Transformation in the process of translation

The student, who followed the preceding pages with attention, could not have failed to notice that some sense units of the source language retained their sense and structure in the target language unchanged, whereas others had retained only their content/meaning unchanged, but altered or completely changed their original/source language form. The kind of major and minor alterations in the struc­tural form of language units performed with the aim of achieving faith­fulness in translation are referred to as translator's transformations. They are carried out either because of the incompatibility of the tar­get language means of expression, which makes the transplanta­tion of some source language units to it impossible, or in order to retain the style of the source language passage and thus maintain the expressiveness of the source language sense units. Naturally, not all sense units need to be structurally transformed in the pro­cess of translation, a considerable number of them are also trans­planted to the target language in the form, meaning and structure of the original, i.e., unchanged or little changed. Among these, as could be seen on the foregoing chapters, are the following classes of lan­guage/sense units:

1) Most of genuine internationalisms (words, word-groups, sen­tences), some idiomatic expressions, culturally biased notions. For example: begonia беґонія, computerization комп'ютеризація, mar­keting маркетинг¹, electron електрон, theorem теорема, gentleman джентльмен, chemical reaction хімічна реакція, democratic system демократична система, finita la commedia фініта ля комедія (ділу кінець), veni, vidi, vici прийшов, побачив, переміг, etc.

2) Many loan internationalisms which maintain in the target language the same meaning and often the same structural form but

have a different phonetic structure (sounding). Cf.: agreement/con­cord (gram), узгодження, adjoinment/juxtaposition прилягання, word-formation словотвір, the complex sentence складнопідрядне речення, subordination підрядний зв'язок, longitude (geogr.) довгота, latitude широта, horse power кінська сила, standard of living життєвий рівень, etc. 3) Almost all proper nouns of various subclasses (names of people, family names and geographical names, etc.): Arvid Арвід, Dora Дора, Floy Флой, Сгопіп Кронін, Newton Ньютон, Longfellow Лонґфелло, Boston Бостон, Newfoundland Ньюфаундленд, Ohio Огайо, Hyderabad Гайдерабад, General Motors Corp. корпорація «Дженерал Моторз», Playboy Magazine журнал «Плейбой», etc.

Some proper names and family names, as well as geographi­cal names, names of companies/corporations, firms, titles of news­papers, magazines/journals, as has been shown already in Chapter II, do not always completely retain their source language form in the target language, e.g.: Mary Stewart Марія Стюарт, Charles V король Карл П'ятий, Lorraine Лотарінґія, Munich Мюнхен, Cologne Кельн, Leghorn Ліворно, Continental Airlines американська авіакомпанія «Контінентал ейрлайнз», Boston Globe and Mail Бостонська газета «Ґлоуб енд мейл», USA Today американська газета «Ю-Ес-Ей Тудей», «Sports» американська спортивна газета «Спорте», etc. These and many other proper nouns acquire in the target language a somewhat different sounding and additional explication (cf. американська газета), which often extend their structure as com­pared with that in the source language (cf. Reuters інформаційне аґентство Великої Британії «Рейтер»). As a result, there is not al­ways the same structural «dimension» (because of transformation) of the source language units in the target language, where they are partly transformed, as a rule.

A considerable number of various different proper nouns do not maintain their form or structure due to the historic tradition or be­cause of the lack of the corresponding sounds in the target language. Cf.: Варшава Warsaw, Москва Moscow, Запоріжжя Zaporizhya, Харків Kharkiv, etc. The lingual (sounding) structure of these and some other geographical names somewhat differs from that in the source language, because Zaporizhya, Kharkiv or Khrushch do not fully re­flect their authentic Ukrainian sounding. But since the English lan­guage has no [r, и, ц, ц', х, р, дз'] sounds/phonemes and the Ukrai­nian language has no [9,dЈ, r\, r, h] and other sounds, the spelling forms like Tsarenko for Царенко, Zayarya for Заяр'я ог Текерей. Рут

for Thackerey, Ruth should be consfdered as justified and, therefore, correct, in other words faithfully turned in either of these two languages. Such and the like (or more complicated) alterations and changes con­stantly take place in the process of translation both at word level and at syntactic level. Hence, from what was shortly shown on the ex­amples above, one can draw an irrefutable conclusion that translation of sense units at the language level, i.e., at the level they belong to in the source language, represents nothing else than a process of con­stant transformations. The most regular if not the most frequent of these are the following two:

1) «inner» or implicit transformations taking place at the lexi­cal/semantic level of the target language as compared with the corre­sponding source language units;

2) «outer» or explicit transformations causing some alterations in the target language as compared with the structure of the corre­sponding sense units of the source language units.

A vivid illustration of «inner» transformation is realized in genu­ine internationalisms through their synonymous or polysemantic mean­ings. For example, the noun icon apart from its direct Ukrainian mean­ing ікона may have in some context also the meanings зображення, портрет, статуя. Any of the last three forms of the word ікона represents an implicit/inner transformation of icon. Similarly with the noun idea which may mean apart from its genuine international sense ідея also думка, задум, гадка. When realised in its faithful transla­tion through any of these three last meanings, it exemplifies an inner/ implicit translators' transformation.

