Tulku m? c? bu centrs

Diploma paper: Some Difficulties of Translating English Phrasal Verbs into

Russian

ХХХХХХХХХХ ХХХХХ < p> The 3rd year of education

Personal code: 211178-10916

Riga

2001

ANNOTATION

Diploma paper is devoted to a very current theme about the translating of English phrasal verbs to Russian. Translating of

English phrasal verbs is very important part of the science of translation because it couldn't be a real good correct translation without correct translating of the phrasal verbs.

The paper consists of four parts which touch upon questions of the history of translation in Russia and its development, some points of tranlsating theory, the consideration of some ways of the translation of English phrasal verbs, and the practical translation and its comments. < p> Introduction

Translation is a very ancient kind of human activity. As soon asgroups of people with different languages were born in human history,bilinguals appeared and they helped to communicate between collectives ofdifferent languages. With the development of the written language, writtentranslators join oral ones. They translated different texts of official,religious and business character. Translation had the main social functionat first. It made possible inter-linguistic communication of people. Thespreading of the written translation opened to people the wide access tocultural achievements of other nations; it made possible interaction andinter-enrichment of literature and culture. The knowledge of foreignlanguages let to read original books, but not everybody can earn at leastone foreign language.

My work is devoted to the basic points of theory of translation andthe difficulties of translation of English phrasal verbs to Russian.

Russian is a part of the East Slavonic family of languages and oneof the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian tradition oftranslation has a long history. Writing, literature and translations wereintroduced in Kievan Rus in a relatively mature form. The Greek priest
Cyril and his brother Methodius who created new alphabet (now known as
Cyrillic) were the first translators. Among their first translations from
Greek were the New Testament, the Psalter and the Prayer Book. After Rusembraced Christianity in 988, numerous translations were made to give theconverts access to the philosophical and ethical doctrines of the newreligion and to the church's rituals and customs. In the 17th century, agreat number of translations of predominantly nonreligious material beganto appear. Scholarly translations included topics in astronomy andastrology, arithmetic and geometry, anatomy and medicine, as well asdescription of various animals. The 18th century proved decisive in thedevelopment of translation in Russia. Peter the Great's political reformsgreatly expanded Russia's economic and cultural contacts with Europeancountries, and this created a demand for numerous translations ofscientific and technical texts, as well as works of fiction. The 19thcentury can be described as the golden age of Russian translation. If theprevious age hade made translation a professional activity, the nineteenthcentury raised this activity to the level of high art. The main figures oftranslation of this period are Nikolai Karamzin and Vasily Zhukovsky.
Alezander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov, the two great Russian poets, alsoplayed a major role in the history of translation in Russia. Althoughtranslations occupied a relatively modest place in their poetry, they madea significant contribution to the improvement of literary translation in
Russia. The years following the 1917 Revolution saw a new upsurge intranslation activity. The fact that the Soviet Union was a multinationalstate contributed to the growing demand fro translation. The scale oftranslation among national literatures was particularly impressive. Theyears of perestroika radically changed the nature of translation practicein general and the market for translations in particular. The abolition ofcensorship has made it possible to translate many books, which had beenregarded as inadmissible on ideological or moral grounds. There has been agreater demand of English translators and interpreters, and many of themearn good money working for national or foreign firms, or joint ventures.
English language comes to all spheres of life and translation from Englishto Russian and back is very important part of successful business and itsdevelopment.

Translation is the transformation of the message of the sourcelanguage to the message of the translating language. The exact translationis impossible because of a great number of languages differences in thegrammar and the number of words, besides, the distinction of the culturescan influence the way of translating and its results. Translation is theart of revelation. It makes the unknown known. The translator has the feverand craft to recognize, recreate and reveal the works of the other artist.
Translation is an art between tongues.

Some translators tried to define the row of demands of which thegood translators should be. The French humanist E. Dolet (1509 - 1546)considered that a translator should keep the following five basicprinciples of translation:

1. Ti understand the content of the translating text and the intention of the author perfectly;

2. To know the language he translates from and the language he translates on perfectly;

3. To avoid the tendency to translate word for word, because it misrepresents the original content and spoils the beauty of its form;

4. To use the translation the speech forms in general use;

5. To reproduce the general impression in corresponding key, produced by the original, by choosing and placing words correctly.

