Lecture 2. TYPOLOGY OF TRANSLATIONAL ACTIVITY (MAIN TYPES OF TRANSLATION)
Principle unity of all types of translation activity.
Main classifications of translation.
Genre-stylistic classification of translation.
Psycholinguistic classification of translation.
Theoretical description of particular types of translation.
Main tendencies in the theory of oral translation.
Interconnection of genre-stylistic and psycholinguistic types of translation.
Principle unity of all types of translation activity.
Characteristic features of the translation and types of equivalent relations between the ST and TT are conditioned by the specific character of translation as a linguistic phenomenon, taking place in interlingual communication. General characteristic of the translation, defining the translation as a correlated functioning of two language systems and proceeding from this definition conclusions is valid for any translation event.
Real translation activity is performed by translators in various conditions; translated texts are various by their topics, language, genre reference; translations are performed in writing and orally, translators are set different requirements as for exactness and completeness of the translation an so on. Certain types of translation require of a translator special knowledge and skills.
All these differences, no matter how great they may seem, do not change the essence of the translation process, its general linguistic foundation. Any type of translation remains translation with all its peculiarities, imposed by correlated languages.
2. Main classifications of translation.
Alongside of general features, conditioned by one linguistic mechanism of translation activity, particular types of translation may also have specific peculiarities: modify the process of translation, lay special stress on achieving a higher level of equivalence, or, on the contrary, admit of deviations from the highest degree of semantic similarity, include some elements of adapting transcoding and so on. These peculiarities necessitate a scientific classification of types of translation activity (types of translation) and a detailed study of their specificity.
There are two main classifications of translation: (1) according to the character of the text to be translated, and (2) according to the character of speech actions of a translator in the process of translation. The first is connected with genre-stylistic peculiarities of the O, the second – with psycholinguistic peculiarities of speech actions in written and oral forms.
|
|
|
Thus, though the basic characteristics of translation can be observed in all translation events, different types of translation can be singled out depending on the predominant communicative function of the ST or the form of speech involved in the translation process: genre-stylistic and psycholinguistic.
3. Genre-stylistic classification of translation.
Genre-stylistic classificationof the translationdepending on genre-stylistic peculiarities of the O conditions singling out two functional types of translation. We can distinguish between literary and informative (special) translation.
Literary translation deals with literary texts, i.e. works of fiction or poetry whose main function is to make an emotional or aesthetic impression upon the reader. Their communicative value depends, first and foremost, on their artistic quality and the translator's primary task is to reproduce this quality in translation.
Analysis of literary translation shows, that in connection with the said task they are characterized by deviations from maximum possible semantic exactness with the aim to ensure the artistic quality of the T. Examples:
| The mountain tops were hidden in a grey waste of sky. | Вершины гор тонули в сером небе. |
It is clear, that the translator did not reject to use the closest correspondence to the English were hidden by chance. The verb тонули renders the idea of unlimited sky line as well (waste of sky).
| Dinny waited in the corridor which smelled of disinfectant and looked out on to a back street. A fly, disenchanted by the approach of winter was crawling dejectedly up the pane. | Динни ожидала ее в коридоре, пропахшем карболкой. Муха, удрученнаяприближением зимы, уныло ползала по окну, которое выходило на глухую боковую улицу. |
Here, too, the choice of the translation пропахшем (smelled), карболкой (disinfectant), удрученная (disenchanted), глухую боковую улицу (back street), and also the addition of the pronoun ее and transmitting the information about the window from the first sentence to the other, no doubt, pursue the aim of raising the artistic level of the T.
|
|
|
| But night-time in this dreadful spot! – Night, when the smoke was changed to fire; when every chimney spurted out flame; and places, that had been dark vaults all day, now shone red-hot, with figures moving to and fro within their blazing jaws and calling to one another with hoarse cries. | А какая страшная была здесь ночь! Ночь, когда дым превращался в пламя, когда каждая труба полыхала огнем, а проемы дверей, зияющие весь день чернотой, озарялись багровым светом, и в их пышущей жаром пасти метались призраки, сиплыми голосами перекликавшиеся друг с другом. |
The translator (Волжина Н.) is directed first of all by the aspiration to create an artistic description of the dreadful picture of the night as perceived by a frightened homeless girl. To carry out this task she changes the structure of the sentence (ночь в этом ужасногм месте – какая страшная была здесь ночь), chooses correspondences for separate words (changed to fire - превращался в пламя, spurted out flame - полыхала огнем, figures – призраки and others), the situation is described by another method (places, that had been dark vaults all day, т.е. там, где весь день были черные склепы is substituted by a more clear проемы дверей, зияющие весь день чернотой). Irrespective of the estimation of the results of such changes, they can be interpreted as modification of equivalence relations under the influence of a predominant function, conditioned by the type of –translation.
|
|
|
Literary works are known to fall into a number of genres. Literary translations may be subdivided in the same way, as each genre calls for a specific arrangement and makes use of specific artistic means to impress the reader. Translators of prose, poetry or plays have their own problems. Each of these forms of literary activities comprises a number of subgenres and the translator may specialize in one or some of them in accordance with his talents and experience. The particular tasks inherent in the translation of literary works of each genre are more literary than linguistic. The great challenge to the translator is to combine the maximum equivalence and the high literary merit.
