Peculiarities of translation of Literary Text
The problem of translation of literary text (poetry, satirical work , lyric, dialect literature). Philological analysis of linguistic difficulties in literary translation: lexical transformation, grammatical forms and construction, culture-Specific Items.
Рубрика | Иностранные языки и языкознание |
Вид | курсовая работа |
Язык | английский |
Дата добавления | 22.04.2015 |
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From all this it follows, that the belles-lettres style must select a system of language means which will secure the effect sought. The belles-lettres style rests on certain indispensable linguistic features which are:
genuine, not trite, imagery, achieved by purely linguistic device
the use of words in contextual and very often in more that one dictionary meaning
a vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or lesser degree the authorґs personal evaluation of things or phenomena
a peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and syntactical idiosyncrasy
introduction of the typical features of colloquial language.
The belles-lettres style is individual in essence. Individuality in selecting language means and stylistic devices is one of its most distinctive properties.
Belles - letters style
The literary communication, most often (but not always) materialized in the written form, is not homogeneous, and proceeding from its function (purpose) we speak of different functional styles. As the whole of the language itself, `functional styles are also changeable.
Their quantity and quality change in the course of their development. At present most scholars differentiate such functional styles: scientific, official, publicist, newspaper, belles-lettres.
Belles-lettres style, or the style of creative literature may be called the richest register of communication: besides its own language means which are not used in any other sphere of communication, belles-lettres style makes ample use of other styles too, for in numerous works of literary art we find elements of scientific, official and other functional types of speech.
Besides informative and persuasive functions, also found in other functional styles, the belles-lettres style has a unique task to impress the reader aesthetically. The form becomes meaningful and carries additional information as you must have seen from previous chapters. Boundless possibilities of expressing one's thoughts and feelings make the belles-lettres style a highly attractive field of investigation for a linguist.
Speaking of belles-lettres style most scholars almost automatically refer to it prose works, regarding poetry the domain of a special poetic style. Viewed diachronically this opinion does not seem controversial, for poems of previous centuries, indeed, adhered to a very specific vocabulary and its ordering.
But poetry of the twentieth century does not show much difference from prosaic vocabulary, its subjects are no more limited to several specific “poetic” fields but widely cover practically all spheres of existence of contemporary man. So it is hardly relevant to speak of a separate poetic style meaning contemporary literature.
A functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication.
In the English literary standard Galperin distinguishes the following major functional styles (FS): belles-lettres; publicistic literature; newspaper; scientific prose; official documents.
The belles-lettres FS has the following substyles: style of poetry; of emotive prose; of drama. The publicistic FS comprises the following sub styles: style of essays; of oratory; of feature articles in newspapers and journals.
The newspaper FS falls into: style of brief news items and communiquйs; of newspaper headlines; of notices and advertisements.
The scientific prose FS also has three divisions: style of humanitarian sciences; of `exact' sciences; of military documents.
The official documents FS can be divided into four varieties: style of diplomatic documents; of business documents; of legal documents; of military documents.
The belles-lettres style rests on certain indispensable linguistic features which are:
1.Genuine, not trite, imagery, achieved by purely linguistic devices.
2.The use of words in contextual and very often in more than one dictionary meaning, or at least greatly influenced by the lexical environment.
3.A vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or lesser degree the author's personal evaluation of things or phenomena.
4.A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and syntactical idiosyncrasy.
The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a full degree (in plays) or lesser one (in emotive prose) or a slight degree, if any (in poems).
