Translatioin of Political Literature

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.

While translating this sentence besides transposition we have made many

other transformations and as a matter of the first importance we should

mentions the supplementation we have accomplished. In regard to the absence

on corresponding word in the Russian language to the English

conservationists we have rendered it by two words любителей природы; and

taking into consideration the combinability of the attribute wise we have

translated it by adverbial modifier applying introductory words like

понимающих всю важность её сохранения, the noun сохранения renders all the

essence of the given sentence which is contained in conservationists. To

make the perception of the sentence easier we have we added the words

штатов, на берегу реки. The last supplementation was made on the basis of

its spread context. The passive participle aided was rendered by

preposition благодаря. We should also point to lexico-grammatical

transformation: have set this land aside – эта местность …была превращена.

Ellipsis involves the omission of an item. In other words, in ellipsis

an item is replaced by nothing. This is a case of leaving something unsaid

which is nevertheless understood. It doesn’t include every instance when

the hearer or reader has to supply missing information, but only those

cases where grammatical structure itself points to an item or items that

can fill the slot in question. Here are some examples of ellipsis:

The United States donated two millions dollars and Britain one and a

half millions pounds. (omitted item: donated in second clause ).

Here are four strategies. Choose any of them. (omitted item strategy)

Use of synonymy pairs is characterized to all styles of written speech

of English language. Preserving such synonymy pair is accepted as pleonasm

and it is absolutely superfluous even when translating official documents

that demand preciseness. For example:

The Treaty was declared null and void.

Договор был объявлен недействительным.

Condemned by almost all members of the United States, and regarded as

an outcast and criminal system by the vast majority of mankind, it

(apartheid) is able to exist and defy censure solely because of the aid and

support given to it by the Western imperialist countries.

Апартеид осуждён почти всеми членами ООН, и подавляющее большинство

человечества считает эту систему преступной. Апартеид существует благодаря

помощи и поддержке империалистических государств Запада.

In this example are used two synonymy pairs: outcast and criminal, aid

and support. In the first case преступный sufficiently renders the essence

of both synonyms. The lexical meaning of the attribute outcast – изгнанный,

отверженный doesn’t fit to this context neither owing to norms of

combinability nor to the power of its meaning. The second pair of synonyms

can be preserved without any difficulty – помощь и поддержка. The

participle given is omitted for its meaning is supplied by case flexion.

The battle was fierce while it lasted.

Бой был жесток.

Time complex object in this in this case functions as a clichй and

doesn’t have corresponding equivalent in Russian.

So we can see that in the majority cases of translation some piece of

political literature we have make necessary changes. We should remind you

that it is not always an English sentence completely corresponds to the

Russian one. Very frequently the structure of a Russian sentence absolutely

differs from the one English. It has different word order, parts of the

sentences and pretty often differs even the order of sentences. In some

instances, parts of speech expressed in English are translated into Russian

by the help of different parts of speech. You should remember that the

compressed way of expression in the English can not be followed in Russian

and we therefore have to “decompress” them so that to make the easy to

perceive and understand, e.i. we have to add some words or expressions or

even sentences in whole. Nevertheless, some differences in usage of some

specific features make us leave some elements unsaid while translating the

whole. And all these cases are explained by grammatical transformations we

have just investigated.

§ II. Lexical difficulties of transformation.

Every word in a language carries some concrete notion. The semantics of

a word reflects different signs of the subject and the relation of its

meanings to other objects it denotes. The semantics of a word includes word

perception characteristic to the studied language, being more precise to

the bearers of the studied language. When studying the reality of some

object we can identify that its name reveals its functions which finds the

reflection in the semantics of the word. Lets take as an example the word

glasses – очки. In English it reveals the substance of which the object is

made and in Russian firstly it reveals its function – second eyes – очи.

Despite distinguishing all kinds of differences we should say that,

both languages sufficiently reflect one and the same perception of reality.

Therefore the difficulty stylistic devices represents to a translator is

based on word play, if in corresponding words of both languages are

featured different signs.

The second reason, causing lexical difficulties to translation of

political literature is the difference in the semantic volume of a word. In

every language a word exists in a close connection with the lexical-

semantic system of a given language. It may have various kinds of lexical

meanings (lexical-semantic) variants; it may widen or narrow its meaning

and make it more abstract or concrete.

The third reason presenting lexical difficulties in translation the

difference in combinability. Words in languages have some definite

relation characteristic only to the given language. It should be mentioned

that word combinability is possible if words point to similar objects they

denote. This difference of word combinability in various languages is very

important; therefore some types of combinability are easily accepted in one

of language and are completely unacceptable in other languages.

Last but not the least is the accepted usage of words in a language. It

is, of course related to the development of a given languages and formation

of its lexical system. Every language worked out its own clichйs and some

set expressions used by speakers, nevertheless those word expressions are

not phraseological units but they possess complete form, which, in

comparison with the phraseological units, are never broken by adding some

introductory words or substitution of some of its elements.

Translation studies showed that there are cases when due to the

distinguished signs a word acquires wider semantic volume and can not be

covered by corresponding equivalent in the target language. Let us take

teenager for example: etymologically it is related to the numerals from

thirteen till nineteen. The Russian подросток does not semantically cover

its meaning in complete volume for its is narrower in its meaning.

Therefore the word teenager is usually translated by different words –

подросток, юноша, and in plural as молодёжь.

Difference in the semantic structure of a word represents one of the

main reason causing lexical difficulty in translation. These difference are

related to peculiar features of separate words or word groups. And it is

quite natural that this matter covers a wide range of examples.

Practically, even identical words in different languages are not always

equal in their meaning, they never correspond completely. Most often is the

correspondence of first lexical-semantic variants of such words – their

primary meaning – then we have various lexical-semantic variants for the

course of development of these words was of different nature.

This is characterized by different functioning of a word in language,

different in usage and combinability, but even the primary meaning of an

English word maybe wider of the corresponding one in Russian.

The semantic structure of a word predefines the possibility of its

contextual use, and the translation of contextual meaning presents a hard

task to translators.

Contextual meaning of a word in many instances depends on the character

of semantic context, on the semantics of the words combining with it.

