The grammatical and lexical changes in an official letter translation

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБЩЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ КАЗАХСТАН

АКТЮБИНСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ  ИМЕНИ С.БАИШЕВА

КАФЕДРА ФИЛОЛОГИИ И  ПЕРЕВОДА

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

КУРСОВАЯ РАБОТА

 

На тему: «The grammatical and lexical changes in an official letter translation»

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Выполнила студентка гр. _______

_____________________________

Руководитель _________________

Защитила ___,____,_____

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Актобе, 2013

Содержание:

 

1. The theoretical issues of Translation.

Lexical and grammatical transformations………………………………… …….

 

2. Official Letter writing Rules …………………………………………………..

 

3. Lexica-grammatical changes in an official letter translation…………………...

 

4. Some Abbreviations using on official letter……………………………………

 

 

 

 

 
         Translation is the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language and the production, in another language, of an equivalent text that communicates the same message. Translation must take into account a number of constraints, including context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, their idioms and the like. Consequently, as has been recognized at least since the time of the translator Martin Luther, one translates best into the language that one knows best. Traditionally translation has been a human activity, though attempts have been made to computerize or otherwise automate the translation of natural-language texts (machine translation) or to use computers as an aid to translation (computer-assisted translation). Perhaps the most common misconception about translation is that there exists a simple “word-for-word” relation between any two languages, and that translation is therefore a straightforward and mechanical process. On the contrary, historical differences between languages often dictate differences of expression. Hence, source and target texts may differ significantly in length. In addition, translation is always fraught with uncertainties as well as the potential for inadvertent “spilling over” of idioms and usages from one language into the other, producing linguistic hybrids, for example, "Franglais" (French-English), "Spanglish" (Spanish-English) and "Poglish" (Polish-English).

To ensure valuable translation, it is necessary to an interpreter to present the following requests:

1. The substantial acquaintance to a subject, which is treated in the original text.

2. Good enough knowledge of language of an artwork and its lexical and grammatical features in comparison to the native language.

3. Knowledge of the bases' theory of translation, and also receptions of technical translation and skill to use them.

4. Legible introducing about the character of scientific and technical functional style both in language of the original, and in the native language.

5. Acquaintance to accepted conventional signs, abbreviations (cuttings), systems of measures and weights, both in language of the original and in the native language.

The translation process from one language into another is inevitable without necessary grammatical transformations (change of structure). It gets great importance while making translation to add or omit some words since the structures of languages are quite different. Grammatical transformations are characterized by various principles – grammatical, and lexical as well, though the principal role is given to grammatical ones. Very often these grammatical changes are mixed so that they have lexical-grammatical character

 

 

A letter is a written message from one person to another. A form of communication that advances through time, letters can appear as telegraphs, faxes, email messages, Internet postings and other types of scribbled correspondence. However a letter is written, sent, received and read, it typically contains items such as the date on which it is written, the names of its sender and recipient, and the message that the former intends to convey to the latter. At least the address of the recipient is required for him or her to receive the letter. 
 
Letters can be written for official, commercial and personal reasons. For example, official letters often contain certain request or advice with which a government wishes to inform its citizens. Meanwhile, businesses and advertisers may send letters to their current and potential customers as a form of advertising for products and/or services. In both cases, letters need to be translated clearly, precisely and free of error. Although translators of official and commercial letters do not need to be certified, they at least should have sufficient knowledge and experience in fields related to the content of the letters in order to conduct proper translation.

Official letter includes letter of application, letter to government officials and letter to Newspapers, etc. These letters are used for the official communication of the information from one department to another. Ex: Termination letter, Recommendation letter, Reference letter, job letter, etc.

Irrespective of the type of letter there is certain matter of forms which are applicable all and have to be taken care of while writing any kind of letter to make it impressive and purposeful. 

 

Letter writing rules:

 

The main six points to be taken care of while writing a letter are:-

 

1. Heading,
2. The Salutation or  Courteous Greetings,
3. The Body of the letter – Communication or the Message,
4. The Subscription – Courteous leave – taking, or Conclusion
5. The Signature – Name of the Writer
6. The Address

 

1. Heading of a letter basically consists of Two Parts:

 

1. Address of the writer followed by
2. The date on which the letter was written by him.

 

Heading can be written on the right or left (keep on changing with time-presently we follow the convention of writing Heading in the left corner) corner of the first page of the letter.

