1
LECTURE VII
Some Aspects of Translation Practice
VII/1 What is substitution?
In the translation process, the translator sets up correspondences between the forms in the source language and those of the target language and substitutes the former for the latter. This means that the translator does not only decoding and coding, but also transcoding, which will later on be treated as substitution.
Transfer operations are necessitated not only by linguistic, but also cultural differences, traditions of genre, etc. Substitution on the basis of linguistic differences only results in several versions in the target language, one of which has to be chosen and adhered to by the translator. In this choice s/he is governed by rules that follow not only from the structural contrasts between the two languages in question. The decision-making is influenced by numerous other factors.
Translate the following sentence into H:
It was a mistake to take Lola here. (Graham Greene: The Innocent)
Hiba volt, hogy magammal vittem Lolát. (Prekop Gabriella)
Lexical substitution, that is the slavish replacement of English lexemes with their Hungarian dictionary equivalents, would have resulted in an ungrammatical sentence: Az volt egy hiba Lola vinni ide. So, she applied a series various procedures in order to achieve a grammatically correct H sentence:
1/ omitted it,
2/ replaced the past tense of to be (was) with the past tense of the H verb (volt)
3/ omitted the E article a
4/ replaced the E noun mistake with the H noun hiba
5/ changed the E verb-noun order into the H noun-verb order
6/ added the conjunction hogy
7/ added the inflected form of the H pers. pron. magammal
8/ replaced the E verb take with the H verb vinni
9/ replaced the E infinitive (to take) with a conjugated H form (vittem)
10/ omitted to
11/ added the objective ending to the personal name Lola (Lolát).
The translator, however, is anything but a machine/computer with an installed program of a contrastive E-H grammar and a dictionary in his/her head and scanning the sentence in a linear way. The most important transfer operation in the given sentence is the replacement of the simple E sentence with a complex H one. The other procedures are subjected to, and motivated by this decision. These are carried out partly consciously, partly automatically by the translator. The automatic substitutions can also be called compulsory as no grammatically correct sentence could be produced without them (1/ and 11/ in the above list). On the other hand, the replacement of the E infinitival construction with the H hogy-clause is not compulsory/automatic, because an infinitival phrase could have been used in H as well: Hiba volt magammal vinni Lolát. The lexical substitution of hiba for mistake is not compulsory either, the translator could have resorted to several other expressions, tévedés, for example; the verb take could have been replaced by hozni in H. Therefore, after completing the automatic and compulsory procedures the translator had a great number of options in translating even this very simple sentence:
1/ Hiba volt, hogy magammal vittem Lolát. (that’s what has actually been written)
2/ Hiba volt, hogy magammal hoztam Lolát.
3/ Hiba volt, hogy elvittem magammal Lolát.
4/ Hiba volt, hogy elhoztam magammal Lolát.
5/ Hiba volt, hogy elhoztam ide Lolát.
6/ Hiba volt, hogy Lolával jöttem ide.
7/ Hiba volt, hogy Lolát vittem magammal.
8/ Hiba volt, hogy Lolát hoztam magammal.
9/ Hiba volt, hogy Lolát magammal vittem.
10/ Hiba volt, hogy Lolát magammal hoztam.
11/ Hiba volt, hogy Lolát hoztam el ide.
12/ Hiba volt, hogy Lolát elhoztam ide.
13/ Hiba volt magammal vinni Lolát.
14/ Hiba volt magammal vinni Lolát.
15/ Hiba volt elvinni magammal Lolát.
16/ Hiba volt elhozni magammal Lolát.
17/ Hiba volt elhozni ide Lolát.
18/ Hiba volt Lolával jönni ide.
19/ Hiba volt Lolát vinni magammal.
20/ Hiba volt Lolát hozni magammal.
21/ Hiba volt Lolát magammal hozni.
22/ Hiba volt Lolát magammal vinni.
23/ Hiba volt Lolát hozni ide.
24/ Hiba volt Lolát elhozni ide.
25/ Tévedés volt...
26/ Nem volt helyes...
27/ Nem kellett volna...
28/ Helytelen volt...
29/ Nem lett volna szabad...
30/ Nem tettem jól, hogy...
The choice between the infinitival construction and the hogy-clause could not have been merely subjective either. Although both versions produce grammatically correct H sentences, the H translator often faces the problem of having to translate an E (IEu) noun phrase into a subclause, so this solution might have been considered more “H”, which made her reject versions 14/-24/.
