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Билет 13 machine translation:

Machine translation is the automated translation of a source-language text into a
target-language text. Human translators may be involved at pre-editing or post-
editing stages, i.e. at the beginning or the end, but they are not typically
involved in the translation process. Nevertheless, like everything has its pros and
cons, so does machine translation. Let's go over the advantages of machine
translation: When time is a crucial factor, machine translation can save the day.
You don't have to spend hours poring over dictionaries to translate the words.
Instead, the software can translate the content quickly and provide a quality
output to the user in no time at all. Confidentiality is another matter which makes
machine translation favorable. Giving sensitive data to a translator might be risky
while with machine translation your information is protected.A machine translator
usually translates text which is in any language so there is no such major concern
while a professional translator specializes in one particular field. Disadvantages
of Machine Translation: Accuracy is not offered by the machine translation on a
consistent basis. You can get the gist of the draft or documents but machine
translation only does word to word translation without comprehending the
information which might have to be corrected manually later on. Systematic and
formal rules are followed by machine translation so it cannot concentrate on a
context and solve ambiguity and neither makes use of experience or mental outlook
like a human translator can.
The new field of “machine translation” appears in Warren Weaver’s Memorandum on
Translation (1949), and the first researcher in the field, Yehosha Bar-Hillel,
begins his research at MIT (1951). MT research programs pop up in Japan and Russia
(1955), and the first MT conference is held in London (1956). Researchers continue
to join the field as the Association for Machine Translation and Computational
Linguistics is formed in the U.S. (1962) and the National Academy of Sciences forms
a committee (ALPAC) to study MT (1964). The first commercial MT system for
Russian/English/German-Ukrainian is developed at Kharkov State University (1991). .
More innovations during this time include MOSES, the open-source statistical MT
engine (2007), a text/SMS translation service for mobiles in Japan (2008), and a
mobile phone with built-in speech-to-speech translation functionality for English,
Japanese and Chinese (2009). Recently, Google announced that Google Translate
translates roughly enough text to fill 1 million books in one day (2012). Recent
years have seen significant step advancements in machine translation technology
with Google’s research on Neural Machine Translation implying an optimistic future
for the industry. It has become clear that machine translation is moving away from
being the high speed, untenable quality option for translating organizations,
toward offering a reasonable alternative for translating low visibility content.
Hybrid Human-MT Solutions (ex: Unbabel) Domain-Adapted Machine Translation(ex:
Lilt, IBM) Neural Machine Translation (ex: Google, Microsoft, SDL, Yandex) At
Smartling, we strongly believe that machine translation is quickly becoming an
important component of an effective globalization strategy. While producing content
at low cost and as quickly as possible continues to have an adverse effect on
Quality, machine translation offers many translating organizations an edge at
achieving the holy grail of translation outcome- a balance of cost, quality, and
time-to-market.

Билет 14 methods of translation(trans;denot; comm)

