Grammatical difficulties of consecutive and simultaneous interpreting

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Grammatical difficulties of consecutive and simultaneous interpreting

Maksimov S.E. Kyiv National Linguistic University

Nowadays consecutive and simultaneous interpreting is in the focus of translation studies with the rapid development of international relations of Ukraine. The article highlights the problems of grammatical difficulties of interpreting. The author focuses upon difficulties in rendering English articles, difficulties in rendering tense and aspect forms of the English verb, difficulties in rendering forms expressing unreality, difficulties in rendering evaluative components of utterances, difficulties in rendering affirmative and negative constructions; considers word-order and functional sentence perspective of messages.

The most challenging problems appear to be the use and rendering articles, tense and aspect forms and evaluative components of messages. Practical observations and works of modern writers on the use of articles testify to the fact that the definite article in Modern English is sometimes omitted and is often used where there is a tendency for its communicational purpose of indicating definiteness. The same tendency is observed with the indefinite article which may be omitted for the sake of minimisation of communicative efforts through reducing redundancy of messages. Interpreters should pay special attention to rendering the perfect forms of the English verb, while the “future time” is mostly expressed by the forms of the Present Indefinite and the Present Continuous Tenses. Evaluative components of messages in interpreting may be omitted or not depending upon where the evaluation is located - in the attribute or in the antecedent of the message. Word-order in English is fixed, while in Ukrainian it is mostly free and the rheme may be placed in any place of the utterance. Thus, in interpreting from Ukrainian into English the word-order often has to be changed. All of these issues, if resolved successfully, greatly contribute to creating high quality, adequate and equivalent interpretation product.

Key words: grammatical aspects of interpreting, consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, evaluative component, discourse.

Abstract

Реальність сьогодення та швидкий розвиток міжнародних зв'язків України ставить послідовний та синхронний переклад в центр уваги сучасного перекладознавства. У статті досліджуються граматичні труднощі послідовного та синхронного перекладу, з якими досить часто стикаються усні перекладачі. Автор розглядає труднощі відтворення в перекладі англійських артиклів, перекладу видо-часових форм англійського дієслова, способи перекладу форм вираження нереальності дії, а також труднощі трансформації порядку слів та функціональної перспективи висловлювання.

З'ясовано, що найбільш суттєвими граматичними викликами для усних перекладачів є вживання артиклів, видо-часових форм дієслова та оцінних компонентів висловлювання. Практичні спостереження та наукові праці сучасних дослідників стосовно вживання артиклів свідчать про те, що означений артикль в сучасній англійській мові інколи опускається і вживається здебільшого на позначення комунікативної функції означеності. Те саме стосується неозначеного артикля, який часто опускається задля мінімізації комунікативних зусиль та зменшення надмірності висловлювання.

Зазначено, що усні перекладачі також мають особливо уважно ставитися до перекладу перфектних видо-часових форм дієслова та форм вираження «майбутнього часу», оскільки ця категорія в сучасній англійській мові здебільшого виражається формами простого або тривалого теперішнього часу. Оцінний компонент може зберігатися або опускатися в перекладі залежно від його розташування - в означенні або в означуваному слові.

Акцентовано на тому, що порядок слів в англійській мові є фіксованим, а в українській - вільним, тому рема в українській мові може бути розташована в будь-якому місці висловлювання. Така різниця в синтаксичній будові мов змушує усних перекладачів часто змінювати порядок слів у висловлюванні. Використання оптимальних перекладацьких стратегій для розв'язання цих проблем значно сприяють створенню високоякісного, адекватного та еквівалентного перекладу.

Ключові слова: граматичні аспекти усного перекладу, послідовний та синхронний переклад, оцінний компонент, дискурс.

Defining the problem and argumentation of the topicality of its consideration. The article deals with grammatical challenges that occur in consecutive and simultaneous interpreting. This problem is important nowadays as the inability of interpreters to overcome grammatical difficulties in comprehending and rendering oral discourse messages may lead to serious mistakes in translation. Interpreting plays a significant role both at the national and international levels as nowadays Ukraine has become an equal partner in its relationships with the world community of nations.

1. Grammatical difficulties in understanding oral texts

Grammatical forms and syntactic constructions cannot be isolated from the lexical items they consist of. Therefore, in real life most translation/interpretation transformations (such as addition, omission, transposition, replacement, antonymic translation, compensation, compression, expansion, etc.) are complex techniques and include both lexical and grammatical components [1].

