Transformari Semantice Si Gramaticale In Traducerea Textelor Specializate

Transformări semantice și gramaticale în traducerea textelor specializate

(studiu de caz)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

The topic of my licence project is “Semantic and Grammatical Transformations in Translating Specialized Texts (Case Study)” and it is based on a practical research following the translation practice i.e. the materials I had to translate during my translation practice.

The practice in translation has been performed from November 10, 2014 till December 12, 2014. I have carried out my practice at the Translation Bureau “Perlia” Î.I. Goroh Natalia, in Chișinău as a translator of the English, Romanian and German languages. Translation Bureau Perlia offers certified translation and notarized translations from / to most international languages.

Having reached the end of three academic years of theoretical and practical study, I have come to realize that translation is a creative profession, which requires critical thinking skills and a sound academic level of knowledge in the field of language studies. Moreover, a good translator should strive, at all times, to consolidate and enrich his/her professional knowledge and experience. The daily task of a translator is to analyze the source text (ST) for meaning and then to transfer that meaning into the target text (TT).

The practice lasted for fiive weeks, and during that period of time I have had the pleasure of working with people with a high sense of responsibility that set a worthy example for me.

I had to translate 10 specialized texts from Romanian into English and 10 specialized texts from English into Romanian. The topics of those texts were the following:

analysis of the situation of the country in relation to the documentation of the children with birth certificates;

analysis of the system of children’s protection in situation of risk and those remaining without parental care;

international human rights.

When translating the texts from Romanian into English, I met difficulties in words related to international law, documenting children and forms of protection of children without parental care. As for the translation of the texts from English into Romanian, I met difficulties in words related with the history of human rights, economy.

One of the frequent problems I met during this practice of translation was the fact that most words have several meanings. That is why a translation based on a one-to-one substitution of words is rarely acceptable. The translator may not found the equivalent word at once, and he may be frustrated at first because of some words having a lot of meanings, which can be translated into a lot of equivalents, as their meanings depend on its context.

Another essential difficulty was the stylistic problem. The importance of style in translation arises from its role in achieving the intended meaning; it is an important part which goes hand in hand with meaning.

There is an abundance of difficulties and they differ from text to text and context to context. The fact is that all problems should be worked out; each one in its own way according to text; we have to find a solution in order to be able to carry on the translating task. Without a solution one can not accomplish a translation.

Throughout my practice I encountered different difficulties in regard to the correct translation of different words and phrases that belong to the official style documents. Here are some examples: ‘hereinafter’, ‘accesion’, ‘hereby’, ‘hereto’, ‘posit’ etc. All of these words are specific to the official style and the style of contracts.Such lexical itams can pose some difficulties to the translator as they are not daily expressions we can easily use and understand. So I had to carefully analyse and compare them to the context of the ST in order to render the appropriate translation. Hence, the Romanian phrase ‘denumit în continuare’ is translated in English as ‘hereinafter’ and in German as ‘nachstehend’; the Romanian noun‘aprobare’ is translated in English as ‘accession’ and in German as ‘Zugang’; the English adverb ‘hereby’ is translated in Romanian as ‘prin prezentul/prezenta’ and in German as ‘hiermit’; the English adverb ‘hereto’ translates as ‘anexat’ in Romanian and in German is ‘hierzu’; the English verb ‘to posit’ is translated as ‘a postula’ in Romanian and in German is ‘postulieren’ etc. We should mind that the official document writing and business correspondence have a certain phraseology to be used and it is quite rigid, i.e. no other elements can be used instead.

My glossary consists of terms from the legal and economy area, selected in the process of translation.

The aims of the practical training were the following:

developing fast and qualitative translation skills in writing texts of different types of medium difficulty and major in various areas of socio- economic life;

acquiring practical knowledge in the field of terminology in various fields;

identifying different types of documents;

showing responsibility, realizing principles of tolerance and otherness in a multicultural world.

To sum up the results of this practice, I would say that no one can deny the important role of the languages in the communication process. Furthermore, no one can avoid the crucial role of translation as a way for helping people who speak different languages, communicate effectively.

The translator must have linguistic abilities which enable him to convey the meaning of the message from the Source Language (SL) by using expressions in the Target Language (TL) that are not only grammatical but also “culturally” appropriate.

The structure of my licence project features an Introduction, two sections, a Bibliography, and Annexes. The first section – Terminological Approach to Translation Theory and Semantic Difficulties in Translation – focuses on the study of the concept of translation, the semantic and grammatical problems in translation.

The second section examines the Functional Peculiarities in Semantic Difficulties in Translation. It deals with examples of polysemantic and monosemantic words accompanied by examples of grammatical transformations.

The Conclusion sums up the theoretical and practical results, and the Bibliography lists the sources used in this paper.

The Bibliography lists all the sources that I have found helpful for translating the texts for my practice, as well as for carrying out the research and practical work related to my licence project.

The Annexes consist of schemes showing the types of semantic problems in translation, tables, and a glossary.

I. TERMINOLOGICAL APPROACH TO TRANSLATION THEORY AND SEMANTIC DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATION

I.1. Concepts and theories related to the translation process

Over the centuries, translation has been closely related to the development of culture and literature. As E.A. Nida outlines in his book, the word ‘translation’ was first used in 1540 by Etienne Dolet. He wrote the first treaty on translation in French – “La manière de bien traduire d’une langue en autre”, which sets out five fundamental translation rules:

1. to preserve the perfect sense initiated by the author;

2. to have perfect knowledge of two languages;

3. to translate not word for word, but to keep the discursive intentionality;

4. to avoid neologisms, ranking closer to ordinary language;

5. to keep coherence and harmony of language [6, p. 15].

