Приди ты на часок раньше, все было бы в порядке.
In most cases the change of one member of the synonymic series of structures by another one does not evoke a serious change in the general contents of the utterance. That’s why the use of synonymic structures is in translations of the 4th type preserves the meaning of the syntactic structure of the original:
| I told him what I thought of her. | Я сказал ему свое мнение о ней. |
| Не was never tired of old songs. | Старые песни ему никогда не надоедали. |
| It is very strange this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. | Странно, до какой степени пищеварительные органы властвуют над нашим рассудком. |
4. Word-order variations in translation.
72. The use of analogous structures in the T is often made possible in case when there is a change of the word-order. Of course, we do not mean cases when word-order change is connected with the cardinal change of subject-object relations of the type:
Танки закрыли кусты. Кусты закрыли танки.
but structurally identical sentences with the same method of describing the situation.
The word-order in an utterance may perform one of 3 functions: 1) to serve the means of forming some grammatical category; 2) to ensure the notional connection between parts of the utterance and neighbouring utterances (to serve a means of communicative division of the utterance and the text) and 3) to show the emotional character of the utterance. Non-coincidence of means expressing any of these functions in SL and TL may lead to non-coincidence of the word-order in equivalent utterances with analogous structures. Let’s compare the translations of two English sentences:
| A meeting in defence of peace was held in Trafalgar Square yesterday. | Вчера на Трафальгap-сквер состоялся митинг в защиту мира. |
| The meeting in defence of peace in Trafalgar Square condemned the apartheid policy in South Africa. | Митинг в защиту мира на Трафальгар-сквер осудил политику апартеид в Южной Африке. |
In these sentences the word order is fixed with the rules of constructing English sentences of this type. To show the communicative division of the utterance English uses the difference between the articles, definite and indefinite. In the 1st sentence the subject is modified by an indefinite article, showing that it is the rheme, the centre of that part of the message, which contains “new” information. In the Russian language in non-emphatic narration such communicative centre tends towards the end of the sentence. That’s why the equivalent utterance has a different word order.
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In the 2ndsentence the definite article with the subject shows, that the communicative centre of the message is not the subject. It is formed by the predicate, constituting the final part of the utterance. That’s why the word order is preserved.
A comparatively loose word order in Russian allows a wide use of change of succession of separate parts of the utterance in accord with its communicative division for rendering the logical development of the idea from the known to the new.
A similar word order change ensures the logical connection between the neighbouring utterances:
Experience changed the ideas of this British officer. American airmen started the process of "brain-washing". He saw them machine-gun a road full of refugees.
*Опыт изменил образ мыслей этого английского офицера. Американские летчики положили начало процессу «прозрения». Он видел, как они обстреливали из пулеметов дорогу, забитую беженцами.
Опыт изменил образ мыслей этого английского офицера. Начало процессу"прозрения" положили американские летчики. Он видел, как они обстреливали из пулеметов дорогу, забитую беженцами.
Had the word order of these sentences been preserved, the result will be the enumeration of a series of isolated messages that do not make a whole narration. An equivalent translation can be achieved only by the change of the word order in the second sentence.
The fixed word order in the English language is the reason why cases of inversion are rather rare. Frequent use of inversion in the Russian language for indication of the communicative centre of the message makes it not very effective as a means of expressing emotional attitude. That’s why in such cases the indirect word order of the original may not be reproduced in the translation. For showing the emotionl attitude the language uses other means including lexico-phraseological:
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| Mine is a long and a sad tale. | Повесть моя длинна и печальна. |
| Open flew the gate and in came the coach. | Ворота распахнули настежь, и карета уже была во дворе. |
| Him I have never seen. | Я его никогда и в глаза не видел. . |
Word order change may be accompanied by some structural transformations:
| Ernest Pontifex, yours is one of the most painful cases I have ever had to deal with. | Эрнест Понтифекс, вряд ли я когда-либо сталкивался с делом, более прискорбным, чем ваше. |
5. The change of the number and type of sentences.
73. The use of structures analogous to structures of the O in the T may be accompanied by the change of the type of bond between the structures within a larger syntactic whole. Variation of simple, complex and compound sentences is possible here. Difference between types of sentences has a certain communicative significance. The difference between the meanings of such sentences as:
Начался дождь. Мы пошли домой.