Similar «deviations» from the direct and main meaning may be observed in many more translated English genuine internationalisms. For example: idiomatic ідіоматичний/фразеологічний but also властивий/ характерний, притаманний, специфічний. (Cf. idiom­atic English англійська мова з характерними їй рисами, властивостями, but not англійський текст, що складається з ідіоматичних виразів); illumination ілюмінація, освітлення and also пояснення/оздоблення (рукопису, книжки); illustration ілюстрація, малюнок and also пояснення, приклад.

Sometimes the meaning («inner form») of an internationalism or any other language unit may be absolutely unexpected for an unex­perienced translator or interpreter. Cf.: imitation 1. імітація; 2. наслідування and сурогат, заміна, замінник Cf.: imitation coffee замінник кави, ерзац-кава; intonation 1. інтонація; 2. модуляція голосу and спів речитативом/співання перших слів пісні; militia

1. міліція; 2. народне ополчення (іст.) в Англії; militiaman (іст.)
ополченець and also міліціонер; national 1. національний;

2. народний and державний, збройний (Cf.: national forces of Ukraine
збройні сили України); nationalist 1. націоналіст, 2. борець за права
свого народу, за незалежність своєї батьківщини, за її
державність, i.e. патріот своєї батьківщини; realize
1. реалізовувати, здійснювати; 2. уявляти собі, розуміти чітко
and давати прибуток, нагромаджувати кошти, багатство.
Therefore, inner or implicit transformations disclose the semantic po­
tential of the source language units in the target language. The outer/
explicit transformation is performed in the process of translation prac­
tically on any type of the source language sense unit; already the
change of the Roman type (шрифт) for the Ukrainian or Arabic one
presents an explicit or outer transformation (cf. Львів Lviv, Чоп Chop).
A kind of combined explicit and implicit transformation may some­
times take place too. Thus, the proper name John, for example, may
have three outer/contextual explicit realizations of its implicit mean­
ings in Ukrainian: 1. Джон as in Джон Буль, Джон Кітс; 2. Іван as in
Pope John Paul II папа Іван Павло Другий; 3. loaHHasinKing John

І король Іоанн І, John the Baptist Іоанн Хреститель.

Apart from the notionals many functionals may undergo inner/ implicit transformations in the process of their translation as well. For example, the word yet may realize its lexical potential as follows: ad­verb (needyou go yet? Тобі вже треба йти?); conjunction (thoughyoung yet experienced хоч і молодий, але/проте досвідчений); the word nowwhich may be adverb (he is here noW); noun (he is there by nowB'm уже там на цей час); conjunction (we may start, now the work is over Ми можемо вирушати, оскільки робота закінчена). Even the func­tional word the has two different realizations: 1. that of the grammatical determiner (definite article) and that of a particle as in the sooner the better чим швидше, тим краще. Inner transformations, therefore, may be performed on most sense units.

Outer/explicit transformations may sometimes change the struc­tural form of the sense unit under translation. Thus, the noun the Orkneys becomes a word-group Оркнейські острови and the Hebrides becomes Гебрідські острови, whereas Labrador becomes півострів Лабрадор, and vice versa: some Ukrainian and English word-groups, proper names are transformed in the target language into single words: Ладозьке озеро - Ladoga, Онезьке озеро - Onega, Уральські гори - the Urals, the Antarctic Continent - Антарктика, the Artctic Re­gion -Арктика, etc.

A peculiar type of outer transformation is observed at the pho­netic/phonological level, when conveying different types of proper names, internationalisms and some lexical units designating specifi­cally national (culturally-biased) elements of the source language. The outer transformation of the source language units in this case finds its expression only in adopting their spelling and sounding forms to the corresponding target language phonetic/phonological system, which usually differs from that of the source language. For example: acous­tics [e'ku:stiks] акустика, assembly [e'sembli] асамблея, ceremony ['serimeni] церемонія, discussion [dis'kAJn] дискусія, etc.

A great number of phonetic/phonological transformations of the kind had been performed in the course of our history of translation. As a result, different types of various proper and other nouns have been already adopted by our language both directly and through mediating languages (Polish or Russian).

In the process of this adoption many different proper names of people and geographical names have acquired in Ukrainian a partly transformed phonetic/phonological i.e. outer structural form. Cf.: Ire­land [aialand] Ірландія, Maine [mein] Мен (штат Мен), Ulster [Alsta] Ольстер, Thessaly ['eesgli] Фессалія, Thesalonica [0es3l9'nai:ka] Салоніки, Фесалоніки, Rwanda [ru:'anda] Руанда, etc. Others ac­quired a unified outer form to express different notions: Algeria [aePd3i3ri9] Алжир (країна), Algiers [азі^зідг] Алжир (столиця), Tu­nisia Туніс (країна), Tunis Туніс (столиця).

