THE ISSUE OF PRESERVING THE TEXT DEEP STRUCTURE IN TRANSLATION (USING THE EXAMPLE OF ECONOMIC TEXTS)

Abstract

Purpose. The paper intends to clarify basic provisions of the deep structure as a theoretical construct in the context of translation skills. The purpose of the article is also to identify the main difficulties in using the deep structures concept in the translation process and to determine the best way of addressing them.

Methods. The following methods are used in the research process: analysis and synthesis (in determining the substantive characteristics of the concept “deep structure”); comparison (in studying models of transformation and their peculiarities in context of economic texts translating); systemic-structural (in identifying relationships between deep and surface structures).

Results. One of the most important conditions for successful translation activities is the preservation of the content in translation. When transforming the deep structure of the source text into a surface structure in the target language, the translator is faced with the problem of choosing from the set of admissible surface structures the only one that is best able to convey not only explicit, but also implicit components of the text. This task is especially relevant when translating specialized industry texts. So, ignoring the background knowledge about the national and cultural traditions of business communication can lead to a serious distortion of the original meaning of the text. And this, in turn, can cause the failure of business contacts. The concept of deep and surface structures is a very useful tool for successfully translating complex semantic and syntactic constructions. Preservation of the original text semantics with maximum consideration of the implicit context and background knowledge is the first task of the translator. The theory of deep and surface structures is one of the tools that can help the translator not only structure the text, but also work as efficiently as possible with its semantics, syntax and phonology.

Conclusions. Knowledge of the different genres text’s deep and surface structures peculiarities enables the translator to perform better translation activities. The systematization of translation activities in this context involves the organization of work in phases: first of all the source text surface structure is analyzed, then using the rules of syntactic transformations the translator describes the text deep structure, and then, taking into account the specifics of the translation language, translates this deep structure into the target language surface structure. The study results could be used in practical translation to provide a clearer understanding of the deep structure and to ensure semantic equivalence between the source and the target texts. The study results contribute to the improvement of practices, which are related to the peculiarities of working with deep structures of economic translations. Further prospects for the study could be related to the clarification of the most appropriate models in specific translation situations for transforming the underlying structure of the source text into a surface structure of the text.