Начался дождь, и мы пошли домой.
Мы пошли домой, потому что начался дождь.
is in different character of causal connection between the two events, in the degree of their self-dependence, in the degree of expressiveness and so on. Semantic and stylistic functions of similar sentence types in different languages may not coincide, and equivalence in T will be established between sentences of different types, but with identical inner structure. In other words, in T there will be changes in the type and the number of sentences:
| There might be some small pickings left, from those who would be willing; to continue, and later it would be necessary to decide if they were worth while. | Кое-что ему еще, наверно, останется - от тех, кто захочет продолжать дело. А дальше уже придется решать, стоит ли этим заниматься. |
For the style of English newspapers and publicistic materials it is characteristic to combine in one sentence different , relatively independent ideas. Such phenomenon is not usual for the Russian language. Retention of the type of the sentence in T may lead to the loss of the actual meaning of the utterance or to constructing huge phrases not acceptable for Russian. In T there may appear several corresponding sentences:
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| A police Advisory Board composed of twelve representatives from police authorities, nine from the Federation, three representing superintendents, and eight representing Chief Officers with the Home Secretary or Home Office representative in the chair, has a general consultative and advisory function on police matters but the Home Secretary need not accept his advice. | Существует также Полицейское консультативное бюро, состоящее из двенадцати представителей полицейских властей, девяти представителей Федерации, трех делегатов от старших полицейских офицеров и восьми представителей от главных констеблей. Председателем бюро является министр внутренних дел или представитель министерства. Бюро имеет общие консультативные функции по делам, касающимся полиции, но министр внутренних дел не обязан принимать его рекомендаций. |
The sentence includes at least 3 self-dependent ideas: 1) members of the Board, 2) the role of the Home Secretary in its work, 3) functions and rights of the Board. The last idea is divided into 2 comparatively independent ones. And in Russian this sentence has no less than 3 corresponding sentences.
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74.In the 4th type of equivalence the change of types and number of sentences may go in the reverse direction, i.e. in the direction of lessening the number of self-dependent sentences:
| Despite all opposition these sections have organized a powerful trade-union movement. The mass of the Civil Servants have successfully established important political rights for themselves. | Несмотря на все противодействие, эти слои государственных служащих организовали мощное профсоюзное движение, и больная часть государственных служащих добилась для себя значительных политических прав. |
Sometimes the change of the type of connection between the structures goes in both directions and leads to grammatical and semantic redistribution of utterance elements:
| For five years Sandino conducted a heroic struggle in the jungles against the very much better equipped United States marines. Finally, unconquered, he agreed to a peace conference. | На протяжении пяти лет Сандино вел в лесных зарослях героическую борьбу против значительно лучше вооруженной морской пехоты США и не был побежден. Наконец, он согласился на мирные переговоры. |
75. Syntactic variation in the 4th type of equivalence may has a complex character, when in T simultaneously change syntactic structures, word order and the type of syntactic whole:
| And so, with a sentinel in each dark street, the twinkling watch-fires on each height around, the night has worn away, and over this fair valley of old Thames has broken the morning of the great day that is to close so big with the fate of ages yet unborn. (J.C.Jerome) | Bсю ночь на каждой темной улице стояли часовые, и на каждом холме вокруг города мерцали костры сторожевых костров. Но вот ночь прошла, и над прекрасной долиной старой Темзы наступило утро великого дня, чреватого столь большими переменами для еще не рожденных поколений. (Пер. М.Салье) |
6. The characteristics of the fifth-type equivalence.
76. Last but not least, comes the fifth group of translations that can be discovered when we analyse their relationships with the respective originals. Here we find the maximum possible semantic similarity between texts in different languages. These translations try to retain the meaning of all the words used in the original text. The examples cited below illustrate this considerable semantic proximity of the correlated words in the two sentences:
| I saw him at the theatre. | Я видел егов театре. |
| The house was sold for 10 thousand dollars. | Дом был продан за десять тысяч долларов. |
| The Organisation is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members. | Организация основана на принципе суверенного равенства всех ее членов. |
| Не was sure we should both fall ill.. | Он был уверен, что мы оба заболеем. |
For correlation of the O and the T is characteristic:
1. a high degree of parallelism of syntactic structures of the O in the T;
2. maximum correlation lexical units (one can indicate in the T correspondences of all notional words in the O)
3) retention of the purport of communication, identification of the situation and method of describing the situation of the O in the T (all main parts of the contents of the O).
