Non-phraseological method

 

Non-phraseological method of idiom translation conveys phraseological units with the help of lexical ways, but not phraseological ways in target language. This method is used when it is known that there are not any phraseological equivalents and analogues. It is difficult to name such translation of full value; there are always some losses, such as figurativeness, expressivity, connotation and aphoristic character. It makes interpreters use non-phraseological method of idiom translation only in case of emergency. In this part we would like to give examples of these types of idiom translation in the English, Russian and Italian languages.

Non-phraseological method consists of four ways of idiom translation: calking, antonymous translation, combined translation and explication or descriptive translation.

It is well known that some types of translation, such as calking and explication, are more widely used than antonymous and combined translations. We will start with calking way of idiom translation.

    Calking or literally translation of phraseological units is used in cases when it is impossible to use another ways of translation, saving semantic-stylistic and expressive-emotional meanings of phraseological expression. We can use calking if the literal translation could bring the sense and the idea of an expression to a reader and the native speaker of target language could understand the sense of phraseological units correctly. Take for instance the phraseological expression keep your cool – to control your temper and stay calm in a difficult situation, which is translated into the Russian language «сохранять спокойствие, хладнокровие», and into the Italian language as «mantenere la calma». In both languages they were literally translated, i.e. using the calking way of idiom translation. Or for example another phraseological unit which was translated with calking is over my dead body – used to emphasize that one completely opposes something, into the Italian language it is translated as «dovrai passare sul mio cadaver» and into Russian – «только через мой труп».

    Calking gives us a great opportunity to avoid peculiarities, which could appear in original. For example, the English phraseological expression it is raining cats and dogs, which is usually translated as «дождь льет как из ведра». But it is differently translated in combination with other words; a good example is it was raining cats and a little puppy got on my page. It would be better to translate the expression using parenthesis, for example, был такой дождь , будто , как говорят англичане , с неба сыпались кошки и собаки , и один маленький щенок упал мне на страницу. Such type of translation is used when the original expression is a little changed with additional components.

Unfortunately not all Russian phraseological units could be translated into English with calking. We have given an example of the wrong and curious translation of the Russian phraseological unit «кузькина мать», when the interpreter translated it literally. But we cannot say the same about translation into the Italian language; it had a great influence on the Russian language in the Renaissance period. A lot of words in the Russian language were adopted from Italian, which have become our native words nowadays. From this fact, we may say that as we use the Italian words in our language, it becomes easier to translate phraseological units from the Russian language into Italian.

The other way of translation of phraseological unit is antonymous translation. Antonymous translation is a lexical-grammatical transformation, in which affirmative form in original is substituted into negative form in translation, or vice versa from negative form into affirmative. For example: to keep one’s head – remain calm, which is translated into Russian «не терять головы», to keep one’s head above water – avoid succumbing to difficulties, typically debt is translated as «не влезать в долги», to keep one’s pecker up – remain cheerful, which has two ways of translation into the Russian language «не падать духом» and «держать нос выше».

The essence of antonymous translation of phraseological expressions consists in expressing the idea of phraseological unit though the opposite meaning with some changes in the structure. We would like to give an example of the Russian phraseological unit «не сходить с языка» which is translated with antonymous translation into the English language, i.e. to be on somebody’s tongue all the time, but into Italian the expression is translated with a little difference – ce l'ho sulla punta della lingua which is literally translated as «быть на кончике языка».

Or for example the expression «грош цена» is translated into the English language like it is not worth a brass farthing which literally means «не стоить медного фартинга» and into Italian the expression is translated as non vale un soldo bucato, that is «не стоить медных денег». But these translations are connected with Russian, English and Italian cultures, values of people. In Russian culture the small charge was «грош» and in English the small charge was farthing. We see a little difference in translation; it is used for explaining the sense of the expression. If we translate the expression with the Russian variant, not all English and Italian people will understand the expression; the reason is that such charge was used long ago.

