Cognitive interpretation of phraseological units

Partial equivalents, in turn, are divided into the following groups:
- partial lexical equivalent.⁷
A.V.Kunin , like V.N.Komissarov , divide them into two subgroups:
1. Russian equivalents of English phraseological units, coinciding in meaning, stylistic orientation and similar in figurativeness, but somewhat diverging in lexical composition. The following turnovers can serve as an example :
- light as a feather - “light as a feather”;
- put by for rainy day - " postpone on the black day ";
- a dog in the manger - "dog in the forest ".
- like a tired butterfly - “ like a sleepy fly ”;
- as flies to sugar - “ how flies on the honey ."
as well as some proverbs:
- hawks will not pick hawks ' eyes out - "a crow will not peck out a crow's eye";
- don't count your chicken before they are hatched - " chickens on autumn consider ."
2. Russian equivalents of English phraseological units, coinciding with them in meaning, in stylistic orientation, but different in figurativeness. This phenomenon VN Komissarov calls analog. The following turnovers are an example:
- to be born with a silver spoon in one's mouth - " to be born in a shirt ";
- whenpigsfly - “like a cancer hangs on a mountain”, “after a rain on Thursday”;
- he that sleeps with dogs must rise up with fleas
- put the cat near the goldfish bowl - " empty goat town ";
- all is fish that comes to his net - " good time ";
- thedogthatfatcheswillcarry - "he who gossips with you will gossip about you"
- we don't kill a pig every day
- partial grammatical equivalent.⁸
This group includes Russian equivalents of English phraseological units, coinciding with them in meaning, in stylistic coloring and figurativeness, but differing in the number in which the noun stands, or the order of words:
Discrepancy in number
-fish _ in troubled waters - "to fish in muddy water ";
- play in somebody's hands - " play the hand ";
- catcholdbirds withchaff - "to guide an old sparrow on the chaff".
Divergence in word order
- alliswellthatendswell - "everything is well that ends well";
- a hungry fox dreams about chicken - "hungry fox dreams about chicken " ;
- strike while the iron is hot
III Tracing or literal translation of phraseological units in the presence of a full or partial equivalent.
Despite the presence of a full or partial equivalent, stable combinations of words sometimes have to be translated literally. Such a translation is especially important when the image contained in a phraseological unit is not indifferent to the understanding of the text, and replacing it with another way does not give a sufficient effect. For example : thelion'sshare - "the lion's share";
- loveme - lovemydog - “love me - love my dog too” (i.e. everything connected with me);
- crawl along like a turtle
Literal translation is often used in the presence of extended metaphor, phraseological synonyms, wordplay and puns. turnover care killed a cat is translated "worries do not lead to good"; "It's not work that makes you old, it's care." However, the existence of a contrast in the following passage from Shakespeare requires a literal translation:
Claudio what! Courage, man! What care killed a cat , thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care (Shakespeare, “Much Ado About nothing”, act 5, scene 1).
- Claudio , cheer up, my friend! Although they say that care can kill a cat, you have such a lively disposition that you can kill care.
agree with the point of view of S. Vlakhov and S. Florin , who argue that a prerequisite for tracing is sufficient motivation of the meaning of a phraseological unit by the meanings of its components. Those. Tracing is possible only when a literal translation can convey to the reader the true content of the entire phraseological unit (and not the meaning of its constituent parts). This is feasible, firstly , in relation to figurative phraseological units, mainly phraseological units that have retained a fairly fresh metaphor. In true idioms - phraseological fusions - the figurative basis is almost not perceived, and tracing paper from them seems meaningless, for example :
let the cat out of the bag - " shatter the secret ";
enough to make a cat laugh - " chicken laugh ";
waitforcattojump - "take a wait-and-see position";
thatcockwon'tfight - "this number will not work."
Secondly , a number of proverbs are subjected to tracing, which do not have subtext: extremes meet .
