Translation of political literature and terms

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This Qualification Paper is set forth to study the translation methods of Political literature and political terms at a deeper level, their types and ways of their translation of Political literature, to consider the function of political literature in everyday life of the humanity.

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     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 any of them. (omitted item strategy)

     Use of synonymy pairs is characterized to all styles of written speech of English language. Preserving such synonymy pair is accepted as pleonasm and it is absolutely superfluous even when translating official documents that demand preciseness. For example:

     The Treaty was declared null and void.

     Договор был объявлен недействительным.

     Condemned by almost all members of the United States, and regarded as an outcast and criminal system by the vast majority of mankind, it (apartheid) is able to exist and defy censure solely because of the aid and support given to it by the Western imperialist countries.

     Апартеид  осуждён почти  всеми членами  ООН, и подавляющее  большинство человечества считает эту систему  преступной. Апартеид существует благодаря помощи и поддержке империалистических государств Запада.

     In this example are used two synonymy pairs: outcast and criminal, aid and support. In the first case преступный sufficiently renders the essence of both synonyms. The lexical meaning of the attribute outcast – изгнанный, отверженный doesn’t fit to this context neither owing to norms of combinability nor to the power of its meaning. The second pair of synonyms can be preserved without any difficulty – помощь и поддержка. The participle given is omitted for its meaning is supplied by case flexion.

     The battle was fierce while it lasted.

     Бой был жесток.

     Time complex object in this in this case functions as a cliché and doesn’t have corresponding equivalent in Russian.

     So we can see that in the majority cases of translation some piece of political literature we have make necessary changes. We should remind you that it is not always an English sentence completely corresponds to the Russian one. Very frequently the structure of a Russian sentence absolutely differs from the one English. It has different word order, parts of the sentences and pretty often differs even the order of sentences. In some instances, parts of speech expressed in English are translated into Russian by the help of different parts of speech. You should remember that the compressed way of expression in the English can not be followed in Russian and we therefore have to «decompress» them so that to make the easy to perceive and understand, e.i. we have to add some words or expressions or even sentences in whole. Nevertheless, some differences in usage of some specific features make us leave some elements unsaid while translating the whole. And all these cases are explained by grammatical transformations we have just investigated. 

     2.2 Lexical difficulties of transformation 

     Every word in a language carries some concrete notion. The semantics of a word reflects different signs of the subject and the relation of its meanings to other objects it denotes. The semantics of a word includes word perception characteristic to the studied language, being more precise to the bearers of the studied language. When studying the reality of some object we can identify that its name reveals its functions which finds the reflection in the semantics of the word. Lets take as an example the word glasses – очки. In English it reveals the substance of which the object is made and in Russian firstly it reveals its function – second eyes – очи.

     Despite distinguishing all kinds of differences we should say that, both languages sufficiently reflect one and the same perception of reality. Therefore the difficulty stylistic devices represents to a translator is based on word play, if in corresponding words of both languages are featured different signs.

     The second reason, causing lexical difficulties to translation of political literature is the difference in the semantic volume of a word. In every language a word exists in a close connection with the lexical-semantic system of a given language. It may have various kinds of lexical meanings (lexical-semantic) variants; it may widen or narrow its meaning and make it more abstract or concrete.

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