Structural and semantic peculiarities of the texts of the council of Europe official documents and their translation into ukrainian

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION and SCIENCE, YOUTH AND SPORTS OF UKRAINE

KYIV NATIONAL LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY

CENTRE FOR POSTGRADUATE AND EXTERNAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS AND THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TRANSLATION

STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PECULIARITIES OF THE TEXTS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS AND THEIR translation INTO UKRAINIAN

Natalie Dolzhenko

Group 505

Term Paper

Research Supervisor:

Kyrychenko T.H.

Kyiv - 2011

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1. The place of the Council of Europe documents among the documents of the official style

1.1 The Council of Europe: structure, objectives and official documents

1.2 Types of the Council of Europe official documents and their main linguistic characteristics

CHAPTER 2. Structural and semantic peculiarities of the texts of the Council of Europe official documents

2.1 Structural peculiarities of the texts of the Council of Europe official documents

2.2 The language of the Council of Europe official documents: lexical and semantic peculiarities

2.3 Lexical and grammatical aspects of translation of the Council of Europe official documents

CONCLUSIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF DATA SOURCES

SUMMARY

official document lexical grammatical translation

INTRODUCTION

Texts of documents of international organizations belong to the official style of language and have common linguistic characteristics. The Council of Europe official documents differ from the documents of other international organizations, because social and legal system of a new united Europe is formed not by means of political dictate and signing bilateral agreements, but by creating a tolerant European family, where `the major players' advise or recommend to other states: if you want to live together with us and the way we do, accept `the rules of the game', enter into our conventions and charters, fulfil our resolutions and recommendations, and we will watch you, point to your mistakes and help you. Thus, the language of the legal documents of the new Europe of the 21^st century, based on the EuroEnglish, considerably differs from the language of the international organizations in the 70-80s of the last century.

The research into pragmatic, structural and semantic peculiarities of the texts of the Council of Europe official documents will help understand their role in diplomatic communication, which is important for successful comprehension and translation of the texts of this category.

The aim and objectives of the paper. The aim of this paper is an investigation into main structural, lexical and semantic features of the language of the Council of Europe official documents.

The work has the following objectives:

· to define the formal parameters of composition of the texts of the Council of Europe official documents;

· to study the pragmatic aspects of the language of the Council of Europe official documents;

· to analyze grammatical, lexical and semantic peculiarities of the language of the Council of Europe official documents.

The subject matter of the paper is structural, lexical and semantic peculiarities of the language of the Council of Europe official documents.

The methodology of the study is determined by the objectives of the investigation and includes such methods as content-analysis, structural and semantic description, system analysis and analogy.

The data of the study comprises texts of the Council of Europe administrative documents: resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly and recommendations of the Committee of Ministers.

The theoretical significance of the study lies in the fact that it may help understand pragmatic, structural and lexical peculiarities of the texts of the Council of Europe official documents.

The practical value. From the standpoint of practice, the findings of the study may be used at the seminars in Theory and Practice of Translation to explain and exemplify distinctive features of the texts of international legal documents.

The structure of the paper is determined by the aim and objectives of the study. It consists of the introduction, two chapters, conclusions, bibliography and summary.

The introduction outlines the aim and objectives, the subject matter, the data sources, the methodology, the theoretical and practical value of the paper.

Chapter 1 elucidates the legal status, communicative goals and types of the texts of the Council of Europe official documents as well as their main linguistic characteristics.

Chapter 2 focuses on structural, lexical and pragmatic peculiarities of the texts of the Council of Europe official documents and certain aspects of their translation into Ukrainian.

The findings of the study are generalized and expounded in the conclusions.

CHAPTER 1. THE PLACE OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE DOCUMENTS among the DOCUMENTS OF THE OFFICIAL STYLE

1.1 The Council of Europe: structure, objectives and official documents

Extralinguistic factors are very important for adequate comprehension and translation of the texts of official documents which constitute the subject of our study as the context of any text is based upon the extralinguistic reality. Thus, we consider it necessary to give some information about the Council of Europe, its structure and main objectives. It will provide us with background knowledge useful for interpretation of legal and administrative discourse.

The Council of Europe (CoE) is an international organization promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It was founded on 5 May 1949 by the Treaty of London (the Statute of the Council of Europe), has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens, and is an entirely separate body from the European Union (EU).