The human translation theories may be divided into three main groups which quite
conventionally may be called transformational approach, denotative approach and
communicational approach. 1. The Transformational Approach The transformational
theories consist of many varieties which may have different names but they all have
one common feature: the process of translation is regarded as transformation.
According to the transformational approach translation is viewed as the
transformation of objects and structures of the source language into those of the
target language. Within the group of theories in the transformational approach
there is a division into transformations and equivalences. The Denotative Approach
According to the denotative approach the process of translation is not just a mere
substitution but consists of the following mental operations: -translator reads
(hears) a message in the source language; -translator finds a denotatum and concept
that correspond to this message; -translator formulates a message in the target
language relevant to the above denotatum and concept.The Denotative Approach
According to the denotative approach the process of translation is not just a mere
substitution but consists of the following mental operations: -translator reads
(hears) a message in the source language; -translator finds a denotatum and concept
that correspond to this message; -translator formulates a message in the target
language relevant to the above denotatum and concept..">It should be noted that
according to this approach during translation we deal with similar word forms of
the matching languages and concepts deduced from these forms, however, as opposed
to the transformational approach, the relationship between the source word and the
target word is occasional rather than regular. To illustrate this difference let us
consider the following examples: 1.The sea is warm today=сегодня вечером море
теплое. Mare este calt azi. 2.Staff only= служебное помещение. Înc ă pere oficial
ă. The Communicational Approach The communicational theory of translation was
suggested by O.Kade and is based on the notions of communication and thesaurus.
Communication may be defined as an act of sending and receiving some information
which is called a message. Information which is sent or received may be of any kind
(gestures, words...) but we shall limit ourselves to verbal communication only,
i.e. when we send and receive information in the form of a written or spoken text.
The Communicational Approach The communicational theory of translation was
suggested by O.Kade and is based on the notions of communication and thesaurus.
Communication may be defined as an act of sending and receiving some information
which is called a message. Information which is sent or received may be of any kind
(gestures, words...) but we shall limit ourselves to verbal communication only,
i.e. when we send and receive information in the form of a written or spoken
text.."When communicating we inform others about something we know. That is in
order to formulate a message we use our system of interrelated data, which is
called a thesaurus. We shall distinguish between two kinds of thesauruses in verbal
communication: language thesaurus and subject thesaurus. Language thesaurus is a
system of our knowledge about the language which we use to formulate a message,
whereas subject thesaurus is a system of our knowledge about the content of the
message.

Билет 16 components of acts of comm

It is appropriate at the very beginning to reflect in some detail on the basic
components of verbal acts of communication of the type found in professional
Translation.
Initially, an act of verbal communication occurring in a professional Translation
setting is triggered by an aim or intention. These are multi-layered. For instance,
at the most superficial layer, an act of communication may aim at informing the
Receiver of a fact; at a deeper layer, it may aim at scoring a point in an
intellectual debate by providing this information, or at converting the Receiver to
a philosophy, or at sending an emotional message.
Generally, conference interpreters and non-literary translators are not called on
to work on all levels of intention, though, they have to take into account more
than one level in serving the Sender's interests.
 Basically, they process consecutive units of source-language Text (text or speech)
the size of sentences, clauses, or parts of clauses (Translation Units), the
content of which is essentially informational. The immediate aims behind
informational discourse segments can be classified as follows:
informing ,explaining, persuading.
In most verbal communication acts, in order to achieve an aim, the Sender issues a
verbal signal, written or spoken, which consists of informational content (the
Message) and its package. In speeches, the package is made up of the words and
linguistic structures of the speech, as well as the voice and delivery (and
sometimes, especially in poetry, the actual combination of word sounds and rhythm),
plus a non-verbal signal; in written texts, it is composed of words, linguistic
structures, fonts, page layout, graphics, etc. In other words, the term package
refers to the linguistic and extralinguistic choices made by the Sender and to the
physical medium through which they are instantiated. Clearly, there may be
informational content in the package as well. It is important to note that both
content and package are selected as a
function of the characteristics of the target Receivers as perceived by the Sender,
in particular  their knowledge of the language, subject, and context, and their
personal and cultural attitudes toward the Sender and his or her ideas. Basically,
from the Sender's viewpoint, communication is successful if he or she manages to
achieve the aim: that is, in the case of non-literary interpretation and
translation, if Receivers of the target-language text are successfully informed,
understand the point, and/or have been persuaded.

