Equivalence and Adequacy in Translation

1

The level of the purport of communication

It is only the purport of communication that is retained in translation.

Such sentences can be characterized by an absolute dissimilarity of language units which is accompanied by the absence of obvious logical link between the two messages. Nevertheless they describe one and the same situation.

The chemistry between him [HK Gruber] and the Philharmonic was there from the start. (The Times, 12.02.2010)

(= He established a good relationship with the Philharmonic from the very beginning.) - С самого начала между ним [Грубером] и филармонией установились хорошие, добрые отношения.

2

The level of identification of situation

Most of the words or syntactical structures of the original have no direct correspondences in the translation. At the same time it is obvious that there is a greater proximity of contents than in the preceding group.

Since in each of the two sentences the situation is described in a different way, the common feature is not the method of description but the reference to the situation, the possibility of identifying the situation, no matter how it is described in the text.

He answered the telephone. (= He lifted the receiver.) - Он снял трубку.

3

The level of methods of situation description

The translation is a semantic paraphrase of the original, preserving its basic semes and allowing their free reshuffle in the sentence.

Scrubbing makes me bad-tempered. - От мытья полов у меня настроение портится.

Both in the translation and in the original the situation is described as a “cause-effect” event with a different pattern of identical semes.

In the original: A (scrubbing) causes В (I) to have С (temper) characterized by the property D (bad). In the translation: С (temper) belonging to В (I) acquires the property D (bad) because of A (scrubbing).

4

The level of invariant meaning of syntactic structures (which is also called transformational equivalence)

The target and the source language sentences manifest grammar transformations, which can include transposition of the sentence elements (words, phrases and clauses), parts of speech replacement, the replacement of the word form, the replacement of the sentence structure, the replacement of the sentence type, etc.

Ex. 1

Good language skills are a prerequisite for the job.

Хорошее знание языка для этой должности обязательно.

(The replacement of the word form: plural is translated by singular.)

Ex. 2

The Bradford Formula is used to calculate an “attendance score”.

Формула Брэдфорда используется для расчета баллов, показывающих количество дней, когда работник присутствовал на рабочем месте.

(Part of speech replacement: the verb is translated by the noun.)

Ex. 3

Four years later, the famous black, white and red check made its first appearance as a raincoat lining.

Четыре года спустя для подкладки дождевика впервые была использована ткань в знаменитую теперь черно-бело-красную клетку.

(The Active construction is translated by the Passive one.)

5

The level of words semantics

Here we can observe:

1) the equivalence of semes which make up the meaning of correlated words in the original text and the translation;

2) parallelism of syntactic structures implying the maximum invariance of their meanings;

3) the similarity of the notional categories which determine the method of describing the situation;

4) the identity of the situations;

5) the identical functional aim of the utterance or the purport of communication.

Business power is legitimate when it is used for the common good.

Могущество бизнеса является легитимным, когда оно реализуется на общее благо.