Ways of translation

Literal translation is used at the level of separate words, which have the same lexical meaning and similar form in the SL and in the TL.

There are 2 ways of performing literal translation: transcription and transliteration.

Transcription is the substitution of sounds in the process of translation.

New-Castle – Нью-Касл

impeachment – імпічмент (but not імпеачмент)

leader – лідер

Transliteration is the substitution of letters in the process of translation.

London – Лондон (but not Ландан)

Dublin - Дублін

bank – банк

club - клуб

Literal translation renders the meaning of the following words: 1) proper names (Іванов – Ivanov), 2) geographical names (Дніпро –Dnipro), 3)international words (football – футбол), 4)units of specific national lexicon (вареники – varenyky), 5)neologisms (metrosexual – метросексуал).

The translator’s false friends are those words that have similar form but different meaning in the SL and in the TL.

magazine – журнал (but not магазин)

lunatic – божевільний, шалений (but not лунатик)

artist – художник, митець (but not артист)

 

Verbal translation is used at the level of separate words, which have the same lexical meaning but different lingual for m in the SL and in the TL.

Verbal translation renders sometimes the morphological structure of the SL words (ex. helpless – безпорадний, superprofit – надприбуток).

In most cases, the morphological structure is not preserved because of the differences in the morphological systems of the SL and the TL.

bomber – терорист

manager – управляючий

Verbal translation permits the choice of variants, which is practically impossible in literal translating:

minister – міністр (literal), посланник, священик (verbal)

bank – банк (literal), берег (річки), край, мілина, вал/насип (verbal)

Verbal translation, however, does not provide a faithful conveying of sense/content at other than word level. When employed at the level of word-combinations or sentences it may often make the language units ungrammatical and pervert or completely ruin their sense:

I am reading now – is not Я є читаючий зараз but Я читаю зараз

to take measures – is not брати міри but вживати заходів

 

Word-for-word translation/ consecutive verbal translation (дослівний послідовний) is used at the level of word-combinations and sentences, which have the same structure, word order, and the same lexical meanings of the constituents in the SL and the TL.

Who took my book? – Хто взяв мою книжку?

Word-for-word translation is often used at the initial stage of translation. It does not always work with phraseological units (cold as a cucumber – незворушний) except some cases when a phraseological unit is taken from a third language – Latin or Greek (to cross the Rubicon – перейти Рубікон).

 

Interlinear translation is used for a faithful rendering of the meaning (but not structure) expressed by word-combinations and sentences, which are different in structure, at the level of some text. The sense of phraseological units is not conveyed.

Interlinear translation may be practically applied to all speech units (sentences, passages etc.)

It is used at the higher level of translator’s activity. It is performed with transformations when there is no identical form in the TL.

Interlinear translation offers more variants than word-for-word translation.

Who took my book? – Де моя книжка?/ У кого моя книжка?

Various transformations in interlinear and literary translations are inevitable because of grammatical/structural, stylistic and other divergences in the SL and in the TL.

She said she would come. – Вона сказала, що прийде.

Transformations are also inevitable when there is no direct equivalent for the SL units in the TL.

a trip – коротка подорож, to ski – їздити на лижах

Interlinear translation is widely practiced at the intermediary and advanced stages of studying a foreign language.

But it doesn’t convey the literary merits/artistic features and beauty of the original (e.g. translation of a stanza or passage)

 

Literary translation represents the highest level of a translator’s activity. It can be either literary artistic or literary proper depending on the type of the matter under translation.

Literary artistic translation (художній літературний) is used to translate prose or poetry and faithfully conveys the content and artistic merits of belles-lettres /bel’letr/ texts or passages of the literary text.

Literary proper translation (власний літературний) is used to translate some texts that may include scientific or technical matter, business correspondence, newspapers and documents. In short, any printed or recorded matter devoid of artistic merits (epithets, metaphors etc.).

Literary translations are always performed with many transformations because of stylistic differences between the SL and the TL. Transformations are necessary to convey the meaning of the original, and to achieve ease and beauty of the original composition.

Literary proper/artistic translation of a larger passage often requires some additional research or linguistic, historical and other enquiries in order to clarify the obscure places (historic events, units of specific national lexicon, neologisms, archaisms etc.). Sometimes even the title of a work may require a philological or historical inquiry.

Ex. «Слово о Полку Ігоревім» - “A word about Ihor’s Regiment” (in a word-for-word translation, which doesn’t correspond to the real meaning)

“The Tale/ lay of the Host of Ihor”, “The Song of Igor’s Campaign”, “Prince Igor’s Raid against the Polovtsi” (which corresponds to the real meaning of the title – повість, пісня про Ігореве військо, дружину)

«Тихий Дон» (М.Шолохов) – “And Quiet Flows the Don” or “The Don Flows home to the Sea” (a word-for word translation “The Quiet Don” or “The Still Don” would not convey the poetic flavour of the original title)

These variants could have been suggested by the translator only after a deep inquiry into the novel’s content, into its main idea and into the whole system of images of these works.