2. Philological analysis of linguistic difficulties in literary translation
2.1 Literary translation of specifically English grammatical forms and constructions
To translate English grammatical forms and constructions one should not necessarily look for the same forms and constructions in Russian - as it was mentioned, there may be none. Nevertheless, it is always possible to translate them adequately since it is not the form itself but its meaning and function in the sentence that should be rendered in literary translation. That is why translation of any such unit should begin with its semantic and functional analysis. It can be illustrated with the problem of rendering the definite and indefinite articles. Unless articles have some special role in the sentence or some additional meaning, they are not translated at all - they are merely omitted. However, there are cases when articles are used to mark the rheme of the sentence. Sometimes, besides their usual meaning of definiteness or indefiniteness articles have some additional meaning, e.g., the indefinite article used with personal names has the meaning "some, a certain", showing that someone is unknown to the speaker. Such meaning should be rendered by corresponding means of the Russian language: "a Mrs. Smith" "некая миссис Смит, какая-то миссис Смит". The indefinite article may also coincide in its meaning either with the pronoun "one" ("I remember a friend of mine buying a couple of cheeses..." -"Я помню, как один мой приятель. . .") There are many more meanings which the article may combine with its main grammatical function. In this respect translation of articles does not differ from translation of other words - first its meaning should be analyzed and then a proper word of TL can be chosen. The same is true of prepositions and conjunctions. It is most important to remember that even such a "simple" conjunction as "and" has at least 10 different meanings; in different contexts it may correspond to the Russian "a" ("they stayed at home, and we left" - "они остались дома, а мы ушли"), "неужели" ("And you did it?" - "Неужели Вы это сделали ?"), etc. Speaking of conjunctions, it should also be mentioned that besides their main function (connecting and introducing different clauses and parts of the sentence) they enter idiomatic constructions the meaning of which cannot be guessed: it should be known or looked up in the dictionary (“ if anything" - "если уж на то пошло, во всяком случае, как бы то ни было"). One and the same preposition is also translated differently in different constructions and contexts. As for the so-called notional parts of speech, they may differ in SL and TL in the set of syntactic functions that they fulfill in the sentence. That is why translation should always be based on a thorough syntactic analysis since it is not the grammatical form itself but rather its function in the sentence that predetermines the way of translation. For example, before translating an infinitive it is necessary to state its role in the sentence - to see if it functions as a subject, object, attribute, or adverbial modifier, etc. If it is an adverbial modifier, it is essential to see its type - an adverbial modifier of purpose, of result, of attendant circumstances, etc. After this functional and semantic analysis it is possible to render the infinitive into Russian using any part of speech in the corresponding function (or changing the structure of the sentence in order to express the same idea according to the norms of TL). It is impossible to warn a beginner against all possible difficulties. However, it seems reasonable to point out some English constructions that are most likely to cause trouble. Most frequent among them are the so-called absolute constructions. There are two main difficulties in dealing with them: first of all they are not always easy to recognize and besides they do not correspond to any particular construction of the Russian language. Based on secondary predication, these constructions usually express some additional thought, something that happens in connection with the main action, but still "outside" it. It is often hard to say if the construction indicates time or cause of the main action - it may indicate them indiscriminately.
Generally speaking, translation of specifically English grammatical constructions consists of two stages: first it is necessary to understand their meaning and then find a corresponding way of expressing it in Russian. For the purpose of translation, grammar does not exist separately. It is not the grammatical form but the grammatical meaning that is of primary concern for a translator or an interpreter. A mistake in grammar (whether it is a misunderstood construction of SL or a wrong variant in TL) always tells on the sense and logic of the text. As soon as the sense and logic of a sentence stop to be transparent it is necessary to stop and look for a mistake in the translation.
2.2 Lexical transformations
They say that translation starts where dictionaries end. Though somewhat exaggerated, this saying truly reflects the nature of literary translation. Dictionaries list all regular correspondences between elements of lexical systems of languages. Translation deals not so much with the system of language but with speech (or to be more exact - with a text, which is a product of speech). So in the process of translating one has to find it by himself which of the meanings of a polysemantic word is realized in a particular context, to see if under the influence of this context the word has acquired a slightly new shade of meaning and to decide how this new shade of meaning (not listed in any dictionary) can be rendered in TL.No dictionary ever translates the verb "to be" as "лежать", nevertheless it is the best way to translate it in the sentence "She was in hospital" - "Она лежала в больнице". Moreover, it has already been said that every language has its specific way of expressing things, a way that may be quite alien to other languages. That is why a literal (word-for-word) translation of a foreign text may turn out clumsy (if not ridiculous) in TL. To avoid it one has to resort to some special devices worked out by the theory of translation and known as lexical transformations (or contextual substitutions). There are several types of such transformations.
1. The first type of lexical transformations is used in translating words with wide and non-differentiated meaning. The essence of this transformation lies in translating such words of SL by words with specified concrete meaning in TL. When translating from English into Russian they use it especially often in the sphere of verbs. If English verbs mostly denote actions in rather a vague general way, Russian verbs are very concrete in denoting not only the action itself but also the manner of performing this action as well: "to go (on foot, by train, by plane, etc.)" - "идти пешком", "ехать поездом", “лететь самолетом ", etc. The choice of a particular Russian verb depends on the context. It does not mean, of course, that the verb "to go" changes its meaning under the influence of the context. The meaning of "to go" is the same, it always approximately corresponds to the Russian "перемещаться", but the norms of the Russian language demand a more specified nomination of the action. The same can be illustrated with the verb "to be": "The clock is on the wall", "The apple is on the plate and the plate is on the table" - "Часы висят на стене", "яблоко лежит на тарелке, а тарелка стоит на столе", though in all those cases "to be" preserves its general meaning "находиться". The sentence "He's in Hollywood" in J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" should be translated as "Он работает в Голливуде", but if "Oxford" were substituted for "Hollywood" the translation would rather be "учится". This transformation is applicable not only to verbs but to all words of wide semantic volume, no matter to what part of speech they belong: adverbs, adjectives, nouns, etc.