Translation is a process of conveying the ideas, the message of a text from a Source Language (SL) into a Target Language (TL). This process related to the accuracy and clarity of the meaning or messages of the translation. It means that it is important to take into account if the target readers accept the equivalent message as the source readers do. This aspect is treated in the definitions of translation formulated by some linguists.

P. Newmark defined translation as “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” [5, p. 5]. This definition emphasizes the translation of the meaning of the ST into the TT) as intended by the ST author.

E.A. Nida and C.R. Taber affirmed that “translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message” [7, p.12]. They explicitly asserted that translation is closely connected to the problems of languages and equivalence.

Language barriers have always generated multiple difficulties and they were harder to remove than the natural or administrative ones. These barriers could be removed only by what we now call the translation. So the translation is intended to enable communication between people who have different languages, different cultures, and ways of thinking.

In the past centuries translation was, above all, a cultural activity. The first works were related to worship, religious texts and the Bible. A great movement began to be the translation of popular novels (a much translated author was Florian). Translation has the function of language mediation and point of connection between cultures, nations and epochs.

Since translation is a process of constant search for the transfer of a message from the SL into the TL, it is often surrounded by many difficulties that may be a result of the differences in both languages or differences in the cultures represented by them. Special consideration should be given to the semantic and grammatical problems that the translators of any text face.

The biggest obstacle is not the words as such, for which no equivalence can be found, but the realities to which they refer. For example, the French have 50 different words for several varieties of bread.

Another problem for the translators is related to the so-called false friends, or false equivalents. A false friend is a word that coincides completely, or almost completely, in its graphical or phonetic aspect, with the word from the SL but has a different meaning. Such words are called bilingual homonyms, for example, the Romanian word ‘librărie’ means ‘bookstore’, while the graphically similar English noun ‘library’ means ‘bibliotecă’.

Any language contains collocations, idioms, thelexical value of which is more or less distant from the meanings of each word taken separately.

There are many expressions that have origins in the artistic literature, Greek and Latin mythology, as well as Christian expressions. For example, these expressions are known worldwide:

Ro: călcâiul lui Ahile – En: ‘Achilles’heel’, De: Achillesferse,

Ro: mărul discordiei – En: ‘the apple of discord’, De: Zankapfel,

Ro: la calendele grecești – En: ‘on to the Greek Calendas’,

De: auf den griechischen Kalenden,

Ro: Toma necredinciosul – En: ‘doubting Thomas’, De: Der ungläubige Thomas, Ro: țap ispășitor – En: ‘scapegoat’, De: Sündenbock.

Such expressions are also called “traveling” expressions or winged words.

I.2. Considerations on some semantic aspects which are essential for the translation process

The significance means the upgrading of the meaning. A word, considered in isolation, may have one or more meanings. In a given context, a lexical unit can have only one meaning. The significance of the relationships resulting from the lexical unit sets them in the context with other lexical units.

Words that have one meaning are called monosemantic (please refer to Annex 5). They signify unique meanings: specific terms, weekdays, months, numerals (e.g. Monday, June, two, database, genocide, etc.).

According to O. Burea, “the semantic structure of the word does not present an indissoluble unity, nor does it necessarily stand for one concept. It is generally known that most words convey several concepts and thus possess the corresponding number of meaning. A word having several meanings is called polysemantic, and the ability of words to have more than one meaning is described by term polysemy” [1, p. 40]. For example, the English noun ‘book’ has the following meanings:

eanings:

a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers: e.g. ‘a book of selected poems’;

a main division of a literary work or of the Bible: e.g. ‘the Book of Genesis’;

an imaginary record or list (often used to emphasize the comprehensiveness of someone’s actions or experience): e.g. ‘she felt every emotion in the book of love’;

used to refer to studying: e.g. ‘he was so deep in his books he would forget to eat’;

the telephone directory for the area in which someone lives: e.g. ‘is your name in the book?’ [16, online].

When the word designates (denotes), it awakens in the mind a usual image, independent of an object, of an action. In such a case, it is used with the proper sense; e.g. ‘eye’ = organ of sight. This direct relationship established between the word and the object is called denotation, and the meanings are denotative meanings.

Polysemantic words have, besides the basic meaning, secondary and figurative meanings (please refer to Annex 6). They establish an indirect relationship between the word and the designated object. This relationship is called connotation and the meanings are connotative. The connotative value of the word is emphasized only in context.

In the process of translation, the translators encounter many difficulties. One problem is the various meanings of the word. Semantically, every word is a complex unit consisting of several shades of meaning. They may be disclosed in specific contexts. There are three steps of determining the degree of rendering the meaning, which actually correspond to the types of meanings:

a) the denotative meaning, i.e. direct meaning. For example, the English noun ‘justice’ has 4 meanings:

1) just behaviour or treatment;

2) the quality of being fair and reasonable;

3) the administration of the law or authority in maintaining this;

4) a judge or magistrate, in particular a judge of the Supreme Court of a country or state [16, online].

b) the referential meaning, which is embedded in lexemes that are usually monosemantic words used in the administrative-legal style, etc.: For instance, the English noun ‘pleadings’ refers to “written statements filed with the court that describe a party’s legal or factual assertions about the case” [17, online]. The denotative and referential meanings are mostly used in the specialized texts as their transfer from the SL into the TL is made directly based on the effective reference.

c) the connotative meaning, which is the additional expressive value that a word acquires in a specific language. The connotative meaning is “the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content” [4, p. 14]. For instance, the English noun ‘border’ refers to “a line separating two countries, administrative divisions, or other areas” [16, online]. On the other hand, the English noun ‘border’ gains a connotative meaning in the phrase ‘border between life and death’. Connotative meanings are less used in the specialized texts as such texts must follow the rules of accuracy and clarity, while conveying a connotative meaning involves an indirect, peripheral approach to the referred concept.