Its statutory institutions are the Committee of Ministers comprising the foreign ministers of each member state, the Parliamentary Assembly composed of MPs from the Parliament of each member state, and the Secretary General heading the Secretariat of CoE. The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent institution within CoE, mandated to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the member states.

The headquarters of CoE are in Strasbourg, France, with English and French as its two official languages. The Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress also use German, Italian, and Russian for some of their work.

Article 1(a) of the Statute states that "The aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve a greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress" [13, p. 4]. Therefore, membership is open to all European states which seek European integration, accept the principle of the rule of law and are able and willing to guarantee democracy, fundamental human rights and freedoms.

While the member states of the European Union transfer national legislative and executive powers to the European Commission and the European Parliament in specific areas under European Community law, CoE member states maintain their sovereignty but commit themselves through conventions (i.e. public international law) and co-operate on the basis of common values and common political decisions. Those conventions and decisions are developed by the member states working together at CoE. CoE conventions could also be opened for signature to non-member states thus facilitating equal co-operation with countries outside Europe.

CoE's most famous achievement is the European Convention on Human Rights, which was adopted in 1950 following a report by PACE. The Convention created the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Court supervises compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and thus functions as the highest European court for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is to this court that Europeans can bring cases if they believe that a member country has violated their fundamental rights.

In a nutshell, CoE works in the following areas:

· Protection of the rule of law and fostering legal co-operation through some 200 conventions and other treaties, including such leading instruments as the Convention on Cybercrime, the Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, the Conventions against Corruption and Organised Crime, the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, and the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine.

· Protection of human rights.

· Protection of democracy through parliamentary scrutiny and election monitoring by its Parliamentary Assembly as well as assistance in democratic reforms, in particular by the Venice Commission.

· Promotion of cultural co-operation and diversity under CoE Cultural Convention of 1954 and several conventions on the protection of cultural heritage as well as through its Centre for Modern Languages in Graz, Austria, and its North-South Centre in Lisbon, Portugal.

· Promotion of the right to education under Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and several conventions on the recognition of university studies and diplomas.

· Promotion of fair sport through the Anti-Doping Convention and the Convention against Spectator Violence.

· Promotion of European youth exchanges and co-operation through European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest, Hungary.

· Promotion of the quality of medicines throughout Europe by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Pharmacopoeia [4, p. 325].

The CoE work has resulted in many official documents to facilitate cooperation between European countries. The main official documents of the Committee of Ministers (CM) are:

· Decisions, taken by the CM;

· European Treaties/Conventions;

· Recommendations of the CM to member states;

· Replies from the CM;

· Resolutions;

· Statements/Declarations/Press releases.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) creates the following official documents:

· Recommendations;

· Resolutions;

· Opinions.

In summary, CoE is an international organization promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. The main official documents of CoE are conventions. Apart from them, a solid foundation for its activities has been formed by resolutions, charters, decisions, declarations, recommendations and other documents. All of them differ in legal status as well as in grammatical, lexical and pragmatic peculiarities.

1.2 Types of the Council of Europe official documents and their main linguistic characteristics

Texts of CoE official documents as well as documents of other international organizations (IO) belong to the official style of language. The aim of communication in the official style is to bind the addressee to a certain kind of behaviour. Therefore, these texts are artefacts with high degree of authority and binding force. They are intended to change behaviour of people and, therefore, to change the reality. The label of performatives may also be applied to these texts [9, p. 44].

V. Kaliuzhna considers that IO documents considerably differ from other documents of the official style and claims that they belong to the language of IO documents - a substyle of the official style of language [6, p. 5].

Generally, IO documents have logical, official, precise, stereotypical and imperative character. Being logical, texts of IO documents are characterized by cohesion, logical succession and their own system of notions. Official character of legal documents is ensured by a system of language means which create the effect of impartiality and formality. Owing to their nature and communicative purposes international agreements are to be precise and all-inclusive. The task of achieving this dual characteristic adds considerably to their already complicated syntax and results in the usage of binomial and multinomial word-combinations, complex prepositional phrases, productivity of nominalization, lexical and syntactic parallel constructions. Stereotypical character of IO documents provides for a considerable degree of their lexical and syntactic standardization [6, p. 56].

