The College of Sociol Sciencekursinis

8/3/2019 The College of Sociol Sciencekursinis

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COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH LITHUANIANTRANSLATIONS

COURSE WORK

Klaipda, 2008


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CONTENT

Introduction3

1. History of translation..4

2. History of translation theory.......62.1 What is translation..7

3. Translation differences between the English and Lithuanian languages....8

3.1 Identifying morphological gaps..9

3.2 Errors in translation of lexical and morphological gaps (include gaps in text

..12

3.3 Mistakes in translating negative prefixes in English and Lithuanian...14

3.4 Mistakes translating by a different part of speech.14

4. Comparison of the formal document translation...16

5. Research on identifying common errors in English-Lithuanian translation20

6. Results of the survey..27

Conclusion29

Resources 30

INTRODUCTION


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The target of this course work is the errors made in English Lithuanian translation

Nowadays this topic is very important, because the English language is one of the best known languag

in the world. So it is crucial as fast as it is possible to find ways how to avoid mistakes made itranslations.

The main goals of this course work are:

to ascertain what kind of mistakes are common;

The tool to find out the types of mistakes a survey among the students of Social science collage group 2

has been conducted and English and Lithuanian texts compared.

To analyze and classify them;

The results of the survey have been analyzed, the errors investigated and grouped. To point out differences between the Lithuanian and English languages;

To achieve this goal both the languages have been compared on the aspect of parts of speech, morpholog

and lexicology.

Methods used at the course work were analysis of the information recourses and the

selection, comparison of the linguistic means, conducting of a research, analysis and classification of th

research results, summarizing the material and drawing conclusions.

1. HISTORY OF TRANSLATION

Etymologically the Latin "translatio" derives from theperfectpassiveparticiple, "translatum,"

"transferre" ("to transfer" from "trans," "across" + "ferre," "to carry" or "to bring"). Additionally, th
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_aspecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_voicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participle#Latinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participle#Latinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_aspecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_voicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participle#Latinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology


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Greekterm for "translation," "metaphrasis" ("a speaking across"), has supplied English with "metaphras

(a "literal translation," or "word-for-word" translation)as contrasted with "paraphrase" ("a saying

other words," from the Greek "paraphrasis"). "Metaphrase" equates, in one of the more rece

terminologies, to "formal equivalence," and "paraphrase"to "dynamic equivalence." [10]

The first important translation in the West was that of the Septuagint, a collection of JewiScriptures translated into Koine Greekin Alexandria between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. The Jew

that were widely spread, had forgotten their mother language and needed Greek versions (translations) o

their Scriptures. [3]

The first large-scale efforts at translation were undertaken by the Arabs. Arabs were taken over th

Greek world, so that why they made Arabic versions of its scientific and philosophical works. During th

Middle Ages, some of these Arabic translations were translated in Latin. Such Latin translations of Gree

and original Arab works of education and science would help advance the development of Europea

Scholasticism. Scholasticism - was a method of learning taught by the academics (orschoolmen)

medieval universitiesabout 11001500.

The first good translation in English was made by first great poet, the 14th-century Geoffre

Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 October 25, 1400?) was an English author, poet, philosophe

bureaucrat, courtierand diplomat. Sometimes he is called the father of the English literature; also he w

the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the nativeEnglish language

The first great English translation was the Wycliffe Bible (ca. 1382), which showed the weaknesses of a

underdeveloped Englishprose.[10]

In 18th century the translators catchword was that translation would be easy to read. If th

translator did not understand the text or it was thought to be boring for the readers, the translator omitte

that part. And it was popular to put in the text own style. That is why sometimes translations were like

new composition made by translator. Good example is a case of James Macpherson's "translations" Ossianfrom texts that were actually of the "translator's" own composition. Moreover translators were s

brave in that times that they translated form the language that they barely knew.

Luckily in 19th century there were made rules for the translators to make more accurate text and

save the style. The new catchword was the text, the whole text and nothing but the text except for bad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metaphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_translationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation#Equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation#Equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation#Equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuaginthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koine_Greekhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandriahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholasticismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1343http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1343http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_25http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1400http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopherhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_courthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Englishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Englishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wycliffe_Biblehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macphersonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macphersonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metaphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_translationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation#Equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation#Equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuaginthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koine_Greekhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandriahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholasticismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1343http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_25http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1400http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopherhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_courthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Englishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wycliffe_Biblehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macphersonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossian


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word passages and for enormous explanation notes. [3]. In regard to style, it was important to remind t

reader that he is reading foreign classic.