At the lexical level, the decision is influenced by the author’s style and other features of the short story in question. The choice between hoztam/vittem: is determined by the temporal and spatial position of the narrator, who tells about his visit to his native town after he has left it, so the use of hozni would be justified only if he were still staying there at the time of narration (2/, 4/, 5/, 8/, 10/, 11/, 14/, 16/, 17/, 20/, 21/, 23/, 24/, the same applies to 6/: jöttem). What remains is 1/ and 9/, which is very close to it.
Hiba volt..., Tévedés volt..., Helyetelen volt..., Nem volt helyes...., Nem lett volna szabad..., Nem tettem jól...: any of these would have been in tune with the following sentence, which reads: Abban a pillanatban tudtam, amikor kiszálltunk a vonatból... It is rather obvious that the translator opted for Hiba volt because it seemed to be the simplest. She may have been governed by the rule that is generally advocated by translators:
“Stick to the simplest solution, do not deviate from the original unless it turns out to be unavoidable, beware of over-translation!” (Klaudy 1997:23, translation and italics are mine, L.P.)
VII/ 2 Differentiation and concretization (narrowing of meaning)
The narrowing of the meaning of a word in the source language usually consists in reviewing the various meanings of the word (differentiation) and then choosing one of them (concretization). The reason for applying this method is usually the lack of a word with the same degree of generalization in the target language.
Nouns: differentiation, then concretization is necessitated by languages approaching and reflecting reality in different ways. If, eg, a part of the body, period of day, degree of relationship, etc. in the target language has a more detailed description than in the source language, the translator will have to differentiate between the target language equivalents and concretize or narrow down the source language meaning in it.
Verbs: the need for concretization of meanings can be explained by the typical features of the H verb with its very rich system of pre-verbs and affixes (causative, diminutive, etc.). that are capable of conveying numerous shades of meaning (cf odabandzsalít, felhörpint, bevillamosozik, szállong, szálldos, szállingózik, szálldogál, kattog, kattint, kattan, etc). In IEu languages, this is not always possible to do. For these shades to get across in the H text, the translator has to concretize the very general IEu verbs.
Types of concretization:
1/ Body parts
2/ Quoting verbs
3/ Verbs of commencement
4/ Overall concretization of verbs
1/ Body parts (typical direction: H E)
As referred to above, parts of the body are divided into different areas of denomination by languages. Even if the division is similar, the frequency of occurrence of the equivalents may be remarkably different. Eg,
face/cheek, mouth/lips = arc/orca, száj/ajak
The trouble, however, is that in H orca and ajak are much less frequently used than cheek and lips in E. From this it follows that the translator will typically come across the lexemes arc and száj and it is up to him/her to decice whether the whole face or mouth is meant or only part of them.
arc face/cheek
Megvizezte és megdörzsölte piros, tizenötéves leányarcát.
She wet her ruddy, fifteen-year-old face.
A hentes volt. Ragyás arcú, szép bajuszú, izmos parasztember.
The butcher. A brawny peasant: grand moustaches, pockmarked cheeks.
száj mouth/lips
A lány teli szájjal kacagott, mintha csiklandozták volna.
Now she laughed with her mouth wide open as though she were being tickled.
De mégis ellágyult, és megcsókolta a lányt a száján.
Still, he was touched, and kissed her lips.
láb foot/leg
Julcsa pedig összeszappanozza a lábunkat.
Julie soaps our feet.
...viszi a csontvázat, melynek kezei, lábai valami különös táncot járnak.
...lugging the skeleton, whose arms and legs danced grotesquely.
kézhand/arm
Egy ideig még karmolta a kezeimet, de igen erőtlenül.
He kept on scraping at my hands weakly.
A kés ott volt a keze ügyében.
The knife was there at arm’s reach.
A felügyelőnek messzire elért a keze.
The inspector had a long arm.
2/ Quoting verbs (typical direction: E H)
It is mainly stylistic considerations and traditions that govern H translators in concretizing quoting verbs in their work. The monotony of the repeated use of say is avoided by their concretizing its meaning in tune with the general atmosphere and tone of the dialogue. Verbs such as felfortyan, sóhajt, lármázik, legyint, hálálkodik, tiltakozik türelmetlenkedik, etc. are frequently used for this purpose:
‘Who is talking of free love?’ the Red said.
Ki beszél itt szabad szerelemről? fortyant fel a vörös.
‘You can see for yourself,’ the proprietor said, ‘how the bottles have been broken...’
Láthatja a saját szemével, hogy minden palackomat összetörték lármázott tovább a tulajdonos.
3/ Verbs of commencement (typical direction: E H)
As a rule, Indo-European languages express the beginning of an action with a phrase containing an inflected verb of commencement + infinitive: It began to rain. The wind started to blow. He started to speak. Translators may either contract the meaning of the verb of commencement with the main verb (megszólalt), or concretize it: feltámadt a szél, eleredt az eső. Typical verbs: hozzálát, nekilát, belefog, stb.