According to V. Kaliuzhna, IO documents can be classified into:

· Informative (memoranda, reports, notes etc.);

· Regulatory (statutes, conventions, agreements etc.);

· Concluding (resolutions, declarations etc.);

· Summarizing (resume of debates, proceedings etc.) [6, p. 42].

This classification refers to the international organizations of the 70-80s of the last century and, therefore, is a bit outdated and does not reflect modern IO realities. P. Borysenko proposes that recommendations and consultative opinions be added to the above classification [2, p. 10].

O. Perina classifies CoE documents according to their dominant communicative intention, structural and semantic characteristics. She claims that all texts of CoE documents can be divided into the following groups [10, p. 53-56]:

1. Texts of binding documents

These are international agreements and their fulfillment is obligatory for the states which have signed and ratified them. Texts of all CoE conventions, charters and agreements belong to this type.

Binding documents have a high degree of authority and responsibility encoded in them. This is achieved by direct reference to the author of the document and its addressee, to the time and place of compiling the document, by the use of `binding' words (performative verbs and nouns) such as advise, agree, undertake, guarantee, shall, will, promise, recognize, order ,resolution, decision etc. The binding nature of official documents is also ensured by the extensive use of modal verbs, such as should, would, may, need, must, have to, be to etc.

Texts of binding documents are also characterized by:

· conventionality of expression (specific composition): division into structural parts (preamble, central closes, opening closes, opening addresses, closing sentences, signatures, seals, indications of dates, names of addresses etc.);

· set expressions and highly literary formal words, e.g.: on behalf of; hereby, hereto, above-mentioned etc.;

· terms which have to do with a subject field of the document and which must be unambiguous, e.g.: tax exemption; immovable property; air services etc.;

· the encoded character of language: the use of symbols, abbreviations and acronyms, e.g.: MP (Member of Parliament); IMF (International Monetary Fund); UN (United Nations); VAT (value-added tax) etc.;

· absence of any emotions, stylistic devices and expressive means;

· complicated syntax: combining several pronouncements into one sentence which usually begins with a new paragraph; the use of the participial and infinitive constructions; long compound and complex sentences;

· reference to the present or future which is expressed by the preference to use the Present Indefinite, the Present Perfect and the Future Indefinite tenses [9, 44-45].

2. Texts of binding documents with the titles `resolution' and `recommendation'

The fulfilment of such documents is one of the commitments of every CoE member state, because, having signed the Statute of the Council of Europe, the member states have agreed to fulfil its provisions and honour CoE standards and principles. In contrast to the documents of the first type, the language of these documents is milder. Such phrases as "the Parties shall…", "the Parties undertake to…" or "the Parties will…" practically are not used in their texts. They are usually replaced by models bearing the character of statement and recommendation: "the Assembly is of the opinion…", "the Assembly may decide to…" Still, it's clear that if a member state does not satisfy the demands of a resolution or a recommendation, it may be expelled for non-compliance with the commitments to CoE.

3 - Texts of informative documents

Here belong the Coe decisions, opinions, statements, declarations and press releases, which state the CoE official position concerning different issues within its competence.

So, texts of CoE official documents as well as other IO documents belong to the official style of language. They have logical, official, precise, stereotypical and imperative character. According to their dominant communicative intention, structural and semantic characteristics, texts of CoE documents can be divided into 1) texts of binding documents (conventions, statutes, treaties, agreements); 2) texts of binding documents with the titles `resolution' and `recommendation'; 3) texts of informative documents (declarations, statements, press releases). All of them have different grammatical, lexical and pragmatic peculiarities that will be considered in the next chapter.

Chapter 2. STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PECULIARITIES OF THE TEXTS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

2.1 Structural peculiarities of the texts of the Council of Europe official documents

Depending on the type of an international document and its objectives, its text is characterized by a specific composition. In this part of our study we will define the formal parameters of composition of the texts of CoE administrative documents: resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly and recommendations of the Committee of Ministers.

Generally, at the structural level texts of international binding documents have an invariable form. They consist of certain structural parts: the title, the preamble, the main part and the concluding part [5, p. 12].

The title of a document is usually built according to the following model: d+Np+WCL (rarely WCl+Np), where d is a denotatum (European, Vienna etc.), Np - a noun with performative meaning (Agreement, Convention, Resolution, Recommendation etc.), WCl - a clause defining the subject of the document, e.g.:

(1) Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on deinstitutionalisation and community living of children with disabilities [17], where Np - `Recommendation', d - `of the Committee of Ministers to member states', WCl - `on deinstitutionalisation and community living of children with disabilities'.

