The main difficulties in translating Phrasal verbs into Russian
It is impossible to guess the meaning of a phrasal verb on sense of the main verb, as a rule. What does "put down" mean? To put down? At all not. If not to foreknow, well you won't guess in any way that "to criticize" it. I hate my boss putting me down all the time. – It isn't pleasant to me that my boss constantly criticizes me.
When training in the phonetic, grammatical and lexical phenomena of a foreign language first of all their comparison to the similar phenomena of the native language, detection of their similarities and distinctions is necessary. Only by such comparison it is possible to train in a correct translation of this or that training material. Ignoring of the grammatical phenomena and a lexical system of the native language not effectively and, in effect, is useless as the native language influences creation of thoughts and statements of trainees in a foreign language and certainly helps digestion of new language material. One of ways of training in the grammatical and lexical phenomena of a foreign language is the translation.
The translation is important and necessary form of education. Without dewater method of training it is impossible as pupils before comprehending the received text, first of all try to translate him into the native language as they don't think in a foreign language. The main objective when translating is selection of the correct word which is precisely reflecting sense of the statement in a foreign language. Correctly developed exercises for the translation promote not only to the best assimilation of a new training material, and also motivation of interest of trainees in the learned language. This interest is based on comparison of a grammatical and lexical system of foreign and native languages, finding of analogs of these or those structures in the native language. When developing methods of the translation it is necessary to consider certain difficulties of the learned language. So, in English there are certain designs of offers which can not correspond completely when translating to designs of offers in the native language. It is possible to give impersonal sentences as an example: It is cold – is cold or some forms of passive voice: I am asked – I am asked. From this point of view we have developed the following types of exercises on the translation:
1. Grammatical translation. In such exercises ways of the translation of some grammatical phenomena of English into the native language are considered, (temporary forms of a verb, passive voice, impersonal sentences etc.).
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2. Text translation. The purpose of such exercises is formation at the trained skills of identification of the main essence of the read text at his not full (partial) understanding.
3. Logical translation. The logical translation is one of effective remedies of the translation especially of such phenomena of a foreign language which have no analogs in the native language. From the point of view of the translation one of the most difficult phenomena in English are "phrasal verbs." The phrasal verb represents a combination of a notional verb to a pretext or an adverb – a post syllable. Difficulty of the translation of phrasal verbs is that the notional verb in combination with a pretext or an adverb very often loses the major semantic importance and gets absolutely other sense that throws trainees into confusion.For example, the verb look with different postpositions gains the following values: Look at – to look at Look for – to look for Look after – to look after – to look forward to Look forward to. Total absence of such phenomenon as phrasal verbs in Armenian considerably complicates their perception trainees.
Phrasal verbs very often have idiomatic value, i.e. are used metaphorically. For example, the dog dug up a bone. The dog has dug out a bone. We dug up some interesting facts. We have grubbed up the interesting facts. In English, as well as in many other languages, pretexts and adverbs make a certain sense. For example: up – means the movement up, down – down, Therefore, to turn the music up is translated how to lift a sound, and to turn down – to muffle, lower. At the metaphorical use of up – means increase in a size, quantity, force, and down – reduction. Thus, these sentences can be translated as follows: The prices went up – the prices povysilis.the children quietened down – children have become silent (have calmed down). In Russian, some phrasal verbs can find equivalents, using a verb with different prefixes: Drive to – to go, Drive into – to drive, Drive up – to approach, Drive off – to drive off Thus, when training in phrasal verbs and ways of their translation use of Russian yields considerable results. Trainees, understanding an essence of a phrasal verb by means of an equivalent in Russian, logically correctly select the word, necessary on sense, in the native language. Phrasal verbs are rather often used in sports terminology. to warm up – to warm muscles before training or competition, to cool down – after training or competition at - to drive muscles in a normal state, to join in – to participate in sporting events, games, to drop out – to leave competitions or race, etc. Some of them have strongly entered Russian and in Armenian languages as the sports term, such as: Knock down – falling in boxing after blow, to knock smb. out, to bring someone to an unconsciousness, to bring the opponent out of further competitions (having won against him). When training in phrasal verbs it is possible to offer trainees learning them by heart. At such approach the purpose of training in phrasal verbs – understanding and the correct use – can't be reached fully. It is much more effective to offer trainees logical approach to the translation of phrasal verbs according to their contextual value. [26, p. 326]
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Phrasal verbs can have several different meanings, which are very different from each other:
Pick up a bag up off the floor – to lift a bag from a floor;
Pick up the trail – to find a trace;
Pick up a chick – to pick up the little girl (slang).
