Violation of Phraseological Units and its Rendering

Another stylistic device which may also be described as national is the so-called violation of phraseological units or renovation. This device is used in all types of phraseological units: fusion, unities and collocations. But despite their stability, phraseological units are easily broken by some lexical element which is either added or substituted. Evidently the ties binding the components are not indissoluble, which is probably due to a wide and flexible collocability of the English language.

The substitution of a component element may be achieved by a synonym or an antonym, by a word with a resembling sound form, or by any word prompted by the context or by the writer’s intention. These substitutions are always occasional and unpredictable, e.g.

Every country on the old continent has a fine collection of skeletons in the cupboard.

У всех европейских стран есть немало неблаговидных тайн, которые они скрывают от других.

The meaning is fully rendered but the device is not reproduced in the translation. It is a typical case of semantic but not of stylistic equivalence.

The President is not going to be a bull in the economic china shop.

В вопросах экономики президент не собирается вести себя как слон в посудной лавке.

The device is rendered by a detached construction.

Substitution based on the phonetic principle can be illustrated by the following example from Winston Churchill’s speech in the Commons after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour:

I hesitate to express opinions about the future, because things turn cut so very oddly, but I will go so far as to say that it may be Japanese, whose game is what I may call “To make hell while the sun shines” are more likely to occupy themselves in securing their rich prizes in the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies and the Malayan Archipelago”.

Я всегда колеблюсь, когда приходится высказывать мнение относительно будущего, потому что события развертываются таким непредвиденным образом, но я позволю себе сказать, что, возможно, японцы, игра которых заключается в том, чтобы, пользуясь благоприятными обстоятельствами, натворить как можно больше бед, скорей всего будут стараться закрепить за собой свои ценные приобретения на Филиппинах, в Голландской Ост-Индии и на Малайском архипелаге.

The effect of this violation is enhanced by a play on words resulting from combining two phraseological units: a proverb “to make hay while the sun shines” and a collocation “to make hell”.

Only semantic equivalence is achieved in the translation, as the corresponding Russian proverb Куй железо пока горячо would be irrelevant here.

Substitutions also occur in allusions and epigrams, e.g.

The family was at this moment divided, unlike Gaul, into four parts.

В этот момент, в отличие от Галлии, семья разделилась на четыре части.

This is an allusion to the well-known opening line of Caesar’s “De bello gallico”. The English translation of the original sentence runs as follows: “Gaul as a whole is divided into three parts”. Besides substitution, the allusion is extended by means of a lexical addition and is structurally altered.

Violation may also be achieved by a shifting of component elements, as was done, for example, by Evelyn Waugh:

“There’s danger in numbers; divided we stand, united we fall”.

In the first phrase E.Waugh substitutes the noun “danger” for “safety” (there is safety in numbers); in the second, he shifts the components (united we stand, divided we fall).

The following translation may be suggested:

В единении слабость. Раздельно мы устоим. Вместе мы погибнем.

The revival of a faded metaphor or metaphoric element may be regarded by the introduction of some word or words which restore and bring to mind the original transference of meaning.

I wanted to give her not a piece but the whole of my mind. (S.Maugham)

In phraseological unity “to give apiece of one’s mind – откровенно высказать кому-нибудь свое неодобрение – one of the components is a faded metaphor (piece) but the additional word “the whole” brings back the original meaning of the word “piece”. Naturally the device cannot be preserved but can be compensated by means of expressive synonyms and an intensifier.

Я хотел не только откровенно высказать ей свое неодобрение, но буквально выложить все, что я о ней думал.

Set expressions (collocations) are easily violated as the ties between the elements are rather loose. This fact is confirmed by the existence of synonymous variants, e.g. to cast a glance, to dart a glance, etc.

Phrases containing repetition (of the type “day by day”, “step by step”) are also sometimes broken by an additional word.

The clocks of Silverhill ticked away minute by slow minute. (P. Whitney).

Часы в Сильверхилле медленно отсчитывали минуту за минутой.