The observant reader could not have missed to notice that the outer forms of some of the above-given nouns were not everywhere linguistically justified, as their outer presentation contradicts the lat­est rule of Romanization of Ukrainian proper names and the rule of Ukrainization of foreign proper names respectively. In accordance with these rules the U.S. state of Maine, should be Мейн, Ulster should be Альстер огАлстер, and Thessalia, Thesalonica - Тессалія and Тесалоніка. Nevertheless, the outer form of these and many other nouns still remains in their traditional presentation, which was in some period of the past introduced in a wrong translators' transcription, cf.: Athens Афіни instead of Атени (as терапевт), etc.

A lot of other language units have either completely or partly changed their outer form according to the requirements of the target language. Cf.: arcuate аркоподібний, bachelor бакалавр, charter хартія, defile продефілювати, fherapeuf/стерапевтичний, etc. Many loan internationalisms, on the other hand, maintain their inner and outerform in Ukrainian. Cf.: case відмінок, tense form часова форма,

syntactic relations синтаксичні відношення, syntactic connection синтаксичний зв'язок, etc.

The outer form of many language units of the source language may, naturally, differ from its structural presentation in the target lan­guage. Thus, the sense of several simple words may be expressed through word-groups: advance робити успіхи, drive просуватись уперед, quantify визначати кількість/встановлювати кількість; зарибити to put young fish into the pond, збити to knock down/to knock down together, перемерзати/перемерзнути to get chilled, to be nipped by the frost.

Compound words on the other hand may 1) maintain their outer form/structure in the target language: 1) easy-going добродушний, first-rate першорядний, fireproof вогнетривкий, fcofo/c/чотирикратний, free­thinker вільнодумець; 2) they may be transformed into semantically corresponding word-groups: с/еи^/випадання роси, bed-fast прикутий до ліжка (хворобою), spotlight прожектор для підсвічування, squaw-man (Amer.) білий/одружений з індіанкою; 3)they may turn in Ukrai­nian into simple words: ear-rings сережки, dress-coat фрак, mother-in- /аіусвекруха/теща, ink-pot чорнильниця, operating-room операційна, son-in-law зять, glass-house теплиця/оранжерея, go-ahead заповзятливий, etc.

Similar outer (structural) and inner (lexico-semantic) transforma­tions are often resorted to when rendering the meaning of specific no­tions of national lexicon, namely: 1) when a single-word notion of the source language is translated by means of a single word (when the notions are internationalisms): mister, miss, lady, lord, barter, etc., містер, міс, леді, лорд, бартер тощо. 2) when a word-group notion is conveyed through a common word: little Mary (jocul.) шлунок, Lord Harry чорт/чортяка, the outwardman одежа (людини), for ever and a day назавжди /навіки, to turn one's и/аузникнути (втекти). 3) when a word-group structure of a specific source language notion is rendered through a sentence structure: Nosy Porker людина/той що втручається в чужі справи; Lazy Susan* кругла велика таця, що обертається (із закусками); doctor Fell людина, що викликає до себе антипатію; the Centennial State штат Колорадо, який увійшов до складу США 1876 р. в сторіччя проголошення незалежності США; K-ration (тШ. Amer.) індивідуальний військовий пайок, що складається виключно з консервів. Very often, the structural (outer) forms of some sense units may also coincide. Thus, the word-group structures of the source

* Менажниця для салатів, закусок тощо

language are not changed in the tai>get language: straight А «кругле» п'ять (оцінка), London particular(coWoq.) густий лондонський туман, sane and sound (jocul.)живий і здоровий, in one's birthday suit (jocul.) «в Адамовій одежі» (голий), the Sunflower state (colloq. American) соняшниковий штат (Канзас), etc. But complete transformations are often performed when rendering the meaning of idiomatic expressions, especially of those based on specific notions of the national lexicon. Cf.: the Dutch have captured Holland це всі знають, це всім відомо (nop. «відкрив Америку»); Queen Ann is dead це вже старе/це вже чули; the boot is on the other leg це зовсім не так, усе якраз навпаки; or in Ukrainian: курям на сміх for cats and dogs to laugh at, у нього (неї) всі кози в золоті he/she presents things much better than they in reality are, he/she bounces too much boasts or: pretends to have some­thing in abundance, etc.

All these outer transformations were prearranged by the se­mantic aims, i.e., they were used to express as fully and faithfully as possible the sense of the source language units in the target lan­guage. The translator here is mostly free to deliberately choose any sense unit of any structural form in order to convey faithfully the meaning of the source language unit. Thus, when translating the word trifle as a unit of the English culturally biased lexicon the translator is free to choose deliberately any of the three possible equivalents: 1) солодка страва; 2) солодкі бісквіти; 3) солодкі бісквіти, просочені вином (часом із варенням). The choice of this or that Ukrainian equivalent transform among these three is also conditioned by the personal pref­erence of this or that equivalent and by the context requiring corre­spondingly a more or less extended information of the reader about this or that English specific national notion.

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