Another example of antonymous translation is «первый блин комом», it is fully connected with Russian traditions, and foreigners do not know what the word «блин» means. This means it is impossible to translate it with calking, but it would be better to translate it with antonymous translation or explain the sense of the expression. The expression is translated into English as practice makes perfect, but the translation differs from the Italian language – non tutte le ciambelle riescono col buco, which is literally translated like «не все кренделя получаются с дыркой». This expression is connected with knot-shaped biscuit preparing, it was difficult to cook this biscuit because of pastry, it was going up fast and not always you could get a roll with a whole lot of nothing.

This type of idiom translation is used not often, but in some cases when we do not remember the translation of a phraseological unit we can use the antonymous translation for conveying the same sense of the expression. For example: to keep one’s pecker up, which is translated into the Russian language «не падать духом» and its antonymous translation is chins up – «выше нос». They have the same sense, but they are different in translation. Sometimes this translation is used in showing the differences in cultures and traditions. And this brings us to the combined translation.

Combined translation is used in cases when the Russian analogue does not convey the sense of the English phraseological expression or if it has the other specific color of place and time. It consists of all types of idiom translation which we have mentioned above, i.e. we give the calking translation then we use the descriptive translation and the Russian analogue for comparison. Take for instance:  to carry coals to Newcastle, which is translated as «возить уголь в Ньюкасл». Newcastle was a leading centre for coal mining and manufacturing in the 19^th century, i.e. the Russian analogue of the expression is «ехать в Тулу со своим самоваром». Tula is a small town in Russia where the first samovar appeared. But this expression is differently translated into the Italian language portare legna al bosco, i.e. «возить дрова в лес». We want to emphasize that the sense of these phraseological units is the same, but they are different in translation.

There is the other good example of combined translation, Rome was not built in a day which is literally translated as «Рим был построен не за один день». In the Russian language the expression would not be translated literally, because in the Russian language there is the same equivalent – «Москва не сразу построилась». At this example we could emphasize that combined translation consists of calking and descriptive translation.

But there are some phraseological units which could be translated differently for people with different nations. Take for instance, the Russian phraseological unit «в чужой монастырь со своим уставом не ходят», which is translated into the English language as when in Rome do as the Romans do. But we could change the name of the city, for example when in Paris do as the Parisians do that is «если вы находитесь в Париже, поступайте как парижане», such translation would be classed as combined translation, because it consists of calking, descriptive translation and analogue. But we cannot say the same for the translation into the Italian language. The Italian people use only descriptive translation for expressing the idea and the sense of this phraseological unit, take for instance paese che vai or usanza che trovi which have the same idea and translates into Russian as «поступай также как и все люди в этом месте». As we see all these translations have the same idea, the same sense, and people could understand such type of translation. But we need to remember that it would be better to translate this phraseological expression with naming the city or the country from which our client is. As we can mention combined translation is more connected with cultures and traditions, this means we must take into account the name of the country from which our client came from.

But the majority of phraseological units, which are connected with culture, traditions, popular belief etc, cannot be translated with combined translation. A good example is the Russian phraseological expression «сибирское здоровье», if we translate it literally we will get «Siberian health». The origin of this expression is explained as Siberia is a vast region of Russia, noted for the severity of its winters, the expression «сибирское здоровье» describes a person with a good health, who is very strong and never catch a disease. But American and British could not understand the sense of this expression, because they do not say «Canadian health» or «The northern Irish health». They explain the sense and the idea of this expression with descriptive translation, i.e. healthy man, disease-free. And this brings us to descriptive translation.

Explication or descriptive translation is a lexical-grammatical transformation, in which the lexical unit in original language is substituted for word-combination, explaining the sense of the phraseological expression in target language. With the help of explication we could convey the sense of any expression with no direct equivalents in the other language. It could be explanation, comparison, description, and commentary – all methods for sending the sense of phraseological units. Good examples are, to rob Peter to pay Paul, this phraseological unit does not have any analogues in the Russian language, but it shows us the sense and the idea of this phraseological unit, which is translated as «отдать одни долги сделав новые». Another example is to burn the candle on both ends, which is literally translated as «зажечь свечу с обоих концов», there is no analogue in Russian. Into the Russian language it is translated as «работать с раннего утра и до позднего вечера». With this expression we could see how different cultures and traditions are if we compare them.

