At pre-textual level

It’s necessary to start discussing grammatical divergences of English and Russian at the most general nature which determines other particular divergences at the pre-textual and the textual levels. This is the basic difference in their grammatical systems according to which English is described as a predominantly analytical language and Russian is known as a mostly synthetic language. It implies major divergences of the two languages: there are very few inflections in English to indicate grammatical categories that lays a heavy burden on word order in a English sentence making it more fixed in order to signal the syntactic function of words. Russian possesses a highly developed system of inflections used in different parts of speech which accounts for a more free word order in Russian and allows to employ it for different purposes, for example, to indicate and change a communicative structure of an utterance. This difference in the character of English and Russian can easily explain other numerous divergences of the two languages.

At the pre-textual level all grammatical divergences in English and Russian can be grouped together into two classes: those phenomena found only in one of the two languages and thus referring to a group of grammatical lacunae, and those found in both languages but coinciding only partially. Both the classes can be discussed in more detail as they offer peculiar translation problems.

Cases of grammatical lacunae, i.e. the absence of a grammatical category in one of the two languages, embrace two types of relationships:

1) a grammatical category does not exist in SL, but it is compulsory in TL. The major translation problem is to make a proper choice of one of, at least, the two forms which express a given grammatical category in this language. For example, when Russian is a SL and English is a TL, a translator has to make an appropriate choice of the English article, the continuous or non-continuous forms, perfect or non-perfect forms, etc. E.g. За высокими заборами – каменные избы (А. Толстой ) – Behind the high fences could be seen stone cottages. Синие глаза его блестели возбуждённо. – His dark blue eyes were glittering with excitement. When translating from English into Russian a translator must indicate the gender of the nouns, choose the perfective or imperfective forms, etc. E.g.

He will be coming soon ( Gr. Greene, 23). – Теперь уж он скоро придёт. After dinner I sat and waited for Pyle in my room (Gr. Greene, p.23). – После ужина я сидел у себя в комнате и дожидался Пайла.

2) A grammatical category is obligatory in SL, but it is absent in TL. The translator has to think about means of compensation of grammatical meaning expressed in SL out of the means available for the purpose in TL. Thus, translating from Russian into English it is necessary to look for compensatory means in English in order to render Russian verbal adverbial phrases, indefinite personal sentences, etc, e.g. И маленьким литератором приятно быть в конце концов (Чехов, 475). – It must be quite nice to be a very minor writer, eh, what? When English is a SL and Russian is a TL, the translator must be able to render the grammatical and other functions of the English articles, complex object, absolute participle constructions, perfect forms and other forms of the infinitive, etc, e.g. I heard her put a tray down on the end of the bed (Gr. Greene, 25). – Я услышал, как она ставит поднос на край кровати.

Cases of partial coincidence of a certain grammatical category in SL and TL can also be of several types:

1) grammatical forms expressing a certain category coincide in SL and TL, but differ in the range of their grammatical meanings. For example, the Russian мог (-ла, -ли) and the English might correspond to each other as Past tense forms, though the same English word can also be used as Subjunctive II Present, cf. The police might pick you up ( Gr. Greene, 24 ). – Тебя могут забрать в полицию.

2) Some grammatical category exists both in English and in Russian with the same meaning, but it is expressed in grammatical forms that do not coincide, cf. the category of number in money(sing) – деньги (plural.), outskirts (pl) – окраина (singul.).

3) A certain grammatical category is found in both English and Russian, its meanings and forms correlate in the two languages, but they have a different stylistic effect, cf. Passive Voice forms are found in English and Russian, but they differ in their character as in Russian they are felt as more bookish, cf. He explained that I was needed immediately – at once – rapidly (Gr. Greene, 27 ). – Он объяснил, что меня ждут – немедленно, тотчас же, сию минуту. In the following sentence there is a similar transformation which is obligatory for another reason, It would have damaged Anglo-American relations, the Minister would have been upset ( Gr. Greene, p.34). – Ведь это нанесло бы вред англо-американским отношениям и расстроило бы посланника. The examples show that in many cases Passive form structures in English sentences are replaced by some other Russian forms (indefinite-personal sentences, active voice forms) although there are Passive voice correspondences in TL.