Translation of political literature and terms

 
 
 
 
 
 

«Translation of Political Literature and Terms» 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

      Introduction 

     In this Qualification Paper we’ve set forth to study the translation methods of Political literature and political terms at a deeper level, their types and ways of their translation of Political literature, to consider the function of political literature in everyday life of the humanity.

     The object of this Qualification paper can be considered as one that gives the detailed review of the ways political literature and political terms can be translated into Russian language. It also helps to improve one’s understanding of the principal rules of translation which plays leading role while processing translation.

     The aim of this work is to introduce the translation approach to Political literature so that to make it easy to perceive for those willing to keep up their educational and scientific carrier in the science of translation, it was purposed to broaden their view on translation studies and peculiar features while translating Political literature.

     In this work we set the following tasks:

• to review all the sources of Political literature
• to reveal the methods of translation of Political literature
• to investigate grammatical, lexical, stylistic and phraseological difficulties of translation of political literature

     We should mention that this research work represents a great theoretical value for those willing to take up their future carrier in the field of translations as invaluable reference to the methods and the ways of translation of Political literature.

     And the practical value of this work involves the idea that translation represents a field aimed at training future translators/interpreters to translate verbal and written materials on Political subjects basing on the study of International politics, to differentiate the language features of English, Russian and other languages as well as political lexicology, phraseology, syntax and style.

     The source information for this research work has been carefully studied and investigated before it was applied to the given work.

     The originality of this work is in its creative approach to the study and methods of translation, besides, it contains a detailed review of ways and methods of translation.

     The given Qualification paper contains introduction, two chapters, conclusion and bibliography list.

     The first chapter gives a detailed review of the study of the theory of translation and also reveals the role of political literature and terms in everyday life of the humanity which are believed to be interesting to future translator/interpreters. It also discussed the methods of translation of political literature with purpose to make it easier for translator to achieve adequate translation in the target language.

     The second chapter deals with the detailed study of grammatical, lexical, stylistic difficulties involved in translation of political literature. It also gives some hints on translation of idioms and set expressions and their behavior in literature.

     We have also attached some samples of translation of political set expressions so that to enable the future translator to benefit from the given paper in their further researches in the fields of translation.

     In conclusion we have summed up the results of our laborious investigation translation of political literature.

     At the end of the research paper we have attached the bibliography list to enable the future translator to use information sources used in this Paper. 
 

 

      1. Translation 

     1.1 Translation and its aims 

     Most translators prefer to think of their work as a profession and would like to see others to treat them like professionals rather than as skilled or semi-skilled workers. But to achieve this, translators need to develop an ability to stand back and reflect on what they do and how they do it. Like doctors and engineers, they have to prove to themselves as well as others that they are in control of what they do; that they do not just translate well because they have ‘flair’ for translation, but rather because, like other professionals, they have made a conscious effort to understand various aspects of their work.

     Unlike medicine and engineering, translation is a very young discipline in academic terms. It is only just starting to feature as a subject of study in its own right, not yet in all but in an increasing number of universities and colleges around the world. Like any young discipline, it needs to draw on the findings and theories of other related disciplines in order to develop and formalize its own methods; but which disciplines it can naturally and fruitfully be related to is still a matter of some controversy. Almost every aspect of life in general and of the interaction between speech communities in particular can be considered relevant to translation, a discipline which has to concern itself with how meaning is generated within and between various groups of people in various cultural settings. This is clearly too big an area to investigate in one go. So, let us just start by saying that, if translation is ever to become a profession in the full sense of the word, translators will need something other than the current mixture of intuition and practice to enable them to reflect on what they do and how they do it. They will need, above all, to acquire a sound knowledge of the raw material with which they work: to understand what language is and how it comes to function for its users.

     Translation is a process of rendering a text, written piece or a speech by means of other languages. The difference of translation from retelling or other kinds of transfer of a given text is that that translation is a process of creating an original unity in contexts and forms of original.

     The translation quality is defined by its completeness and value. «The completeness and value of translation means definite rendering of the contextual sense of the original piece and a high-grade functional-stylistic conformity.»