The English pronoun "you" deserves special attention. It can be translated only with the help of differentiation, i.e. either "ты" or "вы". The choice depends on the character, age, the social position of the characters, their relations, and the situation in which they speak. One should remember that the wrong choice can ruin the whole atmosphere of the text.
2. The second type of transformation is quite opposite in its character and is usually called "generalization". In many cases the norms of TL make it unnecessary or even undesirable to translate all the particulars expressed in SL. Englishmen usually name the exact height of a person: "He is six foot three tall". In Russian it would hardly seem natural to introduce a character saying "Он шести футов и трех дюймов росту"; substituting centimeters for feet and inches wouldn't make it much better: "On 190,5 сантиметров росту". The best variant is to say: "Он очень большого роста".
Generalization is also used in those cases when a SL a word with differentiated meaning corresponds to a word with non-differentiated meaning in TL ("a hand" - "рука", "an arm" -"рука", etc.).
3. The third type of transformation is based upon logical connection between two phenomena (usually it is a cause-and-effect type of connection), one of which is named in the original text and the other used as its translated version. This transformation presupposes semantic and logical analysis of the situation described in the text and consists in semantic development of this situation. If the situation is developed correctly, that is if the original and translated utterances are semantically connected as cause and effect, the transformation helps to render the sense and to observe the norms of TL: "Mr. Kelada's brushes ... would have been all the better for a scrub" (S.Maugham) - "Щетки мистера Келады …. не отличались чистотой". It may seem that the translation "не отличались чистотой" somewhat deviates from the original "would have been all the better for a scrub". However, the literal translation "были бы много лучше от чистки" is clumsy while " не отличались чистотой " is quite acceptable stylistically and renders the idea quite correctly: why would they have been all the better for a scrub? - because they не отличались чистотой. Another example: "When I went on board I found Mr. Kelada's luggage already below" (S.Maugham) ". . . я нашел багаж мистера Келады уже внизу" is not Russian. The verb «нашел» or «обнаружил» do not render the situation adequately. It is much better to translate it as "... багаж мистера Келады был уже внизу ", which describes the situation quite correctly: why did I find his luggage below? - because он был уже внизу.
These two examples illustrate substitution of the cause for the effect: the English sentence names the effect while the Russian variant names its cause. There may occur the opposite situation - substitution of the effect for the cause : "I not only shared a cabin with him and ate three meals a day at the same table..." (S.Maugham) - "…три раза в день встречался с ним за одним столом "; "Three long years had passed ... since I had tasted ale..." (Mark Twain) - "Целых три года я не брал в рот пива..." In these examples the English sentences name the cause while the Russian versions contain the effect (I ate three meals a day at the same table with him, so Я три раза в день встречался с ним за одним столом; three long years had passed since I tasted ale, so целых три года я не брал в рот пива).
4. The fourth type of transformation is based on antonymy. It means that a certain word is translated not by the corresponding word of TL but by its antonym and at the same time negation is added (or, if there is negation in the original sentence, it is omitted in translation): "It wasn't too far." - "Это оказалось довольно близко" ("far" is translated as "близко" and negation in the predicate is omitted). Not far = близко.
The necessity for this transformation arises due to several reasons: 1) peculiarities of the systems of SL and TL, 2) contextual requirements, 3) traditional norms of TL.
