CHAPTER 1. LEXICAL PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION
1.1. HANDLING CONTEXT-FREE WORDS
Introductory Notes
As a rule, the object of translation is not a list of separate lexical units but a coherent text in which the SL words make up an integral whole. Though each word in the language has its own meaning, the actual information it conveys in a text depends, to a great extent, on its contextual environment. Generally speaking, the meaning of any word in the text cannot be understood and translated without due regard to the specific context in which it is actualized. Some words, however, are less sensitive to the contextual influence than others. There are words with definite meanings which are retained in most contexts and are relatively context-free. Context-free words are mainly found among proper and geographical names, titles of magazines and newspapers, names of various firms, organizations, ships, aircraft and the like, as well as among technical terms used by experts in all fields of human endeavour.
Context-free words have an important role to play in the translating process. They usually have permanent equivalents in TL which, in most cases, can be used in TT. The translator is thus provided with reference points helping him to choose the appropriate translation variants. The permanent equivalents of context-free words are often formed by transcription (with possible elements of transliteration) or loan translations.
Proper and geographical names are transcribed with TL letters, e.g.: Smith - , Brown - , John Fitzgerald Kennedy - - ; Cleveland - , Rhode Island -, Ontario ; Downing Street -, Foley Square -.
The same is true about the titles of periodicals and the names of firms and corporations, e.g.: Life-, US News and World Report , General Motors Corporation - , Harriman and Brothers - , Anaconda Mining Company - .
Transcription is also used to reproduce in TL the names of ships, aircraft,missiles and pieces of military equipment: Queen Elisabeth Ky- , Spitfire , Hawk , Trident - , Honest John - .
The rules of transcription have two minor exceptions. First, it is sometimes supplemented by elements of transliteration when SL letters are
.reproduced in TT instead of sounds. This technique is used with mute and double consonants between vowels or at the end of the word and with neutral vowels (Dorset , Bonners Ferry ) as well as to preserve some elements of SL spelling so as to make the TL equivalent resemble some familiar pattern (the Hercules missile , Columbia - ). Second, there are some traditional exceptions in rendering the names of historical personalities and geographical names, e.g.: Charles I I, James II , Edinborough .
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Some geographical names are made up of common nouns and are translated word-for-word: the United States of America - , the United Kingdom , the Rocky Mountains .
If the name includes both a proper name and a common name, the former is transcribed while the latter is either translated or transcribed or both: the Atlantic Ocean - , Kansas City -, New Hampshire - -, Firth of Clyde --,
Names of political parties, trade unions and similar bodies are usually translated word-for-word (with or without a change in the word-order): the Republican Party , the United Automobile Workers Union npoqscoioa , the Federal Bureau of Investigation - .
Terminological words are also relatively context-free though the context often helps to identify the specific field to which the term belongs. In the sentence 'These rifles are provided with a new type of foresight", the context clearly shows that the meaning of "foresight" is that of a military term and therefore all other meanings of the word can be disregarded. The context may also help to understand the meaning of the term in the text when it can denote more than one specific concept. For instance, in the US political terminology the term "state" can refer either to a national state or to one of the states within a federal entity. The following context will enable the translator to make the correct choice: "Both the state and Federal authorities were accused of establishing a police state." In the first case the term "state" is contrasted with "Federal" and will be translated as , while in the second case it obviously means .
As a rule, English technical terms (as well as political terms and terms in any other specific field) have their permanent equivalents in the respective Russian terminological systems: magnitude , oxy-
gen - , surplus value - , Embassy , legislation .
Many Russian equivalents have been formed from the English terms by transcription or loan translations: computer , electron -, Congressman , impeachment , shadow cabinet , nuclear deterrent . Quite a few among them are international terms: theorem , television , president , declaration , diplomacy . In some cases there are parallel forms in Russian: one formed by transcription and the other, so to speak, native, e.g.: and , and , and , - and 4>, and .
The translator makes his choice considering whether ST is highly technical or not, for a borrowed term is usually more familiar to specialists than to laymen. He has also to take into account the possible differences between the two forms in the way they are used in TL. For example, the Russian is restricted in usage and somewhat old-fashioned, - always refers to British trade-unions and gives the text a slightly foreign flavour.