(2) Council of Europe. Parliamentary Assembly. Resolution 1755 (2010)1. The functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine [16], where d - `Council of Europe. Parliamentary Assembly', Np - `Resolution', WCl - `The functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine'.

The preamble is characterized by a precise text organization: the opening clauses, the central clauses, the closing sentences. In the opening clauses the parties of the document are named, e.g.: "The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 15.b of the Statute of the Council of Europe…" [17]. The central clauses emphasize the importance of adoption of the document and name other international documents that provide grounds for its legitimacy. The closing sentences indicate the end of the preamble and are of great structural and semantic importance as they link together the structural parts of the text [5, p. 9]. For example, in the CM Recommendation the closing sentence of the preamble is "Recommends that…" [17].

Functioning of introductory words is the specific feature of preamble. O.Zaruma-Pans'kykh classifies these words into three groups: a) words denoting the importance of adoption of the document, such as noting, recognizing considering, realizing, emphasizing etc.; b) markers indicating links with international law and references to the existing international documents, such as bearing in mind, (re)affirming, guided, recalling, inspired, reiterating, observing etc.; c) lexemes indicating that the parties are ready to pursue the objectives of the document, such as desiring, ((being) deeply) concerned, alarmed, (being) resolved, convinced, prompted, determined etc. Introductory words provide for cohesion of the text of the preamble [5, p. 10]. In the preamble to the CM Recommendation the following introductory words are used: considering, recalling (5), taking into account (2), bearing in mind (2), referring to (2), stressing, being aware of, recognising, noting [17].

So, the preamble is characterized by an invariable structure: it is a complex sentence (with an average length of 214 words), introduced by a subject phrase followed by a number of parallel infinitive or participial constructions, each of which begins with an introductory word and forms a paragraph [5, p. 10].

The central clauses of the cm recommendation are divided into parts and paragraphs, the text of the PACE resolution consists of paragraphs. Long compound and complex sentences dominate in this part of CoE administrative documents. The impersonal sentences, infinitive and participial constructions are also widely used there.

(3) Organisations of parents and NGOs representing them should be included in the development of community-based services and their expertise should be used throughout the process of transition [17] - a compound sentence.

(4) It calls upon the authorities to take all necessary measures to protect media freedom and pluralism in Ukraine and to refrain from any attempts to control, directly or indirectly, the content of the reporting in the national media [16] - the use of the Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction.

The choice of grammatical structures in the texts of CoE resolutions and recommendations is determined by their communicative intention. Therefore, the texts of CoE administrative documents as well as the texts of international agreements are characterized by the neutralization of meaning of the Present Indefinite and the Present Perfect forms in the predicate of the preamble and the preference to use the Present Indefinite Tense and modal verbs should, would in the central clauses, which determines the reference of the text to the denotative future [7, p. 44], e.g.:

(5) Funds should be allocated to research, monitoring and evaluation [17]. - Держави повинні виділяти кошти на дослідження, моніторинг та оцінку [15].

In central clauses one can also observe a specific syntactic organization of the texts of CoE documents expressed in the dominance of the compound nominal predicate over the simple verbal predicate [2, p. 9].

Overall, the structural analysis shows that the composition of the text of CoE document (the division into structural parts: the preamble, the main part and the concluding part, parts and paragraphs) corresponds to the pragmatics of the text of CoE document and makes for its successful functioning as a complex of the international law provisions.

2.2 The language of the Council of Europe official documents: lexical and semantic peculiarities

The choice and functioning of language means in the texts of CoE resolutions and recommendations is determined by their communicative intention. The main functions of these documents are advisory and regulatory. They are aimed at imposing obligations and recommending what measures should be taken by a member state to meet CoE standards and principles. Owing to their nature and communicative purposes CoE administrative documents are to be precise and all-inclusive. These characteristics make their language close to the language of international binding documents (agreements, treaties, statutes, charters etc.).

The word-stock of CoE official documents consists of learned and neutral words which correlate with the terminological and special vocabulary. Precision, clarity and unambiguity are the most essential features of the style of international agreements. That is why the words are used in their logical dictionary meaning, neologisms are not typical, the use of synonyms is limited [5, p. 15].