Билет 17 principle of fidelity

In determining principles of fidelity for interpretation and translation, it seems
appropriate to start not with the finished linguistic product, but with the setting
of information. 
In this respect it is important to remember that in informative communication such
as is found in conference interpretation and technical and scientific translation,
the Sender formulates the discourse as the carrier of a Message for the purpose of
achieving an aim such as informing, explaining, and/or persuading. For the Sender
the communication is successful if this aim is achieved. Generally, the Translator
“represents" the Sender and the Sender's interests, and therefore “does a good job”
if the Translation contributes to the success of the Sender's endeavor.
On the other hand, there seems to be a consensus that Translators cannot rewrite or
reformulate the speech in a completely different way which they believe will
achieve the Sender's objective more efficiently than the Sender’s words. That is,
the Translator must contribute toward successful communication while following what
is essentially the same "route" as the one the Sender chose in the source language
to lead the Receiver along.
The Message - There is therefore a minimum fidelity principle as regards
reformulation of information. The absolute fidelity rule is that the Message or
Primary Information should always be re-expressed in the target-language Text. The
situation is not so clear-cut with respect to Secondary Information.
 The Primary Information consists of the following types: Framing Information,
Linguistically Induced Information and Private Information. 
 Framing Information is selected by the Sender for the purpose of facilitating the
reception of the Message by the Receiver. But the Receivers of the original speech
or text may not have the same preexisting knowledge and values as Receivers of its
Translated version. Framing Information which is appropriate for the original
Receivers may not be suitable for target-language Receivers, in which case
reformulating the FI in the target language may defeat the aims of communication by
making the information too explicit or not explicit enough for the target-language
Receiver.
Linguistically Induced Information(LII)
 The case of Linguistically Induced Information is different, in that LII is not
even selected by the Senders of their own free will. They are often free to choose
one of several options, but must choose one. In the source language, the LII, which
generally contains some redundant elements and some non-relevant ones, is by
definition natural and well integrated into the discourse. However, in the target
language, the reformulation of such LII can be awkward or even distort the Message.
Personal Information differs from the other two types of Secondary Information in
that it is neither imposed by linguistic rules nor selected for framing purposes,
but is by definition a pure reflection of the Sender's personality as manifested
linguistically. It should therefore be followed if possible, but not if the cost in
terms of communication efficiency (readability, clarity, strength of the target-
language product, etc.) is even moderately high.
Билет 18 textual extratext
The first distinction concerns textual and extratextual elements. The latter are
factors external to the linguistic text and concern the context of the
communication act. They can be systematized into who transmits, why,when,etc.
The sender must be distinguished from the producer, above all in some types of non
literary texts. In a company, for example, diffusion of messages can be delegated
to a person having the role of communication manager. In this case, the company is
the sender, but the person is the producer of the text.  The translator also has a
role comparable to that of the producer of the text.
Some information about the sender is obtainable from the document itself, from the
metatextual apparatus it contains or from the fact that the author is known for
publishing other texts or having a role in public events.
When the sender is contemporary to the translator, it is also possible to directly
contact the author to get the information useful to situate the text into the
protocultural context and to project it then onto the metacultural context. Some
indirect clues can also be obtained by data strictly related to the text: if a
specialized publisher publishes it in a scientific review, the author is probably
an expert addressing colleagues.
When one investigates the author's intentions for publishing a text, it is
necessary to distinguish between intention, function and effect. The difference
between intention and effect is easily understandable: an author can have a
communication goal different from its actual effect.
To determine which of these intentions are accomplished, actualized in the analyzed
text, one should investigate the method of distribution of the text and if that can
suggest a more or less intense involvement of the author. If the text expresses a
particularly personal opinion, as in the case of political comments or editorials,
the type of text usually is not suggestive of the author's intentions, so the
information on the subjectivity of the expressed opinions must be searched above
all in the position of the text. For example, in a newspaper, the area set aside
for comments and editorials is usually easy to locate; the texts it contains can
therefore be identified as individual's opinions or commentaries even before
reading them.

Билет 19 culture knowledge

Because culture gives birth to language, translation and culture are intimately
connected. Meanings in both source and target languages are profoundly affected by
their cultural context, especially in business translation. A phrase that appears
easy to translate may actually contain cultural subtleties that, unless they are
accounted for, can bring just the opposite meaning than is intended. So translation
without deep cultural context can be dangerous, especially when meanings are
critical.
For every translated sentence, the translator must be able to decide on the
importance of its cultural context, what the phrase really means, not necessarily
what it literally means, and convey that meaning in a way which makes sense not
only in the target language but also in the context of the target culture.
There are many institutions and practices that exist in one culture and don’t exist
in other cultures. Deeply held belief systems, even commitments to truth vary from
culture to culture. Each of these unique culturally based psychological entities is
associated with words that have meaning in one language that is distinct to that
language and not duplicated in other languages.
A Translator is required no only to be bilingual or
multilingual but also to be bicultural, or
multicultural, armed with good knowledge of as
many cultures as possible (Vemeer 1986).
• A Translator is required to assume a cultural
stance towards translation. He/She should adopt a culture-biased approach towards
translation.
A Translator is required to make culture familiar
to readers, by means of changing the Source
Language culture into the Target Language
culture in translation (Fawcett, in Baker, 1998)

