Suggested Topics for Discussion



1. What are the two main stages of the translating process? Must the translator understand the original text before he begins to produce his text in TL? In what way does the translator's understanding of the source text differ from that by a SL native speaker?

2. What makes understanding possible? Where can the translator find the necessary information of what a segment of the text really means? What is context? What is background knowledge?

3. What role do the semantics of language units play in the make-up of the text semantic structure? In what sense can one speak of "translating" the words or the grammatical categories and structures of the source text? What is the difference between the word "semantics" as defined in the dictionary and its meaning in a particular text?

4. Are all the semantic elements of the source text of equal communicative value? Can they all be always rendered in translation? Why has the translator to adopt a "lesser evil" strategy? How should the dominant aspects of the source text meaning be selected?

5. What parts of the text semantics are usually of greater communicative value? Are the purport of communication and the identification of the situation expressed by individual words and structures or by the whole text? Why is it often more important to render the meaning of the whole than that of each particular item?

6. How can a word-for-word transfer be used in the translating process? Should the syntactical structure of the source text be always changed in translation? How should the TL structures be selected in the target text?

7. What is lexical co-occurrence? Are co-occurrence rules usually the same in SL and TL? What techniques can be used by the translator to solve the problem of the difference in co-occurrence?

8. Does the translation theory dictate strict rules to the translator? What makes translation a creative process? Can the translator automatically apply the theoretical postulates in each particular case?

TextFAO ... LET THERE BE BREAD

(1) A new excitement has been added to the queer race that Man has run against himself through the ages, testing whether he can produce food fast enough to feed his fast-growing family. (2) In the past the race has never been a contest. (3) Never, in all the yesterdays since he clambered out of the primeval ooze, has Man the Provider caught up with Man the Pro-creator: there has been famine somewhere in the world in nearly every year of recorded history. (4) Even today, after twenty centuries of Christian Enlightment, half man's family goes hungry and vast numbers of them are actually starving to death. (5) Nevertheless, the race has suddenly grown close enough to be charged with suspense. (6) For the Provider has latterly been getting expert coaching from the sidelines and, despite the fact that the Procreator is adding to his family at the unprecedented rate of nearly fifty million a year, the gap is steadily closing. (7) The coach responsible for this remarkable turn of events is the Food and Agricultural Organization, more familiarly known as FAO, a specialized Agency of the United Nations. (8)

As its name suggests, FAO worries more about the eater than about the farmer. (9) The emphasis is natural enough, for farmers (and fishermen and producers of food generally) comprise only about three-fifths of the world's gainfully employed, but we all eat and, to hear FAO tell it, most of us eat wrong. (10) It was, indeed, out of concern for the well-being of eaters the world over that FAO was born.

Text Analysis

1. How can Man run a race against himself? Does this figure of speech represent Man's efforts to produce enough food as a kind of a sport event? Does the added excitement to the race mean that the struggle between the competitors has become unpredictable and more interesting to watch?

2. How can a race not be a contest? Does a contest imply that each of the participants has a chance to win? that there is no overwhelming superiority of one of them?

3. Did Man really clamber out of the primeval ooze? Does the phrase refer to an actual period in Man's evolution or is it just a figure of speech? If the Provider catches up with the Procreator, does it mean that there will be enough food for the earth's growing population? Is recorded history the same as written history or is it the history we knew something about?

4. In what sense can the last twenty centuries be called the years of Christian Enlightment?

5. Is the distance between the participants in a close race great or small? What is a book full of suspense? How can a race be charged with suspense? Does it mean that it has become more thrilling for the on-lookers?

6. Does "to get expert coaching" mean to get good advice from a coach? Is a coach a man who supervises a sportsman's training? When one runner is gaining on the other, is the gap between them widening or closing?

7. If a man is responsible for something does it always mean that he is guilty of something? What is a UN specialized agency?

8. Is the eater a common name for a food consumer? In what respect can the eater be contrasted to the farmer?

9. Are gainfully employed people those who earn their living by their own efforts? If we say that a person eats wrong, do we refer to his table manners or to the quality of food?

10. How can emphasis be expressed syntactically? What is the meaning of the preposition "out of in combinations with such words as 'love, hate, consideration, affection", etc.? In what sense can an organization be born?

