. In informal speech, abbreviations with affixes are widely used: телик, видик, велик. As often as not, similar words exist in English: telly, bike. For видик, there is a shortened form, video (from video set).

Before suggesting a TL equivalent, it is important to find out the precise meaning of the word. Care should be taken of words that differ in various varieties of English, like the informal adjective dinky< which in British English means “small and attractive”: a dinky little bag, while in American English it has the antonymous meaning of “too small and often not very nice”: It was a really dinky hotel room.

16)Chapter 3. TRANSLATING TERMS

 

§1. TRANSLATION FACTORS

A term is a word or expression denoting a concept in a particular activity, job, or profession. Terms are frequently associated with professionalisms.156

Terms can be single words: psychology, function, equity; or they may consist of several words: computer aided design system – система автоматического проектирования.

Terms are considered to have one meaning in one field. Therefore, they are context-free words, whose meaning does not depend on the context: cod – треска, herring – сельдь, squid – кальмар in any context.

Contrary to this belief, terms may have more than one meaning, since they can be understood differently in various schools and varies technologies: e.g., the grammatical term verb is considered to belong to morphology in the Russian school of linguistics, so it is translated as глагол. In the American school of linguistics it is often understood as a syntactical concept expressing a part of the sentence; therefore, in this case it corresponds to the Russian сказуемое. This gives rise to the problem of term unification. A translator must be very careful about terms expressing the same notion in different languages. One notion should be designated by a single term throughout the whole text.

Different fields of knowledge ascribe different meanings to one and the same term. For example, лист in the publishing field corresponds to the term sheet (author’s sheet); in biology, it is a leaf; in technique, it is a plate; in geology, it is lamina. Similarly, the term drive is equivalent to different Russian terms, since it has different meanings in various fields: привод (in mechanics), органы управления (in the automobile), сплав (in forestry), горизонтальная горная выработка (in mining), дисковод (in the computer), etc.

Term homonymy is sometimes due to the fact that words of general stock assume a technical meaning, thus becoming terms: for instance, memory – память, cell – ячейка памяти, driver – драйвер, управляющая программа (in computers). Also, terms of one field are borrowed by other fields, like variant and invariant were borrowed into linguistics from mathematics.

Such term homonymy challenges translation. A translator must know the exact meaning of term in this or that field, as well as its combinability, for the nearby attribute or another word may specify the term and affect its translation: антикоррозийное покрытие – corrosion-resistant coating, дерновое покрытие – sod-matting, дорожное покрытие – road pavement, покрытие крыши –

roofing, маскировочное покрытие – camouflage cover, пенное покрытие – foam blanket.

To do accurate translation, it is necessary not only to know the meaning of the terms but also to link them with other words in speech. Erroneous word combination can cause difficulties in understanding the text. For example, the word combination прозвонить цепь cannot be rendered by its calque *to ring through the line. Its equivalent is to test the line. Therefore, translators always put high value on dictionaries containing word equivalents along with phrases and illustrating sentences.157

Terms in dictionaries are usually arranged in alphabetical and keyword order. To find a word combination, it is necessary to look up a keyword, which is usually a noun. For example, to translate a compound term barking machine, it is necessary to look up the term machine. Its vocabulary entry will give the attributive group corresponding to корообдирочный станок, корообдирка.

Term translation may also depend on the regional character of the language. For example, антенна corresponds to aerial in British English, to antenna in American English; ветровое стекло (автомобиля) – windscreen (British English), windshield (American English); багажник (автомобиля) – boot (British), trunk (American).

Term form depends on the people using it. P. Newmark suggests three levels of term usage:

1) Academic. This includes transferred Latin and Greek words used in academic papers (phlegmasia alba dolens);

2) Professional. Formal terms used by experts (epidemic parotitis, scarlatina);

3) Popular. Layman vocabulary, which includes familiar alternative terms (mumps, scarlet fever).158

In science, terms are neutral, non-expressive. Medical students feel no particular ways, whatever terms they use. But when a term is transferred to another register, it takes on a stylistic and emotional coloring. In common everyday

situations, people feel abhorrence for pox, in Russian called дурная болезнь, and other things.

Term translation depends on the register it is used in. In science, translators tend to translate as precisely as possible. Absolute equivalence of terms is a requirement in scientific translation. In other registers, term translation depends on the receptors background, and on the function the term plays in the text.