Phraseological expressions not only improve our speech, but also offer many difficulties for interpreters; because they cannot remember at once how to translate a phraseological unit correctly. So they do not translate literally or try to find an equivalent in English, they translate primordial Russian phraseological units with descriptive method; it means they explain only the sense and the idea of the expression. We would like to give some examples: «бить баклуши» – is a famous Russian idiom, but it is really hard to translate it into English. We cannot translate it literally, because we do not know what the old Russian word «баклуши» means. So it would be correct if we explain this phraseological expression like to fritter away one's time or to waste one's time.

 Or for example, another popular Russian expression «точить лясы». We also need to explain the sense of the phraseological expression, but not to translate it literally. The correct translation would be to talk idly, to wag one's tongue or just chatter.

It is a well-known fact that there are a lot of Russian phraseological expressions, which cannot be translated into English. Take for instance such phraseological units: «баню задать», «зубы на полку положить », «достать из-под земли», «горе луковое», «держи карман шире», «душа в пятки ушла» to translate them is a real hard work. We cannot translate them literally, because it is impossible, there will not be any sense in «such translation», and nobody understands it. The first expression «баню задать» is translated into English as to give a rating we cannot translate it literally «give Russian baths», the first reason that it sounds not well and the sense of this expression is changed, and it is the biggest mistake of interpreters and translators. The other expression «зубы на полку положить » is translated like to hunger, to starve, that is naming the sense and the idea or the expression. The other three phraseological expressions could be translated into English, but we lose their Russian origin. For example: «горе луковое» is translated into the English language as «weakling», in the Russian language it means you must not cry because of trifles, the other expression «держи карман шире» is translated as «not a chance», but also we can give its description, for example, do not think about it or do not dream about it. The next expression it is hard to translate, so we need to learn it by heart to have one’s heart in one’s boots or to explain it with the description like to be frightened, scared.

It is very clear from these observations that if we do not know how to translate the phraseological expression we could explain the sense and the idea of the expression or give its description. But we must know the meanings of all phraseological expressions, for explaining its sense. But sometimes it becomes harder to translate phraseological units which are connected with stereotypes and characteristics of every nation. A good example of such phraseological unit is strike on the job, which is connected with the stereotype of Italian people. Strikes are not rare things in manufacturing and consumers services, when workers stop do their work. But Italian people went on strike in 1904; they did not refuse to work, but started to do it very slowly. It turns out that it is harder to suppress such strike. This type of strikes started to appear in other countries, but into the Russian language it is translated as «итальянская забастовка», that is because of the stereotypes of Italian people that they are slowcoaches. Unfortunately, this stereotype we cannot change or delete it. And it is differently translated into the Italian language, if we translate it as «lo sciopero di l’italiani» Italian people could not understand us, and if someone understood the sense of expression he could take offence.

In conclusion, we can say if we want to avoid curious moments in translation, we need to pay our attention to phraseological expressions, especially to Russian ones, because the majority of them cannot be translated into English and other languages. We, interpreters and translators, need to know a lot of things, which belong to our profession or do not. But we can have problems in translation, which cannot be avoided. Concerning the translation of phraseological expressions, as we mentioned before, there are a lot of expressions which cannot be translated. There is no doubt we have one main thing, we can explain the sense of phraseological expressions if we do not remember or do not know the exact translation.

 

Also we want to suggest some rules for correct translation of phraseological expressions:

1. The optimum solution of translation of phraseological units is to search identical phraseological units in target language. However, we need to remember that the number of such identical units is very limited.

2. If there are no identical phraseological units, which are used in original language, we can translate it using analogous phraseological unit. But the stylistic and emotional color would be changed.