 

Examples of a heading are:-

 

63, Geeta Colony  Examination Hall

Delhi, 160032 A.B.C.

June 12, 2013 12^th June, 2013

 

2. The Salutation in the letter will depend upon the depth of relationship of the writer with the person to whom the letter is being written thus vary from letter to letter.

Salutation is written at the left hand of the page, at a lower level the Heading. The first and last word of the salutation are always started in Capital Alphabets.

 

Example of the Salutation is:

 

To Officials/Principal/Headmaster/Teachers

 

Sir,

Madam,

 

3. The Body itself is considered as the life of the letter and the style in which it is written will depend upon the kind of letter one wishes to write. Like, the style of the letter to be written to a friend will be entirely different from the style of the letter to be written to an official and so on. But few points that one has to keep in mind irrespective of the style while writing the body of the letter are:-

• Divide the letter into paragraphs, to mark changes of subject-matter, etc.
• Use simple and direct language in short sentences. It will make the message clear and to the point.
• Always try to be complete. For this think out what you want to say before the beginning of writing of letter, and put own all the point in logical manner.
• Write neatly to avoid inconvenience to the reader because of your bad penmanship.
• Take care of the punctuation and be consistent with it. Incorrect punctuation may alter the whole meaning of the sentence.

 

Besides letter can be make impressive to leave an indelible mark on the reader we can use following given starting and ending to the various kind of letters:-

 

Starting   I beg to submit….. I beg to state…. I have the honor to report…. I have the honor, to bring to your kind notice….. With reference to your advertisement in the “Times of India”…

Endings   Thanking you, Thanking you in anticipation, Hoping to be favored with an early reply,

 

4. The Subscription of the letter the end should be according to the staring of the letter. A letter must not end abruptly as this would look rude. So certain forms of polite leave taking are prescribed that should be written after the last words of the letter on the left hand side corner of the lines after the body. It should start with a Capital letter and end with a comma. Some examples of the subscription of the letter of various kinds are: -

 

• To Blood Relations: Yours affectionately,
• To Friends: Yours Sincerely,
• To Principle/Headmaster/Teacher, etc.: Yours Obediently,
• To Officials/Businessmen: Yours faithfully,
• To Strangers: Yours truly,

 

 

Note: never use apostrophe (’) with yours in the subscription.

 

5. The Signature of the writer of the letter should be below the subscription. In a letter to the stranger, the signature should be clearly written so that he could know whom to address in reply.

 

Note: A women should prefix to the name Miss or Mrs. or Ms in brackets before her name like

 

(Miss) Preetinder Kaur

 

6. The Address is written on the envelope of the post card very clearly with pin code.  

 

 

           The vocabulary of any language is so large and heterogeneous that not any translator, not even the native speaker can know all the words and distinguishes all their meanings. A vague knowledge of the text, the deep meaning hidden under the surface structure obliges the translator to be in constant contact with dictionaries, because they do translators in estimate service in understanding the text more clearly. The right choice of the word for a complete transformation of the meaning of the word in the text is one of the complicated objectives in the translation process. The difficulty of this task is conditioned by the complex nature of the word and its versatile and semantic value. The word as a lexical unit in English and Russian languages doesn’t always coincide. Too often one word may correspond a composite word or a whole word combination of English.

Very often even English monosemantic word doesn’t coincide with the usage of the Russian words and as the result it’s translated into Russian by different words. For example: “a young child – маленький ребёнок; a young man ––человек; a young criminal –неопытный преступник; the night was young – ночь ещё только наступила.” In searching for the necessary word translator applies usually synonymic role in the native language. In translating an official letters we usually meet the same lexical and grammatical changes.