The fifth transformation is usually called "compensation". To be exact, it is not so much a transformation but rather a general principle of rendering stylistic peculiarities of a literary text when there is no direct correspondence between stylistic means of SL and TL. This transformation is widely used to render speech peculiarities of characters, to translate puns, rhyming words, etc. The essence of it is as follows: it is not always possible to find stylistic equivalents to every stylistically marked word of the original text or to every phonetic and grammatical irregularity purposefully used by the author. That is why there should be kept a general stylistic balance based on compensating some inevitable stylistic losses by introducing stylistically similar elements in some other utterances or by employing different linguistic means playing a similar role in TL. Suppose a character uses the word "fool-proof” which is certainly a sign of the colloquial register. In Russian there is no colloquial synonym of the word "надежный" or "безопасный". So the colloquial "fool-proof” is translated by the neutral "абсолютно надежный" and the speech of the character loses its stylistic coloring. This loss is inevitable, but it is necessary to find a way of compensation. There is another variety of compensation which consists in creating the same general effect in TL with the help of means different from those used in SL. A combination of phonetic and grammatical mistakes is used by G.B.Shaw to show that his character is an uneducated person: "Old uns like me is up in the world now". It is impossible to make the same mistakes in the corresponding Russian sentence: "Такие старики, как я, сейчас высоко ценятся". Nevertheless, speech characteristics are very important for creating the image of Beamish, so it is necessary to make him speak in an uneducated manner. With the help of these five types of transformations one can overcome practically all lexical difficulties.
2.3 Semantic compliance in the translation
The main problem faced by the translator for the transfer of referential values, expressed in the original text - this mismatch range of values inherent in units FL and TL. There are two different languages, in which semantic units - morphemes, words, set phrases - would be completely identical in the entire volume of their referential meanings. Though they expressed values ("concepts") in most cases the same, but their modes of expression - their grouping, segmentation, and combining them together within a formal one (or more units), usually in different languages differ more or less radically. This is most clearly be demonstrated on the material of the vocabulary of two different languages. Although carriers referential values are not just words, yet it is convenient to take the word as a unit for comparing the comparison of semantic units in different languages.
However, it must be borne in mind that the celebrated types of semantic differences between systems of different languages are not limited to words, but typical of other linguistic units ( grammatical morphemes).
In general, all types of semantic correspondences between lexical units of the two languages can be reduced to three basic ones: 1) full compliance, 2) partial similarity, 3) the lack of conformity.
Cases of full compliance with lexical items in different languages throughout the volume of their referential values are relatively rare. As a rule, it is unambiguous words, that is, having in both languages is only one value, the number of them, as you know, compared to the total weight of words in the lexicon of the language is relatively small. This includes words that belong mainly to the following lexical groups:
1) Proper names and place names included in the vocabulary of both languages, such as Paris-Paris; Hamilton-Hamilton; Italy - Italy.
2) Scientific and technical terms, Pollination - Pollination, vegetation-vegetation, oxygen-oxygen, Pestal-stamen, injector-sprayer, electric conductivity-conductivity.
Some other groups of words that are close to the semantics of the two mentioned above, such as the names of the months and days of week, as well as numerals.
You should not assume that all words belonging to the above groups, refer to the number of complete matches. Often there are cases where one correspondence within these semantic categories of words is not observed.
In very rare cases, full compliance, then there is a match of words in two languages in the entire volume of their referential values, common and ambiguous words. Thus the English word Tablet (preparation alimentary) -1) tiles for cooking and tablete of chocolate - 2) also corresponds to the Russian chocolate bar.
The most common case when comparing the lexical items of two languages is a partial match, in which one word in FL is is not one, but several semantic equivalents in the TL. The vast majority of words in any language is characterized by polysemy, and the system of meanings of a word in one language, as a rule, does not coincide completely with the system of meanings of words in another language.
You experience the different cases. So, sometimes circle of meanings of the word in FL is greater than the corresponding word in the TL (or vice versa), that is a word in FL (or PCOS) have all the same value as that of the words in the TL (resp. FL) but, in addition, it also has values that are transmitted in another language, in other words. Thus, the Russian character, as well as English character values are: 1) "a set of mental characteristics of man" 2) "a strong will, perseverance" (He is a man without character - He has no character); 3) "property, the quality of , the uniqueness of something. " The English character, in addition, have values that are missing from the Russian character and sent to the Russian language in other words, as follows: 4) "reputation", 5) a written recommendation, 7harakteristika 6) feature, trait, quality, and 7) the figure , a person (often a strange, original), 8), a literary figure, a hero, an actor in a play; 9) characters, letters, symbols (Chinese character - Chinese characters (letters). more common case is when both words - and in the FL and TL - have both overlapping and divergent values.
