Theoretical description of particular types of translation.
In the theoretical aspect, differentiation between particular types of translation is connected with elaboration of special theories of T. In the practical plane, classification of T types gives the basis for specialization of Trs in particular types of T activity. Depending on the significance of their specific features, different types of T require a more or less detailed theoretical analysis.
Today a number of special theories of T have not been sufficiently developed as yet. Among special theories, connected with genre-stylistic classifications of T, the greatest attention is attracted to the problems of science-technological and newspaper-informational T, that present a significant theoretical and practical interest.
In elaborating special theories of T, studying its types and subtypes on the basis of psycholinguistic classification of T, different aspects of oral, especially simultaneous, T are very closely studied. The theory of SI is paid much attention to in the programme of teaching translators, and there are special manuals for this course. That’s why within the framework of of the course of the T theory it is possible to outline only some basic principles of the theoretical description of OT.
So far as the psycholinguistic classification of T is based on differences in the character of the Tr’s speech actions, the scientific description of a particular type of T includes not only purely linguistic but also psycholinguistic factors. This is especially important for the theory of OT (both simultaneous and consecutive ones), where a single presenteation of the O and generation of the TT in a series of single acts excludes the possibility of coming back to the O or correcting the TT. The conditions of OT (especially SI) create certain restrictions for reaching maximum equivalence and lead to some loss of information both in perception of the O and in the choice of a T variant by the Tr.
Main tendencies in the theory of oral translation.
The study of specific features of OT is realized in three directions.
The first aspect of investigations deals with factors, influencing the extraction of information from the O. OT is the T of the SL oral speech. Perception of oral speech is short, single and discreet. That’s why extraction of information in the process of T is realized in a different way, than in WT, i.e. visually. The degree of understanding depends on the rhythm, pauses in unfolding the chain of language units in the Ar’s speech. Perception is effected on the basis of “notional key points”. The Tr presupposes the following contents of the text on the basis of information segments he has perceived already. He can adjust his prospect in the process of further perception, which presupposes storage and keeping the previous information in his memory. The theory of OT describes psycholinguistic peculiarities and linguistic premises (reasons, grounds) of probability prognosis in T, its dependence on relative notional self-dependence of speech segments in different languages, and also the character of the loss of information in aural perception of considerable speech segments. This theory also describes factors, that compensate such loss: the knowledge of the subject and conditions of speech, that help to guess the contents of what was omitted, the intonation, the emotional colouring of speech, and so on.
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The second aspect of studying OT is connected with its treatment as a special kind of speech in the TL. Theory of OT describes the special character of Tr’s oral speech, that differs from usual “non-translation” one. Existence of such features is conditioned by the fact that the Tr’s speech is oriented on the O and is formulated in the process of T. In SI the process of speaking goes together with the process of perception, though part of the T is also uttered in pauses of the Ar’s speech. An important aspect of linguistic description of SI is in revealing the size (duration) of a minimum interval between the beginning of O segment generation and the beginning of its T. The size of this interval depends on two sets of linguistic factors.
1. It depends on the peculiarities of the SL structure, that condition the length of the speech segment, within which polysemy of constituents is taken away. For most languages this segment often includes the structural base of the sentence (SPO), and first of all, the verb-predicate. As often as not the Tr has to delay the beginning of T, waiting for the appearance of the verb in the Ar’s speech.
2. The size of the delay interval also depends on some peculiarities of the TL structure, which determines the degree of dependence of initial elements of the utterance on its subsequent elements.
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| Дружбу с Советским Союзом …(мы глубоко ценим). | (1) We highly appreciate our friendship with the Soviet Union. |
| Die Feunschaft mit der Sowjeunion … | |
| (2) The friendship with the Soviet Union is of great value to us. |
A Russian-English Tr will have to wait for the appearance of the predicate ценим to start his T, while a Russian-German Tr might start his translation at once, because there are more means of subordination in German, and its word order is not so rigid as in English. However, the E-R Tr might translate the beginning of the sentence, because he might account on the use of a synonymic structure (example 2).
In the special theory of OT a number of other peculiarities of a Tr’s speech are paid attention to.
This is a slower articulation, conditioned by hesitation pauses, variations in the choice of equivalents, leading to lengthening (by 3-4 times) of the interval before a wrong equivalent, and also by generally long pauses in comparison with usual speech. Tr’s speech is less rhythmical. An interpreter often speaks with high speed, trying to utter what he has understood, and in consecutive T the speech tempo becomes slower, because the Tr has to look through his notes, restoring the contents of the ST in his memory.