     The concept «high-grade functional-stylistic conformity» clearly points on two existing ways of rendering the form in unity with the meaning: the first one is a reproduction of specific features of the form of the original piece and the second one is the creation of functional conformities of those features. It means when translating the specific features of an original literature we should rather consider the style inherent for the given genre but than direct copying the form of an original. While translating, we should also remember that different lexical and grammatical elements of an original might be translated differently if accepted by the norms of conformity to the whole original. The translation adequacy of separate phrases, sentences and paragraphs should not be considered separately but along with achievement of the adequacy and completeness of the translating piece as a whole because the unity of a piece is created through collecting the components.

     No matter how a translator (interpreter) is talented he should remember two most important conditions of the process of translation: the first is that the aim of translation is to get the reader as closely as possible acquainted with the context of a given text and then second – to translate – means to precisely and completely express by means of one language the things that had been expressed earlier by the means of another language.

     A translation can be done:

1. from one language into another, kin-language, non-kin,
2. from literary language into its dialect or visa versa
3. from the language of an ancient period into its modern state

     The process of translation, no matter how fast it is, is subdivided into two moments. To translate one should first of all to understand, to perceive the meaning and the sense of the material.

     Furthermore, to translate one should find and select the sufficient means of expression in the language the material is translated into (words, phrases, grammatical forms).

     There are three, most identified types of translation: literary, special and sociopolitical.

     The ways of achieving the adequacy and completeness in those three types of translation will never completely coincide with each other because of their diverse character and tasks set to translator (interpreter).

     The object of literary translation is the literature itself. And its distinctive feature is a figurative-emotional impact on the reader, which is attained through a great usage of different linguistic means, beginning from epithet and metaphor up to rhythmical-syntactic construction of phrases.

     Thus, in order to preserve figurative-emotional impact on the reader while translating a work of art, the translator (interpreter) will try to render all the specific features of the translating material. That’s why, on the first place one should reconstruct the specific features of an original and the creation of functional conformities to the features of the original play the subordinate role.

     The objects of special translations are materials that belong to different fields of human activities, science and technology. The distinctive feature of this type of translation is an exact expression of the sense of translating material, which is attained through wide usage of special terms.

     Thus, in order to render an exact and clear meaning while translating such materials alongside with the selection of term equivalents, on the first place one has to create functional conformities to the features of an original, and the creation of specific features of the original play the subordinate role.

     And finally, the objects of social-politic translations are the materials of propaganda and agitation character, and therefore a bright emotional sense abundant with special terms.

     Concerning the achievement of adequacy this type of translation possesses the features of literary and special types of translation as well. 

     1.2 Translation of Political literature and terms 

     Political literature like any other scientific kind of literature have languages items characteristic to them, that requires the translator to be precise and sharp. Most books on general politics are characterized by the passion of expression, polemic style and the specific feature is in blending the elements of scientific speech from one side with different emotionally colored means of expression from another side.

     The translation of political literature can be considered in two ways: as a field of linguistic activity and as a separate field in science.

     As a field of linguistic activity translation of political literature represents one of the types of special translations possessing as objects of its activity different materials of political character.

     The political translation comes out into a special field of study due to its specific features of written and verbal speech on political topics, which is specified by its essential character and the knowledge of this science. Sometimes these features are so diverse that in order to understand them (Russian and English politics as well) one should have a special knowledge without which it would be very hard to clearly perceive the inner sense on politics or a translated piece.

     Therefore, the study of specific features of written and verbal speech acquires great importance to translators (interpreters). To the features mention above belong the following:

1. maximal filling the political literature with special political terms, and in verbal speech (among the politicians) – filling it with words of political jargon – slang.
2. presence of special idiomatic expressions and phraseological units in verbal and written speech that are rarely used in colloquial speech and general literature.

     As an example, I should bring the following idioms: blitzkrieg – молниеносная война, Comprehensive Program of Disarmament – Всеобъемлющая программа разоружения, principal powers – крупные державы, status quo – статус кво and many others. We have to mark – if the quantity of political idioms is limited, then the amount of «politically» related phraseological idioms is vast in English and Russian languages.

