Descriptive, antonymic and machine translation
The process of translation may be viewed as a number of manipulations with the form or content of the original (SLText) as a result of which the translator creates the TLText.
Translation transformations are operations with the SLT aimed at conveying its meaning with maximum (-al) faithfulness in strict compliance with the standards of the TL.
Descriptive translation is a complex transformation which is used to explain the meaning of SL units, often with the help of hierarchically different TL units. For example, a word may be translated as a word-combination or vice versa.
Descriptive translation may be used:
1) to render the meaning of equivalent-lacking units, for instance:
§ units of specific national lexicon:
Верховна Рада – The Ukrainian Parliament (Descriptive), Verkhovna Rada (Literal), Supreme Council (word-for-word), Supreme Rada (mixed)
вареники – a traditional Ukrainian dish, mea or fruit dumplings (Descriptive), varenyky (literal)
§ neologisms:
stepwife – the current wife of a women’s ex-husband or the ex-wife of a current husband (зведена дружина – теперішня дружина колишнього чоловіка або колишня дружина теперішнього чоловіка)
leather spinster – a successful heterosexual woman who is happily unmarried (успішна гетеросексуальна жінка, яка свідомо не прагне шлюбу)
Delhi belly – a disordered/ upset stomach (розлад шлунку)
himbo – a man who is good-looking but unintelligent or superficial (хімбо – чоловік, привабливий ззовні, але інтелектуально нерозвинутий і досить поверховий)
bimbo – a girl of the same qualities (бімбо – дівчина або молода жінка таких же якостей – приваблива, але поверхова)
gaydar – an intuitive sense that enables someone to identify whether another person is gay (гейдар – здатність (дар) розпізнавати нетрадиційну орієнтацію іншої людини (геїв)
2) to render the meaning of phraseological units or idioms:
as mad as a hatter – навіжений
to have light fingers – бути нечистим на руку
to rain cats and dogs – лити як з ведра
burn not your house to rid it of the mouse – жертвувати великим, щоб уникнути малої неприємності (співвідносити засоби та ціль)
3) in footnotes to explain obscure places in narration
spiritual – спірічуел, релігійна пісня афроамериканців
Within the text the word “metrosexual” may be referred to as метросексуал or in a footnote explained – чоловік, який витрачає багато часу та грошей на свою зовнішність та спосіб життя
Antonymic translation is a complex transformation in which an affirmative in sense or structure SL unit is rendered as a negative in sense or structure but identical in meaning TL unit or vice versa.
It is a complex transformation, which describes the situation from the opposite point of view. (2nd definition)
Take it easy. – Не переймайся. (an affirmative SL unit corresponds to a negative TL unit)
Немає лиха без добра. – Every dark cloud has a silver lining.
I mean it! – Я не жартую!
Antonymic translation is used:
1. when there is no direct equivalent for the SL units in the TL:
He was in (his) short-sleeves. – Він був без піджака. (to be in (one’s) short-sleeves – means not wearing a jacket, it has no direct equivalent in Ukrainian language and is translated automatically - без піджака)
Я думаю, що він не здасть екзамен. – I think he will fail the exam./ I don’t think he will pass the exam.
The defeat of the team was the result of its inferiority. – Поразка команди була наслідком переваги суперників.
Do you mind – ви не проти
2. when a SL unit has 2 negations which create an affirmation:
She was by no means non-elegant. – Вона була досить елегантною. (This sentence contains 2 negations: by no means and non-elegant, which corresponds to an affirmation досить елегантною)
The door was not unlocked. – Двері були зачинені.
3. to achieve a necessary expressiveness:
A bomb fell close. – Бомба впала неподалік.
No, it makes all the difference in the world. – Ні, не все одно!
I don’t think it will hurt you. – Думаю, вам це не зашкодить. (I don’t think – Думаю, will hurt you - не зашкодить)
I hope you will stay. – Сподіваюся ви не втечете.
She was a woman of character. – Вона була жінкою не без характеру. (експресивне речення)
4. to avoid the repetition of the same structure close to each other in the same text:
She didn’t utter a word and he said nothing. – Вона промовчала і він нічого не сказав.
Machine translation isa procedure in which a computer program analyzes a SLT and produces a TLT without further human intervention.
Human interference into machine translation is represented with pre-editing, proof-reading and post-editing practice.
Machine translating has made considerable progress in recent years. Nevertheless, its employment remains restricted because machine translation can be performed only on the basis of programs elaborated by linguistically trained operators.
Machine translation may be successful at the level of separate words, sometimes word-combinations and simple sentences and quite seldom at the level of text.
Advantages of machine translation are: its speed and rich lexicon of its dictionaries, which can be useful for translation at the level of words.
Disadvantages: preparing programs for any matter is connected with great difficulties and takes much time, when the quality of translation is far from being always satisfactory even at the lexical level – at the level of words, which have direct equivalent lexemes in the TL.
ex. London – is the capital of GB. – Лондон – капітал Великобританії
Greater difficulties are connected with morphological elements (endings, suffixes, prefixes) and syntactic units (word combinations, sentences) with various means of connection between their parts. There are frequent violations of syntactic agreement and government between the parts of the sentence in the machine translated texts. Neither can the machine translator select in its memory the correct order of words in word-combinations and sentences in the TL.
As a result, any machine translation needs a thorough proof-reading and editing, which can take even more time than the hand-made translation.