Usachev V.A., Samoylova Y.A.

Donetsk National  University of Economics and Trade named after Mykhailo Tugan-Baranovsky

Syntactic transformation

In this article I will try to generalize the results of researches as to syntactic transformations.

V. Nashumayev analyzed texts from novels by S. Maugham “The razor’s edge” and J. Updike “The Centaur” and then translated into Russian. A linguist made calculations general amount of syntactic transformations with some reasons. The results of research are shown in the following table.

General amount of transformations	%
1. Change in the composition of members of the sentence	66%
2. Replacement of a simple sentence by a complex one	11%
3. Replacement of a complex sentence by a simple one	8%
4. Replacement of a type of a syntactical connection	7%
5. Replacement of the two-part sentence by a one-part one	3%
6. Division of a sentence	4%
7.Unification sentences	2%

At this table we can see that the most common transformation in analyzed fiction texts appeared change in the composition of members of the sentence – more than a half of all the transformations. I want to consider the main basic types of syntactical transformation in a fiction translation.

1. Change in the composition of members of the sentence

Replacement of members of the sentence leads to a reorganization of its syntactic structure. This occurs while replacing of parts of speech.

One of the most common transformations is replacement of the English passive construction by an active Russian one. For example:

He was met by his sister.

Его встретила сестра.

Such transformations (“passive” – “active”) we can see very often like inversion while translating from Russian into English, from “active” into “passive”.

We can very often see that the subject of an English sentence is replaced by an adverbial modifier in a Russian sentence; this takes place for example when the English subjects are at the beginning of a sentence. For example:

The room was too damn hot.

В комнате стояла страшная жара.

In this example we changes noun “жара” on adjective “hot”.

2. Replacement of a simple sentence by a complex one

Such changes can be caused by only grammatical reasons (absence of direct), for example:

… I like watching her dance.

… Я люблю смотреть, как она танцует.

In other cases such transformations are caused by stylistic reasons:

They looked sort of poor.

Видно было, что они довольно бедны.

3. Replacement of a complex sentence by a simple one

This type of syntactical transformation is caused mainly we replace the complex sentence by to the simple one by normative stylistic reasons. For example:

It was so dark I couldn’t see her.

Я её в темноте не мог видеть.

Often when people translate English phrase who have “it is” ,“was” or “that” on Russian language they translated how simple sentences. For example:

It was just before the end of the war that she fell out of love with him.

А незадолго до войны Джулия его разлюбила.

In this example we can see the supplementary adverbial clause.

4.Members of the sentence

English sentences can contain too much information combining some relatively ideas. This is so hard to keep this construction when we translated sentences to Russian. Make aguipmans with this side of the work

5.Unification of the sentences

Unification of the sentences presupposes the transformation of two (or more) independent sentences into one sentence. For example:

That was a long time ago. It seemed like fifty years ago.

Это было давно – казалось, что прошло лет пятьдесят.

6. Replacement of a two-part sentence by a one-part sentence

Being a very rare type of transformation it is caused in free translation by system-conditional reasons. An English sentence usually demands availability in its structure of both principal parts. In Russian a two-part sentence is not obligatory, for example:

I’m terribly sorry you should think that of me, Dr. Macphail.

Мне очень грустно что вы считаете меня таким, доктор Макфэйл.

7. Replacement of type of syntactic connection

Both in English and in Russian sentences can be joined with one another as by means of coordinating as well as by means of subordinating connection. For example:

I didn’t sleep too long, because I think it was only around ten o’clock when I woke up.

Спал я недолго, кажется, было часов десять, когда я проснулся.

In the following example with the transformation of a composite sentence into a simple sentence predicates:

Stradlater kept whistling “Song oа India” while he shaved.

Стрэйдлейтер брился и насвистывал «Индийскую песню».

8. Change of the actual segmentation of the sentence while translating can also be used.

For example:

What muga men are.

До чего же мужчины глупы!

While translating the following phenomenon occurs: the order of parts of a complex sentence - the main and subordinate clause can be changed. Example:

In the ever gets married, his own wife’ll probably call him «Ackley».

Наверное, и жена будет звать его «Экли», если только он когда-нибудь женится.

In English the subordinate clause precedes the main one but in Russian translation it is on the contrary.

The silver saucer clattered when he replaced the pitcher.

Он быстро поставил кувшин, даже серебряная подставка звякнула.

Based on the above, we can make a conclusion, that in the translation of any kind of text, translator is forced to constantly resort to translation and grammatical transformations. An important feature of each language is the ratio of expression in therein specific words and in some cases no dictionary means. From this it’s follows that the lexical values in one language can be grammatically in another language and on the contrary. As a result of my study was possible to identify the main reasons causing this type of translation transformation.

References:

1. Бархударов Л. С. Язык и перевод. – М. : Международные отношения, 1975. –238 с.

2. Задорнова В. Я. Восприятие и интерпретация художественного текста. – М. : Высш. шк., 1984.- 152с.

3. Иванов А. О. Камень преткновения – грамматический род. // Теория и практика перевода. – К., 1987. – с. 99-104.

4. Комиссаров В. Н. Теория перевода. – М. : Высш. шк., 1990.- 253с.

5. Левитская Т., Фитрман А., Почему нужны гамматические трансормации при переводе? // Тетради переводчика. – М. : Высш. шк., 1971.- Вып. 8– с. 12- 22

6. Левитская Т. Р., Фитрман А. Пособие по переводу с английского языка на русский. – М. : Высш. шк., 1973.- 135 с.