Translation of equivalent forms and structures.
Every word in the text is used in a particular grammatical form and all the words are arranged in sentences in a particular syntactic order. Grammaticality is an important feature of speech units. Grammatical forms and structures, however, do not only provide for the correct arrangement of words in the text, they also convey some information which is part of its total contents.
Though the bulk of the information in the original text is conveyed by its lexical elements, the semantic role of grammatical forms and structures should not be overlooked by the translator. In many cases, however, equivalence in translation can be achieved if the translator does not try to mirror the grammatical forms in the source text. There are no permanent grammatical equivalents and the translator can choose between the parallel forms and various grammatical transformations.
A most common example of dissimilarity between the parallel syntactic devices in the two languages is the role of the word order in English and in Russian. Both languages use a "direct" and an "inverted" word order. But the English word order obeys, in most cases, the established rule of sequence: the predicate is preceded by the subject and followed by the object. This order of words is often changed in the Russian translation since in Russian the word order is used to show the communicative load of different parts of the sentence, the elements conveying new information (the rheme) leaning towards the end of non-emphatic sentences. Thus if the English sentence "My son entered the room" is intended to inform us who entered the room, its Russian equivalent will be "В комнату вошел мой сын" but in case its purpose is to tell us what ray son did, the word order will be preserved: " Мой сын вошел в комнату ".
The predominantly fixed word order in the English sentence means that each case of its inversion (placing the object before the subject-predicate sequence) makes the object carry a great communicative load. This emphasis cannot be reproduced in translation by such a common device as the inverted word order in the Russian sentence and the translator has to use some additional words to express the same idea:
Money he had none .
Денег у него не было ни гроша.
The refusal to use a parallel structure in the target text may involve a change in the number of independent sentences by using the partitioning or the integrating procedures.
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The two boy flew on and on towards the village speechless with horror.
Мальчики бежали вперед и вперед по направлению к деревне. Они онемели от ужаса.
The English and the Russian verbs both have active and passive forms, but in English the passive forms are more numerous and are more often used. As a result, the meaning of the passive verb in the source text is often rendered by an active verb in the translation.
This port can be entered by big ships only during the tide. Большие корабли могут заходить в этот порт только во время прилива.
Handling equivalent-lacking forms and structures.
The Source language may have a number of grammatical forms and structures which have no analogues in the Target language. The English grammatical form that has no direct equivalent in Russian may be a part of speech, a category within a part of speech or a syntactical structure. A lack of equivalence in the English and Russian systems of parts of speech can be exemplified by the article which is part of the English grammar and is absent in Russian. As a rule, English articles are not translated into Russian for their meaning is expressed by various contextual elements and needn't be reproduced separately. Translating the phrase "the man who gave me the book" with the Russian "человек, который дал мне книгу" "the translator needn't worry about the definite article since the situation is definite enough due to the presence of the limiting attributive clause.
Even if some grammatical category is present both in SL and in TL, its subcatigories may not be the same and, hence, equivalent-lacking. Both the English and the Russian verb have their aspect forms but there are no equivalent relationships between them. Generally speaking, the Continuous forms correspond to the Russian imperfective aspect, while the Perfect forms are often equivalent to the perfective aspect. However, there are many dissimilarities. Much depends on the verb semantics. The Present Perfect forms of non-terminative verbs, for instance, usually correspond to the Russian imperfective verbs in the present tense:
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I have lived in Nalchik since 190.
Я живу в Нальчике с 1980 г.
The Past Indefinite forms may correspond either to the perfective or to the imperfective Russian forms and the choice is largely prompted by the context. Cf.:
After supper he usually smoked in the garden.
После ужина он обычно курил в саду .
After supper he smoked a cigarette in the garden and went to bed.
После ужина он выкурил в саду сигарету и пошел спать.
Of particular interest to the translator are the English syntactical (infinitival, participial or gerundial) complexes which have no parallels in Russian.
A special study should be made of the translation problems involved in handling the Absolute Participle constructions.
To begin with, an Absolute construction must be correctly identified by the translator. The identification problem is particularly complicated in the case of the "with"-structures which may coincide in form with the simple prepositional groups. The phrase "How can you play with your brother lying sick in bed" can be understood in two different ways: as an Ab- solute construction and then its Russian equivalent will be "Как тебе не стыдно играть, когда твой брат лежит больной (в постели)" or as a prepositional group which should be translated as "Как тебе не стыдно играть с твоим больным братом".
Then the translator should consider the pros and cons of the possible translation equivalents. The meaning of the Absolute Participle construction can be rendered into Russian with the help of a clause, an adverbial participle (деепричастие) or a separate sentence. Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages. Using a clause involves the identification of the specific adverbial function of the construction: "Business disposed of, we went for a walk". – Когда (так как) с делом было покончено, мы отправились погулять.
Many equivalent-lacking structures result from a non-causative verb used in the typical causative complex. Preserving its basic meaning the verb acquires an additional causative sense. Cf.:
They laughed merrily.
Они весело смеялись .
They laughed him out of the room.
Они так смеялись над ним, что он убежал из комнаты.
The translator should always remember that the grammatical form is not only the Form, it has meaning which should be rendered in the translation.
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