Pragmatic peculiarities of translating phraseological units in political discourse

Phraseological units are used in all spheres of communication: in everyday life, science, technology, business world, politics, culture, education and literature. No person can imagine his life without set phrases, idioms, proverbs and sayings. Phraseological units result from mode of life.

Every year there appear new phraseological units. The most active and at the same time productive source of new idioms is political life. For instance, there exist a great number of such phraseological units in the English language; all-out war (total war, as opposed to small warlike acts or threats of war), cold war, round-table conference, open door policy and etc.

The main problems arising in the process of rendering the meaning of phraseological units into the Ukrainian language related to certain differences between the original language and target language, including different meanings of words, the lack of information about certain events in the original language, different social and political realities; cultural characteristics, especially the environment and so on.

Basic methods of translating phraseological units:

1) the equivalent of phraseological unit coinciding with the phraseological unit of the source language by meaning, the lexical composition and figurativeness because of their international character, or one primary source (the Bible, mythology);

2) partial equivalent of phraseological unit containing lexical, grammatical, lexico -grammatical differences but at the same time has equal meaning and equal stylistic effect.

3) selective phraseological equivalent, which the translator chooses from several existing equivalent as the most appropriate for a given context;

4) the choosing analogies that is such expressions are very close in their connotative (metathorical) meaning in English and Ukrainian as well.

5) contextual substitution is a kind of occasional equivalent, is used to transfer only the idiom in this context;

6) a descriptive translation. The meaning of a considerable number of phraseological unit can be rendered through explication only, i.e. in a descriptive way.

7) calque is the literal translation, which allows rendering a vivid image of English idiom to Ukrainian reader.

Here are some examples of usage of phraseological units taken from political discourses.

Since time immemorial the pork barrel has been rolled out in Congress and each of the lawgivers has bargained for his share and the gratitude of his constituents (“The Times”, February 2002). З незапам'ятних часів казенним пирогом розпоряджається конгрес, і кожен законодавець прагне урвати свою частку, щоб заслужити вдячність виборців. In this case phraseological unit “pork barrel” requires disclosure of its meaning in translation. And pragmatic equivalence can be achieved only through the interpretation of extralinguistic factors.

Clearly, America’s relationship with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, will be nothing like its romance with his predecessors. Amid its love affairs with Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, America approached Russia with indulgence and optimism: frequent large carrots and occasional small sticks. (‘The Economist”, March 23d, 2001). Абсолютно ясно, що відносини Америки з Володимиром Путіним, президентом Росії, будуть не такими рожевими, як з його попередниками. За часів медового місяця з Михайлом Горбачовим і Борисом Єльциним відносини Америки до Росії характеризувалися терпимістю і оптимізмом: пряників було багато, а батіг був символічним. This phraseological unit can be translated by searching the analogue which has common with the original meaning, but was built on a different language and figurative basis. To understand and correctly translate this statement is necessary to know the phrase "the stick and carrot policy" (політика батога і пряника), that demonstrate the essence of English diplomacy.

The biggest torture-fueled wild-goose chase is the war in Iraq. (“The Economist” July 14, 2008). Найбезглуздіша кампанія, що підігрівається картинами катувань американських солдатів - це війна в Іраку. Phraseological unit wild-goose chase has several equivalents, fixed in the phraseological dictionaries: гонитва за недосяжним, навіжена ідея, безглузде підприємство, гонитва за химерами. We chose contextual substitution while this method accurately conveys a very negative assessment of the actions of the U.S. government and the entire U.S. military campaign in Iraq. This version of the translation is pragmatically justified.

While working on the translation of phraseological unit, the translator must remember that he does not deal with static and ready for use language unit which is fixed in phraseological dictionary, but with dynamic, unique, living only in this particular text unit of speech which requires adequate translation.

Communicative and pragmatic equivalence is the main task of the translator. In choosing the most appropriate variants of phraseological unit translator can reject the equivalence at a lower level for equivalence at the higher one.

[1] Oттенок

[2] Остроты, остроумные замечания

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