Levels of comparative translation studies

Translation practice shows that comparative translation studies can be carried out on 3 levels [Комиссаров, Рецкер, Тархов 1960]:

1) lexico-phraseological level which comprises 4 groups of problems:

a) connected with rendering words and related to establishing differences in the semantic structures of correlated units, their nomination characteristics, the degree of dependence upon a context, situational equivalence, etc.

b) connected with peculiarities of translating various lexico-semantic groupings of words within the vocabulary system of a language that share translation problems and are handled in translation along similar lines (terms, neologisms, proper names, cultural words, etc);

c) related to problems of translating free (variable) and stable word groups including phraseological units;

d) connected with the use of special translation procedures and techniques employed on this level;

2) grammatical level of comparative translation studies which include 3 sublevels expressing grammatical meaning:

1) related to grammatical peculiarities of a word, problems of rendering different parts of speech, non-verbal forms, the articles, linking elements, etc;

2) connected with problems of translating word groups including gerundial, infinitival, participial complexes, various comparative and other structures;

3) located on the level of a sentence and related to problems of rendering sentences of different communicative types, word order in translation, restructuring of sentences in translation, etc;

3) genre and stylistic level of translation studies which comprise two sublevels:

1) translation problems involved in rendering expressive means and stylistic devices located on the lexical, grammatical, phono-graphical levels;

2) translation problems arising when dealing with texts of different functional styles, sub-styles and genres.

It must be stressed in conclusion, that apart from the three levels of comparative translation studies outlined above it is no less important to take into account whether comparison is made on pretextual or textual level.