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Dealing with context-free words the translator must be aware of two common causes of translation errors. First, English and Russian terms can be similar in form but different in meaning. A "decade" is not , an "instrument" is not , and a "department" in the United Slates is not . Such words belong to the so-called false friends of the translator (see below). Second, the translator should not rely on the "inner form" of the English term to understand its meaning or to find a proper Russian equivalent for it is often misleading. A "packing industry is not but , "conventional armaments" are not but and a "public school" in Britain is not or but .
Translation of technical terms puts a premium on the translator's knowledge of the subject-matter of ST. He must take great pains to get familiar with the system of terms in the appropriate field and make good use of technical dictionaries and other books of reference.
Exercises
I. Suggest the Russian substitutes for the following names and titles.
1. Washington Irving, Edgar Allan , Dorothy Parker, James Thurber, James I, Langston Hughes, Charles Evans Hughes, Charles HI,
Victor Hugo, DuPont, Watt Hugh McCollum, Mike Quin, Art Buchwald, Nataniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, William Parker, William IV, Mitchell Wilson, Woodrow Wilson
2. Albany, New South Wales, Santa Anna (Calif), Firth of Tay, Ivory Coast, New Orleans, New Hampshire, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Blenheim, Webster Springs, Wells River, Red Lake, East Greenwich, Munich, West Rocky River, West Delaware River, Cornwall, Zurich, Cape Verde Islands
3. Downing Street, Whitehall, Wigmore Hall, Windsor Castle, Festival Gardens, Fifth Avenue, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, Haymarket Theatre, Harley Street, Mansion House, Lombard Street
4. National Bank; Associated British Foods; Aluminium Company of Canada, Ltd; Standard Oil of New Jersey, Imperial Group; London, Midland and Scottish Railway; London Broadcasting Company; Warner Brothers; Butterworth and Dickenson, textile engineers; Independent Television News; Associated Press
5. Financial Times, Labour Weekly, New York Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Political Affairs, Morning Star, Paris Soir
It Translate the following sentences with particular attention to the way the proper and geographical names should be rendered into Russian.
1. A tourist's heart may leap at first sight of the Thames as it cuts through the heart of London because of the spectacle of massed totems such as Parliament, Whitehall, St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London that rise majestically near it, and the 15 bridges bearing storybook names and images: Westminster, Waterloo, Blackbriars, London Bridge and Tower Bridge. But nearly everything worth the price of a snapshot sits on the northern bank.
2. After the death of Charles I in 1649 puritanical attitudes to the visual arts did not favour the development of architecture and the destruction, begun under Henry VIII, was renewed during and after Civil War (1642-1646). Whatever the merits of government under Cromwell it was a sad period for architecture.
3. Another change which affected architecture was the growth of an educated middle class. From Chaucer to Shakespeare, to Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones, to Wren and Newton, to Hume, Gibbon and Robert Adam and on to Soane, Carlyle, Ruskin and Morris, the "middling sort of people" were taking over and amplifying the secular role which had been played by clergy in earlier times when clerics were almost the only people who could read and write.
IIL Translate the following words and collocations. Explain your choice of the type of equivalents.
1. administrative efficiency; 2. arbitration; 3. affidavit; 4. Attorney-General; 5. balance of payments; 6. adverse trade balance; 7. to stuff the ballot; 8. casting vote; 9. close vote; 10. back-bencher; 11. to bail out; 12. election returns; 13. brinkmanship; 14. job bias; 15. political bias; 16. brain drain; 17. State of the Union message; 18. income tax; 19. frame-up; 20. career diplomat; 21. red-baiting campaign; 22. breakthrough; 23. bread-line; 24. circumstantial evidence; 25. gerrymandering; 26. craft union; 27. open shop system; 28. brain washing; 29. non-contiguous States; 30. company checkers; 31. contempt of court; 32. crippling taxes; 33. polling date; 34. defendant; 35. color-blind; 36. conglomerate; 37. social work; 38. the Chief Executive; 39. hardware; 40. software
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IV. Analyse the terminological units in the following sentences and suggest the way they should be translated into Russian.
1. We, the human race have braved the violent electromagnetic Aura around Jupiter and photographed its puzzling moons.
2. Once established, aspen seedlings tend to reproduce themselves vegetatively by root suckering.
3. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler combine autos and computers in novel ways. They offer such features as self-adjusted suspensions, sensors, that alter fuel mixture for efficient combustion and systems that diagnose a car's mechanical troubles.
