Page 201 [201]
LINGUISTIC CONTRASTS IN ENGLISH-HUNGARIAN AND HUNGARIAN—ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Connotative meanings, important in literary texts, are more difficult to
translate. You can check this by trying to translate the words gémeskut, malo¬
malja, fokos in this poem:
Gémes kút, malom alja, fokos, Sivatag, lárma, durva kezek,
Vad csókok, bambák, álom-bakók A Tisza-parton mit keresek???
In literary translation, especially in poetry, besides differences in connotative
meanings, the main problem is that the gap between the cognitive environ¬
ments (background knowledge) of SL and TL audience is very wide and there
are several limiting factors related to language: number of syllables, rhythm,
rhyme, dialectal forms, foreign words, obsolete words, neologisms, slang, etc.
11.6 TRANSFER OPERATIONS
In translation, we can identify regular deviations from literal translation, usu¬
ally referred to as translation shifts, resulting from the use of what we call
transfer operations or translation strategies. Transfer operations are carried
out if literal translation does not yield a satisfactory solution due to linguistic,
textual and cultural contrasts. Klaudy (1994, 2007) provides a detailed classi¬
fication of transfer operations. This classification will not be presented here,
but a list of lexical transfer operations will be given in Appendix 4.
Transfer operations can be identified on the basis of regular patterns of
changes in translating certain SL and TL structures and words. This does not
mean that translation is just a matter of language structure: changes in lin¬
guistic patterns are necessitated not only due to linguistic, but also cultural
differences and differences in SL and TL readers’ cognitive environments. The
pedagogical value of studying transfer operations remains considerable, espe¬
cially with novice translators in the L1-L2 direction. Klaudy (1994) maintains
that studying transfer operations is useful because language learners and
translators enjoy discovering linguistic contrasts between L1 and L2 and
studying ways in which those contrasts impact translation. Conscious study
of the translation operations used to bridge the linguistic and cultural gaps
between L1 and L2 and analysis of transfer operations may give students a
sense of security and may help them to acquire translation competence. Of
course, transfer operations are not rules of translation: they are descriptive
— they describe what translators usually do. They do not tell you how you should
translate: they describe how certain structures and words are usually
95 Ady Endre: A Tiszaparton. See https://erinna.verselemzes.hu/ady-endre-a-tisza-parton-el¬
emzes/
+ 199 +