Difficulty the third:
Some grammatical difficulties are connected with phrasal verbs, for example there are divided phrasal verbs and not divided. On any external signs it is impossible to understand what verbs divided what aren't present — it need to be spotted in the textbook, the dictionary or an example from the text. In the divided phrasal verbs after the main verb it is possible to squeeze addition: Plug in the kettle, please. – Plug the kettle in, please. In not divided it isn't allowed. He ran through his report once more. – He ran his report through once more. Phrasal verbs are one of the most difficult aspects for learners of the English language. In many cases the meaning of the phrasal verb cannot be deduced from its elements, i.e., it is being used idiomatically. For example: a learner who knows that to tick is to make a checkmark may have difficulty in understanding the sentence The teacher ticked off the student for being late, in which the phrasal verb to tick off means to reprimand or to express disapproval.Many phrasal verbs are polysemous; i.e., they have more than one meaning. The phrasal verb to put down has the literal meaning of putting something down on the table or floor. But it also has the idiomatic meanings:
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• to make someone feel small, to criticize and humiliate them
• to kill as in the sentence I had to have my cat put down.
• to stop, quash, put an end to as in the sentence The police put down the riots with unnecessary brutality.
There are difficulties with the grammar of phrasal verbs, particularly with the position of the particles. Look at the following examples:
| She put down the baby. | She put the baby down. |
| The teacher put the student down. | The teacher put down the student |
| The student put her bad grade down to tiredness. | The student put down her bad grade to tiredness. |
Selection principles
The phrasal verbs listed on this website are those that, in the opinion of the webmaster, are among the most useful for English learners to learn first. Only idiomatic phrasal verbs that are likely to cause difficulties to language learners have been included. The definition listed for each phrasal verb is generally very short and should be regarded as the first step in the learning process. [27, p. 452]
W.T. Littlewood considers that information technology can play an important role in the development of learner autonomy as it facilitates the students’ learning and provides students with the opportunity to use what they have learned. Phrasal verbs have been designed for the purpose of language teaching while other tools such as the Internet, e-mail, etc. also promote student-centered language learning and help students develop their communicative skills as well. Thanks to this, learners can manage their own learning at their own speed and based on their own choice. This helps learners to take responsibility for their own learning, and leads to greater autonomy and a more learner-centered language classroom. Another advantage is that Phrasal verbs provides both teachers and students with easier access to conversation all over the world through the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web.
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The Phrasal verbs also provide supplemental language activities which can help students with additional practice in specific areas of language learning. These include reading tests and comprehension questions, grammar exercises, pronunciation , vocabulary tests, cloze tests, and so forth. Students can search the Web for such web sites, or teachers can recommend good ones for them. In addition, language teachers can also post lecture notes and handouts on the web so that students can easily have access to them either at the university or at home if they have computers and internet connections. This allows students to keep up with materials on the web while they are unable to attend classes. In the field of language teaching, the Phrasal verbs also offers language teacher a significant advantage in that it gives teachers a better chance for professional development. Beside the tremendous search capability, the Phrasal verbs helps language teachers develop their knowledge and keep up with trends in language teaching. Teachers can read online newsletters, journals, papers and publications related to the field of verbs, join discussion groups, mailing lists, audio and video conferencing so that they can share ideas, discuss concerns and exchange resources with other colleagues all over the world. So as to keep up with new trends of professions, language teachers can also join professional organizations, read the publications, and attend their conferences. Therefore, the Phrasal verbs in general is a very useful tool for language teachers to improve their language teaching skills. [28, p. 357]
Phrasal verb use helps learners to gain input in the language learning process. This form of communication provides more equality of opportunity for self- expression and indeed more chances to interact in the written form. This increases confidence to experiment in the second language. It is the greatest source of information not in book form; can be used as an encyclopedia and can have real worth in promoting higher thinking skills. Students focus less on rote learning and basic understanding and employ logical skills for searching and then evaluate and judge the usefulness of gleaned information to put their work together. Some studies indicate that such ESL learners produce more written sentences when compared to the oral group situation in the classroom environment. It is also useful not only for the quantity but also the quality of language as learners have a greater variety of speech discourse and use more complex language. Furthermore, it changes teacher and students' roles over content and discussion making learning more student-centered with the choice in topics raised and the student becoming involved in decision - making. The students construct their own knowledge and the teacher becomes a facilitator in the process.
