In different ccmmunicative situations the language users select words of different stylistic status. There are stylistically neutral words that are suitable for any situation, and there are literary (bookish) words and colloquial words which satisfy the demands of official, poetic messages and unofficial everyday communication respectively. A steed — скакун, aforesaid - вышеозначенный, gluttony — обжoрство, to funk -- трусить, slumber - сон, morn - утро, to swop — менять. The translator tries to preserve the stylistic status of the original text, by using the equivalents of the same style or, failing that, opting for stylistically neutral units.
The speaker may qualify every object he mentions in his own way thus giving his utterance a specific stylistic turn. Such stylistic phrasing give much trouble to the translator since their meaning is often subjective and elusive. Some phrases become fixed through repeated use and they may have permanent equivalents in TL, e.g. true love - истинная любовь, dead silence - мертвая тишина, good old England - добрая старая Англия. In most cases, however, the translator has to look for an occasional substitute, which often requires an in-depth study of the broad context.
A common occurrence in English texts is the transferred qualifier syntactically joined to a word to which it does not belong logically. Such combinations will be thought of as too bizarre in Russian or alien to the type of the text and the qualifier will have to be used with the name of the object it refers to. 'The sound of the solemn bells" will become «торжественное звучание колоколов» and "the smiling attention of the stranger" will be translated as "внимание улыбающегося незнакомца».
Another common type is "paraphrases". A frequent use of paraphrases is a characteristic feature of the English language.
Some of the paraphrases are borrowed from such classical sources as mythology or the Bible and usually have permanent equivalents in Russian (cf. Attic salt - аттическая соль, the three sisters - богини судьбы, the Prince of Darkness — принц тьмы). Others arc purely English and are either transcribed or explained in translation: John Bull - Джон Буль, the three R's - чтение, письмо и арифметика, the Iron Duke - герцог Веллингтон.
A special group of paraphrases are the names of countries, states and other geographical or political entities: the Land of Cakes (Scotland), the Badger State (Wisconsin), the Empire City (New York). As a rule, such paraphrases are not known to the Russian reader and they are replaced by official names in the translation. (A notable exception is "the eternal city" — вечный город.)
The ST author may imitate his character's speech by means of dialectal or contaminated forms. SL territorial dialects cannot be reproduced in TT, nor can they be replaced by TL dialectal forms. It would be inappropriate if a black American or a London cockney spoke in the Russian translation in the dialect, say, of the Northern regions of the USSR. They can be rendered into Russian by ajudicial employment of low-colloquial elements, e.g.:
'E do look quiet, don't 'e? Dye know 'oo 'e is, Sir? Вид-то у него спокойный, правда? Часом не знаете, сэр, кто он будет?
Contaminated forms are used to imitate the speech of a foreigner.
Me blingee beer. Now you pay. Моя плинесла пиво, твоя типель платить.
To enhance the communicative effect of his message the author of the source text may make use of various stylistic devices, such as metaphors, similes, puns and so on. Coming across a stylistic device the translator has to make up his mind whether it should be preserved in his translation or left out and compensated for at some other place.
Metaphors and similes though most commonly used in works of fiction, are not excluded from all other types of texts.
Many metaphors and similes are conventional figures of speech I regularly used by the members of the language community. Such figurative units may be regarded as idioms and translated in a similar way. Their Russian equivalents may be based on the same image (a powder magazine — пороховой погреб, white as snow - белый как снег) or on a different one (a ray of hope - проблеск надежды, thin as a rake - худой как щепка). Some of the English standard metaphors and similes are rendered into Russian word for word (as busy as a bee - трудолюбивый как пчела), while the meaning of others can only be explained in a non-figurative way (as large as life-в натуральную величину).
More complicated is the problem of translating individual figures of speech created by the imagination of the ST author. They are important elements of the author's style and are usually translated word for word. Nevertheless the original image may prove inacceptable in the target language and the translator will have to look for a suitable occasional substitute.
A similar tactics is resorted to by the translator when he comes across a pun in ST. If the SL word played upon in ST has a Russian substitute which can also be used both literally and figuratively, a word-for-word translation is possible:
Whenever a young gentleman was taken in hand by Doctor Blimber, he might consider himself sure of a pretty tight squeeze.
Когда доктор Блаймбер брал в руки какого-нибудь джентльмена, тот мог быть уверен, что его как следует стиснут.
In other cases the translator tries to find in TL another word that can be played upon in a similar way:
He says he'll teach you to take his boards and make a raft of them; but seeing that you know how to do this pretty well already, the offer... seems a superfluous one on his part.
Он кричит, что покажет вам, как брать без спроса доски и делать из них плот, но поскольку вы и так прекрасно знаете, как это делать, это предложение кажется вам излишним.
A very popular stylistic device is to include in the text an overt or covert quotation. Unlike references in scientific papers the stylistic effect is usually achieved not by citing a complete extract from some other source, but it takes the form of allusions with a premium put on a general impression. It is presumed that the died words are well known to the reader and can readily suggest the sought-for associations.
The translator has to identify the source and the associations it evokes with the SL receptors and then to decide whether the source is also known to the TL receptors and can produce the similar effect.
This can be exemplified by S. Marshak's translation of the popular English nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty. In the translation Humpty Dumpty who "sat on the wall and had a great fall" was called «Шалтай-Болтай» and "all the king's men" who "cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again" became «вся королевская рать. So, when C Bernstein and B. Woodward called their famous Watergate story "All the President's Men", it was unquestionably rendered into Russian as «вся президентская рать».
Some stylistic devices may be ignored by the translator when their expressive effect is insignificant and their reproduction in the target text would run counter to the spirit of TL. One of the oldest and most commonly used stylistic devices in English is alliteration. An Englishman seems to be very happy if he can call an artificial satellite "a man-made moon" or invent a headline like "Bar Barbarism in Bars". As a rule, the formal device cannot be reproduced in the Russian translation where it would look rather bizarre and often distort the meaning of the phrase.
Still more infrequent is the reproduction in translation, of another common English stylistic device, the so- called zeugma, when a word enters in several collocations within one sentence each time in a different sense, e.g.:
(The man) ... took a final photograph of Michael in front of the hut, two cups of tea at the Manor, and his departure.
In Russian such usage is outside the literary norm.
A stylistic effect can be achieved by various types of repetitions, i.e. recurrence of the word, word combination, phrase for two times or more.
England is a paradise for the well-to-do, a purgatory for the able, and a hell for the poor.
Англия — рай для богачей, чистилище для талантливых и ад для бедняков.
Repetition adds rhythm and balance to the utterance. In most cases the translator takes pains to reproduce it in ТГ.

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