Problem-Solving Exercises

I. Suggest the possible Russian structures for the translation of sentence (1) 68

to express the idea that the race has become closer and more interesting to watch.

II. Suggest the Russian substitute for the word "race" in sentence (1). Can

the word гонки be used here? What sports can it be applied to in Russian?

III. What Russian wording can you suggest as the equivalent to the phrase "that Man has run against himself in sentence (1)?

IV. Suggest the possible translations of sentence (2) which will show the absence of the real struggle because the competing sides were too' unequal.

V. Choose the Russian substitute for "the Provider" in sentence (3) among

the words поставщик, добытчик, кормилец and for "the Procreator" among the words производитель, продолжательрода, родитель. Justify your choice. Can you suggest anything else?

VI. Explain why the term первобытно-общинныйстрой is no good as a substitute for "the primeval ooze" in sentence (3). Is первобытноеболото or even первобытныймрак better? Why?

VII. If you use the Russian word голод as the substitute for the English "famine" in sentence (3), what verbs can you use with it?

VIII. Use a more general word in Russian to render the meaning of "the yesterdays" in sentence (3).

IX. Show how the choice of substitutes for the English "clambered out" in sentence (3) - выкарабкался, выбрался, вышел, etc.— depend on the way you translate the phrase "primeval ooze". Give several variants.

X. Translating the phrase "Christian Enlightment" in sentence (4) try to

change the part of speech to which each of its components belong. Compare the obtained substitute with the caique христианскаяпросвещенность. Where is the loss lesser?

XI. Compare three Russian equivalents to the English "man's family" in sentence (4): человеческаясемья, человеческийрод, родчеловеческий. Which of them would you prefer? Why?

XII. Explain the meaning of the phrase "a close race". (Cf. sentence (5).) Can your explanation be used in the translation? If not, suggest a way out.

XIII. Formulate the general idea of the phrase "to be charged with suspense" in sentence (5) and suggest its translation as a whole without rendering the meaning of its components.

XIV. Correct the following wordings in accordance with the co-occurrence rules of the Russian language: разрывнеуклоннозакрывается (the gap is steadily closing), болеезнакомоизвестная (more familiarly known), послушать, какФАОговоритэто (to hear FAO tell it).

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XV. Suggest a substitute for the English "for" in sentence (6) bearing in mind that the Russian sentence should not begin with a subordinative conjunction.

XVI. Analysing the meaning of the English words prove that the phrase "... expert coaching" in sentence (6) can be translated as советыопытноготренера.

XVII. Translating sentence (6) would you prefer the Russian прибавляет (добавляет) ксвоейсемье or увеличиваетсвоюсемью as the substitute for the English "is adding to his family? Or would you suggest some other wording?

XVIII. Since "responsible" in sentence (7) has obviously a positive sense, what Russian phrases can be used to express this sense?

XIX. Find out the Russian term for "a specialized agency of the United Nations". What names of other UN bodies do you know?

XX. Find an occasional Russian substitute for the word "suggests" in sentence (8).

XXI. What word order should be chosen in translating the first part of sentence (8)? Why?

XXII. Note that "name" may mean both имя and название. Which of them would you prefer in sentence (8)?

XXIII. Compare the following substitutes for the word "eater" in sentence (8): едок, питающийся, потребитель, потребительпищи. Which of them would you choose, if any?

XXIV. Would you use the Russian рыбаки or рыболовы as the substitute for the English "fishermen" in sentence (9)? Give your reasons.

XXV. Suggest some Russian substitutes for the word "emphasis" in sentence (9)?

XXVI. Find out the Russian term equivalent to the English "gainfully employed".

XXVII. State if a word-for-word translation большинствоизнасестнеправильно renders the meaning of the phrase "most of us eat wrong" in sentence (9) correctly. If not, suggest a better wording.

XXVIII. Suggest the way of rendering into Russian the emphasis of the English structure "It was... that" in sentence (10).

XXIX. Look up the word "indeed" in an English-English and English-Russian dictionary and make a careful study of its meanings and equivalents.

XXX. Translating the phrase "FAO was born" in sentence (10), make a choice among the Russian: ФАОбыларождена, ФАОбыласоздана, ФАОпоявиласьнасвет. Give your reasons.


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