conformity and unconformity in meaning and usage of corresponding forms and
constructions also demands grammatical transformations. We can refer to
this case the partial unconformity of the category of number, partial
unconformity in the forms of passive constructions, partial unconformity of
the form of infinitive and gerund and some other differences in expressing
the modality of the clause and so on.
First of all we should consider the article for article both definite
and indefinite which despite its abstract meaning very frequently demands
semantic expression in translation. As we know both these articles
originated from pronouns; the definite one originated from index pronoun
and the indefinite one from indefinite pronoun, which refers to number one.
These primary meanings are sometimes obvious in their modern usage. In this
cases their lexical meaning should be rendered in translation otherwise the
Russian sentence would be incomplete and ambiguous for denotative meaning
of articles is an inseparable part of the whole context meaning of a given
sentence. There are cases when classifying function of indefinite articles
is so obvious that one should render its meaning by some lexical item.
It is commonly stated that government should resign if defeated in a
major issue in the House of Commons which has been made one of confidence.
(The Times).
Обычно утверждают, что правительство должно подать в отставку, если оно
потерпит поражение в Палате общин по какому-нибудь серьёзному вопросу,
который оппозиция считает вопросом о доверии правительству.
In this case the indefinite article acquires the meaning of the pronoun
some. One can easily see its historical relation with the number one in the
following example:
Yet, H.G. Wells had not an enemy on earth.
Однако у Герберта не было ни единого врага на свете.
As has been pointed before the most difficult are cases when
classifying meanings of indefinite articles demand semantic transfer in
translation.
We need a Government which believes in planning ahead for jobs and
which will use available labor to build homes for the British people.
Нам нужно такое правительство, которое было бы убеждено в
целесообразности планирования занятости и использовало бы наличную рабочую
силу в строительстве домов для населения.
The emphatic role of the indefinite article in its classifying function
is more expressed in the following sentence.
The Vietnam war had revealed the true nature of a U.S. foreign policy
that can be purchased ruthlessly for the benefit of a view in the “military-
industrial complex”.
Война во Вьетнаме вскрыла истинную природу той внешней политики США,
которая проводится беспощадными методами ради выгоды немногих
представителей «военно-промышленного комплекса».
Pretty often the definite article demands translation in cases when it
comes before numerals.
The two sides also signed a Treaty in the Limitation of Underground
Nuclear Tests.
Обе стороны подписали договор об ограничении подземных испытаний
атомного оружия.
The Southern nations remained quiet between 1948 and 1958 as Latin
America’s economy grew at an impressive annual rate of 4.3 percent.
С 1948 по 1958 южные страны пребывали в относительном спокойствии, в то
время как экономика Латинской Америки развивалась впечатлительным темпом в
4.3 процента в год.
In the following sentence both articles demands translation.
The influence and authority of the UN Secretariat depends to an extent
(though not nearly to the extent that is popularly supposed) on the talents
of one individual – the Secretary-General. The job is a peculiar one.
Влияние и авторитет секретариата ООН зависят в известной степени (хотя
и не в такой степени, как обычно полагают) от качеств одного человека –
Генерального секретаря. Это чрезвычайно своеобразная должность.
The lexical meaning of the article is strongly expressed when it acts
in like a link connecting parts of the sentences or two separate sentences
as given in the example above. From the mentioned above cases we can judge
that missing article translation may lead to misinterpretation or incorrect
and incomplete translation of a sentence.
The role of verb complexes in English is quite evident therefore we
will consider only some peculiar cases of verb transformations during
translation.
First of all let us consider the verb construction with the preposition
for:
…American military bases on foreign territories which are intended for
launching missiles possessed by United States’ armed forces.
… американские военные базы на территориях других государств, которые
предназначены для запуска ракет американскими ВВС.
In this case the infinitive construction is translated like adverbial
modifier of purpose.
The construction with secondary predicate (so-called Nominative with
the Infinitive) is widely used in newspaper style due to its preciseness
and because it help to avoid the responsibility for the given information.
The United States Congress is aimed to control all the financial
expenses of the Government.
Целью конгресса Соединённых Штатов является контроль всех расходов
правительства.
It is natural that transformation is required while translating
sentences with participles of absolute nominative construction.
But often enough grammatical transformations are necessary while
rendering conforming forms and constructions for some divergence in their
meaning and usage. Such differences of opinions are observed in cases of
usage of the category of number. This refers to both countable and
uncountable nouns. Countable nouns have single and plural forms in both
languages that usually coincide still we observe cases when their usage is
different, ex.:
War Atrocity on Peace Conference Eve (news head).
Зверства (интервентов) накануне мирной конференции
Concerning uncountable nouns, especially those expressing abstract
notions we may have much more difficulties because most of them are
paradigmatic. For example: ink – чернила, money – деньги and so on.
Increasingly, Southern Africa is becoming the arena of national
liberation struggles.
Южная Африка всё больше и больше становится районом национально-
освободительной борьбы.
Sometimes, despite the availability of the plural form in Russian – its
usage is impossible owing to difference in combination and usage.
The Nile Valley appears to have been unfit for human habitation during
the Stone Ages.
Долина Нила, по-видимому, была не пригодна для жизни человека на
протяжении всего каменного века (во все периоды каменного века).
In Russian the Stone Age expression is of a historical nature and is
never used in plural.
In cases when plural form is to be preserved for it carries some
inherent sense one has to apply countable nouns, ex.:
Strikes broke out in many British industries.
В ряде отраслей промышленности Англии вспыхнули забастовки.
Sometimes, owing to some reasons some of constructions has wider usage
in one languages comparing with other languages. The best example of this
is the passive form – widely used in English mostly due to disappearance of
word flexion. As a result, both indirect and predicative object maybe
transformed into the objects of passive construction.
Stones and bottles were showered upon a Negro demonstration in
Milwaukee by white racists.
Белые расисты обрушили град камней и бутылок на негритянскую
демонстрацию в Милуоки (забросали камнями и бутылками).
We should notice that the passive-active transformation can not give
sufficient result for in passive construction the stress is being made on
the object of action and in the active construction the stress is being
made on the agent of action. The widespread use of passive construction in
English happens often enough because it is explained by unimportance of the
doer of that action and it is most often in newspaper style at the same
time the most important is to attract attention to the passage. Since the
structure and word order of simple sentence is subject + predicate + object
the importance of stylistics is bigger then to distinguish the object one
chooses the passive construction.
Divergence are found in some other cases of infinitive usage –
infinitive in substantivized constructions (like post-positive attribute)
and infinitive expressing following actions, for example:
The president warned of drastic steps to be taken against racialists in
the Zambian copper belt.
Президент предупредил, что будут предприняты решительные меры против
белых расистов в Медном поясе Замбии.
The infinitive functioning as attribute is translated into object
clause with the verb in the Future tense.
The Continuative Infinitive is often mistaken for the infinitive of
purpose, but in this function it expresses the action following the after
the action expressed by predicate and represents the logical development of
things.
The Soviet Union decided to sign the Treaty with Germany and only did
to discover that Germany itself violated it two years later.
Советский Союз решил заключить договор с Германией. Но два года спустя
Германия сама нарушила его.
The Continuative infinitive very often is used with the adverb only
which stresses it. This emphatic function can be rendered in many ways.
Thus, all the considered cases – absence of conforming form, partial
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