R.S. Ginzburg defines the phraseological units in the following way: “Phraseological units are […] non-motivated word-groups that cannot be freely made up in speech but are reproduced as ready-made units” [2, p. 190].

The English linguists Jennifer Seidl and W. McMordie stated that “an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of idiom when they stand alone. The way in which the words are put together is often odd, illogical or even grammatically incorrect. […] We have to learn the idiom as a whole and we often cannot change any part of it” [8, p. 48].

The semantic structure of the phraseological units has a special status and needs special consideration. A phraseological unit is a word-combination with fully or partially changed meaning and a stabile syntactic structure of a coordinate or subordinate word-combination, simple or complex sentence. The phraseological units are not free joints and their meaning is independent from their constitutive lexical units. The phraseological units contain at least one word which is used figuratively, which confers a figurative sense upon the entire phraseological unit. For example, the English verb ‘to make’ is present in countless phaseological units, such as:

En. ‘to make fun of’ – to make the object of ridicule; deride [16, online];

Ro. ‘a lua în bătaie de joc’, ‘a lua în derîdere’;

De. ‘jdn. Durch den Kakao ziehen’;

En. ‘to make haste’ – to hurry [ibidem];

Ro. ‘a se grăbi’;

De. ‘hasten’;

En. ‘to make someone’s day’ – to make an otherwise ordinary or dull day pleasingly memorable for someone [16, online];

Ro. ‘a umple sufletul de bucurie’, ‘a însenina ziua cuiva’;

De. ‘jdm. Den tag retten’;

En. ‘to make do and mend’ – to manage with and repair the possessions one already has rather than buying replacements [ibidem];

Ro. ‘a se descurca fără a cumpăra lucruri noi și reparînd pe cele vechi’;

De. ‘sich mit wenig zu behelfen wissen’;

En. ‘to make or break’ – to be the factor which decides whether (something) will succeed or fail [ibidem];

Ro. ‘a aduce (cuiva) un success deplin sau un eșec total’;

De. ‘jdn. / etw. Zum Erfolg oder zum Scheitern führen / bringen’;

En. ‘to make up one’s mind’ – to make a decision; decide [ibidem];

Ro. ‘a se decide’, ‘a lua o hotărîre’;

De. ‘zu einer Entscheidung kommen’;

En. ‘to make way’ – to allow room for someone or something else [ibidem];

Ro. ‘a se da la o parte (pentru a lăsa pe cineva să treacă)’;

De. ‘für etw. Platz schaffen’.

When translating the phraseological units, the translator should act very carefully, and avoid using the word-for-word translation technique as it is totally inappropriate in that situation. The equivalence technique would do as it focuses on finding equivalents in the TL.

In general, several methods are used in the translation process, of which the most important are:

1. proper translation;

2. equivalence;

3 analogy.

Proper translation includes the work of handling the meaning(s) of a lexical item in the SL and rendering the proper one using the lexical items from the SL. It is used when no equivalence or analogy is available. The proper translation involves the following processes:

a) rendering of the lexical meaning by way of literal translation, calque, grammatical substitution, antonymic translation, concretization, generalization, transposition, etc.);

b) using the descriptive translation, i.e. translation by neutral paraphrase or stylistically marked description (paraphrase, omission, compensation etc.);

c) using the computer-assisted translation, which preserves the words and form of expression (automated or direct translation).

The equivalence can be achieved by applying the following procedures:

translation by total equivalent. Total equivalents are those expressions encountered in both languages and have the same meaning. Their stylistic and expressive value corresponds to each other, sometimes even the words are the same.

En: ‘One-parent family’ – Ro: ‘Familie monoparentală’ – De: ‘Familie mit einem Elternteil’.

translation by partial equivalence. We cannot always use the equivalent, since they do not exist in both languages. Usually the equivalent must have a similar denotative and connotative meaning, i.e. between expressions should not be semantic, stylistic, metaphorical differences, to have a number of similar lexical and grammatical indices.

En: ‘Fire Safety and Emergency Situations’ / Ro: ‘Serviciul Protecției Civile și Situațiilor Excepționale’ / De: ‘Brandschutz und Katastrophenschutz’.

Another method of translation is analogy, which is widely applied and is considered to be one of the most effective. This method involves appealing to a phraseological expression in the TL, having the same meaning as the one in the SL.

En: ‘Breach of trust’ / Ro: ‘Abuz de încredere’ / De: ‘Vertrauensbruch’.

I.3. Considerations on the nature of grammatical transformations in the translation process

Grammar comprises a set of rules which show the way words and phrases unite in a language, both at the word – level (morphology) and at the sentence level (syntax).

Compared with the semantic equivalence, the grammatical equivalence has its own specific features:

grammar rules are obligatory and rather stable. They do not modify over time as simply as words do;

lexical choices are often non-compulsory, while grammar rules must be followed suitably;

words are sometimes modified by context or speakers, while grammar rules cannot be handled so easy.

As translation is implicated, each translator is freer to determine upon many features at a lexical level, but not on grammar rules.

The capacity to make the right transformation is one of the translator’s important skills, one that needs training in imagination, intuition, and cultural view. Achieving equivalence in translation is related with the ability to find a translational problem correctly and to make an acceptable transformation.

Translation transformation can be divided into grammatical and lexical ones. The main grammatical transformations consist of following transformations:

Transposition

Addition

Omission

Transposition is a peculiar variety of essential partitioning in translation, having the connotation of a change in the order of the syntactic elements or words in the TT as examined in contrast with that of the ST. Such elements as collocations and words can be transferred. The variation of word and collocation order is considered to be the most famous type of transposition. Such transposition is also imminent in translating English texts into Romanian, or vice versa as a result of the diverse word order in the sentence of each language. For example:

ST: Why do human rights violations occur?