To the four parts of the contents of the O, retained in the previous type of equivalence, is added the equivalence of semes which make up the meaning of correlated words in the original text and the translation. The degree of such relative identity of the contents of the two texts depends in this case on the extent to which various components of the word meaning can be rendered in translation without detriment to the retention of the rest of the information contained in the original.
77. The semantics of words of the utterance makes up a most important part of its contents. A word as a main unit of language fixes in its meaning a complicated informational complex, reflecting various features of denoted objects (subject-logical (denotative) meaning of the word), the attitude to them of the members of the speaking community (connotative meaning of the word) and semantic ties of the word with other lexical units (intra-linguistic meaning (lexical valency) of the word). Information making up the semantics of the word is not homogeneous, and various qualitatively different components may be singled out. Taken by itself any of these components can be reproduced by another language means, but very often simultaneous reproduction in the T of the whole information of the semantics of the word appears impossible, because retention in the T of some parts of the word’s semantics may be achieved at the expense of the loss of its other parts. In this case equivalence of T is effected by reproduction of the most important (dominant) elements of semantics, rendering of which is necessary and sufficient in conditions of the given act of inter-lingual communication.
7. Possible differences in the denotative meaning of equivalent words in the ST and in the TT.
78. Some loss of information not hampering the relations of the 5th type of equivalence are observed in any of the 3 main aspects of word semantics: denotative, connotative and intra-linguistic. It often happens that in the meaning of equivalent words in the o and the T there is a different number of elementary meanings (semes), because they reflect different features of the denoted class of objects.
| ошибка | error, mistake |
Direct meanings of the meaning of the Russian word «ошибка» and of the English “error” are often treated as equivalent in T, but “error” implies deviation from some rule, principle or law and this additional feature differentiates it from «ошибка», where there is no such restriction, as well as from the word “mistake”, which also means “ошибка”, but is usually associated with occasional misunderstanding or “miss”.
| kill, assassinate, murder, slay | убить |
English “kill”, “assassinate”, “murder”, are equivalent to the Russian «убить», but “kill” means to stop the existence of both animate and inanimate things (to kill an article, a plan, injustice, war, etc.), “assassinate” presupposes a treacherous murder of an official, “murder” – intentional and with a criminal motive, “slay” – intentional, violent, but without a criminal motive, and so on.
| плавать | swim, sail, float, drift |
| Лодка плывет по озеру | The boat is sailing in the lake |
When naming the process, expressed by the Russian «плавание», by English verbs “swim”, “sail”, one implies that an object moves in the water self-dependently, but is not carried by the current, which is identical to the verb “float”. In the Russian T «Лодка плывет по озеру» of the English sentence “The boat is sailing in the lake” this peculiarity of the English word semantics is lost, and the T may be understood as the reproduction of the English “The boat is drifting (floating) in the lake”. When translating into English the Russian word «плыть» the translator should inevitably indicate to the feature of self-dependence or non-self-dependence of the movement, which is absent in the original word. This missing feature is brought into the utterance by the meaning of other words. Thus, in Russian translations of the sentences «Он плавает стилем брасс», «Бревно плавает, наполовину погружаясь в воду» it is clearly seen that in the first case «плавает» is equivalent to the English “swims, while in the second – “floats”. Additional features differentiating the description of the phenomenon in the original are conditioned by the semantics of the words «стилем» and «бревно», though they are absent in the word «плавает».