4. Organ transplants will become more successful in the future because of an experimental agent that prevents rejection, say doctors from 12 medical centers. Reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers found that a specially engineered monoclonal antibody halted rejection episodes in 58 of 63 patients who had received new kidneys. By comparison, drug treatment halted rejection episodes in only 45 of 60 patients.
5. Viruses may cause multiple sclerosis, according to two studies in the British medical journal Lancet.
1.2. HANDLING CONTEXT-BOUND WORDS
Introductory Notes
The words dealt with in the previous chapter are relatively independent of the context so that they have a definite meaning which is reproduced in many texts as it stands. This is not the case, however, with most words in the English vocabulary whose meaning in any sentence largely depends on the context in which they are used. True, all words have meanings of their
own which are defined in dictionaries but the context may specify or modify the word's meaning, neutralize or emphasize some part of its semantics. And before looking for an equivalent, the translator has to make a careful study of the context to identify the contextual meaning of the word that should be rendered in translation. This meaning is the result of the interaction between the word semantics and the methods of its actualization in the speech act.
Most of the words arc polysemantic, that is, they have several meanings. As a rule, the word is used in the sentence in one of its meanings and the context must show what meaning has been selected by the speaker and cut off all other meanings irrelevant for the particular act of communication. If somebody complains that 'Tew Europeans speak Mandarin", the context inequivocally shows that it is the Chinese language that is meant and not a Chinese imperial official or the Chinese fruit. If the same idea is expressed in a more ambiguous way, for instance, "Few Europeans know the first thing about Mandarin", the context of the sentence may fail to indicate the relevant meaning beyond any doubt but the rest of the text or the circumstances of communication will certainly do that.
The context has also a decisive role to play in the selection of TL equivalents to the words of the original. We know that in most cases, the meaning of a SL word can be rendered in TL by a number of regular equivalents. Variable equivalents can be found not only to the polysemantic words but also to the monosemantic words as well as to a semantic variant of a polysemantic word, that is, to one of its meanings which can be actualized in the course of communication. In such cases after the translator has ascertained what meaning the word has in the original text he still has to choose one of the regular equivalents which fits the context best of all. In other words, the role of the context is even greater for the translator than for an ordinary SL receptor. Suppose he is to translate the following English sentence 'This issue of the paper devoted about half of its twenty news columns to the trial of a murderer". The context enables the translator to understand that the "issue" refers here to a publication, the "paper" is a newspaper and the "column" is a department in that newspaper. But he has also to find additional information in the context which will allow him to choose an equivalent to "issue" among such Russian words as , , or to compare the use of the Russian , , as equivalents to "column".
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No less important is the role of the context in translating the words with a wide range of reference whose equivalents are too numerous to be listed in any dictionary. For example, the English noun "record" is defined as "something that records" or "the recorded facts about something or
someone" and can refer to any document or any events, past or present. It is clear that the Russian names of documents or events cannot be foreseen and the translator has to find the appropriate occasional equivalent in each particular context.
The context may modify the meaning of a word to such an extent that its regular equivalents will not fit TT. In the following sentence: "History has dealt with Hitler; history will deal with all would-be Hitlers", the translator has to do with the verb "to deal" used in the sentence in the meaning which is usually rendered into Russian as or . But obviously history has dealt with Hitler as severely as he deserved and the translator will opt for a stronger occasional equivalent like . The ability to render the contextual meanings is an essential element of the translator's professional skill.
The contextual modification may extend to the connotative meaning of the word. The translator is greatly concerned about the adequate reproduction of this part of the word semantics since it has an impact upon the whole text. Pot example, the English noun "ambition" and the adjective "ambitious" can contextually assume either a positive or a negative connotation. Accordingly, "the UN ambitious program of providing food for the people of the earth" will be translated as ͻ while the "ambitious plans of South African racists" will be rendered as - .
The English-Russian dictionary is the translator's best friend and assistant in finding the appropriate equivalent. Sometimes the context tells the translator that one of the dictionary equivalents to the given word can be well used in TT. Even if the entry in his dictionary does not provide him with an equivalent that fits his context, the translator can use the dictionary data to facilitate the solution. Suppose he comes across a sentence in ST which runs as follows:
The United States worked out a formula which later came to be known as dollar diplomacy.