A somewhat different and perhaps more interesting from a theoretical point of view, the nature of the case are partial equivalence, due to a phenomenon that can be called a lack of differentiation of the word in one language compared with another. The idea is that one word of any language, is more widely (undifferentiated) concept, that is, designating a wider class of denotations in another language may correspond to two or more words, each of which is more narrow, differentiated, compared to first language, a concept that is true to a limited class denotations. Thus, in the Russian language there is the word hand, which in English corresponds to two words - arm and hand, each of which represents a narrower concept: arm denotes the upper limb from shoulder to wrist and hand - the hand, while the Russian arm stands the entire upper limb from shoulder to human fingertips. Similarly, the Russian word leg, designating the entire lower extremity, corresponds to two English words: leg - leg except foot and foot-foot.
All the previous examples were just the relationship between individual, isolated lexical units of the two languages. Even with this approach reveals a very complicated picture, but it becomes even harder if comparisons are not between individual words, but between entire groups of semantically similar words (in linguistics, they are often called "semantic" or "lexical fields"). As an example, can be used in the consideration of the comparative terms of the semantic groups - the names of the main parts of the day in Russian and French. Beginners learn English in the first few lessons learned that morning on the Russian word denoted English morning, day-day, evening-evening, night-night. Later, upon closer examination there is a new division and the discrepancy between these identities. First of all, in the English language has no word day, the corresponding concept can be described by a descriptive way: (Speaking in English divide this period into 2 parts: am - 12 am to 12 pm; good afternoon-from noon to about 17 hours that is, before sunset, and good evening - from sunset to midnight and then again comes the morning). In the Russian language, otherwise the day is divided into four parts: the morning - from sunrise to watch 10-11 days - from 10.11 hours to sunset, the evening - from the hours of sunset to 10-11, and night - between evening and morning that is, a time when people are asleep.
The third possible case of mutual relations lexicon of two languages - is the complete lack of conformity of a lexical unit of a language in the vocabulary of another language. In these cases, to talk about the so-called equivalent vocabulary. This subject is so vast and multifaceted that it is not difficult to make a separate partition will. Briefly I would say that a equivalent vocabulary refers to lexical units (words and combinations) one of the languages that do not have any full or partial equivalents of lexical units another language (and proper names, names of newspapers, organizations, the reality, that is, words do not exist in the practical experience of people who speak another language, lexical units - occasional gaps). For their correct translation, the following methods: translation transliteration and transcription, tracing, descriptive (explanatory) translation approximate translation, translation transformation.
So by dealing with the main types of translation and the adequacy of the text as a pragmatic act of translation task, we must now raise an important issue such as the meaning (or semantic) matching in the translation. Directly related to this issue is an artistic interpretation, as it is the most common variety of linguistic realities of the typical literary texts language structures, idioms and metaphors, proverbs, idioms, etc.
2.4 Literary Point of View and Linguistic Point of View
If one wants to reproduce the original style satisfactorily, one must keep two points in mind before undertaking the translation.
First, the translator must have a macroscopic point of view, namely, a view of the whole, and should always remember that what he is working at is a literary work written by somebody else and try his utmost to turn his translation into a work of art which is in conformity with the thought, feelings, and style of the original. Thus, the translation will be as moving and vivid as the original work and the reader may be aesthetically entertained as well.
Second, he must have a microscopic point of view, namely, the linguistic point of view. In the process of translating, all the paragraphs, sentences and words should be attentively studied so that the best expressions may be chosen to satisfy the needs of reproducing the thought, feelings, and style of the original. From this point of view, style is formed by the coordination of paragraphs, sentences and words. Therefore, even if some individual sentences or words were not satisfactorily rendered, they would not affect the style of the work as a whole.
Style can never go without language. Paragraphs, sentences and words are absolutely essential to style. Paragraphs, sentences and words for the basis of style. Sentences are made up of words, paragraphs of sentences, and a entire work of paragraphs. The excellence of a work is due to its flawless paragraphs, of a paragraph to its faultless sentences, and of a sentence to appropriate choice of words. This has long been the goal writers pursue and translators should make the utmost effort to make translations correspond to the original in style, so that a resemblance in spirit may be achieved. At the same time, the translator should render the words, sentences, and paragraphs so that a resemblance in form may be achieved.
Paragraphing refers to chapters and natural paragraphs in a novel, prose, verse or a play. All these must be translated in their original order.
Sentence order and sentence patterns should be kept as much as possible. Sometimes we have to make some change in sentence patterns in accordance with the different usage of the target language. Only when we have rendered the sentence patterns flexibly where necessary can we have satisfied the minimum requirement of clear expression of meaning and smooth use of language in translation.
Wording here means choice of words and rhetorical devices. Every word must be weighed carefully and every figure of speech dealt with seriously. Proper words in proper places define a style.