79. Fixing different features of the denoted objects in the meanings of words each language creates its own “picture of the world”. In English “The fly stands on the ceiling”, while in Russian a motionless state of the fly is denoted differently: Муха сидит на потолке». As the result, coinciding semes of words of different languages may differ in character and number of objects, which are denoted through indication to this feature. Russian «носить» may refer to clothes, a beard, a moustache, a hair style, etc., but is not applicable to cosmetics as different from the English equivalent “wear”. «Кипяченый» (boiled) is applied to water and milk in English and in Russian, but eggs – only in English, because in Russian they are described as «вареные».
| A fly stands on the ceiling. | Муха сидит на потолке. |
| She was wearing a new kind of perfume. | |
| boiled eggs | вареные яйца |
80. The meaning of any word is a part of the semantic system of the language. It depends not only on what features of the denoted objects are reflected in it, but also on the fact that there are other words in the language denoting the same objects. Russian “лошадь” is not identical with “horse”, “dog” is not identical with «собака»:
| лошадь. конь | horse |
| собака, пес | dog |
The E. “head”and the R. «голова» in their direct meanings one and the same part of the body, but for an Englishman this word semantics includes indication to the fact that there are teeth, eyes and a tongue in a head, which is absent in the Russian word:
| You are not expected to say anything here and you can't keep quiet a tongue in your head. | |
| I could hear his teeth rattle in his head. | |
| I've got an eye in my head! I could bring down a ruling rabbit at fifty paces without a blink. |
81. Differences in the norm and the usus of the SL and the TL prevent the translator from using the closest equivalent of the O word in the T. This happens rather regularly, preventing the fullest realization of the 5th type of equivalence.
| She knew that he had risked his neck to help her. | рисковать головой | |
| The children clapped their hands with joy. | хлопать в ладоши | |
| They sat in the dock, their faces held high. | с высоко поднятой головой, высоко держа голову | |
| She slammed the door into his face. | захлопнуть дверь перед носом | |
| wash dishes | мыть тарелки | |
| scrub floors | мыть полы (скрести) | |
| wash teeth | чистить зубы (мыть) | |
8. Peculiarities of rendering in the TT the connotative meaning of the words of the ST.
82. Equivalence in translation of some words in the O and the T presupposes also the similarity of the connotative meaning of related words which reflects the character of perception of the information of the word by the speaker. The main role in rendering the connotative aspect of word’s semantics is played by its emotional, stylistic and figurative components.
The emotional characteristics of the meaning of the word may be either positive or negative. In any language there are words coinciding in their denotative meaning, but different in the presence or absence of the emotional component in its meaning.
| dog | doggie | кошка | кошечка |
| cat | pussy | буржуа | буржуй |
| womanly | womanish | ребячий | ребяческий |
| to attack | to accost | сидеть | рассесться |
| smell | fragrance |
As a rule, the general emotional character of the O word may be fully retained in the T. It is usually possible to find a TL word, which expresses the same approving or disapproving attitude to the described phenomena as in the SL word:
| Sometimes I feel I'm here all by myself, no one else on the whole damn planet. | Иной раз мне сдается, что я один-одинешенек, на всей этой проклятой планете больше ни души. |
Rendering the emotional characteristics as well as of other components of the connotative meaning of the word is made easy, because realization of this meaning is spread onto the whole of utterance: makes it emotional, stylistically coloured and figurative. That’s why this element of the contents may be rendered in a different place of the utterance, i.e. non-locally, in the semantics of another word:
| Sometimes I feel about eight years old, my body squeezed up and everything else tall. | А иногда покажется, что я - восьмилетний мальчишка, сам махонький, а все кругом здоровенное. |
83. Retention of the emotional characteristics of the utterance by means of the use of words with a corresponding connotative meaning is exclusively important for achieving equivalence. Violation of this requirement may make the T absolutely non-equivalent:
| Tom was in agony. At last he was satisfied that time had ceased and the eternity began. | Том переживал мучительные минуты. В конце концов он с удовольствием почувствовал, что время исчезло... |
The verb “to satisfy” is used in the O in its neutral meaning «не сомневаться», «вполне увериться». In the T, the emotional characteristics was rendered inaccurately and the sense of the utterance was distorted. Of course Tom Sawyer, being utterly scared, could not be satisfied thinking that his tortures would never end.