 

GRAMMAR TRANSFORMATIONS

Grammar transformations are morphological or syntactical changes in translated units. They are subdivided into the following types:

1. Grammar substitution, when a grammar category of the translated unit is changed. Thus a passive construction can be translated by an active voice verb form: Martin Heidegger is generally regarded as one of the most influential founders of existentialism. – Мартина Хайдеггера обычно считают одним из самых значительных основоположников экзистенциализма. The reason for this transformation is stylistic: in English the passive voice is used much more often in neutral speech, whereas in Russian this category is more typical of the formal style.

Or there may be substitution of the noun number category, the singular by the plural or vice versa: Her hair is fair and wavy. – У нее светлые волнистые волосы. This transformation is due to the structural difference between the English and Russian languages: in English the analyzed noun is Singularia Tantum, in Russian it is used in the plural.

Parts of speech, along with the parts of the sentence, can be changed: He is a poor swimmer. – Он плохо плавает, where the noun is substituted by the verb, the adjective by the adverb; simultaneously the predicative is substituted by the simple verb predicate. The reason for this transformation can be accounted for by language usage preferences: English tends to the nominal expression of the state, Russian can denote the general state by means of the verb.

2. Word order change. Usually the reason for this transformation is that English and Russian sentences have different information structures, or functional sentence perspective.* For example, A new press conference was held in Washington yesterday is naturally equivalent to Вчера в Вашингтоне состоялась новая пресс-конференция, where the adverbial modifiers, subject and predicate are positioned in a mirrorlike fashion.

3. Sentence partitioning is the replacement of a simple sentence in the source text with a complex sentence (with some clauses), or a complex sentence with several independent sentences in the target text for structural, semantic or stylistic reasons: I want you to undestand this transformation. – Я хочу, чтобы вы поняли эту трансформацию. Моя машина не завелась, поэтому я не смогла заехать за вами. – My car wouldn’t start. Therefore, I couldn’t pick you up.

4. Sentence integration is a contrary transformation. It takes place when we make one sentence out of two or more, or convert a complex sentence into a simple one: If one knows languages, one can come out on top. – Зная языки, можно далеко пойти. In ancient Rome, garlic was believed to make people courageous. Roman soldiers, therefore, ate large quantities of it before a battle. – Перед боем римские воины съедали большое количество чеснока, поскольку в Древнем Риме полагали, что чеснок делает людей мужественными.

5.Grammar compensation is a deliberate change of the grammar category by some other grammar means. Compensation takes place when a grammar category or form does not exist in the target laguage and, therefore, cannot produce the same impact upon the target text receptor. This can be illustrated by translating a sentence with a mistaken pronoun form from English into Russian. Since a similar mistake in using the pronoun is impossible in Russian, it is compensated by a mistaken preposition: ''Take some of the conceit out of him,'' he gurgled. ''Out of who?'' asked Barbara, knowing perfectly well that she should have said 'whom' '' - «Поубавь немного у него тщеславия,» - буркнул он. «С кого?» – спросила Барбара, хорошо зная, что ей следовало сказать ‘у кого’». As a result, the translator showed the character's illiteracy.

LEXICAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Lexical transformations change the semantic core of a translated word. They can be classified into the following groups:

1.Lexical substitution, or putting one word in place of another. It often results from the different semantic structures of the source language and target language words. Thus the word молодой is not always translated as young; rather, it depends on its word combinability: молодой картофель is equal to new potatoes. This translation equivalent is predetermined by the word combination it is used in. This type of translation can hardly be called substitution, since it is a regular equivalent for this phrase.

Deliberate substitution as a translation technique can be of several subtypes:

a) Specification, or substituting words with a wider meaning with words of a narrower meaning: Will you do the room? – Ты уберешься в комнате? I’ll get the papers on the way home. – Я куплю газеты по дороге домой. The underlined English words have larger scopes of meaning than their Russian counterparts and their particular semantics is recognized from the context.

b) Generalization, or substituting words of a narrower meaning with those of a wider meaning: People don’t like to be stared at. – Людям не нравится, когда на них смотрят. If we compare the semantic structure of the English and Russian verbs, we can see that the English stare specifies the action of seeing expressed by the Russian verb. The Russian смотреть can imply staring, facing, eyeing, etc. The specific meaning in the Russian sentence can be expressed by the adverb пристально. Another reason for generalization in translating can be that the particular meaning expressed by the source language word might be irrelevant for the translation receptor: She bought the Oolong tea on her way home. – По дороге домой она купила китайского чаю. Oolong is a sort of Chinese tea but for the receptor this information is not important; therefore, the translator can generalize.

