Translation of Phraseological Units

     Translation of Phraseological Units 

     Phraseological units are usually classified into three big groups: phraseological fusions, phraseological unities and phraseological collocations.

     Phraseological fusions are non-motivated groups forming indivisible wholes both semantically and syntactically. Their meaning in Modern English does not depend on the meaning of the component elements. They seldom, if ever, have equivalents in the S and T languages and are usually rendered by interpreting translation or by paraphrasing, e.g. to paint the lily – пытаться улучшить или украсить что-л., нуждающееся в улучшении или украшении; заниматься бесплодным делом; тратить время или силы попусту. To show the white feather – струсить, проявить трусость.

     The meaning of a phraseological fusion may naturally be rendered by different synonyms, e.g. to go the whole hog – делать что-л. основательно, проводить до конца, не останавливаться на полумерах, идти на все.

     Phraseological unities are motivated units of Modern English; their components are not semantically bound. They are often figurative and the transference of meaning is either metaphorical or metonymical, e.g. to drop a brick – допустить бестактность, сделать ляпсус, промах; monkey business – всякие штучки, фокусы, глупости, дурачества; to eat humble pie – проглотить обиду, смириться.

     This group of phraseological units is heterogeneous and comprises proverbs, proverbial sayings, allusions, euphemisms, professionalisms, e.g. 

     Little pitchers have long ears – дeти  любят слушать разговоры взрослых; What will Mrs. Grundy say? – Что скажут люди? 

     Phraseological unities differ by their structure, by their syntactical function in a sentence and by their stylistic features.

     According to the principle of their translation phraseological unities can be divided into three groups:

• Phraseological unities having Russian counterparts, which have the same meaning expressed by a similar image. They can often be traced to the same source – biblical, mythological, Latin proverbs or sayings, e.g. a living dog is better than a dead lion (bibl.) – живой пес лучше мертвого льва; not all is gold that glitters – не все то золото, что блестит; to cut the Gordian knot (myth.) – разрубить гордиев узел.
• Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings having the same meaning but expressing it by a different image.

 

Too many cooks spoil the broth. - У семи нянек дитя бег глазу.

To buy a pig in a poke – Купить  кота в мешке. 

       Liberal M.P.’s claimed to be united behind their leader while, at the same time, strewing banana skins in his path.

Либералы  – члены парламента – утверждали, что они объединились вокруг своего лидера, а в то же время они подставляли ему ножку на каждом шагу.

• SL phraseological unities sometimes have synonymous TL equivalents, the choice is open to the translator and is usually determined by the context, e.g.

     Between the devil and the deep sea – между двух огней, между молотом и наковальней, между Сциллой и Харибдой, в безвыходном положении. 

     In the absence of a correlated phraseological unity the translator resorts to interpreting translation, e.g. a skeleton in the closet (cupboard) – семейная тайна, неприятность, скрываемая от посторонних.

     Target language equivalents possessing national colouring though expressing the same idea should be avoided as they cannot be considered true equivalents because they introduce alien associations and alien national colouring, e.g. to carry coals to Newcastle should not be translated by the Russian proverbial saying – ездить в Тулу со своим самоваром. In such cases two solutions are possible: a) to preserve the image of the English phraseological unity – никто не возит уголь в Ньюкасл; b) to resort to interpreting translation – заниматься бесполезным делом.

     The same principles are applied to the translation of phraseological unities in the form of simile: cold as ice – холодный как лед; as old as the hills – стар как мир; brown as a berry – загорелый, бронзовый.

     Interpreting translation of phraseological fusions and unities is justified by the fact that their literal meaning is suppressed by what may be termed their transferred meaning which conveys the idea expressed by them.

     Phraseological collocations are motivated word combinations but they are made up of words possessing specific lexical valency which accounts for a certain degree of stability in such word groups. They are translated by corresponding collocations in Russian, e.g. to make faces – строить рожи; to make amends – приносить свои извинения; to make a fortune – составить состояние; to make a bed – застелить постель; to make allowances – делать скидку.

     As seen from the above examples it is always the key word which determines the choice of the Russian verb.

     Lexical transformations can be reduced to five distinct types which have a purely linguistic basis. These five types are the following: concretization, generalization, antonymic translation, metonymic translation and paraphrasing. 

     Concretization  

     Some groups of lexical units require concretization in translation. This is due to the difference in the proportion between abstract and desemantized words on the one hand and concrete words on the other in the S and T languages.