In 1790 the Englishman A. Tayler formed the following requests tothe translation in his book "The principles of the translation":

1. The translation should transfer the ideas of the original completely;

2. The style and way of the exposition should be the same as in the original;

3. The translation should be read with the same easiness as the original works.

The translation is the multifaceted phenomenon and some aspects ofit can be the subjects of the research of different sciences. In the framesof the science of translation psychological, literature critical,ethnographical and other points of translation as well as the history oftranslation in one or other country are being studied. According to thesubject of research we use the knowledge of the psychology of translation,the theory of art and literary translation, ethnographical science oftranslation, historical science of translation and so on. The main place inthe modern translation belongs to linguistic translation, which studies thetranslation as linguistic phenomenon. The different kinds of translationcomplement each other and strive to detailed description of the activity ofthe translation.

The theory of translation puts forward the following tasks:

1. To open and describe the common linguistic basis of translation, that is to show which peculiarities of linguistic systems and regularities of the language operation are the basis of the translating process, make this process possible and determine its character and borders; < p> 2. To determine the translation as the subject of the linguistic research, to show its difference from the other kinds of linguistic mediation;

3. To work out the basis of classification of kinds of the translating activity;

4. To open the essence of the translating equivalence as the basis of the communicative identity of the original texts and the translation;

5. To work out the common principles and the peculiarities of construction of the peculiar and special translation theories for the different combinations of languages;

6. To work out the common principles of the scientific description of the translation process as actions of a translator of transforming the original text to the translating text;

7. To open the influence on the translating process of pragmatic and social linguistic factors;

8. To determine the idea "the translating norm" and to work out the principles.

It is common knowledge that in order to provide an adequatetranslation, the translator must be able to sense nuances in the semanticsof both the source-language and target-language texts. English phrasalverbs (eg give up, break in, fall out) are of great interest to me inthis respect because they possess quite a number of semantic, grammaticaland stylistic peculiarities, sometimes making their accurate translationinto Russian difficult. Of course, in dealing with the translation of suchlexical units into his or her native language, the translator can consultthe appropriate bilingual dictionary, but what about the profoundcomprehension of why this or that phrasal verb is translated only this andnot any other way?

To get a good idea of English phrasal verbs 'semantic nuances,let us first look at their conceptual features. In theory, phrasal verbsare generally considered to be idiomatic combinations of a verb and anadverbial particle. The exact status of the latter is still being debated,scholars being divided on whether it is an adverb, prepositional adverb,postpositional prefix, special part of speech, etc. However, here we areinterested only in the features of adverbial particles.

In general, the main function of phrasal verbs is conceptualcategorization of reality in the speaker's mind. They denote not onlyactions or states as "ordinary" verbs do, but also specify their spatial,temporal or other characteristics. This ability to describe actions orstates more precisely, vividly and emotionally is determined by theadverbial components of phrasal verbs. By combining with these elements,verbs of broader meaning are subjected to a regular and systematicmultiplication of their semantic functions. While the English verb has noconsistent structural representation of aspect, adverbial particles eitherimpart an additional aspective meaning to the base verb (eg the durativeverb sit merges with the particle down into the terminative phrasal verbsit down) or introduce a lexical modification to its fundamental semantics.
In most cases adverbial elements denote the general spatial direction ofthe action or express its qualitative or quantitative characteristics, likebeginning (set out), duration (bum along), completion (think out),intensity (hurry up), and so on.

Obviously, such semantic peculiarities of English phrasal verbsmust influence the process of their translation into the Russian language,which has a highly developed system of verbal prefixes. In addition totheir function that is analogous to that of English prefixes, Russianverbal prefixes resemble English adverbial particles in their semanticfunctions, also indicating various qualities of actions and states. Likeadverbial particles in English, Russian prefixes are lexically strong. Forexample, the Russian prefix "раз-" denotes 1) division into parts
(розкришити); 2) distribution, direction of action in different directions
(роз'їхатися); 3) action in reverse (розміновувати); 4) termination ofaction or state (розлюбити); 5) intensification of action (расплясаться)
[The Oxford Russian Dictionary]. Thus, in translation from English into
Russian, the meaning of the English adverbial component of the phrasal verbis mostly conveyed by using the Russian prefix that reflects the characterof the described action or state most accurately. To a greater degree, thisrefers rather to nuances of semantics than grammar.