2. History of Translation Theory

Discussions of the theory and practice of translation reach back into antiquity and sho

remarkable continuities. The distinction that had been drawn by the ancient Greeks between "metaphras

("literal" translation) and "paraphrase" would be adopted by the Englishpoetand translatorJohn Dryd(1631-1700), who represented translation as the rationally blending of these two modes of phrasing whe

selecting, in the target language, "counterparts," or equivalents, for the expressions used in the sour

language.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquityhttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/continuityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greekshttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metaphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translatorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Drydenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_and_formal_equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquityhttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/continuityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greekshttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metaphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translatorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Drydenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_and_formal_equivalence


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This general formulation of the central concept of translation equivalence is probably

coresponding as any that has been proposed ever since Cicero and Horace, in first-century-BCE Rom

famously and literally cautioned against translating "word for word" ("verbum pro verbo").

Despite occasional theoretical diversities, the actual practice of translators has hardly change

since antiquity. Except for some extreme metaphrasers in the early Christian period and the Middle Ageand adapters in various periods (especially pre-Classical Rome, and the 18th century), translators hav

generally shown wise flexibility in seeking equivalents "literal" where possible, paraphrastic whe

necessary for the original meaning and other crucial "values" (e.g., style, verse form, harmony wi

musical accompaniment or, in films, with speech articulatory movements) as determined from contex

[10]

2.2 What is translation?

Translation is an action of interpretation of the text that gives the same massage in other languag

Translation is basically a change of form. When we speak of the form of the language, we use word

sentences, paragraphs, etc., which are written or spoken.

The text that we are translating is called source text and the form into which it will be changed is calle

target language. [5]

Translation must take into account restricts of grammatical rules of both languages, their idiom

study the lexicon, cultural context of the source language text; determine the meaning and finding th
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_and_formal_equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicerohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horacehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horacehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Romehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquityhttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metaphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_and_formal_equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verse_formhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manner_of_articulationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manner_of_articulationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_and_formal_equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicerohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horacehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Romehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquityhttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metaphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_and_formal_equivalencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphrasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verse_formhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manner_of_articulation


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same meaning in the source text. The process could be shown in picture like thi

According to this picture translator must have a text, which he is going to translate. Then he must read th

text and to discover the meaning of it. And then re-express the discovered meaning into target language.

3. TRANSLATION DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AN

LITHUANIAN LANGUAGES

Lexical gaps are examples of lack of lexicalization detected in a language while comparing tw

languages. A concept is lexicalized when a language has a lexical item a single word, a complex wor

an idiom or a collocation to express it. It was claimed the existence of a lexical gap only when a conce

lacks lexicalisation and is expressed by a free word combination or any other transformation in translatio

But a multi-word expression juvelyriniai dirbiniai (jewellery) or zoologijos sodas (a zoo) are n

lexical gaps, because they are fixed word expressions and are used as single units of meaning. Besides, f

the concepts explained by the expressions mentioned above, Lithuanians have no alternative expression

MEANING

Text to betranslated Translation


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Meanwhile, atleidimas dl darbo viet mainimo (redundancy) or derliaus numimo maina (

harvester) are lexical gaps, because they are free word combinations, in real language convert b

different techniques lexical or syntactic changes. It is important to say that a lexical gap appears only i

one of the compared languages. In other words, during translation from English into Lithuanian, it

identified a lexical gap only in Lithuanian.A major group of lexical gaps can be explained by social and cultural differences of source an

target language. A lexical gap in a target language is identified when its users do not know a concept of

source language. For example, Lithuanian food names vdarai or skilandis cannot be translated in

English, because they show Lithuanian culture. Another group of lexical gaps could be calle

paradigmatic (tipical) due to differences in various examples of two languages. A type of this group

morphological gaps, which comes from word formation differences. For example, biculturalism

translated by a free word combination priklausymas dviem kultroms because of the bi-, which had

be explained in Lithuanian, or undernourishment, which due to the peculiar combination of the pref

under- and nourishment, has to be expressed by a free word combination nepakankama mityba.[5]

The term derivational gaps identify those gaps within the limits of one language. Derivation

gaps are words produced from partially productive stems and suffixes, which are understandable, but n

acceptable in a language.

For example, although it is understood the meaning of mistelephone, conversate or friable, they d

not comply with the norms of the English language.

