Theory of translation
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Chapter 8. DIFFERENCES IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH WORD COMBINABILITY§1. REASONS FOR DIFFERENCES IN WORD COMBINABILITYFor a correct translation, one must know, besides the precise meaning of a word, the way the word is combined with other words in the sentence, also called the collocation. To analyze a word collocation, it is necessary to consult both bilingual dictionaries and special combinatory dictionaries, for example, The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English,180 which gives the most typical grammatical and lexical collocations in English. At least three reasons for the lack of collocation convergence in English and Russian may be singled out:
English);
The difference in word semantic structures is of a linguistic nature. The meanings of the source language and target language words do not coincide. Even one meaning in reference to different objects is verbalized by different words. For example, the word heavy implies a great amount or quantity of something and, depending on what the ‘something’ is, it corresponds to different Russian words: heavy books – тяжелые книги; heavy crop – богатый урожай; heavy sky – затянутое небо; heavy traffic – большое движение; heavy rain – сильный дождь; heavy sea – бурное море; heavy penalty – суровое наказание. Different situations can be named similarly in one language and differently in another language: провести операцию – to perform an operation (in a hospital); to carry out / conduct an operation (on the battlefield). Varieties of English predetermine different collocations: in British English, people say they have a bath; whereas Americans take a bath. The British take a decision, Canadians and Americans make a decision. In Russian, it is принимать ванну и принимать решение respectively. Typologically, English and Russian are opposites as far as their tendencies towards meaning generalization / specification and implicit / explicit expression are concerned. The English language tends to express more general, abstract meanings than does Russian, whose words are more specific, having an additional seme. Therefore, in translating from English into Russian, we often employ a transformation of specification: Old birds are not to be caught with chaff. – Старого воробья на мякине не проведешь. The specified subject is typical of a corresponding Russian proverb. He went to the shop to get some milk. – Он пошел в магазин купить молока. In this sentence, the verb to get corresponds to the Russian получать, with a seme added (получать за деньги = покупать). Sometimes a translator has to offer two specified words: (Waiter) Would you like to take anything? – Не хотите ли чего-нибудь выпить или закусить? Another contrast is manifested by the tendencies towards implicit and explicit expression. English tends to be implicit and laconic, which means it verbalizes less than Russian. On the other hand, the Russian language is more explicit than English, since it tends to express overtly all the elements of the situation named. Therefore, Russian translations are usually of greater volume than their English source texts. Examples, both of texts and separate sentences and phrases, can be numerous, one instance being the Russian phrase контроль за ходом проекта that corresponds to a very compressive English phrase the Project Control. The so called “adverbial verbs” is another example of semantic compression in the English language. §2. TRANSLATION OF ADVERBIAL VERBSAdverbial verbs are verbs of complex semantics: they express simultaneously two meanings – that of an action and that of its characteristics. For example, to stare – смотреть пристально; to shrill – пронзительно кричать. Atranslation equivalent is usually represented in the dictionary either by a verb and adverb or by a simple verb of complex semantics (to stare – уставиться), or by a verb and prepositional phrase: to rumble – ехать с грохотом. Some verbs become adverbial only in context. For example, the verb to roar by itself denotes making a long and loud noise and is equal to реветь, громыхать. In the sentence Tanks roared into the city,181 the verb indicates not only producing a loud noise, but also moving. So the sentence corresponds to the Russian Танки с грохотом въехали в город. The seme of movement is easily recognized by the preposition into. The same role is performed by a postpositional element of a phrasal verb: The old jalopy clanked up the hill. – Старый драндулет с лязгом поднимался в гору.182 Semantically, adverbial verbs can be classified into the following groups:183
(translated with a subordinate clause).
Being a compressive means of expressing a meaning, adverbial verbs are widely used in modern English, especially in newspapers and fiction. Some of them have become set phrases: to cry oneself to sleep; to struggle into one’s coat; to bang out of the room, etc. Many adverbial verbs form a structural pattern and, therefore, are easily recognized in the sentence, though their contextual meanings may not be found in the dictionary: The Tatar cavalry burned its way through Eastern Europe. – Сжигая все на своем пути, татарская конница пронеслась по Восточной Европе. The pattern to elbow one’s way, to push one’s way, to bribe one’s way (to, through) has been very frequent recently. Another pattern is the structure to talk (laugh, joke, tease, etc.) somebody into (out of) something: I’ve talked her into coming camping with us. – Я уговорил ее поехать с нами отдыхать на природу. §3. TRANSLATING CONDENSED SYNONYMSThere are rare cases when English proves to be more wordy than Russian. One of these cases is synonym condensation,185 or usage of a number of parallel synonyms which are very close in meaning: The government resorted to force and violence. In Russian linguistics, this phenomenon is called «парная синонимия». One of these synonyms is usually of Romance origin, the other is Germanic: Elvis Presley denied being lewd and obscene, with lewd being a Germanic word, and obscene a Latin borrowing . Элвис Пресли не признавал себя непристойным. As is seen in this example, a translator into Russian normally reduces the synonyms to a single one: the very first sentence in this paragraph might be translated as Правительство прибегло к насилию. If the synonym condensation is used in an oratorical register, to make speech more emphatic and expressive, it is compensated by intensifiers: I have been open and sincere … - Я абсолютно искренен… I am safe and sound. – Я жив-здоров. (This is, probably, the only case of synonym reduplication in Russian) |