The quality of a translation has nothing to do with the original work or with the original writer; rather, it depends on the theoretical knowledge and practical skill of the translator. It is because translation is not only a science, a science with its own peculiar laws and methods, but also an art--an art of reproduction and re-creation.
The thought, feeling and style will be reproduced provided the paragraphs, sentences and words in the original or source language are faithfully, flexibly and satisfactorily transferred to the target or receptor language. Resemblance in form is the basis for the resemblance in spirit and the latter is the crystallization of the former.
The translation process consists of two steps. First, the translator should carefully appreciate the tone and spirit of the whole original work through words, sentences and paragraphs it is made up of and determine what kind of style it reflects from both the literary and linguistic points of view. Then he starts translating it sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph from beginning to the end, with the reproduction of the original style kept in mind.
Faced with a passage in the original language, the translator must ask himself:
What does the author say?
What does he mean?
How does he say it?
This method of analysis may be applied to the paragraph, to the sentence, or even the phrase.
Meanwhile, a translator should pay attention to the three aspects of an utterance, the verbal, syntactic, and semantic aspects. The verbal aspect is reflected by the sentences in the work. The syntactic aspect involves the interrelation of the parts of the text. The semantic aspect involves the global sense of the utterance, the theme it evokes.
Translatability of the literary style of original works has been reaffirmed, and guiding principles and proper methods have been given. Literary translators must consider the reproduction of the original style as their common goal and strive for it in their work.
2.5 Culture-Specific Items in Literary Translation
Since the concept of culture is essential to understanding the implications for literary translation and culture-specific items in translation, many translation theorists have dealt with the definition of culture. In 1984 Larson defines culture as "a complex of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules which a group of people share"
. He notes that the translator needs to understand beliefs, attitudes, values, and the rules of the SL audience in order to adequately understand the ST and adequately translate it for people who have a different set of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules. In 1998, Newmark remarks that culture is "the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression". Here, he asserts that each language group has its own culturally specific features.
Schmitt in 1999 maintains that culture is composed of "everything that a person should know, be able to feel and to do, in order to succeed in behaving and acting in an environment like somebody from this environment" . The process of transmitting cultural elements through literary translation is a complicated and vital task. Culture is a complex collection of experiences which condition daily life. It includes history, social structure, religion, traditional customs and everyday usage. This is difficult to comprehend completely. In 1997, Shuttleworth argues that cultural translation is a term used to refer to those types of translation which act as a tool for cross-cultural or anthropological research. He believes that cultural translation is sensitive to cultural and linguistic factors and takes different forms: Such sensitivity might take the form either of presenting TL recipients with a transparent text which informs them about elements of the source culture, or of finding target items which may in some way be considered to be culturally "equivalent" to the ST items they are translating.
According to Nida and Taber, cultural translation is "a translation in which the content of the message is changed to conform to the receptor culture in some way, and/or in which information is introduced which is not linguistically implicit in the original" In the context of Bible translation, Nida and Taber state that a cultural translation is one in which additions are made which cannot be directly derived from the original ST wording. Thus, these additions might take the form of ideas culturally foreign to ST or elements which are simply included to provide necessary background information.
In 1964, Nida lists four basic factors which make communication possible and, therefore, make possible the translation of a message from one language and culture to another. These are: 1) the similarity of mental processes of all people, 2) similarity of somatic reactions (similar physical responses to emotional stimulus), 3) the range of common cultural experience, and 4) the capacity for adjustment to the behavioral patterns of others. In addition to Nida, Larson observes that all meaning is culturally conditioned and the response to a given text is also culturally conditioned. Therefore, each society will interpret a message in terms of its own culture: The receptor audience will decode the translation in terms of his own culture and experience, not in terms of the culture and experience of the author and audience of the original document. The translator then must help the receptor audience understand the content and intent of the source document by translating with both cultures in mind.
Indeed, one of the most difficult problems in translating literary texts is found in the differences between cultures. People of a given culture look at things from their own perspective. Larson notes that "different cultures have different focuses. Some societies are more technical and others less technical." This difference is reflected in the amount of vocabulary which is available to talk about a particular topic. Larson adds that there may also be both "technical and non-technical" vocabulary to talk about the same thing within a given society. Therefore, if the SL text originates from a highly technical society it may be much more difficult to translate it into the language of a nontechnical society. However, in the case of similar cultures the conditions are not the same. When the cultures are similar, there is less difficulty in translating. This is because both languages will probably have terms that are more or less equivalent for the various aspects of the culture. When the cultures are very different, it is often difficult to find equivalent lexical items.