84. The 5th type equivalence also presupposes retention of the stylistic characteristics of the O in the T.
When perceiving the word, native speakers estimate it as a carrier of an additional information about the pertinence (уместность) of its use in a definite type of speech: colloquial, bookish or poetic. A considerable number of words in any language are stylistically neutral, i.e. they are used in different types of speech. The neutral stylistic characteristics is also estimated by speakers as a component of the connotative meaning, on the basis of which the word is considered pertinent or impertinent in certain utterances. There are words that coincide in the denotative meaning and do not coincide in the stylistic characteristics:
| to end | to terminate | спать | почивать |
| to begin | to commence | идти | шествовать |
| to go (to a place) | to repair (to a place) | сидеть | восседать |
| bloody | sanguinary | слушать | внимать |
| final | ultimate | голос | глас |
| wife | spouse | хозяин | владыка |
| husband | consort | приказ | повеление |
| маленький | миниатюрный | ||
| уважаемый | высокочтимый |
85. The highest degree of equivalence is observed in cases, when the word in T, which corresponds to the translated word in other components of its contents, has the same stylistic characteristics.
Very often it is achieved in translation of terms, having terminological correspondences in the TL:
| radiation | радиация |
| cathode-ray tube | электронно-лучевая трубка |
| ionizing event | акт ионизации |
| precipitations | атмосферные осадки |
| feedback | обратная связь |
However, equivalent words belonging to the same style of speech may be found among the common lexicon:
| fraught with | чреватый | to retire | удаляться |
| afore-said | вышеозначенный | steed | скакун |
| bearer | предъявитель | to bolt | улепетывать |
| barn | челн | to show off | рисоваться |
| to slay | сразить | to funk | трусить |
| to repose | покоиться | gluttony | обжорство |
86. But rather often words corresponding in the main contents in both the languages belong to different types of speech, and the stylistic component of the O word is lost in the T. Compare the examples, where the first word is stylistically marked and the second – neutral:
| slumber | сон | окрутить | to marry |
| morn | утро | скоропалительный | hasty |
| serge | сержант | умеючи | skilfully |
| to swap | менять |
Using such equivalents ruins the equivalence of stylistic characteristics of words in the O and the T. Such loss can easily be compensated, because like an emotional characteristics, the stylistic component of the meaning makes stylistically coloured not only the word itself, but the whole utternace as belonging to a certain type of speech. That’s why this component may be reproduced in transaltion of another O word in the utterance and even in one of the neighbouring utterances, ensuring the necessary degree of stylistic equivalence. Translators of fiction often resort to such compensation, because in this genre it is especially important to retain the stylistic peculiarities of the O.
Here is the translation of the initial phrase from the “Times”, written according to the tradition, in a refined style of English documents:
| You will pardon me, I trust, this intrusion upon your space. | Льщу себя надеждой, что вы простите мою назойливость. |
In this translation there is a number of stylistic deviations in rendering separate words. The stylistic characteristic of the verb “to pardon” (cf. to excuse) is not reflected, the Russian «назойливость» does not reproduce the indication to a strictly official character of the phrase “intrusion on your space”. But these deviations are communicatively irrelevant, because reference of the utterance to official style is clearly rendered in the translation of the verb “to trust” by a pompous phrase «льщу себя надеждой».
In one of M.Twain’s novels the hero trying to produce a strong impression on the listeners, pronounces a formidable and solemn tirade [t(a)i’reid].
| Go back and tell the king that at that hour I will smother the whole world in the dead blackness of the midnight; I will blot out the sun and he shall never shine again; the fruits of the earth shall rot for lack of light and warmth, and the peoples of the earth shall famish and die to the last man! | Ступай к королю и скажи ему, что завтра в полдень я покрою весь мир мертвой тьмой полуночи; я потушу солнце, и оно никогда уже не будет сиять; земные плоды погибнут от недостатка света и тепла, а люди на земле, все, до последнего человека, умрут с голода! |
This phrase abounds in words, whose semantics contains indication to their use in solemn, poetic speech. Such are the words: smother, blackness, famish and combinations he shall, the fruits of the earth, lack of light and so on. In the translation by Н.Чуковский the stylistic characteristics is reproduced in translation of some of the elements of the O. But it turned sufficient for ensuring the stylistic equivalence of the translation.