TT1: De ce sunt încălcate drepturile omului?

TT2: Warum Menschenrechtsverletzungen stattfinden?

Transposition is often used between English and German because of the position of the verb in the sentence: in English sentences the verb is usually near the beginning of a sentence, while in German sentences it is at the end of the sentence.

Addition. From the point of view of grammar, addition could be defined as the ellipsis of semantic elements present in the internal structure while transforming it to the external structure.

ST: We include the literature on causes of genocide because there is significant overlap in the causal factors stressed.

TT1: Includem literatura de specialitate privind cauzele de genocid, pentru că nu există o suprapunere semnificativă a factorilor de cauzalitate evidențiați.

TT2: Wir sind der Literatur zu Ursachen von Völkermord, weil es erhebliche Überschneidungen in die ursächlichen Faktoren gestresst.

In summarizing the use of addition, it could be stated that the inclination to add words in the TT is mostly explanatory, i.e. applied with a goal to render the message of the ST as clearly as possible.

Omission is the diminution of the elements of the ST that are considered unnecessary from the viewpoint of the TL structural patterns and stylistics. In this transformation, a word combination is substituted by a word or word combination with fewer words.

ST: Adopția nu poate fi avută în vedere decît atunci cînd devine evident faptul că nu există absolut nici o rezolvare pentru problemele în cauză.

TT1: Adoption may be considered only when it becomes evident that there is absolutely no solution to the issued problems.

TT2: Annahme kann nur berücksichtigt, wenn erkennbar wird, dass es absolut keine Lösung der Probleme ausgegeben werden.

II. ANALYSIS OF THE SEMANTIC AND GRAMMATICAL TRANSFORMATION IN TRANSLATING SPECIALIZED TEXTS

II.1. Monosemantic and polysemantic legal terms

When translating a text, a translator needs to keep up in mind the purpose of translation and also its destination. It is significant to know whether a translation is for information only or if it stands for an original document of legal value.

There are three distinct lexical layers:

1. Strictly specialized legal terms: there is no exact problem about these terms often used in the language of lawyers; only equivalence sets up certain matters. Only a small number of monosemantic terms utilized in the legal language have equivalents being included in the same lexical layer. Let us consider the Romanian word ‘declarație’, which means “mărturisire, afirmare deschisă a unor convingeri, opinii sau sentimente; ceea ce afirmă cineva cu un anumit prilej” [13, online]. Some translators use the English noun ‘statement’, while others use the word ‘declaration’ from the Latin ‘declaratio’, referring to a plaintiff’s statement of claims in proceedings. The Latin expressions used in the legal language are handled as they are, without needing a translation.

2. Technical terms borrowed from other terminologies: they have a common character and are accessible in many fields of activity, although their development is rather limited. We can mention here examples of medical terms:

Ro. ‘politraumatism cu leziuni cranio-cerebrale’;

En. ‘polytraumatism with cranio-cerebral injuries’;

De. ‘polytraumatism mit Schädel-Hirn-Verletzungen’;

Ro. ‘autopsie’ / En. ‘autopsy’ / De. ‘die Autopsie’.

3. Words belonging to the general vocabulary but used within legal environment: these words have to be translated in accordance with to the context. Here are some examples of contextual equivalents:

Ro. ‘act de forță majoră’ / En. ‘act of God’ / De. ‘höhere Gewalt’;

Ro. ‘act de procedură’ / En. ‘proceedings’ / De. ‘Verfahren’;

Ro. ‘act autentic’ / En. ‘deed’ / De. ‘Urkunde’.

The semantic relations also determine the translator’s search for equivalents. The equivalents need to be taken into consideration as they can change the direction of the meaning of a text. There are words totally or partially similar in the general use on one hand and in the specialized one on the other hand. Here are a few examples with equivalents being held by the same lexico-semantic category, which do not raise specific difficulties:

Ro. ‘a aplica’ / En. ‘to apply’ / De. ‘bewerben’,

Ro. ‘circumstanță’ / En. ‘circumstance’ / De. ‘Umstand’,

Ro. ‘a constata’ / En. ‘to establish’ / De. ‘etablieren’,

Ro. ‘a interzice’ / En. ‘to forbid’ / De. ‘verbieten’,

Ro. ‘tentativă’ / En. ‘attempt’ / De. ‘Versuch’.

In what follows, some examples of monosemantic and polysemantic terms will be presented and analyzed.

Monosemantic terms:

The English word ‘coercion’ is a monosemantic noun having the following meaning according to Online Oxford Dictionary: “the action or practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats” [16, online]. I translated the sentence below based on calque or blueprint method:

ST: Research on repression explores why political authorities use coercion at the domestic level.

TT1: Cercetarile privind represiunea explorează de ce autoritățile politice folosesc constrângerea la nivel intern.

TT2: Forschung auf Repression sucht, warum politischen Behörden verwenden Zwang auf nationaler Ebene.

A synonym of the English noun ‘coercion’ is the noun ‘constraint’, both lexemes having the same meaning.

Another monosemantic term which I want to mention is the adjective ‘short-term’, which have the following meaning: “occurring in or relating to a relatively short period of future time” [16, online]. The antonym of the term ‘short-term’ is the adjective ‘long-term’ and its meaning is “occurring over or relating to a long period of time” [ibidem]. I translated these two terms through calque.

ST: For the more interesting cases of explaining why repressive regimes ratified human rights agreements in the past, it becomes increasingly clear that such commitments may frequently have been the result of a desire to reap the short-term benefits of such a gesture without necessarily understanding the long-term ramifications, including constraints on government behavior and strengthened domestic voices for rights protection.