Thus, a translator who uses a cultural approach is simply recognizing that each language contains elements which are derived from its culture, that every text is anchored in a specific culture, and that conventions of text production and reception vary from culture to culture. Awareness of such issues can at times make it more appropriate to think of translation as a process which occurs between cultures rather than simply between languages. Most 'cultural words', according to Newmark, are easy to detect since they are associated with a particular language and cannot be literally translated. However, many cultural customs are described in ordinary language, where literal translation would distort the meaning and thus the translation "may include an appropriate descriptive-functional equivalent".
Newmark also introduced 'cultural word' which the readership is unlikely to understand and the translation strategies for this kind of concept depend on the particular text-type, requirements of the readership and client and importance of the cultural word in the text. Baker refers to such cultural words and concedes that the SL words may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture. She points out that the concept in question may be "abstract or concrete, it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or even a type of food." Baker then, calls such concepts 'culture-specific items'. Nord uses the term 'cultureme' to refer to these culture specific items. He defines cultureme as "a cultural phenomenon that is present in culture X but not present (in the same way) in culture Y". Gambier also refers to such concepts as 'culture-specific references' and asserts that they connote different aspects of life: Culture-specific references connoting different aspects of everyday life such as education, politics, history, art, institutions, legal systems, units of measurement, place names, foods and drinks, sports and national pastimes, as experienced in different countries and nations of the world.
Gambier acknowledges that the culture-specific category "contains sixty clips divided into six sub-groups" which included examples of references to the system, food and measurements, sport, institutions, famous people and events, and finally the legal system. Newmark asserts that a few general considerations govern the translation of all cultural words. First, the ultimate consideration should be recognition of the cultural achievements referred to in the SL text, and respect for all foreign countries and their cultures. Two translation procedures which are at opposite ends of the scale are normally available; transference, which usually in literary texts, offers local color and atmosphere, and in specialist texts enables the readership to identify the referent in other texts without difficulty. However, transference, though it is brief and concise, blocks comprehension, it emphasizes the culture and excludes the message, does not communicate; some would say it is not a translation procedure at all.
At the other end, there is componential analysis, the most accurate translation procedure, which excludes the culture and highlights the message. Componential analysis is based on a component common to the SL and TL to which one can add the extra contextual distinguishing components. Inevitably, a componential analysis is not as economical and has not the pragmatic impact of the original. Lastly, the translator of a cultural word, which is always less context-bound than ordinary language, has to bear in mind both the motivation and the cultural specialist and linguistic level of readership .The point in regard to the systematic way of translating a literary text is that "in each period of time the degree of loyalty with regard to interpretation and translation of literary texts varies regarding the three points of author, reader, and the text." Therefore, the literary translator has to know well the critical approaches as well as their underlying structure.
Conclusion
To make a conclusion, literary translation has a great role in cultural development of humanity. Thanks to literary translation people can get introduced with history, literature of different countries. Literary translation activities are characterized by a great variety of types, forms and levels of responsibility. The translator has to deal with works of great authors of the past and of the leading authors of present days. Also as it is considered in this course work, translator should be aware of translating literary texts following the original words exactly. In this work it is proved that translation shouldn't be literal. It is one of the most important things in literary translation. That is why the main target of the course work was to study linguistic difficulties of literary translation and adequate literary translation. Theoretical and practical research concerning this problem confirmed the topicality of the course work.
The interpreter has to make stylistic adaptation of the text skipping emotional-stylistic elements in Russian translation. They are dramatic, successful, excellent, etc…
Literary translation - is the most described of the functional styles. It is the most movable and creative developed style.
The particular difficulties appear when the original and target languages belong to other cultures.
Methods of information design in literary translation
- Epithets - reproduce in respect of their structural and semantic peculiarities (common and complex adjectives; degree of normative semantic agreement with determinate word;
- Comparisons - reproduce in respect of structural peculiarities, stylistic coloration of its vocabulary;
- Metaphors - reproduce in accordance with structure descriptions and semantic attitudes between graphic and objective plan;
- Author's neologisms - reproduce with word-building model which analogous to the model that was used by author, saving semantic components of the words and stylistic coloration.
