Translation transformations

Translation transformations are interlanguage transformations, element rearrangement of the source text, another expression of meaning, or rephrasing in order to achieve a translation equivalent. Most linguists hold the view that all translation transformations are divided into lexical, grammatical and stylistic. Grammatical transformations include the following methods such as rearrangement, elimination and addition, rearranging and replacing sentences. Lexical transformations include the replacement, addition, specification and generalization in the translation of the source text. The stylistic transformations include synonymous substitutions and descriptive translation, compensation and other types of substitutions. All translation transformations or methods are crucial for achieving the translation adequacy and they are used widely in translation didactics to teach students of a translation faculty.

The importance of this article is the lack of clarity of “translation transformation” concept. Therefore, it is necessary to develop theoretical assertions to describe the features of translation transformations on a scientific basis and how they impact on the translation process. As a result, it can be useful in translation practice to develop the most complete typology of “translation methods”, which is important for the professional training of translators. The object of the article is an analytical review of the researcher’s opinions on the problem of translation transformations to solve practical translation problems. The principal research method is a comparative analysis of critical literature.

During a translation process the translator is aimed at adequacy in the text of the translation, but the lexical units of one language do not always have equivalents, and it is not always possible to give an adequate translation from one language to another. To solve this problem, the translator uses translation transformations, and if he uses them, then he reaches equivalence and adequacy of the translation, when the translation text correctly expresses the contents of the source text for the native speaker of the target language.

For a long time, researchers have been interesting to translation transformations and there are different definitions of the term "translation transformations." For example, R. Minyar-Beloruchev thought that translation transformations consisted in changing formal (lexical and grammatical transformations) or semantic components of the source text, and the components of the source text must retain their formations intended for transmission.

According to Y. Retsker, the translator reproduces the meaning of the foreign word in context and looks for a suitable substitution in another language that does not have an analogue in the dictionary. The researcher relates the transformation to the methods of logical thinking. This phenomenon relates to lexical transformations. There are also grammatical transformations, which consist in changing the structure of the sentence of the source language according to the standards of the target language.