TT1: Pentru cele mai interesante cazuri de a explica de ce regimurile represive au ratificat acorduri în domeniul drepturilor omului în trecut, devine tot mai clar că astfel de angajamente au fost frecvent rezultatul unei dorințe de a profita de beneficiile pe termen scurt ale unui astfel de gest, fără a fi necesar de a înțelege ramificațiile pe termen lung, inclusiv constrângerile asupra acțiunilor întreprinse de stat și opiniile mai puternic exprimate exprimate în domeniul protecției drepturilor.

TT2: Für die weitere interessante Fälle zu erklären, warum repressive Regime ratifizierte Menschenrechtsabkommen in der Vergangenheit, wird es immer deutlicher, dass diese Verpflichtungen können häufig waren das Ergebnis von dem Wunsch, die kurzfristigen Vorteile einer solchen Geste zu ernten, ohne notwendigerweise das Verständnis der lang-term Auswirkungen, einschließlich Beschränkungen für Regierungs Verhalten und verstärkte Inlands Stimmen für Schutzrechte.

The English noun ‘plaintiff’ is translated into Romanian as ‘reclamant’, in German – ‘Kläger’.

In English it has the meaning of “a person who brings a case against another in a court of law” [16, online].

In Romanian its meaning is “persoană care se adresează justiției pentru a i se recunoaște un drept, pentru a obține repararea unei pagube” [9, p.901].

In German its definition is “bei Gericht vorgebrachte Beschwerde und das Geltendmachen eines Anspruchs durch ein gerichtliches Verfahren” [14, online]. The method which I used for translating the sentence below is calque.

ST: The civil process was stopped because the plaintiffs – Regional Prosecutor's Office and the children’s mother have withdrawn the application calling on trial, because they have no other evidences that would confirm the identity of the mother of children.

TT1: Examinarea dosarului civil a încetat deoarece reclamanții – procuratura regională și mama copiilor și-au retras cererea de chemare în judecată deoarece aceștia nu dispuneau de alte probe ce ar confirma identitatea mamei copiilor.

TT2: Der Zivilprozesswurde gestoppt, da die Kläger – Regionale Staatsanwaltschaft und die Mutter der Kinder haben die Anwendung den Aufruf vor Gericht zurückgezogen, weil sie keine andere Beweise, die die Identität der Mutter der Kinder bestätigen würden.

The English term ‘treaty’ means: “a formally concluded and ratified agreement between states” [16, online]. The Romanian translation is ‘tratat’, and the German translation is ‘Vertrag’.

In Romanian its meaning is “înțelegere scrisă încheiată între două sau mai multe state, în vederea determinării, într-un anumit domeniu, a drepturilor și a obligațiilor părților contractante sau în scopul stabilirii unor norme juridice; acord internațional, convenție internațională” [9, p.1107].

And in German its definition is “rechtsgültige Abmachung zwischen zwei oder mehreren Partnern; Kontrakt” [14, online].

The method which I used for translating the sentence below is calque.

ST: Some of the most frequent research topics include the following: the effect of (various dimensions of) globalization on respect for human rights, […] the impact of regime type on use of torture, and the relationship between treaty commitment and respect for human rights.

TT1: Unele dintre cele mai frecvente subiecte de cercetare includ următoarele: efectul (diferite dimensiuni ale) globalizării privind respectarea drepturilor omului, […] impactul de tip regim de utilizare a torturii, precum și relația dintre angajamentul tratatului și respectarea drepturilor omului.

TT2: Einige der häufigsten Forschungsthemen gehören die folgenden: die Wirkung von (verschiedenen Dimensionen) Globalisierung auf die Achtung der Menschenrechte, […] die Auswirkungen von Regimetyp auf Anwendung von Folter, und die Beziehung zwischen Vertrag Engagement und Achtung der Menschenrechte.

The English noun ‘ombudsman’, appeared in 1959, from Swedish ‘ombudsman’, literally “commission man” (specifically in reference to the office of justitieombudsmannen, which hears and investigates complaints by individuals against abuses of the state); (from um- ‘around’, see ambi-, + boð ‘command’, see bid (v.) + maðr ‘man’) [15, online], is translated into Romanian as ‘avocat parlamentar’, in German – ‘Ombudsmann’.

In English it has the meaning of “an official appointed to investigate individuals’ complaints against a company or organization, especially a public authority” [16, online].

In Romanian its meaning is “specialist care asigură asistență (juridică, economică) unei instituții, unei societăți etc. (pentru rezolvarea unor litigii)” [13, online].

In German its definition is “Mann, der die Rechte der Bürgerinnen und Bürger gegenüber den Behörden wahrnimmt” [14, online].

The method which I used for translating this term is borrowing.

ST: The ombudsman helps settle individual disputes between consumers and financial services companies.

TT1: Ombudsmanul ajută la soluționarea litigiilor individuale dintre consumatori și companii de servicii financiare.

TT2: Der Ombudsmann hilft, individuelle Streitigkeiten zwischen Verbrauchern und Finanzdienstleistungsunternehmen.

In what follows, please consider below the following examples of polysemantic terms:

The term ‘border’ is polysemantic, and its meanings are as follows:

a line separating two countries, administrative divisions, or other areas;

the edge or boundary of something, or the part near it;

a decorative strip around the edge of something

a strip of ground along the edge of a lawn or path for planting flowers or shrubs [16, online].

In the text that I translated during my practice the English noun ‘border’ is used in its first meaning. The method which I used for translating this sentence is calque.

ST: Human rights have become a dominant frame in contemporary struggles for social and political change within and across borders.

TT1: Drepturile omului au devenit un cadru dominant în lupta contemporană pentru schimbări sociale și politice în interiorul și în afara granițelor.