Билет 20 translation difficulties

Understanding a foreign language text is a complex skill that requires good
preparation. Even knowledge of grammatical norms and vocabulary does not guarantee
an excellent result. Translation difficulties can arise for various reasons - from
problems with determining the meaning of a word to a misunderstanding of the
syntactic structure of a sentence.
The main task of any translator is to obtain a text adequate to the original, as
close as possible to it in meaning and style. However, each language has its own
characteristics, so it can be difficult to accurately convey the nuances of
meanings.
We have identified three types of translation difficulty:
1.distinguishing between general vocabulary and specialized terms(Consider the word
“bus”. When this word is used as a word of general vocabulary it is understood by
all native speakers of English to refer to a roadway vehicle for transporting
groups of people. However, it can also be used as an item of specialized
terminology. Specialized terminology is divided into areas called domains. In the
domain of computers the term “bus” refers to a component of computer that has
several slots into which cards can be placed. One card may control a CD-ROM drive.)
2. distinguishing between various meanings of a word of general vocabulary(If we
take, for example, such simple sentence as “The pen is in the box” we can see that
it is ambiguous. Here one can assume that the pen is a writing instrument unless
the context is about unpacking a new play pen or packing up all furniture in the
room. The point is that accurate translation requires an understanding of the text,
which includes the understanding of the situation and an enormous variety of facts
about the world in which we live. For example, even if one can determine that in a
given situation “pen” is used as a writing instrument the translation into the
target language varies depending on the country.) 3. taking into account the total
context, including the intended audience and important details such as
regionalisms.( the need to be sensitive to the total context, including the
intended audience of the translation. Meaning is not some abstract object that is
independent of people and culture. Being sensitive to the audience means using a
level of language that is appropriate. Sometimes a misreading of the audience
merely results in innocuous boredom. Moreover, it can also have serious long-term
effects.)Thus we see that there can be identified three translation difficulties:
- distinguishing between general vocabulary and specialized terms;
- distinguishing between various meanings of a word of general vocabulary;
- taking into account the total context including the intended audience and
important details such as regionalism.

Билет 21 Translator's Informational Capacity.

It is a well-known fact that the translator always works with particular word-
senses highlighted by particular contexts.  But the level of his awareness of the
semantics of even one word may vary considerably. It is useful to distinguish five
different levels of “knowing” a word-sense, or five different levels of the
translator’s informational capacity.
 Level 1.  The translator is able to associate a word-sense with some general field
of human knowledge or practical activity, i.e. with a certain very wide class of
things or ideas. E.g.  Hydrophobia = an illness.
 Level 2.  The translator is able to refer the word-sense to a particular genus of
things or ideas. E.g.  Hydrophobia= an affliction of the nervous system.
 Level 3.  The translator is able to refer the word-sense to the particular species
of things or ideas. Hydrophobia = a disease that kills animals and people, that you
can catch if you are bitten by an infected dog.
 Level 4.  The translator possesses encyclopedic details of the phenomenon
described by the conception in question. E.g.  Hydrophobia= rabies = an acute
infectious often fatal virus disease of most warm-blood animals, especially wolves,
cats and dogs that attacks the central nervous system and is transmitted by the
bite of infected animal.
 Level 5.  In addition to encyclopedic knowledge the translator possesses a
scientific knowledge of the concept in question. Scientific knowledge allows a
systematic description of the essential qualities of a thing or idea, their
connections with other things and ideas and the way they have developed up to now
and are expected to develop in the future. For example, the translator knows in
what essential ways hydrophobia is different from other virus diseases that attack
the central nervous system, when it was first identified, how it was treated in the
past and how it is treated now, and what the prospects are of eliminating the risk
of this disease altogether.
 Bilingual dictionaries do not define; they give cross-language translation
synonyms. They provide the translator with the outward shape of the word-sense
without describing its inner content. To translate effectively one has to have at
least three levels of informational capacity. Level 4 and in some cases level 5 of
informational capacities are strongly advisable, especially in translation for
specific purposes.

