The Formation of a Modern Translation Competence in Translator Training

Abstract

The chapter examines the new paradigm in the formation of translation competence—pragmatic competence within the political discourse. It analyses the pragmatic effects caused by specific translation solution; studies the processes by which information is transferred via translation to another culture; identifies the linguistic means of parainforming and metainforming in translation process. Pragmatic competence formation is closely connected with the linguistic competence skills, in order to precisely identify and select such lexical units as euphemisms and dysphemisms. The outcomes imply that in translation the political events are mainly euphemized, while the subjects of politics are dysphemized. Euphemisms may perform concealing and manipulative functions through the cognitive mechanism of abstraction. Euphemisms act as a tool for political participants to hide scandals, disguise the truth, and to guide public opinion when discussing social issues or events. Dysphemisms perform pejorative and discreditable functions through the cognitive mechanism of highlighting. Pragmatic competence formation reveals double pragmatic orientation. On the one hand, it is realized within inner lingual communication. On the other hand, translation is a concrete speech act that is pragmatically oriented to a certain recipient. Present linguistic research aims to point out textually where and in what ways source and target language political texts were not equivalent. The new concept of translation competence, based on the pragmatics, can help orient translator training in times of rapid technological, globalization, political changes.