Thirdly , some stable comparisons can also be conveyed in tracing paper, but only after making sure that the carrier of the TL will perceive them correctly: the hare soul, for example, will be understandable for those peoples whose hare is a symbol of cowardice; but among the Indians this animal symbolizes wisdom, so that in India the translation of tracing paper will be incomprehensible to the reader. English bite the hand that feeds you (“biting the hand that feeds you”) evokes the idea of ingratitude; English proverb fish and visitors smell in three days can also be translated in tracing paper: “fish and guests go rotten in three days”, such a translation, despite the presence of subtext (“hospitality must not be abused”), will be understood by everyone. Otherwise, than tracing paper, which here comes close to lexical-phraseological and free translation and you cannot translate typical English proverbs such as hygiene rules: After dinner sleep a while, after supper walk a mile can take, for example, this form: ate - go for a walk" [Vlakhov, Florin, 1980: 195].
Literalism. Tracing is fundamentally different from literalism in that tracing is a justified literal translation, while literalism is a literal translation that distorts the meaning of the translated statement. For example : in a bee line - " straight ";
dog my cats! - " Damn it !" ;
seetheelephant - "gain life experience";
toeatcrow - "admit your mistakes";
to have butterflies in one's stomach - " nervous from fear ".
If you translate these phraseological units word for word, then you get nonsense, since literalism violates the linguistic form, i.e. strives for linear line-by-line mechanical replacement of the elements of the source text.
V “Overtonal” translation is a kind of occasional equivalent used to translate a phraseological unit only in this context. I.Ya. Retsker calls this a "contextual" substitution. It should be taken into account that the occasional nature of this equivalent is determined solely by the peculiarities of the context, and in another context, the translation may not be “overtone”, but a full or partial equivalent.
Tohaveabeeinone'sbonnet means "to carry around with an idea", "to be with a whim", but this translation must be replaced by "overtonal" in the following passage:
Everybody knew that “young Mont” had a bee in his bonnet about children immigration ( J.Galsworthy . “Swan Song”, p. 1, ch.12)
Everyone knew very well that the immigration of children is the strong point of "Young Mont ".
The descriptive translation of a phraseological unit is reduced, in essence, to the translation of not the phraseological unit itself, but its interpretation, as is often the case with units that do not have equivalents in the TL. These can be explanations, comparisons, descriptions, interpretations - all means that convey the content of the phraseological unit in the clearest and most concise form. This type of translation is applicable to proverbs and sayings. In various versions of descriptive translation, the author's creative approach to the proposed material is most fully reflected. In this case, the most interesting is the translation of proverbs from Russian into English, where in some cases components of an English proverb or saying are used, for example : you can’t hide an awl in a bag - “ truthwillout ” (cf. English proverb - “ murderwillout ”)
Another type of descriptive translation also attracts attention, in which the imagery of a Russian proverb or saying is fully or partially conveyed, for example: “for what I bought, for that I sell” - I sell my goods at the price I 've paid for them .
Many descriptive translations are rhymed, for example :
" Fools are unwritten " - fools are fools, they observe no rules;
“ Visiting is good , home is better ” - East or West, home is best;
“ knows the cat whose meat is eaten ” - well knows the kitten, whose meat is eaten.
Also, descriptive translation is applicable when explaining the meaning of phraseological units using a free combination of words, for example :
The next evening Rollie told me that everything was fixed ud with the master mechanic, but he be expected to buy a pig in a poke . He wanted to look over me first to see that I was sound in body and reasonably sound in mind. (J. Conroy , “ Thedesinherited ”)
The next evening , Rolly told me that there was a full agreement with the chief engineer, but it could not be assumed that he would hire a complete stranger. He wanted to look at me first and make sure that I was healthy physically and at least relatively healthy mentally.
When translating a phraseological unit as a nationally colored unit, following VN Komissarov , we single out three main types of correspondences to the figurative phraseological units of the original.