Occasional meanings, suddenly originated in the context are not always

arbitrary – its is based into the semantic structure of the word. In

contextual usage of a word in poetry or prose – often point to the author’s

penetration into the depth of the word’s semantic structure. For

paradigmatic and semantic relations are characteristic to any words and the

lexical potential of words can be revealed in both cases. But revealing

these potentials of words is closely connected with the specificity of

lexical-semantic aspects of every language and here forth we may observe

the difficulty of translation of contextual meaning of words. What is

possible in one language maybe impossible in another because of its

difference in semantic structure and its usage.

In an atomic war women and children will be the first hostages.

The word hostage according to different dictionaries has got only one

meaning – заложник. But in the given instance the hostage acquired the

meaning жертва. Its contextual meaning probably exists in its paradigmatic

meaning; any hostage may get killed therefore while translating this

example we have to use the word жертва since заложник is not used in the

given contextual meaning.

Первыми жертвами в атомной войне будут женщины и дети.

A very interesting contextual meaning of exploitation will be given in

the following example:

Britain’s worldwide exploitation was shaken to the roots by Colonial

Liberation Movements.

The contextual meaning of the word originated metonymically – any

colonial system lives on exploitation, which comprises basis of colonial

power. The corresponding Russian эксплуатация can not be used in this

contextual meaning, the contextual surroundings of exploitation (worldwide,

shaken to the roots) also prevents it. The only possible variant of

translation is by means of metonymic transposition – substitution:

Колониальное могущество Англии было подорвано (потрясено до основания)

национально-освободительным движением во всех колониях.

Contextual meaning of a word is always effective semantically and

stylistically owing to its unexpectedness as well. It often used in

stylistic purposes and therefore a translator runs into two obstacles: he

should avoid (нивелировка) and at the same time not to break the norms of

translation.

The most difficulty presents the translation of emotional coloring that

demands lexical changes. There is a wide range of words in a language that

besides their logical meaning have emotional meanings or co-meaning. One

should not mix emotional co-meaning with the multiple meaning words.

Emotional meaning of words usually presents in paradigmatic meanings of

words, that is it is objective and but subjective, like in the words: hate,

love, friendship. But it is not an exception when emotional meaning

originates from contextual usage. Emotional meaning, based in the word is

usually created by association – positive or negative – which a word causes

and the associations that exist in it despite the context of perception.

A peculiar group of words demanding transformation in translation are

the words that possess different volume of meaning in Russian and English

languages. To this group belong international words, some words of human

perception, mental activity.

But we should mention that the words that belong to these groups are of

different semantic structure. International words and the words of human

perception, mental activity represents polysemantic words in English.

International words are words that are used in a wide range of

languages in one or several forms. These words express scientific and

social-politic notions. The volume meaning of these words does not usually

coincide (except term-words). Though it is well-known that they comprise

the false-friends of translators and the mistakes in their translation are

frequent. These mistakes are caused not only by difference in their

semantic structure but by the difference of their usage as well which

demand lexical changes:

We are told that television this autumn will give a massive coverage to

the General Election.

Сообщают, что нынешней осенью передачи по телевидению будут широко

освещать парламентские выборы.

The word massive along with the meaning массивный, has other meanings

like массовый, грандиозный, огромный, широкий and so on. For example:

massive success – огромный успех, massive problems – важные проблемы.

Since international words possess wider meaning volume they are more

used in English if comparing to Russian:

Never before in the history of the world have there been so many

persons engaged in the translation of both secular and religious materials.

Ещё никогда в истории человечества столько людей не занимались

переводом как светской, так и духовной литературы.

Russian words религиозные материалы are absolutely unacceptable in this

case because of their different usage. In this instance the usage plays the

main role though their meaning is identical in both languages.

Lexical transformations are also caused by necessity to concretize a

word while translating. It is characteristic to English language the

availability of words with wide spread meaning. They can be nouns,

adjectives and verbs, for example: thing, point, stiff; nice, fine, bad; to

say, to go, to come, to get.

Translation of these words depends on the context, which helps to

identify their concrete meaning. Usually they are translated by various

Russian words that have concrete meaning (importance). Practically it

refers to verbs — to verbs of speech and verbs of movement. Concrete

lexical meaning(importance), this or that the lexical-semantic variant of a

verb depends on structure and lexical meaning of words that distribute

them.

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

На дополнительных выборах победа досталась лейбористам (победу одержал

кандидат от лейбористской партии).

Among nouns of wide meaning a special group comprises abstract

nouns, that frequently demand concrete definitions in translation. So, for

example, despite the presence of a word президентство in Russian - English

word presidency usually refers to the words a пост президента or

президентская всласть.

An ageing Speaker cannot take on the burdens of the presidency.

Престарелый спикер не может взять на себя бремя президентской власти

(в случае смерти президента).

The use of words of abstract meaning strongly differs in various

languages. Therefore follows the necessity of concrete definition in

translating.

The Saigon regime used every form of pressure and violence to compel a

reluctant electorate to go to the polls.

Сайгонский режим прибегал ко всем видам давления и насилия, чтобы

заставить упрямых избирателей принять участие в выборах.

Sometimes it is necessary to concretize some word due to different

qualitative distinction (valeur) the generalizing words have in languages.

The following words belong to them: meal and трапеза that usually

illustrate the this phenomenon and the words limbs and члены, from which

limbs is widely common, and Russian word the члены has much narrower usage.

In the given translation, besides concrete definition of руки and ноги,

we also had to use fixed word phrase.

The following problem which demands careful consideration in lexical

transformations of translation is problem of word combinability. In all

languages there are typical norms of word combinability. The concept of

norm is relative, on the one hand, with system of language, and on the

other hand, it is closely connected with speech, in which the originality

of speech formation is displayed. Each language can form uncountable

number new word combinations that will be understood by its bearers. In any

language there exists generally accepted tradition of word combinations,

which do not coincide with the corresponding tradition of word combinations

in the other languages.

And it makes look for similarly accepted word combinations in the

target language. The main part combined words usually coincides in

translation, but the second one is frequently translated by a word

possessing other logical meaning, but performing the same function, as for

example, trains run — поезда ходят, rich feeding — обильная пища.