In order to make a difference from the cases indicated above, the term morphological gaps w

be used in this course work. In this study, the morphological gaps are gaps of the Lithuanian language, i.

in the target language. Such kind of lexical gaps results from different morphological cases in the sour

and target languages. The English language has a potential to collect complex concepts into one wo

because of its rich choice of prefixes, suffixes and stems, most of which have roots in Latin or Greek.

Meanwhile, in Lithuanian, only prefixes or suffixes appearing mostly in international word

usually of some specialized areas, matches to their English analogues, for example, metamotyvacija

(metamotivation), parametras (parameter), socializmas (socialism) or imunoterapij(imunotherapy). However, in non-specialised vocabulary these prefixes and suffixes are rare. In man

cases such complex concepts covered by one English word have to be changed by several Lithuania

words, usually, a free word combination, e.g., caravanning - autoturizmas su nameliu-priekaba (aut

tourism by a house-trailer). Caravanning is an especially interesting example, because it shows th

complexity of the problem. Not only it represents a concept that is not common enough to have a fixe


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lexicalisation in Lithuanian, but in this particular instance it shows the disability of the language

express an action or its process too. The suffix -ing is changed by a lexical word autoturizmas.

Moreover, it could be considered as a micro-transformation, because the lack of direct translatio

of caravan is compensated by skipping the meaning component of auto to auto-turizmas. It

possible that such translations appear when two problems cultural/economic and morphological gtogether. [5]

To sum up, the translation difficulties when the target language is Lithuanian comprise

translating lexical gaps. A major group of lexical gaps can be explained by social and cultural differenc

of source and target language. A lexical gap could be identified when users do not know a concept of

source language. Misunderstanding of concept is also a common translation mistake.

3.1 Identifying morphological gaps

First lexicographic data from the bilingual English Lithuanian dictionary (2000) was analyse

Data analysis has shown that there is a system in the way negative English prefixes are translated in

Lithuanian:

1. Some English words with a negative prefix have direct equivalents: disappear dingti;

disparage peikti, menkinti; degeneration isigimimas. It is interesting to note that the Lithuania

equivalents express the same concepts without a formal negative feature in a word: they signify a negativ

aspect without specific negative prefixes.

2. Some English negation prefixes are easily transformed into the Lithuanian prefix ne-, fo

example, dislike nemgti; disorder netvarka.

3. Negative prefixes in international words are transformed into Lithuanian international word

with their analogues. In other words, these are the examples of borrowing: disbalance disbalansa

antibiotic antibiotikas.

4. Only prefixes are translated by their international analogues: antimatter antimediag

antimissile antiraketa; antiwar antikarinis.5. Many English words with negative prefixes are explained through a number of synonyms, fo

example, immoderate per didelis, nenuosaikus, nesaikingas, besaikis, be saiko (too big, unreasonabl

unconscionable, inordinately); misbecome netikti, nederti (misfit, mismatch); miscarry - nepasisek

lugti (fail, collapse).


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Needless to say, a dictionary user will be confusing facing the multitude of equivalents for eac

word. They are caught into a kind of a vicious circle with groups of synonyms, where words explain

illustrate one another, as if they were equivalent. Such synonymic explanation represents two sides of th

problem. First, the proposed translations are not equal. Although they do share common meanin

components, they are not absolute synonyms to be used in identical contexts. Second, it is not at all clewhich translation equivalent presented without any usage context is closest to the original. Therefore w

can claim that such meaning converting into bilingual dictionaries is not effective.

6. Most English words with negative prefixes are simply expressed by free word combination

misadvise duoti blog/neteising patarim (to give bad/wrong advice); miscast - skirti aktori

netinkam vaidmen; neteisingai paskirstyti vaidmenis (to give an actor a wrong role, to distribute rol

wrongly); antipersonnel - skirtas -monms naikinti (designed/created for killing people); antipollution

apsaugantis aplink nuo uterimo (protecting the environment from pollution); incognizable - nepainu

negalimas painti (unknowable, impossible to be recognized).

Meaning explanations like above are often difficult to use in real language situations or translatio

Their incorporation into a sentence by a machine translation system would produce awkward an

unnatural structure, thus transformations in cases like these are inevitable. Instances like in 6 (see abov

are obvious indications to morphological gaps in Lithuanian, because they are free word combination

originating due to the inability of the language to pack a complex of concept into one word, like it is don

in English. In case of 5, a lexicographer is not able to give one precise equivalent, therefore leaves th

decision to the user as to the appropriateness of a multitude of synonyms provided for her/him. It is not

all clear whether at least one of the equivalents mirrors the concept indicate by the English word.

