Lecture 8. Translation and style

1. What is the relation between translation equivalence and style?

The problem of translation equivalence is closely connected with the stylistic aspect of translation – one cannot reach the required level of equivalence if the stylistic peculiarities of the source text are neglected. The expression of stylistic peculiarities of the source text in translation is necessary to full convey the communication intent of the source language.

2. Define functional style. What functional styles are distinguished by modern linguistics?

Functional style are the types of text distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of communication. Modern linguistics distinguish such functional styles as:

ü Belles-lettres (prose, poetry, drama) – a term that is used to describe a category of writing.

ü Publicistic style – used in public speeches and printed public works which are addressed to a broad audience and devoted to important social or political events, public problems of cultural or moral character

ü Newspaper style – the prose style used for news reporting in media such as newspapers, radio and television

ü Scientific style – language means which will bring proofs to clinch a theory.

ü Official documents – documents in the spheres of business, legal policy, diplomacy or military sphere.

3. What are the stylistic devices and expression means?

Special language media securing the desirable communication effect of the text are called stylistic devices and expression means. They include metaphor, metonymy, irony, transferred qualifier, zeugma, paraphrase, quotation and pan.

4. What is metaphor, metonymy, irony, transferred qualifier, zeugma, paraphrase, quotation? Give definitions. Suggest translation approaches.

Metaphor – is transfer of some quality from one object to another. It is translated either by keeping to semantic similarity (ray of hope – промінь надії) or by choosing an appropriate pragmatic equivalent (flood of tears - море сліз).

Metonymy – is similarity by association, usually one of the constituents of an object replaces the object itself. Translating the cases of metonymy translator, as a rule, keep to literal translation. метонимия - замена одного слова другим на основе связи их значений по смежности. If you say "I spent the evening reading Shakespeare" Shakespeare serves as metonymies. — Если Вы сказали "Я провел вечер, читая Шекспира", то Шекспир является метонимией (заменой "произведение Шекспира")

Irony – is expressed through words contradicting close text environment. Cases of irony don’t present serious problems for translation and the approaches similar to those mentioned above (semantic or pragmatic equivalence) are commonly used.

Transferred qualifier and zeugma – are semantic and syntactic irregularities of expression used as stylistic devices. Example of transferred qualifier – he paid his smiling attention to (Посміхаючись, він звернув увагу) – here the qualifier smiling refers to a person, but it is used as an attribute to the state (attention). The translator task consists in rendering the idea according to the lexical combination rules of the target language.

Zeugma – if one and the same verb is combined with two or more nouns and acquires a different meaning in each of such combination (He has taken her picture and another cup of tea – Він зробив її фото і ще один ковток чаю). The translator task is to try to render this ironical comment either by finding a similar irregularity in the target language or stick to regular target language means. зевгма - намеренное или случайное использование слова в предложении сразу в нескольких значениях; например, "За окном шел снег и мой брат" или "И весь такой гордый, и весь такой в шляпе" The former require only correct rendering of the source quotation in the target language. Never suggest your own homemade translation for a quotation of a popular author! The quotation usually takes the shape of an allusion and the pragmatic equivalence seems the most appropriate for the case.

Paraphrase – is restatement of a text or passages, using other words.

Quotation – is the repetition of one expression as part of another one, particularly when the quoted expression is well-known or explicitly attributed (as by citation) to its original source, and it is indicated by (punctuated with) quotation marks.

5. What is pun? What are the ways of translating a pun?

Pun (is the realization in one and the same word of two lexical meanings simultaneously It is a form of word play which exploits numerous meanings of a statement, allowing it to be understood in multiple ways for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect.

A pun can be translated only by a word in the target language with similarly capacity to develop two meanings in a particular context.

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 3268