7. Translation of phraseological units.

Phraseological units, or related, stable phrases, sometimes even whole sentences, as a rule, have either a fully or partially portable meaning. The main feature of phraseological units is the incompatibility of the plan with the content of the plan of expression, which determines the specifics of the phraseological unit, gives flexibility and depth to its meaning. Practically in any language there are several levels of phraseological units: fixed by the dictionary and known to all; out of use, but marked by a dictionary; known to everyone, but for some reason not recorded in the dictionary; known to particular social groups. Vinogradov offers the following classification:
1) phraseological fusions are stable words and expressions with a shifted meaning of the words that make up the expression: to kick the bucket - play in the box, go west - die, go dutch - pay together. There is not enough context to translate splices; you need to refer to the dictionary.
2) phraseological unity (unities) - the values ​​are derived from the components: to prepare to the better world - die. To join the majority - die
3) phraseological combinations (collocasion) - the values ​​of the components clearly indicate the meaning. To take a nap - to take a nap, to take a nap - to take a nap, to take a nap - to smoke
4) international phraseology: the sword of Damoclos - Domoklov sword (Domokl’s sword), the game is not worth the candle - the game is not worth the candle (in English: not worth the candle).

The first and most important condition is to be able to recognize phraseological units in the text, in contrast to free language units. The most productive way is the skill of identifying units in the text that contradict the general meaning, since, as a rule, the appearance of such units indicates the presence of a figurative meaning. The second important condition is the ability to analyze the speech functions of phraseological units. For example, the conflict between the figurative and literal meaning is often used by the author of the text to play around any figurative, aesthetic, emotionally evaluative and other associations or to create a humorous effect. In addition, idioms are quite firmly fixed to certain socio-cultural strata of society and serve as a sign of the mediated presence of a particular layer in the text. Further, idioms have a certain stylistic coloring: they can be elements of high, neutral or low style, professional or other jargon. In addition to the problem of recognizing phraseological units, the translator encounters national-cultural differences between similar meaning of phraseological units in two different languages. Matching the meaning, idioms can have different stylistic coloring, different figurative basis, finally, a different emotive function. Eg, Eng. “Rome was not built in a day” in Russian - Moscow was not built right away. The variant of such a translation sounds very inappropriate in the context of English culture: Jones was not always in good shape. More appropriate in this case would be to use a verbatim translation (phraseological tracing paper): Jones spent all his eloquence to convince the host, reminding that Rome was not built in one day.
Translation rules.
1) the optimal solution is the search for an identical phraseological unit in the translating language (the number of such correspondences for Russian and English is very limited). Achilles '' heel, the heel of Achilles is the Achilles heel.
2) in the absence of such correspondences, the original phraseological unit can be translated by searching for a similar phraseological unit that has a common meaning with the original, but built on a different verbal-figurative basis. Often similar in meaning, but different in form, phraseological units in different languages ​​have different emotional and associative tints and are not always interchangeable. When Queen Ann was alive = under king Pea - i.e. in immemorial times.
3) sometimes the acceptable method is tracing, word for word translation. Sometimes in this way it is possible to introduce new phrases into the translating language. expression. So often phraseological units are translated, leading origin from ancient culture, religious biblical or other well-known sources, as well as phraseological units based on modern realities (eg, Hell's Angels - Hell's Angels, Zero option - zero option).
4) in connection with the texts of cultural and historical subjects, a double or parallel translation of phraseological units is used, when a phraseological unit is combined in one phrase (for example, translated by means of a tracing) and an explanation of its figurative meaning in a more brief form. For example, The City of Brotherly love is the name '' '' city of brotherly love '' '', '' '' saying '' '' for any American, in Russian, requires contextual processing, for example, in the form of a parallel translation: '' '' City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia '' ''.
5) in case of impossibility to use the above-listed methods of translation, the translation-explanation of the figurative meaning of the idiom is used, that is, through the transformation of a stable phrase into a free one. At the same time, the idiom loses its figurative and associative properties.
6) in any case, when working with phraseological units in the source text, the translator can rely on a number of explanatory phraseological dictionaries.