7. It is also important that even in cases when a direct equivalent for an English word exist

additional information concerning usage is provided in remarks. For example, ineligible: 1. neturint

teiss; negalintis bti renkamas/irinktas (not having the right, unable to be elected); 2. nepageidaujam

(apie jaunik, jaunj ir pan.) undesirable (about a groom, a bride, etc.); 3. netinkamas (ypa ka

tarnybai) unfit (especially for military service).

The provided context helps to disambiguate the equivalent that as an individual word would not bclear. However, such layout of lexicographic data implies that translation units should be expande

providing most common phrases the word appears in as well as its possible contexts. In other word

dictionary entries should be based on corpus material. [5]

To sum up abilities of identifying morphological gaps the mistakes occur when the translat

does not find free word combinations to express the English words with negative prefixes. Some Engli


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words with a negative prefix have direct equivalents in the target language or negative prefixes

international words are transformed into Lithuanian international words with their analogues an on ca

the translator does not know them error are made.

3.2 Errors in translations of lexical and morphological gaps

A parallel corpus, i.e. a collection of listed source and target language texts, can be a solution t

many translation questions arising from mismatches of different nature between two languages. A parall

corpus not only provides translation equivalents that are in actual language use, but also offers data o

language variation (when a source language unit can be translated by several target language units) due t

conceptual, contextual or stylistic differences, thus more options for a linguist or a translator using th

data. Moreover, a parallel corpus can show a strategy employed by a translator in case of non-equivalenc

whereas a bilingual dictionary offers a mere gloss of a meaning captured by a source language unit. Th

Parallel English Lithuanian Corpus has become publicly available in the autumn of 2005 and is still

its initial stage in regard to its size.

The Corpus is still not big enough to arrive at substantial generalizations today it

contains 35505 listed English Lithuanian sentences. Although one can already study translations o

frequent words, it is hard to perform a reliable research on rare words.

Lexical gaps, unfortunately, usually represent rare words. This is related to the nature of th

phenomenon rare concepts are not important enough to be lexicalised by a large number of langua

users. Nevertheless, all translations of English words starting with negative prefixes were analyzed. Som

instances of translation were amazing because they showed different translation equivalents from thos

provided in the bilingual dictionary. They also strongly supported the idea that dictionary translation

have to be based on main data, especially in case of problematic instances and lexical gaps are indee

problematic. Translations from the Corpus were compared with bilingual dictionary data. It is provide

parallel source and target language sentences coupled with equivalents from the bilingual dictionary.

few examples will be discussed and illustrated in the tables.It should be admitted that many English words with negative prefixes are translated by single wor

counterparts. Thus examples of translation by a multiword expression and by a different part speech (wi

subsequent syntactic changes in the translated sentence) are presented. The opposite phenomenon, whe

longer units of translation are treated as single units and translated by a single word, is also discusse


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Finally, a few examples of source language multiword expression transference into the target languag

multiword expression are given.

As was mentioned before, one way in which lexical gaps are often filled is through the use of fr

word combinations. Table 1 gives examples with single words translated by multiword Lithuania

expressions.It is seen that the noun untouchables and the adjective undirected are expressed by phras

both in the dictionary and the text translation. In case of untouchables, the lexicographer is used in th

descriptive translation because the concept is not relevant to the Lithuanian society.[5]

The translator had to expand the noun phrase into an adjective + noun phrase. The adjectiv

discredited is not even translated in the dictionary. If it is looked at the equivalents of the verb t

discredit, it is seen that two equivalents out of three are international words (diskredituoti an

kompromituoti), while griauti pasitikjim (to ruin trust) is a phrase.

3.3Mistakesin

translating negative prefixes in English and Lithuanian

English is full of prefixes of negatives or opposition, such as in-, ir-, il-, in-, de-, contra-, dis- an

others. Although Lithuanian is an inflectional language, which can also be explained by complex concep

Source language text Target language text Equivalent in a bilingualdictionary

But also they wereoutlaws,enemies, untouchables,doomedwith absolute certainty to

extinctionwithin a year or two.

Bet jie buvo statymoatstumtieji,prieai, nelieiamjkasta, be jokiosabejons, pasmerkta

inaikinimui permetus ar dvejus

Asmuo i nelieiamjkastos

And yet the rage that onefeltwas an abstract,undirectedemotion which could beswitchedfrom one object to anotherlike theflame of a blowlamp

Bet tas niris bdavoabstraktus, niek konkreiainenukreiptas,jgaldavai perkelti nuovieno objektoprie kito kaip litavimolemposliepsn

nenukreiptas, bevadovavimo; nekryptingas

The old, discreditedleaders of

the Party had been used togatherthere before they werefinally purged.

