OBJECTIVELY REQUIRED AND SUBJECTIVELY INTRODUCED/CONTEXTUAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF LANGUAGE UNITS

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 402.

There may be two types of transforma­tions resorted to in the process of translation: 1. objectively required/ conditioned by the peculiarities of the target language, i.e., inevi­table, and 2. subjectively introduced at the translator's own will and therefore not always unavoidable. Either of them requires structural/ outer alterations of the source language units in the target language. Moreover, each type of these transformations may be realized both on the syntactic as well as on the lexical level units. Objectively predetermined are also transformations of the objective with the infinitive or participle constructions/complexes, gerundial and nominative absolute participial constructions, national idioms, etc. In these cases a simple English sentence may turn into a com­plex sentence. Cf.: It (music) seems to be right in them. (D.Parker) – Здається, ніби музика в них просто в крові.; When do you want me to do it? (Maugham) - Коли ви хочете, щоб я це зробив ?»

The outer form/structure of the language unit may be deliber­ately changed in the target language, when it requires a concretization. As a result, the structure of the sense unit is often extended or shortened in the target language without changing its proper mean­ing. For example, the personal pronoun it and the auxiliary verb do, when concretized in the Ukrainian translation may be substituted for a noun phrase and an objective word-group: «Why did you do it?» the/sheriff said. «I didn't do it,» Johnny said. (Saroyan) - «Ти навіщо підпалив будинок?» - запитав шериф. - «Я не підпалював його.» відповів Джонні. The predicative word-groups підпалив будинок and його не підпалював become necessary in Ukrainian in order to explicate prop­erly the meaning of the verb do and the pronoun it, which can be achieved only in a descriptive way, i.e., through transformation.

Also semantically and stylistically predetermined are all translator's transformations through addition, which are resorted to with the aim of achieving the necessary expressiveness. Additions become necessary in the target language either in order to express more clearly the content of the source language unit, or for the sake of achieving some stylistic effect. Cf.: When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things (Dreiser) - Коли дівчина залишає домівку у вісімнадцять років, з нею трапляється одне з двох... The additions made in the Ukrainian sentence are both lexical and syntactic, since it completes the sentence through the formation of the attributive word-group (вісімнадцять років).

Often occurring among various translators' transformations are also omissions, which may be of two types: a) objectively required, i.e., inevitable and b) casual or subjectively introduced. The former are conditioned by the grammar phenomena which are not available in the target language. Thus, objectively omitted are auxiliary verbs, de­termining articles or pronouns (cf. he has his hands in his pockets він тримає руки в кишенях), individual barbarisms, as in the sentence below: Oh, I like them. I really do. (D.Parker) - О, вони подобаються мені. Справді. Here the sentence "I really do" is reduced to one-word sen­tence "Справді."

Reduction is often employed for stylistic reasons, especially in translations of belles-letters texts, when there exists an incompat­ibility between the structural forms of the syntactic units of the source language and their semantic and structural equivalents in the target language. The forms of reduction depend on the peculiarity of the language units under translation, on the means of expression or units to be reduced, and sometimes on the aims persued by the reduc­tion .

Always subjective is the approach of the translator to the choice of some semantically and syntactically equivalent versions of the source language units as in the following sentence: They gave me a wrong book, and I didn't notice it, till I got back to my room.» (Salinger) This sentence can have two equally faithful versions in Ukrainian, each of which fully expresses its content: Вони мені дали не ту книжку і я не помітив цього.; Мені дали не ту книжку, аж доки не прийшов додому, / я помітив це, аж коли прийшов додому. The subjective transformations in the left hand Ukrainian defi­nite personal clause Вони мені дали не ту книжку is transformed into the indefinite personal sentence Мені дали не my книжку, 2) the second co-ordinate clause і я не помітив цього is changed into the antonymic affirmative clause і я помітив це, and the adverbial subordinate clause аж доки не прийшов додому is changed into an affirmative clause (antonymic again) аж коли прийшов додому. These subjectively introduced by the translator transformations have not in any way changed the syntactic nature or content of the English composite (compound-complex) sentence as a whole. Nei­ther have they changed the order of words, though the plane of ex­pression has undergone some alterations, the main of which is the employment of the antonymic device. It is expedient to term such kind of alterations in the structural plane of syntactic units as «inner transformations» as well. The latter involve only minor structural or lexico-semantic alterations without causing any cardinal changes in the structural form of the sense units under translation.