Lexical transformations Grammatical transformations Lexico-grammatical transformations

LECTURE 8
TRANSFORMATIONS IN TRANSLATION
PLAN:

1. 
   Lexical transformations
   
2. 
   Grammatical transformations
   
3. 
   Lexico-grammatical transformations
   

KEY WORDS: Handling, context-free words, context-bound words, equivalent-lacking words, translator's false friends, complete lexical correspondence, partial lexical correspondence, absence of lexical correspondence.
In previous lectures, we have repeatedly said that the object of translation is not a language system, but a specific text in another language, on the basis of which another text is created.
But we know that no language repeats another, all languages have differences in semantics, syntax, etc.
These discrepancies require the translator to be able to perform numerous and qualitatively diverse interlanguage transformations, that is, the so-called translation transformations.
Translation transformations are divided into lexical, grammatical and lexico-grammatical types.
In order to attain equivalence, despite the differences in formal and semantic system of two languages, the translator is obliged to do various linguistic transformations. Their aims are to ensure that the text imparts all the knowledge inferred in the original text, without violating the rules of the language it is translated into. There are 3 types of translation transformations in translation theory: lexical, grammatical and lexico-grammatical. The following 3 elementary types are seemed most suitable for describing all kinds of lexical transformations:

1. 
   I. Lexical substitution;
   
2. 
   II. Supplementation/ Addition;
   
3. 
   III. Omissions / dropping
   

1. Lexical substitution, or putting one word in place of another. In substitutions of lexical units words and stable word combinations are replaced by others which are not their equivalents. It often results from the different semantic structures of the source language and target language words. Thus the word молодой - ёш is not always translated as young; rather, it depends on its word combinability: молодой картофель is equal to new potatoes – янги картошка. 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.