Texts of CoE resolutions and recommendations as well as texts of other official documents are also characterized by the following features:

1. A special system of cliches and set expressions is prolific in such texts, which creates the style peculiar to CoE binding documents promoting a considerable degree of their lexical and syntactic standardization. These standard phrases often serve as at he introduction, a logical connection or the concluding part of the text performing an architectonic function and promoting cohesion and coherence of the text [5, p. 17]. E.g.: with regard to, in compliance with, hereto, aforementioned etc.

2. Texts of CoE official documents contain a lot of terms and terminological word-combinations. In these texts their main function is not to explain or interpret a certain scientific phenomenon, but to name or concretize a notion or a political problem. On the whole, political, diplomatic, military, legal, scientific and technical terms can be found in the language of CoE documents. Legal terms used in their texts can be subdivided into general legal terms and international legal terms [5, p. 16]. For example, the PACE resolution which constitutes the data of our study deals with the functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine and contains mainly political and legal terms, such as electoral system (виборча система), the Prokuratura (прокуратура), legality (законність), ombudsman (омбудсмен), the justice system (система правосуддя), the rule of law (верховенство права), the Bar (адвокатура), civic organizations (громадські організації), security service (служба безпеки), law enforcement authorities (правоохоронні органи), system of checks and balances (система стримувань і противаг) etc [16]. The CM recommendation deals with deinstitutionalisation and community living of children with disabilities and contains such special terms as deinstitutionalisation (деінституціоналізація), vulnerable groups (вразливі групи), foster family (прийомна родина), parental responsibility (батьківські обов'язки), residential institution (інтернат, заклад опіки), community-based services (послуги на основі громади), social exclusion (соціальне виключення) etc [17].

3. The language of CoE official documents is characterized by the use of symbols, abbreviations and acronyms [9, p. 45]. E.g.: GRECO (the Group of States against Corruption), SBU (the Security Service of Ukraine), NGO (non-governmental organization), CM (the Committee of Ministers) [16, 17].

4. Texts of CoE resolutions and recommendations are rich in internationalisms. This is due to the peculiarities of functioning of diplomatric documents: they are intended for several states and should be interpreted unambiguously [5, p. 14]. E.g.: system, national, institutionalization, legal instrument, integration, ombudsman, resolution, co-ordination etc.

5. One more distinctive feature of CoE documents is functioning of non-assimilated words and word-combinations of Latin and French origin [7, p. 99]. In CoE resolutions and recommendations which constitute the data of our study the following Latin and French borrowings are used: inter alia (між іншим), ad hoc (для даного випадку), en banc (у повному складі) [16, 17].

6. CoE documents should be logical, official, precise and stereotypical. Therefore, their language is impersonal. They are characterized by absence of any emotions, stylistic devices and expressive means.

Though having much in common, texts of CoE administrative documents differ from texts of international binding documents due to special legal and political status of this international organization and development of integrative processes in Europe.

CoE is one of the most authoritative international organizations. Its activity is based on the principles of the rule of law, the pluralist democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. This means that CoE does not interfere into internal affairs of its member states and its activity has a subsidiary character. All this is reflected in texts of CoE official documents. On one hand, provisions of CoE binding documents are precise, clear, stripped of excessive abstract notions, vague phraseological units and abstruse theory. On the other hand, CoE documents do not impose any direct bans on going back on its provisions. They have an advisory character and help member states bring their legal systems into compliance with CoE standards and principles. Still, it's clear that if a member state does not satisfy the demands of a resolution or a recommendation, it may be expelled for non-compliance with the commitments to CoE [4, p. 293-295].

Due to the aforementioned reasons, the language of CoE documents is milder than the language of international binding documents. For example, in CoE they avoid saying and writing "fulfilment of obligations before the Council of Europe" or "protection of human rights" giving preference to more flexible and positive variants "honouring of obligations and commitments of a member-state" and "respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms" [10, p. 56]. Unlike international agreements, the texts of CoE administrative documents seldom contain such verbs of deontic modality as shall, will and must. Due to the pragmatic peculiarities of CoE documents, they are replaced by modal verbs should, would and may bearing the character of recommendation.

