Aspects of Using Grammatical and Lexical Transformations in the Translation of Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt’s “Freakonomics”
Journal Title: Kalbu studijos / Studies about Languages - Year 2010, Vol 16, Issue 1
Abstract
The article underlines the importance of coherence and cohesion of the texts created by translators. The quality of a translation depends on the linguistic as well as extra-linguistic competence of the translator, who should have mastered the strategies of using transformations. In a short review of theoretical references, the aspects of text creation and strategies of using transformations, which are essential in the process of translation, are discussed. Then, the results of the comparative linguistic investigation of the translation of J. S. Dubner and D. S. Levitt‘s “Freakonomics” into the Lithuanian language are presented. Belonging to different language systems (one being analytical and the other being synthetic), English and Lithuanian differ greatly in sentence structure, ways of forming collocations, and expressing ideas. The English sentence obeys the rules of strict word order, whereas a Lithuanian sentence is based on the logic of the message. The new information (marked grammatically by the indefinite article in English) is usually placed at the end of the statement. Another group of transformations includes grammatical and lexical replacements, which help to create a coherent and cohesive text of the target language. However, the abundance of form-words, word-substitutes as well as the necessity to use the subject, verb and object makes English a ‘wordy’ language. That’s why, in the process of translation into Lithuanian, a lot of omissions occur. On the other hand, considering the linguistic and semantic tendencies of the target language as well as the knowledge of the reader of a different culture, some additions are necessary. The linguistic investigation revealed that the translator of “Freakonomics” had used a variety of transformations. However, in quite a few cases much better choices should have been made.
Authors and Affiliations
Dalia Kasteckaitė, Gemma Navickienė
Keywords
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