Билет 23 Difference between Semantics, Syntax and Pragmatics

Words in any language are related to certain referents which they designate and to
other words of the same language with which they make up syntactic units. These
relationships are called semantic and syntactic. Words are also related to the
people who use them. This relationship is called pragmatics. Syntax is concerned
with words and how they are combined to form phrases and sentences. Semantics is
concerned with what these combinations mean. But in any text syntax and semantics
interact. In any language one and the same meaning may be expressed syntactically
in more than one way. If we take English, for example, the semantic property of
possession can be expressed by the Genitive case  “England’s king” or by an “of-
construction”  “ the King of England”. Paraphrases are used in all languages and
their result is the expression of the same meaning by different syntactic
structures.
A similar situation arises with certain semantic concepts such as “ability”,
“permission” or “obligation”. These may be expressed syntactically by means of
“auxiliary” or “helping” verbs. He can go.  He may go.  He must go.
They may also be expressed without the auxiliaries, as:
 He is able to go/ He has the ability to go/ He is permitted to go/ He is obliged
to go/ He has an obligation to go.
Active-passive pairs constitute another common type of paraphrase.
The Greeks who were philosophers liked to talk.
The Greeks , who were  philosophers, liked to talk.
 The first sentence means that among the Greeks, the ones who were philosophers,
liked to talk. The second means that all Greeks were philosophers and they liked to
talk. And again here we see the task for the translator/interpreter. In oral speech
we can rely only on the pauses and intonation, in written speech we can rely on the
punctuation marks to translate these two sentences in a right way. These two
sentences contain the “relative clause” “who were philosophers”. But they are used
in different syntactic structures. The difference in syntax makes the difference in
meaning, though both sentences contain the same words in the same sequence.

Билет 24 Terms and Professionalisms.

Terms are mostly and predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions
of some branch of science. Therefore it may be said that they belong to the style
of the language of science. But their use is not confined to this style. They may
as well appear in some other styles. They may appear in newspaper style, in
publicistic and practically in all other  styles. But their function in this case
changes. They do not always fulfill their basic function that of bearing exact
reference to a given concept.
Professionalisms are the words used in a definite trade, profession or simply by a
group of people connected by common interests both at work and at home. They
commonly designate some working process or an instrument. The main feature of a
professionalism is its technicality. Professionalisms, unlike terms, which are
often known to ordinary people, generally remain in circulation within a definite
community as they are linked to a common occupation and common social interests.
Professionalisms do not allow any polysemy, they are monosemantic.
Unlike professionalisms the terms can be polysemantic. They may have different
meanings in different texts. Their translation depends on the context. In order to
translate a term in a proper way the translator should know the context. Sometimes
words from common vocabulary become terms in special contexts and it is very
difficult to translate them without the knowledge of context.
Professional words are already existed concepts, tools or instruments and have some
typical properties of a special code. Terms as well as professionalisms are
connected with a special field or branch of science or technique. Sometimes they
are known to ordinary people and are easily understood by them. But sometimes they
remain in circulation within a definite community as they are linked to a common
occupation and common social interests. They fulfill a socially useful function in
communication, facilitating a quick and adequate grasp of message. They are very
often used in emotive prose to depict the natural speech of a character.
For translator/interpreter it is not difficult to translate professionalisms if he
knows the branch of science he works with. But the problem arises when the
professionals use the words from neutral layer as professionalism.