Still, CoE resolutions and recommendations as well as other international binding documents contain `binding' words (performative verbs and nouns) giving their texts authority and binding force. In CoE resolutions and recommendations which constitute the data of our study the following `binding words' are used: recommend, adhere, resolution, offer, urge, warn, call upon, respect, ask, reiterate, reaffirm etc [16, 17].

Apart from that, the language of CoE administrative documents is influenced by the so-called European English (EuroEnglish), one of the variants of `World Englishes' which is widely used in the European Union as an International Auxiliary Language (IAL), first of all, in various kinds of administrative discourse [8, p. 127]. For example, the use of non-assimilated words and word-combinations of Latin and French origin and the use internationalisms in the texts of CoE documents are distinctive features of the EuroEnglish.

Overall, one may conclude that the word-stock of CoE administrative documents consists of learned and neutral words which correlate with the terminological and special vocabulary as well as with shortenings, abbreviations, non-assimilated words and word-combinations of Latin and French origin. Due to special legal and political status of this international organization and development of integrative processes in Europe, texts of CoE documents differ from the texts of international agreements in some aspects: 1) their language is milder, with models bearing the character of statement and recommendation; 2) verbs of deontic modality shall, will and must are seldom used in their texts, they are replaced by should, would and may; 3) their language is influenced by the EuroEnglish.

2.3 Lexical and grammatical aspects of translation of the Council of Europe official documents

As it was stated in the previous parts of our study, texts of CoE official documents belong to the official style of language and their main functions are advisory and regulatory. Therefore, CoE documents have logical, official, precise, stereotypical and imperative character. All these characteristics should be preserved while translating texts of CoE resolutions and recommendations into Ukrainian. For this purpose, it is very important to pay attention to pragmatic aspect in the process of translation. Let's now illustrate by several examples how pragmatic approach may be applied to the translation of CoE administrative documents.

Examples are:

(1) English text:

16. The creation of new institutions and new placements of children with disabilities in institutions should be prevented… [17].

Ukrainian text:

16. Необхідно попереджувати створення нових закладів та нових місць для розміщення дітей-інвалідів… [15].

(2) English text:

3. Building of new institutions should be discouraged by refusing to approve and fund proposals for this type of project… [17].

Ukrainian text:

3. Слід усіляко знеохочувати будівництво нових закладів шляхом відмови від затвердження та фінансування пропозицій проектів такого типу… [15].

In these two examples the text has an advisory character so the translator chose pragmatically correct variants of translation the modal verb should as слід, необхідно and not as повинен.

(3) English text:

15. Funds should be allocated to research, monitoring and evaluation… [17].

Ukrainian text:

15. Держави повинні виділяти кошти на дослідження, моніторинг та оцінку… [15].

This example deals with CoE standards that must be implemented by the member states so it has more binding character than the previous two.

Therefore, it may be considered correct to translate should as повинен.

At the structural level texts of CoE documents are characterized by complicated syntax: the use of long compound and complex sentences, participial and infinitive constructions, passive predicates.

This naturally results in the necessity to introduce some grammatical changes in the translated version of CoE documents.

These are the most frequently applied grammatical transformations while translating CoE documents:

1. Transposition is a change in the order of words in phrases and sentences, which is often caused by the structural differences in expressing the themwe and the rheme in different languages [9, p. 112]. E.g.:

(4) For this reason, preventive measures of support for children and families in accordance with their special needs should be provided as early as possible [17]. - Для цього потрібно якнайраніше застосовувати превентивні заходи для підтримки дітей та їхніх родин відповідно до їхніх особливих потреб [15].

2. Grammatical replacement:

a) morphological replacement - substitution of one part of speech by another. E.g.:

(6) The Assembly is concerned that allegations of possible electoral fraud… [16]. - Асамблея стурбована тим, що заяви про можливі фальсифікації виборів…[14].

b) syntactical replacement - substitution of one syntactical construction by another one [12, p. 113]. E.g.:

(7) Organisations of parents and NGOs representing them should be included in the development of community-based services… [17]. - Організації батьків та НУО, що їх представляють, повинні активно долучатися до створення послуг на основі громад…[15].

3. Addition

(8) In exceptional cases (for example, where there has been abuse or neglect)… [17]. - У виняткових випадках (наприклад, у випадках неналежного чи жорстокого поводження і нехтування)… [15].

4. Omission

(9) …with a view to addressing the deficiencies noted in the current legal framework for non-governmental organizations [16]. - …для усунення недоліків існуючого законодавства про недержавні організації [14].

