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

1. 
   partial ”pseudo international” words – only part of their meanings
   

2. 
   complete ”pseudo international” words have no similar meanings in
   

In many cases English words have more meanings than their Russian or Ukrainian counterparts and only some of them coincide. For example, the English word routine means сталий порядок дій, роз­порядок; консервативний метод робот; математична програма; поточний, заведений, and the Ukrainian word

The fact that English words are more polysemantic than their Ukrainian counterparts must be borne in mind especially when translating from Ukrainian into English as there are more possibilities to make mistakes than translating from English into Ukrainian. Only thorough analysis of the context will hopefully help to avoid mistakes.

1. actual актуальний; 2. appellation апеляція; 3. aspirant аспірант; 4. balloon балон; 5. baton батон; 6. billet білет; 7. compositor композитор; 8. concern концерн; 9. depot депо; 10. direction дирекція; 11. fabric фабрика; 12. genial геніальний; 13. intelligence інтелігенція; 14. motion моціон; 15. motorist моторист; 16. obligation облігація; 17. physique фізик; 18. probe проба; 19. protection протекція; 20. pathos пафос.

1. extravagant adj. 1. spending much more than is necessary or prudent; wasteful; 2. excessively high (of prices)

We mustn't buy roses — it is too extravagant in winter.

2. catholic adj. (esp. likings and interests) general, wide-spread; broad-minded; liberal; including many or most things

Mr. Prower was a politician with catholic tastes and interests.

3. dramatic adj. 1. sudden or exciting; 2. catching and holding the imagination by unusual appearance or effects

How would you account for such dramatic changes in the situation?

4. minister n. 1. Christian priest or clergyman; 2.a person representing his Government but of lower rank than an ambassador

The British minister at Washington was requested to notify his Government of a possible change in the agenda of the forthcoming meeting.

5. routine n. the regular, fixed, ordinary way of working or doing things

Frequent inspections were a matter of routine in the office.

6. pathetic adj. 1. sad, pitiful; exciting pity or sympathetic sadness; affecting or moving the feelings; 2. worthless, hopelessly unsuccessful

Perhaps it was merely that this pathetic look of hers ceased to wring his heartstrings.

7. pilot n. 1. a person qualified to steer ships through certain difficult waters or into or out of a harbor; 2. a guide or leader

Before entering on his literary career, Mark Twain was employed as pilot on vessels going up and down the Mississippi river.

8. student n. (of smt.) a person with a stated interest; anyone who is devoted to the acquisition of knowledge

1. All examples arc taken from actual texts. 2. The manuscript was appa­rently completed in 1990. 3. This is dramatically illustrated by Ecrics. 4. Thus, the issue that this addresses is far from trivial. 5. Both contributions to this jubilee publication are appropriately authoritative. 6. Several indexes in the book make the wealth of information easily accessible. 7. The merit of this book lies in its rich collection of empirical data. 8. The articles are arranged according to subject mat­ter rather than chronology. 9. In addition to the work mentioned above, the volume contains six studies originally published in English. 10. Each volume contains a “List of words cited” and an “Index of names'”. 11. Bateson's description is elegant and accurate. 12. The present notation is inaccurate and in some cases, confusing. 13. The defects of Cowlie's analysis are typical of illuminating but unformalized descriptions. 14. The second article illustrates receptivity to date of whatever sour­ce. 15. In physics, a theory is often the limit of a more general theory as some parameter vanishes. 16. Progression from treatment of a selected individual prob­lem to that of a broad question may also suggest the direction of these studies. 17. The book concludes with a brief account of the renewed interest in Newton during recent decades. 18. Skenstrom's analytical framework is a rather extensive­ly modified version of the modal introduced by J. Sinclair. 19. There is something for everyone in this book, but perhaps not enough of any one thing to make it indispensable to a specific audience. 20. However, for lack of a strong theoretical overview, or of effective introduction to its different sections, this work falls short of its promise.

The pragmatic implications of a word are an important part of its meaning that produces a certain effect upon the Receptor (reader/listener). Of even greater significance is the pragmatic aspect of speech units. Every act of speech communication is meant for a certain Receptor, it is aimed at producing a certain effect upon him. In this respect any communication is an exercise in pragmatics.

Since the pragmatic effect plays such an important part in communication, its preservation in translation is the primary concern of the translator, and it is by no means an easy task. The process of translation deals with the equivalence aspects syntactic, semantic and pragmatic of which the pragmatic aspect involves a number of difficult problems.

To begin with, the pragmatics of the original text cannot be as a rule directly reproduced in translation but often require important changes in the transmitted message.

Bearing in mind that we can find a proper equivalent only on the basis of the context, situation and the background knowledge, we can see that correlated words in different languages may produce dissimilar effect upon the users. When the original message is lost upon the Receptor it is a failure of the translation and no semantic or syntactic similarity will redress the damage: book means книга but to carry coal to Newcastle has literal and figurative meanings as well as the word-combination a pink slip does and many others. The word green means зеленый but зеленый театр – open-air theatre, зелений пацан – greenhorn, дати зелену вулицю – to give open passage, to give the go-ahead.