When dealing with translation of English phrasal verbs or pre -analysis of their adverbial elements 'meaning, one should always keep inmind their astounding polysemy, which sometimes borders on homonymy.
Compare the following: take in 4 (to receive sb in one's home with welcome,as a guest) and take in 12 (to deceive sb) (Longman Dictionary of Phrasal
Verbs). It holds true for Russian prefixes as well, the same ones renderingdifferent shades of meaning in different uses (see examples above). That iswhy it seems almost impossible to create a consistent rigid system oflexical correspondences between English adverbial particles and Russianprefixes, without encountering numerous debatable problems.

Strictly speaking, proper translation of English phrasal verbs toa high degree depends on the context in which they are used, which suggeststhe appropriate interpretation of the described action. Having stated thespecific characteristics of the action denoted by a certain phrasal verb,one can seek a Russian counterpart prefix, which is the closest inrendering the same idea and meets the lexical and grammatical requirementsof translation into the target language.

For example, the sentence "The attack had gone across the field,been held up by machine-gun fire from sunken road, encountered noresistance in the town, and reached the bank of the river "[E. Hemingway, A
Way You'll Never Be] should be translated as «Атака розгорталася на лузіі була припинена кулеметним вогнем з дорожньою виїмки, не зустрілавідсічі в місті і закінчилася на березі річки ». According to the Longman
Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs, in the above context the phrasal verb hold uphas the following meaning: 2. to delay (sth or sb). The Russian prefix "при-
"Adequately renders the idea that the attack was delayed just for a while.

The sentences" There was a little fire there. Nancy built it up,when it was already hot inside "[W. Faulkner, That Evening Sun] have thefollowing translation: «В осередку ще були гарячі вугілля, вона їх роздула, іполум'я спалахнуло ". The adverbial particle up in the phrasal verb build upimparts the idea of increasing the size of the fire and shows theintensification of the action. According to the definition given in the
Oxford Russian Dictionary, the most appropriate Russian prefix should be
"раз-", indicating the intensification of action.

For the sentence "Three or four times while I was going throughtheir envelopes, I was tempted to get up and make a formal protest to
M. Yoshoto "[JD Salinger, De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period] the besttranslation would be "І коли я переглядав їх роботи, мене не раз так іпідмивало схопитися і звернутися з офіційним протестом до мсьє Йошото ", asthere is a proper semantic correspondence between the adverbial elementthrough in the phrasal verb going through and the Russian prefix "про-" inthe verb "переглядав", both denoting exhaustive action.

English phrasal verbs can be highly idiomatic, their meaningsbeing unpredictable from the sum of their constituents 'meanings (eg takein (to deceive), lay down (to build), let on (to tell a secret). In suchcases, where the context or professional experience fail to reveal thesense of a phrasal verb, a good explanatory or bilingual dictionary can beof great help to the translator. For example, for a person who is not anative speaker of English, in the sentence "He liked to break in hisassistants slowly "neither the context, nor the adverbial element of thephrasal verb hint at the real meaning of the combination break in.
According to the Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs, the phrasal verbbreak in has the following "unexpected" meaning: 4. to help (smb) to becomeaccustomed (to work, etc.). The Russian edition of this very dictionary
(Англійські фразовою дієслова. Англо-російський словник, Russkiy Yazyk
Publishers, Moscow, 1997) treats this meaning in the same way: 4. вводити
(кого-л.) в курс (нової роботи тощо).

I think that a thorough study and consequent understanding ofsemantic correspondences in the English and Russian verbal systems can bequite a powerful tool in the translator's arsenal.

Practical translation

The Porsche crept along the street like a sleek black panther.
Hugging the curb, its engine purred so deep and low it sounded like apredator's growl.

Marnie Hibbs was kneeling in the fertile soil of her bed, diggingamong the impatiens under the ligustrum bushes and cursing the little bugsthat made three meals a day of them, when the sound of the car's motorattracted her attention, she glanced at it over her shoulder, then panickedas it came to stop on front of her house.

"Lord, is it that late?" she muttered. Dropping her trowel, shestood up and brushed the clinging damp earth of her bare knees.

She reached up to push her dark bangs off her forehead before sherealized that she still had on her heavy gardening gloves. Quickly shepeeled them off and dropped them beside the trowel, all the while watchingthe driver get out of the sport car and start up her front walk.