The main causes of lexical difficulties in the process of translation of CoE documents are the absence of direct equivalents of new terms in the TL, polysemy of English and Ukrainian words, certain peculiarities of word-formation etc. To avoid clumsy translation of an English text one has to resort to some special devices known as lexical transformations. The most frequently used lexical transformations in the process of translation of CoE documents are:

1. Differentiation of meanings

Here are some examples from the PACE resolution [16].

System of checks and balances - система стримувань і противаг

In this example check is translated as стримування but not as перевірка, контроль, зупинка.

The rule of law - верховенство права

In this example rule is translated as верховенство but not as правило, порядок, правління.

Honouring Ukraine's commitments and obligations - виконання Україною зобов'язань

Here honour is translated as виконувати but not as поважати.

2. Concretization of meanings is substitution of the SL words (phrases) with a generic meaning by the TL words (phrases) with a more specific (narrow) meaning [9, p. 114].

(10) Children have a right to regular reviews and reassessment of their placement in institutions so that they can be offered appropriate community services [17]. - Діти мають право на регулярні перегляди та переоцінювання їх перебування в закладах опіки, що дозволить їм отримувати належні послуги у громадах [15].

(11) The Assembly is concerned that allegations of possible electoral fraud…[16]. - Асамблея стурбована тим, що заяви про можливі фальсифікації виборів…[14].

3. Descriptive translation is rendering of the meaning of one word in SL by a group of words in TL [11, 14]. E.g.:

(12) Deinstitutionalisation requires a number of general actions to support the strategic approach at national level involving all stakeholders [17]. - Деінституціоналізація вимагає реалізації низки загальних заходів на підтримку стратегічного підходу на національному рівні із залученням усіх зацікавлених сторін [15].

(13) In future, mainstream services, including day care centres, pre-school set-ups, places of worship, schools and leisure services should be required…[17]. - У майбутньому загальні служби і послуги, такі, як центри денного догляду, дошкільні заклади, будинки молитви, школи та послуги з організації дозвілля (гуртки, клуби) повинні…[15].

(14) When specialist interventions are needed…[17]. - Якщо виникає потреба у втручаннях вузьких спеціалістів…[15].

So, stylistic, pragmatic, structural and lexical peculiarities of texts of CoE official documents present some difficulties in the process of their translation into Ukrainian and require applying of certain lexical and grammatical transformations.

conclusions

Today's fast-changing world is gradually turning into a single social and economic environment where everything that happens in one country influences the life of people in other countries. In Europe integrative processes are based around the activities of the European Union and the Council of Europe. CoE is an international organization promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. The main official documents of CoE are conventions. Apart from them, a solid foundation for its activities has been formed by resolutions, charters, decisions, declarations, recommendations and other administrative documents.

Texts of CoE official documents belong to the official style of language. The main functions of these documents are advisory and regulatory. They are aimed at imposing obligations and giving recommendations on what measures should be taken by a member state to meet CoE standards and principles. That's why such documents have logical, official, precise, stereotypical and imperative character. According to their dominant communicative intention, structural and semantic characteristics, texts of CoE documents can be divided into 1) texts of binding documents (conventions, statutes, treaties, agreements); 2) texts of binding documents with the titles `resolution' and `recommendation'; 3) texts of informative documents (declarations, statements, press releases). For the purposes of our study, we focused on the texts of the Council of Europe administrative documents: resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly and recommendations of the Committee of Ministers.

Generally, on the structural level texts of CoE resolutions and recommendations have an invariable form. They consist of certain structural parts: the title, the preamble, the main part and the concluding part. The preamble is characterized by a precise text organization: it is a complex sentence (with an average length of 214 words), introduced by a subject phrase followed by a number of parallel infinitive or participial constructions, each of which begins with an introductory word and forms a paragraph. It comprises the opening clauses, the central clauses and the closing sentences. The central clauses of the cm recommendation are divided into parts and paragraphs, the text of the PACE resolution consists of paragraphs. Long compound and complex sentences dominate in this part of CoE official documents. The impersonal sentences, infinitive and participial constructions are also widely used there. Apart from that, texts of CoE administrative documents are characterized by the neutralization of meaning of the Present Indefinite and the Present Perfect forms in the predicate of the preamble and the preference to use the Present Indefinite Tense and modal verbs should, would in the central clauses. All this determines the reference of these texts to the denotative future.