None of the equivalents suggested by I.R. Galperin's "New English-Russian Dictionary" (, , , ) fits the context of the sentence which deals with a stage in the US political history. But combining these data with the context the translator will look for a Russian substitute for a "political formula" and may arrive at such terms as or :
, .
The translator should consult the context with special care if his dictio-
nary suggests only one equivalent. He should not be in a hurry to use this equivalent in his text without first ascertaining that the English word really is context-free and is always translated in the same way. In case it is not, the entry is not exhaustive and the translator should look for another way out. The "New English-Russian Dictionary', for example, treats the English words "opportunism" and "opportunist" as political terms and gives only one equivalent to each: and . An English-English dictionary, however, will define "opportunism" as "the art, policy, or practice of taking advantage of opportunities or circumstances". And when the word is used as a general term of disapprobation implying little regard for principles or consequences, the equivalents suggested by the dictionary have to be rejected in favor of such Russian words as , and the like. This is also an illustration of the usefulness of an English-English dictionary to the translator who should always turn to it for more complete information on the word semantics.
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Professional skill in using both the dictionary data and the information extracted from the context to solve his translation problems is the hallmark of a good translator.
Exercises
I. State what meanings of polysemantic words are actualized in the following sentences. Can the equivalents provided by your dictionary be used in the translation? If not, suggest an equivalent of your own.
1. Alan Rees, a businessman, was accused of handling the negotiations for ransom. 2. After the play the notices were unanimously favorable and there was praise for all concerned. 3. The actor had an awkward grace that could not be copied by anyone in the business. 4. Listen, we all have funny moods. We wouldn't be human if we didn't. 5. Josephine Carling was a heiress to an automobile fortune. 6. She prided herself or her chic. 7. The odorous part of human sweat, some scientists believe, appears to include volatile fatty acids produced by bacteria living on and in the skin. 8. The sister married a classmate of mine that's doing very well in Pittsburgh Plate Glass. One of their coming men. 9. She had always, all her life, been so religious about her cold cream and her facials. 10. He passed a lighted door from which issued music, and stopped with the sense of familiarity.
II. Find appropriate Russian equivalents to the word "record" in the following sentences.
1. The new candidate was known to have an excellent war record. 2. His father has a record of service with the company of 20 years. 3. It was clear that the general had carefully studied his aid's service' record. 4. Washington D.C., the US capital, is the city with the highest crime record. 5. By resorting to mass terror and armed violence against the black popula-
tion of South Africa its rulers reached a new shameful record in their racial oppression. 6. The AF of L is absolute boss of the strike-breaking International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Its imperialist record fits it for this task. 7. The data published by the Office of Statistics show that food prices in the country are the highest on record. 8. "Your Honor," Arnold announced, "I move that the testimony of the witness be stricken out from the record." 9. The State Secretary finds that the US government has an unbroken record of friendship for China dating back to 1844. However shamelessly the American politicians claim to be friends of Chinese people, the historic record which distinguishes friend from foe cannot be altered. 10. Had the Republican candidates discussed the record of the Congress they would have exposed the Republican Party as a big business party which led the attack on the vital rights and liberties of the people.
III. Explain the contextual meanings of the words in bold type in the following sentences
and suggest their Russian equivalents.
1. The Union executive committee passed a resolution advising the workers to "sit-out" elections where neither party offers a candidate whom labour could support. 2. The grievance has still remained unsettled. It shows how long it takes to "process" a grievance and why a strike is often the only way to force a show-down. 3. People who think gangsters are only to be found in gambling dens and houses of prostitution are oldtimers. 4. After the strike many participants of the meeting were beaten up by the Ford plant vigilants. 5. The president of the Auto Workers Union was not at the rally; instead he redbaited the meeting and charged that it was a plot against him. 6. One of the planks in the Tory programme was to reduce personal consumption: this was to be done partly by rationing the purse. 7. The amendment received 3,622,000 votes, while the Executive resolution received 4,090,000. This close vote at the Trades Union Congress faced the right-wing leaders with a tremendous problem in relation to the future Labour Party Conference. 8. The Coal Board aimed to have safety-level stocks by the beginning of November but now they say they will be at least a million tons short. 9. Chicago. - A proposal that the problem of out-of-this world meat prices be put on the conference table for a working-over by packers, farmers, organized workers and consumers was made here by the President of the United Packinghouse Workers (AFL-CIO). 10. The bill was also opposed by such non-trust lobbies as the AFL lobby, the anti-saloon lobby and many others.