Glancing at her wristwatch, she saw that she hadn't lost track oftime. He was just very early for their appointment, and as a result, shewasn't going to make a very good first impression. Being hot, sweaty, anddirty was no way to meet a client. And she needed this commission badly.

Forcing a smile, she moved down the sidewalk to greet him, nervouslytrying to remember if she had left the house and studio reasonably neatwhen she decided to do an hour's worth of yard work. She had planned totidy up before he arrived.

She might look like the devil, but she didn't want to appearintimated. Self-confident friendliness was the only way to combat thedisadvantage of having been caught looking her worst.

He was still several yards away from her when she greeted him.
"Hello", she said with a bright smile.

"Obviously we got our signals switched. I thought you weren't cominguntil later. "

" I decided this diabolical game of yours had gone on long enough. "

Marnie's sneakers skidded on the old concrete walk as she came to anabrupt halt. She titled her head in stunned surprise. "I'm sorry, I -"

"Who the hell are you, lady?"

"Miss Hibbs. Who do you think? "

" Never heard of you. Just what the devil are you up to? "

" Up to? "She glanced around helplessly, as though the giantsycamores in her front yard might provide an answer to this bizarreinterrogation.

"Why've you been sending me those letters?"

"Letters?"

He was clearly furious, and her lack of comprehension only seemed tomake him angrier. He bored down on her like a hawk on a field mouse, untilshe had to bow her back to look up at him. The summer sun was behind him,casting him in silhouette.

He was blond, tall, trim, and dressed in casual slacks and a sportshirt - all stylish, impeccably so. He was wearing opaque aviator glasses,so she couldn't see his eyes, but if they were as belligerent as hisexpression and stance, she was better off not seeing them.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"The letters, lady, the letters." He strained the words through aset of strong white teeth.

"What letters?"

"Don't plat dumb."

"Are you sure you have got the right house ? "

He took another step forward. "I have got the right house", he saidin a voice that was little more than a snarl.

"Obviously you don't." She didn't like being put on the defensive,especially by someone she'd never met over something of which she wastotally ignorant. "You are either crazy or drunk, but in any case, you'rewrong. I'm not the person you are looking for and I demand that you leavemy property. Now. "

" You were expecting me. I could tell by the way you spoke you me. "

" I thought you were the man from the advertising agency. "

" Well, I'm not. "

"Thanks God." She would hate having to do business with someone thisirrational and ill-tempered.

"You know damn well who I am", he said, peeling off the sunglasses.

Marnie sucked in a quick, sharp breath and fell back a step becauseshe did indeed know who he was. She raised a hand to her chest in anattempt at keeping her jumping heart in place. "Law", she gasped ...

Sandra Brown "Long Time Coming"

Порше повільно скрадався вздовж вулиці, наче чорна лискучапантера. Обіймаючи узбіччя, його двигун бурчав подібно гарчання хижака.

Марні Хіббс стояла на колінах на родючій грунті своєї клумби,копаючись під кущами і проклинаючи маленьких жучків, які їдять їх тричі задень, коли звук мотора машини привернув її увагу. Вона глянула на неїчерез плече і занервувала, так як машина зупинилася перед її будинком.

- Боже, невже я спізнилася? - Пробурмотіла вона. Кинувши лопатку, вона встала та посипались прилиплу до її голим колін сиру землю.

Вона підняла руки, щоб поправити свою темну чубчик на лобі, якзрозуміла, що на ній до цих пір одягнені важкі садові рукавички. Вона швидкостягнула їх і кинула до ллопатке, все продовжуючи дивитися на водія, якийвийшов з спортивної машини і з'явився на доріжці.

Поглянувши на свої наручні годинники, вона зрозуміла, що не винна. Вінпросто приїхав на зустріч дуже рано і, як результат, вона непідготувалася як слід, щоб справити хороше впечатденіе. Вона буларозпаленій, встпотевшей і брудною, і це був не найкращий вигляд, вякому можна зустрічати клієнта. А ця зустріч була їй дуже потрібна.

З натягнутою посмішкою вона вийшла на тротуар привітала його, нервовозгадуючи залишила вона будинок і студію в порядку, коли вирішила годинкупопрацювати у дворі. Вона планувала навести порядок до того, як вінприїде.