Labor Party protests followed sharply on the Tory deal with Spain.

За сообщением о сделке консервативного правительства с Испанией

немедленно последовал протест лейбористской партии.

The wider is the semantic volume of a word, the wider is its

combinability, thus due to this feature it can interact with various word

forms and word combinations. And this features enables the translator to

use his creativity in translation.

Along with traditional combinations in languages unexpected

combinations are also possible, but they are quite clear, for they follow

generally accepted semantic models of word combinability. This phenomenon —

the connection of words with completely various semantic features - is

peculiar to all languages, but in each language it has various rules and

traditions. In English language such unexpected word combinations are

formed very easily. It is probably caused by conversion and easiness in

formation of new words in various ways, heterogeneity of languages

vocabulary and some other reasons. Not only poets and writers, but also

journalists frequently create unexpected word combination that makes their

statements significantly vivid and original. The unexpectedness of word

usage is closely connected with expressiveness of the statement.

Unexpected usage of word combinations hardens the task of translators,

for words interrelate in combinations not only with one word, but also with

a large number of other words of the sentence, for example:

The use of an adjective sharp in this context is unexpected: none of

its meanings given in dictionaries gives the description of a hand. The

difficulty of its translation is aggravated by presence of the second

definition white, which excludes translation by words костлявый and сухой.

Белая, сухощавая рука мадам лежала на широком колене Адама.

In the given translation the sense of the sentence has been rendered

but the unexpectedness of the used word was lost.

The last feature of lexical transformation to be discussed in this

Paper is traditional word usage for every language and which causes

frequent lexical transformations. This traditional usage is to some extent

related to another approach to the phenomena of reality. For example:

The military base is built on terraces rising from the lake.

For Russian the traditional use will be:

Военная база построена на террасах, спускающихся к озеру.

In this case preposition is omitted in translation because as the

originality of the English word usage required complete transformation.

To the traditional word usage can also be referred the so-called

clichйs — order, and the clichйs in wider sense.

Hands up!

Руки вверх!

Long live America!

Да здравствует Америка!

The assault of the castle was followed by continuous bombing. Loss of

life was uncountable.

За штурмом крепости последовала длительная бомбардировка. Жертвы были

бесчисленны.

The Commonwealth countries handle a quarter of the world's trade.

На страны Британского содружества приходится четверть всей мировой

торговли

As you can see from the examples given above – in translations

corresponding Russian clichйs are also used.

§ III. Stylistic difficulties of translation

In the previous chapters we carefully considered the grammatical and

lexical transformations that occur while translating political literature

from English into Russian. And we have figured out that most of these

reasons are rooted in national and cultural settings of both languages.

Practically, stylistic devices in almost all languages are similar

still though their functions in speech vary. Identical stylistic devices

are used differently in languages; they perform different functions and

have different value in stylistic system of their language what actually

explains their necessity when transformations in translation occur. The

stylistic changes are as necessary as grammatical or lexical ones. While

applying some grammatical or lexical transformation in translation the

translator is guided by principle of rendering grammatical of lexical

meaning. When rendering stylistic meaning of the source text a translator

should be guided by the same principle – to recreate in translation the

same impression that might be left by the original text.

A translator should not try to preserve the stylistic device given in

the sentence, but reproduce its function in the target language.

We should not forget that almost all stylistic devices are multi

functional. It is like when polysemantic words in English and Russian

languages do not coincide in their lexical-semantic variants and the same

is when differ the function of identical stylistic device. Thus when

comparing stylistic devices we can easily identify complete correspondence,

partial correspondence and even sometimes absence of correspondence and

their functions.

To illustration it we can compare alliteration in the English and

Russian languages. The function of alliteration coincides in both languages

— in this function alliteration is one of the basic devices of poetic

speech. However the usage of alliteration for pleasant sounding in prose is

more characteristic for the English language, than for Russian. The second

function of alliteration is logical. Alliteration emphasizes close

relationship between components of the statement. Especially brightly

alliteration shows the unity of an epithet with an attributed word.

The third function of alliteration in English language – to attract

attention of the reader — is widely used in the names of literary works,

newspaper headings and often in articles.

The use of alliteration is a convincing acknowledgement that various

functions of stylistic devices in different languages do not always

coincide in usage.

We have already discussed functional translation of stylistic devices.

But it is extremely important to distinguish in the translated text

original and imagined alliterations so that to avoid unnecessary

emphasizing and to keep stylistic equivalence which presents necessary

component of adequate translation. there is a constant danger to smooth and

de-color the original text or, on the contrary, to make translation

brighter and stylistically colored. But sometimes a translator consciously

applies some "«smoothing" or neutralization in other words.

Repetition as you know is a more widespread stylistic device in the

English language, than in Russian.

In some cases repetition as the stylistic device should be necessarily

kept in translation, but for the difference in combinability and various

semantic structures of polysemantic words or words of wide meaning in

English and Russian languages the translator has to change and replace some

of elements.

The repetition is widely used with stylistic purposes in newspaper

publicity. In these cases the translator is compelled to apply stylistic

changes, make substitution or omission.

A policy of see no stagnation, hear no stagnation, speak no

stagnation has had too long a run for our money.

Слишком долго мы расплачиваемся за политику полного игнорирования и

замалчивания застоя в нашей экономике.

The triple repetition of no stagnation has been omitted in

translation, though is partially compensated by the use of synonymic pair

at a word (stagnation), but neutralization is evident in translation. The

neutralization happened when translating the phraseological unit to have

(too long) a run for our money.

Among stylistic devices used in political literature rather frequent

there are synonymic and alliterated pairs. The use of such pairs is

traditional for all styles of the English language including business style

as well. When translating official documents such pairs are frequently by

one word. For example, the just and equitable treatment of all nations from

UN Charter is given in Russian as справедливое отношение ко всем нациям,

for in Russian there is no absolute synonym for the word just.

Metaphor is used in all emotionally – colored styles of speech.

However in style of fiction the metaphor always carries original character,

whereas in political literature the original metaphor is used rather seldom

and basically — copied metaphors. Nevertheless in advanced clauses of the

English and American political literature, the purpose of which is to

assure, to make people believe and to impress the reader, that is to force

him to agree with the point of view given in the article, one can often see

rather bright and colorful metaphors.