TT2: Die Menschenrechte sind ein dominanter Rahmen der zeitgenössischen Kämpfe für sozialen und politischen Wandel innerhalb und über die Grenzen hinweg zu werden.

I have managed to detect how the basic meaning of the term ‘domestic’ changes or is enriched with additional semantic shade.

1. While adjoined to the English noun ‘violence’, the adjective ‘domestic’, is part of a collocation that means “violence among members of a family or household; in these cases, one person gains power through use of physical or emotional coercion; any person in a household could be the target of domestic violence but it is most frequently experienced by women” [16, online].

ST: Violența domestică este o problemă gravă în multe țări.

TT1: Domestic violence is a great problem in many countries.

TT2: Häusliche Gewalt ist ein großes Problem in vielen Ländern.

2. “Existing or occurring inside a particular country; not foreign or international” [ibidem].

ST: With regard to the effects of an initial formal commitment to human rights, the scholarship has shifted from a distinctly optimistic (and sometimes exclusive) concern for the role of transnational activism towards a greater appreciation of domestic institutions and activists.

TT1: În ceea ce privește efectele unui angajament oficial inițial pentru drepturile omului, științele au trecut de la o preocupare distinctă optimistă (și uneori exclusivă) pentru rolul activismului transnațional către o mai mare apreciere a instituțiilor interne și a activiștilor.

TT2: Im Hinblick auf die Auswirkungen einer anfänglichen förmliche Verpflichtung, die Menschenrechte hat der Stipendiat eine deutlich optimistische (und manchmal ausschließlich) Sorge um die Rolle der transnationalen Aktivismus zu einer größeren Wertschätzung der inländischen Institutionen und Aktivisten verschoben.

3. The English collocation formed of the adjective ‘domestic’ and the noun ‘adoption’ means: ‘an adoption that involves adoptive parents and a child of the same nationality and the same country of residence’ [16, online].

ST: The domestic adoption process consists of many steps until an adoptive family is able to wrap their arms around their newborn.

TT1: Procesul de adopție internă constă în mai multe etape până cînd o familie adoptivă poate să-și îmbrățișeze nou-născutul.

TT2: Der inländische Adoptionsverfahren besteht aus vielen Schritten, bis eine Adoptivfamilie ist in der Lage, ihre Arme um ihren neugeborenen wickeln.

II.2. Grammatical transformations

Transposition

The most frequently used type of transformation in the texts that I translated during my practice was the transposition. In Romanian this transformation is usually expressed by re-arranging the word order from ‘adjective (nominal group) + noun’ pattern – specific to the English language – to ‘noun + adjective (nominal group)’ pattern. Also I have pointed out cases when a verb is translated in the TT1 by means of a noun. Please consider the examples below:

ST: Numele persoanei fizice este un drept subiectiv nepatrimonial.

TT1: The name of the physical person is a non-patrimonial subjective right.

TT2: Der Name der natürlichen Person ist eine nicht-patrimonial subjektives Recht.

ST: Prenumele copilului se stabilește la acordul comun al părinților la data înregistrării nașterii copilului.

TT1: The first name of the child is determined based on the mutual agreement of the parents on the chil’s birth registration date.

TT2: Vorname des Kindes ist mit gegenseitigen Einvernehmen der Eltern nach der Geburt Datum der Eintragung des Kindes bestimmt.

ST: This document provides the detailed overview of the Client’s needs and expectations from the Facility Management Company.

TT1: Acest document oferă prezentarea detaliată a cerințelor și așteptărilor clientului de de Administrare a Instalației.

TT2: Dieses Dokument enthält die detaillierten Überblick über die Bedürfnisse und Erwartungen aus dem Gebäudemanagement Unternehmen.

ST: Adopția este una dintre formele prioritare de protecție a copilului rămas fără ocrotire părintească. Această formă specială de protecție, aplicată în interesul superior al copilului, prin care se stabilește filiația între copilul adoptat și adoptator, precum și legăturile de rudenie între copilul adoptat și rudele adoptatorului.

TT1: Adoption is one of the priority forms of child protection without parental care. This special form of protection applied in the best interests of the child, by which is established the affiliation between the adopted child and adoptive and the ancestral ties between the adopted child and adopter’s relatives.

TT2: Adoption ist eine der vorrangigen Formen der Kinderschutz ohne elterliche Fürsorge. Diese besondere Form des Schutzes angewendet im besten Interesse des Kindes, von denen die Zugehörigkeit zwischen dem adoptierten Kind und Adoptiv und dem angestammten Bindungen zwischen dem adoptierten Kind und Verwandten adopter etabliert.

ST: Human rights are principled ideas about the treatment to which every individual is entitled by virtue of being human.

TT1: Drepturile omului sunt idei principiale cu privire la tratamentul la care fiecare individ are dreptul în virtutea de a fi om.

TT2: Die Menschenrechte sind prinzipielle Vorstellungen über die Behandlung, der jedes Individuum wird dadurch Menschs berechtigt.

ST: Ministerul Muncii, Protecției Sociale și Familiei, Ministerul Tehnologiilor Informației și Comunicației, Ministerul Sănătății, Serviciul de stare civilă, urmează să elaboreze o bază de date unificată pentru identificarea, raportarea și documentarea copiilor, dar și a maturilor fără identitate.

TT1: The Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection, Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications, Ministry of Health, Civil Registry Division are going to develop a unified database for the identification, reporting and documentation of children, but also of adults without identity.

TT2: Ministerium für Arbeit, Familie und Sozialschutz, Ministerium für Informationstechnologien und Kommunikation, Gesundheitsministerium, Standes Abteilung gehen, um eine einheitliche Datenbasis für die Ermittlung, Berichterstattung und Dokumentation von Kindern zu entwickeln, aber auch von Erwachsenen ohne Identität.