The Phrasal verbs has unlimited supplemental language resources such as reading texts, pronunciation exercises etc. which students can access to improve technically in the language. Games with Phrasal verbs learning components are also fun activities, which the teacher can also create. Students can use authentic sites created by native speakers, rather than EFL learning type designed ones. The Phrasal verbs is a platform for experiencing and presenting creative works such as essays, poetry and stories and for providing supplemental language activities in specific areas of language learning. Up to this point, the above discussion has described some of the potential benefits and advantages brought about by Phrasal verbs and how it can be used in language teaching and learning.
However, such discussion will not be sufficient if we do not address the disadvantages and obstacles related to the use of Phrasal verbs in the language classroom as the use of them for education is not without problems. The following are some of the possible problems language teachers and students may encounter when trying to use Phrasal verbs. If students do not realize this problem, they may learn wrong facts or data. Besides, as the Phrasal verbs provides access to issues and topics, there are also inappropriate recourses that students may use. This is very dangerous as it may result in various problems especially among children and adolescents. It is therefore the teacher’s responsibility to teach students to be critical in their judgment of the material, so as to make it a useful and effective tool. Finding the information we want is not an easy task at all. Searching for material about Phrasal verbs can sometimes be quite time-consuming and frustrating. [29, p. 998] As previously stated, the World Wide Web is one great big, wonderful library. However, once we enter it, we can easily get lost and do not know which way to go. This is due to the fact that there is no cataloguing system for the Web. Search engines can be of great help, but if we search for a common word or term, we can end up with more references than we can manage.
It is common knowledge that in order to provide an adequate translation, the translator must be able to sense nuances in the semantics of both the source-language and target-language texts. English phrasal verbs (e.g. give up, break in, fall out) are of great interest to me in this respect because they possess quite a number of semantic, grammatical and stylistic peculiarities, sometimes making their accurate translation into Russian difficult. Of course, in dealing with the translation of such lexical units into his or her native language, the translator can consult the appropriate bilingual dictionary, but what about the profound comprehension of why this or that phrasal verb is translated only this and not any other way?
To get a good idea of English phrasal verbs' semantic nuances, let us first look at their conceptual features. In theory, phrasal verbs are generally considered to be idiomatic combinations of a verb and an adverbial particle. The exact status of the latter is still being debated, scholars being divided on whether it is an adverb, prepositional adverb, postpositional prefix, special part of speech, etc. However, here we are interested only in the features of adverbial particles.
In general, the main function of phrasal verbs is conceptual categorization of reality in the speaker's mind. They denote not only actions or states as "ordinary" verbs do, but also specify their spatial, temporal or other characteristics. This ability to describe actions or states more precisely, vividly and emotionally is determined by the adverbial components of phrasal verbs. By combining with these elements, verbs of broader meaning are subjected to a regular and systematic multiplication of their semantic functions. While the English verb has no consistent structural representation of aspect, adverbial particles either impart an additional inspective meaning to the base verb (e.g. the durative verb sit merges with the particle down into the terminative phrasal verb sit down) or introduce a lexical modification to its fundamental. In most cases adverbial elements denote the general spatial direction of the action or express its qualitative or quantitative characteristics, like beginning (set out), duration (bum along), completion (think out), intensity (hurry up), and so on.
