Ways of conveying the passive voice constructions

It is common knowledge that the quantitative representation of the passive voice constructions in English by far exceeds that in

Ukrainian. This is not reflected, naturally, in translation since En­glish passive constructions are far from always transplanted to Ukrai­nian sentences. The much larger quantity of passive constructions in English is explained 1). by the ability of not only the direct but also of the indirect and prepositional objects to perform the function of the subject to the predicate in the passive voice; 2). by the ability of several intransitive verbs to become transitive and take a direct object, and consequently form the passive voice (cf. Her dog is often walked by her brother. The office is run by Mr.Brown). No transposi­tions of such type are possible in Ukrainian where only the direct object can be transformed into the subject of the sentence in the passive voice. Nevertheless, the meaning of the passive voice may sometimes be maintained, though expressed then not with the help of the analytical means. This can be seen from the following English sentence:

He was offered a betterjob of Йому кимсь пропонувалась

some sort of somebody or other, нібито якась навіть краща
(Saroyan) робота.

Parallel to this Ukrainian version and less common or less faithful is one more version and way via the active form of the verbal predi­cate: йому буцімто хтось пропонував кращу роботу or: йому нібито десь пропонували кращу роботу. A similar expression is also pos­sible in English: some sort of somebody offered him a better job, which the author (Saroyan) ignored in his sentence above.

Some ways of expressing the passive voice in both languages may coincide in form and structure, as can be seen in the first sen­tence below; others should be transformed (as in the second sen­tence), in order to achieve faithfulness in translation:

She was faintly disturbed by Вона була дещо

what mother had said. (Maugham) стурбована тим, що сказала

If the U.N. peace plan is. їїмати.
implemented, frozen Serb assets Якщо план мирного

in the USA would be released, врегулювання ООН буде
(USA Today) здійснений.заморожені рахунки

Сербііу США... будуть відпущені.

The passive constructions in the above sentences, however, may not necessarily be rendered into Ukrainian through passive equiva­lents only. Other contextual variants may also be suggested by the translator, for example: вона була трохи стурбована - її трохи

турбувало, рахунки будуть відпущені - рахунки розморозять/ відпустять.

Nevertheless, English passive forms referring to present tense have mostly no structural equivalents in Ukrainian where the auxiliary verb to be (є) is usually omitted and the past participle acquires other morphological (e.g., finite form) and semantic expression. Cf.:

Rescue efforts are being ham- Рятувальним роботам

pered by dozens of aftershocks, перешкоджають повторні
below-freezing temperatures, поштовхи і температура, що
(Ibid.) падає нижче нуля.

One more faithful Ukrainian transformation of this passive sen­tence construction may be achieved by way of conveying it through the so-called middle voice form or -ся/-сьverb: Рятувальні роботи утруднюються повторними підземними поштовхами і тем­пературою, що падає нижче нуля.

Depending on the form of the passive construction and still more on the lexical verbal meaning, this voice form may have in Ukrainian some still other transformations, which express the same meaning of the passive construction; they may acquire the following outer forms of expression in Ukrainian:

a) that of an indefinite personal sentence/clause:

«I am told that pork-packing Кажуть, що в Америці

is the most lucrative profession пакування свинини- найбільш

after politics in America.» прибуткова праця після

(O.Wilde) політики.

b) that of a single predicative word/simple nominal predicate:
«They're prepared to sacrifice «Вони ладні пожертвувати

everything to satisfy their yearn- всім, аби задовольнити/
ing.» (Maugham) здійснити своє прагнення.»

c) a finite form of the verb/simple verbal predicate:

He has never been answered. Його ще ніхто і ніколи не

(B.Aidiss) спростував.

d) an indefinite personal past participle ending in -ho/ -to:

It is a sound instinct of the Це здоровий глузд простого

common people which persuades люду переконує його, таким

that this all, that needs to be said, чином, що все те, що треба

is said. (Maugham) сказати. - сказано.

The room had certainly been У кімнаті безперечно

transformed. (I.Murdoch) зроблено перестановку.

e) any other contextual and structural substitution of the En­glish passive voice predicate verb:

«I must be left to myself for а «Мені треба якийсь час

while.» (Hemingway) побути самому/самим із со-

бою.»
«If Isabel had come in then, I «Якби Ізабель була зайшла

suppose I'd be married to Larry тоді, мабуть зараз я була б
now.» (Maugham) замужем за Пері.»

The passive structure sense units of both the English sentences, as can be seen, are practically translated into Ukrainian in a descrip­tive way, i.e., avoiding their source language outer structure. Never­theless grammatically correct, though literal and stylistically not quite appropriate or justified, would also be passive variant constructions in Ukrainian: 1). Я мусив бути залишений самим; 2). Я була б замужем/ була б одружена з Пері.

Not infrequently the Ukrainian past participle in its predicative function may be one, if not the only possible passive form equivalent of the English passive construction in Ukrainian, as in the following sentence:

«Their children slept, their «їхні діти спали, і (їхня)

gate was shut for the night.» брама була зачинена на ніч.»
(Fitzgerald) (І браму за чинили на ніч ?)

The common English passive voice constructions with the prepo­sitional object as their subject have generally no equivalent passive constructions in Ukrainian. These are rendered then with the help of the indefinite personal forms of the verb (sometimes through reflexive verbs):

« Why do you not answer when « Чому ви не відповідаєте,

you are spoken to?» (Galsworthy) коли до вас звертаються?»

І may say that he is rightly Я можу сказати, що у

looked upon by all the publishing видавничих колах його business as one of the mainstays справедливо вважають однією of literature in America. (Leacock) з головних постатей в

американській літературі.

Consequently, some English passive voice constructions often change their outer and inner form and become active voice forms in

гіг

Ukrainian. The main concern of the translator, in this case then, must be not so much the structural form of a source language sense unit, than its contextual meaning and, respectively, its form of realization/ presentation in the target language.