The concept of equivalence and interference in translation

The basis of translation theory is equivalence. The content of the output text should have something that is in the source text, only then the output text can be called a translation. In other words, there must be symmetry in the texts. The very concept of “symmetry” is taken from mathematical disciplines. In mathematics there are such transformations in the course of which there are changes in mathematical expression, and its primary content remains unchanged. With such changes, specialists in the mathematical sphere speak of an invariant. In the course of all possible transformations of the expression, the content essence remains unchanged, this is an invariant. This concept was created in the mind of a person when studying the processes of transformation of expressions. An invariant can not be separated into a separate material shell.

In the process of translation, the same action takes place, the text or speech is transformed, and its essence remains unchanged. Therefore, scientists often talk about the translation invariant. The preservation of the content in the translated text is unchanged – this is the invariant of the translation. Each thought has several options for presenting the semantic essence. In other words, any thought can be expressed in different ways.

Proceeding from this, the invariant is a well-known theory of the just-existing pattern of human thinking, which is expressed in the fact that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the expression of thought and its content. This is due to the fact that language and thinking are not the same, of course, they are related to each other, but they represent different phenomena of human consciousness. In cases of translation, the invariant consists of the equivalence of meanings and the identity of the linguistic functions of the original and the translation.

To better understand what is an invariant in translation, it is worth paying attention to the language system, it is a landmark issue in this matter. Each of its signs has a two-sided character: form and meaning. In different languages there are different in form sign, but similar in content. When performing the translation, disappearing is distinguished by content between the two languages.

Often scientists say that in the process of translation, the person who performs it violates the norms and rules of the language pair with which it works. These violations were called translation interference. The very term “interference” in the linguistic environment was widely recognized after the publication of the monograph by W. Weinhrath.

For the manifestation of interference, bilingualism or multilingualism, as well as a language contact, must be an obligatory condition. A person who works with translations is the place of manifestation of linguistic interference. This happens during translation in the process of compensation of any values, elements of one language system, values and elements of another language system. This can lead to various significant and minor deviations from the original meaning, and on the other hand it can help with the translation.

In the domestic linguistic sphere, until the 1950s, the concept of “interference” was extremely negative. It was believed that it has a negative impact on the early acquired skills in bilingualism and does not allow them to improve. But in the modern linguistic world, interference is seen as a positive phenomenon, not a negative one. Modern scientists believe that interference can be observed in the sphere of skills, knowledge, as well as memory. Therefore, one can regard interference as a positive leaving the world translation, and negative. KK Platonov, explains the process of interference of skills by drawing an analogy with physics: “As in physics, interference of waves, interference of skills gives both weakening and the strengthening of new skills under the influence of those already available.”

Proceeding from various teachings, it can be concluded that linguistic interference is the influence of languages on each other, which can be positive or negative and manifest in deviations from the norm in one language, under the influence of another language. Investigating in more detail the study in the field of linguistic interference, we can conclude that there is a certain intervention of the elements of one language system in another, which can be both constructive and destructive.

In modern literature this concept is considered from five positions: phonetic, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic. When a beginner interpreter is in the translation agency , the interference process can be at all stages of his work.

Sometimes, in modern works of scientists, there are complex entities, such as lexico-semantic interference, which can be caused by grammatical, phonetic, lexical deviations when working on translation from one language to another.