Навчально-методичний посібник для практичних занять та самостійної роботи студентів Полтава 2012

1. Already the reactionary offensive of Yankee imperialism was begin­ning to get the inevitable answer from the Latin America peoples (specification). 2. At seven o'clock, a dull meal was served in the oak paneled dining room (specification). 3. I apologize for stepping on your toe (generalization). 4. Now, more than two hours later, the big jet was still stuck, its fuselage and tail blocking runway three zero (generalization). 5. He would cheer up somehow, begin to laugh again, and draw skeletons all over his slate, and before his eyes were dry (modulation). 6. Unfortunately, the ground to the right that was normally grass covered, had a drainage problem, due to be worked on when winter ended (modulation). 7. He had an old mother whom he never disobeyed (antonymous translation). 8. No person may be reinstated to a position in the post service without passing an appropriate examination (antonymous translation). 9. When she reached the house, she gave another proof of her identity (explication). 10. In one of his whistle-stop speeches, the Presidential nominee briefly outlined his attitude towards civil rights program (explication).

In the process of translation of word-combinations of great importance is translation of its components, i.e. the words they consist of. Translation is of analytic character: the whole is created of translation of elements on the basis of their relationship. In free word-combinations the words preserve their independent meaning and the translator has to deal with the problems of translation of separate words. But even in the case of free word-combinations the process of translation is not limited only by translation of separate words. On the one hand, translation of these words depends on their relationship within the word-combination in question, and on the other, the type of the word-combination itself can have specific peculiarities influencing the translation of its components. The characteristic peculiarity of bound/stable (phraseological) word-combinations is that the meaning of the whole dominates the meaning of the components and translation in this case is not of analytic but of synthetic character. This must be borne in mind translating free word-combinations.

The most widely used free word-combinations can be grouped like this:

1). Adj./Participle + Noun, e.g. a nice day, supersonic spending, Arab anger, silent majority, attempted coup, etc.

2). Noun + Noun, e.g. labour movement, labour conditions, labour contract, Labour Party, labour raids, labour spy, etc.

3). Multicomponental word-combinations, e.g. DouglasPlane Plant Strike Committee.

There exists a certain similarity between free and stable word-combinations and it can be of two types:

1. 
   partial:
   

Attributive groups are common both in English and in Russian: "a green tree" – “зелене дерево”. But the semantic relationships between the components of the group are broader in English, which often makes impossible a calque translation of the group into Ukrainian/Russian. As often as not the English attributive group is used to convey various adverbial ideas of location, purpose, cause, etc. Consider such groups as Madrid trial (location), profits drive (purpose), war suffering (cause). Such groups may also express various action-object relationships: cf. labour movement (movement by the workers), labour raids (raids against the workers), and labour spies (spies among the workers).

A word within an attributive group may sometimes change its meaning. So, war rehabilitation is rehabilitation of economy after the war, that is, post-war rehabilitation and Communist trials in the USA are trials of Communists or anti-Communist trials. As a result, many attributive groups are polysemantic and are translated in a different way in different contexts. War prosperity may mean

prosperity during the war or prosperity in the post-war period caused by the war. The Berlin proposals may imply proposals made in Berlin (say, at an international conference), proposals made by Berlin (i.e. by Germany), proposal on Berlin (of political, economic or other nature).
TRANSLATION OF ATTRIBUTIVE GROUPS.
There is a considerable dissimilarity in the semantic structure of attributive groups in English and in Russian. This dissimilarity gives rise to a number of translation problems.

1). The first group of problems stems from the broader semantic relationships between the attribute and the noun. As has been pointed out the attribute may refer not only to some property of the object but also to its location, purpose, cause, etc. As a result, the translator has to make a thorough analysis of the context to find out what the meaning of the group is in each particular case. He must be also aware of the relative freedom of bringing together such semantic elements within the attributive group in English that are distanced from each other by a number of intermediate ideas. Thus a resolution submitted by an executive body of an organization may be described as the Executive resolution and the majority of votes received by such a resolution will be the Executive majority. If a word-for-word translation of the name of the executive body (e.g. the Executive Committee — виконавчий комітет) may satisfy the translator, the other two attributive groups will have to be explained in the Russian translation as резолюція, запропонована виконкомом, and більшисть голосів, що були подані за резолюцію, запропоновану виконкомом, respectively.

2). The second group of problems results from the difficulties in handling multi-member attributive structures. The English-speaking people make wide use of “multi-storied” structures with complicated internal semantic relationships. The tax paid for the right to take part in the election is described as the poll tax. The states where this tax is collected are the poll tax states and the governors of these states are the poll tax states governors. Now these governors may hold a conference which will be referred to as the poll tax states governors conference and so on.

3). The semantic relationships within a multi-member group need not be linear. Consider the following sentence:

Here we have a whole network of semantic ties between the attributes and the noun: “broad” is directly referred to “struggle”, “western hemisphere” is joined with “world” and together they express the idea of location, i.e. “the struggle in the western hemisphere”; “pre-war” may be referred either to “struggle” or to the “united people's front”: “united” and “people's” belong to “front” and together they qualify the “struggle” implying either the “struggle by the united people's front” or the “struggle for the united people's front”.

In translation this complexity of semantic ties will replaced by a number of different structures in which the hidden relations within it will be made explicit:

Це був час широкої довоєнної боротьби проти фашиз­му за єдиний народний фронт у Західній півкулі і всьому світі.

Such structures should be analyzed in terms of factors influencing the choice of Ukrainian/Russian variants rather than with the aim of listing regular correspondences.

