Translatioin of Political Literature

another is inevitable without necessary grammatical transformations (change

of structure). It gets great importance while making translation to add or

omit some words since the structures of languages are quite different.

Grammatical transformations are characterized by various principles –

grammatical, and lexical as well, though the principal role is given to

grammatical ones. Very often these grammatical changes are mixed so that

they have lexical-grammatical character.

The vigil of the British Embassy, supported last week by many prominent

people and still continuing, the marches last Saturday, the resolutions or

organizations have done something to show that Blair doesn’t speak for

Britain.

Круглосуточная демонстрация у здания британского консульства,

получившая на прошлой недели поддержку многих видных деятелей, всё ещё

продолжается. Эта демонстрация и состоявшиеся в субботу поход, а также

предпринятые различными организациями резолюции, явно свидетельствуют о

том, что Блэр отнюдь не говорит от имени всего английского народа.

While translating this article we have made the following changes.

The sentence was divided into two parts. We often do that when

translating short newspaper articles (news in brief) and the first lines of

the articles of informative character (leads). Practically, we are forced

to do that because the first lines usually contain main information given

in the paragraph. These sentences containing various information are not

characteristic to the style of Russian writing. The division of the

sentence made us repeat the word демонстрация.

The word vigil – бдение acquired here quite another political meaning

круглосуточная демонстрация. Since ночное бодрствование is one of the

semantic components of the word vigil the term круглосуточная демонстрация

fully renders the sense of the given word. Besides, we have to mention that

one of the words was translated like word expression получившая поддержку.

We have also added additional words like у здания (посольства),

состоявшиеся (в субботу походы), а также принятые различными (организациями

резолюции). The word last in the last Saturday was omitted because it would

make the translation more difficult, but we can conceive it by the

contextual meaning of the sentence.

The strengthening function of the phrase have done something to show

was rendered by the adverb явно свидетельствуют.

And the English cliche to speak for was translated by the Russian one

говорить от имени. And at last I should say that I metonymically translated

the word Britain into весь английские народ.

Thus, while translating this sentence we have made use of grammatical

transformations and lexical as well.

As you know, English has an analytical character and therefore the

relation between words is mostly expressed by word-order, that’s by

syntactic means, and morphological means play the secondary role. The

priority of the role of syntactical changes appears in many cases but they

do not always have similar conformities in Russian language which makes the

translator make use of various transformations while translating a piece of

political literature. Here we can point to well-known features of the

location of syntactic items in the English, e.i. the combination of

logically incompatible homogeneous part of the sentence, the essential use

of introductory sentences, the break of logical chain of the sentence, and

especially while expressing the noun and the attribute of the sentences.

The syntactic structure of a language imposes restrictions on the way

messages may be organized in that language. The order in which functional

elements such as subject, predicator, and object may occur is more fixed in

some languages than in others. Languages vary in the extent to which they

rely on word order to signal the relationship between elements in the

clause. Compared to languages such as German, Russian, Finnish, Arabic, and

Eskimo, word order in English is relatively fixed. The meaning of a

sentence in English, and in languages with similarly fixed word order such

as Chinese, often depends entirely on the order in which the elements are

placed. (cf. The man ate the fish and The fish ate the man).

The structural features of English language require structural

completeness of the sentence. One can not omit a word without supplying

another one instead. This criterion is governed by stylistic preference of

the language to prevent word and make the sentence more emphatic. Even if

the repetition is frequent in English its use in most cases is logically

required and stylistically proved to be necessary. Otherwise, repetition is

accepted as unnecessary component of the sentence or one of the stylistic

shortcomings of the translation. The demand of syntactical completeness of

the sentences and others stylistic criteria explain here the wide usage of

structure filling words (слова заместители). The structure filling words

include pronouns (one, ones, this, that, these, those) and verbs (to do, to

be, to have, shall, should, will, would, can, could, might, may, must,

ought, need, dare).

