The role of verb complexes in English is quite evident therefore we will consider only some peculiar cases of verb transformations during translation.
First of all let us consider the verb construction with the preposition for:
…American military bases on foreign territories which are intended for launching missiles possessed by United States’ armed forces.
… американские военные базы на территориях других государств, которые предназначены для запуска ракет американскими ВВС.
In this case the infinitive construction is translated like adverbial modifier of purpose.
The construction with secondary predicate (so-called Nominative with the Infinitive) is widely used in newspaper style due to its preciseness and because it help to avoid the responsibility for the given information.
The United States Congress is aimed to control all the financial expenses of the Government.
Целью конгресса Соединённых Штатов является контроль всех расходов правительства.
It is natural that transformation is required while translating sentences with participles of absolute nominative construction.
But often enough grammatical transformations are necessary while rendering conforming forms and constructions for some divergence in their meaning and usage. Such differences of opinions are observed in cases of usage of the category of number. This refers to both countable and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns have single and plural forms in both languages that usually coincide still we observe cases when their usage is different, ex.:
War Atrocity on Peace Conference Eve (news head).
Зверства (интервентов) накануне мирной конференции
Concerning uncountable nouns, especially those expressing abstract notions we may have much more difficulties because most of them are paradigmatic. For example: ink – чернила, money – деньги and so on.
Increasingly, Southern Africa is becoming the arena of national liberation struggles.
Южная Африка всё больше и больше становится районом национально-освободительной борьбы.
Sometimes, despite the availability of the plural form in Russian – its usage is impossible owing to difference in combination and usage.
The Nile Valley appears to have been unfit for human habitation during the Stone Ages.
Долина Нила, по-видимому, была не пригодна для жизни человека на протяжении всего каменного века (во все периоды каменного века).
In Russian the Stone Age expression is of a historical nature and is never used in plural.
In cases when plural form is to be preserved for it carries some inherent sense one has to apply countable nouns, ex.:
Strikes broke out in many British industries.
В ряде отраслей промышленности Англии вспыхнули забастовки.
Sometimes, owing to some reasons some of constructions has wider usage in one languages comparing with other languages. The best example of this is the passive form – widely used in English mostly due to disappearance of word flexion. As a result, both indirect and predicative object maybe transformed into the objects of passive construction.
Stones and bottles were showered upon a Negro demonstration in Milwaukee by white racists.
Белые расисты обрушили град камней и бутылок на негритянскую демонстрацию в Милуоки (забросали камнями и бутылками).
We should notice that the passive-active transformation can not give sufficient result for in passive construction the stress is being made on the object of action and in the active construction the stress is being made on the agent of action. The widespread use of passive construction in English happens often enough because it is explained by unimportance of the doer of that action and it is most often in newspaper style at the same time the most important is to attract attention to the passage. Since the structure and word order of simple sentence is subject + predicate + object the importance of stylistics is bigger then to distinguish the object one chooses the passive construction.
Divergence are found in some other cases of infinitive usage – infinitive in substantivized constructions (like post-positive attribute) and infinitive expressing following actions, for example:
The president warned of drastic steps to be taken against racialists in the Zambian copper belt.
Президент предупредил, что будут предприняты решительные меры против белых расистов в Медном поясе Замбии.
The infinitive functioning as attribute is translated into object clause with the verb in the Future tense.
The Continuative Infinitive is often mistaken for the infinitive of purpose, but in this function it expresses the action following the after the action expressed by predicate and represents the logical development of things.
The Soviet Union decided to sign the Treaty with Germany and only did to discover that Germany itself violated it two years later.
Советский Союз решил заключить договор с Германией. Но два года спустя Германия сама нарушила его.
The Continuative infinitive very often is used with the adverb only which stresses it. This emphatic function can be rendered in many ways.
Thus, all the considered cases – absence of conforming form, partial correspondence, differences in character and use – urge translators to make necessary grammatical transformations while translating some piece. Those grammatical transformations maybe divided into following types:
1) substitution
2) transposition
3) omission (ellipsis)
4) supplementation
Substitution is one of the grammatical relations among the parts of the sentences. In substitution, an item (or items) is replaced by another item (or items), ex:
I like politics. And I do.
In this example, do is a substitute for like politics . Items commonly used in substitution in English include do, one, and the same, as in the following examples from Halliday and Hasan:
You think US will start the war against Iraq? – No one does.
We make use of substitution while translating a piece because of several reasons: absence of similar construction in Russian language, unconformity in usage of corresponding forms and constructions and some lexical reasons, which include different word usage and different norms of combinability in English and Russian and the absence of the part of speech with corresponding meaning.
An attempted overthrow in Peru.
Попытка совершить переворот в Перу.
In Russian we do not have the conforming participle II of the verb пытаться. And this made us change the part of speech; the participle attempted was translated into Russian by the noun попытка. The expression попытка переворота does not conform to the norms of Russian language that’s why we have to apply additional word совершить.
While translating the following text we will have to use substitution several times.
On the whole the “popular’’ press – with the New York Daily News as its cheer-leader – is vociferous in its support of the President’s policies and merciless toward those who attack them. But among the so-called “quality” papers led by the New York Times there is a growing mood of doubt and questioning.
В общем «массовые» газеты, во главе с Нью-Йорк дейли ньюс», громогласно поддерживают политику президента и беспощадно обрушиваются на тех, кто критикует её. Но среди так называемых «качественных» газет, возглавляемых «Нью-Йорк таймс», всё больше растут сомнение и неуверенность (в её правильности).