Obviously, such semantic peculiarities of English phrasal verbs must influence the process of their translation into the Russian language, which has a highly developed system of verbal prefixes. In addition to their function that is analogous to that of English prefixes, Russian verbal prefixes resemble English adverbial particles in their semantic functions, also indicating various qualities of actions and states. Like adverbial particles in English, Russian prefixes are lexically strong.
For example, the Russian prefix "раз-" denotes
1) Division into parts (раскрошить);
2) Distribution, direction of action in different directions (разъехаться);
3) Action in reverse (разминировать);
4) Termination of action or state (разлюбить);
5) Intensification of action (расплясаться)
Thus, in translation from English into Russian, the meaning of the English adverbial component of the phrasal verb is mostly conveyed by using the Russian prefix that reflects the character of the described action or state most accurately. To a greater degree, this refers rather to nuances of semantics than grammar. That is why it seems almost impossible to create a consistent rigid system of lexical correspondences between English adverbial particles and Russian prefixes, without encountering numerous debatable problems. Strictly speaking, proper translation of English phrasal verbs to a high degree depends on the context in which they are used, which suggests the appropriate interpretation of the described action. Having stated the specific characteristics of the action denoted by a certain phrasal verb, one can seek a Russian counterpart prefix, which is the closest in rendering the same idea and meets the lexical and grammatical requirements of translation into the target language. According to the Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs, in the above context the phrasal verb hold up has the following meaning.
The sentences "There was a little fire there. Nancy built it up, when it was already hot inside" has the following translation: «В очаге еще были горячие угли, она их раздула, и пламя вспыхнуло". The adverbial particle up in the phrasal verb build up imparts the idea of increasing the size of the fire and shows the intensification of the action. According to the definition given in the Oxford Russian Dictionary, the most appropriate Russian prefix should be "раз-", indicating the intensification of action. For the sentence "Three or four times while I was going through their envelopes, I was tempted to get up and make a formal protest to M.Yoshoto". There are several manuals which can be useful in learning phrasal verbs:
1. Really learn 100 phrasal verbs (Oxford University Press). It is worth beginning studying of phrasal verbs with this textbook. The structured grant will allow learning the most common semantic units slowly but surely. About 1 printing page is devoted to each of verbs. At first to you will suggest to guess value of a verb on the basis of couple of examples, then you will be able to check the guesses. You find out detailed information on value of a verb and you will be able to practice. The special section is devoted to working off of knowledge of all material of the textbook. Council: you learn verbs randomly, but not one after another.
2. Longman Phrasal Verbs Dictionary. It is the advanced dictionary which includes about 5 000 modern phrasal verbs of English. The author gives all values of phrasal verbs. Dictionary entries are followed by the most available explanations. Also at the book there is a lot of useful and enough simple tables.
3. English Phrasal Verbs in Use. This magnificent edition for the advanced students. The book represents the excellent theoretical management supplied with a huge number of versatile exercises on working off of the gained knowledge. In total in the textbook 70 different subjects are offered. At the end of the book the mini-dictionary of phrasal verbs is offered.
4. Phrasal Verbs Plus (Macmillan). It is one of new dictionaries in which grammatical and semantic aspects of the use of phrasal verbs are in detail described. At the same time the author constantly accompanies explanations with examples. The book was created taking into account modern lifestyle: verbs which are applied in business, economy, the Internet, etc.1 are given. The cheerful comics illustrating common phrases do process of knowledge of new verbs by more positive. [30, p. 441]
Another issue to consider is that teacher’s knowledge of information technology is also crucial in determining the success of implementing Phrasal verb in language teaching. A certain level of technical expertise is required from teachers in order to use this technology in teaching. As a result, we usually do not feel confident enough to use the Phrasal verbs and learning programs in our teaching. In addition, Phrasal verbs is not always as understandable as it should be. It is known that in the translation of Phrasal verbs into Russian can be sometimes difficulties and disadvantages. But the teacher must not neglect the communicative teaching approach, which must always be the priority in the lesson. Student monitoring and evaluation; plagiarism; inappropriate exercises etc. need to have appropriate policies and planning in place to pre-empt foreseeable problems. However, it is the responsibility of language teachers to fully understand its assets as well as liabilities so as to make the most of Phrasal verbs and its tools in enhancing the language teaching and learning process. It is one example of translating Phrasal verbs into Russia language:
The Porsche crept along the street like a sleek black panther. Hugging the curb, its engine purred so deep and low it sounded like a predator's growl. Marnie Hibbs was kneeling in the fertile soil of her bed, digging among the impatiens under the ligustrum bushes and cursing the little bugs that made three meals a day of them, when the sound of the car's motor attracted her attention, she glanced at it over her shoulder, then panicked as it came to stop on front of her house."Lord, is it that late?" she muttered. Dropping her trowel, she stood up and brushed the clinging damp earth of her bare knees. She reached up to push her dark bangs off her forehead before she realized that she still had on her heavy gardening gloves. Quickly she peeled them off and dropped them beside the trowel, all the while watching the driver get out of the sport car and start up her front walk. Glancing at her wristwatch, she saw that she hadn't lost track of time. He was just very early for their appointment, and as a result, she wasn't going to make a very good first impression. Being hot, sweaty, and dirty was no way to meet a client. And she needed this commission badly.