Joje, prie galutinaisutriukinami,

mgo rinktis senireputacijos netekpartijos vadai

No equivalent for theadjective in the dictionary.

To discredit - diskredituoti,griautipasitikjim;kompromitituoti.


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with help of the prefixes, suffixes and inflections, the number of prefixes for a negative aspect of meanin

is poor. Lithuanian grammarians mention four prefixes: ne- (un-, non-, not) as in nedarb

(unemployment), nemyli (does/do not love); be- (-less, without, non-) as in bedarbis (unemployed

becukris (sugarfree); nebe- (not any more) as in nebedirba (does not work any more), nebedainuoja (do

not sing any more); prie (anti-) as in prienuodis (antipoison), antitarybinis (antisoviet).Moreoveonly prefix ne- is frequently used. It means that Lithuanian might lack direct equivalents for this variety o

negation in English, signaling possible morphological gaps with comparing to the English language.[5]

The translators who do not understand this difference also can make mistakes.

3.4 Mistakes translating by a different part of speech

Translating by a different part of speech can also indicate some lexicalization differences betwee

two languages. Table 2 contains several examples of:

1) nouns translated into verbs, 2) nouns translated into adjectives,

3) adjectives translated into verbs 4) adjectives translated into adverbs.

It is seen from the table that words explained in the dictionary by phrases (dissent

deprecating) and in this way candidates represent lexical gaps in Lithuanian, have to be expressed b

the other part of speech in texts. Besides, the meaning of dissent is lost in translation.

We can see a conclusion that not only translating by multi-word expressions, but, also by a different pa

of speech could be an indicator of a lexical gap. The noun disreputability, which has no dictionaequivalent, is translated by an adjective. Therefore, the third and quite obvious indicator of a lexical ga

could be the absence of translation in dictionaries.

It should be emphasized that not all examples in this table represent lexical gaps. Some word

such as delusion, malignant, etc., have direct equivalents, nevertheless are transformed into the oth

part of speech. It is difficult to say why this translation technique is employed. One of the explanation

can be that translators working on a literary translation had to match to Lithuanian language norm

avoiding unnatural structures if dictionary analogues were used. This also implies that although concep

expressed by the English words in the examples can be expressed in the language system, for example

dictionaries, it might be shown that such expressions or equivalents are ignored in language use and a

changed by transforming the whole sentence. [5] exploring rare words that is why they are lexical gap

which are hard to translate.


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Table 2

SOURSE LANGUAGE TARGET LANGUAGE EQUIVALENT INBILINGUAL DICTIONARY

A noun - -> a verb

Some years ago you

had a veryserious delusionindeed

Prie kelet met js

labairimtai klydot

klydimas; apgaul,

iliuzija

A noun > a adjective

Yet a faint air ofdisreputabilityalways clung to him

Bet vis dlto jis atrodokakoks nepatikimas

No translation in thedictionaryDisreputable - turintisprastvard/reputacij

An adjective > a verb

It just occurred to meyou mightbe interested," hewould say with adeprecating littlelaugh whenever heproduced a newfragment

Padeklamavs koknaujposmel, tyliai lygatsipraydamasnusijuokdavo irsakydavo

adinantis gailest,keliantispasigailjim

An adjective > a adverb

He started to his feet

with amalignant glance atWinston, whomhe evidentlysuspected of havingtripped him up

Jis atsistojo, piktai

velgdamas Vinston,matyt,tarjpakius koj

piktas, pagieingas

To sum up the . We can state that.

Mistakes translating by a different part of speech mostly occur because of not changing part speech in the target language, for example

Nouns are not translated into verbs, 2) nouns translated into adjectives,

3) adjectives translated into verbs 4) adjectives translated into adverbs.

3. COMPARISON OF THE FORMAL DOCUMENT TRANSLATIONS


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The first text is the certificate of the conviction and its translation from Lithuanian into English

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT

UNDER THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR

Register for Legal Entities Code 188774822 ventragio str. 2, LT- 01501 VilniusTel. +370 5 271 7177 Fax. +370 5 271 8921 e-mail: [email protected]

For Vitalijus Kiseliovas

CERTIFICATECONCERNING THE DATA OF A PHYSICAL PERSON

FROM THE DEPARTAMENTAL R

Head of Previous Convictions /Seal/ /Signature/ Brunonas AranauskasDepartament

At first sight in these two documents there are no significant differences between them. Th

structure of the sentences is quite simple and there are no special features that separate them. But when w

study it closely it is seen that the headline of the document in the English version that is in the targ

language: Certificate concerning the data of a physical person from the Departamental register f


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suspicious, accused and convicted persons is different from the Lithuanian one: Payma dl tariam

kaltinam, ir teistu asmen inybinio registro duomen apie fizin asmen.

