Жукенова Гульден Сериковна, магистрант

Карагандинский государственный университет им. Е.А.Букетова

Peculiarities of translation of phraseological units

Annotation

In this article, the author tried to analyze the methods of translation of phraseological units. At the same time, the translation strategies were used in general and the possible transformations of the meaning of the phraseological units of the translated text .

Phraseology as a science emerged in the early 20^th century. The phraseology is indispensably related to psychology. This is because the emergence of phraseological units is determined by the human psyche.

The English language has a thousand-year history. During this time, it has accumulated a large number of expressions that people have found appropriate, felicitous and beautiful. Consequently there appeared a special layer of language – phraseology which is a collection of fixed expressions with an independent meaning.

Learning of English language is widespread in our country. Good knowledge of a language, including English, is impossible without the knowledge of its phraseology. Knowledge of phraseology greatly facilitates reading both publicistic literature and belles-lettres. Reasonable use of phraseological units makes the speech more idiomatic.

Phraseology is a treasury of language. Phraseological units reflect the history of the nation, the uniqueness of its culture and way of life. Phraseological units often have bright national character. English phraseology has many international phraseological units along with purely national ones. English phraseological fund is a complex conglomerate of native and borrowed phraseological units with a clear predominance of the first ones. Some phraseological units preserve archaic elements - the representatives of previous eras.

Phraseological units – it is one of the linguistic universals, since there are no languages without phraseological units. English phraseology is very rich, and it has a centuries-long history.

Phraseology is an extremely complex phenomenon; its study requires its own method of research, and also the use of data from other sciences - lexicology, grammar, stylistics, phonetics, history, and history of a language, philosophy, logic and geography.

For the learners of English as a foreign language, this layer represents the difficulty in the process of learning, but once they master the phraseology they begin to speak as English people, they understand them perfectly; their speech readiness sharply rises. We can briefly and accurately express our thought, being confident in the correctness of its expression.

The objectives of phraseology as a linguistic discipline include a comprehensive study of phraseological fund of a particular language. Important aspects of the study of this science are: the stability of phraseological units, phraseology consistency and semantic structure of phraseological units, their origin and basic functions. Especially difficult branch of phraseology is the translation of phraseological units. It requires a lot of experience in the field of research of this discipline.

Phraseological unities - these are such fixed combinations of words where the signs of semantic separability of components are clearly preserved along with the presence of common figurative meaning: to spill the beans – выдать секрет; to burn bridges – сжигать мосты; to have other fish to fry – иметь дела поважнее; to throw dust into smb.’s eyes – заговаривать зубы; to burn one’s fingers – обжечься на чем-либо; to throw mud at smb. – поливать грязью; to be narrow in the shoulders – не понимать шуток; to paint the devil blacker than he is – сгущать краски; to put a spoke in smb.’s wheel – вставлять палки в колеса ; to hold one’s cards close to one’s chest – держать что-либо в секрете, не разглашать что-либо, помалкивать, ~ держать язык за зубами; to gild refined gold – золотить чистое золото, стараться улучшить, украсить что-либо и без того достаточно хорошее; to paint the lily – подкрасить цвет лилии, пытаться улучшить или украсить что-либо не нуждающееся в улучшении.

Phraseological combinations – these are chunks of language. They include words both with free and phraseologically associated meaning: a bosom friend – закадычный друг, a pitched battle – ожесточенная схватка, (to have) a narrow escape – спастись чудом, to frown one’s eyebrows – насупить брови, Adam’s apple – адамово яблоко, a Sisyphean labor – Сизифов труд, rack one’s brains – ломать голову (усиленно думать, вспоминать), to pay attention to smb. – обратить на кого-либо внимание, etc.

Phraseological unit is a fixed combination. It has its own, typical only for it, categorial or defining characteristics, which enable it to be allocated into an independent unit, and to be distinguished from other language units.

In terms of semantic unity of components phraseological units are divided into three groups:

1. Phraseological fusions or idioms – fixed inseparable combinations; common meaning does not depend on the meaning of their constituent words: kick the bucket - умереть, протянуть ноги.

2. Phraseological unities - fixed combinations of words where the signs of semantic separability of components are preserved along with the presence of common figurative meaning: to have other fish to fry - иметь дела поважнее.

3. Phraseological combinations - chunks of language which consist of words both with free and phraseologically associated meaning: rack one's brains - ломать голову (усиленно думать).

Translation of phraseological units from English into other languages presents considerable difficulties. This is due to the fact that many of them are bright, figurative, neat and multivalent. During the translation it is necessary not only to convey the meaning of a phraseological unit, but also to display its figurativeness, and in the meantime not to miss its stylistic function. It is also necessary to take into account the context peculiarities.

Communication of the meaning of phraseological units into English is a very difficult task. Phraseology plays very important role in a language due to its semantic abundance, figurativeness, brevity and brightness. It gives speech expressiveness and originality. Phraseological units are especially widely used in spoken language, in belles-lettres and political literature.

The interpreter should give the meaning of a phraseological unit and to reflect its figurativeness; to find a similar expression in English and in the meantime not to miss its stylistic function. If there is no identical figure in English language the translator has to find "approximate analogue".

Phraseological equivalents can be complete or partial.

Complete phraseological equivalents are those ready English equivalents, which coincide with the Russian in meaning, lexical composition, figurativeness, stylistic nuance and grammatical structure; for example: почить (почивать) на лаврах – rest on one’s laurels, соль земли – the salt of the earth, играть с огнем – to play with fire, час настал (пробил) – one’s hour has struck, нет дыма без огня – there is no smoke without fire, трудолюбивый как пчела – busy as a bee.

Sometimes, as a distinctive feature of phraseological units can be the frequency in usage of a particular idiomatic expression in speech; in case it is violated the used phraseological unit may give a speech unusual or even old-fashioned character. The interpreter should always keep it in mind.

There has been given a lot of attention to the translation of phraseological units in theoretical works, in every textbook for translation, especially the translation of belles-lettres, publicistic, social and political literature, in many publications on theory of phraseology and comparative linguistics. Related problems are regarded differently; there are recommended various methods of translation and there are divergent views. And it is perhaps in the order of things: here cannot be a unique, standard, one for every occasion solution. Different situations may require different approaches. That is why it is almost impossible to replace a human translator with machine or computer. The computer will not be able to feel itself as a part of a culture in the language of written text, cannot be a part of this language and to give the only possible and at the same time unique variant. Human, and only human is able to integrate into his thinking the whole huge set of rules, regulations and customs of foreign culture, saying in a word the culture-specific concepts, and to state the thoughts of others as clear and fresh as they were made, using all the power and abundance of his own language.