In practice interpreting begins only after the interpreter has understood meanings of the words (so that they make sense) and perceived (“unpacked”) grammatical structures of the source language message. Researchers in the field of written translation and consecutive interpretation believe that grammatical aspects are less challenging for interpretation comparing with the lexical ones due to the natural redundancy of grammar, especially if the languages involved belong to the Indo-European family [5]. However in simultaneous interpreting certain problems may be caused by the difference in the source language (SL) and the target language (TL) syntactic structures, first of all, in the word-order, which in Ukrainian and Russian is often inverted so that focus is made on the rheme of the utterance, whilst the Standard English declarative sentences have a fixed order of words. Interpreters, especially beginners, may also have problems with “hearing” and, therefore, rendering English articles, the Perfect tense forms of the verb and forms expressing unreality (oblique moods), affirmative and negative constructions. Although grammatical factors cause fewer problems than the lexical ones, still interpreters have to be aware of certain potential threats listed below.

Difficulties in rendering English articles. Practice shows that articles (both the definite and the indefinite) are often omitted by the speakers of English. Thus, Paul Rastall writes that nowadays “there is a tendency for the definite article to be used in English only for its communicational purpose of indicating definiteness, i. e. that the referents named by a given noun are specific or known ones. That tendency conflicts with those cases in which the definite article is redundant. One result of that conflict is that redundant articles are increasingly omitted. Changes in the occurrence of the definite article are part of the “synchronic dynamics” of English and a normal part of the tendency towards the minimisation of communicative effort through reducing redundancy” [15, 37] for example: Stephen Sackur, the BBC presenter: <...> My guest today was till 2002 a senior British diplomat at *United Nations. He has decided to ignore those official requests for silence. Why? Normally the definite article “the” should be used before the name of the international organisation.

The same tendency is observed with the indefinite article. Examples of such omissions are: a) If somebody is successful that is reason enough for me to listen to their advice; b) A student of mine appeared with bottle of medicine. Normally the indefinite article “a” should be used before “reason” in the first sentence and before “bottle” in the second [9]. In such cases the omitted articles require no rendering in interpreting.

However, communicational purposes of indicating definiteness require the use of the so-called lexically charged articles, which are usually marked by the intonation, e. g.: Stephen Sackur, the BBC presenter: We gonna talk about (f) the system at some length but I want to start considering Iraq and what you've written about Iraq. In such case the article requires rendering into Ukrainian, otherwise the translation would be incomplete: Ми поговоримо про цю систему (або: про систему Британської дипломатії) трохи пізніше, а зараз я хочу звернутися до Іраку та до того, що ви написали про Ірак.

Other instances of mandatory rendering English lexically charged articles in written translation were described in detail by I.V. Korunets [4]. The same rules apply to oral interpretation and usually result either in addition of certain words or in rendering English articles by Ukrainian pronouns, adjectives, etc., e. g.: The Johnsons - подружжя Джонсонів; The problem is in the focus of our attention - ця проблема знаходиться у центрі нашої уваги; He is the fellow I'm looking for - це саме той хлопець, якого я шукаю; He did not go out in the morning - Він не вийшов на вулицю наступного (if the context tells so) ранку; He didn't say _a word - Він не сказав жодного слова; It was only for a moment - Це тривало тільки одну мить; There is a woman waiting for you - Там якась жінка чекає на вас.

In certain cases the definite article may indicate that the object is a unique, or a well-known one, which becomes clear from the context. Thus, if in Birmingham, England, someone says I am a student of the University, it should be understood that the person is a student of the University of Birmingham located in Edgbaston but not of the other two less distinguished universities in this city.

The indefinite article, which indicates the rheme of the utterance often, requires changes in the word- order, so that the rhematic noun is placed at the end of the utterance, e. g.: A girl entered the room - До кімнати увійшла дівчина.

2. Difficulties in rendering tense and aspect forms of the verb

Rendering of the tense and aspect forms of the verb presents no serious problems because tense forms are usually “backed up” by adverbs, pronouns and other deictic markers of time and place, which ensure high level of temporal redundancy in oral discourse. Thus, even ungrammatical utterances Yesterday I *come home andl *see that my wife *isnot in (recorded by the author of this article in Birmingham, England), or Financial activities of tobacco control *has not been discussed internationally (recorded by the author at the international conference) are easily interpreted in the given contexts. However, interpreters should be always on alert when the speaker uses the Perfect group of the English tenses. Thus, the Past Perfect often requires lexical addition (expansion), e. g.: His wife had been beautiful - Його дружина колись (or коли була молодою) була красунею.

There are also multiple ways of expressing future time in modern English and some authors even claim that English “has no future tense, because it has no future tense inflections” [14]. Thus, the most common ways of expressing future turn to be: 1. The Present Indefinite Tense (e. g.: We leave tonight for Texas); 2. The Present Continuous Tense (e. g.: You are publishing a book in just a few weeks ' time called “The Independent Diplomat” and you call it a “personal account of the descent from illusion to disillusionment”); 3. Verbs shall, will or the reduced form `ll with the base forms of the verb which are treated rather as modal verbs implying a deliberate predetermined action [13; 18] (implying Ukrainian неодмінно, обов'язково, напевно, etc.) or used in the official (e. g. legal) discourse with the meaning of obligation; 4. The form to be with the Infinitive (e. g.: Our flight is to leave at 11:00 a.m.); 5. Semiauxiliaries such as to be going to or to be about to with the base form of the verb (e. g.: We are going to leave your parents some money).