Thanks to the relative self-dependence of the stylistic component of word semantics, the stylistic equivalence in T may be achieved by other expressive means than in the O. It may be another part of speech, a special morpheme or a root together with other components of the word meaning:
| It cost him damn near four thousand bucks. He's got a lot of dough, now. (J.Salinger) | Выложил за нее чуть не четыре тысячи. Денег у него теперь куча. (Пер. Р.Райт-Ковалевой) |
Both the English text, and the Russian translation are stylistically marked as referring to colloquial speech. But the indicators of that in the O and in the T do not coincide - the stylistic characteristics of the English text is expressed in words damn, bucks, dough, and in the text of T it is contained in words выложил, куча, that are not equivalent to the cited English words.
When the stylistic characteristics is rendered in the T partially or non-locally, separate words of the O, whose semantics has a stylistic component will correspond to TL words having no such stylistic colouring. Such correspondences should be stylistically neutral, i.e. should not contain the stylistic characteristics different from the characteristics of the translated word. Otherwise the O and the T will not be stylistically equivalent.
87.Equivalence of the connotative meaning in related words in the original and the translation also presupposes reproduction of its associative-figurative component in the T. The semantics of some words includes additional information, connected with certain associations in the speakers’ minds. For some nations «снег» – is not merely a kind of precipitations, but an invariant of whiteness, against which they compare other white objects (hair, sugar, linen). “Chalk” is white too, but only a pale face may be compared with it. A Russian word «щепка» is used to a figurative description of a thin person. The semantics of the word «иголка» has no component, evoking such associations, though a needle denotes a thing much thinner that a chip (щепка).
The semantics of the words with such component stresses some feature, which for certain reasons is singled out in the object of thought. Russian «баня» is not merely a place, where a wash is taken, but also a very hot place, while the English “bath” is devoid of such characteristics. The English “rake’ is something very thin, and a distinctive feature of a pea-cock is pride. Such peculiarity of the word meaning is the evidence of its figurative component, fixed in its semantics by speech practice.
Different associations are fixed in meanings of some words in connection with the peculiarities of their use in folklore and literature, widely known in the given language community. Such associations are connected with Russian names Плюшкин, Митрофанушка, Держиморда, English Humpty-Dumpty, Mr.Hide, Sir Galahad, etc.
88. Thanks to the figurative component of the meaning a word influences the R. The semantics is understood with readiness, attracts attention, evokes emotional attitude.
Retention of the imagery of the O may an obligatory requirement of achieving equivalence of T. There are 3 degrees of similarity of figurative words of two languages:
1. Related SL and TL words may have the same associative figurative characteristics (snow – снег, day – день, бледный как полотно – as a sheet, храбрый как лев – as brave as a lion, зеленый виноград (что-то недостижимое) – sour grapes ). In such cases the highest degree of equivalence is achieved in transmitting of this component:
| She was dressed in white, with bare shoulders as white as snow. | Она была вся в белом с обнаженными плечами, белыми как снег. |
| And pride so moved within her that even her heart felt cold as stone. | И гордость так в ней всколыхнулась, что даже сердце у нее стало холодным, как камень. |
| Oh, it's all getting just bright as day, now. | Ну, теперь все становится ясно, как день. |
2. Different words, which are not equivalents, have a correlated associative-figurative characteristics. Thus, in English and Russian there are words, used for expressing an utmost degree of thinness, big strength or great stupidity, but they have different denotative meanings:
| thin as a rake | худой, как щепка |
| strong as a horse | сильный, как бык |
| stupid as a geese | глуп, как пробка |
In such cases reproduction of the figurative component of the meaning is achieved, as a rule, by the change of the image:
| I have never sees such an avid ostrich for wanting to gobble everything. | Я никогда не видал еще такой жадной акулы - все готов проглотить. |
3. The feature, singled out in the figurative component of the word in the original, is not singled out in the TL words. It often happens that in the TL there is no such image on the same basis as in the SL. In such cases reproduction of this part of the meaning of the word is possible only partially, at a lower level of equivalence:
| Want, colder than Charity, shivering at the street corners. | Нужда, промерзшая до мозга костей, дрожала на перекрестках улиц. |
Sometimes reproduction of this component of the meaning is impossible, and the image is lost.