He began immediately to close his cafe.
Habozás nélkül záráshoz látott.
He began to tremble violently.
Szörnyű reszketés fogta el.
VII/3Generalization of meanings
The reason for this is roughly the same as stated above for concretization: languages approach reality in different ways. Generalization is applied, however, when the more detailed description of certain phenomena is typical of the source language and the target language has no such lexical unit that would correspond to the one in the source language. The very concrete H verbs (see above), eg, have to be generalized in translations from H into E.
Subtypes:
1/ Body parts
2/ Periods of the day
3/ Widening the meaning of verbs
4/ Realia
1/ Body parts (typical direction: E H)
mouth/lips száj (the use of ajak is limited)
It amused him to imagine it was himself whom he watched, the same hair, the same eyes, the same lips and line of cheek.
Elszórakozott azzal a gondolattal, hogy tkp. önmagát figyeli: ugyanaz a haj, ugyanaz a szempár, ugyanaz a száj és ugyanaz az arc.
2/ Periods of the day (typical direction: H E)
H délelőtt has no equivalent of the same frequency in E (the use of forenoon is limited), that’s why H-s find it strange that there are morning sessions at international conferences. The translator has to resort to generalization:
Valamelyik téli délelőttön az anatómiai intézet igazgatójának első asszisztense egy embert jelentett be.
One winter morning the head assistant of the Institute of Anatomy announced someone.
In H we find a subtler differentiation of the morning period, the hajnal/reggel/délelőtt is applied rather consistently, whereas in E (and in other IEu languages, too), even if there is a word (dawn), the meaning is often generalized:
Aztán a nyári hajnal violás folyadékot csorgatott mindenüvé...
The summer morning threw violet streaks over everything...
Másnap délelőtt a herceg alig öltözött fel, lármát hallott a palota lépcsőin.
The prince had hardly finished dressing the next morning, when he heard a noise upon the staircase.
3/ Widening the meaning of verbs (typical direction: H E)
In translations from E into H, concretization of verb meanings is typical (see above, quoting verbs). In the reverse direction, however, the widening of verb meanings is one of the most conspicuous features and one of the most frequently applied transfer operations:
... végigsiklottak ujjai a bordáin.
... his fingers ran over its ribs.
... visszasietett a tűzhöz.
and returned to the fire.
Egymás után hörpintette fel a serlegeket.
... emptying one goblet after another.
Generalization is again necessitated by the rich system of preverbs and suffixes of the H verb.
4/ Culture-bound, culture-specific words and phrases (“Realia”, no typical direction)
szemelt rizling white wine
kadarka wine, red wine
csűrdöngölő dance, folk dance
He had preferred himself a glass of stout and some oysters.
Jómaga szívesebben fogyasztott volna egy pohár sört és néhány osztrigát
A slice of cold pie, a glass of port, a cup of tea
Egy szelet hideg húspástétom, egy pohár bor, egy csésze tea.
VII/4 Contraction of Meanings
Two or more words in the SL text are often contracted into one in the TL:
A nők lábujjhegyen járták körül a haldokló varázslót.
The women tiptoed about the dying magician.
Contraction of nouns can be accounted for either by differences in dismembering reality (cf names of family relationships) or differences in word formation patterns (eg, long compounds in German).
Contraction of verbs can have either morphological or lexical causes.
Morphology: the H verb is typically synthetic, a single verb form may contain plenty of information (very rich system of personal endings, suffixes, tense and number markers, agglutinative structure)
Megkáposztátlanítottátok You have had it uncabbaged.
Becsomagoltathatom? Shall/may I have it wrapped up?
The incorporation of the E (IEu) pronouns and auxiliaries in the H verb form is an automatic transfer operation, so they will not be treated extensively.
The rich variety and variability of verbal prefixes and suffixes in H make the language capable of condensing an extraordinarily wide range of meanings in one single form, which is the main cause of contraction in thelexical system. Such various aspects of action as commencement momentariness, frequency, etc. are all expressed synthetically, whereas E (IEu) has to resort to analytic forms for the same purpose.
1/ Contraction in names of family relationships (no typical direction)
Umbrella term in H Specification in E
testvérbrother and sister
Umbrella term in HUmbrella term in E
nagyszülőkgrandparents
Umbrella term in ESpecification in H
brotherfivér, öcs, báty
sisterhúg, nővér
Of course they wasn’t brother and sister.
Persze nem voltak testvérek.
