3. Various parts of speech and phraseology can be employed when English formations are translated in order to make an adequate translation. It concerns some set expressions which are typical of and natural for the target language.
4. It is important to know the literal style of the author because it limits the number of translation techniques and the translator makes conveying closer to the original. In this particular case, the translator should not have used grandiloquent lexis
Differences between English and Russian result in real difficulties a translator faces and these are morphological transformations which are often the only mean to overcome the difficulty. Morphological transformations involve change of a part of speech, special character of translation of an article, specific translation of tenses and mode, the categories of number, gender, etc. Some types of morphological transformations will be considered in a more detailed way.
2.2.1. Article
Article determines whether the noun is definite or indefinite. That’s why one should bear in mind that while translating from English into Russian it is necessary to convey the meaning of articles. “When a translator pays little attention to that, the meaning of a Russian sentence is not quite equivalent to the original one”[3]. The meaning of articles is usually rendered with lexical means, or word order; thus, the following transformations are used: substitution and addition (absence of article in Russian results in its substitution with other lexical unit, thus, causing addition), omission (if an article has no additional meaning, it can be omitted while translating).
| …He is a reliable man, they say…[1] | …Говорят, на него вполне можно положиться…[2] |
| The article of the source sentence is transformed into some lexical units in the target sentence because some functions of English articles are difficult to render in Russian. Thus, the target sentence involves such words as вполне that has a bit generalized colouring about the subject and does not characterize the subject or a person exactly. Also we should mention the position of the phrase they say. It changes its position in the target sentence and confers the part of the meaning of the indefinite article in the sentence. The position of the phrase говорят confers a bit generalizing connotation to the whole phrase. | |
2.2.1.1. Indefinite Article
Indefinite article generally classifies subject and its belonging to some class disregarding its specific features and peculiarities. Sometimes indefinite article is very close in its meaning to such indefinite pronouns as some and any. In that case its meaning should be rendered in the translation. E.V. Kurovskaya points out that “use of an article with a naming component determines the use of those meaningful components which could be expresses with the article in the original text” [7] and sometimes the article with a naming component can change semantics considerably.
| …There was a foreigner with us who made the explosion…[1] | …С нами был один иностранец, он закладывал динамит…[2] |
| A translator used one of the most frequent ways to render the indefinite article into Russian as there is no category of article in Russian. Thus, translators often resort to adding some lexical units. In this particular case, the word один was used and actually it is the direct semantics of the indefinite article which was derived from the word one in English. | |
| …Do you see a defect in one of these?…[1] | …Видишь ты у них какие-нибудь недостатки?…[2] |
| This example involves two types of morphological transformations. As for rendering the meaning of the indefinite article, it should be pointed out that the article was translated with the help of the Russian pronoun какие-нибудь. This is another example of how articles can be translated into Russian. It is also worth mentioning that there is the Plural in the Russian translation in spite of the article a, that is the article of the Singular in the source text. | |
| …It was a very rare name… [1] | …Чуднóе такое имя…[2] |
| This particular case is characterized with the third variant of rendering the article. The word такое shows that a speaker is a bit perplexed with an unknown name which he has never heard. The word такой conveys these particular connotations for the Russian speaking reader. Certain effect is created with little inversion of two words in the Russian translation чудное and такое which should be posed in the contrary order according to norms. But here the translator arranged them in this way, thus, making them sound in the way the author provisioned. | |
2.2.1.2. Definite article
Definite article has the limiting function. “ It marks a subject out of a class of similar ones, makes it more concrete”[8]. Sometimes definite article has its primary meaning of a demonstrative pronoun from which it is derived.
| …That is the sadness that comes before the sell-out…[1] | …Так печален бывает тот, кто завтра станет предателем…[2] |
| This is one of the ways to convey the meaning of the definite article which define an exact subject. As there is no such a category in Russian, translators have to render the meaning of the article with the help of lexical means. As we can see in the given example, the meaning of the article was rendered with the indicative word так which showed the degree of sadness. And the word sadness was converted into an adjective. Thus, the source sentence underwent double morphological transformation. | |
| …There is the badness…[1] | …Вот оно, зло…[2] |
| The word вот is another way of conveying the definite article into Russian. Because this word indicates the object directly, thus, implementing the main function of the definite article that is marking the object out of similar one and making it singular. Nevertheless, conveying the meaning of the article caused transposition of the sentence. | |
2.2.2. Unconformity of the Category of Number
Both Russian and English have the category of number. However, use of nouns in singular and plural are often different in terms of countable and uncountable nouns. This fact causes transformations while translating, in particular, substitution of an English noun in plural with a Russian one in singular, and backwards.
There a lot of cases exist when one form in singular in Russian corresponds with an English form in plural.
E.g. овес – oats, лук – onion, картофель- potatoes, окраина (города) – outskirts, etc.
And on the contrary, a Russian form in plural corresponds with an English form in singular.
E.g.деньги - money, чернила - ink, новости - news,сведения – information, etc.