While choosing the word out of synonymic role, it’s necessary to take into account not only the shades of the meaning, but also degree of intensity of meaning. The translator should always apply to the context of the letter to uncover the meaning of the word and suggest adequate translation in the process. As we have very few absolute synonyms in the language that raise special objectives for a translator. Apart from that the synonyms are not always interchangeable: they are sometimes quite non-suitable.

the synonyms differ by their shade of meaning, degree of intensity, emotion coloring and affiliation to various layers of the dictionary. The English language is extremely reach in synonyms and as we know synonyms are used for strengthening the utterance and avoid any repetition. Though identical in some cases the grammatical phenomena of any languages connected and conditioned by the laws of its development differ mostly from those of other languages which evoke certain difficulties in the process of translation both in the fields of morphology and syntax. It is clear that the aim of translation is not to give a precise reproduction of the grammatical forms of the original. The aim is to convey the sense of original where the planes of expression of the Source Language (SL) and the Target Language (TL) do not formally coincide at all. Grammatical forms play an important role when they fulfill a certain stylistic function. Brevity, parallel arrangement and others directly or indirectly influence the sense or aesthetic aspect of the original, then the translator is obliged to seek for analogical means in the TL in order to achieve adequacy. Disparity between the structure of the source and target languages require grammatical and very often lexical transformations. The disparity in the grammatical structures of the English and Russian languages may be complete or partial. Complete non-coincidence is observed when a certain grammatical category of one language is absent in the other, for example, gerund is a category inherent to English, but there are also cases when a category is present in both languages, but they do not fully coincide in content or another example, the category of number which is present in both of them, but the use of singular and plural do not always coincide.

 

ДОПУСТИМЫЕ СОКРАЩЕНИЯ,  
 
ОБОЗНАЧАЮЩИЕ ДОЛЖНОСТЬ ИЛИ ЗВАНИЕ АДРЕСАТА 
 
Bachelor of Arts (бакалавр искусств, бакалавр гуманитарных наук) – В.А.  
 
Bachelor of Laws (бакалавр юридических наук) – LL.B  
 
Bachelor of Science (бакалавр наук) – B. Sc.  
 
Civil Engineer (инженер-строитель) – C.E.  
 
Captain (капитан ) – Capt.  
 
Colonel (полковник ) – Col.  
 
Director (директор) – Dir.  
 
Doctor(доктор) – Dr.  
 
Doctor of Laws (доктор юридических наук) – LL.D  
 
Doctor of Medicine (доктор медицины ) – D.M., M.D.  
 
Doctor of Philosophy (доктор философии) – Ph.D  
 
Doctor of Science (доктор наук) – D.Sc.  
 
Manager (менеджер) – Mgr.  
 
Master of Arts (магистр искусств, магистр гуманитарных наук) – M.A.  
 
Master of Laws (магистр юридических наук ) – LL.M  
 
Member of Parliament (член парламента ) – M.P.  
 
President (президент) – Pres.  
 
Professor (профессор) – Prof.  
 
Reverend (его преподобие) – Rev.  
 
Secretary (секретарь) – Sec.  
 
Vice Chancellor (вице-канцлер ) – V.C.

 
 ДОПУСТИМЫЕ СОКРАЩЕНИЯ НАЗВАНИЙ ФИРМ

 
Company (компания) – Со.  
 
Corporation (корпорация, акционерное общество) – Corp.  
 
Department (отдел , ведомство; министерство (США) ) – Dept.  
 
Incorporated (инкорпорированный, акционерная компания) – Inc.  
 
Limited (с ограниченной ответственностью) – Ltd.

 
ДОПУСТИМЫЕ СОКРАЩЕНИЯ,  
 
ПРИМЕНЯЕМЫЕ В АДРЕСАХ

 
Apt Apartment — квартира 
 
Ave. Avenue — авеню 
 
Bldg. Building — здание 
 
Blvd. Boulevard — бульвар 
 
Dr. Drive — проезд 
 
Pkwy. Parkway — широкая улица с элементами садово-парковой архитектуры, по которой обычно запрещен проезд тяжелого транспорта 
 