Вона могла виглядати як чортеня, але їй зовсім не хотілося виглядатипереляканою. Самовпевнене дружелюбність було єдиним способом скрасити тостан, в якому вона була захоплена.

Він був у несколькоіх ярдів від неї коли вона сказала:

- Привіт!

- Очевидно наші сигнали вимкнені., я думав, ви не підійдете.

- Я вирішила, що ця ваша чертовски гра триває вже досить довго.

Полукеди Марні спотикалися на старій доріжці, як ніби вона шкутильгала.
Вона схилила голову в приголомшливим подиві.

- Вибачте, я ...

- Хто ви?

- Міс Хіббс. А хто ви думали?

- Ніколи не чув про вас. Просто якого біса ви це робите?

- Що роблю? - Безпорадно озирнулась довкола, ніби гігантські платани в її передньому дворі могли запропонувати їй відповідь на це дивне запитання.

- Чому ви посилали мені ті листи?

- Листи?

Він був розлючений і її нерозуміння, здавалося, тільки робило його щебільш злим. Він свердлив її очима, як яструб польову мишу поки вона невипросталась і не глянула на нього. Літнє сонце було за його спиною,обрамляючи його силует.

Він був блондин, високий, стрункий і був одягнений у звичайні штани іспортивні сорочки - все стильно і так бездоганно. На ньому були темніпілотське очки, так що вона не бачила його очей, але якщо б вони були такіж войовничі, як і його вираз обличчя і стійка, вона вважала за краще б небачити їх.

- Я не знаю про що ви говорите.

- Про листах, леді, про листи, - він вимовляв слова, показуючи ряд міцних білих зубів.

- Яких листах?

- Не грайте вар'ята.

- Ви впевнені, що звернулися за адресою?

Він зробив крок вперед.

- Я впевнений, що звернувся за адресою, - сказав він голосом, трохи схожим на гарчання.

- Очевидно ні, - їй не подобалося захищатися, особливо від того, кого вона раніше ніколи не бачила і хто був повністю неосвічені до неї. - Ви або ненормальний, або п'яний, але в будь-якому випадку, ви помиляєтеся. Я не та людина, кого ви шукаєте і я прошу вас покинути мій будинок. Зараз.

- Ви чекали мене. Я можу судити про це по тій манері, як ви розмовляли зі мною.

- Я думала, що ви людина з рекламного агенства.

- Ні.

- Слава Богу! - Їй би не сподобалось мати справу з таким нерозумним людиною з жахливим характером.

- Ви чудово знаєте хто я, - сказав він, знімаючи окуляри.

Швидкий, гострий подих засмоктав Марні і вона відступила на крок, томущо вона насправді знала, хто він. Вона підняла руки до грудей у спробіутримати вистрибує серце.

- Луї! - Задихаючись вимовила вона ...

Сандра Браун «настануть кращі часи»

As we can see, phrasal verbs are widely spread in Englishliterature. Translating phrasal verbs of this passage I had somedifficulties because of difference in the meaning given in a dictionary andthe contextual meaning. For example, the verb "to reach up" is translatedlike "простягнути руку Ввeрх", but this meaning isn't suitable for thecontext. The sentence would sound like "Вона простягла руку вгору, щобпоправити чубок "and it isn't correct for the Russian language, because shedidn't stretch her arms.

The next phrasal verb is "to push off". It is translated in thedictionary like "відштовхувати, змиватися" and this meaning isn't suitablefor the word "чубчик" in Russian completely.

The phrasal verb "to peel off" is translated in the dictionary like
"Злазити, облазить". We can meet this verb twice in the passage: "to peeloff gloves "and" to peel off glasses ". Both in the first and second casesthe dictionary's meaning isn't suitable for the translation. It'simpossible "злазити рукавички" and "облазить очки". Therefore I translatedthem like "стягувати" in the first case and "знімати" in the second.

Conclusion

Discerned translating problems and difficulties don't exhaust theall variety of complications in translation. They reflect only thefundamental, the most typical situations. Translating of English phrasalverbs is very important part of the science of translation because itcouldn't be a real good correct translation without correct translating ofthe phrasal verbs. Every translator should pay attention to the translationof the phrasal verbs and work hard with each phrasal verb. English and
Russian lexical systems are so different that they demand the specialapproach to translating of each verb according to its contextual meaning.