The word order in the sentence is different. In the English sentence physical person goes as

compliment and in English language it goes as a predicate. The prepositional phrase, dl tarimin thtarget language, is changed into participle concerning.

The main sentence of the document is the following: tariam, kaltinam ir teist ir teist asmen

inybinio registro 2008 01- 14 duomenimis Vitalijus Kisieliovas, gim. 1982 m. rugsjo 27, neteistas

The translation into the target language: According to the information of Departmental Register f

Suspicious, Accused and Convicted Persons on 14-01-2008 Vitalijus Kiseliovas, born on 27 Septembe

1982, is not convicted. The word order is similar in both the sentences though the target language need

the adverb according to at the beginning of the sentence.The subject in both the languages occurs in th

same position.

One more difference is noticed in translating the position of the leader of the institution. In th

Lithuanian language it sounds: Teistumo informacijos skyriaus vedjas and for translation of th

position into the target language was chosen the word head: Head of previous convictions department

There is no such word in the English language meaning vedjas. This word can be translated

manager, but in that case the meaning of it is quite different. Its meaning is

1. person who is in charge of running a business, a shop / store or a similar organization or part of one:bank / hotel manager the sales / marketing / personnel manager a meeting of area managers;

2. person who deals with the business affairs of an actor, a musician, etc.;

3. person who trains and organizes a sports team: the new manager of Italy.[7]

Consequently, none of the meanings mentioned above suits this sentence. Therefore Lithuania

translators have to cope with a problem by finding a correct equivalent to this meaning. In case th

translator chooses a wrong meaning a wrong message is passed by the translation.

To sum up we may say that in translating formal documents from English into Lithuania

choosing a wrong equivalent, not minding the word order of the target language and not changing the pa

of speech in appropriate situations are the common mistakes made by a not experienced translator.


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5. RESEARCH ON IDENTIFYING COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISHLITHUANIAN TRANSLATION

To enlist all the errors made in English Lithuanian translation is very difficult.

In order to find our the type of mistakes made by future translators it has been decided to make a simp

research work

The survey in the second year students`group 2U of the Social Sciences College was made. T

students were asked to translate ten sentences fromthe English language into the Lithuanian languag

The sentences were quoted from the book Advanced Grammar in Use (second edition), 2005 by Mart

Hewings. This book was chosen, because it was adequate for the advanced level students. The sentenc

were selected to contain the variety of grammatical, lexical and stylistic aspects.

The target of this survey was to find out how certain linguistic means are translated, and wh

kinds of mistakes are made. This type of survey has been chosen for the reason this was the simplest wa

to find out what kinds of errors are made in English- Lithuanian translations and the results were real

surprising.The text was hand out and the students translated it own their own, unknown words wer

translated.


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This is the text that was given to the students:

1. Under these conditions the question cannot be answered. 2. At the university students are offered

curriculum of study which is followed by test and the award degree.3. Ill bring some sandwiches

case we dont find anywhere anything decent to eat. 4. I first met Steve and Jane when they had be

going out together for five years, and they did not get married for another three years after. 5. I hav

not liked ice cream since I ate too much and was sick. 6. My decision to resign from the company wa

made after deal of thought. 7. We decided not to go to Paris. 8. If I am going to catch the train, I

have to leave now. 9. He couldnt remember if he had turned the computer off. 10. The president is t

return to Brazil later today.

The sentence Under these conditions the question cannot be answered.

This sentence seems to be really very simple, but students that have translated it find it quite difficu

because almost all of them, it would be 8 of 10, translated it with speech culture mistakes. For examp

Klausimas negali bti atsakytas po tokia kondicijaor Prie toki slyg klausimas negali bti atsakytas

The construction po tokia kondicija is absolutely incorrect in the Lithuanian language. It is a rudmistake that contravenes the usage of the Lithuanian language. Furthermore, this is because the senten

is translated word by word.

Preposition prie is used with accusative; the sentence construction with prie shows th

place near or next to something, for example Prie ups, Jie gyvenaprie eero. The word constructio

like this is very dangerous, because it is translated from the Russian language. And nowadays this is


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common slang expression used by the youth in our country which linguists consider as harmful for th

language. Usage of preposition in the following situations Prie tokios technikos, prie optimalaus rimo

is wrong, because constructions with the preposition prie are not used to express the modifier o

manner, reason , condition and concessive.[9 p.215]

The correct version of this sentence would be: Tokiomis aplinkybmis klausimas negali bti atsakytasIt is very said, but there were no correct translations of this sentence.

2. At the university students are offered a curriculum of study which is followed by test an

the award degree.

This sentence was easy to translate, but as it was expected it was confusing. There is one word in th

sentence that was unknown for all the students. It is the word curriculum, which means mokymo plana

programa arba koliokviumas. Sometimes it happens that translation is spoiled because of choosing th

wrong meaning of the word. This was the case in this survey. For example in this sentence to choose th

meaning koliokviumas was a wrong decision, because the context offered the meaning the stud

program.

The second part of the sentence was also problematic: which is fallowed by test and th

award degree. The students did not know how to connect those two words though they knew the meanin

of each of them. Here occurred the same problem, as in the first part of the sentence - choosing the corre

meaning. Two students translated this text correctly, but anyway there was some uncertainty. The wor

translation was this one: Universitet student inios yra tikrinamos koliokviumu. In this sentence

used a totally wrong meaning, which may affect the whole text and the information that was represent

in this sentence looses its value.

The best translation was: Universitete studentams siloma mokymo sistema, kuri suda

testas ir po to suteikiamas laipsnis. Though it was not completely correct, but at least it almost exact

expressed the meaning of the sentence.

The correct translation would be: Studentams universitete siloma mokymo programa, kuyra sudaryta i test, ir galiausiai suteikiamas universiteto baigimo laipsnis.

3. Ill bring some sandwiches in case we dont find anywhere anything decent to eat.


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2

This sentence is similar to the previous one. It shows that if there is chosen a wrong meaning of the wor

the sentence is translated incorrectly. Students confront the problem of choosing the correct meaning

the word. The problematic words in this sentence were in case and decent.

Some students translated this sentence like that: A parsineiu kelet sumutini jeig

nerasime niekur jokio gero maisto, or like this: A atneiu sumutini tuo atveju, jeigu mes nerasime bko ar bet kur padoraus maisto. Of course there are several correct versions of translation of this sentenc

But, as it has been stated above, our students have lexical and stylistics problems while constructing a nic

Lithuanian sentence. They understand the meaning, but they cannot translate it correctly into th

Lithuanian language.

The correct translation would be: A pasiimsiu sumutini, jei kartais niekur neb

normalaus maisto.

4. I first met Steve and Jane when they had been going out together for five years, and they d

not get married for another three years after.

This sentence is very complicated because of the tenses. It is a difficult for foreigners, because the Engli

language has many tenses of verb and sometimes it is really difficult to understand the sequence o

actions.

Moreover there is the rule for using past perfect tenses, which is important to know for every translato

The rule is: the past perfect continues can be used to talk about situation or activity that went on before

particular past time and finished at that time, continued beyond it, or finished shortly before it.

Students translated it in various ways, but the worst translation sounds like that:

Vis pirm sutikau Styv ir Dein kada jie ijo kartu penkeriems metams ir jie nesusituok dar trej

metus. Apparently, student do not have sufficient skills of usage of verb forms, and misunderstand th

meaning of the sentence.


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2

5. I have not liked ice cream since I ate too much and was sick.

This sentence is easy enough. And most of the translators translated it correctly. The errors that we

made, translating it, were not very serious. The information of the sentence was passed out correctly b

the language stylistic use is not as good as it is supposed to be.

Some of the translations are the following: A nemgstu led nuo tada, kada j persivalgiau susirgauand A nevalgau led nuo to karto, kai suvalgiau j perdaug ir apsinuodijau. Certainly the

translations are correct, but if they had been translated more literally, using nice expressions of ou

language, then they would not have had such a strong influence of the Slavic language.

The best translation was this one: A nebemgstu led nuo to karto, kai j persivalgs susirgau.

6. My decision to resign from the company was made after deal of thought.

There is an idioms in this sentence deal of thought, and it was quite a clumsy thing to translate. Idioms

one class of figurative expressions which occurs in all languages, but which is very specific. Idioms a

expressions of at least two words which cannot be translated literally. The translator needs to learn

recognize the idioms and other figures of source text.

So in this case some students translated the text literally, for example A nusprendi

atsistatydinti i kompanijos po sandrioor Mano sprendim atsistatydinti i kompanijos nulm

sutartis. In case the listener does not know English these sentences do not sound nonsense for him, b

actually the translator has passed quite a different message. That is why students should be careful whe

translating idioms, they should be absolutely sure about the meaning they use and their translation wou

not sound funny.