The translator of a belles-lettres text is expected to make a careful study of the literary trend the text belongs to, the other works of the same author, the peculiarities of his individual style and manner and so on. This involves both linguistic considerations and skill in literary criticism. A good literary translator must be a versatile scholar and a talented writer or poet.
Informative translation is rendering into the target language non-literary texts, the main purpose of which is to convey a certain amount of ideas, to inform the reader. However, if the source text is of some length, its translation can be listed as literary or informative only as an approximation. A literary text may, in fact, include someparts of purely informative character. Contrariwise, informative translation may comprise some elements aimed at achieving an aesthetic effect. Within each group further gradations can be made to bring out more specific problems in literary or informative translation.
A number of subdivisions can be also suggested for informative translations, though the principles of classification here arc somewhat different. Here we may single out translations of scientific and technical texts, of newspaper materials, of official papers and some other types of texts such as public speeches, political and propaganda materials, advertisements, etc., which are, so to speak, intermediate, in that there is a certain balance between the expressive and referential functions, between reasoning and emotional appeal.
|
|
|
Translation of scientific and technical materials has a most important role to play in our age of the revolutionary technical progress. There is hardly a translator or an interpreter today who has not to deal with technical matters. Even the "purely" literary translator often comes across highly technical stuff in works of fiction or even in poetry. An in-depth theoretical study of the specific features of technical translation is an urgent task of translation linguistics while training of technical translators is a major practical problem.
In technical translation the main goal is to identify the situation described in the original. The predominance of the referential function is a great challenge to the translator who must have a good command of the technical terms and a sufficientunderstanding of the subject matter to be able to give an adequate description of the situation even if this is not fully achieved in the original. The technical translator is also expected to observe the stylistic requirements of scientific and technical materials to make text acceptable to the specialist.
Some types of texts can be identified not so much by their positive distinctive features as by the difference in their functional characteristics in the two languages. English newspaper reports differ greatly from their Russian counterparts due to the frequent use of colloquial, slang and vulgar elements, various paraphrases, eye-catching headlines, etc.
When the translator finds in a newspaper text the headline "Minister bares his teeth on fluoridation" which just means that this minister has taken a resolute stand on the matter, he will think twice before referring to the minister's teeth in the Russian translation. He would rather use a less expressive way of putting it to avoid infringement upon the accepted norms of the Russian newspaper style.
Apart from technical and newspaper materials it may be expedient to single out translation of official diplomatic papers as a separate type of informative translation. These texts make a category of their own because of the specific requirements to the quality of their translations. Such translations are often accepted as authentic official texts on a par with the originals. They are important documents every word of which must be carefully chosen as a matter of principle. That makes the translator very particular about every little meaningful element of the original which he scrupulously reproduces in his translation. This scrupulous imitation of the original results sometimes in the translator more readily erring in literality than risking to leave out even an insignificant element of the original contents.
Journalistic (or publicistic) texts dealing with social or political matters are sometimes singled out among other informative materials because they may feature elements more commonly used in literary text (metaphors, similes and other stylistic devices) which cannot but influence the translator's strategy. More often, however, they are regarded as a kind of newspaper materials (periodicals).
There are also some minor groups of texts that can be considered separately because of the specific problems their translation poses to the translator. They are film scripts, comic strips, commercial advertisements and the like. In dubbing a film the translator is limited in his choice of variants by the necessity to fit the pronunciation of the translated words to the movement of the actor's lips.Translating the captions in a comic strip, the translator will have to consider the numerous allusions to the facts well-known to the regular readers of comics but less familiar to the Russian readers. And in dealing with commercial advertisements he must bear in mind that their sole purpose is to win over the prospective customers. Since the text of translation will deal with quite a different kind of people than the original advertisement was meant for, there is the problem of achieving the same pragmatic effect by introducing the necessary changes in the message. This confronts the translator with the task of the pragmatic adaptation in translation.
Дата добавления: 2018-04-15; просмотров: 3447; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!