Owing to their nature and communicative purposes CoE official documents are to be precise and all-inclusive. Their language is impersonal. The word-stock of CoE resolutions and recommendations consist of learned and neutral words which correlate with the terminological and special vocabulary as well as with shortenings, abbreviations, non-assimilated words and word-combinations of Latin and French origin. Precision, clarity and unambiguity are the most essential features of the style of international agreements. That is why the words are used in their logical dictionary meaning, neologisms are not typical, the use of synonyms is limited. As a result a special system of cliches and set expressions is prolific in these texts.

Due to special legal and political status of this international organization and development of integrative processes in Europe, texts of CoE documents have the following peculiarities: 1) their language is milder than the language of international agreements, with models bearing the character of statement and recommendation; 2) verbs of deontic modality shall, will and must are seldom used in their texts, they are replaced by should, would and may; 3) their language is influenced by the EuroEnglish.

A detailed analysis of the texts of CoE official documents makes it possible to draw the conclusion that communicative purposes of these documents as well as requirements and restrictions on their drafting are of crucial importance to the selection of language means and the ways of their usage.

Bibliography

1. Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка. - М.: Просвещение, 1966. - 364 с.

2. Борисенко П.А. Місце офіційних документів Ради Європи в переліку документів офіційно-ділового стилю // Науковий вісник Волинського національного університету ім. Лесі Українки. - 2009. - № 7. - С. 8-10.

3. Гальперин И.Р. Стилистика английского языка. - М.: Высш. школа, 1977. - 332 с.

4. Европейское право. Право Европейского Союза и правовое обеспечение защиты прав человека: Учебник для вузов / Под ред. проф. Л.М. Энтина. - М.: Норма, 2005. - 960 с.

5. Зарума-Панських О.Р. Англійська лексика міжнародних договорів: структурні, семантичні та дискурсні особливості: автореф. дис. на здобуття наук. ступеня канд. філол. наук: спец. 10.02.04 "Германські мови" / О.Р. Зарума-Панських. - Львів, 2001. - 22с.

6. Калюжная В.В. Стиль англоязычных документов международных организаций. - К.: Наукова думка, 1982. - 122 с.

7. Максимов С.Е. Прагматические и структурно-семантические особенности текста международного договора (На материале английского языка): Дис… канд. филол. наук: 10.02.04. - К., 1984. - 198 с.

8. Максімов С. Англійська як "міжнародна допоміжна мова" епохи глобалізації на європейському просторі // Наукові записки. Серія: Філологічні науки - 2009. - Вип. 89 (2). - С. 126-129.

9. Максімов С.Є. Практичний курс перекладу (англійська та українська мови). Теорія та практика перекладацького аналізу тексту для студентів факультету перекладачів - К.: Ленвіт, 2010. - 175 с.

10. Періна О.О. Лексико-семантичні особливості текстів адміністративних документів Ради Європи // Наука і сучасність. Серія: Педагогіка. Філологія.: Збірник наукових праць. - К.: НПУ, 2005. - Т. 47. - С. 51-64.

11. Петрова О.В. Введение в теорию и практику перевода (на материале английского языка). - М.: АСТ: Восток - Запад, 2007. - 96 с.

12. Рецкер Я.И. Теория перевода и переводческая практика. Очерки лингвистической теории перевода. - М.: Р. Валент, 2004. - 240 с.

13. Statute of the Council of Europe. London. 5. V. 1949. - Strasbourg, 1986. - 59 p.

14. Резолюція 1755 (2010)1 Парламентської Асамблеї Ради Європи "Функціонування демократичних інституцій в Україні" від 4 жовтня 2010 року [Електронний ресурс]. - Режим доступу: http://www.coe.kiev.ua/doc/res/2010_1.html

15. Рекомендація CM/Rec(2010)2 Комітету Міністрів державам-учасницям щодо деінституціоналізації та життя у громадах дітей з вадами здоров'я від 3 лютого 2010 року [Електронний ресурс]. - Режим доступу: http://www.coe.kiev.ua/doc/rec/2010_2.html

16. Council of Europe. Parliamentary Assembly. Resolution 1755 (2010)1. The functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine [Internet source]. - http://www.assembly.coe.int/doc/2010_1.html