1. Handling stylistically-marked language units

In different communicative situations the words of different stylistic status can be used.
They are stylistically neutral words, literary (bookish) words, colloquial words.
Neutral words are suitable for any situation.
Literary and colloquial words satisfy the demands of official, poetic messages and unofficial everyday communication.
SL and TL words may have either identical (steed - скакун) or dissimilar (morn - утро) stylistic connotation.
The translator tries to preserve the original stylistic status by using the equivalents of the same style or failing that using neutral words.
The author may qualify each object in his own way thus creating the stylistic phrasing which gives much trouble to the translator.
Some phrases may have permanent equivalents in TL, e.g. dead silence - мертвая тишина, but in most cases the translator has to look for an occasional substitute, which often requires an in-depth study of the broad context.
The transferred qualifier is widely used in English texts. It is syntactically joined to a word to which it does not belong logically. Thus ‘the smiling attention of the stranger’ will be translated as «внимание улыбающегося незнакомца».
The inverted qualifier is not syntactically defining but the defined element. ‘the devil of a woman’ (a devilish woman) may involve an additional element: чертовски умная женщина.
Stylistically marked units may also be certain types of collocations. There are idiomatic phrases (take it from me) and various paraphrases (three R’s) among.
Some of paraphrases are borrowed from the Bible: the Prince of Darkness. A special group of paraphrases are the names of countries, states, etc.: the Empire City (New York). As a rule paraphrases are replaced by official names in the translation.
SL territorial dialects cannot be reproduced in TL. But as they are mostly an indication of the speaker’s low social or educational status, they can be translated into TL with low-colloquial elements.
Contaminated forms are used to imitate the speech of a foreigner.

2. Handling stylistic devices

To enhance the communicative effect of the text the author may use various stylistic devices: metaphors, similes, puns, etc.
The translator has to make up his mind whether a stylistic device should be preserved or omitted and compensated in the translation.
Such figurative units as metaphors and similes may be regarded as idioms and their equivalent in TL may be based on the same image (white as snow - белый как снег) or on a different one (thin as a rake - худой как щепка).
More complicated is the problem of translating speech units created by the imagination of the author (Humpty- Dumpty - Шалтай-Болтай).
A very popular stylistic device is to include an overt or covert quotation. The stylistic effect usually achieved not by citing. The translator should identify the source and the associations it evokes and then to chose the source evoking the same associations with TL receptors (Alice in Wonderland World - питать призрачные иллюзии).
Some stylistic devices as alliterations and repetitions may be ignored when their effect is insignificant.

Назад