| "Cat". With that simple word Jean closed the scene. | -Злючка,- отпарировала Джин, и это простое слово положило конец сцене. |
9. Equivalence in rendering the intra-linguistic aspects of the word meaning of the ST in the TT.
89. Intra-linguistic meaning of the word occupies a special place in relations between the units of the O and the T in the 5th type of equivalence.
This meaning is conditioned by the status of the word in the language system. Any word stands in complicated and various semantic relations with other words of the language, and these relations are reflected in its semantics. Thus, the Russian “стол» is semantically connected with other general and concrete names of furniture: мебель, обстановка. стул, кресло и пр. Another type of relations is revealed between this word and other words, which may combine with this word in speech: деревянный, круглый. стоять, накрывать и пр. The third type of semantic connections reveals general elements of the word стол with such words as столовая. столоваться. застольный и пр., that are united by a common root morpheme. Connection between separate meanings of a polysemantic word is also conditioned liguistically. In Russian one can hardly find any connection between the words совет and доска, but in English they are related as meanings of one word “board”.
90. The character of reproduction if intra-linguistic meaning in the T is different from reproduction of denotative and connotative meanings. first of all, in the majority of cases equivalence of words of the O and the T does not depend on retention of intra-linguistic meanings of translated words. This meaning imposed on the word by the system of language, contains information, the rendering of which is not included in the S intentions and which is not paid attention to by the communicants, treating it as the element of forming an idea, but not the idea itself. The necessity to reproduce the components of intra-linguistic meaning of the word in the T appears, when this meaning come forth in the O, when it is paid special attention and through this its components become an obligatory condition of achieving equivalence.
91. One of the components of intra-linguistic meaning of the word is the reflection of meanings of separate morphemes of this word in the semantics of this word.
A word may be a complicated unit, made by cohesion of several meaningful parts (morphemes). The meaning of the word as a whole is seldom the sum of meanings of its morphemes. As a rule, a certain combination of morphemes acquires a special meaning, functioning as a united whole. The meanings of words пароход. самолет, писатель, путник, woodman, machine-gun, aircraft, beatnik etc. is not the sum of meanings of their constitutive parts. But these meanings are always present in the semantics of the word as a whole and if necessary may be brought forth.
As the morphemic (derivative) component of word semantics is in most cases communicatively irrelevant, equivalence between words of the O and the T may be established between the words of the O and the T independently of their morphemic composition:
| In it would be a priceless old chestnut-wood wardrobe and a four-poster bed of an excellent period. | В ней находились бесценный старинный ореховый гардероб и кровать с балдахином весьма почтенного возраста. |
Equivalence relations are equally established both between words of the same morphemic structure (bed-кровать, priceless-бесценный), and between structurally different units (old-старинный, wardrobe-гардероб, four-poster-с балдахином, chestnut-wood-ореховый).
But the morphemic structure of the word may play a meaningful role in the O, and make up the part of the contents, which should be reproduced in the T. The equivalent reproduction of this element will be possible only if the structure of related words in the O and the T coincide:
| Не looked surprisingly young to Eric, who had always assumed that the nation's elders were really old. | Он выглядел очень молодо к большому удивлению Эрика, который всегда считал, что старейшины страны и на самом деле были стариками. |
Equivalence is achieved here due to the fact that the English “elder” and the Russian «старейшина» have equal root morphemes: old- (eld-) – стар-.