The word ambition in English may evoke any kind of response: positive, negative or neutral which is a general peculiarity of the English language. Its Ukrainian/Russian counterpart амбіція is definitely not a nice word: The boy's ambition was to become a pilot. The voters put an end to the general's political ambitions. The same holds true about the words idealism, nationalism, etc.

When we consider not just separate words but a phrase or a number of phrases in a text, the problem becomes even more complicated. The communicative effect of a speech unit does not depend on the meaning of its components alone, but involves considerations of the situational context and the previous experience which are different in different language communities or even different people. The comparison white as snow will not be understood by many people of Africa though it works quite nicely with Europeans, in Australia the north wind means the movement of masses of hot air from the equator and in Europe it is cold, the colour of mourning is different in different countries: black in the West, white in the East, tiger in English is cruel, dangerous, a hooligan and in Russian/Ukrainian tales it is courageous and noble.

It seems imperative, therefore, that translation should involve a kind of pragmatic adaptation to provide for the preservation of the original com­municative effect. This adaptation must ensure that the text of translation conveys the same attitude to the reported facts as does the original text and the Receptor understands the implications of the message and is aware of its figurative or situational meaning. The pragmatic adaptation of this kind is an integral part of translation procedures which ensures the necessary level of equivalence.

Apart from the pragmatics of linguistic units, there are also the pragmatics of individual speech acts. In a concrete act of speech the Translator has to do with the specific Receptor upon whom he tries to produce the desired effect, and from whom he would like to get the desired reaction.

This second type of pragmatics is also present in translation events. A translation event is a kind of speech act and it is performed with a certain pragmatic purpose as well. But here we are confronted with a more complicated process than in ordinary speech.

A translation event is pragmatically oriented in two directions. On the one

hand, it is translation which means that its primary purpose is to give the closest possible approximation to the original text. But on the other hand, a translation event is also an act of speech communication between the Translator and Receptor. So a translation event may be pragmatically oriented toward a concrete Receptor, and it is the result of the activities of a concrete translator, who may have some additional pragmatic motivation, may pursue some aims beside and beyond the true reproduction of the original text. This necessitates the introduction of the concept of the pragmatic value in translation, which assesses its success in achieving this pragmatic super-purpose.

The users of translation often make judgments of its quality exclusively on its merits as an instrument in achieving some specific aim. If in doing it, the translation departs from the original text, so much the worse for the latter.

E. Nida introduced the concept of dynamic equivalence which should he judged not against the original text but against the Receptor's reactions. So, translation of the maintenance instructions is considered good if, after reading it, a technician will be able to operate the appropriate piece of machinery correctly.

Presumably any text should be differently translated depending on whether it is for experts or laymen, adults or kids, for staging or screening, and so on.The specific aims pursued by the translator may also bring about considerable changes in the resulting text with no direct bearing on the original. The translator is assigned his task and paid for it by the people for whom his work is not an end in itself but an instrument for achieving some other goals. Aware of this, the translator tries to make his work meet these “extra-translational” requirements, introducing appropriate changes in the text of translation. Sometimes these changes are prompted by the desire to produce a certain effect on the Receptors, which has already been mentioned.

The specific goal, which makes the translator modify the resulting text, often means that he assumes an additional role and is no longer just a translator. He may set himself some propaganda or educational task, he may be particularly interested in some part of the original and wants to make a special emphasis on it, he may try to carry to the Receptor his own feelings about the Source or the event described in the original. In doing so the translator may try to simplify, abridge or modify the original message, deliberately reducing the degree of equivalence in his translation. During the Cold War when the relations between the West and the USSR were not friendly the title of the novel by M.Wilson Live with Lightning! describing the life and work of American physicists, was translated as Жизнь во мраке!

But there are also some other types of translation where particular aspects of equivalence are of little interest and often disregarded. When a book is translated with a view to subsequent publication in another country, it may be adapted or abridged to meet the country's standards tor printed matter. The translator may omit parts of the book or some descriptions considered too obscene or naturalistic for publication in his country, though permissible in the original.

In technical or other informative translations the translator or his employers may be interested in getting the gist of the contents or the most important part of it, which may involve leaving out certain details or a combination of translation with brief accounts of less important parts of the original. A most common feature of such translations is neglect of the stylistic and structural peculiarities of the original. In this case translation often borders on retelling or précis writing.

A specific instance is consecutive interpretation where the interpreter is often set a time limit within which he is expected to report his translation no matter how long the original speech may have been. This implies selection, generalizations, and cutting through repetitions, incidental digressions, occasional slips or excessive embellishments.

It is obvious that in all similar cases the differences which can be revealed between the original text and its translation should not be ascribed to the translator's inefficiency or detract from the quality of his work. The pragmatic value of such translations clearly compensates for their lack of equivalence. Evidently there are different types of translation serving different purposes.
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APPENDIX1.

About Translation.