Pecularities of translation into Ukrainian of English phraseological units in the texts of literary discourse

–Descriptive translation is based on denotative approach (the description of extra-lingual units).

 

2.2.1 Lexical transformations in the translation of phraseological units in literary discourse

Once an idiom has been recognized and interpreted correctly, the next step is to decide how to translate it into the TL. 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.

Baker (1992) asserts that the main problems posed by idiomatic and fixed expressions for translators relate to two principal areas: “The ability to recognize and interpret an idiom correctly; and the difficulties involved in rendering the various aspects of meaning that an idiom or a fixed expression conveys into the TL” [24, 65].

She also mentions, “The first difficulty that a translator comes across in being able to recognize that s/he is dealing with an idiomatic expression” [24,6]. She further states “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” (ibid, p.65). The main difficulties involved in translating idioms are summarized by Baker [24,68-71] as follows:

a) An idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the TL;

b) An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the TL, but its context of use may be different; the two expressions may have different connotations or they may not be pragmatically transferable.

c) An idiom may be used in the ST in both its literal and idiomatic senses at the same time. Unless the TL idiom corresponds to the SL idiom both in form and in meaning, the play on idiom cannot be successfully reproduced in the TT.

(d) The very convention of using idioms in written discourse, the contexts in which they can be used and their frequency of use may be different in the source and target languages.

 Even though Koonin and other scholars stress the lexical and grammatical stability of phraseological units, the figurative expressions are not completely frozen and usually allow certain structure transformations. PhUs can appear nearly as any element of syntax – from a phrase up to a full sentence, thus they have the syntactic structure similar to non-idiomatic elements. In fact, not all the idioms allow transformations, but the majority of them are transformable to a certain degree. The field of idioms’ transformation still lacks linguists’ attention. The scholars usually mention that possibility of transformation in their works, but only mentioning is not enough. Still, some scholars speak about ways of idioms transformation more extensively.

The reasons for lexical transformation are as follows:

Complete/partial discrepancies (lack of correspondence) in the lexical systems of the source language and target language. Many English words have no adequate counterparts in the Ukrainian language. 

Differences in the semiotic structure of the individual source language and target language units and the scope of meanings e.g. to sell: this is not the equivalent lacking words but in Ukraine we use usually sell goods and services. In the English speaking world we also sell immaterial objects (ideas, theories…): e.g. The new UN resolution on Iraq is carefully worded to be easily sold.

 According to Retsger, the types of lexical transformation are as follows:

Generalization

 Generalisation – is a subset of a word of narrower meaning for target language units of a broader meaning.

e.g. Charles was found guilty of high treason and beheaded (його старатили)

In the generalization of the features of the source language idiomatic expression: one’s own flesh and bone – рідна кровинка.

In the concretization of some features of the original: a voice in the wilderness – глас волаючого в пустелі; you can not catch an old bird with chaff – старого горобця на полові не впіймаєш.

Lexical substitution, or putting one word in place of another. It often results from the different semantic structures of the source language and target language words. Thus the word молодий is not always translated as young; rather, it depends on its word combinability. This translation equivalent is predetermined by the word combination it

is used in. This type of translation can hardly be called substitution, since it is a regular equivalent for this phrase.

Differentiation

Differentiation is a rather rare technique of substitution. It takes place when we substitute a word by another one with parallel meaning, denoting a similar species: bamboo curtain – железный занавес. Both bamboo and залізо (iron) are materials known for their hard nature. They are used figuratively to