4. Adequacy in Rendering Genre and Style Specifics into the Target Language

It is important not only to translate the idea raised by the original document in another language, but also to ensure that the translation has a writing style and genre in order to facilitate reading and understanding of the idea. The translation of genre and style is an art of reproduction and re-creation. A genre is a category of literature or other form of art or entertainment based on certain defining criteria. Genres change over time. Some become unpopular and go away while new ones spring up as trends emerge. Genre analysis helps to make translators become aware that different professional genres require different steps of restructuring. During the genre translation translators should keep in mind the macrostructure of both the source text and target text, to be aware of the context of situation, that helps to form the target text and to notice the role played by the "generic [dʒɪˈnɛrɪk| общая structure". With the generic features of the target text in mind, the translator can organize its structure and select the appropriate words and expressions in a more efficient and effective manner. Text style is commonly defined as an abstract notion closely related to the personal emotional response of the writer and the reader, which can differ significantly. The style of anything can be described as “the general way in which it is done or presented, which often shows the attitudes of the people involved” The translation process consists of two steps. First, the translator should carefully appreciate the tone and spirit of the whole original work through words, sentences and paragraphs it is made up of and determine what kind of style it reflects from both the literary and linguistic points of view. Then he starts translating it sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph from beginning to the end, with the reproduction of the original style kept in mind.Faced with a passage in the original language, the translator must take into account: • What the author says • What he means • How he says it. Meanwhile, a translator should pay attention to the three aspects of an utterance, i.e., the verbal, syntactic, and semantic aspects. The verbal aspect is reflected by the sentences in the work. The syntactic aspect involves the interrelation of the parts of the text. The semantic aspect involves the global sense of the utterance, the theme it evokes.

Seminar 2

1Fiction Translators as Interlingual Intermediaries

Fiction translation is the result of the combination of knowledge in psycholinguistics, culture, history, translation competence and source language understanding. The primary task is to show the reality of another language. Translators with super background information create the wonder in the target language, similar to the source language. When you read the book in the original and translation, you understand that they are equivalent, just like two sides of the same coin.

Let’s think about a translation. Is it identical to the original text? Or does it distort the original version? Is it a translator's guilt? How can we understand, that a book, which we read, is translated correctly? Is it so important to know, that the translation is adequate? Linguists say that the text should be equivalent and adequate. Does it go without saying, that all literary adaptations are equivalent and adequate? How can an average person learn, if he is reading a good translation?

In fact, all these questions are rather significant for a reader, when he is reading a book. He may suspect that the translation is not good, because some words can stand out of the context or break the text unity, or there are too many references with the explanations.

It is easier to make a translator redo his work when you have to do a technical translation. Whom do you claim for a fiction translation discrepancies? In fact, have you ever noted if the translated book sounds good or bad? In the majority of cases, we write it off as the author's style.

We can say that each translator understands the book in his way. It is true. On the other side, a translator’s primary task is to show the author's reality with the possible means of the target language. Translation shows the author's style, his reflections on life. Therefore, the translator should pick such idiomatic expressions, which demonstrate the author’s intentions with maximum precision to produce the effect upon the reader. Comparing several translations, we can come to conclusion, that in general, they are very similar, though the words are different. Do these words reflect the writer’s intentions? We know that words have connotative meanings; sometimes the choice of the word is determined with this meaning in the native language of the translator. However, it can produce a reverse effect instead. When a translator chooses a specific lexical unit depending on his preferences, it will lead to the appearance of some discrepancies in the target text. Sometimes the translator may make mistakes when there is some lack of background information or misunderstanding of the source text.

Another point a translator should take into account is the difference between the structure and stylistics of the languages. Source language should be translated with the usual means of the target language. That is why it is so important to follow the rules of the target languages to create the proper target text. When a translator keeps the source language stylistics the same in the target language, it will create some difficulty for a foreign reader to understand. First, the author’s style will seem clumsy in the target language.

When a translator does his work, he is encountered with various difficulties in how to preserve the idiomaticity of the source text in the target text. Only a little part of the source text can be translated into the target text without changes. It is connected with the different structure of the languages, different grammar, different stylistics and norms of the languages. Translators use many techniques to transfer the image into the target text. Substitution of the lexical units is connected with the differences of the meanings in the languages. Grammar structure, word order can be replaced with the verbal or noun forms. Stylistically the translator should keep the image the same in the target language, understanding its meaning in the source language. He may produce that effect with the means of the generalization, specification, omittance of the image if it is required with the text. Generally speaking, these peculiarities form the entire piece of work. Therefore, a translator should pay attention to the context to understand the details and how the context influences upon details. These interconnections show the true meaning of the author’s intentions. Another difficulty is the translation of cross-cultural concepts. Some words and realia can be unknown for the target language.