92. When the play on words, based on the meanings of constituting morphemes, is the main part of the contents of the utterance, equivalence in translation is achieved by playing with the morphemic constitution of other units of the SL. This is connected with the loss of other elements of meanings in reproduction, so equivalence is ensured only for the most important part of the contents of the O:
| By-and-by, he said: "No sweethearts I b'lieve?" - "Sweetmeats did you say, Mr. Barkis?" | -А нет ли у нее дружочка? - Пирожочка, мистер Баркис? |
Another way of rendering the derivational meaning meaning of the word of the O is by reproducing the meanings of constituting morphemes as separate words in the T. This gives an opportunity to render the necessary information, which is absent in the direct equivalent of the English word. In J.Galsworthy’s novel “The White Monkey” Michael Mont speaks to a man, a prospective employee if the publishing house:
| "Do you know anything about books?" "Yes, sir, I'm a good book keeper." "Holy Moses! Our job is getting rid of them. My firm are publishers." | - Вы что-нибудь смыслите в книгах? - Да, сэр, я умею вести конторские книги. – Ах ты, боже мой! Да у нас надо не вести книги, а избавляться от них. Ведь у нас издательство. (Пер. Р.Райт-Ковалевой) |
A usual correspondence of the word “bookkeeper” счетовод does not contain a morpheme with the meaning of «книга», that’s why the use of such correspondence in the T will make Michael’s answer senseless. The highest degree of equivalence may be achieved by translating each part of the English word separately.
As we see, rendering of this component of the meaning of the word is often accompanied by certain losses.
93. Similar restrictions exist in rendering relations between separate meanings of a polysemantic word. Usually this word is used in the O only in one of its meanings. After the R chose from the meanings of the word the one the S produces, other meanings become irrelevant. In the translation of the sentence “The Board decided to expel him”- «Совет решил его исключить» existence of other meanings of the words “board” and «совет», which are not equivalent, does not influence the level of equivalence.
The task of reproducing of word’s polysemy arises only when it is used by the S for rendering some additional information:
| Не says he'll teach you to take the boards and make a raft of them; but seeing that you know how to do this pretty well already, the offer ... seems a superfluous one on his part. | Он кричит, что покажет вам, как брать без спроса доски и делать из них плот, но поскольку вы и так прекрасно знаете, как это делать, это предложение кажется вам излишним. |
Words of the O are pronounced by the owner of the boards, who is threatening to punish the man, who took them without his permission. The words “to teach” and «показывать» are used in their direct and indirect meanings simultaneously. Equivalence in T is ensured due to existence of such meanings in these English and Russian words. This condition observed, the indicetion to polysemy is reproduced with sufficient completeness:
| But their united sagacity could make nothing of it, and they went to bed - metaphorically - in the dark. | Но даже их объединенная проницательность не смогла помочь им в этом разобраться, и они легли спать,- фигурально говоря, - в потемках. |
The indication that the word “dark” is used in the context metaphorically may be reproduced in the translation, if the corresponding Russian word has both a direct and a transferred sense.
| If our cannon balls were all as hot as your head, and we had enough of them, we should conquer the earth, no doubt. | Кабы наши пушечные ядра все были такие же горячие, как твоя голова, да кабы у нас их было вдоволь, мы, без сомнения, завоевали бы весь мир. |
Both the Russian and the English words «горячий» and “hot” have direct and transferred meanings. This makes possible to render both of the meanings of the word “hot”, realized in combinations “hot balls” and “hot head”.
94. Less degree of equivalence is achieved in cases, when the corresponding word in the TL has not the necessary polysemy. The translator has to quit the reproduction of this component, or reproduce it in another word’s semantics, i.e. at the expense of less accurate rendering of other components of the contents of the original. For literary translations it is characteristic to try to achieve a greater degree of equivalence by means of the last technique:
| Не ... said he had come for me, and informed me that he was а раgе. "Go 'long," I said, "you ain't more than a paragraph. " (M.Twain) | Он сказал, что послан за мною и что он глава пажей. - Какая же ты глава, ты одна строчка! - сказал я ему. (пер. Н.Чуковский) |
The Russian word «паж» has no meaning or a homonym connected with some part of a book. That’s why the only way to render the play on words of the O is to use in the T another word, which might be applied both to a boy-page and to a part of a book.
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