Fortunately, there were some students that translated sentence correctly and they noticed that de

of thought means po ilgo svarstymo or gerai apsvarsius .

So the correct translation would be: Gerai apsvarsts nusprendiau atsistadydinti i kompanijos.

7. We decided not to go to Paris.This sentence was the easiest and the one that all the students translated it correctly. This sentenc

involves the usage of infinitive. Usage of infinitive is similar in both languages English and Lithuania

that is why the translation as not problematic.

The sentence was translated like this: Mes nusprendme nevaiuoti Paryi, M

nusprendme nevykti Paryi.


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2

8. If I am going to catch the train, Ill have to leave now. (p.166)

The sentence contains a conditional clause. It is one of the more difficult topics of the Englilanguage grammar. This is the first conditional which describes possible future events or situation an

their results. There are conditional clauses in the Lithuanian language too, but their usage is not s

complicated.

The mistakes in translations were made because of confusing word constructions. If the translat

wants to understand the meaning he has to read the sentence a few times.

The students that translated it had to cope with understanding the meaning of the sentence. An

there were quite a few problems to translate it correctly. The first one was the strange construction of th

sentence. It is really confusing. The second problem was to translate it properly. Some students translat

in the wrong way: A neivaiuosiu jeigu a pagausiu traukin, jeigu a nespsiu traukin, turs

pasilikti dabar. The translation is wrong, because of false understanding of the sentence, and the lack

knowledge of the English grammar. Moreover, the translated Lithuanian version simply is not logical.

The best variants of the translations were: Jei noriu spti traukin, turiu ivykti dabaror jei

noriu spti traukin turiu tuoj ivykti.

9. He couldnt remember if he had turned the computer off (68). 10. The president is to retur

to Brazil later today (24).

The last two sentences in the survey were very simple and the students dealt with them quite wel

The only difficulty was in translating the infinitive of the last sentence is to return to Brazil

This kind of structure of the sentence is quite weird for Lithuanian students. The structure be to

infinitive is used to talk about future events that can be controlled by people. The Lithuanian languaggrammar does not have similar infinitive structures therefore the translator has to recognize th

English infinitive structure and know how to translate it.

The result of the research will be summarised below.


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2

6. THE RESULT OF THE SURVEY

According to this survey, it could be said that students make a lot of mistakes, and the reason cou

be the lack of English language knowledge. Also was noticed that Lithuanian language is very difficult

well. The result was collected and classified as it is showed below:

The most common mistakes:

Speech culture mistakes

wrong translations of prepositional phrases

bad knowledge of the vocabulary and disability to choose the appropriate meaning

bad sentence construction of the target language

errors in translating idioms

errors in translating infinitive structures

These results also can be shown in the Table 3

Table 3

Languageusagemistakes

Wrong

translations of

prepositional

phrases

The lack ofvocabulary;chosenwrongmeaning

Bad sentenceconstructionin targetlanguage

Errors intranslatingidioms

Errors in

translating

infinitive

structures

79% 45% 55% 90% 30% 0%


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2

To translate from one language to another language is very difficult. The translator must kno

mother tongue and target language perfectly. If he is not perfect in none of this languages, his translatio

will be dull and the reader will not understand the text. The worst translation that might be done is the tex

translated literally. This kind of text will not be amusement for the reader.

CONCLUSION

The target of this course work is fulfilled. By analyzing the collected material and conductin

the research we can state the following:

The translation difficulties when the target language is Lithuanian comprise of translating lexic

gaps. A major group of lexical gaps can be explained by social and cultural differences of source an

target language. A lexical gap could be identified when users do not know a concept of a source languag

Misunderstanding of concept is also a common translation mistake.

.


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2

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bassnet, Susan, Translation studies, (revised edition, 1991).

2. Grikeviien, J., Lapkuvien C., Navalinskien G., mulktyt R., Lietuvi kalbos kultr

vadovlis (kolegijoms, 2003).

3. Hatim, Basil and Mason, Ian, Thetranslator as communicator, 1997.

4. Hewings, Martin, Advenced Grammar in Use, (second edition, 2005).

5. Larson Mildred L., Meaning - based translation: a guide to cross language equivalence, 198

6. httpwww.leidykla.eufileadminKalbotyra_357__3_46-55.pdf

7. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary: Dictionary session.

8. Swan, Michael, Practical English Usage, 1980.

9. ukys, Jonas, Kalbos kultra visiems, 2006.

10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation

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