c) Differentiation is a rather rare technique of substitution. It takes place when we substitute a word by another one with parallel meaning, denoting a similar species: bamboo curtain – железный занавес. Both bamboo and железо (iron) are materials known for their hard nature. They are used figuratively to denote the barriers between the Western and Communist countries (bamboo curtain in reference to China, железный занавес in reference to other Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Aid) states. There are no hyponymic relations between the notions of bamboo and iron (though the referential area of железный занавес is of course much wider than that of bamboo curtain.)

d) Modulation is a logical development of the notion expressed by the word: But outside it was raining. -– Но на улице шел дождь. The primary equivalent of the word outside is снаружи. But it is impossible to say in Russian *Но снаружи шел дождь. By means of unsophisticated logical operation the translator finds another equivalent: на улице. Thus he takes into consideration a tradition of the word combination and acceptability of collocation. He is aided in this by the metonymical closeness of word meanings based on contiguity of the two notions.

2.Compensation is a deliberate introduction of some additional element in the target text to make up for the loss of a similar element in the source text. The main reason for this transformation is a vocabulary lacuna in the target language. For example, one of the Galsworthy’s characters was called a leopardess. But there is no one-word equivalent of the same stylistic coloring in Russian. Therefore, the translator compensated the word by using the word тигрица to characterize the lady.

3.Metaphoric transformations are based on transferring the meaning due to the similarity of notions. The target language can re-metaphorize a word or a phrase by using the same image (Don’t dirty your hands with that money! – Не марай рук этими деньгами!) or a different one (Он вернет нам деньги, когда рак свистнет. – He will pay us our money back when hell freezes over). The source language metaphor can be destroyed if there is no similar idiom in the target language: Весна уже на пороге. – Spring is coming very soon. Or, on the contrary, the target text is metaphorized either to compensate a stylistically marked word or phrase whose coloring was lost for some reason, or merely to express a source language lacuna: Он решил начать жить по-новому. – He decided to turn over a new life.

COMPLEX TRANSFORMATIONS

This type of transformations concerns both the lexical (semantic) and grammatical level, i.e. it touches upon structure and meaning. The following techniques can be associated with lexical and grammatical transformations:

1.Explicatory translation, that is, rewording the meaning into another structure so that the receptor will have a better understanding of the phrase. Sometimes this transformation is named as explicitation, defined as the technique of making explicit in the target text information that is imlicit in the source text.51 This transformation is often accompanied by the extension of the structure, the addition of new elements: I have a nine-to-five job. –Я работаю с 9 утра до 5 вечера. Leslie Mill’s play, which was also included in the FORUM, was taken up with children from grades 1-5. – Пьеса Лесли Милла, которая также была опубликована в журнале «Форум», была поставлена детьми 1-5 классов. The reason for which this transformation is made is that the target text receptor has different background knowledge. Sometimes this transformation is required because of the dissimilarity between the language structures, with the source language structure being incomplete for the target language, like gun licence is удостоверение на право ношения оружия.52

2.Reduction (omission, implicitation) is giving up redundant and communicatively irrelevant words: Elvis Presley denied being lewd and obscene. – Элвис Пресли отрицал свою непристойность. The reduction is a must if a source language expresses the notion by a phrase and the target language compresses the idea in one word: сторонники охраны окружающей среды – conservationists. There is a general tendency of the English language to laconic and compressed expressions as compared with Russian: внебюджетные источники финансирования – nonbudget sources; контроль за ходом проекта – the Project control.

3.Integral transformation is the replacement of a set phrase with another clichéd structure that has the same speech function: How do you do! – Здравствуйте!; Wet paint. – Осторожно, окрашено. Help yourself. – Угощайтесь.

4.Antonymic translation is describing the situation by the target language from the contrary angle.

It can be done through antonyms: the inferiority of friendly troops – превосходство сил противника. The reason for this transformation is the lack of a one-word translation equivalent to the word inferiority.

This transformation can also take place when we change the negation modality of the sentence: She is not unworthy of your attention. – Она вполне достойна вашего внимания. In the English sentence we deal with double negation, called understatement, which, according to logic rules, means the positive expressed in the Russian sentence. Through understatement, English-speaking people avoid expressing their ideas in too a categoric tone.

