Equivalents of gerund are in Russian translation

Министерство Образования и Науки Украины

Таврический Экологический Институт

Факультет иностранной филологии

Кафедра______________________

Специальность 7.030502-«Язык и литература»

Тема: Equivalents of gerund are in Russian translation

Исполнитель: студентка 5 курса

Старцева Марина Александровна

Научный руководитель:

доцент Цвет Л.Я.

Симферополь, 2003

Contents

Introduction

Section I. General characteristics of the gerund

1.1 The double nature of the gerund

1.2 The tense distinctions of the gerund

1.3 The voice distinctions of the gerund

1.4 Predicative constructions with the gerund

Section II The use of the gerund

2.1 The use of the gerund

2.2 The function of the gerund in the sentence

Section III. The gerund and the other verbals

3.1 The gerund and the infinitive

3.2 The gerund and the participle

3.3 The gerund and the verbal noun

Section IV. Comparison of the English gerund and its equivalents in Russian

The conclusion

List of literature

INTRODUCTION

The aim of my paper is the analysis of the translation and the opportunity to transmit the meaning of the gerund in Russian. I have set this aim because of a superficial translation the reader cannot see what is written between the lines. The translator doesn’t always know grammar and grammar are left behind the limits of the translation.

When one compares an original text with the translation, one can see that some difficult places are omitted or changed. For example, if the noun expresses the subject, the translator can translate this noun with an adverb, because of it sounds better than if it were translated without an adverb (6, 31).

The theme of the course paper is analysis of Russian equivalents of the gerund. The main problem of this paper is to show how one can translate gerund in all situations, how to render a gerund by other means of the language, how gerundial constructions are used. In a complex clause one can omit the translation of a gerund because of it’s difficult to express the idea in the Russian language.

There aren’t any gerunds in the Russian language. There is only a verbal noun. The English gerund cannot be translated as a verbal noun. I’ll try to show this difficulty of translation in Russian.

I’ve chosen this theme, because rendering gerund in Russian is ambiguous and difficult for a student. I want to do my own contribution in the analysis of this problem.

My course paper consists of the introduction, the two chapters and the conclusion.

Section I. General characteristics of the gerund

Origin and Development. The gerund was originally a verbal noun in –ing (until about 1250 also with the form –ung).thus it differed from the present participle in meaning, which was originally an adjective and until about the fourteenth century had a different ending, namely, ende (or inde, ynde, ande), so that the two suffixes were farther apart in form and meaning than they are today. They have both in course of time acquired more verbal force, but the gerund is still a noun and the present participle is still an adjective. [22-101]

. In the combination possessive + gerund, as in I do not like his coming here so often-мне не нравится, что он часто приходит сюда. The oblique case may be substituted for the possessive, so that the gerund becomes a present participle: I do not like him coming here so often. The difference — if any — appears to be that in the former construction the logical emphasis is on the possessive, in the latter on the verb. But there seems also to be a tendency to give up the latter construction altogether, as if it were a mere variation of I do not like him possessives: “in honors of its being Christmas day I …”-в честь Рождества я … “when metal came into use, men were able to make their knives much longer, without their being afraid of their breaking”-с появлением металла появилась возможность изготовлять более длинные ножи, не боясь, что они поломаются. In the last sentence they could be omitted but not changed into them.

So also the genitive in who told you of your wife's being there? May be made into the common case— of your wife being there. In such constructions as I cannot accept the notion of school-life affecting the poet-я не могу принять понятие о школьной жизни, которая влияет на поэта, to this extent the common case is preferred to the genitive(24-92).

"Ing" is used here as a comprehensive technical term for those English forms which from a syntactical point of view must be considered as two different things, a gerund and a participle ("first participle", generally called "present participle"). [23-129]

In order to understand the definition “gerund” we should know all its meanings and word-combinations.

The gerund developed from the verbal noun, which in course of time became verbalized, preserving at the same time its nominal character.

The gerund is formed by adding the inflection -ing to the stem of the verb and coincides in form with Participle I (15 – 170).

1.1  The double nature of the gerund

As a natural result of its origin and development the gerund has nominal and verbal properties. The nominal characteristics of the gerund are as follows:

1.  The gerund can perform the function of the subject, an object and a predicative.

They say smoking leads to meditation. – К медитации они посоветовали использовать дымящий свинец.*

I like making people happy. – Я люблю осчастливливать людей.

He went away without saying a word. – Он ушел не сказав ни слова (1 – 222).