In all these cases interpreters either use the relevant Ukrainian options for rendering shall, will, `ll in the official discourse (e. g.: the Simple Present which in Ukrainian may acquire the modal meaning of obligation: сторони здійснюють, зобов'язуються здійснювати, etc.) or use expansion by adding some relevant Ukrainian markers of the future (e. g.: будуть здійснювати; здійснюватимуть; маємо, збираємося щось зробити; неодмінно; обов'язково, etc.).

Practical observations show that typical mistakes of interpreters in rendering the Ukrainian tense and aspect forms of the verb into English result from the following:

1. Failure to use the Present Perfect Tense in utterances like: Я живу в Києві вже шість років -1 have lived (not * lived, *live, *am living) in Kyiv for six years;

2. The use of the Future Indefinite Tense in English in the adverbial clauses of condition and time after if, when, till, until, before, after, etc., e. g.: Якщо ви цього не зробите, то наслідки буде важко передбачити - If you don't do (not *will not do) that, it will be difficult to predict the consequences.

3. Inability to apply the rules of the sequence of tenses, e. g.: Вони сказали, що прийматимуть участь у роботі семінару - They said that they would participate (not * will _participate) in the workshop.

4. Difficulties in rendering forms expressing unreality

Forms expressing unreality, which are traditionally called the “Subjunctive Mood” or “Oblique Moods”, indicate that the action is considered to be unreal, unlikely, problematic, hypothetical, desirable, recommended, etc. While finding options for these verb-forms interpreters have to observe the following recommendations:

a) Make yourself sure that the speaker has really used the Subjunctive (Conditional) Mood form and not the clause of a real condition, i. e. distinguish between If it does not rain, we will go to the beach (Якщо не буде дощу, то ми підемо на пляж) and If it did not rain, we would go to the beach (Якщо б не було дощу, ми би пішли на пляж).

There is a debate nowadays whether was can be used in clauses of unreal condition and after wish instead of were as even the native speakers of English often use was where it should be were according to the rules of traditional English grammar. Leaving this debate behind, the author of this article supports the view of the writers on traditional English grammar, which requires the use of were in the mentioned instances, treating was as ungrammatical or spoken variant. Thus, Cathrine Traffs writes: “Use were if the state of being you are describing is in no way the current reality. This is true whenever a hypothetical situation is expressed, for example: Would you invite me over if I were more polite at the dinner table?; If it were _ possible to solve the puzzle, I would have done it. Another sure sign that you should use the subjunctive is when the word wish is used. A wish is the desire or hope for something that cannot or probably will not happen, e. g.: I wish I were the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; He wishes his grammar were better <...>. These phrases are never correct: I wish I was; I wish it was; he wishes he was; she wishes she was” [17]. Therefore, even though languages are changing, interpreters should be guided by the correct grammar as they may always learn and use “broken English” in private conversations (outside the conference room) throughout their professional career;

b) Remember that forms of the be, speak, go, etc. type after predicates expressing order, proposal, request, arrangement, recommendation are quite common nowadays both in American and in British English, e. g.: It is necessary that he speak at the conference - Йому необхідно виступити на конференції (an alternative variant is should speak); It is important that these reforms be_ strengthened - Необхідно закріпити ці реформи;

c) Always be on alert if the speaker uses contracted (shortened) forms of the mood auxiliaries, especially with the perfect forms of the verb which refer an action to the past - failure to perceive these forms may cause serious errors in interpreting messages, e. g.:

Table 1 Types of evaluative components (type 1)

If Fdbeen (for had been) present in Strasbourg last month, I'd have spoken (for would have spoken) to Lord Judd - Якщо б я був у Страсбурзі минулого місяця, то я би мав розмову з лордом Джаддом;

Table 2 Types of evaluative components (type 2)

d) Always be ready to render pat phrases with the Subjunctive Mood of the type: От, якби завжди було так! - Oh, if only it were so forever!; Нехай буде так! - Let it be_!; Хай живе мир! - Long live peace!; God forbid! - Борони Боже!, хай Бог милує!; God damn it! - От бісова душа!

5. Difficulties of rendering evaluative components in simultaneous interpreting Semantic structure of oral messages normally contains the following components, which ensure that the messages acquire certain sense in the act communication:

¦ the deictic component: orientation of the message with regard to the “person”, space” and “time”, e. g.: I warn you that it is_probably cold outside;