Shifting the negation is another manifestation of the antonymous translation: I don’t think I can do it. – Думаю, я не смогу сделать это., which is a result of linguistic tradition peculiar to this or that language.

5.Metonymical translation is the transferance of meaning and structure based on the contiguity of forms and meanings of the source and target languages: The last twenty years has seen many advances in our linguistic knowledge. – В последние 20 лет наблюдается значительный прогресс в лингвистике. In the English sentence, time is expressed by the subject of the sentence, whereas in Russian it is more typical to express it by the adverbial modifier. This causes grammar restructuring of the sentence.

6.Complex compensation is a deliberate change of the word or structure by another one because the exact equivalent of the target language word or phrase is unable to produce the same impact upon the receptor as does the source language word or phrase. For example, we often have to compensate on the lexical level the meaning of the Past Perfect in the Russian text translation, since there is no similar tense category in Russian: Their food, clothing and wages were less bad than they had been. – Теперь их еда, одежда и зарплата были не такими уж плохими, как когда-то. Puns, riddles, tongue-twisters are often compensated; for example, Don’t trouble trouble until trouble troubles you. – Во дворе трава на траве дрова. Compensation exercises the translator’s ingenuity; however, the effort it requires should not be wasted on textually unimportant features.53

TRANSLATING THE INFINITIVE

The challenges in translating the English infinitive are due to its specific forms, functions and structures.

Unlike Russian, the English language possesses a number of forms of the same verb: the Simple infinitive, the Continuous infinitive, the Perfect infinitive, the Perfect Continuous infinitive. The first two forms indicate actions simultaneous with that of the main predicate: Я рада, что вижу вас. – I am glad to see you. Я рада, что читаю эту книгу. – I am glad to be reading the book, or the future actions: Я рада, что пойду туда. – I am glad to go there. The Perfect and Perfect Continuous infinitives denote actions prior to that of the predicate: Я рада, что увидела вас. - I am glad to have seen you. Я рада, что читала эту книгу. – I am glad to have been reading the book. On the other hand, the difference between the Simple / Perfect and Continuous / Perfect Continuous forms of the infinitive lies in expressing either a fact (incomplete or completed) or a process, respectively:

рад, что делаю (каждый день) – glad to do (every day)

рад, что делаю сейчас – glad to be doing

рад, что буду делать – glad to do

рад сделать (что сделаю) – glad to do

рад, что сделал – glad to have done

рад, что делал – glad to have been doing.

The actual meaning of the infinitive can be determined by the context only.

English infinitive functions can also be a stumbling block for a fledgling translator. The attributive function of the infinitive can cause difficulties in translation due to its modal meaning: This is a book to read. – Вот книга, которую можно (нужно) почитать. The type of modal meaning can be seen from the context: When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it. (Emerson) – Когда природе предстоит что-то сделать, она создает гения, который может сделать это. However, it is not always necessary to verbalize the modal meaning in Russian: The latest reports from Europol, the organization to be established for the coordination of police work in all the countries of the European Union, indicates that it has not yet been able to agree on a single working language. – В последних докладах Европола, организации, созданной для координации работы полиции во всех странах Европейского Союза, отмечается, что в вопросе о едином рабочем языке согласия еще не достигнуто. As is seen from the examples, the attributive infinitive usually has the meaning of a future action/state.

The function of some adverbial infinitives presents difficulties in translation. For example, the English infinitive can be used to denote a subsequent event or a parallel action, which is often confused with the infinitive of purpose: Iron combines with oxygen to form rust. – Железо соединяется с кислородом и образует ржавчину. The infinitive in this function is usually rendered by a parallel finite verb: (In many rooms, one wall or another was overgrown with black-green mold.) … In some rooms, the mold grew thickly halfway down a wall, only to stop in a sharp horizontal line, as if cut by a knife. – (Во многих комнатах одна-две стены были покрыты темно-зеленой плесенью)…В некоторых комнатах плесень густо покрывала полстены, и резко прерывалась, словно ножом была проведена горизонтальная линия.

This infinitive should be distinguished from the infinitive of purpose: Live not to eat, but eat to live. – Живи не для того, чтобы есть, но ешь для того, чтобы жить.