3. The method of calking or literal translation is not effective. But sometimes interpreters could implant the phraseological units with cultural aspect in target language. The most known cases are connected with translation of phraseological units from the Bible, ancient or mythological sources.

4.  Also calking can be used with descriptive translation, such type of translation of phraseological units is called combined translation, which is more preferable, because it makes the translation more clear and understandable.

5. If we do not remember the translation of phraseological unit or are not sure if it is correctly translated, we can explain the sense and the idea of phraseological unit. But it is in case of an emergency, such type of translation is called descriptive translation.

 

In addition we could give an advice is to use dictionaries which were published in Russian and check the translation of every phraseological unit. And do not afraid to translate or feel shy of your translation, we must be sure that our translation is accurate and well-formed.

Learning from mistakes and constantly improving knowledge is a key to all successful interpreters and translators.

 

 

Conclusion

        

Thousand years ago a special layer of the language appeared, it is phraseology – the whole set of stable expressions, which have their independent meaning. The world of Modern English phraseological expressions is so grand and various that every aspect of its study is worth of due regard.

The learning of the English language is widely-spread among our country. Good knowledge of language is impossible without knowing English phraseology. If we know phraseological expressions of English and our native language it will make us easier translate and understand.

In this course work we have examined the source of phraseological expressions and peculiarities in its translation in the English and Italian languages. We think that every person must know general information about phraseological units. The «father» of phraseology, Charles Bally, gave the definition of phraseological unit: «combinations, which firmly came into language, are called set phrases». The linguist N.M. Shanskiy made out some difference between set phrases and free word combinations. Set phrases differ with readableness, integrity of the meaning, steadiness of composition and structure and also with structure tightness.

The source of idiom origin in Modern English language is very various.

We could divide all phraseological units into two groups: primordial English phraseological units and adoptions. Many of English phraseological expressions were adopted from Latin language through French. But there are some expressions, which were adopted from the Latin language escapes French, even there were adoptions from American English and other languages. A lot of phraseological units appeared in connection with traditions, customs and English popular belief, actual, legendry and historical facts, but also we must not forget that the majority of phraseological expressions appeared from poems of famous writers, we have learnt Shakespearean phraseological units.

Phraseological expressions improve our speech. Sometimes it is easier to say a phraseological expression to tell our thoughts and sense than try to find necessary words and sentences. However, they offer big problems to interpreters and translators. It is not great surprise that there are such phraseological expressions which can be translated variously into different languages.

An important point is that different linguists offer different classifications of phraseological units and their translation. But we decided to use the classification in interpreter’s point of view; we could divide phraseological units into two groups: phraseological units, which have the equivalence in transferable language, and phraseological units with no direct equivalents in other languages.

We should note here that phraseological expressions are translated in phraseological translation, if there are the equivalences or the analogues for phraseological expressions, or in non-phraseological translation, if there is a lack of equivalences and analogues.

We decided to use the modern classification of phraseological units, which consists of six ways of idiom translation: phraseological equivalents; analogue; calking; antonymous translation; combined translation; explication or descriptive translation.

In conclusion, we can say if we want to avoid curious moments in translation, we need to pay our attention to phraseological expressions, especially to Russian ones, because the majority of them cannot be translated into English and other languages. We, interpreters and translators, need to know a lot of things, which belong to our profession or do not. But we can have problems in translation, which cannot be avoided. Concerning the translation of phraseological expressions, as we mentioned before, there are a lot of expressions which cannot be translated.     There is no doubt we have one main thing, we can explain the sense of phraseological expressions if we do not remember or do not know the exact translation.

In this science work we also express which problems could appear in translation of phraseological units in cultural aspect. Culture offers a big problem for interpreters and translators. Of course, it is impossible to know all detailed things in culture and traditions of any country, but we need to have some general idea about every country.

Doubtless, only a great knowledge of language and dictionaries could help us to translate phraseological units correctly.

 

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