Sometimes the difficulty of translation of metaphor consists in

translating some word combination or a phraseological unit, which does not

have figurative equivalent in Russian.

We have already discussed the necessity of neutralization of means of

expressiveness when translating English or American politics. Let us

consider the problem of extended metaphor. The extended metaphor represents

a chain of the logically connected figurative components. Sometimes such

components of the extended metaphors pass through the whole clause. The

below-mentioned example is taken from clause of the American observer James

Reston.

The latest official explanation of the President's Indochina policy is

that " he is backing out of the saloon with both guns firing ", but there

is a catch to this.

He insists that the guys in the white hats keep control of the saloon

before he leaves town. He wants a non-communist bartender, and a non-

communist sheriff, and a secure non-communist town before he rides away

into the sunset of November, 1972.

In the final paragraph of the article the elements of one metaphor are

partially repeated: but all this is a little more complicated than "

backing out of the saloon ".

The images of this extended metaphor are taken from so-called "western"

— of film about cowboys in "wild" West. In this case all elements of the

developed(unwrapped) metaphor, perhaps, can be kept in translation.

Согласно последнему официальному объяснению политики президента в

отношении Индокитая, «он хочет выбраться из бара, пятясь к двери и

отстреливаясь из двух пистолетов». Но за этим кроется что-то еще.

Он хочет, чтобы парни в белых шапках следили за порядком в баре до тех

пор, пока он не уедет из города. Он хочет, чтобы бармен не был коммунистом

и чтобы шериф не был коммунистом и чтобы город заведомо не был в руках

коммунистов. И только тогда он поскачет навстречу ноябрьским сумеркам 1972

года.

And at the end of clause — «но все это несколько сложнее, чем пятясь

к двери, выбраться из бара».

However there are cases, when the preservation of all figurative

components of the developed(unwrapped) metaphor is impossible, as well as

preservation of both components of synonymic pair, for it would break the

stylistic norms of Russian.

Being purely linguistic and stylistic device – metonymy is used more

and more in political literature, perhaps, even more than metaphor.

Metonymy translation presents one of numerous problems for the use of

metonymy significantly differs in English and Russian languages. Due to

this fact the translator is often forced to go back to the primary meaning

of a word, that is to the meaning that was firstly created by metonymy.

It is a widespread case of metonymy usage – substitution of concrete

notion by an abstract one, which can not always be preserved.

"It (the flood) has hurl us a great deal, " the Pakistan Prime Minister

told correspondents last week as he toured the destruction in the flooded

provinces. ("Newsweek")

«Наводнение нанесло нам огромный ущерб»,—сказал корреспондентам премьер-

министр Пакистана, на прошлой неделе во время поездки по пострадавшим от

наводнения районам.

Concerning the translation of comparison as a stylistic device, the

difficulties arise only if the words of English and Russian languages are

various in the semantic structure. We have already considered in the

chapter of lexical transformations the question of translation of such

terms and now we would like to give the example of stylistic comparison.

Instant history, like instant coffee, can sometimes be remarkably

palatable. At least it is in this memoir by a former White House aide who

sees L.B.J. as " an extraordinarily gifted President who was the wrong man

from the wrong place at the wrong time under the wrong circumstances ".

Современная история, как и такой современный продукт, как растворимый

кофе, иногда может быть необыкновенно приятна. По крайней мере, такой ее

преподносит в своих мемуарах бывший помощник президента Джонсона, считающий

его «исключительно одаренным президентом, который был неподходящим

человеком, из неподходящего места (штат Техас), в неподходящее время, при

неподходящих обстоятельствах».

In order to preserve this playing comparison, the interpreters were

forced to apply additional words.

We discussed above the importance of articles in translation and now

we should mention once again that they can serve in stylistic purposes.

An expressiveness gets the definite article, before a indefinite

pronoun one.

... this is the one way we can achieve success in elections.

...это единственный способ достигнуть победы на выборах.

The given synonyms compensate render the stress contained the original

text.

There is another kind of stylistic transformation – actualization –

which involves transition of something simple into something unusual,

strange. It reveals potential expressiveness put in the lexical morphologic

and syntactic means of a language.

Actualization of the passive form often occurs while translating

political literature but it is not as colored as in the translations of

fiction.

The General Assembly was gaveled to order by its outgoing President.

Уходящий со своего поста председатель Генеральной Ассамблее навел

порядок в зале, энергично стуча молотком.

The expressiveness and emphasis created by the passive form of the verb

that had been formed as a result of conversion are compensated by lexical

means. The compressed nature of sentence was lost for the verb to gavel has

two semantic components one of action and an instrument that were to be

rendered in translation.

Now from everything that has been discussed above we can infer that

the usage of some of stylistic devices in English is peculiar – and bears

specific national character, therefore their direct translation in many

instances is impossible. Moreover, the impression left by some of stylistic

device maybe different in both languages, compare soft panic and тихая

паника. It can be explained not only by national features of stylistic

means and devices of some of the language but by the their multi

functioning character also – that do not always coincide – as it was shown

on the matter of alliteration. This is the main criteria causing the

necessity of stylistic transformations that involve substitution and

changes. Therefore we should warn the future translators and interpreters

that it is not important to classify the device itself but the point is to

be able to realize their ongoing effect and to identify the purpose of

their application in the translation they are working on.

§ IV. The difficulty of translation of set phrases and idioms

As far as idioms and phraseological units are concerned in translation,

the first difficulty that a translator comes across is being able to

recognize that s/he is dealing with an idiomatic expression. This is not

always so obvious. There are various types of idioms, some more easily

recognizable than others. Those which are easily recognizable include

expressions which violate truth conditions, such as It's raining cats and

dogs, throw caution to the winds, storm in a tea cup, jump down someone's

throat, and food for thought. They also include expressions which seem ill-

formed because they do not follow the grammatical rules of the language,

for example trip the light fantastic, blow someone to kingdom come, put

paid to, the powers that be, by and large, and the world and his friend.

