Replacement of Syndeton by Asyndeton

In English and Ukrainian coordination may be expressed by both syndetic and asyndetic ways; again for Ukrainian (oral colloquial), asyndetic way is more typical than for English. This fact is reflected in frequent replacement of syndetic type of connection by asyndetic in translating from English:

So I opened my suitcases and took out a clean shirt, and then I went in the bathroom and washed and changed my shirt.

Я відкрив валізи, витягнув чисту сорочку, пішов у ванну, помився й переодягнувся.

In the source sentence copulative conjunction and is used four times, in Ukrainian – only one, at the last member of enumeration.

After I made the date with old Sally, I got out of bed and got dressed and packed my bag.

Домовився з Саллі, потім встав, одягнувся, склав валізу.

In English sentence three conjunctions (after and 2 and) are used, in Ukrainian — none (conjunction after is replaced byadverb потім).

It was hot as hell and the windows were all steamy.

Спека була нестерпна, всі вікна запітніли.

All you do is make a lot of dough, and play golf, and play bridge, and buy cars, and drink martinis, and look like a hot-shot.

Будеш просто гнати монету, грати в гольф, у бридж, купувати машини, пити сухі коктейлі й ходити таким собі півнем.

In translation from Ukrainian into English, on the contrary, asyndeton in most cases is replaced by syndeton:

І сушені вишні тоді були м’які, соковиті, солодкі, духмяні (Чехов. Вишневий сад).

The dried cherries were soft, and juicy, and sweet, and sweet-smelling then.

LECTURE 18: Lexical Replacements

In lexical transformations different replacements of specific lexical units (words and word combinations) of SL by the units of TL, which are not their lexical equivalents, take place. Here the replaced units if taken separately, have other referential meanings, than the meanings of the units of TL. More often here we meet three cases: concretization, generalization and replacement, based on cause and effect relations (replacement of cause by effect and visa versa).

Concretization

This type of lexical transformations is used in translating words with wide and non-differentiated meaning. The essence of this transformation lies in translating such words of SL by the words with specified concrete meaning in TL. When translating from English into Ukrainian they use it more often in verbs. If English verbs mostly denote actions in rather a vague general way, Ukrainian verbs are very concrete in denoting not only the action itself but also the manner of performing this action as well “ to go (by foot, by train, by plane, etc.)” – “ йти пішки ”, “ їхати поїздом ”, “ летіти літаком ”, etc.; “ to get out ” – “ вибиратися ”, “ виходити ”, “ вилізати ”, “ висаджуватися ”, etc. The choice of a particular Ukrainian verb depends on the context. It does not mean, Of course, that the verb “ to go ” changes its meaning under the influence of the context. The meaning of “ to go ” is the same, it always more or less corresponds to Ukrainian “ переміщатися ”, but the norms of Ukrainian require a more specified nomination of the action.

This transformation is applicable not only to verbs but to all words of wide semantic range, no matter to what part of speech they belong: adverbs, adjectives or nouns.

The noun thing, which has very abstract and vague meaning the same as stuff, point or camp, is used to denote practically anything, often remaining stylistically neutral ( The Shorter Oxford Dictionary denotes the word “thing” as “an entity of any kind”, “that, which is or may be in any way an object of perception, knowledge or thought” ). In Ukrainian, however, nounswith such a general meaning are less universal, besides, theywould belong to colloquial register which often makes it impossible to use them in translation. E.g. thing if translated by way of concretization may have the meanings: штука, річ, предмет, справа, факт, випадок, обставина, витвір, істота:

things look promising — становище багатообіцяюче

how are things? — ну, як справи?

as things go — за нинішніх обставин

take off your things — роздягніться

he is a mean thing — він підла тварюка

oh, poor thing! — о бідолаха!, о сердешний!

it is just the thing — це саме те

good things — ласощі

I am not quite the thing today — я сьогодні нездужаю

near thing — небезпека, якої ледве вдалося уникнути

no such thing — нічого такого, зовсім ні

to know a thing or two — дещо знати; розуміти що до чого

to make a good thing of smth. — скористатися з чогось

to make a regular thing of smth. — регулярно займатися чимось

to see things — марити, галюцинувати, etc.

In many cases the words like thing are omitted at all in translation:

She is a pretty thing. — Вона гарненька.

above all things — насамперед, передусім, головним чином among other things — між іншим

and things — і таке інше

it amounts to the same thing — це те ж саме

At this point she is right — тут вона має рацію

Let’s buy bread, vegetables and perhaps some other stuff —

Купімо хліб, овочі та, може, щось ще.

In case when such words must be given some Ukrainian equivalent a word with more concrete meaning denoting this particular thing or stuff which is meant by the author, should be found:

I’ve bought this stuff in the neighboring grocery.

Я купила всі ці продукти в найближчому продовольчому супермаркеті.

…this madman stuff that happened to me…

…ідіотська історія, яка зі мною трапилась…

…all the dispensary stuff …

Усі медичні препарати ( або ліки)

You have never done a single thing in all your life to be ashamed of

За все своє життя ти не скоїв жодного ганебного вчинку.

The verbs of motion come and go are concretized in translating into

Ukrainian, i.e. the way of motion is specified: приходити, прибувати, приїжджати, підходити, підбігати, припливати, прилітати; go — іти, ходити, їхати, відправлятися, сходити, приходити, плисти, летіти.

The concretization of words of speaking: say and tell also takes place — говорити, розповідати, казати, сказати, промовити, мовити, повторити, відзначити, зауважити, стверджувати, повідомити, висловитись, висловлюватись, спитати, заперечити, наказати, звеліти:

The device of concretization is also used in rendering other words with broad meaning:

Dinny waited in a corridor which smelled of disinfectant (Galsworthy).