For more examples, please consult the table in Annex 2 hereinafter. After examining the examples from the said table, I noticed that transposition is a process that affects the word order in TL, basically on account of the status of the parts of speeches involved in such grammatical modification.

Addition

When translating into English, I have noticed many cases when some words are excluded and the meaning of the sentence is not changed. While in Romanian their presence in the word group is essential, and needs additions in translation. Please consider the following examples:

ST: The selected supplier is required to accomplish a minimum reduction of 10 (ten) % of overall FM cost during the 1st year contract.

TT1: Furnizorul selectat trebuie să realizeze pe parcursul primului an de contract o reducere minimă de 10 (zece) % din costul general al Administrării Întreprinderii.

TT2: Ausgewählte Lieferant ist verpflichtet, während der 1-Jahres-Vertrag eine Mindestreduktion von 10 (zehn)% der gesamten Gebäudemanagement Kosten erreichen.

ST: Understanding why and how governments use violence against their own population is a prerequisite to developing effective protections against human rights violations.

TT1: Înțelegerea cauzelor și a modulului în care guvernele folosesc violența împotriva propriei populații este o condiție prealabilă pentru dezvoltarea protecției eficiente împotriva încălcării drepturilor omului.

TT2: Zu verstehen, warum und wie die Regierungen nutzen die Gewalt gegen die eigene Bevölkerung ist eine Voraussetzung für die Entwicklung wirksamer Schutzmechanismen gegen Menschenrechtsverletzungen.

ST: This debate has led scholars to pay closer attention to why states commit to human rights treaties as well as to how those treaties affect the relations between a government and its people.

TT1: Această dezbatere i-a determinat pe oamenii de știință să acorde o atenție specială cauzelor aderării statelor la tratatele privind drepturile omului, precum și modului în care acele tratate afectează relațiile dintre stat și cetățenii săi.

TT2: Diese Debatte hat Wissenschaftler führten zu mehr Aufmerksamkeit zu, warum Staaten verpflichten, Menschenrechtsverträge als auch zu zahlen, wie diese Verträge betreffen die Beziehungen zwischen einer Regierung und ihrer Menschen.

Curiously enough, having analysed the English version and the Romanian version of the same text, I have come to the conclusion that the phenomenon of addition causes longer Romanian versions, due to the synthetic specificity of the grammatical forms in the Romanian language (postposition of the definite article; the declining of nouns, pronouns, adjectives).

Omission

Omission is the opposite of the addition and is used to ensure a greater intensity of what is named compression, that is, reducing the excess of the text by omitting words which can be easily removed from the text.

ST: Formele de protecție alternativă depind în mare măsură de factorii culturali ai statului.

TT1: Alternative forms of protection depend largely on cultural factors of the state.

TT2: Alternative Formen des Schutzes hängen stark von kulturellen Faktoren des Staates.

ST: Statele care au ratificat Convenția ONU cu privire la drepturile copilului au responsabilitatea să asigure realizarea drepturilor copilului ca ființă umană.

TT1: States that have ratified the UNO Convention on the Children’s Right have the responsibility to ensure the realization of children's rights as a human being.

TT2: Staaten, die der UNO -Konvention über die Kinder Rechts ratifiziert haben, haben die Verantwortung, die Realisierung der Rechte des Kindes als ein menschliches Wesen zu gewährleisten.

ST: În cadrul examinării cererii de chemare în judecată instanța a solicitat de la reclamant probe ce ar confirma că mama copiilor este posesoarea numelui de familie și a prenumelui ce urma a fi confirmat de instanță.

TT1: In examining the application for summons the Court has asked the applicant evidence that would confirm that children’s mother is the owner of the last name and the first name that was to be confirmed by the Court.

TT2: Bei der Prüfung des Antrags auf Aufforderung hat das Gericht dem Antragsteller Beweise, die bestätigen würden, dass Kinder, die Mutter ist der Besitzer der Nachname und der Vorname, die vom Gerichtshof bestätigt wurde gefragt.

I have also noticed that the omission of personal pronouns is a most usual case in TT1. Whilst personal pronouns are used in English and German, they can be very often omitted in the Romanian language.

For more examples, please consult the information set out in Annex 3. Considering those examples, I have noticed that when translating the English one-word terms (e.g. a noun, a verb, an adverb) into Romanian, they used to acquire more component words and form collocations with the following structures: subst. + prep. + subst., verb + prep. + subst., subst. + adj., verb + subst.

CONCLUSION

I hope I have succeeded to present to the reader some basic circumstances of the process of translation and the most important facts about the field of the specialized translation, specifically the legal translation. May aim was to make a presentation of the translation process both from the theoretical and practical viewpoints.

Before performing the translation of the legal texts, I studied a number of specialized sources, such as A Guide to English Lexicology by O. Burea explanatory and bilingual dictionaries, especially online dictionaries, which are more accessible.

The legal language constitutes a means for transporting what the law is about. The translation of law has built a bridge between different cultures throughout history. As L.A. Greere summed up, “translation is no longer a linguistic shift, but rather a textual adaptation to a requested receptive situation-in-culture” [3, p. 17]. The translator is a key player in the process of the lingua-cultural transfer.

The economic development and the commercial relations between countries have caused a rise in the need for professional translation, including in the field of law.

The variations of the two languages cause obstacles in translation. These variations range from single untranslatable elements, word combinations up to whole sentence structures. The comprehension of the translation devices, such as the semantic and grammatical transformations, is an essential tool in solving the translation difficulties.

