Grammatical means of translation

1. Grammatical means of translation Ecaterinabric gr. 211 mp

2. Grammatical Forms • Grammatical form is a discrete element, which exists in the grammatical system of this or that language. • A form  never appears as an existing thing, or as a point in time, but rather as an event of choosing. • Thus, the grammatical forms, from the point of view of the translator, do not 'exist', they 'happen', they develop in time as a process of making a choice. • The translator is a linguistic agent whose choices are governed by the interplay of communicative intention and expected inference on the part of the recipient interlocutor. On the other hand, there is a complex of factors influencing the translator’s choices. These factors constitute a hierarchy of various degrees of relevance for the final grammatical action:

4. Lexical factor • As an example of a lexical factor partaking in grammatical action the following parallel might be taken where the Russian language prefers the simple past (supported, in its perfective function, by ‘now’ and ‘here you are’), whereas in the English translation we find a ‘pure’ present perfect. E.g. Вот я сейчас из деревни приехал. (Л. Толстой) I’ve just comeback from the country.

5. Context • Traditionally, the usage of the grammatical form is correlated with the context. • The context is not given, it is created by the speaker while conceptualizing and coding his or her message. • Due to asymmetry in form and content between different languages, the translator should take, as a minimum basic unit of comparison and translation, a unit smaller than a complete sentence (which includes at least two grammatical events), but bigger than a separate grammatical form or a discrete contextual element.

6. this optimal unit is defined as a grammatical contextual complex (GCC) which correlates with a universal grammatical integral. • The following formula reflects the structure of GCC in a particular language: GCC = FORM + LEXICAL FILLING + CONTEXT E.g. По небу полуночи ангел летел (Лермонтов) One midnight an angel flew over the sky.

7. LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL EQUIVALENCE • Onthislevel, themostpossiblesemanticsemilaritybetweenthesourceandtargetsentencesisfound: e.g. Every mother loves her children. – Каждая мать любит своих детей. thisisawordforwordtranslationwhereeachwordandthewholestructureretainsitslexicalandgrammaticalmeaning, thesituationdesignatedbythesentencesisidentical, andthecommunicativefunctionoftheutterancesisthesame.

8. Ways of Achieving Equivalence: Types of translation techniques • Transcription, or copying the sound form the source language word by means of the target language letters: e.g. eau de cologne – одеколон, hake - хек; • Transliterationor copying the letters of the source language by the target language letters of another system: e.g. London – Лондон • In the dispute between transcription and transliteration, some factors should be kept in mind: - modern and outdated traditions: these days the English great physicist Newton is known in Russia as Ньютон (transcription), though in the 18th century M. Lomonosov wrote about Невтон(transliteration). • national traditions: in the source language the form of a name can follow the spelling traditions of its original country. The target language form often follows the original pronunciation tradition: Mozart – Моцарт; Singer – Зингер. • Calque is translation by parts: старовер – Old Believer.

9. Grammar transformations Grammar transformations are morphological or syntactical changes in translated units. They are subdivided into the following types: • 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. e.g. Theportcanbeenteredbybigshipsonlyintide. – Большие корабли могут заходить в порт только во время прилива. -Or there may be substitution of the noun number category, the singular by the plural or vice versa: e.g. Herhairis fair and wavy. – У неесветлыеволнистыеволосы. • Word order change. English and Russian sentences have different information structures. e.g. A new press conference was held in Washington yesterday. It is naturally equivalent to Вчера в Вашингтоне состоялась новая пресс-конференция. • Sentencepartitioningisthereplacementofasimplesentenceinthesourcetextwithacomplexsentence.e.g. I wantyoutoundestandthistransformation. Яхочу, чтобы выпоняли эту трансформацию.

10. Grammar transformation • Sentenceintegrationisacontrarytransformation. Ittakesplacewhenwemakeonesentenceoutoftwoormore, orconvertacomplexsentenceintoasimpleone: e.g. Ifoneknowslanguages, onecancomeoutontop. – Зная языки, можно далеко пойти. Grammarcompensationisadeliberatechangeofthegrammarcategorybysomeothergrammarmeans. Compensationtakesplacewhenagrammarcategoryorformdoesnotexistinthetargetlaguageand, therefore, cannotproducethesameimpactuponthetargettextreceptor. E.g. ''Takesomeoftheconceitoutofhim,'' hegurgled. ''Outofwho?'' askedBarbara, knowingperfectlywellthatsheshouldhavesaid'whom' '' - «Поубавь немного у него тщеславия,» - буркнул он. «С кого?» – спросила Барбара, хорошо зная, что ей следовало сказать ‘у кого’».

11. GRAMMAR PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION • Translating tense and aspect forms. Asymmetry in expressing tense distinctions in English and Russian.

12. Translating passive voice forms • English passive is classified into four types of construction: a) direct passive: A book was given to him. It has a corresponding Russian passive voice form: Книгабыладанаему. b) indirect passive: He was given the book. This form is translated by the corresponding Russian active voice verb in the impersonal sentence: Емудалиэтукнигу. c) prepositional passive: The article was not referred to. – Наэтустатьюнессылались.The corresponding Russian impersonal sentence is also with the active verb. d) adverbial passive: The room hasn’t been lived in. When translated into Russian, the passive construction is substituted by an active one, sometimes a subject of the sentence is introduced: В комнатениктонежил/неживет. • Thus, only one type of English passive construction has a direct correspondence in Russian.

13. TRANSLATING THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD FORMS • In both English and Russian the Subjunctive Mood expresses a hypothetical, unreal action. • In Russian, there is only one form: the past form of the verb + the particle бы: e.g. Я хотел бы пойти туда. • In English, there are many verb forms to express the subjunctive mood: • -synthetic forms be/do, were/did; -analytical forms should/would, do/have done, might/could do/have done, may/can do, had done. e.g. I wish I could help you . Usage of the English subjunctive forms depends on the clause structure and semantics of the main verb.

14. Bibliography • Kashkin V., Choice factors in translation, pp-17. • KashkinV.,Grammatical Choice in Translation, pp-62. • Proshina Z., Theory of translation, 2008, Vladivostok, Far Eastern University Press. pp- 276.