Дінні чекала її в коридорі, що просяк карболкою.

Disinfectant — дезінфікуючий засіб (the word acceptable in official-scientific genre) — in fiction concretization is needed.

The same can be illustrated by the verb “to be”:

The clock is on the wall.

Годинник висить на стіні.

The apple is on the plate and the plate is on the table.

Яблуко лежить на тарілці, а тарілка стоїть на столі.

In all these cases, though, “ to be ” preserves its general meaning “ знаходитись ”.

The words of general purpose like the man, the woman, the person, the creature are replaced by concrete proper names or nouns: старий, солдат, прохожий, хазяйка, собака, кішка.

Concretization is caused by the necessity to complete the phrase, achieve figurativeness and avoid repetition.

It is necessary to take into consideration not only denotative but connotative meanings as well. The verb “ to employ ” is usually translated as “ наймати, приймати на роботу ”. But if Mark Twain’s character is “ accused of employing toothless and incompetent old relatives to prepare food for the foundling hospital ”, of which he is warden, the verb acquires a shade of negative meaning (he is said to have used his position in order to pay money to his relatives for the work which they could not do properly); so it should be translated by a less “general” verb – e.g. “ прилаштувати, влаштувати по знайомству ”.

The English pronoun “ you ” deserves special attention. It can be translated only with the help of differentiation, i.e. either “ ти ” or “ ви ”. The choice depends on the character, his age, social position, relations and the situation in which he speaks. One should remember that the wrong choice can destroy the whole atmosphere of the narration.

Generalization

Generalization is the phenomenon opposite to concretization; the notions with narrow meaning in source language are replaced by the units with broader meaning in target language. We have to resort to generalization when in the target language there are no concrete notions analogous to the ones in source language. In many cases the norms of TL make it unnecessary and even undesirable to translate all the particulars expressed in SL. Englishmen usually name the exact height of a person: “He is six foot three inches tall”. In Ukrainian it would hardly seem natural to introduce a character saying: “Він шість футів і три дюйми на зріст”; substituting centimeters for feet and inches wouldn’t make it much better: “Його зріст — 190,5 сантиметра”. The best variant may be following: “Він дуже високий на зріст”.

Generalization is also used in those cases when in SL a word with differentiated meaning corresponds to a word with non-differentiated meaning in TL (“a hand” – “рука”, “an arm” – “рука”, leg – foot, etc.).

The necessity to use generalization may be caused by purely pragmatic considerations. In the original text there may be many proper names informative for the native speakers of SL and absolutely uninformative for the readers in TL. These may be the names of some firms, goods produced by those firms, shops (often bearing the names of their owners), etc. Englishmen know that “Tonibell” is the name of various kinds of ice-cream produced by the firm Tonibell, while “Trebor” means sweets produced by Trebor Sharps Ltd and “Tree Top” designates fruit drinks produced by Unilever. Transcribed in the Ukrainian text these names are absolutely senseless for the reader who would not see any difference between „Тонібел“, „Требор“, „Три Топ“ or even „Тоутал“, which is not eatable since it is petrol. An English reader in his turn can hardly guess what they sell in “ Динамо ” shops (even if it is spelt “ Dynamo ”) or in “ Весна ” (no matter whether it is rendered as “ Vesna ” or “ Spring ”). Hardly are more informative such names as “ Сніжинка ” (a café or a laundry), “ Байкал ” (a beverage), “ Першокласниця ” (candies), “ Осінь ” (a cake), etc. Therefore it is recommended to substitute names (unless they are internationally known or play an important role in the context) by generic words denoting the whole class of similar objects:

Він здає свої сорочки в „ Сніжинку “.

He has his shirts washed at the laundry.

Вони їли „ Осінь “, запиваючи її „ Байкалом “.

They were eating a cake washing it down with a tonic.

…Domes of glass and aluminium which glittered like Chanel diamonds.

…склепіння зі скла та алюмінію, що виблискували, наче штучні діаманти.

To translate “ Chanel diamonds ” as «діаманти фірми „Шанель“ would be a mistake since the majority of Ukrainian readers do not know that this firm makes artificial diamonds. If the text permits a longer sentence it is possible to add this information («штучні діаманти фірми „Шанель“), which may be useful for the readers’ scope but absolutely unnecessary for the text itself. However, the generalized translation “ штучні діаманти ” is quite necessary here.

Here are some other examples with generalization used:

He comes over and visits me practically every weekend. (Sal.)

Він часто до мене їздить, майже кожного тижня.

Then his girl gets killed, because she’s always speeding.

А потім дівчина гине, тому що вона постійно порушує правила.

“Who won the game?” I said. “ It’s only the half. ”

„А хто виграв?“ — питаю. — Ще не скінчилось.

In translation generalization is combined with antonymic translation; verb said is concretized.

... He showed us this old beat-up Havajo blanket that he and Mrs. Spencer’d bought off some Indian...

Він нам показав пошарпану індійську ковдру — вони з місіс Спенсер купили її в якогось індійця.

…Jane used to drive to market with her mother in this La Salle convertible they had.

…Джейн їздила зі своєю матір’ю на ринок в їхній машині.

If I do not sleep… I shall tomorrow night get them to give me a dose of chloral.

Якщо я не спатиму… то завтра вночі попрошу в них снодійне.

I asked Dr. Seward to give me a little opiate of some kind, as I had not slept well the night before.

Я попросив у доктора Стюарда трохи снодійного, оскільки погано спав минулої ночі.

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