Its quite evident that the structure filling words do not have

denotative meaning, they are absolutely contextual. They should be related

to conforming nouns and the verb form the fill and only afterwards they

acquire lexical completeness. The verb-filling words are usually divided

into two parts: fully filling and partially filling ones. To the first

group belong the verb to do in the Present Indefinite which act in the role

of fully filling word. It can replace the verbs of function. To the second

group belong all other structure filling words. They act like a part of the

whole just like the representative of compound verb form.

While translating the structure filling words we have to use words with

complete meaning (sometimes pronouns) or make use of some other kinds of

functional filling.

The new British Government will face many problems, both acute and

chronic: an acute one will be Northern Ireland, acute among chronic ones

will be inflation and rising prices.

Новое британское правительство столкнётся со многими проблемами как

неотложного, так и затяжного характера. К неотложным проблемам относится

положение в Северной Ирландии, а к проблемам, носящим затяжной характер, -

инфляция и рост цен.

While translating this piece we had to decipher the structure filling

words and render their meaning by means of conforming nouns.

When comparing the grammatical categories and forms of English and

Russian languages we identify the following differences: a) the absence of

the categories in one of the comparing languages, b) partial correspondence

and c) complete correspondence. The necessity of grammatical

transformations arise only on two first cases. When comparing the English

with Russian we should mention that Russian does not have the notions like

article and gerund and absolute nominative constructions as well. Partial

conformity and unconformity in meaning and usage of corresponding forms and

constructions also demands grammatical transformations. We can refer to

this case the partial unconformity of the category of number, partial

unconformity in the forms of passive constructions, partial unconformity of

the form of infinitive and gerund and some other differences in expressing

the modality of the clause and so on.

First of all we should consider the article for article both definite

and indefinite which despite its abstract meaning very frequently demands

semantic expression in translation. As we know both these articles

originated from pronouns; the definite one originated from index pronoun

and the indefinite one from indefinite pronoun, which refers to number one.

These primary meanings are sometimes obvious in their modern usage. In this

cases their lexical meaning should be rendered in translation otherwise the

Russian sentence would be incomplete and ambiguous for denotative meaning

of articles is an inseparable part of the whole context meaning of a given

sentence. There are cases when classifying function of indefinite articles

is so obvious that one should render its meaning by some lexical item.

It is commonly stated that government should resign if defeated in a

major issue in the House of Commons which has been made one of confidence.

(The Times).

Обычно утверждают, что правительство должно подать в отставку, если оно

потерпит поражение в Палате общин по какому-нибудь серьёзному вопросу,

который оппозиция считает вопросом о доверии правительству.

In this case the indefinite article acquires the meaning of the pronoun

some. One can easily see its historical relation with the number one in the

following example:

Yet, H.G. Wells had not an enemy on earth.

Однако у Герберта не было ни единого врага на свете.

As has been pointed before the most difficult are cases when

classifying meanings of indefinite articles demand semantic transfer in

translation.

We need a Government which believes in planning ahead for jobs and

which will use available labor to build homes for the British people.

Нам нужно такое правительство, которое было бы убеждено в

целесообразности планирования занятости и использовало бы наличную рабочую

силу в строительстве домов для населения.

The emphatic role of the indefinite article in its classifying function

is more expressed in the following sentence.

The Vietnam war had revealed the true nature of a U.S. foreign policy

that can be purchased ruthlessly for the benefit of a view in the “military-

industrial complex”.

Война во Вьетнаме вскрыла истинную природу той внешней политики США,

которая проводится беспощадными методами ради выгоды немногих

представителей «военно-промышленного комплекса».

Pretty often the definite article demands translation in cases when it

comes before numerals.

The two sides also signed a Treaty in the Limitation of Underground

Nuclear Tests.

Обе стороны подписали договор об ограничении подземных испытаний

атомного оружия.

The Southern nations remained quiet between 1948 and 1958 as Latin

America’s economy grew at an impressive annual rate of 4.3 percent.