Special attention is paid to the Tr’s speech normative requirements. The Tr should take great pains to follow them in extreme conditions of SI and OT. They are: distinct articulation, even rhythm, correct accentuation, notional and structural completeness of phrases and other elements of T presentation, that ensure its full value perception by the TRs.
The central aspect of OT study is its being treated as a special type of translation, i.e. its being opposed to WT. Here the special theory of OT reveals quanitative and qualitative features. In SI the size (the quantity of words) of the TT depends on the length of the ST segments. In translation of short phrases the quantity of words in SI is in general larger than in WT due to a larger number of elements of description and explanation. In translation of longer phrases these quantities are equal. In translation of paragraphs and larger segments of the text the SI appears less wordy at the expense of deliberate compression of the text in the process of T, as well as due to some omissions. Shortened size of the TT in comparison with the WR of the same O is observed in all cases in a consecutive T as well. The quantity of omissions arise with the rise of the Ar’s speech tempo. That’s why OT special theory pays attention to the reasons, ways and limits of speech compression.
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The necessity of compression is determined by the fact, that conditions of OT (especially SI) do not give an opportunity to render the contents of the O as full as in WT. Why?
(1) In the rapid tempo of the Ar’s speech it is difficult for the Tr to keep in pace and utter the whole T.
(2) The speed of speech and thinking process of different Trs has its limits, and he often cannot speak as quickly as the Ar.
(3) Hasty uttering of speech segments influences their correctness and completeness, and the result is misunderstanding and breaking the whole process of inter-lingual communication.
Compression of speech in OT is difficult. Because it is not merely omission of some parts of the O, but such contraction of the translated message that preserves all important elements of the sense. Compression becomes possible thanks to informational abundance (surplus) of speech. In an utterance there are elements of information, that duplicate each other, and in T some of them may be omitted, the contents of the message being preserved. For example:
| Когда начнется осуществление этого плана? | 1) Осуществление этого плана начнется в 1990 году. 2) В девяностом. |
An utterance may sometimes contain accessory information (politeness formulas, casual remarks, deviations from the subject), omission of which will not interfere the realization of the main aim of communication. In a number of cases the situation of the contact makes rendering of some part of information in a verbal form unnecessary and admits of abridging the information in T.
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Compression of messages in T is a variable phenomenon. It depends on the tempo of the Ar’s speech and on the correlation the SL and the TL structures. The theory of OT describes methods of speech compression for each pair of languages with the help of both structural and semantic transformations. The most typical way of compression is synonymic substitution of phrases and sentences by shorter words, phrases and sentences, the substitution of a full name of the organization, state by an abbreviation or a shortened name, substitution of a verb with a verbal noun by a single verb of the same meaning as the verbal noun, omission of connecting elements in a phrase, the change of a subordinate clause for a participial of prepositional phrase and so on:
| the United Nations Organization | ООН |
| to render assistance | помогать |
| the policy pursued by the United States | политика США |
| When I met him for the first time… | При первой встрече с ним |
With the Ar speaking quickly the use of various methods of speech compression shortens the text by 25-30% in comparison to the WT of the same ST.
An important section of the theory of OT is the study of the character of equivalence reached in various types of such T. In OT there sometimes appear loss of information in comparison with with the level of equivalence established in WT. The deviations are usually omissions, additions, or wrong substitution of information contained in the O. Each kind of deviation includes less categories of different degrees of importance of rendered or non-rendered information.
Omissions usually are:
1) omission of an insignificant separate word, often an epithet;
2) omission of more important and larger units determined by the Tr’s misunderstanding of that part of the text;
3) omission of a part of the text explained by restructuring of the text in T.;
4) omission of a considerable part of the text due to the delay of the T from the Ar speech.
Additions are classed by the character of elements added:
1) determiners; 2) additional explanations; 3) clarifying connections between utterances; etc.
Finally, mistakes are divided according to the degree of importance: a small mistake in T of a separate word; a rough mistake of sense in translation of a word; a small mistake connected with a small change in the structure; a rude mistake in sense with a considerable change of the structure; etc.
In evaluation of the quality of the T the specific character of the oral form of communication is taken into consideration: in a close contact of the communicants a lower level of equivalence does not interfere in a number of cases with their mutual understanding, and it to a certain extent compensate the loss of information in the process of OT.
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