- Phonetic, morpheme, lexical, syntax and leitmotif repetitions - if it's possible, they reproduce with the reservation of author's repetition components and principle of repetition on the language level;
- Casuistry based on multiple meaning of the word or reviving word form;
- Irony - first of all reproduce principle of contrast impact, comparison of incomparable;
- «Speaking» names and toponyms - reproduce with reservation of semantic of «speaking» name and typical for word-building model of original language and exotic for target language;
- Syntax specific of original text - availability the contrast of short and long sentences, rhyme of prose, dominance of coordinating bounds est. - reproduce in accordance with grammatical compliance;
- Dialecticisms - as a role, compensate itself by colloquial lexis. Slang words, swearwords reproduce by language lexis with the same stylistic coloration.
"Key words" - verbal form of concepts composing sphere of national notions. They draw attention by its frequent usage; play the main part in idioms, proverbs, names of popular books and films. Among the key words in English literature, there could be mentioned concepts like "stiff upper lip", "fair play", "gentleman", "home", "freedom", "common sense", "sence of humour". There are the same, in Russian literature: "воля", "душа", "судьба", "тоска", "беспредельность", "удаль", "соборность" etc.
Thus, the purpose for literary translation interpreter is to be imbued in the meaning of “key words” of original text culture and also to be able to bring their meaning to its reader reserving the national hallmark of origin on the one hand, and make its perception available for informants of another national sphere on the other hand.
During the fulfillment of this term paper we learnt many new things about history of translation and about its functions in modern society. This work helped me to understand particular purposes of theory of translation and to get acquaintance with the material relevant to translation theory. Having fulfilled I felt personal active mood and thirst for self perfection. This work helped me to systematize existing material which is necessary for interpreter's training. Every science has its methods and purposes. Subject of “translation theory” is not an exception. In this term paper I tried to reflect all the available material on this subject.
Considering literature as being the product of the dominant ideology, it is obvious that sign systems cannot be assumed to be understood by everyone, for language is dynamic and apt to change quite rapidly. Furthermore, in most societies literary translation seems to have become so prominent that the very concept of translation tends to be restricted to literary translation in comparison with other types of translation and other texts.
One of the most difficult problems in translating literary texts is found in the differences between cultures. People of a given culture look at things from their own perspective. Indeed, one of the most difficult problems in translating literary texts is found in the differences between cultures. A translator who uses a cultural approach is simply recognizing that each language contains elements which are derived from its culture that every text is anchored in a specific culture, and that conventions of text production and reception vary from culture to culture.
References
1. Бреус Е.В. Основы теории и практики перевода с русского языка на английский. - М.: Просвещение, 2000. - 183 с.
2. Гарбовский Н.К., Беллин Н.Ф., Ширяев А.Ф. Перевод как лингвистическая проблема. Сборник статей. - М., 1982. - 232c.
3. Катцер Ю., Кунин А. Письменный перевод с русского языка на английский.- М., - 1964. - 45-47c.
4. Комиссаров В.Н. Лингвистика перевода. - М.: Высшая школа, 1980. - 121-123c.
5. Комисаров В.Н., Рецкер Я.И., Тархов В.И. Пособие по переводу с русского на русский. - М.: Просвещение, 1960. - 187c.
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7. Нелюбин Л.Л. Перевод и прикладная лингвистика. - М.: Высшая школа, 1983. - 142-143c.
8. Пиввуева Ю.В., Дройнина Е.В. Пособие по теории перевода (на английском материале). - М., 2004. - 36-38c.
9. Рецкер Я.И., Тархов В.И. Лингвистика перевода.-M., Просвещение, 1961. - 57-58c.
10. Ширяев А.Ф. Перевод и прикладная лингвистика.-M., Высшая школа, 1983. - 76-79c.
11. Bellin N.F. Theory of translation.-M., 1983. - 142p.
12. Komissarov V.N., Koralova A.L. A manual of translation from English into Russian. - M.: Высшая школа, 1990. - 101-103p.
13. Levitskaya T.R., Fiterman A.M. Theory and practice of translation.-Moscow,1963. - 15-17p.
14. Nida E. Toward a Science of Translating. - 65-68p.
15. Sipovich V.S. Translation course. - Minsk, 2004. - 38-39p.
16. Literary Translation Quality Assessment
\\http://www.translationdirectory.com/literary_translation.htm
17. Translating literary texts - methods and theories
\\http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/sites/misc/translating.php
18. Poetry Translation,By Hashim G. Lazim,
\\http://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article1362.php
19. Article by Luigi Bonaffini, translating dialect of literary text
20. Словарь-справочник лингвистических терминов под ред Розенталь Д.Э, Теленкова М.А. - М. Просвещение, 1985 - 400с.
21. Galperin I.R. Stylistics - М. Высшая школа, 1971 - 243 с.
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