In the first sentence are used the verbal noun, verb link and two predicative parts expressed by adjectives with object clauses. In this translation verbal nouns very replaced by predicative ones (именные сказуемые были заменены глагольными): поддерживают and обрушиваются. Both predicative parts of the sentence have been translated by adverbs: громогласно, беспощадно. In the second sentence the introductory construction there is was translated by predicative verb and the participle growing was transformed into the function of an attribute. The noun mood was omitted and its attribute of doubt and questioning was turned into its object.
The transformation of ‘active’ into ‘passive’ is also when a translator uses substitution.
More light was shed yesterday on the effect of C.S. gas, which was claimed by Pentagon to be virtually harmless to health.
Вчера поступили дополнительные сведения о вредном действии газа C.S., который, по утверждению Пентагона, якобы не опасен для здоровья.
The phraseological unit more light was shed was translated by means of lexical transformation and the passive construction was replaced by an active one. The passive construction in the object clause also undergone lexical transformation – verbal construction was substituted by substantive one: по утверждению.
This example can illustrate the fact that lexical and grammatical transformations are closely related with each other.
Transposition, that’s, change of structure of the sentence may be caused by several reasons. But the main of them, as it has been mentioned before is the difference in the structure of the English and Russian languages. The fixed order of words in English bears hierarchic character, first come the primary parts of the sentence; noun, predicate followed by secondary parts. In Russian the word order is not fixed but one can observe the tendency to locate the main information at the end of sentences expressing it be the noun. The academic grammar of Russian points that the word order in Russian sentences follows the model: adverbial modifier, predicate and then the noun – that’s the order absolutely opposite to English. In Russian, the secondary part of the sentence can stand at the beginning if it represents the starting point of expression and introduces theme of given information, ex:
Вчера в Вашингтоне состоялась пресс-конференция.
The essence of the information is пресс-конференция – which is expressed by the noun located at the end of the sentence. Nevertheless, this word-order is not obligatory, ex:
Премьер-министр выступил вчера по телевидению.
Here we find the main essence at the beginning of sentence.
In English, according to fixed word order, the noun of the sentence stands at the beginning of clause. One of the prominent English linguists, Halliday marks that, usually (but not always) a starting point is intrinsic to English sentences.
Still in many cases the English sentence happens to be the center of informative message, compare A Press Conference was held in Washington yesterday. Usually it happens when the noun of the sentence is expressed with an indefinite article. Something, semantically new has got to be expressed in the sentence, and the earlier one should be opposed to the new one, which is being expressed. Therefore the indefinite article functions represents this new information, introduces it.
A smash-and-grab raid on two of the most important nationalized industries is being organized by the Tory Party.
Консерваторы собираются обрушиться на две самые значительные национализированные отрасли промышленности.
(the metaphor smash-and-grab has not been preserved in translated version)
Nevertheless, similar word order in English and Russian sentences are also evident.
A meeting of firemen’s and employers’ representatives scheduled for today has been postponed.
Намеченная на сегодня встреча представителей пожарников и предпринимателей была отложена.
A Catholic priest in South Africa told of the malnutrition, disease and starvation there.
Один католический священник из Южной Африки рассказывал о существующем там недоедании, болезнях и голоде.
Transposition is required when the English sentence contains a large group of nouns with indefinite article and then it is natural that they, being the center of informative message are placed at the end of the sentence. Besides, a short, compared with the noun predicate can not bear the emphatic sense of a large group of nouns.
A big wave of actions by all sections of workers – skilled and unskilled, men and women, manual and non-manual – for higher wages and equal pay, for shorter hours and a greater say in shaping the environment at work is rising.
Сейчас нарастает огромная волна забастовок трудящихся всех категорий – квалифицированных и не квалифицированных, мужчин и женщин, работников физического и умственного труда – за повышение зарплаты, за равную оплату женского труда, за сокращение рабочего дня, за улучшение условий труда.
It is very frequent when grammatical and lexical transformations demand supplementation or omission of some words or elements. Therefore omission and supplementation are frequently combined with other types of grammatical transformations and more frequently with substitution of parts of speech. Supplementation of parts of speech are characterized by several factors: difference in structures of the sentences and that short English sentences demand spread translation in the Russian language. Absence of some corresponding word or lexical-semantic variant in both languages is also one of the reasons of applying additional words in translation.
The American troops were thought to be heading toward Saigon, but no one seemed to be aware of fierce resistance of the nation.
Полагали, что американские войска направляется на Сайгон, но казалось, что никто не знал о жестоком сопротивлении местного населения.
The construction Nominative + Infinitive with two omitted elements (which was) was given in object clause plus introductory sentences… который, как полагали раньше, движется… Thus, the difference in the structure of sentences demanded supplementation in the given translation.
In the following example, supplementation was caused by absence of corresponding word in Russian to English conservationists.
The actions of Congress and of North Carolina and Tennessee statesmen, aided by gifts of wise conservationists, have set this land aside as Great Smoky National Park.
Эта местность на берегу реки Смоки-Хилл была превращена в Национальный парк благодаря усилиям Конгресса и государственных деятелей штатов Северная Каролина и Теннеси, а также благодаря пожертвованиям любителей природы, понимающих всю важность её сохранения.