Having completed my research into the semantic and grammatical transformations, I can conclude that the goal of my licence project has been accomplished in accordance with my objectives presented in the Introduction. Accordingly, I have come to the following conclusions:

a valuable subject in the field of translation studies is the ample area of the translation methods and techniques;

the semantic transformations are possible only on condition that the translator masters and handles properly the meanings, that is, the semantic content of the lexical items in SL and TL;

the grammatical transformations are possible only on condition that the translator has good knowledge of the SL and TL grammar concepts and rules. The translator makes changes in the form of the texts based on such knowledge and thus achieves equivalence between the SL and TL.

Having made some statistical research, it came to my knowledge that transposition was the most used type transformation in my translations (52%); omission was used in fewer cases (36%), , while addition comes last (12%) (Please refer to Annex 1 hereto).

The transpositions are determined by the strict word order of the English language. Special syntactic constructions in Romanian are not possible in English, and as a result we need to change the word order in the TT.

The omission is the opposite of the addition, and relies on the fact that some of the words in a word combination can be omitted without a deficit of the information in the translation.

Addition is necessary for conveying all the material in ST; sometimes there are no perfect lexical equivalent between the languages, and an addition of elements allows to recover the full meaning.

My study cannot be perceived as a comprehensive research as I grounded it on a relatively limited number of specialized (legal) texts. The findings of my project indicate that there are significant differences between the characteristics of English and Romanian legal writing. As a consequence, there are differences to be noticed in the Romanian and English academic style, because the legal texts appear to be a mixture of these two styles –academic and legal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burea, Olga. A Guide to English Lexicology. Chisinau: Continental Group SRL, 2008. 230 p.

Ginzburg, Rozalia S. A Course in Modern English Lexicology. Moscow: Higher School Publishing House, 1966. 269 p.

Greere, Luminița Anca. Translating for Business Purposes. Cluj Napoca: Editura Dacia. 2003. 205 p.

Leech, Geoff,ey. Semantics. London: Penguin, 1974. 386 p.

Newmark, Peter. A Textbook of Translation. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall International. 1988, 292 p.

Nida, Eugene A. Towards a science of translating. With special reference to principles and procedures involved in Bible translating. Brill. Leiden. 1964, 331 p.

Nida, Eugene A.; Taber, Charles R. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: E. J. Brill. 1982, 218 p.

Seidl, Jennifer; McMordie, W. English Idioms and How to Use Them. Moscow: Vyshaya shkola, 1983. 266 p.

Dictionaries

Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române. Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan”: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 1996. 1192 p.

Savin, Emilia; Lăzărescu, Ioan; Țânțu, Katharina. Dicționar german-român. București: Meteor Press, 2013. 767 p.

Waite, Maurice; Hawker, Sara; Bailey, Catherine; Cowley, Chris. Concise Oxford Thesaurus. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 975 p.

Internet sources

Business Dictionary, available at htttp://www.businessdictionary.com/ (visited on 26.03.2015).

Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, available at http://www.dex.ro/ (visited on 10.03.2015).

Duden Wörterbuch Online, available at http://www.duden.de/ (visited on 01.03.2015).

Online Etymology Dictionary, available at http://www.etymonline.com (visited on 17.04.2015).

Oxford Dictionaries, available at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/ (visited on 27.03.2015).

United States Courts, Glossary of Legal Terms, available at http://www.uscourts.gov/Common/Glossary.aspx (visited on 17.04.2015).

ANNEX 1. Frequency of transformations in the translated text

ANNEX 2. Examples of Omissions

ANNEX 3. Examples of abbreviations from specialized texts

ANNEX 4. Monosemantic Words

ANNEX 5. Methods of Translation

ANNEX 6. Polysemantic Words

ANNEX 7. Glossary of terms

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burea, Olga. A Guide to English Lexicology. Chisinau: Continental Group SRL, 2008. 230 p.

Ginzburg, Rozalia S. A Course in Modern English Lexicology. Moscow: Higher School Publishing House, 1966. 269 p.

Greere, Luminița Anca. Translating for Business Purposes. Cluj Napoca: Editura Dacia. 2003. 205 p.

Leech, Geoff,ey. Semantics. London: Penguin, 1974. 386 p.

Newmark, Peter. A Textbook of Translation. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall International. 1988, 292 p.

Nida, Eugene A. Towards a science of translating. With special reference to principles and procedures involved in Bible translating. Brill. Leiden. 1964, 331 p.

Nida, Eugene A.; Taber, Charles R. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: E. J. Brill. 1982, 218 p.

Seidl, Jennifer; McMordie, W. English Idioms and How to Use Them. Moscow: Vyshaya shkola, 1983. 266 p.

Dictionaries

Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române. Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan”: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 1996. 1192 p.

Savin, Emilia; Lăzărescu, Ioan; Țânțu, Katharina. Dicționar german-român. București: Meteor Press, 2013. 767 p.

Waite, Maurice; Hawker, Sara; Bailey, Catherine; Cowley, Chris. Concise Oxford Thesaurus. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 975 p.

Internet sources

Business Dictionary, available at htttp://www.businessdictionary.com/ (visited on 26.03.2015).

Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, available at http://www.dex.ro/ (visited on 10.03.2015).

Duden Wörterbuch Online, available at http://www.duden.de/ (visited on 01.03.2015).

Online Etymology Dictionary, available at http://www.etymonline.com (visited on 17.04.2015).

Oxford Dictionaries, available at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/ (visited on 27.03.2015).

United States Courts, Glossary of Legal Terms, available at http://www.uscourts.gov/Common/Glossary.aspx (visited on 17.04.2015).

ANNEX 1. Frequency of transformations in the translated text

ANNEX 2. Examples of Omissions

ANNEX 3. Examples of abbreviations from specialized texts

ANNEX 4. Monosemantic Words

ANNEX 5. Methods of Translation

ANNEX 6. Polysemantic Words

ANNEX 7. Glossary of terms

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