Expressions which start with like (simile-like structures) also tend to

suggest that they should not be interpreted literally. These include idioms

such as like a bat out of hell and like water off a duck's back. Generally

speaking, the more difficult an expression is to understand and the less

sense it makes in a given context, the more likely a translator will

recognize it as an idiom. Because they do not make sense if interpreted

literally, the highlighted expressions in the following text are easy to

recognize as idioms (assuming one is not already familiar with them):

This can only be done, I believe, by a full and frank airing of the

issues. I urge you all to speak your minds and not to pull any punches.

Provided a translator has access to good reference works and

monolingual dictionaries of idioms, or, better still, is able to consult

native speakers of the language, opaque idioms which do not make sense for

one reason or another can actually be a blessing in disguise. The very fact

that s/he cannot make sense of an expression in a particular context will

alert the translator to the presence of an idiom of some sort.

There are two cases in which an idiom can be easily misinterpreted if

one is not already familiar with it:

(a) Some idioms are 'misleading'; they seem transparent because they

offer a reasonable literal interpretation and their idiomatic meanings are

not necessarily signalled in the surrounding text. A large number of idioms

in English, and probably all languages, have both a literal and an

idiomatic meaning, for example go out with ('have a romantic or sexual

relationship with someone') and take someone for a ride ('deceive or cheat

someone in some way'). Such idioms lend themselves easily to manipulation

by speakers and writers who will sometimes play on both their literal and

idiomatic meanings. In this case, a translator who is not familiar with the

idiom in question may easily accept the literal interpretation and miss the

play on idiom.

(b) An idiom in the source language may have a very close counter

part in the target language which looks similar on the surface but has

a totally or partially different meaning. For example, the idiomatic

question Has the cat had/got your tongue? is used in English to urge

someone to answer a question or contribute to a conversation, particularly

when their failure to do so becomes annoying.

Apart from being alert to the way speakers and writers manipulate

certain features of idioms and to the possible confusion which could arise

from similarities in form between source and target expressions, a

translator must also consider the collocational environment which surrounds

any expression whose meaning is not readily accessible. Idiomatic and fixed

expressions have individual collocational patterns. They form collocations

with other items in the text as single units and enter into lexical sets

which are different from those of their individual words. Take, for

instance, the idiom to have cold feet. Cold as a separate item may

collocate with words like weather, winter, feel, or country. Feet on its

own will perhaps collocate with socks, chilblain, smelly, etc. However,

having cold feet, in its idiomatic use, has nothing necessarily to do with

winter, feet, or chilblains and will therefore generally be used with a

different set of collocates.

The ability to distinguish senses by collocation is an invaluable

asset to a translator working from a foreign language. It is often subsumed

under the general umbrella of 'relying on the context to disambiguate

meanings', which, among other things, means using our knowledge of

collocational patterns to decode the meaning of a word or a stretch of

language. Using our knowledge of collocational patterns may not always tell

us what an idiom means but it could easily help us in many cases to

recognize an idiom, particularly one which has a literal as well as a non-

literal meaning.

Once an idiom or fixed expression has been recognized and interpreted

correctly, the next step is to decide how to translate it into the target

language. The difficulties involved in translating an idiom are totally

different from those involved in interpreting it. Here, the question is not

whether a given idiom is transparent, opaque, or misleading. An opaque

expression may be easier to translate than a transparent one. The main

difficulties involved in translating idioms and fixed expressions may be

summarized as follows:

(a) An idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the target

language. The way a language chooses to express, or not express, various

meanings cannot be predicted and only occasionally matches the way another

language chooses to express the same meanings. One language may express a

given meaning by means of a single word, another may express it by means of

a transparent fixed expression, a third may express it by means of an

idiom, and so on. It is therefore unrealistic to expect to find equivalent

idioms and expressions in the target language as a matter of course.

Like single words, idioms and fixed expressions may be culture-

specific. Formulae such as Merry Christmas and say when which relate to

specific social or religious occasions provide good examples.

Basnett-McGuire (1980: 21) explains that the expression say when 'is

... directly linked to English social behavioral patterns' and suggests

that 'the translator putting the phrase into Russian has to contend with

the problem of the non-existence of a similar convention in either

culture'. Less problematic, but to some extent also culture-specific, are

the sort of fixed formulae that are used in formal correspondence, such as

Yours faithfully and Yours sincerely in English. These, for instance, have

no equivalents in Arabic formal correspondence. The same mismatch occurs in

relation to French and several other languages but in Russian we have

similar expression Ваш верный!

Idioms and fixed expressions which contain culture-specific items are

not necessarily untranslatable. It is not the specific items an expression

contains but rather the meaning it conveys and its association with culture-

specific contexts which can make it untranslatable or difficult to

translate. For example, the English expression to carry coals to Newcastle,

though culture-specific in the sense that it contains a reference to

Newcastle coal and uses it as a measure of abundance, is nevertheless

closely paralleled in Russian by в Тулу со своим самоваром. Both

expressions convey the same meaning, namely: to supply something to someone

who already has plenty of it.

An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the target

language, but its context of use may be different; the two expressions may

have different connotations, for instance, or they may not be pragmatically

transferable. To sing a different tune is an English idiom which means to

say or do something that signals a change in opinion because it contradicts

what one has said or done before. To go to the dogs ('to lose one's good

qualities') has a similar counterpart in German, but whereas the English

idiom can be used in connection with a person or a place, its German

counterpart can only be used in connection with a person and often means to

die or perish.

c) An idiom may be used in the source text in both its literal and

idiomatic senses at the same time. Unless the target-language idiom

corresponds to the source-language idiom both in form and in meaning, the

play on idiom cannot be successfully reproduced in the target text.

d) An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the

target language, but its context of use may be different; the two

expressions may have different connotations, for instance, or they may not

be pragmatically transferable. An idiom may be used in the source text in

both its literal and idiomatic senses at the same time. Unless the target-

language idiom corresponds to the source-language idiom both in form and in

meaning, the play on idiom cannot be successfully reproduced in the target

text.

