Tamara I Leontieva Lectures on Translation Theory Department

Tamara I. Leontieva Lectures on Translation Theory Department of Cross-cultural Communication and Translation Study Foreign Languages Center Vladivostok State University of Economics 2008

STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN TRANSLATION 1. An Overview of Grammar Transformations 2. Translation of Phrase Epithets and Attributive Clusters (or: Collocations). 3. Complex Transformations. 4. Communicative Structure of the English and Russian Sentences. Word Order Change due to the Functional Sentence Perspective.

An Overview of Grammar Transformations - 1 Rule: For an equivalent translation do not mirror the grammar forms of the ST! Choose between the parallel forms and various grammar transformations. E. g. : 1. Translation of infinitive forms: perfect, active and passive, indefinite and continuous. The train seems to arrive at 5 vs The train seems to have arrived at 5.

An Overview of Grammar Transformations - 2 2. Translation of continuative infinitive: a) Parliament was dissolved not to meet again for 11 years. b) He came home to find his wife gone. 3. Substitution of parts of speech: a) Ben’s illness was public knowledge. b) His style of writing is reminiscent of Melville’s.

An Overview of Grammar Transformations - 3 Sentences with the verb-predicate in the Passive voice are more frequent in English than in Russian. Why? a) Almost complete absence of cases in the English language, hence the impossibility to express the object of the action by one of the case form. b) The Passive voice in English is used not only with transitive, but also with nontransitive.

An Overview of Grammar Transformations - 4 1. Мы были приглашены на официальный прием. Нас пригласили на официальный прием. ---> We have been invited to a public reception. 2. The room was not lived in. - В комнате никто не жил (non-transitive verb). 3. Double Passive: The treaty is reported to have been signed. Cooбщают, что договор уже подписан обеими сторонами.

Translation of N+N Attributive Groups 1. Oil well, oil search, oil prices, oil deserts (of the Middle East), oil conference, oil slick, oil disaster, oil lobby. 2. Rule: adverbial relations answer the questions Why? When? Where to? Where? How? On what occasion? etc. a) Adv. modifier of place: A house of Commons debate, her Broadway debut, the beach house. (to be continued)

Translation of N+N Attributive Groups - 2 b) Adv. modifier of time: the Boer War title, holiday snaps. c) Adv. modifier of cause: inflation fears, cholera death. d) Object: dam builders, price explosion, earthquake prediction. e) Translation synonymous to Possessive case: pilot error, the Radley house.

Translation of N+N Attributive Groups - 3 f) Attr. constructions built on similarity: A toothpaste smile, the Hound of the Baskervilles atmosphere. g) Contextual translation: a one-day-old chick man the Greek Island young man.

Translation of Attributive Clusters • The attributive cluster is a group of words with a key noun and a number of attributive components modifying it (7 + 2). • The order of attributes is not random. In English the rule for the order of attributes is «OPSHACOM» : a nice long new black Chinese wooden pen.

Translation of Attributive Clusters Rule: care should be taken not to confuse a head word with its attribute: control system - система управления vs system control - управление системой. book medicine book dog medicine book home dog medicine book

Translation of Attributive Clusters - 2 Translate carefully! The poll tax the poll tax states governors conference NB! Usually the translation starts with the final word of such a multi-member attributive group.

Complex Transformations 1. He is a three-time loser at marriage. Он был три раза неудачно женат. 2. May I trouble you to pass the salt? Передайте соль, пожалуйста.

Complex Transformations - 2 3. I don’t think you’re right. Думаю (боюсь), вы не правы. 4. But he turned out badly, he drank, then took to drugs. Но из него ничего хорошего не вышло – он начал пить, потом пристрастился к наркотикам.

Communicative Structure of the English and Russian Sentence Rule: Each sentence develops from a known piece of information called theme to a new one called the rheme and the sentence analysis in this case is referred to as functional sentence perspective. In the Russian sentence the rheme is placed at the end, in English it is mainly initial or elsewhere.

The Location of the Rheme 1. A boy entered the room. 2. He went to London. 3. He delivered a lecture yesterday. 1. В комнату вошел мальчик. 2. Он поехал в Лондон. 3. Вчера он читал лекцию.

Determiners of the Rheme in the English Sentence 1. The indefinite article: A waitress came to their table. 2. «No» with the subject: No machinery is needed to perform this test. 3. Intensifying words (or phrases): Only the educated are free.

Determiners of the Rheme in the English Sentence - 2 4. Inverted constructions: There is a book on the desk. 5. «By-agent» in the passive construction: The telephone was invented by Bell.

Home assignment - 1 Proshina Z. G. Theory of translation. 1. Pp. 40 -42: Grammar transformations. 2. Pp. 121 -124: Translating attributive clusters. 3. Pp. 44 -46: Complex transformations. 4. Pp. 125 -128: Functional sentence perspective and translation. Read and make notes. Be able to explain them.

Home assignment -2 1. Read: Романова С. П. , Коралова А. Л. Пособие по переводу. С. 91 -96. Make copies. Be able to discuss the material. 2. Read: Казакова Т. А. Практические основы перевода. С. 210 -223. Pay special attention to Pp. 222 -223.