When translating the infinitive of result, a translator should take care to render properly the connotation of the construction: the infinitive with too implies a negative meaning, while the infinitive with enough suggests a positive one: She is too old to go there. – Она слишком стара и не поедет туда. She is old enough to go there. – Она достаточно взрослая и может поехать туда.

Infinitive constructions are the most challenging problem. They are usually translated by a clause. For instance, the Complex Object construction: We expect them to pay us by Friday. – Мы ожидаем, что нам дадут зарплату к пятнице.

When translating the Complex Subject construction, it is recommended that the finite verb be translated first, and then the subject and the infinitive be joined to form a clause: After a few minutes the men were seen to be running in all directions. – Через несколько минут увидели, что эти люди бегут в разные стороны. The letter seems to have been opened. – Кажется, письмо уже вскрыли. The main verb of the sentence is translated with the indefinite or impersonal form (кажется, видели) or with a parenthetical phrase (конечно, по-видимому, очевидно): The reporters were certain to misunderstand his attendance... – Конечно, журналисты неправильно истолковали его присутствие.., or by an introductory phrase (согласно сообщению, как сообщают): The EPO is expected to make a final decision in the near future. – Как ожидают, Европейское патентное ведомство примет решение в ближайшем будущем.

When dealing with the for-to-infinitive construction, a translator substitutes an English simple sentence with a Russian complex one, i.e. s/he does the partitioning of the sentence: She arranged for the office to be opened by one of the security people. – Она устроила так, что офис открыл один из охранников. In some cases this type of construction can be rendered by a compound sentence: He was a very nice fellow, you had only to say you wanted something for him to give it to you. – Он был очень славный малый: стоило вам только сказать, что вам что-то нужно, и он тут же давал это вам.

Special difficulties can arise from the Absolute construction with the infinitive. This construction usually has the meaning either of concession or of successive events: With so much to say, the two said nothing. – И хотя этим двоим так много надо было сказать, они не сказали ничего. The resolution calls for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from occupied territories, with a peace conference to follow. – В резолюции содержится призыв вывести израильские войска с оккупированных территорий, после чего будет созвана мирная конференция.

To summarize, the ways of translating English infinitives are as follows:

• by the infinitive: To err is human. – Человеку свойственно ошибаться.

• by the noun: The best way to make children good is to make them happy. – Лучший способ воспитания хороших детей – это сделать их счастливыми.

• by the participle: The problem to be considered in Chapter 2 is concerned with the article. – Вопрос, рассматриваемый в главе 2, касается артикля.

• by the clause: Вопрос, который будет рассмотрен в главе 2, касается артикля.

• by homogeneous, that is, parallel, verbs: He went to Australia to fall sick there. – Он поехал в Австралию и там заболел.

TRANSLATING THE GERUND

The gerund is not a regular equivalent of the Russian adverbial participle (деепричастие). It is closer to the verbal noun than to the adverbial participle.

The gerund can be translated by the following means:

• the noun: A woman’s idea of keeping a secret is refusing to tell who told it. – Представление женщины о том, как надо хранить секрет, - это отказ сообщить, кто ей его рассказал.

• the infinitive: There’s nothing more tragic in life than the utter impossibility of changing what you have done. – Нет ничего трагичнее в жизни, чем абсолютная невозможность изменить то, что ты сделал.

• the adverbial participle: Learn to swim by swimming. – Учись плавать, плавая.

• the clause: I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught. (Churchill) – Я всегда готов учиться, но мне не всегда нравиться, когда меня учат. The gerundial construction is always translated by the clause: He was amused at my becoming so impatient with him. – Он удивился тому, что я стал так нетерпелив с ним. He stayed there without our knowing it. – Он остался там, а мы даже не знали об этом.

When translating from Russian into English, it is necessary to pay attention to the careful selection of either the single gerund or the gerundial construction. While in the Russian sentence the subject is named twice, the English sentence does not take the same subject before the gerund. Cf.: Я настаиваю на том, чтобы мне позвонили. – I insist on being phoned. The gerundial construction in English is used only in case of two different subjects in the sentence: I remember his asking the question. – Помню, как он задал этот вопрос.

Some practical grammars of English do not distinguish the – ing participle and the gerund. However, in translation the difference can be essential, since the gerund and the participle have different functions and, therefore, convey different meanings. For instance, Flying planes can be dangerous can be translated as Летать на самолетах опасно, if flying is used here as a gerund. The sentence could also be translated Летающие самолеты опасны, the word flying being treated as a participle.