     Abstract words in English distinctly fall into several groups:

     1. Numerous nouns formed by specific suffixes of abstract meaning. Many such nouns have no counterparts in the Russian language, e.g. ministership, presidency, electorate, statehood, etc.

     2. Abstract words which have no equivalents in Russian, the so-called lacuna, such as exposure, occupant (unless as a military term).

     3. Generalizing words having equivalents in Russian but differing in usage, e.g. man, woman, creature, person.

     4. Words of wide meaning which require concretization in translation, some words of this group are on the way to becoming desemantized, e.g. place, piece, stuff, affair, etc.

     5. Words of wide meaning which in fact have become partly deictic signs:    -thing, -body (something, somebody).

     Words belonging to the first group require lexical and grammatical replacements by words possessing a concrete meaning: 

     C.P.Snow resigned from his ministership because he did not like the way the Labour Government was developing.

     Чарльз  Сноу ушел со своего министерского поста потому что ему не нравилась нынешняя политика лейбористского правительства. 

     The abstract noun “ministership” is rendered by a concrete noun (пост) with adjective.

     An ageing Speaker cannot take the burdens of the presidency (in case of the president’s and vice-president’s assassination).

     Стареющий спикер не может принять  на себя всю тяжесть  президентской власти. 

     The abstract noun “presidency” is rendered by means of a concrete noun with an adjective as in the preceding example. 

     Every form of pressure and violence is used by reactionary regimes to compel a reluctant electorate to go to the polls.

     Реакционные режимы используют все  формы давления и  насилия, чтобы принудить  упрямых избирателей принять участие в выборах. 

     Puerto Rico may launch a drive for US statehood.

     Возможно, Пуэрто Рико начнет кампанию за то, чтобы стать штатом США. 

     The abstract word “statehood” is concretized by means of an adverbial subordinate clause of purpose.

     Words of abstract meaning which for some reason or other have no equivalents in the Russian language are translated by some concrete word determined by the context. Their meaning is usually conveyed with the help of replacements or additions. It should be borne in mind that in this case the use of the same parts of speech is of no relevance. 

     He was heavily built. – У него грузная фигура. 

     The role and the significance of the context is well illustrated by the following example, the translation of which is determined by the macro context. 

     Two of the shipwrecked seamen died of exposure.

     Двое  из потерпевших крушение моряков погибли (от холода или от зноя).

     It was a good solid house built to withstand time and exposure.

     Это был хороший, прочный  дом, рассчитанный на то, чтобы противостоять  действию времени и непогоды. 

     Willa, the canary, had flown away. But now there was a vigorously alive little occupant. (D.Eden).

     Канарейка Вилла улетела, но вместо нее в клетке была очень живая  и всегда веселая  птичка. 

     Generalizing words such as man, woman, child, creature etc. which do not have equivalents in Russian but which differ in usage are concretized either by a proper name, the name of the breed (собака, кошка) or some concrete word according to the context. 

     “Anything”, Benjamin said, falling into a highbacked chair across from the man’s kingly desk.

     «Что  угодно», сказал Бенджамин, опускаясь в кресло с высокой спинкой, стоявшее с другой стороны великолепного письменного стола Мастерсона.

     The replacement of the noun “man” by a proper name is natural as Benjamin knew Masterson and was in his house. 

     “Burn it, man, and who will be the wiser, eh?”

     «Сожги  бумагу, и никто  ничего не узнает?» 

     Another group is formed by a large number of words of wide meaning. Their reference has widened to such an extent that they have come to be used in a variety of contexts. This ability to be used in different contexts has, in its turn, affected their reference: on the one hand, they have developed new lexical-semantic variants, on the other, their semantic boundaries have become vague and indefinite. This is due to the fact that their meaning is often contextual. Some of them move towards desemantization, such as piece, place, thing, affair, stuff, stunt etc. 

     The place was full, and they wandered about looking for a table, catching odds and ends of conversation as they did so.   (A.Christie).

     Ресторан был переполнен; они ходили по залу в поисках свободного столика и невольно слышали отрывки разговоров. 

     Desemantized words form one more group.

     The word place which is practically desemantized is translated by the concrete word ресторан. 

     We had a quick breakfast and then our oxygen sets on to our backs. “This oxygen is certainly the stuff”, was my thought. (Edmund Hilary).

     Мы  быстро позавтракали и затем взвалили на спину баллоны  с кислородом. «Да, без кислорода нам не обойтись», подумал я. 

     Equivalence in this case is achieved by means of both lexical and grammatical substitutions. 