4). The same goes true for attributive groups with latent predication where a whole sentence is used to qualify a noun as its attribute:

He was being the boss again, using the its-my-money-now-do-as-you-are-told voice.

Here correspondences can also be described in an indirect way only by stating that the attribute is usually translated into Russian as a separate sentence and that this sentence should be joined to the noun by a short introductory element.

5). There is one more peculiar feature of the English attributive group which may be the cause of trouble for the translator. It may be transformed into a similar group with the help of a suffix which is formally attached to the noun but is semantically related to the whole group. Thus a sound sleeper may be derived from sound sleep or the man belonging to the Fifth column may be described as the Fifth columnist. The translator should be aware of the derivation process and should not rack his brains trying to figure out how a sleeper can be sound or in what kind of enumeration this particular columnist is the fifth. Rather, he should consider the meaning of the original groups sound sleep and the Fifth column and then realize that the added suffix makes the group refer to a person who enjoys this kind of sleep or is one of the subversive elements. As a rule, in the Ukrainian/Russian translation the meanings of the original group and of the suffix would be rendered separately, e.g.: человек, обладающий здоровым (крепким) сном (крепко спящий человек), and человек, принадлежащий к пятой колонне (член пятой колонны).

6). As often as not, translating the meaning of an English attributive group into Russian may involve a complete restructuring of the sentence:

To watch it happen, all within two and a half hours, was a thrilling sight.

Неможливо було не захоплюватися, спостерігаючі, як все це відбувалося протягом якихось двох з половиною годин.

7). Less radical changes in the structure of attributive groups in the process of translation may include translation transformations:

a) explication or decompression:

Loyalty procedures and vile government informer system are under sharp attack.

Перевірка лояльности і огидна система шпигунства, створена урядом, викликають гостре обурення.

2. 
   transfer of the attribute:
   

8). Still another way of rendering these word-combinations is with the help of prepositions:

9). Multicomponental word-combinations demand a special approach in the process of translation:

stage 1 – find the key word which is usually the last word on the right-hand side; stage2 – analyze the left-hand side of the word-combination, determine the relationship between its components;

stage3 – combine the left-hand side with the right-hand side.

e.g. The Mail Train Robbery Case. – Справа про пограбування поштового потягу. Cabin pressure regulator. – Регулятор тиску в кабіні.
Exercise1. Point out the possible meanings of the following attributive groups:

1. Berlin proposal; 2.Gran Chaco war; 3.Dollar export drive; 4.heavy government expenditure; 5.pre-war slump talk; 6.Liberal Party strength; 7.Middle East Conference; 8.aggressive supporter; 9.bold adventurer; 10.labour quiescence; 11.festering grievances; 12. the nation's highest homicide rate; 13.wildlife management authorities; 14.four-part program; 15.environmentalist protest; 16.provincial government decision; 17.environmental consequen­ces; 18.safety violations; 19.fish-breeding pools. 20. hearty eater; 21.practical joker; 22.conscientious objector; 23.sleeping partner; 24.stumbling block; 25.smoking concert; 26.perfect likeness; 27.vested interest; 28.tough customer; 29.foregone conclusion; 30.top trade-union leaders; 31.collective bargaining rights; 32.consumers' goods industries; 33.post-war anti-labor drive; 34.point four program; 35.Liberal Party whip; 36.public school boy; 37.Good Neighbour policy; 38.strong party man; 39.CIO auto union president.

a) 1.the maximum end results; 2.Western business cir­cles; 3.the two-way trade exchanges; 4. Ukrainian-British business partnership; 5.nuclear power stations; 6.the second World War; 7.Concise Oxford Dictionary; 8.local sports clubs; 9.Kyїv railway station; 10.first-ever press con­ference; 11.British trade unions; 12.Royal Court Theatre; 13.the main passenger section; 14.brilliant Zagreb cartoons; 15.major ocean routes; 16.two-seater “city cars”; 17. three-party Coalition Government; 18.the South Afri­can trade mission; 19.larger-than-local sports projects; 20.the imperialist war machine; 21.Morning Star foreign editor; 22.Good Ryder Cup start.

b) 1.the next Cabinet meeting; 2.international Motor Show; 3.a former CIA official; 4.local education authori­ties; 5.off-shore oil deposits; 6.common profit aims; 7.Bri­tish woman doctor; 8.meagre salary increase; 9.current wages negotiations; 10.the 10 percent import surcharge; 11.intensive-type crop varieties; 12.the great Ormond Street hospital; 13.the British Ryder Cup team.

c) 1.the Labour Party resolution; 2.primary school teachers; 3.Republican Party conference; 4.two-colour ribbon adjustment; 5.working class strength; 6.political committee secretary; 7.economic growth rate; 8.civil defence organi­zation; 9.social insurance expenditure; 10.folk music fans; 11.local government jobs; 12.Engineering Unions officials; 13.national protest day.

d) 1.light weight metal frame; 2.UNO General Secretary; 3.former Labour foreign secretary; 4.tou­rist class double rooms; 5.the five-party Cabinet Consul­tative Committee; 6.a State circuit court; 7.Tory anti-union plans.

e) 1.USA postal service processes; 2.London-based Bangladesh Medical Association; 3.Decimal Currency Board (Gr. Brit.); 4.former Commonwealth Secretary; 5.anti-working class policies; 6.a solid fuel system; 7.anti-Common Market groups; 8.the super-heavyweight gold medal; 9.Scottish Electrical Workers Union; 10.increasing working class militancy; 11.the London Evening Standard.