In the first type of correspondences, the whole complex of values of the converted unit is stored. In this case, the TL has a figurative phraseological unit that coincides with the phraseological unit of the original both in direct and figurative meaning. As a rule, such correspondences are found in international phraseological units borrowed by both languages from some third language, ancient or modern. For example : the game is not worth the candles , to play into somebody 's hands . The use of such a correspondence most fully reproduces a foreign phraseological unit.
In the second type of correspondences, the same figurative meaning is transmitted to the TL with the help of a different image, while maintaining all other components of the semantics of the phraseological unit (partial lexical equivalent in the terminology of A.V. Kunin ).
For example : toturnbacktheclock - "turn back the wheel of history";
the black sheep - "black sheep " ;
to flog a dead horse - " pull a cat tail ";
to get up on the wrong side of the bed - " stand up ";
as flies to sugar - " kakmukhamed ".
The use of correspondences of this type provides a fairly high degree of equivalence, provided that the Russian phraseological unit does not have a pronounced emotional coloring.
The third type of correspondence is created by tracing a figurative unit in a foreign language. For example :
sell the bear's skin before one has caught the bear - "to share the skin of an unkilled bear ";
ifyourunaftertwoharesyou'llcatchneither - "If you chase two hares, you won't catch one."
Correspondence of this type is applicable only if the image in the original unit is sufficiently “transparent”, and its reproduction in translation will allow the reader to understand the transmitted figurative meaning. In this case, if the phraseological fusion is used in the original, where the connection between the figurative and direct meaning is not clear enough, then the tracing of the image will lead to the destruction of the meaning of the phraseological unit. Therefore, sometimes it is necessary to completely abandon the use of phraseological correspondence and be content with describing the main (figurative) meaning of the translated combination. For example :
to be on high horse - " hold arrogantly ";
to have butterflies in stomach - " nervous fear ";
startahare - "distract the speaker from the topic of conversation";
to have a frog in one's throat - " hoarse ".
Tracing of images is widely used to convey the national-ethnic component of the meaning of a phraseological unit. Tracing papers dating back to antiquity, the Bible, and in general to any source of the European cultural and historical area. For example :
Noah'sark - "Noah's Ark";
Cheshirecat - " Cheshire Cat";
ATrojanhorse - "Trojan horse";
Valaam'sass - "Valaam's donkey";
Kilkennycats - " Kilkenny cats".
At the same time, we can note that the translator needs to take care that the image is understandable to the reader (and for this it is necessary to know that the expression Kilkenny cats goes back to the legend of the bitter struggle between Kilkenny and Irishtowns in the 17th century, which led to their ruin), and, if necessary, provide fullness of understanding with the help of appropriate notes and footnotes.
Often the translator has the opportunity to choose between the types of phraseological correspondences. Depending on the conditions of the context, he may prefer the existing image in the TL due to the loss of the national-ethnic component. For example fight like Kilkenny cats we can translate as “fight not for life, but for death”, “fight like Kilkenny cats”; a cat has nine lives - “cats are tenacious”, “a cat has nine lives”. Or vice versa, to abandon the use of phraseological units due to differences in emotional and stylistic characteristics. For example, Can the leopard change his spots ? - "How can a leopard get rid of spots on his skin?".
The analysis of linguistic literature allows us to conclude:
- for each pair of languages, a particular theory of translation describes the system of phraseological units in the FL and their correspondence in the TL and formulates recommendations for the translator on the possibility and expediency of using correspondences of each type in a specific context.
- There are many ways to translate phraseological units, however, we must remember that the real process of translating phraseological units is not limited to the selection of “equivalent language correspondences”, but is a complex process in which, in addition to the translator’s own skill, both the translation customer and a set of cultural knowledge of potential recipients, which the translator focuses on, and the nature of the relationship of contacting cultures, and many other factors that affect the quality and acceptability of the translation.