     The point of exchanging the E.E.C. is to make it stronger.

     Весь  смысл расширения Европейского Экономического Сообщества в его укреплении. 

     She (grandmother) was a peppery old party with a will of solid granite and a hot flaring temper.    (Ilka Chase).

     Бабушка была с перцем, как  кремень, с горячим  вспыльчивым характером.

     The desemantized colloquial word “party” (особа) is omitted in the translation as it serves here merely as a prop-word.

     Such words as piece, thing, body fulfill a double function – lexical and grammatical; they can be used as lexical units possessing reference or as a grammatical sign. The noun piece in its lexical function means “a bit of something” (a piece of bread); in its grammatical function it concretizes an uncountable noun, turning it into a countable one (a piece of furniture, a piece of advice, two pieces of furniture, two pieces of advice).

     The words “thing” and “body” have, as a matter of fact, moved from one morphological class into another; apart from belonging to referential nouns, they are used as deictic signs or prop-words and in such cases are omitted in translation. 

     She took things terribly seriously.       (A. Huxley).

     Она все принимала очень близко к сердцу. 

     In this case the noun “things” is translated by a generalizing word. But there are also cases when this word requires concretization.  

     He came in sight of the lodge, a long, low frowning thing of red brick.

     (A.Wilson).

     Он  увидел домик привратника, длинное низкое, хмурое здание из красного кирпича. 

     Special attention should be paid to the translation of verbs of wide meaning, such as: to come, to go, to turn, to say, to tell, to get, to die and others. They are rendered either by concrete words suitable to the context or by verb equivalents used in corresponding collocations. 

     So far 65 people have died in floods in Dacca province.

     По  имеющимся сведениям, 65 человек утонуло (погибло) во время наводнения в провинции Дакка. 

     At the by-election victory went to the labour candidate.

     На  дополнительных выборах  победу одержал кандидат лейбористской партии. 

     The rain came in torrents. – Полил сильный дождь. 

     The canary got out of the cage.     (D.Eden).

     Канарейка выпорхнула из клетки. 

     Concretization is often resorted to in the translation of verbs of saying. 

     “Father!” she cried, “the diamond is gone!”

     “Are you out of your mind?” I asked her.

     “Gone!”  says Penelope. “Gone, nobody knows how!” (W.Collins).

     «Отец!»  закричала она, «алмаз пропал».

     «Да ты с ума сошла!»  воскликнул я.

     «Исчез», повторила Пенелопа. «Исчез, и никто не знает каким образом». 

     Another verb which has become partially desemntized is the verb “to involve”. Its concrete lexical meaning, its lexical-semantic variant is largely dependent on the context. 

     “I’ll tell you what… you are not involved. You are remote”.  (Irwin Show).

     «Вот  что я вам скажу…вас  это не трогает. Вы стоите в стороне». 

     Concretization is often resorted to in translating the verb “to be” in different functions. The principle of semantic agreement is to be observed in such cases. 

     …first he was terrified, then he was sick, then he was in Paris.

     …сначала  он испугался, потом  его затошнило, потом он оказался в Париже.              (Josephine Tey). 

     Generalization 

     Generalization is the opposite of concretization. In this case a SL word of concrete meaning is rendered by a TL word of general meaning. This type is not so wide-spread and occurs less frequently than concretization. May be this is due to the fact that abstract and desemantized words in English form, a numerous and diversified group, thus supplying a linguistic base to this type of transformation, whereas generalization appears to be lacking a similar linguistic foundation.

     Sometimes generalization is resorted to for pragmatic reasons in order to avoid expanded explanations or footnotes. 

     And so the Mad Hatter Scheme – as it was later to be called – was launched.

     И так началось осуществление  этой безумной затеи, как впоследствии Гарри Поллитт и члены редколлегии шуточно называли план издания первой ежедневной газеты Коммунистической партии Британии. 

     In those days the British communist Party had neither money, no premises. “The Mad Hatter is an allusion to a character in Lewis Carrol’s well-known book “Alice in Wonderland”. The suggested translation is based on generalization. Besides, recourse has been taken to interpreting translation.

     Here are some examples of this type of lexical transformation. 

     In the Arctic of today the frozen face of the deep is changing and man seeks a scientific explanation for its growth and shrinkage.

     Ледяной покров Ледовитого океана суйчас меняется, и  люди ищут научное  объяснение этому  явлению. 

     Much more than an effective gun control is going to be needed to cure America of the plague of violence that afflicts it.

