What is known as transposition is a change in the order of linguistic elements: words, phrases, clauses and sentences, in the text of translation as compared with the original. Most often this change of order is made necessary due to the necessity of preserving intact what is called `functional sentence perspective`, namely, the division of the sentence into two main parts from the point of view of communication: "known or theme" and "new or rheme". In Russian this division of the sentence is usually expressed by means of word order: what is already known or supposed to be known to the hearer (usually from the preceding context), that is, "theme" is placed at the beginning of the sentence whereas what is new, that is communicated for the first time and, therefore, what forms the semantically most important part of the message ( rheme ) is placed at the end of the sentence. In English the word order is arranged, on the whole, along the same lines; however, in certain cases the "theme" is placed at the end and the "rheme", correspondingly , at the beginning of the sentence due to the fact that the newness of the "rheme" is expressed differently, namely, by the use of the indefinite article (or with plural forms of nouns and with uncountable nouns of the zero article) with the noun which is the subject of sentence. Therefore, in Russian word order in these cases must be reversed, i.e., the sentence subject which is the "rheme" of the sentence mast be placed at the end: cf. A boy came in - Вошел мальчик but: The boy came in -Мальчик вошел. Likewise: A match flared, in the darkness -В темноте вспыхнула спичка. Light was coming into the cellar from somewhere - В подвал откуда-то проникал свет .
Cigarettes were passed after lunch - После завтрака подали сигареты. Within a complex sentence a similar tendency is observed: in Russian the first place is occupied by that part of the sentence ( main or subordinate clause) which must logically precede the second, whereas in English the position of both clauses, though not quite fixed, is in most cases governed by syntactic rules: namely, the main clause precedes, in most cases, the subordinate one. This often calls for a change in the order of clause in the process of translation, as for instance: He trembled as he looked up - Взглянув на верх он задрожал. (Note here the rendering of the English subordinate clause by means of the Russian verbal adverb; see above the preceding lecture).
Within a passage of discourse, independent sentences sometimes are also transposed as in the following example: "You goin` to court this morning?" asked Jim. We had strolled over. - Мы подошли. - Вы в суд пойдете? - Спросил Джим.
Here the transposition of sentences is used to make up for the absence in Russian of the difference between the Past Indefinite and the Past Perfect ( the action of the second English sentence precedes that of the first). See also below, on addition.

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