Using idioms in English and American politics is very much a matter of

style. Languages such as Arabic and Chinese which make a sharp distinction

between written and spoken discourse and where the written mode is

associated with a high level of formality tend, on the whole, to avoid

using idioms in written texts. Fernando and Flavell discuss the

difference in rhetorical effect of using idioms in general and of using

specific types of idiom in the source and target languages and quite

rightly conclude that 'Translation is an exacting art. Idiom more than any

other feature of language demands that the translator be not only accurate

but highly sensitive to the rhetorical nuances of the language’.

§ V. Samples of translation.

Blitzkrieg молниеносная война.

Comprehensive Programme of Disarmament n Всеобъемлющая программа

разоружения.

International Nuclear Information System n международная система ядерной

информации.

National Guard n Национальная гвардия.

abet resistance v оказывать поддержку движению сопротивления (vi) .

abrogated a treaty v расторгнул договор (vi) .

1. abrogating a convention n расторжение договора.

2. abrogating a convention v расторгающий договор (vi) .

absolute rule n самовластие.

absolute war n решительные боевые действия.

accelerate upon an agreement v ускорять достижение соглашения (vi) .

1. adhering to treaty provisions n соблюдение положений договора.

2. adhering to treaty provisions v соблюдающий положения договора (vi)

adjustment of disputes n урегулирование разногласий.

administration of peace-keeping operations n осуществление операций по

поддержанию мира.

bar the way to war v преграждать путь к войне (vi) .

basic war plan n основной стратегический план.

beam the opposition v подавлять сопротивление (vi) .

brush blaze n локальная война.

brush fire war n местная война.

call to the colors v объявлять мобилизацию (vi) .

carried the day v одержал победу (vi) .

challenge to the world community n вызов международному сообществу.

change in a policy n смена политики.

chemical warfare agreement n соглашение о запрещении химического оружия.

circumvention of an agreement n обход соглашения.

claims to world superiority n притязания на мировое господство.

comparison of military expenditures in accordance with international

standards n сопоставление военных бюджетов по международным стандартам.

compensation allowance n денежная компенсация.

competitive co-existence n сосуществование в условиях соперничества.

completion of talks n завершение переговоров.

compliance with commitments n соблюдение обязательств.

conduct an arms race v вести гонку вооружений (vi) .

conduct diplomacy v проводить дипломатию (vi) .

conduct of disarmament negotiations n ведение переговоров по разоружению.

consolidation of peace n укрепление мира.

construction of all-embracing system of international secutity n создание

всеобъемлющей системы международной безопасности.

consultative board n консультативный совет.

contending nation n воюющее государство.

contest the air v оспаривать господство в воздухе (vi) .

control agency n орган управления.

convene a meeting v созывать совещание (vi) .

convene the UN Security Council v созывать Совет Безопасности ООН (vi) .

conventional armament n обычное вооружение.

desperate situation n отчаянное положение.

detentist n сторонник разрядки международной напряженности.

deterioration of resistance n ослабление сопротивления.

deterioration of resistance n ослабление сопротивления.

diminished international tension n спад международной безопасности.

diplomatic attack n дипломатическая атака.

diplomatic co-operation n дипломатическое сотрудничество.

diplomatic decision n дипломатическое решение.

disarmament issue n проблема разоружения.

disarmament negotiation n переговоры о разоружении.

disaster control n меры по ликвидации последствий нападения.

1. drafting an agreement n составление текста соглашения.

2. drafting an agreement v составляющий текст соглашения (vi) .

ease international tension v смягчать международную обстановку (vi) .

entered into alliance v вступил в союз (vi) .

established an organization v создал организацию (vi) .

financial service n служба финансового довольствия.

graves registration service n похоронная служба.

1. heading off the arms race n воспрепятствование гонке вооружений.

2. heading off the arms race v воспрепятствовавший гонке вооружений (vi) .

implement a goal v осуществлять цель (vi) .

in-depth assessment n глубокая оценка.

isolationist posture n изоляционистская политика.

large-scale production n крупномасштабное производство.

1. leading to positive solutions n приведение к положительным результатам.

2. leading to positive solutions v приводящий к положительным результатам

legal branch n юридическая служба.

ligitimate rights n законные права.

maintain mastery v удерживать господство в воздухе (vi) .

maintain neutrality v соблюдать нейтралитет (vi) .

maintain stability v поддерживать стабильность (vi) .

maintained a status quo v сохранил статус-кво (vi) .

making demands v выдвигающий требования (vi) .

1. managing non-compliance n урегулирование вопроса о несоблюдении.

2. managing non-compliance v урегулировавший вопрос о несоблюдении

mandatory embargo n обязательное эмбарго.

meet an aggression v отражать нападение агрессора (vi) .

meet the demand v отвечать требованию (vi) .

militarese n военный язык.

military high court n верховный военный суд.

mounting of international tension n усиление международной напряженности.

moved a resolution v предложил резолюцию (vi) .

mutual co-operation n взаимное сотрудничество.

mutual commitment n взаимное обязательство.

mutual deterrence n взаимное сдерживание путем устрашения.

mutually acceptable agreement n взаимоприемлемое решение.

mutually advantageous treaty n взаимовыгодный договор.

mutually beneficial reductions of armaments n взаимовыгодные сокращения

вооружений.

mutually beneficial treaty n взаимовыгодный договор.

negotiated treaty text n согласованный текст договора.

negotiating atmosphere n атмосфера на переговорах.

negotiating forum n форум для переговоров.

negotiating parties n договаривающиеся стороны.

negotiating priority n приоритетный вопрос на переговорах.

negotiating process n процесс переговоров.

negotiating stalemate n тупик на переговорах.

negotiations behind the scene n закулисные переговоры.

new mentality n новая психология.

no-cities strategy n стратегия избежания поражения крупных городов.

noble goal n благородная цель.

non-aligned status n статус неприсоединившегося государства.

non-alignment with military blocs n неприсоединение к военным блокам.

non-armament agreements n соглашения о невооружении.

non-governmental expert n неправительственный эксперт.

non-interference in internal affairs n невмешательство во внутренние дела.

non-strategic a нестратегический.

nuclear co-operation agreement n соглашение о сотрудничестве в ядерной

области.

observed a status v соблюл статус (vi) .

observer status n статус обозревателя.

1. observing a truce n соблюдение условий перемирия.

