Generalization

 

Generalization is the opposite of concretization. In this case a SL word of concrete meaning is rendered by a TL word of general meaning. This type is not so wide-spread and occurs less frequently than concretization. May be this is due to the fact that abstract and desemantized words in English form, a numerous and diversified group, thus supplying a linguistic base to this type of transformation, whereas generalization appears to be lacking a similar linguistic foundation.

Sometimes generalization is resorted to for pragmatic reasons in order to avoid expanded explanations or footnotes.

 

And so the Mad Hatter Scheme – as it was later to be called – was launched.

И так началось осуществление этой безумной затеи, как впоследствии Гарри Поллитт и члены редколлегии шуточно называли план издания первой ежедневной газеты Коммунистической партии Британии.

In those days the British communist Party had neither money, no premises. “The Mad Hatter is an allusion to a character in Lewis Carrol’s well-known book “Alice in Wonderland”. The suggested translation is based on generalization. Besides, recourse has been taken to interpreting translation.

Here are some examples of this type of lexical transformation.

 

In the Arctic of today the frozen face of the deep is changing and man seeks a scientific explanation for its growth and shrinkage.

Ледяной покров Ледовитого океана суйчас меняется, и люди ищут научное объяснение этому явлению.

Much more than an effective gun control is going to be needed to cure America of the plague of violence that afflicts it.

Для того, чтобы избавить Америку от эпидемии насилия, недостаточно одного только строгого контроля над продажей оружия.

 

There is a tendency in the English language to use nouns denoting measures of weight, distance, length, etc. in describing people and things which do not require such precision in their description. This method of description is foreign to the Russian practice and recourse is usually taken to generalization.

 

He was a young man of 6 feet two inches.

Это был высокий молодой человек.

It led him time and again into positions of fantastic danger and yet enabled him to win every ounce of advantage, especially against an irresolute enemy.

(Desmond Young).

Это постоянно ставило его в невероятно опасное положение и в то же время давало ему возможность воспользоваться всеми преимуществами, особенно, если неприятель проявил нерешительность.