3. the presence of some stylistic deflection from general literary norms is sometimes very great.
1. wide usage of elliptic constructions, especially in periodically publishing materials, propaganda and other kinds of politically important printing media.
2. preciseness and beauty of self-expression which is achieved by the usage of elliptic constructions along with wide usage of passive constructions and an often substitution of придаточных предложений by absolute constructions and деепричастными оборотами.
3. the presence of official writing style, mostly in documents of official provisions that cover administrative and political questions.
4. strictly regulated use of verbal forms and word phrases in special chapters of political literature and political documents.

     As was told before, while translating a political character, like doing any other special translation a great importance is given to translation of special terms.

     In our philological literature exist lots of definitions to the concept of term, but the essence of majority comes to the following:

     Term – is a word or a combination of words, which define a notion (subject, a phenomenon, property, relation or a process) that is characteristic for the given field of science, technology, art or a sphere of social life.

     Terms differ from the words of general usage by definite semantic limitations and specific meanings they define. Its very hard to overestimate the general and scientific meaning of terms since the concrete knowledge demands definite expression and a term does not only fix the concept by its notion (name) but specifies it diverging it from adjacent components.

     For better functioning, terms must express systematization of notions, express their essence or at least be semantically neutral and at the same time be unambiguous and precise.

     The phenomenon of a separate field of science and the terms that fix them should be systemized that offers gender availability around which group notions are formed. Thus an English term representative which presents a group notion and forms a group of notions that belong to this group: representative forum (представительный форум), business world representative (представитель делового мира), representative to the talks (представитель на переговорах), representative to the public (представитель общественности), representative of political circles (представитель политических кругов), representative to NATO (представитель НАТО), representative of various strata or the population (представитель различных слоёв населения).

     The capability of a term to express a systematic state of notions and easily merge with new phrases that represent new group notions that consequently appear along with the development of a definite field of science or knowledge maybe called its systematic capability.

     The systematic capability of notions helps us to clarify the relation of notions, raise their semantic definiteness and ease their understanding and remembering.

     In terms, formed on the base of mother tongue we may differ direct meaning and terminological meaning.

     The direct meaning of a term is formed through the elements of the language used for their formation; the terminological meaning defines the concept of notion expressed by the term.

     The terms, direct and terminological meaning of which correspond to each other, correctly orientate and underline the so-called their interrelation. These terms are able to express the essence of notions.

     The terms, whose direct and terminological meaning does not correspond to each other belong to semantically neutral group of terms.

     And at last, the terms whose direct and terminological meaning contradict each other, should be admitted as completely unsatisfactory because they distort the genuine relations among the notions, disorientate the hearer and do not possess any semantic definiteness.

     Unambiguousness of a term also influences its clear semantic features but since we do not have any researches in this field this concept cannot always be applied. Therefore, up to 10% of English and American political terms do not possess even a relative semantic definiteness, i.e. definiteness in some political concerns. This situation may be explained by the fact that the terms according to their nature are firstly simple words, and consequently, they develop according to general laws of linguistics. The result of this is the appearance terminological homonyms that hinder the normal functioning of political terms in a language.

     The definiteness of a term requires preciseness of an expressed idea. It also raises the semantic definiteness of the term averting its misusage according to it form.

     Not all the terms, of course, possess the above-mentioned qualities, but the translator/interpreter of political material should take them into consideration while forming new terms and solving the question of preference to one of the available term-synonyms.

     The correct translation of political literature is a laborious work despite the terms’ considerable possession of definite semantic clearness and independence in usage.

     While speaking of difficulties of translation, we imply as a matter of the first importance, the translation general political literature, which either do not yet have any equivalents in the translating language or have several similar notion for the term in question or at least have one equivalent but of doubtful adequacy. There are lots of word phrases and idiom and terms of this kind and their number is growing with development of technology and interrelation of people and especially with the development of Political sciences.

     To achieve a correct translation we can recommend to group the political literature and the used in them according to their field of application and some principles of translation of each group. All the political terms and idioms existing in politics can be divided into three groups:

1. terms – defining the notions of a foreign reality but identical to the reality of the Russian language march – марш
2. terms – defining the notions of a foreign reality absent in the Russian one but possessing generally accepted term-equivalents National Guard – Национальная Гвардия, Territorial Army – Территориальная Армия.
3. terms – defining the notions of a foreign reality that are not available in the Russian language and not having generally accepted term-equivalents: alert hanger – ангар вылета по тревоге.