Sandra Brown "Long Time Coming"
Порше медленно крался вдоль улицы, как будто черная лоснящаяся пантера. Обнимая обочину, его двигатель урчал подобно рычанию хищника. Марни Хиббс стояла на коленях на плодородной почве своей клумбы, копаясь под кустами и проклиная маленьких жучков, которые едят их трижды за день, когда звук мотора машины привлек ее внимание. Она взглянула на нее через плечо и занервничала, так как машина остановилась перед ее домом. - Боже, неужели я опоздала? – пробормотала она. Бросив лопатку, она встала и стряхнула прилипшую к ее голым коленям сырую землю. Она подняла руки, чтобы поправить свою темную челке на лбу, как поняла, что на ней до сих пор одеты тяжелые садовые перчатки. Она быстро стянула их и кинула к лопатке, все продолжая смотреть на водителя, который вышел из спортивной машины и появился на дорожке. Взглянув на свои наручные часы, она поняла, что не виновата. Он просто приехал на встречу слишком рано и, как результат, она не подготовилась как следует, чтобы произвести хорошее впечатление. Она была разгоряченной, вспотевшей и грязной, и это был не самый лучший вид, в котором можно встречать клиента. А эта встреча была ей нужна.
Сандра Браун «Настанут лучшие времена»
As we can see, phrasal verbs are widely spread in English literature. Translating phrasal verbs of this passage I had some difficulties because of difference in the meaning given in a dictionary and the contextual meaning. For example, the verb ―to reach up‖ is translated like ―протянуть руку ввeрх‖ , but this meaning isn‘t suitable for the context. The sentence would sound like ―Она протянула руку вверх, чтобы поправить челку‖ and it isn‘t correct for the Russian language, because she didn‘t stretch her arms. The next phrasal verb is ―to push off‖ . It is translated in the dictionary like ―отталкивать, смываться‖ and this meaning isn‘t suitable for the word ―челка‖ in Russian completely. The phrasal verb ―to peel off‖ is translated in the dictionary like ―слезать, облезать‖ . We can meet this verb twice in the passage: ―to peel off gloves‖ and ―to peel off glasses‖ . Both in the first and second cases the dictionary‘s meaning isn‘t suitable for the translation. It‘s impossible ―слезать перчатки‖ and ―облезать очки‖ . Therefore I translated them like ―стягивать‖ in the first case and ―снимать‖ in the second. Conclusion Discerned translating problems and difficulties don‘t exhaust the all variety of complications in translation. They reflect only the fundamental, the most typical situations. Translating of English phrasal verbs is very important part of the science of translation because it couldn‘t be a real good correct translation without correct translating of the phrasal verbs. Every translator should pay attention to the translation of the phrasal verbs and work hard with each phrasal verb. English and Russian lexical systems are so different that they demand the special approach to translating of each verb according to its contextual meaning. [31, p. 45]
So the usage of the Phrasal verbs has both positive and negative sides. It is up to the teacher to use correctly benefits in teaching English and avoiding some wrong translating of the them.
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