Then his sister was his manager and they was always being written up in the papers all about brothers and sisters and how she loved her brother…
Aztán a nővére volt a menedzsere, s mindig kiírták őket az újságokban, hogy testvérek, és hogyan szereti a lány a fivérét….
And men and women like Miss O’Shay will help me.
És olyan emberek, mint Miss O’Shay mellettem fognak állni.
2/ Contracting verbs of commencement and the main verb (typical direction: E H)
Similar to concretization (see above). As opposed to it, however, it frequently happens that the verb of commencement is contracted with the main verb:
Presently a little crowd began to collect, and soon the policeman came
Aztán kisebb tömeg verődött össze, és nemsokára felbukkant a rendőr.
The substitution is optional because elkezdett gyülekezni, sírni, remegni, virágzani, etc. are also correct grammatically. Beginners, as a rule, frequently miss the opportunity. This type of contraction has, however, become a tradition handed down from generation to generation of translators, who make a good use of the lexical potential of the H verb by exploiting it.
3/ Contracting quoting verbs with their adverbs of manner (typical direction: E H)
Quoting verbs are often concretized (see above). This is usually accompanied by their contraction with the following adverbs (of manner).
‘You have ruined my life’ said the woman, sobbing.
Tönkretetted az életemet - mondta zokogva/zokogta az asszony.
‘I wish I had it’ said the little boy, sighing.
De jó lenne! - mondta sóhajtva/sóhajtotta a kisfiú.
‘Before this day is done’, Mr Boggis said softly, ‘I shall have the pleasure of sitting down upon that lovely seat.’
- Még mielőtt leáldozik a nap - suttogta Mr. Boggis -, erre a szépséges székre lesz szerencsém letelepedni.
‘Yes, Edna?’ said Miss Marple encouragingly.
- Nos, Edna - mondta biztatva/biztatta Miss Marple.
4/ Contracting verbs of general menining with a concrete noun or adjective (typical direction: E H)
‘There is a bottle in my pocket. Have a drink.’
- Van egy üveg a zsebemben. Igyál!
And if it makes me smaller, I can creep under the door.
Ha pedig eltörpülök tőle, akkor kimászhatok alul az ajtórésen.
The sample of contraction above is very close to concretization as the general verbs are dropped and the concrete nouns/adjectives are “verbalized”. It may occur several times within one single sentence:
... and it was a shock last week when one of the brood not only detected me in the act of observation but returned that knowing signal, as if he shared my knowledge of what the years would make of him.
és múlt héten jócskán megdöbbentem, mikor a fészekaljából az egyik nemcsak rajtakapott megfigyelés közben, de még vissza is kacsintott, mintha ő éppoly jól tudná, mit tartogat számára a jövő.
VII/5 Decomposition of meanings (reverse of contraction)
A word in the SL can often be translated into two or more words in the TL:
She refused and told White about it.
Evelyn azonban nem volt erre hajlandó, és elmondta a dolgot White-nak.
The reasons for decomposition see above.
1/ Decomposition in names of family relationships (no typical direction)
Again, see above, testvér, etc.
Although rokonok does have an E equivalent (relatives), the translator has decomposed it, obviously because another instance of decomposition is inevitable in translating testvér:
Azután elment, mert már jöttek a varázsló rokonai és testvérei, s azokkal ő nem volt ismerős.
Then she went away, because the brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins of the magician were gathering, and she didn’t know them.
2/ Decomposing verbs of commencement (typical direction: H E)
Again, see above, the reverse of contraction in translations E H
Azonban, hogy a lovakhoz érnek kiszakad belőle a sikoltás.
But as soon as they reach the horses she startsscreaming again.
Erre aztán Rozsákné is felkelt, felöltözött és elpityeredett.
This was enough to make Mrs. Rozsák get up too, put on her clothes and start snivelling.
3/ Decomposing verbs of transition from one state into another (typical direction: H E)
The H verb is usually decomposed into a V+C (adj) structure:
elfeketedik turn black, elfárad become tired, megsavanyodik go sour.
Egészen belevörösödtem a próbálkozásba, hogy a gyanús közmondást kiegészítsem.
My struggles to complete the shady-looking proverb actually made me quite red in the face.
...és ő maga is kötelességszerűen elérzékenyült.
...and so turned dutifully sentimental.
4/ Separating the adverb(ial) of manner from the synthetic H verb (typical direction: H E)
The adverbial of manner is separated from the verb in translations from H into E (again, see above for the reverse) and a verb of general meaning + and adv. of manner appears:
...berontott az asszisztens.
...the assistant returned hurriedly.
This phenomenon frequently occurs with quoting verbs. The semantically loaded H quoting verbs are typically decomposed: