No comma is used to separate the subject and predicate clauses: What he said was not what he thought. (The exception to the rule is when two similar linking verbs happen to conjoin: What he is, is not known.)

The comma may be omitted in short compound sentences in which the connection between the clauses is close: She understood the situation and she was furious.

In English asyndetic (without a conjunction) coordinate clauses are considered bad style. They are usually partitioned into independent sentences or separated by a semicolon: Кончился дождь, защебетали птицы. - It stopped raining. Birds started chirping. Or It stopped raining; birds started chirping.

In sentences with three or more homogeneous parts, the comma separates the conjunctions and / or from the final item: She asked for paper, pencils, and a ruler. - Она попросила бумагу, карандаши и линейку. Would you rather have ice cream, cake, or pie for dessert? - На десерт ты будешь мороженое, торт или пирог?

The comma is essential to the meaning, and this is reflected in translation: I'm studying English literature and painting. - Я изучаю английскую литературу и английскую живопись. Here the attribute English is common to both literature and painting written without comma. In translation, the attribute is repeated to avoid ambiguity. I'm studying English literature, and painting. - Я изучаю живопись и английскую литературу. In this sentence, the word English refers only to literature; therefore, the parallel nouns are separated by the comma. To render this meaning in Russian and avoid ambiguity, we have to change the noun order so that the first noun is used without any modifier.

The comma sets off parallel parts and a governed element of the sentence if this element is common to all the parallel parts having different prepositional government: The comments on, and criticism of, the article provide considerable food for thought. - Комментарии и критические замечания к этой статье дают значительную пищу для размышлений. There were people in all the countries who thought of, and strove for, that aim. - Во всех странах мира были люди, думавшие об этой цели и стремившиеся к ней.

Participial and gerundial constructions are separated by the comma in case they are positioned before the modified noun or are optional for the meaning and structural completeness of the sentence: Working there, he becomes more and more efficient. Two men, working there, talked about the accident. But The men working there were not very friendly. (Compare with Russian Работавшие там люди были недоброжелательны. Люди, работавшие там, были недоброжелательными.)

The comma sets off short quotations and is used after the author's words: Franklin said, “In this world nothing is sure but death and taxes.” “In this world,” said Franklin, “nothing is sure but death and taxes.” Compare: Франклин сказал: „В этом мире можно быть уверенным только в смерти и в налогах”. „В этом мире, - сказал Франклин, - можно быть уверенным только в смерти и в налогах”

§3. USING THE DASH

In English punctuation system, the dash is perhaps the strongest marker.

It indicates a sudden break or abrupt change in continuity, which in Russian is usually marked by ellipses:

Well, you see, I - I've - I'm just not sure.

Видите ли, я … я был … я просто не уверен.

Well, then, I'll simply tell her that -

Ну, тогда я просто скажу ей, что …

The dash sets apart an explanatory or defining phrase: Foods high in protein - meats, fish, eggs, and cheese - should be a part of one's daily diet. Продукты, богатые белками: мясо, рыба, яйца и сыр - должны входить в ежедневный рацион человека. We suddenly realized what the glittering gems were - emeralds. Неожиданно мы поняли, что это были за сверкающие камни: изумруды.

There is no dash introducing dialogue in English. Instead, quotation marks are used. Compare:

In English there is no dash introducing the author's words after direct quotations: «Я скоро вернусь», - сказал он. “I'll be back soon,” he said.

§4. USING QUOTATION MARKS

There are two types of quotation marks in English - double and single quotation marks. Double quotation marks enclose direct quotations, single ones are used within quotations: Mary said, “I heard the thief yell, `Quick! Let's get out of here!' ” Or “I heard the thief yell, `Quick! Let's get out of here!' ” said Mary. Or “I heard,” said Mary, “the thief yell, `Quick! Let's get out of here!' ”

Care should be taken to put commas and periods within quotation marks. Exclamation points and question marks are also put inside if they are part of the matter quoted.

Beside direct speech, in Russian quotation marks always enclose the titles of books, movies, etc. In English, quotation marks can also be used in this case; otherwise, the title is underlined or italicized: e.g., For further information, readers may wish to consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. For further information, readers may wish to consult the “MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers”.

§5. USING THE COLON AND SEMICOLON

The semicolon separates the clauses of a compound sentence having no coordinating conjunction: The questions are provided by the analyst; the answers come from the data. Вопросы готовятся аналитиком, ответы выводятся из данных.

The semicolon can also be used to separate clauses of a compound sentence joined by a conjunctive adverb, such as nonetheless, however, hence, therefore: We demanded the refund; however, the manufacturer refused to give us one.

Like in Russian, the colon introduces words, phrases, or clauses that explain or summarize the preceding information: Suddenly I knew where I was: Paris. The colon can introduce quotations, but only long ones: In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln said: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. …”

The colon is used in formal letters to separate the name of a person addressed:

Dear Sir or Madam:

Dear Mr. Johnson:

Gentlemen:

§6. USING THE ELLIPSES

Like in Russian, the ellipses indicate the omission of words or sentences within quoted matter. But unlike Russian, if the omission takes place at the end of the sentence, four points are used: As George Bernard Shaw remarked, “Liberty means responsibility. … Most men dread it.”

PART IV. SEMANTIC PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION

Chapter 1. WORD CHOICE IN TRANSLATION

Even words having the same referential (denotative) meaning are not full equivalents as far as their connotation is concerned. Thus, an English-Russian dictionary gives two translations for the word dog: собака, пёс. The former translation equivalent is neutral, the latter is colloquial, expressive. Since the English word dog is more general, it is only a partial equivalent to пёс.

Or the Russian word дохлый is not a full equivalent of the English dead, as is given by the Oxford Russian dictionary¹¹⁴⁵ The O x f o r d R u s s i a n D i c t i o n a r y. - М.: Прогресс-Академия, Смоленск: Полиграмма, 1995. -С.120.⁴⁵. Дохлый is a very informal, expressive word, whereas dead is its neutral counterpart.

Not only the denotative (referential) meaning of the word, but also its connotative shades should be taken into account in translating:

Emotional coloring: doggie - пёсик, bunny - заенька. The Russian language is known to be abundant in diminutive suffixes (солнышко, ложечка, чашечка). Since these suffixes are not as typical in English as in Russian, they are lost in translation: День склонялся к вечеру. По небу медленно ползли легкие розовые облачка. (В. Арсеньев) - Evening was near, and light pink clouds crept slowly across the sky. (Transl. by V. Shneerson.)

Stylistic overtone: to begin (neutral) vs. to commence (poetic); husband (informal) - spouse (formal); спать (neutral) - почивать (poetic);

Associations: nations have different associations connected with this or that word. Thus, in English the word blue is often associated with something unpleasant: to look blue - иметь унылый вид; to be blue - иметь плохое настроение; to tell blue stories - рассказывать неприличные истории; to be in a blue funk - быть в ужасной панике; to be in the blue - пойти по плохой дорожке; to burn blue - быть дурным предзнаменованием. The word blue corresponds to the Russian adjectives синий and голубой. Синий is often associated with unpleasant things: синий от холода (blue with cold), синий чулок (blue stocking), гори оно синим пламенем (to the hell with something). Голубой has usually positive connotations: голубые мечты (sweet dreams), голубой песец (blue fox), голубой экран (TV screen); на блюдечке с голубой каемочкой (on a silver platter).

Another example: in English, a chicken is used derogatory to refer to a cowardly person: Why won't you jump? Are you a chicken? In Russian, цыпленок is associated with a helpless little creature and is often referred to a small child that needs help.

In translation, the connotative meaning is sometimes lost either because of the neutral text that requires no expressiveness or because of the lacking connotative equivalent (to commence - начинать; вечор - yesterday). Usually, these connotatively partial equivalents are compensated in the text (within the same sentence or even in the surrounding sentences). We can illustrate it by the following sentence from Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. In the episode of fighting with a Model Boy, Tom teases the boy about his hat: “Smarty! You think you are some, now, don't you? Oh, what a hat!” And the boy answers, ”You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it off - and anybody that I'll take a dare will suck eggs.” In the Russian text, the highly colloquial, slangish words and expressions are compensated by slang words and very informal syntactic constructions in both Tom's utterance and the boy's sentence:

Ишь, вырядился! Подумаешь, какой важный! Еще и в шляпе!

Возьми да и сбей, если не нравится. Попробуй, сбей - тогда узнаешь.

§4. INTRALINGUISTIC MEANING

Words influence each other and presuppose choice of their neighboring dependants. They cannot combine if they belong to different styles (*светлоокая девка, a boozy-woozy lady).

Words do not combine if they do not match speech norms, i.e. their word combinability is beyond the norm. Thus, in Russian we say молодой картофель but we cannot say in English *young potatoes, as the word potatoes requires the adjective new (new potatoes). Words in their primary meaning cannot be combined together if their near context is not taken into consideration. The Russians say “Не пейте сырой воды”, which cannot be rendered by the phrase “Don't drink *raw water.” because English-speaking people use in this case quite a different word combination: “unboiled water”. So in translation we have to substitute one word for another that naturally fits the context.

Intralinguistic meaning is also revealed in puns, or plays upon words, which make most puzzling tasks for a translator. In this case a translator cannot use translation equivalents but has to compensate a word by another one that can be also played upon. For example, to translate a children's riddle into English: Why is a book like a king? - Because it has many pages. (where the word page is associated with two homonymous meanings: 1) страница, 2) паж), a translator compensated the homonymous page by the Russian homonym глава (1.head, 2.chapter): Что общего между книгой и драконом? - У обоих несколько глав.

§5. CONTEXUALLY-BOUND WORDS

The context-bound word is a word whose meaning is clear only in a specific context.

Context is the text that comes immediately before or after a particular word or phrase and helps to explain its meaning. The context is classified into micro- and macrocontext. The microcontext is a word surrounding within a sentence or phrase. The macrocontext is a larger text (a passage, a story, etc) where the word is used.

In translation both types of context are essential for guessing the meaning of a polysemantic word or a homonym. For example, a macrocontext is very important for translating newspaper headlines which are characterized by ellipses not only of structural words but also of notional parts of the sentence.

It is obligatory for a translator to take into account, along with the context, the consituation, which is often called background knowledge. This notion implies awareness of the time, place, and circumstances of what is spoken about. For example, to translate the following microdialogue:

Сколько?

2:5.

several versions might be offered depending on the situation: “How much?” - “Two dollars five cents.” (in the store); “What's the score?” - “Two to five” (after a match); “What's the time?” - “Five minutes after two.”

The context helps to find a translation equivalent to a word not fixed in the dictionary or fixed in the dictionary but with another meaning. For example, in his novel Pnin written in English, V. Nabokov used the phrase a very commonplace mind to characterize a hero. None of the dictionary equivalents (банальный, избитый, плоский) suited the translator (Barabturlo), who found his own equivalent: трафаретный ум. This is an occasional, irregular equivalent, fitting in a certain context. An occasional equivalent is obtained by substituting one word for another one to better reveal the contextual meaning.

Over time, a contextual meaning may become a normative meaning fixed by the dictionary. This occurred, for instance, with the word dear. All dictionaries translated it as дорогой, милый, любимый. But in the phrase my dear this word is used as a term of a very formal address and, therefore, corresponds to the Russian глубокоуважаемый, which has recently been fixed by the 3-volume New English-Russian Dictionary, edited by Y. Apresyan.

To find an occasional equivalent to a word, a logical method of interpolation is used. The contextual meaning of a word, expressed by the occasional equivalent, is found by studying the whole semantic structure of the word and deducing the appropriate meaning from the two adjacent meanings fixed in the dictionary.

For example, in the sentence The waves lap the granite of the embankment. the word lap contextualizes its two meanings at the same time: 1) to drink by taking up with quick movements of the tongue, which corresponds to the Russian лакать, жадно пить, глотать; and 2) to move or hit with little waves and soft sounds, corresponding to the Russian плескаться. The first meaning brings up an image of some kind of creature. The image is retained with the interpolated equivalent in translation: Волны лижут гранит набережной.

No doubt, to interpolate the equivalent, a translator should be aware of all the meanings a word has by using translation and monolingual dictionaries, as well as dictionaries of synonyms and thesauri.

Another way to translate a word whose dictionary equivalent does not suit a translator is to explain the meaning of the word. For example, at a meeting the chairperson can say, “Mr. N will be our timekeeper.” The word timekeeper has the following dictionary equivalents: хронометражист, хронометрист, счетчик времени, but none of them suits the style or the con-situation. Thus, a better solution for a translator will be translation by explanation: Господин Н. будет следить за регламентом собрания.

Usually explicatory translation is applied to neologisms, or newly coined words not yet fixed by bilingual dictionaries: e.g., People with can-do attitudes are essential to enterprise culture. - Люди, готовые к новым делам, очень важны для предпринимательства.

Chapter 2. TRANSLATING REALIA

Culture-bound words are culturally loaded words borrowed from another language due to language contacts.

Comparison of languages and cultures reveals the following types of culture-bound words:

unique culture-bound words: вытрезвитель,

analogues: drug-store - аптека, дедовщина - hazing;

similar words with different functions: cuckoo's call (asked for by an American girl to find out how soon she will get married¹¹⁴⁹ Т о м а х и н Г. Д. Реалии-американизмы. - М.: высшая школа, 1982.⁴⁹) - крик кукушки (counted by a Russian to find out how long s/he will live)

language lacunae of similar notions: clover-leaf = автодорожная развязка в виде клеверного листа.

According to the semantic fields, culture-bound words are classified into:

toponyms, or geographical terms (Munich, the Great Lakes, the Sikhote Alin, Beijing);

anthroponyms, or people's names (Aristophanes, Victor Hugo, Alexander Hamilton);

zoonyms, or animal names (kangaroo, grizzly, cougar);

social terms (Государственная Дума, House of Commons);

military terms (есаул, подполковник, lance corporal);

education terms (junior high school, eleven-plus, child/day care; пионерский лагерь);

tradition and customs terms (Halloween, масленица);

ergonyms, or names of institutions and organizations (Heinemann, крайисполком, санэпидстанция)

history terms (civil war, War of Independence, Великая Отечественная война)

words for everyday life (cuisine, clothing, housing, etc.) (sushi, kilt, trailer, валенки, лапти)

titles and headlines (Война и мир, Vanity Fair).

Culture-bound words are characterized by a location and time. Based on the local coloring, their classification includes:

exoticisms: chinook, bonsai, kabuki

barbarisms, i.e. words partially incorporated into a borrowing language: авеню, миссис, хобби.

Based on the time coloring, culture-bound words classification falls into the following groups:

neologisms: junk food, internet

historisms, or outdated words denoting realia that no longer exist: Beat Generation, WASP; уезд, бурлак. Historisms have no synonyms in a modern language.

archaisms, or out-of-use words having synonyms in the modern language: Sire = father, clime = climate and country; злато = золото, град = город.

§3. WAYS OF TRANSLATING CULTURE-BOUND WORDS

Culture-bound words are generally rendered in the borrowing language through transcription, transliteration and calque translation: авеню, sputnik, Статуя Свободы. As compared with transcription and transliteration, calques are more convenient. But at the same time, calques can be misinterpreted by a receptor. For example an English calque from the Chinese Red Guard, meaning `a member of an activist pro-Maoist youth movement in China', is far more convenient than its transcription counterpart Hongwei Bing. However, a Russian receptor can easily confuse this calque with another one, referring to the Russian revolution: красногвардеец, whereas this word is known in Russian as a transcription borrowing: хунвэйбин. There are cases when a translator resorts to calque translation without thinking thoroughly of the meaning of a culture-bound word or, worse, without understanding it.

An explicatory translation reveals a culture-bound word meaning in full: 13 зарплата = annual bonus payment; breadline = очередь безработных за бесплатным питанием. Explication of culture-bound words can be made in commentaries (both in-text and after-text), and in footnotes. The disadvantage of in-text notes is that they distract a receptor's attention from the main text. However, after-text commentaries are not for a “lazy” reader. So the most convenient, probably, are footnotes which save a reader's time and effort.

Lexical substitutions can be used to have proper impact upon the receptor. For example, the main character of Harper Lee's novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” is called Scout. This name would call specific associations with a Russian reader. To avoid confusion, the translator substituted the girl's name by Глазастик, conveying her main feature to notice everything.

In news texts there can be possible analogue substitutions of official positions: Under-Secretary - зам. министра, Secretary of State - Министр иностранных дел.

There are known cases of reduction in translating culture-bound words. For example, Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is mostly known in Russian translation as Янки при дворе короля Артура, since the phrase “Connecticut Yankee”, which originally meant “heady Americans who made wooden nutmegs and sold them for real ones”, could, possibly, not make sense for today's Russian receptor.

What is most important in translating culture-bound words is the receptor's perception and reaction. A translator should be aware of the receptor's potential problems and, taking into account the receptor's background knowledge, choose the best means of translation.

Before translating, it is necessary to check whether a loan word exists in the target language, whether its meaning corresponds to that of the source language word, and what its phonetic and graphic form is (care should be taken for the different spellings of a source language word and the loan word, like lunch - ленч).

§4. TRANSLATING PEOPLE'S NAMES

Anthroponyms are usually rendered through transcription or transliteration: Thomas Heywood - Томас Хейвуд, George Gordon Byron - Джордж Гордон Байрон. These days preference is given to transcription. (In the last century it was possible to see and hear Шакеспиаре - Shakespeare, Невтон - Newton.) In rendering names of living people, personal preferences should be taken into account. When Van Cliburn, the Tchaikovsky Contest first prize winner, came back to Moscow after a long absence, he was offended by the papers calling him Ван Клайберн, as he had become accustomed to being called in Russia Ван Клиберн.

Names of foreign origin, spelt in the Latin alphabet, are usually written in English in their original form: Beaumarchais, Aeschylus, Nietzsche, Dvoшak. In Russian they are rendered mostly by their sound form, in transcription: Бомарше, Эсхил, Ницше, Дворжак. Some Renaissance and eighteenth-century figures adopted classical names which are then sometimes naturalized: Copernicus - Copernic - Коперник, Linnaeus - Linnй - Линней.

Oriental names differ from English names in that the former given the family name first and then the person's first name, whereas the latter normally use a person's first name and only then the last (family) name. Thus the name of Mao Zedong (Мао Цзэдун) suggests that Mao is the family name and Zedong is the first name. Therefore, the courtesy title word `Mr/Ms' should be added to the family name not to be mistaken with the first name. Most Chinese personal names use the official Chinese spelling system known as Pinyin.^** See Part 1 Chapter 5 §3 The traditional spellings, however, are used for well-known deceased people such as Chou En-lai, Mao Tse-tung, Sun Yat-sen. Some Chinese have westernized their names, putting their given names or the initials for them first: P.Y. Chen, Jack Wang. In general it recommended following a preferred individual spelling.

As for Russian names, when the first name has a close phonetic equivalent in English, this equivalent is used in translating the name: Alexander Solzhenitsyn rather than Alexandr, the spelling that would result from a transliteration of the Russian letter into the English alphabet.¹¹⁵⁰ The A s s o c i a t e d P r e s s S t y l e b o o k a n d L i b e l M a n u a l / Ed. By N.Goldstein. - New York: The Associated Press, 1993. - P.187⁵⁰ For the last names, the English spelling that most closely approximates the pronunciation in Russian is used.

Some proper names are adapted to the translated language by adding or dropping female endings: Lizette - Лизетта; госпожа Иванова - Mrs. Ivanov. Feminine endings in Russian names are used only if the woman is not married or if she is known under that name (the ballerina Maya Plissetskaya). Otherwise, in the formal style the masculine forms are used: Raisa Gorbachev, not Raisa Gorbacheva.¹¹⁵¹ Ibid.⁵¹ However, if an individual has a preference for a name with a feminine ending, the individual preference should be followed.

There are names, which when translated, sound bad in the target language (like the Russian family names of Факов, Вагина), it is desirable that the translator inform the person with such a name about possible negative associations and slightly change the name by adding or deleting a letter: e.g., Faikov, or Mrs. Waggin.

Russian names never end in -off, except for common mistranslations such as Rachmaninoff. Instead, the transliterations should end in -ov: Romanov.

The names of kings are of special interest, as they are traditional in form: King Charles - король Карл, King James - король Яков, King George - король Георг, King William - король Вильгельм, King Louis - король Людовик, King Henrie/Henry - король Генрих.

Of great help for a translator is Yermolovich's dictionary of personal names, The English-Russian Who's Who in Fact and Fiction.¹¹⁵² Е р м о л о в и ч Д. И. Англо-русский словарь персоналий. - М.: Русский язык, 1993.⁵²

Transparent names (говорящие имена) pose a special problem. Peter Newmark, a well-known translation theorist, suggests the following procedure: “first to translate the word that underlies the source language proper name into the target language, and then to naturalize the translated word back into a new source language proper name - but normally only when the character's name is not yet current amongst an educated target language readership.”¹¹⁵³ N e w m a r k P. A Textbook of Translation. - New York a.o.: Prentice Hall, 1988. - P.215.⁵³ For example, Michail Holman (1983) has done this effectively with characters from L. Tolstoy's Resurrection: Nabatov > alarm > Alarmov; Toporov > axe > Hachitov; Khororshavka > pretty > Belle.

The same tactics can be employed in English to Russian translation. The names of E. Waugh's and A. Huxley's characters are translated into Russian: Miles Malpractice - Злопрактис, Mr. Chatterbox - г-н Таратор, Mr. Slum - г-н Хлам.

However, unfortunately, personal name connotations are often lost (remember Mr. Murdstone in Dickens' David Copperfield - мистер Мердстоун). Tony Last in E. Waugh's Vile Bodies is indeed the last honest and decent person, which is transparent in his surname. In transferring (Тони Ласт) this connotation is lost.

In case of such a loss, some translators tend to explain the loss in commentaries, but a number of critics consider commentaries to hinder text perception.

Another problem is with Russian second names. Unless particularly required by some documents, it is desirable to abbreviate patronymics to the first letter (Marina P. Ivanova), as it is difficult for foreigners to pronounce and is sometimes confused for a family name (especially Belorussian names like Pavlovich, Petrovich, etc.)

Besides patronymics, a proverbial problem for translators is Russian short first names that can have affectionate, patronizing or friendly overtones (Александр[а], Саша, Сашенька, Сашок, Сашка, Шура, Шурик, Шурочка, etc.) It is not recommended to retain the variations of the name referring to same character in the target language text.¹¹⁵⁴ B a s s n e t t S. Translation Studies. - London and New York: Routeledge, 1996. - P.118-119.⁵⁴

§5. TRANSLATING GEOGRAPHICAL TERMS

Toponyms are normally transcribed or transliterated: Oxford - Оксфорд, Находка - Nakhodka. Now the tendency towards transcription prevails over the tendency towards transliteration - some decades ago one should render Stratford-on-Avon as Статфорд-на-Авоне, now it is Стратфорд-он-Эйвон. Likewise: Комсомольск-на-Амуре should be rendered Komsomolsk-na-Amure rather than Komsomolsk-on-the-Amur.

Care should be taken to revert to non-naturalized place-names: Beijing is not *Бейцзин in Russian, but Пекин, Leghorn is Ливорно, and Munich is known to Russians as Мюнхен. In rendering, a translator should check all terms in the most recent atlas. Bilingual general and specialized dictionaries may be consulted (especially -English-Russian and Russian-English Geographical Dictionary by M.V.Gorskaya¹¹⁵⁵ Г о р с к а я М. В. Англо-русский и русско-английский словарь географических названий. - М.: Русский язык, 1993.⁵⁵). A term found must be carefully checked in monolingual dictionaries.

Transparent local geographical names can be translated by calques: Rocky Mountains - Скалистые горы, Saint Helena Island - остров Святой Елены, залив Золотой Рог - Golden Horn Bay.

Half-calques can be used to translate toponyms with classifiers, such as river, lake, bridge: Waterloo Bridge - мост Ватерлоо, Salt Lake City - город Солт-Лэйк-Сити.

If a toponym is a little-known proper name, it is normally transferred (transcribed) with the addition of some generic information (Dalnegorsk, a small mining town in Primorski Region). Names of states are usually clarified: Seattle, Washington - (город) Сиэтл, штат Вашингтон.

Some toponyms are substituted in translation: Strait of Dover - Па-де-Кале, the English Channel - Ла-Манш. However, it is important to avoid wrong associations in substitution. For example, Приморский край is sometimes translated as Maritime Territory, which sometimes confuses English-speaking receptors mistake it for the Canadian Maritime Province.

Chinese place names are usually written in the Pinyin spelling. If the new Pinyin spelling is so radically different from the traditional spelling that a reader might be confused, it is necessary to provide the Pinyin spelling followed by the traditional spelling in parentheses. For example, the city of Fuzhou (Foochow). Traditional spelling is used for the following place names: Canto, China, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Tibet.

§6. TRANSLATING PUBLISHED EDITIONS

Periodicals are normally transcribed: Financial News - Файнэншл Ньюз, Economist - Икономист. The definite article testifying to the name of a newspaper is not transferred: The Times - «Таймс». Also, the names of periodicals are usually extended: газета «Таймс», журнал «Икономист». Note the difference in the position of the generic name: Asian Business magazine - журнал «Эйжн Бизнес». Transplanting foreign names is one of the latest trends: журнал “Asian Business”.

Titles of literary works are translated: The Man of Property - Собственник. When used in the English text, all notional words in titles are capitalized and either italicized or underlined. More rarely are they written with quotation marks. In Russian, titles are usually quoted in a text.

For pragmatic reasons, a translator can substitute the title. For instance, «Двенадцать стульев» by Ilf and Petrov was translated into English under the title Diamonds to Sit On, so as to make the book commercially more enticing.

It is also necessary to observe literary traditions of a country. The world famous tales «Тысяча и одна ночь» are known in English-speaking countries as The Arabian Nights.

Scientific works in references are not translated. When a work of science is translated from English, the source language title of reference to remains in its original form. When a scientific work is translated from Russian, references to Russian scientists are usually transliterated.

Translated document titles must render the general meaning of the official document, so various translation transformations are admissible: e.g., the British No Hanging Bill is translated by generalizing «Закон об отмене смертной казни», since it spoke of abolishing the death penalty in general.

§7. TRANSLATING ERGONYMS

When the name of an institution is identified, it is usually transferred with a word about its function and status: DalZavod (Far Eastern Dock), детский спортклуб “Юность”- Yunost, Children's and Youth's Sports Club, магазин “Океан” - the Ocean seafood store, Востоктрансфлот - VostokTransFlot shipping company.

Ergonyms comprising highly informative names are calque-translated: Дальневосточный центр поддержки бизнеса - The Far Eastern Business Support Center. Official administrative bodies are normally translated: Гоcударственный комитет РФ по рыболовству - The Russian Federal Committee on Fisheries, Краевой комитет по архитектуре и строительству - The Krai Committee for Architecture and Construction.

Chapter 3. TRANSLATING TERMS

§1. TRANSLATION FACTORS

A term is a word or expression denoting a concept in a particular activity, job, or profession. Terms are frequently associated with professionalisms.¹¹⁵⁶ See the difference between the term and the professionalism in: G a l p e r i n R. Stylistics. - M.: Higher School, 1977. - P.113.⁵⁶

Terms can be single words: psychology, function, equity; or they may consist of several words: computer aided design system - система автоматического проектирования.

Terms are considered to have one meaning in one field. Therefore, they are context-free words, whose meaning does not depend on the context: cod - треска, herring - сельдь, squid - кальмар in any context.

Contrary to this belief, terms may have more than one meaning, since they can be understood differently in various schools and varies technologies: e.g., the grammatical term verb is considered to belong to morphology in the Russian school of linguistics, so it is translated as глагол. In the American school of linguistics it is often understood as a syntactical concept expressing a part of the sentence; therefore, in this case it corresponds to the Russian сказуемое. This gives rise to the problem of term unification. A translator must be very careful about terms expressing the same notion in different languages. One notion should be designated by a single term throughout the whole text.

Different fields of knowledge ascribe different meanings to one and the same term. For example, лист in the publishing field corresponds to the term sheet (author's sheet); in biology, it is a leaf; in technique, it is a plate; in geology, it is lamina. Similarly, the term drive is equivalent to different Russian terms, since it has different meanings in various fields: привод (in mechanics), органы управления (in the automobile), сплав (in forestry), горизонтальная горная выработка (in mining), дисковод (in the computer), etc.

Term homonymy is sometimes due to the fact that words of general stock assume a technical meaning, thus becoming terms: for instance, memory - память, cell - ячейка памяти, driver - драйвер, управляющая программа (in computers). Also, terms of one field are borrowed by other fields, like variant and invariant were borrowed into linguistics from mathematics.

Such term homonymy challenges translation. A translator must know the exact meaning of term in this or that field, as well as its combinability, for the nearby attribute or another word may specify the term and affect its translation: антикоррозийное покрытие - corrosion-resistant coating, дерновое покрытие - sod-matting, дорожное покрытие - road pavement, покрытие крыши - roofing, маскировочное покрытие - camouflage cover, пенное покрытие - foam blanket.

To do accurate translation, it is necessary not only to know the meaning of the terms but also to link them with other words in speech. Erroneous word combination can cause difficulties in understanding the text. For example, the word combination прозвонить цепь cannot be rendered by its calque *to ring through the line. Its equivalent is to test the line. Therefore, translators always put high value on dictionaries containing word equivalents along with phrases and illustrating sentences.¹¹⁵⁷ See for example: Ц и м м е р м а н М., В е д е н е е в а К. Русско-английский научно-технический словарь переводчика. - М.: Наука- Chichester, New York a.o.: John Wiley & Sons LTD, 1991.⁵⁷