2. observing a truce v соблюдающий условия перемирия (vi) .

1. observing to treaty provisions n соблюдение положений договора.

2. observing to treaty provisions v соблюдающий положения договора (vi) .

occurrence of nuclear war n возникновение ядерной войны.

offensive-arms agreement n соглашение о наступательных вооружениях.

offer co-operation v предлагать сотрудничество (vi) .

1. overcoming the deadlock n выход из тупика.

2. overcoming the deadlock v выходящий из тупика (vi) .

overcontrol n чрезмерная централизация управления.

overhead expenses n накладные расходы.

prolongation of a treaty n продление договора.

1. putting a stop to the arms race n остановка гонки вооружения .

2. putting a stop to the arms race v останавливающий гонку (vi) .

putting in jeopardy v ставящий под угрозу (vi) .

random surprise verification n выборочная внезапная проверка.

range of measures n комплекс мер.

1. re-establishing equilibrium n восстановление равновесия.

2. re-establishing equilibrium v восстанавливающий равновесие (vi) .

reduction of military budgets n сокращение военных бюджетов.

1. rendering assistance n оказание содействия.

2. rendering assistance v оказывающий содействие (vi) .

severe contraction n резкое сокращение.

system of declaration n система объявлений.

tables of information and characteristics n информационно-

характеристические таблицы.

1. tabling for consideration n представление на рассмотрение.

2. tabling for consideration v представляющий на рассмотрение (vt) .

tactical program n программа оперативно-тактической подготовки.

take a series of unilateral steps v предпринимать серию односторонних

шагов (vi) .

take-it-or-leave-it approach n бескомпромиссный подход.

1. taking the strain off n разрядка напряженности.

2. taking the strain off v разряжающий напряженность (vi) .

tangible progress n ощутимый прогресс.

throwdown v 1) свергать (vi) ; 2) свергать (vt) .

top level forum n высокий форум.

top priority n высший приоритет.

top secret adv секретно.

top-priority a первоочередной.

topical problem n актуальная проблема.

topicality of proposals n актуальность предложений.

treaty assessment n оценка действия договора.

treaty of unlimited duration n бессрочный договор.

turn down a resolution v отклонять резолюцию (vi) .

turn out data v выдавать данные (vi) .

turned down a resolution v отклонил резолюцию (vi) .

ultimate truth n истина в последней инстанции.

ulterior motive n скрытый мотив.

ultimate reply n решительный ответ.

unacceptable conditions n неприемлемые условия.

unacceptable damage n неприемлемый ущерб.

unacceptable terms n неприемлемые условия.

unattainable goal n неосуществимая цель.

unavailing efforts n тщетные усилия.

unbridled escalation of the arms race n неконтролируемая гонка вооружений.

unchangeable status quo n неизменный статус - кво.

uncontrollable situation n неуправляемая ситуация.

under the agreement adv по соглашению.

under the conditions of glasnost adv в условиях гласности.

under the conditions of openness adv в условиях гласности.

under the conditions of peace adv в условиях мира.

under the eagis of the United Nations adv под эгидой ООН.

under the treaty adv согласно договору.

undermine an agreement v подрывать соглашение (vi) .

undermine stability v подрывать стабильность (vi) .

1. undermining a meeting n подрыв совещания.

2. undermining a meeting v подрывающий совещание (vi) .

unit veto n всеобщее вето.

universal annihilation n всеобщее уничтожение.

unofficial meeting n неофициальная встреча.

unproductive conference n безрезультатное совещание.

unswerving supporter n непоколебимый сторонник.

urgent demand n настоятельное требование.

urgent problem n неотложная проблема.

vote for a resolution v голосовать за резолюцию (vi) .

voted-down draft n отклоненный проект.

1. waging operations n проведение боевых действий.

2. waging operations v проводящий боевые действия (vi) .

1. wandering away n уклонение.

2. wandering away v уклоняющийся (vi) .

wanton aggression n ничем не вызванная агрессия.

wanton interference n ничем не вызванное вмешательство.

war by proxy n война чужими руками.

war diplomacy n дипломатия войны.

war of annihilation n война на уничтожение.

war of attrition n война на истощение.

war of liberation n освободительная война.

war preparedness n готовность к войне.

war propaganda n пропаганда войны.

war-time diplomacy n дипломатия военного времени.

widening of international ties n расширение международных связей.

won with wide recognition v получил широкое признание (vi) .

working language n рабочий язык.

Conclusion

In the given Qualification Paper we have investigated various

translation methods of political literature from English into Russian. We

tried to give a detailed study of the features of translation of Political

literature for it is one of the types of translation that has not been

studied in details in our country up to this time.

Moreover, we’ve studied the translation methods of Political

literature and political terms at a deeper level, the types and ways of

translation of Political literature; we’ve also considered the function of

political literature in everyday life of the humanity.

The aim of this work was to introduce the translation approach to

Political literature so that to make it easy to perceive for those willing

to keep up their educational and scientific carrier in the science of

translation, it was purposed to broaden their view on translation studies

and peculiar features while translating Political literature.

In this work we’ve completed the following tasks:

- we’ve reviewed all the sources of Political literature

- methods of translation of Political literature have been carefully

studied

- the grammatical, lexical, stylistic and phraseological difficulties

of translation of political literature were discussed

The originality of this work is in its creative approach to the study

of methods of translation, besides, it contains a detailed review of ways

and methods of translation.

The given Qualification paper contains introduction, two chapters, and

samples of translations of political set expressions, conclusion and

bibliography list.

Summary

Most translators prefer to think of their work as a profession and

would like to see others to treat them like professionals rather than as

skilled or semi-skilled workers. But to achieve this, translators need to

develop an ability to stand back and reflect on what they do and how they

do it. Like doctors and engineers, they have to prove to themselves as well

as others that they are in control of what they do; that they do not just

translate well because they have ‘flair’ for translation, but rather

because, like other professionals, they have made a conscious effort to

understand various aspects of their work.

