Questions for discussion and practical assignments

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 742.

PRACTICE SECTION 1

L.Carroll

Compare the original text with the famous S. Marshak's Russian version (you may as well suggest your version of translation of this poem into Ukrainian):

Дама Бубен

Варила бульон

И жарила десять котлет.

Десятка Бубен

Украла бульон,

Котлеты украл Валет.

Text 6. Mentafact text: a poem

Страшні слова, коли вони мовчать,

коли вони зненацька причаїлись,

коли не знаєш, з чого їх почать,

бо всі слова були уже чиїмись.

Хтось ними плакав, мучився, болів,

із них почав і ними ж і завершив.

Людей мільярди, і мільярди слів,

а ти їх маєш вимовити вперше!

Все повторялось: і краса, й потворність.

Усе було: асфальти й спориші.

Поезія – це завжди неповторність,

якийсь безсмертний дотик до душі.

Ліна Костенко

1. Give the outline of the levels of the language structure. Give reasons why text is regarded as the unit of the highest level of verbal communication.

2. Give the definition of text and comment upon it.

3. Give the definition of discourse and comment upon the interrelation between text and discourse.

4. What is cohesion and why it is important for understanding and translating texts?

5. Suggest arguments for distinguishing between cohesion and coherence.

6. What are approaches to defining the linguistic nature of text? Which one is the most grounded to your mind?

7. Comment on the difference between artefact and mentafact texts.

8. What lexical and grammatical peculiarities can you determine in the artefact texts (Text 1 and 2), e.g. the use of tense-forms of the verb, the use of modal and performative verbs, the use of personal and other pronouns, etc. Which of them prove that these texts are “artefacts” that “change the world”?

9. What lexical, communicative and grammatical features make Text 3 (news item) and Text 4 different? What are the types of these texts according to the classification suggested in Unit 1 of this book?

10. What is the function of mentafact (fictional) texts? Suggest a Ukrainian version of “The Queen of Hearts” (Text 5), or of any other English piece of poetry. Give a brief analysis of transformations that were used by translators (e.g. by S. Marshak in his Russian version).

11. Suggest your English version of Lina Kostenko's poem (Text 6) and comment upon the communicative function of this text.

12. Give grounds for classifying the following sample-texts as artefacts or mentafacts and suggest ways of their analysis and translation.