IV. Find the way of rendering into Russian the connotational meanings of the words in bold
type in the following sentences. Explain your choice of equivalents.
1. During the postwar period in the midst of the economic boom the
workers' conditions, although gradually deteriorating, were not so bad as to provoke desperate struggles. 2. Prior to the Civil War many slaveowners in the South nursed ambitious plans of extending their rule to the whole of the United States. 3. The imperialist appetites of the Tories drove them on to their East-of-Suez policies. 4. His appetite for travel was whetted and Chopin began to nurse the ambition of visiting the musical capital of Europe, Vienna. 5. The Good Neighbour policy was simply a reformulation of the old imperialism in order for it to countermove more effectively the growing nationalism and democratic spirit of the Latin American people. 6. The Communists are tireless advocates of peace, and at the same time were aggressive supporters of the anti-Hitler war. 7. The right-wing leaders aggressively sabotaged all efforts from the left to organize the workers of other industries. 8. The Union demanded that the existing grievance machinery be entirely scrapped and a modern, streamlined, effective scheme put into its place. 9. Much of his popularity is manufactured, much of his glamour has been streamlined by nimble-wilted press agents.
1.3. HANDLING EQUIVALENT-LACKING WORDS
Introductory Notes
It has been pointed, out (see pp. 24-25) that many English words have no regular equivalents, and a number of techniques has been suggested for rendering the meanings of such equivalent-lacking words in TT. Now the practising translator most often has to resort to such techniques when he comes across some new-coined words in the source text or deals with names of objects or phenomena unknown to the TL community (the so-called "realia").
New words are coined in the language to give names to new objects, or phenomena which become known to the people. This process is going on a considerable scale as shown by the necessity of publishing dictionaries of new words. (See, for example, 'The Barnhart Dictionary of New English 1963-1972", London, 1973, with more than 5,000 entries). With the English vocabulary constantly expanding, no dictionary can catch up with the new arrivals and give a more or less complete list of the new words. Moreover there are numerous short-lived lexical units created ad hoc by the English-speaking people in the process of oral or written communication. Such words may never get in common use and will not be registered by the dictionaries but they are well understood by the communicants since they are coined on the familiar structural and semantic models. If someone is ever referred to as a "Polandologist", the meaning will be readily understood against such terms as "Kremlinologist" or "Sovietologist". If a politician is called "a nuclearist", the new coinage will obviously mean a supporter of
nuclear arms race. "A zero-growther" would be associated with some zero-growth theory or policy and so on.
When new words come into being to denote new objects or phenomena, they naturally cannot have regular equivalents in another language. Such equivalents may only gradually evolve as the result of extensive contacts between the two nations. Therefore the translator coming across a new coinage has to interpret its meaning and to choose the appropriate way of rendering it in his translation. Consider the following sentence: "In many European capitals central streets have been recently pedestrianized.'1 First, the translator will recognize the origin of "pedestrianize" which is coined from the word "pedestrian" and the verb-forming suffix -ize. Then he will realize the impossibility of a similar formation in Russian (!) and will opt for a semantic transformation: , or .
As often as not a whole set of new words may enter in common use, all formed on the same model. Thus, the anti-segregation movement in the United States in the 1960's introduced a number of new terms to name various kinds of public demonstrations formed from a verb + -in on the analogy of "sit-in": "ride-in" (in segregated buses), "swim-in" (in segregated swimming pools), "pray-in" (in segregated churches) and many others.
Various translators may select different ways of translating a new coinage, with several substitutes competing with one another. As a rule, one of them becomes more common and begins to be used predominantly. For instance, the new term "word-processor" was translated into Russian as , and , the last substitute gaining the upper hand. The translator should carefully watch the development of the usage and follow the predominant trend.
Similar problems have to be solved by the translator when he deals with equivalent-lacking words referring to various SL realia. As often as not, the translator tries to transfer the name to TL by way of borrowing, loan word or approximate equivalents. Many English words have been introduced in Russian in this way: (baseball), (skyscraper), (carpet baggers), etc. Quite a number of equivalent-lacking words of this type, however, still have no established substitutes in Russian, and the translator has to look for an occasional equivalent each time he comes across such a word in the source text. Mention can be made here of 'filibustering", "baby-sitter", "tinkerer", "know-how", "ladykiller", and many others.
