Levels of analysis and synthesis in translation

The process of analysis and synthesis the translator is involved in takes place at least at 6 levels:

1) Word level (уровень слова)

2) Phrase level (уровень непредикативного словосочетания)

3) Clause or sentence level (уровень предложения)

4) Paragraph level (уровень абзаца)

5) Text level (уровень текста)

6) Pragmatics, or sociocultural level (прагматический, или социокультурный уровень)

A word is a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used to form sentences with other such elements. Words are the basic unit of language.

A phrase is a small group of words standing together as a conceptual unit and not containing a finite verb (личная форма глагола; глагол-сказуемое). A finite verb has a specific tense (видовременная форма), mood (наклонение), voice (залог), person (лицо) and number (число). It is used as the predicate (сказуемое) of a sentence. "Will do" in "I will do it" is a finite verb. A phrase is not a complete sentence. An example of a phrase:"Once upon a time..."

A clause (придаточное предложение) is a sentence which is used as part of a compound (сложносочиненное) or complex sentence (сложноподчиненное предложение). For example: "I was waiting, and they were waiting" is a compound sentence consisting of two independent clauses — "I was waiting" and "they were waiting" — connected by the conjunction "and". "I'll do it if I can" is a complex sentence consisting of two clauses — "I'll do it" and "if I can". In a complex sentence one or more clauses (придаточные предложения) are subordinated (подчинены) to the main clause (главное предложение). In the given example the main clause is "I'll do it" and the subordinate clause is "if I can".

A paragraph (абзац) is a distinct section of a piece of writing, indicated by a new line, indentation, or numbering.

A text (текст) is a written, printed or spoken piece of language regarded as a complete whole in terms of its form and content. A text may consist of one paragraph or, in rare cases, one sentence or word.

Pragmatics (прагматика) is the study of language as it is used in a sociocultural context (социокультурный контекст), including its effect on the participants in the process of communication. "Sociocultural" means "involving social and cultural factors". The translator must be aware of the situational aspects of language usage in order to produce authentic, i.e. culturally adequate, translations. Three simple examples. The Russian sign on a bench in a public park reading "Осторожно! Окрашено!" could conceivably be translated as "Be careful. It is painted". From a grammatical and lexical perspective, these are perfectly legitimate sentences. The only problem is pragmatics. The corresponding signs in an English speaking environment usually read "Wet paint". The English signs on doors reading "Push" and "Pull" are not translated as "Тяни" and "Толкай" but as "От себя" and "На себя". On the window in a car on the New York subway we read: "Priority seating for persons with disabilities" while in the Kiev or Moscow metro we read "Места для инвалидов". A culturally blind trans­lation of the English sign into Russian would be cumbersome, if not unintelligible; a literal translation of the Russian sign into English would be offensive to many English-speaking people because it would be politically incorrect. Considerations of pragmatics would require that the two notices should be interchangeable in translation. Translation is done from culture into culture and not just from language into language.

The translator has to work at all the six levels of text analysis and synthesis at the same time. For academic purposes the source texts and target texts used in this course will be first broken down into their constituent meaningful components (analysis) and then reassembled as finished products (synthesis). Translation problems will be looked at one at a time.

6. What is lingua-stylistic analysis (лингвостилистическнй анализ) of print media discourse (тексты в средствах массовой информации)?" Linguo-" means "related to language". "Stylistic" means "concerning the style, or register, of the language used in a particular situation"."Style" and "register" are used in this course interchangeably. "Register" (регистр, стиль) can be defined as a variety of language used in a specific social setting. Register is associated with certain degrees of formality (официальность) which are determined by the choice of vocabulary, grammatical forms, and pronunciation. Register can be characterized, in very broad terms, as neutral, informal, and formal, “informal register” would include colloquialisms, slang and vulgarisms.

Normal register includes bookish words and specialist terms. "Discourse" (дискурс) is any meaningful text examined in its extralinguistic (экстралингвистический), or sociocultural, context. Print media include books, magazines, newspapers, etc. The passages for transla­tion are taken from contemporary Russian and American print media. They are distinctly cross-culturally oriented (основаны на межкультурных различиях). Both source texts and target texts will be analyzed from the point of view of the language used in them (vocabulary, grammar, and register) and the sociocul­tural impact they make on their audience (pragmatics). One of the aims of the course — to make linguo-stylisic analyses of some typical samples of Russian and American print media discourse in order to lay the groundwork for their effective translation.