С 1948 по 1958 южные страны пребывали в относительном спокойствии, в то

время как экономика Латинской Америки развивалась впечатлительным темпом в

4.3 процента в год.

In the following sentence both articles demands translation.

The influence and authority of the UN Secretariat depends to an extent

(though not nearly to the extent that is popularly supposed) on the talents

of one individual – the Secretary-General. The job is a peculiar one.

Влияние и авторитет секретариата ООН зависят в известной степени (хотя

и не в такой степени, как обычно полагают) от качеств одного человека –

Генерального секретаря. Это чрезвычайно своеобразная должность.

The lexical meaning of the article is strongly expressed when it acts

in like a link connecting parts of the sentences or two separate sentences

as given in the example above. From the mentioned above cases we can judge

that missing article translation may lead to misinterpretation or incorrect

and incomplete translation of a sentence.

The role of verb complexes in English is quite evident therefore we

will consider only some peculiar cases of verb transformations during

translation.

First of all let us consider the verb construction with the preposition

for:

…American military bases on foreign territories which are intended for

launching missiles possessed by United States’ armed forces.

… американские военные базы на территориях других государств, которые

предназначены для запуска ракет американскими ВВС.

In this case the infinitive construction is translated like adverbial

modifier of purpose.

The construction with secondary predicate (so-called Nominative with

the Infinitive) is widely used in newspaper style due to its preciseness

and because it help to avoid the responsibility for the given information.

The United States Congress is aimed to control all the financial

expenses of the Government.

Целью конгресса Соединённых Штатов является контроль всех расходов

правительства.

It is natural that transformation is required while translating

sentences with participles of absolute nominative construction.

But often enough grammatical transformations are necessary while

rendering conforming forms and constructions for some divergence in their

meaning and usage. Such differences of opinions are observed in cases of

usage of the category of number. This refers to both countable and

uncountable nouns. Countable nouns have single and plural forms in both

languages that usually coincide still we observe cases when their usage is

different, ex.:

War Atrocity on Peace Conference Eve (news head).

Зверства (интервентов) накануне мирной конференции

Concerning uncountable nouns, especially those expressing abstract

notions we may have much more difficulties because most of them are

paradigmatic. For example: ink – чернила, money – деньги and so on.

Increasingly, Southern Africa is becoming the arena of national

liberation struggles.

Южная Африка всё больше и больше становится районом национально-

освободительной борьбы.

Sometimes, despite the availability of the plural form in Russian – its

usage is impossible owing to difference in combination and usage.

The Nile Valley appears to have been unfit for human habitation during

the Stone Ages.

Долина Нила, по-видимому, была не пригодна для жизни человека на

протяжении всего каменного века (во все периоды каменного века).

In Russian the Stone Age expression is of a historical nature and is

never used in plural.

In cases when plural form is to be preserved for it carries some

inherent sense one has to apply countable nouns, ex.:

Strikes broke out in many British industries.

В ряде отраслей промышленности Англии вспыхнули забастовки.

Sometimes, owing to some reasons some of constructions has wider usage

in one languages comparing with other languages. The best example of this

is the passive form – widely used in English mostly due to disappearance of

word flexion. As a result, both indirect and predicative object maybe

transformed into the objects of passive construction.

Stones and bottles were showered upon a Negro demonstration in

Milwaukee by white racists.

Белые расисты обрушили град камней и бутылок на негритянскую

демонстрацию в Милуоки (забросали камнями и бутылками).

We should notice that the passive-active transformation can not give

sufficient result for in passive construction the stress is being made on

the object of action and in the active construction the stress is being

made on the agent of action. The widespread use of passive construction in

English happens often enough because it is explained by unimportance of the

doer of that action and it is most often in newspaper style at the same

time the most important is to attract attention to the passage. Since the

structure and word order of simple sentence is subject + predicate + object

the importance of stylistics is bigger then to distinguish the object one

chooses the passive construction.

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.

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