2.2.2 Grammatical transformations in the translation of media discourse

Learning languages is the process which involves not only linguistic peculiarities and features but also comparativeness and divisions among language families. We should like to mention that we can put the line “translation” into the consideration as to let some points in both languages be transferred.

Іt іs well knоwn thаt lаnguаges dіffer іn theіr grаmmаtісаl struсture. Аpаrt frоm hаvіng dіfferent grаmmаtісаl саtegоrіes theу dіffer іn the use оf thоse саtegоrіes thаt seem tо be sіmіlаr. Thіs nаturаllу results іn the neсessіtу tо іntrоduсe sоme grаmmаtісаl сhаnges іn the trаnslаted versіоn оf аnу text. These сhаnges depend оn the сhаrасter оf соrrelаtіоn between the grаmmаtісаl nоrms оf source language to target language.

While translating mass media text, we can use the following transformations, as transposition is the first technique or step towards oblique translation. Oblique translation is another term for free translation where the translator exercises his/her freedom to attain equivalence. It operates at the grammatical level and it consists of the replacement of a word class by another word class without changing the meaning. From the stylistic viewpoint, the transposed expression does not have the same value, but the meaning is the same. Transposed expressions are usually more literary in character.

Transposition is a change in the order of words in phrases and sentences which is often caused by a structural differences in expressing the theme and the rheme in different languages.

E.g. I created a new folder on the desktop.

Я створив на робочому столі нову папку

In this example, the parts of the sentences were changed without creating new meaning.

E.g. My computer froze as soon as I opened my browser.

Щойно я відкрив мій браузер, мій комп’ютер заморозився.

We can say that Ukrainian language is rather flexible. that it can be difficult to find a sentence that could not be changed with the help of transposition.

Grammatical replacement is substitution of a word belonging to one part of speech by a word belonging to another part of speech (morphological replacement) or substitution of one syntactical construction by another one (syntactical replacement). It happens than a translator have to substitute one part of speech by another one to transmit the information accurately, that is why they change the grammatical structure of the sentence by such transformation as grammatical replacement.

E.g. My new computer has scroged.

Мій комп’ютер зламаний.

In this example, the lexeme scrog is the verb and in the transformed variant, this lexeme is used as adjective.

E.g. I love smiley faces.

Я люблю смайлики.

This example provides the grammatical replacement in the second part of the sentence: smiley faces is a combination of adjective and noun and the lexeme смайлики is noun.

E.g. You are such a lamer user! I have no words!

Ти такий зелений! Просто слів немає!

In this example, the lexeme lamer user is subdivided into the зелений in the target language. In the source language the lexeme lamer user is an adjective and in the target language it functions as noun.

Therefore, we can say that grammatical replacement is an important part on the way of translation from one language to another to make the speech more colorful and to create a special atmosphere.

Addition is used to compensate for semantic or grammatical losses and often goes along with transposition and grammatical replacement.

E.g. Tha crash happened with his computer yesterday.

Вчора, у його комп’ютері вдбувся збій програмного забезпечення.

In this sentence, the phrase збій програмного забезпечення had been added in the translation into the Target language. So, it can cause the special effect in the certain communicative situation and makes the more formal style of the situation.

E.g. AFAIK (англ. as far as I know), he downloaded a new game.

На скільки мені відомо, він завантажив нову гру з інтернету.

In this example, the lexeme з інтернету had been added to the translated variant as the continuation of the thought and to avoid the coldness in the sentence. In this example AFAIK substituted on На скільки мені відомо in the target language.

Omission is the transformation of mixed lexical-grammatical nature, which occurs whenever some elements of the utterance are dimmed, communicatively redundant or irrelevant for the target language recipient. We can provide the following example:

E.g. My computer is loading very slowly.

Мій комп'ютер повільно завантажується.

In this example, the lexeme very is omitted in the target language during the translation process. It can be explained by the omission of the redundant information that contains no important or significant information.

E.g. Do you know that he is great geek in the computer technologies?

Ти знаєш, що він експерт у комп’ютерах?

In this example, the lexemes great and technologies are omitted while translation because it brings no important information and we can substituted this lexeme by експерт without using additional чудовий, as it could be if we will not omit this lexeme.

E.g. Earlier today I spoke to sys-frog.

Сьогодні я говорив з прогером.

This example demonstrates us the omission of the lexeme earlier because we can understand from the context all necessary information and omit the redundant information.

So, to sum it up we can say that in any translation, the most important thing is to attain the main meaning from one language into another with the help of interlinguistic, grammatical, lexical and syntactic transformations.

Translating is what we are in the process of transposing words with varieties of one language into another one. It is never a mere transference of finding like or identical, similar or the same approximate correspondence in the target language and vice versa. That is why translation is here tied to transformations.