Unlike medicine and engineering, translation is a very young

discipline in academic terms. It is only just starting to feature as a

subject of study in its own right, not yet in all but in an increasing

number of universities and colleges around the world. Like any young

discipline, it needs to draw on the findings and theories of other related

disciplines in order to develop and formalize its own methods; but which

disciplines it can naturally and fruitfully be related to is still a matter

of some controversy. Almost every aspect of life in general and of the

interaction between speech communities in particular can be considered

relevant to translation, a discipline which has to concern itself with how

meaning is generated within and between various groups of people in various

cultural settings. This is clearly too big an area to investigate in one

go. So, let us just start by saying that, if translation is ever to become

a profession in the full sense of the word, translators will need something

other than the current mixture of intuition and practice to enable them to

reflect on what they do and how they do it. They will need, above all, to

acquire a sound knowledge of the raw material with which they work: to

understand what language is and how it comes to function for its users.

In this research work we have completed the following tasks:

- we have reviewed all the sources of Political literature

- we revealed the methods and ways of translation of Political

literature

- and we have also investigated grammatical, lexical, phraseological

and stylistic difficulties of translation of Political literature.

In this Qualification paper we have reviewed almost all the

grammatical, lexical, stylistic difficulties of translation of Political

Literature.

While reviewing the grammatical changes we considered the following

transformations: substitution, omission, transposition and 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. or

Will the United Stated start the war against Iraq? – No one knows.

The words like do, one, the same are usually used in substitution.

Omission, as you know is when an item is replaced by nothing. This is a

case of leaving something unsaid which is nevertheless understood. The

example is:

In the World War II the Soviet Union lost over 70 millions of life. And

the United States less than 10.

A hearer will easily infer what happened to the United States during

the war.

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.

Supplementation happens to be very frequent when translating texts

on International politics because we do not always have corresponding words

for some English or American notions like:

During the World War II one of the basic changes in the US military

bases was the construction of emergency hangars in case of sudden attack.

Одним из немаловажных перемен в военных базах США во время Второй

Мировой Войны была разработка конструкции ангаров для срочного вылета в

случае внезапной атаки.

There is no corresponding word in Russian military system for

emergency hangar therefore we had to make use of supplementation.

Thus, we have come to conclusion that the above mentioned changes

are necessary while processing a translation of Political literature from

English into Russian.

While discussing the lexical problems of translation we considered

lexical-semantic features of both languages and investigated such cases as

difference in word volume, word combinability, generally accepted tradition

of word usage, we have also considered contextual meaning of words in the

process of translation. In addition we investigated the emotional coloring

that plays an important role while processing a translation of Political

Literature. We have studied the translation of international words and

unexpected usage of word combinability that makes the translation task

harder.

A very interesting contextual meaning of exploitation was in the

following example:

Britain’s worldwide exploitation was shaken to the roots by Colonial

Liberation Movements.

The contextual meaning of the word originated metonymically – any

colonial system lives on exploitation, which is the basis of colonial

power. The corresponding Russian эксплуатация can not be used in this

contextual meaning, the contextual surroundings of exploitation (worldwide,

shaken to the roots) also prevents it. The only possible variant of

translation is by means of metonymic transposition – substitution:

Колониальное могущество Англии было подорвано (потрясено до основания)

национально-освободительным движением во всех колониях.

The use of words of abstract meaning strongly differs in various

languages. Therefore arises the necessity of concrete definition in

translating.

The Saigon regime used every form of pressure and violence to compel a

reluctant electorate to go to the polls.

Сайгонский режим прибегал ко всем видам давления и насилия, чтобы

заставить упрямых избирателей принять участие в выборах.

In the study of stylistic transformation during translation we found,

that the repetition is widely used with stylistic purposes in newspaper

publicity. In these cases the translator is compelled to apply stylistic

changes, make substitution or omission.

A policy of see no stagnation, hear no stagnation, speak no

stagnation has had too long a run for our money.

Слишком долго мы расплачиваемся за политику полного игнорирования и

замалчивания застоя в нашей экономике.

The triple repetition of no stagnation has been omitted in

translation, though is partially compensated by the use of synonymic pair

at a word (stagnation), but neutralization is evident in translation. The

neutralization happened when translating the phraseological unit to have

(too long) a run for our money.

Still, studying the difficulties of translation of Political literature

we have come to conclusion that the most difficulty to a translator

represent set expressions and phraseological units that are widely used in

American and English politics. In most cases we do not have corresponding

notions in Russian or have some words that do not sufficiently cover the

whole meaning of the word in question: for example:

The Cold War last for more than forty years.

Холодная война длилась более сорока лет.

In this case we used word for word (verbatim) translation for we do not

have any words that would convey the sense the Americans put in this

expression.

Therefore a translator, majoring in the translation of Politics should

have a good command not only of English itself, but should know the

principles of International politics and other Political sciences.

To wind up this discourse, we would like to remind you, that while our

country is rapidly integrating into the International community, the need

of highly experienced translators of Political literature will be evident

to make the International Events easily accessible to general public.

Bibliography

(information sources)

1. Fathy A. Osman. Senior interpreter/translator, IMF, Washington, DC

2. In other words – a course book on translation. Mona Baker, London and

New York, 1992.

3. The Craft of Translation, John Biguenet & Rainer Schulte, The

University of Chicago Press.

4. Translation features, Basnett-McGuire, New York Publishing house 1980.

5. A course book on Military Translation, Ministry of Defense of the

USSR, Moscow 1962.

6. Translation difficulties, T.R. Levitskaya & A.M. Fitterman,

“International Relations” Publishing house, Moscow 1976.

7. Difficulties of translation from English into Russian, Zrajevskaya

L.M. & Belyaeva, Moscow Publishing House, 1972.

8. Translation and linguistics, Schweitzer A.D.

9. English Grammar, L.S. Barhudarov & D.A. Schteling, Moscow 1965.

10. Exercise book on translation of humanitarian texts, Malchevskaya,

Saint Petersburg 1980.

11. America and Russian and the Cold War, Walter LaFeber, 6th Edition,

Cornell University 1991.

12. Comparative Politics, Washington State University, 1996.

13. International Conflict Cooperation and Management, Slippery Rock

University, Pennsylvania, 2000.

14. www.worldtranslationservice.com

15. www.translateweb.org

16. www.monabaker.trans.com

17. www.chicagopress.com

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