Thus, substitution of number stems there [9].
| …the patchy sunlight shone on the coat of the bay stallion…[1] | …на спине гнедого жеребца играли солнечные блики…[2] |
| Though it is not the grammatical unconformity of number but the translator chose a noun in Plural to convey the word sunlight into Russian. The word light is of rather general and broad meaning that’s why the translator opted for a more concrete and colourful variant for translation. | |
2.2.3. Grammatical Gender.
English category of gender is rather relative. Practically, the category of gender is concerned when it comes to reference to the real biological gender. As for Russian, here reference to the grammatical gender is obligatory, thus, determining a grammatical transformation – substitution of a word form while translating from English into Russian.
| …It [operation] can be successful with that bridge eliminated…[1] | …Если удастся разрушить мост, она может быть успешной…[2] |
| Translation from English presupposes pointing the gender of the Russian noun. As we see, the noun operation corresponds with it, but the equivalent word операция is feminine in Russian. Again it should be mentioned that the order of the clauses changes and transposition takes place in the above sentence because the thematic and the rhematic relation which are different in English and Russian. | |
| …Have you never seen it [seal]?… [1] | …Ты ее не знаешь?…[2] |
| As there is no feminine grammatical gender in English, all the unanimated objects are supposed to be it. Nevertheless Russian has rather diverted system of grammatical gender, thus, the translator effected the transformation of grammatical gender. | |
Mostly, translator takes the norms of his native language, its traditions, due to that one animals, plants, birds are feminine, and others are masculine, thus, changing one gender to another one. Change of the gender of nouns also depends on a word which a translator chooses for the target text among a great variety of synonyms. Nevertheless, the category of gender is rather developed in Russian that’s why the amount of transformation increases in this respect.
2.2.4. Change of Parts of Speech
Change of parts of speech is one of the most frequent morphological transformations. Such changes result from “different word use and their combinatory rules in English and Russian, and in some cases – absence of such a part of speech in Russian”[8].
Noun is subject to such a morphological transformation most. While translating from English into Russian, an English verbal noun is converted into a finite verb.
It is worth mentioning that some English nouns are translated as finite verbs and as verbal nouns.
Translation of the predicate often provokes grammatical transformations, what is usually related with change of parts of speech (the latter results in syntactical transformations).
| …He was often hungry but he was not usually worried…[1] | …Чувство голода было для него привычным, но тревогу ему не часто приходилось испытывать…[2] |
| As exemplified by the sentences, the adjective and the verb of the source sentence are transformed into nouns in the target sentence. Thus, conversion takes place alongside with change of the parts of the sentence as well. Hungry and worried were components of the predicate in the source text. After translation they became the subject and the supplement. Therefore, here adjective is transformed into a noun, and a verb is transformed into a noun as well. | |
| …The mountain sloped gently where he lay… [1] | …Склон в этом месте был не крутой…[2] |
| The word slope represents at least two parts of speech in English – the verb and the noun. Thus, in the dictionary we see the article: slope - v 1) клониться; иметь наклон; опускаться или подниматься наклонно; n 2) наклон, уклон б) скат, склон; откос, крутизна, спуск. The translator took advantage of such converting capability of the word and constructed a Russian phrase which sounded more idiomatic than if we kept the verb to slope in the Russian translation. Also the transformation of the article is worth mentioning because the definite article was transposed into Russian as the word это that corresponds with its English etymology. | |
There are cases when other parts of speech are changed. So, pronoun is often subject to transformation (converted into a noun).
Adjectives are often converted into nouns and backwards. For example,
| …He was a short and solid old man in a black peasant’s smock and gray iron-stiff trousers and he wore rope-soled shoes…[1] | …Это был невысокий, коренастый старик в черной крестьянской блузе и серых штанах из грубой ткани; на ногах у него были сандалии на веревочной подошве…[2] |
| Here nouns with attributes (adjectives) are converted into nouns with prepositions and a word combination. The Russian language does not have the similar system of forming adjectives as the English language does. For example, we get an adjective: (rope) sole + ed – rope-soled, with the ending –ed added to the noun stem that transfers not only the object as itself but also the material it is made of. In the Russian translation one should imply it with lexical units. | |
Participle is often translated with a finite verb.
| …But he was not worried by any of that…[1] | …Но это его не тревожило…[2] |
| A participle converts into a finite verb, thus, changing the passive construction of the source sentence into the active construction of the target sentence. | |
| …You have a funny name in Spanish, Comrade Hordan…[1] | …Смешно звучит ваше имя по-испански, товарищ Хордан…[2] |
An adjective which had an attributive function was converted into an adverb describing the way how the name sounds in Spanish. Such transformations occur rather often because the combination of a verb with an adverb describing the action is more typical of Russian. Also the transposition and transformation are worth mentioning because, as we can see, the verb have was rendered as звучитand actually the supplement name became the subject in the Russian sentence.
Translation generates some other types of changes which may often correlate with change of sentence parts, thus, causing rearrangements of syntactical structure of the sentence.
2.2.5. Unconformity of the Tense
Sometimes the source sentences are translated into the target language without strict observance of the tense employed. It depends on the stylistical features and syntactical requirements. There cases when Present Simple is translated as Future Simple. In fact, it is the so called stylistic Future.
| …Always there is something…[1] | …Что-нибудь всегда найдется…[2] |
| The statement is proved by the present example. The pattern there is is transformed as the finite verb in the Future Tense найдется. | |
| …It is my attack… [1] | …Наступать буду я…[2] |
| This example demonstrates the transition from the Present Tense form to the Future form in Russian. The inverted word order of the target sentence makes the emphasis on the agent of the action я while the main emphasis in English is made on the pronoun my. | |
| …I have not told you anything you must do…[1] | …Я не указываю тебе, что ты должен делать…[2] |
| The sentence in Present Perfect was rendered as the sentence of the imperfective aspect that occurs quite often while conveying the meaning of Present Perfect into Russian because Russian has less diversified system of tenses. As for the rest parts of the sentence, they were translated with scarce changes. | |
Summing up morphological transformations, it is necessary to point out that: