AUTHOR’S COMMUNICATIVE INTENTION

PRAGMATIC PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION

№2.

TRANSLATION PRAGMATICS

CONCEPT OF PRAGMATICS

Semiotics as a sign study posits that each sign, including a language one, be viewed in three perspectives: syntactic, i.e. the relations of signs; semantic, i.e. the relation between a sign and a real situation; and pragmatic, i.e. the relations of the sign and its users.

Each utterance in a speech act is aimed at somebody. Combined together, words make up a syntactic scheme of the sentence. They refer to specific events, persons or objects, acquiring, thus, a sense.

There are two types of language sign users: an addresser (author) and an addressee (receptor). When speaking, an addresser has a communicative intention, or purpose of the speech act. An utterance has a communicative effect on the receptor: it can inform a receptor of something, or cause some feelings, etc. A communicative effect is virtual: e.g., an advertising text may persuade a receptor to buy something but the receptor may remain indifferent to the promotion. The potential effect of the utterance is its functional force. The communicative effect may override both literal sense and functional force and add further consequences depending on the situation. For example, Shut the dooris imperative in a sense. Its communicative intention may be to carry the force of a request, but the communicative effect could be to annoy the receiver. Communicative intention does not always coincide with the communicative effect. A vulgar anecdote, told to make the audience laugh, may have a contrary effect of disgusting the listeners.

In terms of linguistic pragmatics, developed by J. Austin, the three types of relations are locution (reference and the utterance sense), illocution (communicative intention and functional force), and perlocution (communicative effect).

The adequate translation is the one whose communicative effect is close to that of the source text; at best, its communicative effect coincides with the author’s communicative intention. Regarding this principle, P. Newmark introduced two types of translation – communicative translation,which attempts to produce on its receptors an effect as close as possible to that produced on the readers of the original, and semantic translation, which attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the second language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original. Taking these concepts into consideration, the sentence Beware of the dog! could be rendered as Осторожно, злая собака! (communicative translation) or Опасайтесь собаки! (semantic translation).

Close to translation adequacy is the concept of translation acceptability, developed by Israeli theorist of translation studies Gideon Toury. A translation is considered acceptable when the end-product is admitted into the target system. In other words, an acceptable translation is the text with language use in the natural situation.

In summary (подводя итог вышесказанному), translation pragmatics is a multi-aspect approach. Its analysis requires discussing the role of each of the translation situation components.

TEXT PRAGMATICS

The communicative effect of the source and target text upon the receptor should be similar. A lot depends on the functional style (register), genre, language and speech norms. Neither of them can be changed in translation because, ultimately, they make up the functional force of the text, so important from the point of view of pragmatics.

Disregard of the style or register produces a strange impact upon the receptor. Imagine a person declaring love in a businesslike manner – he will not be esteemed in the proper way.

Very often genre requirements of the text are so strict that they cannot but be met in translation, or the target text may be spoiled. For instance, when translating patents, one should observe all the elements of the structure and the necessary formulas and set phrases.

Shifting a set of language units leads to changes in text perception. For example, a scientific text is characterized by impersonal constructions, such as passive voice and indefinite structures. If a text is abundant in personal pronouns, interjections and other expressive means, it will never be considered as belonging to the scientific register.

Incorrect choice of words may result in comic consequences contrary to the expectations of the text author. A. Chuzhakin in his practicum-book “Мир перевода-2” quotes a number of signs and notices discovered in different countries. They are funny because of the violation of speech and English language norms (incorrect meanings and collocations). A notice in a Bucharest hotel lobby: The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable. An ad in a Greek tailor shop: Order your summer suit. Because is big rush we execute customers in strict rotation.

Thus, a translator should have a good command not only of the target language but also of the style and genre requirements, in particular of style and genre distinctive features in the two languages.

Sometimes the translator faces the contradiction between a text form and its function. In this case, the function predominates. It is the text function that should be kept in translation first and foremost, not the form. For example, the phatic function of formal greeting in English normally has the form of the interrogative sentence: How do you do? In Russian translation, the form is shifted by the imperative Здравствуйте to preserve the function.

In non-literal texts, it is necessary to distinguish between the functions of the source text and those of the translated texts. The reasons for commissioning or initiating a translation are independent of the reasons for the creation of any particular source text. This idea brought to life the so called Skopos theory developed in Germany in the late 1970s. The Greek word skopos is used as the technical term for the purpose of a translation. Hans Vermeer, the founder of the theory, postulates that it is the intended purpose of the target text that determines translation methods and strategies. The initiator’s, or client’s needs determine the skopos of the target text. The skopos of the target text should be specified before the translation process begins.

Depending on the skopos, the translation can be full or partial (restricted). This classification, in terms of the extent of translation, belongs to J. Catford. In full translation, every part of the source text is replaced by the target language text material. In partial translation, some part or parts of the source language text are left untranslated.

According to the commissioner’s needs, translation can be adapted (that is, adjusted to the target language culture), free, literal or it can be a faithful imitation of the source text.

AUTHOR’S COMMUNICATIVE INTENTION

A translator should be aware of the author’s purpose of introducing that or another element into the text. Some translation problems are associated with this requirement:

· Rendering regional dialect;

· Rendering social dialect;

· Rendering foreigners’ speech;

· Rendering substandard speech.

Why did the author use these elements, challenging the translation? To answer the question is to find a clue to the problem.

Aregional dialect may be introduced into the text either as a means of the author’s narration or as a means of a character’s speech characteristics. When used as a means of the author’s narration (e.g., V. Astafyev’s novels are written in Siberian dialect), the regional dialect is neutralized in translation, since it is inappropriate and misleading to substitute a Russian (say, Siberian) dialect with an English one (for example, Southern American). Of course, this can lead to the loss of local coloring in translation, but the miss can be compensated by using realia belonging to the region.

A regional dialect used as a means of a character’s traits (trait - a characteristic feature or quality distinguishing a particular person or thing) is normally compensated by a social dialect (sociolect). Dialectal words are colloquialisms, or slang, that is they evoke certain social associations. In “Pygmalion” by B. Shaw, London cockney spoken by Eliza Doolittle reveals a low-class girl. Cossacks ['kosæks] from “Тихий Дон” (“And Quiet Flows the Don”) by M. Sholokhov speak the dialect recognized as the speech of Southern Russia’s peasants. To translate this type of vocabulary, it is necessary to compensate it with stylistically marked, expressive colloquial words and structures, which lack a local ring.

Sociolect is used in the text for the stratifying characteristics of a character, that is, to show social class the person belongs to.

A translator is free to manipulate these locally and socially colored elements. S/he can make the compensation in some other part of the text. S/he can compensate phonetic peculiarities of speech with phraseological or syntactical units, etc. For example, in the beginning of the play, Eliza Doolittle speaks the following way: Nah then, Freddy: look wh’ y’ gowin’, deah. <…> Theres menners f’ yer! Te-oo banches o voylets trod into the mad. <…> Ow, eez ye-ooa son, is e? Wal, fewd dan y’ de-ooty bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel’s flahrzn than ran awy athaht pyin. Will ye-oo py me f’ them? [which means Now then, Freddy: look where you are going, dear. There’s manners for you. Two bunches of violets trodden into the mud. <…> Oh, he’s your son, isn’t he? Well, if you’d done your duty by him as a mother should, he’d know better than to spoil a poor girl’s flowers and then run away without paying. Will you pay me for them?] In her translation Y. Kalashnikova focused on depicting the sociolect through low colloquial words and phrases: Куда прешь, Фредди? Возьми глаза в руки! <…> А еще образованный! Все фиалочки в грязь затоптал. <…> А, так это ваш сын? Нечего сказать, хорошо вы его воспитали…Разве это дело? Раскидал у бедной девушки все цветы и смылся, как миленький! Теперь вот платите, мамаша!

When rendering a foreigner’s speech, it is necessary to take into account contrastive typology of the languages under consideration and traditions of the target language literature.

Regarding typology, a translator must know the contrastive features that discriminate one language from another and reveal a foreigner at once. For example, a typological mistake made by a foreigner speaking Russian is the usage of the verb aspect form. A German or English-speaking person tends to use analytical forms of the verb, since their mother tongue is analytical, unlike synthetic Russian. Therefore, it is typical for a German to say in Russian Я буду уходить instead of Я пойду.

Traditionally, German speech in Russian is marked by voiceless consonants. It is vividly shown in Pushkin’s «Капитанская дочка»: …в его речи сильно отзывался немецкий выговор. <…> «Поже мой! – сказал он. – Тавно ли, кажется, Андрей Петрович был еще твоих лет, а теперь вот уш какой у него молотец! Ах, фремя, фремя!»

Most typically, when translating foreign speech from English into Russian, a translator has to violate Russian rules of morphological and syntactic bonds between the words to show a foreign accent.

A non-traditional way of rendering Russian words in the speech of English teenagers was found by the translator of Anthony Burgess’s novel ”Заводной апельсин”, V. Boshniak. Burgess used Russian words, sometimes distorted, but written in Latin letters, to make the text sound strange for an English-speaking reader, to produce an ironic effect upon the receptor. This is mostly youth slang or neutral words, the meaning of which is incomprehensible for an English reader. To produce the same strange effect upon the translation reader, the translator borrowed a transliterated form of these Russian words and wrote them in Latin letters: Тут мы уже выступали этакими pai-malltshikami, улыбались, делали благовоспитанный zdrasting…

Substandard speech includes four-letter and other taboo words as well as agrammatical forms and constructions. To maintain communicative adequacy in translation, it is necessary to understand that, transferred from one culture into another, these forms may provide a different, often inappropriate response from the receptor if translated too literally. In English many words of this type (abundant in videos) sound less rude than they do in Russian. Therefore, they are often neutralized in Russian translation.

This tactic is vital in oral translation of negotiations, interviews and the like. If there happens to be a participant who prefers an obscene word, the professional etiquette will not allow an interpreter to translate it. An experienced interpreter will soften the expressiveness of the word. A good example was provided by R. Minyar-Beloruchev’s practice. As a simultaneous interpreter, he happened to be translating Nikita Khrushchev at the Communist Parties leaders’ meeting in Moscow (1959). When the leader of Albanian communist party began to criticize Khrushchev for reducing help to Albania, the latter blew his cool (выходить из себя; кипятиться), «И этот человек обос…л нас с ног до головы, туды его мать!» What should a simultaneous interpreter do in his booth? Minyar-Beloruchev, who was translating into French, used a milder phrase, of the kind “this man has thrown mud at me from head to toe”. At first this translation infuriated the General Secretary’s assistant, but in some minutes Krushchev sent his thanks to the interpreter, as he did not want his rude expressions to be heard in all the languages.

Agrammatical phrases purposefully used by the author to create a character can be compensated by other agrammatical forms typical of the speech in the target language or by colloquial structures, also typical of uneducated people. An example from “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” illustrates the case: Tom and Huck Finn are wading through (пробираться; идти с трудом) the graveyard: “Hucky, do you believe the dead people like it for us to be here?” Huckleberry whispered: “I wisht I knowed. It’s awful solemn like, ain’t it?” “I bet it is.” In the Russian translation, Huck’s incorrect forms are compensated by low colloquial syntactic constructions:

- Как ты думаешь, Гек, мертвецы не обидятся, что мы сюда пришли,

- Я почем знаю. А страшно как, правда?

- Еще бы не страшно.

4. COMMUNICATIVE EFFECT UPON THE RECEPTOR

A target text should convey the same information as the source text and produce the same impact on the receptor as does the source text. To get full information from the text, the receptor must have adequate background knowledge. This knowledge may not be enough if the receptor is not well acquainted with the source language culture. New realia (real-life facts and material used in teaching), habits and customs are usually commented upon by a translator.* Sometimes a translator uses commentary notes in the text, but they are inconvenient, as they distract the reader’s attention. It is also possible to place a commentary in the footnote. But most typically, explication is given after the text or, more rarely, before it.

Besides extended commentaries, a translator can use a technique of explicatory translation: вчера мы купили коробку «Птичьего молока». – We bought a box of candies “Bird Milk” yesterday. Irrelevant information can be reduced from the text or generalized, if its explanation distracts the reader’s attention: “I’m very busy,” Ollie answered as he sat in a worn Naugahyde [a brand of artificial leather. –N.N.]chair. (Grisham) – «Я очень занят,»- ответил Олли, сидя в потрепанном дерматиновом кресле.

[Naugahyde - a brand of artificial leather.]

Substitutions, the aim of which is to make the text closer and more comprehensible for the receptor, are not infrequent in translation. A good example of substitution is provided by V. Nabokov’s Аня в стране чудес, a translation of Alice in Wonderland by L. Carroll. Addressing the tale to a young reader, Nabokov replaced some English realia with their Russian analogues (for example, when Alice grew so tall that her feet seemed to be almost out of sight, she started planning how she would send them presents to the following address:

Alice’s Right Foot, Esq.

Hearthrug,

near the Fender

(=каминная решетка);

Nabokov simulated a Russian address:

Госпоже Правой Ноге Аниной,

Город Коврик

Паркетная губерния),

and changed the names into Russian (Alice – Аня, Mary-Anne – Маша, Pat – Петька). He even used Russian poetry allusions instead of English nursery parodies written by Carroll:

“ ‘You are old, father William,’ the young man said,

‘And your hair has become very white;

And yet you incessantly stand on your head –

Do you think, at your age, it is right?’

“ ‘In my youth,’ Father William replied to his son,

I feared it might injure the brain;

But now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,

Why, I do it again and again.’ ” (a parody on R. Southey)

These lines are generally unfamiliar to a Russian child. To make a Russian reader enjoy the parody, Nabokov alluded to Lermontov lines, known by every Russian schoolchild:

- Скажи-ка, дядя, ведь недаром

Тебя считают очень старым:

Ведь, право же, ты сед

И располнел ты несказанно.

Зачем же ходишь постоянно

На голове? Ведь, право ж, странно

Шалить на склоне лет!