USE OF THE PARALLEL CORPUS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF PAST FORMS IN THE TEXTS OF THE TRANSLATIONS FROM ENGLISH TO UKRAINIAN IN OFFICIAL BUSINESS DOCUMENTATION

Abstract

The purpose is to analyze the forms of the past tense in the texts of translations from English into Ukrainian in official business documentation in a parallel corpus. The object of the article is forms of the past tense in a parallel bilingual corpus in official business papers of the UN in Ukraine. The subject of the article is the factors that influence the translation of forms of the past tense in the texts of translations from English into Ukrainian of the corpus.

Methods. Research methodology is determined by the purpose and objectives. Comparative analysis has been used in the article: it has been involved to identify common features of the texts of official business documents in English and Ukrainian; comparative and translation studies analysis has served to compare the texts in two languages (English and Ukrainian) in order to establish their adequacy and equivalence; descriptive method is aimed at highlighting the features of lexical units of the original and translation.

Results. In order to carry out the research, a parallel bilingual corpus has been drawn up, which included the texts of the official business papers of the UN in Ukraine, that is the material of the study. It has been analyzed how the verb forms of the past tense in the corpus can be transmitted in the texts of the translation from English into Ukrainian. It has been found that by quantitative calculations in the texts of translation of the corpus, the Past Indefinite form has been translated as the past simple tense of the imperfective aspect (32%), the Past Continuous form has been transmitted as the past simple tense of the imperfective aspect (25%), the Past Perfect form has been translated as the past simple tense of the imperfective aspect (20%), Present Perfect form has been transmitted as the past simple tense of the perfective aspect (23%).

Conclusions. A comparative analysis of the forms of the past tense has been made in the texts of translations from English into Ukrainian in the official business documentation in the parallel corpus. The conducted research allows to state that most often four aspect and tense forms of English are transmitted into Ukrainian as one form of the past simple tense. The Past Indefinite form has been translated as the past simple tense of the imperfective aspect, Past Continuous has been transmitted as the past simple tense of the imperfective aspect, Past Perfect has been translated as the past simple tense of the imperfective aspect, Present Perfect has been transmitted as the past simple tense of the perfective aspect. A promising area of further research is to study the forms of present and future tenses in the texts of translations of bilingual corpora.