^ Pl. Place — 1) площадь; 2) небольшая улица, тупик 
 
Р. О. Post Office — почта 
 
Р. О. В. Post-Office Box — абонементный ящик 
 
Rd. Road — дорога 
 
Rte. Route — дорога, шоссе 
 
Rw., Rwy. Railway — железная дорога 
 
Sq. Square — площадь 
 
St. Saint — святой 
 
St. Street — улица

 
ПОЛНЫЕ И СОКРАЩЕННЫЕ НАЗВАНИЯ ДНЕЙ НЕДЕЛИ

 
Mo./ Mon. Monday — понедельник 
 
Tues. Tuesday — вторник 
 
Wed. Wednesday — среда 
 
Thurs. Thursday — четверг 
 
Fri. Friday — пятница 
 
Sat. Saturday — суббота 
 
Sun. Sunday — воскресенье

 
ПОЛНЫЕ И СОКРАЩЕННЫЕ НАЗВАНИЯ МЕСЯЦЕВ

 
January — Jan., May — May, September — Sept., 
 
February — Feb., June — Jun., October —Oct., 
 
April — Apr., August — Aug./ Ag., November — Nov., 
 
March — Mar., July — Jul., December — Dec. 
Jan./ J. January — январь  
 
Feb. February — февраль  
 
Mar./ M. March — март  
 
Apr. April — апрель  
 
M. May — май  
 
J. June — июнь  
 
J. July — июль  
 
Aug. August — август  
 
Sept. September — сентябрь  
 
Oct. October — октябрь  
 
Nov. November — ноябрь  
 
Dec. December — декабрь

 

 
ОБРАЩЕНИЕ 
 
К ДРУЗЬЯМ ИЛИ ХОРОШИМ ЗНАКОМЫМ:

 
Dear John, Дорогой Джон! 
 
My dear John, Мой дорогой Джон! 
 
John, Джон! 
 
Dearest, Дорогой! 
 
My darling, Мой дорогой!

 
К МАЛОЗНАКОМЫМ ИЛИ НЕЗНАКОМЫМ ЛЮДЯМ:

 
Dear Mr. Smith, Уважаемый господин/ мистер Смит! 
 
Dear Miss Smith, Уважаемая госпожа/ мисс Смит! 
 
Dear Mrs. Wilson, Уважаемая госпожа/ миссис Уилсон! 
 
Dear Ms. Green, Уважаемая госпожа Грин! 
 
Dear Messrs. Smith Уважаемые господа Смит и Джоунз!  
 
and Jones,

 
В СТРОГО ОФИЦИАЛЬНЫХ ПИСЬМАХ:

 
My dear Sir: Глубокоуважаемый сэр/ господин! 
 
My dear Madam: Глубокоуважаемая мадам/ госпожа!

 
В ОФИЦИАЛЬНЫХ ПИСЬМАХ  К НЕЗНАКОМЫМ ЛЮДЯМ,  
 
ФАМИЛИИ КОТОРЫХ НЕИЗВЕСТНЫ:

 
Sir: Сэр/ Господин! 
 
Dear Sir, Уважаемый сэр/ господин! 
 
Dear Sirs, Уважаемые господа! 
 
Gentlemen: Господа! 
 
Dear Sir or Madam: Уважаемый сэр/ господин или  
 
мадам/ госпожа! 
 
Madam: Мадам/ Госпожа! 
 
Dear Madam, Уважаемая мадам/ госпожа! 
Последние два обращения употребляются как по отношению к замужним, так и к незамужним женщинам. Сочетание Dear Miss в качестве обращения в английском языке не употребляется.

 
СТРОГО ОФИЦИАЛЬНЫЕ ОБРАЩЕНИЯ:

My dear Sir,  
 
My dear Madam,  
 
Sir,  
 
Madam,

 
МЕНЕЕ ОФИЦИАЛЬНЫЕ ОБРАЩЕНИЯ:

 
Dear Sir, 
 
Dear Madam,

 
ОБРАЩЕНИЯ В МЕНЕЕ ОФИЦИАЛЬНОЙ  И  
 
В ПОЛУОФИЦИАЛЬНОЙ ПЕРЕПИСКЕ:

 
Dear Colleague, Дорогой коллега!  
 
Dear Reader, Уважаемый читатель! 
 
Dear Editor, Уважаемый редактор! 
 
Dear Publisher, Уважаемый издатель!

 
ОБЩАЯ СХЕМА ОБРАЩЕНИЯ

Стиль	Ед. число	^ Мн. число
Формально и строго официально	My dear Sir / Sir     My dear Madam / Madam
Строго официально	Sir/ My dear     Mr. Smith    Madam/ My dear     Mrs. Smith	Sirs  Mesdames
Официально	Dear Sir    Dear Madam	Dear Sirs/ Sirs     Dear Mesdames/     Mesdames     Gentlemen     Ladies
Менее формально (при наличии предыдущей переписки)	Dear Mr. Jones  Dear Mrs. Jones	Dear Messrs. Jones    and Smith     Dear Mmes. Jones     and Smith
Неофициально	Dear Jack/ Jack