- •Translation of Word Combinations
- •Grammatical Aspects of Translation
- •Translation and the Problems of Style
- •Classification of Translation Techniques
- •Main Issues of Theory of Translation
- •The Concept of Translation: a Brief History
- •3. Is Translation an Art or a Craft?
- •3. Theory of Translation as a Linguistic Science and Translation Studies as an Academic Discipline
- •4. Classification of the Types (Methods) of Translation
- •5. Ethics of Translation and Translator’s Competence
- •Translation Process
- •1.Translation Strategy
- •2. Stages of Translating Process
- •3. The Problem of the Unit of Translation (ut)
- •Equivalence and Adequacy in Translation
- •1. A Brief Outline of Approaches to Defining Equivalence in Translation
- •3. Translation of Internationalisms (Borrowings) and the Problem of False Friends
- •Internationalisms (Borrowings)
- •Translation of Word Combinations
- •1. Translation of Free Word Combinations
- •2. Translation of Bound Word Combinations
- •Grammatical Aspects of Translation
- •1. Ways of Translating the Passive Voice
- •2. Ways of Translating Modal Verbs
- •3. Ways of Translating the Subjunctive Mood
- •4. Ways of Translating the Non-Finite Forms of the Verb
- •Translation and the Problems of Style
- •1. Definition of Style
- •2. Classification of Functional Styles
- •Theguardian, September, 16, 2013 Canadian scientists protest against government censorship
- •3. Translation Problems of Stylistic Devices
- •Classification of Translation Techniques
- •1. Lexical Translation Techniques
- •2. Contextual Replacements
- •3. Grammatical Transformations
- •Practice tasks
- •The Translation Process
- •Practice tasks
- •Art and fashion
- •Greenwich
- •Equivalence and Adequacy in Translation
- •Practical tasks
- •Translation of Word Combinations
- •Practice task
- •Grammatical aspects of translation
- •Practice task
- •Practice task
- •Practice task
- •Why Does Our Infrastructure Resemble a Third World Country’s?
- •9. Stages of translating process
- •11. A brief outline of approaches to defining equivalence in translation
- •20. Ways of translating the passive voice
- •22. Ways of translating modal verbs
- •33. Translation problems of lexical stylistic devices
3. The Problem of the Unit of Translation (ut)
Being one of the fundamental concepts always argued about in the realm of translation, the unit of translation (UT) has been given various definitions by different theorists. Some linguists say that a word can’t be the UT because the boundaries between words aren’t clear and it is difficult to single out a separate word in speech. For example, the noun ice cream and the phrase I scream are pronounced the same. That’s why these authors reject a word as a UT.
Shuttleworth and Cowie (1997) define it as: "a term used to refer to the linguistic level at which ST is recodified in TL" (p. 192). In other words, it's an element with which the translator decides to work while translating the ST. Barkhudarov (1993) defines a UT as the smallest unit of SL which has an equivalent in TL". He recommends that this unit of translation, no matter how long, can itself have a complex structure although its parts separately cannot be translated and replaced by any equivalent in the TL.
Newmark insists that the unit of translation, understood as a segment of the original text from which the translator can begin his or her reformulation in a different language, is part of a movable scale: “The word, the lexical unit, the collocation, the group, the clause and the sentence–rarely the paragraph, never the text”.
On the whole, in modern language the UT is distinguished on the following levels:
|
Level |
Its characteristics |
Example |
1 |
The level of phonemes |
Though a phoneme doesn’t bare an independent meaning of its own, it is sometimes used as a UT. In this case a phoneme of a SL is substituted for the similar in articulation and acoustic features phoneme in the TL or graphemes in writing. |
Sutherland - Сатерленд (графство Шотландии) [Ө] – [t]
|
2 |
The level of morphemes |
The adoption by the TL of a compound word whose components are literal translations of the components of a corresponding compound in the SL. |
Backbencher - "заднескамеечник" (рядовой член парламента) back is a root, bench is a root, -er is a suffix |
3 |
The level of words |
The unit of the TL is one word and it is much more frequently used in the SL. But such cases are too limited. Only some words in a sentence find their correspondence in the TL. |
Tom thanked his teachers. – Том поблагодарил своих учителей. |
4 |
The level of collocations (phrases) |
Very often their meanings are not equal to the meanings of their components (that is the words they consist of). And in this case they are translated by means of their equivalents in the TL. |
To plough the sands - заниматься бесполезным делом / тратить силы впустую But if an interform of the phrases coincides in both languages, the literal translation is possible. Pandora's box - ящик Пандоры (источник всяческих бедствий) |
5 |
The level of sentences |
When a translator segments a text into translation units, the larger these units are, the better chance there is of obtaining an idiomatic translation. |
On December 23, 1856, cries of new life swelled from a North Carolina farmhouse, their source a baby boy named James Buchanan Duke. The lad would have far more impact on the world than the failed president his name honored. 23 декабря 1856 года с фермы, расположенной в Северной Каролине, донеслись крики новорожденного, возвестившего о своем появлении на этот свет. Это был мальчик, которого нарекли Джеймс Бучанан Дьюк. Парнишка этот повлиял на мир куда больше, чем неудачник-президент, в честь которого он был назван. (Steiner, John F., Steiner, George A. Business, Government, and Society: A Managerial Perspective, Text and Cases. USA, 2011. Ch. 3) |
6 |
The level of text |
On this level more attention is paid to producing a naturally reading TT than to preserving the ST wording intact. |
For example, compare the Russian translation of Ch. Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre with the original. |
Lecture 3