     Для того, чтобы избавить Америку от эпидемии насилия, недостаточно одного только строгого контроля над продажей оружия. 

     There is a tendency in the English language to use nouns denoting measures of weight, distance, length, etc. in describing people and things which do not require such precision in their description. This method of description is foreign to the Russian practice and recourse is usually taken to generalization. 

     He was a young man of 6 feet two inches.

     Это был высокий молодой человек. 

     It led him time and again into positions of fantastic danger and yet enabled him to win every ounce of advantage, especially against an irresolute enemy.

     (Desmond Young).

     Это постоянно ставило  его в невероятно опасное положение и в то же время давало ему возможность воспользоваться всеми преимуществами, особенно, если неприятель проявил нерешительность. 
 
 
 
 
 

     Newspaper and Publicist Styles 

     These styles possess many features in common yet texts belonging to these styles present considerable variety and may be divided into two groups: texts containing information and texts commenting on it.

     News in brief and information articles (newspaper style proper) are devoid of emotive and individual colouring, hence wide use of impersonal passive and Nominative with the infinitive constructions which are also impersonal in character. Clichés form an outstanding feature of this type of text. They are characterized by a considerable compactness of form which is due to want of space. Condensation in its extreme form is especially apparent in headlines and that is the reason why headlines have their own structural peculiarities: omission of auxiliaries, a wide use of verbals, of attributive models, etc., all making for compactness.

     Articles containing commentaries (publicist style proper) chief among them editorials, possess a distinct emotive colouring. Their vocabulary is literary and their syntax is rather complicated. Their objective is to influence public opinion, not to inform the reader but to convince him that the paper’s interpretation is correct and to bring him round to its point of view, to condition his views and opinions. This fact explains the use of various expressive means.

     Eleven Die in Zagreb Floods

     Eleven people are known to have died and tens of thousands are homeless after floods which struck Zagreb on Monday. 

     This brief note possesses a number of peculiar features which have no equivalents in Russian newspaper style: the use of the Present tense instead of the Past; the use of the Nominative Infinitive construction (a secondary predicate according to L.Barchudarov); clichés which are not identical with the Russian clichés. This being the case, several transformations have been resorted to in the translation of the above brief note.

     Наводнение в Загребе

     Согласно  сообщениям, вчера  в Загребе в  результате наводнения погибло одиннадцать  человек, и десятки  тысяч остались без  крова. 

     The information contained in the original text is rendered equivalently, no sign item has been omitted but the norms of the Russian newspaper style have caused the omission of some lexical units and the use of substitutions.

     Commenting articles, as has been pointed out, bear a distinctive emotive colouring due to the expressive means in them, though these means are hardly ever original. The use of trite metaphors, for example, is more frequent in English newspapers than in Russian papers. That is why trite metaphors are not infrequently substituted or even omitted in translation.

     The metaphor used in the following example is toned down in the translated text.

     The Industrial Relations Bill is an attempt to slit the throat of trade-unions.

     Законопроект  об отношениях в промышленности – это попытка  задушить профсоюзы.

     Although the metaphor “to slit the throat” has a corresponding equivalent in the Russian phrase перерезать горло Russian usage does not admit the combination перерезать горло профсоюзам.

     That is why the translation substitutes the less picturesque verb задушить which expresses the same meaning and is traditionally used in similar contexts as a sort of cliché.

     Different expressive devices (allusions among them) are used in newspaper articles to condition the reader’s views and opinions.

     The phrase “the winter of discontent” from Richard III by Shakespeare is widely used in different political contexts and is often adapted to the situation, e.g. 

     Some Trade-Unions warn the Government that it will be a winter of discontent.

     The definite article has been substituted by the indefinite, and the possessive pronoun is omitted.

     In the following example the adaptation is more conspicuous: the word summer is substituted for winter and the possessive pronoun is also omitted. 

     In former French Africa it was the summer of discontent. One hundred thousand citizens of Chad, led by their president, took to the wind-blown streets of Fort Lamy to protest French involvement in Chad’s internal affairs.

     В бывшей французской  Африке лето было тревожное. Сто тысяч граждан республики Чад с президентом во главе вышли на занесенные песком улицы Форт Лами в знак протеста против вмешательства Франции во внутренние дела республики. 

     In this case the pragmatic aspect of translation comes to the fore. The Russian reader may not recognize the allusion and it will not call forth the necessary response on his part, whereas the allusions, even in its altered form, is familiar to the English reader. This consideration justifies its omission.