Билет 25 Types of texts

The word-stock of every language is varied. It contains the words of different
layers. This variety helps the translator/interpreter to express one and the same
thought in different ways (by means of literary, neutral or colloquial lexis). Thus
the translator/interpreter should know what text he works with and for whom he
translates. For example, if the translator translates the words of an intellectual
person but uses in his translation vulgarisms or slang – it is a great mistake. And
vice versa, translating the speech of an illiterary person he can’t change the
words and use literary language.
According to the research in the field of the specialized texts they can be divided
according to the type of information and the purpose for which they are conveyed,
i.e. by their communicative function. Taking into consideration the communicative
function of the texts they can be divided into:
- juridical –normative texts;
- progress-oriented actualizing texts;
- didactic-instructive texts;
- compilation texts.
The communicative function of juridical-normative texts consists in establishing a
legal basis or an unambiguous standard of reference.
Progress-oriented actualizing texts have the communicative function of conveying
information intended to advance science and technology.
Didactic-instructive texts convey information for the purpose of intellectual
enrichment, entertainment or practical application.
 Compilation texts have the communicative function of giving a survey of the
knowledge conveyed in the texts of the other three categories and providing access
to this knowledge.

Билет 15 Four Types of Schools of Transl

Functionalism -This first school of thought
focuses on how language is actually used in everyday life. Those who abide by
functionalism look at language as just another tool for humans to use, and thus
tend to focus on the function language and its different parts have in our lives.
The theories of functionalism focus on phonological, semantic, syntactic, as well
as the pragmatic functions of language. Functionalism emphasizes the importance of
social context, usage, and the communicative function of the grammar, phonology,
orthography, and more, of a language. 2. Structuralism -Based on the work of
Ferdinand de Saussure of Switzerland,
structuralism is an approach to linguistics that focuses on the idea that languages
are fixed systems made up of many different units that connect with each other.
This school of thought marked a shift from historical linguistic analysis to non-
historical analysis. Later on, other linguists would come to see structuralism as
rather out-of-date. It worked for phonology and morphology, but the theories it
proposes don't make as much sense as the ones proposed by new schools of thought.
Saussure was aware of the fact that, in his time, he would not be able to get a
good understanding of the human brain, and so left that to future linguists. 3.-
Generativism The work of Noam Chomsky became the basis for the generativism
approach to linguistics. It was originally a way to explain how humans comprehend
language in the first place, but soon it came to be used to explain the different
phenomena that occur in all natural languages. The generative theory of language
suggests that, in its most basic form, language is made up of certain rules that
apply to all humans and all languages. This led to the
theory of "universal grammar", that all humans are capable of learning grammar. All
of this was
developed in the second half of the 20th century, with Noam Chomsky taking into
account the work of Zellig Harris as well. 4. Cognitivism The last linguistic
school of thought on our list emerged in the 1950s as a reaction to generativism.
In basic terms, cognitivism says that language emerges from human cognitive
processes. It challenges "universal grammar" by suggesting that grammar is not
something that all humans can inherently understand, but rather it is learned by
using language. In this sense, it is a bit similar to functionalism. However, the
main focus of cognitivism is how language is based on meaning that the mind
creates.

Билет 22 Questions to Be Answered in Trans

Faced by a text - written or spoken - in a language which we Know, we are able to
work out not only the semantic sense of each word and sentence but also its
communicative value as well as its place in time and space and information about
the participants who are involved in its production and reception.
According to all said above we should answer five questions: - What? It is message
contained in the text; the content of the signal; the propositional content of the
speech acts. - Why? This question orients us towards the intention of the sender,
the purpose for which the text was issued, the communicative forces of the speech
acts which constitutes the underlying structure of the
text - When? This question is concerned with the time of the communication realized
in the text and setting in its historical content; contemporary or set in the
recent or remote past or future. • How? Is ambiguous, since it can refer to -
manner of delivery (serious or ironic...);
- medium of communication: way of doing:
- the channels: verbal/non-verbal;
- oral speech/writing - selected to carry the signal.
- Where? Is concerned with the place of communication; the physical location of the
speech event
realized m the text
- Who? Refers to the participants involved in the communication: the sender and the
receiver. Both spoken and written texts will reveal characteristics of the speaker
or writer as an individual and also the attitude the sender adopts in relation to
the receiver and to the message being transmitted.