Дипломная работа (ВКР) — бакалавр, специалист на тему Особенности переводов культоронимов с русского на английский. (на материале произведения «День опричника» Владимира Сорокина) // Peculiarities of translations of cultonyms from Russian into English. (based on «The Day of the Oprichnik» by Vladimir Sorokin)

Содержание:

INTRODUCTION 3

CHAPTER 1. CULTURONYMS: FEATURES AND WAYS OF TRANSLATION 6

1.1 Notion of Culturonym 6

1.2 Equivalence in Translating 12

1.3 Role of Translation Strategies in Translating Culturonyms 16

1.4 Fiction Texts: Features of Discourse, Ways of Translating 21

1.5 Summary of Results 26

CHAPTER 2. ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATING CULTURONYMS (BASED ON “THE DAY OF THE OPRICHNIK” BY VLADIMIR SOROKIN) 27

2.1 Analysis of Applying Transcription and Transliteration 28

2.2 Analysis of Applying Calquing 31

2.3 Analysis of Applying Descriptive Translation 37

2.4 Analysis of Applying Hyponymic and Hyperonymic Translation 43

2.5 Analysis of Applying Pragmatic Adaptation 45

2.6 Results and Discussion 49

CHAPTER 3. PRACTICAL RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH RESULTS 51

3.1 Practical Relevance in Culture Studies 51

3.2 Practical Relevance in Translation 53

3.3 Practical Relevance in Teaching 57

3.4 Relevance of Exercises 62

3.5 Results and Recommendations 64

CONCLUSION 66

REFERENCES 70

APPENDIX 76

Введение:

Fiction is a reflection of the culture and language of the people who created it. For this reason, it is replete with cultural names, that is, vocabulary that directly reflects the cultural, folklore, day-to-day life, geographical and other characteristics of the people. In this context, the role of language, since it is the lexical system that serves as a means of expressing the national cultural and historical features of the people should be taken into account as well.

The relevance of the research is due to the fact that culturonyms represent a special layer of vocabulary, they are carriers of historical and national color. At the same time, culturonyms are also used to stylize the text, they have pronounced connections with the historical and cultural context of a certain nation, and can also denote a specific era if obsolete words are used. This problem is also relevant from the standpoint of translation, since lexical units of this type can be classified as non-equivalent vocabulary. Culturonyms represent additional difficulties in translation and require the translator to have a broad outlook and the ability to use specific translation strategies.

The object of the research is culturonyms.

The subject of the research is the strategies of translating Russian culturonyms into English.

The objective of the research is to analyze the strategies for translating culturonyms in fiction.

The set objective implies the solution of the following tasks:

 Characterize the phenomenon of culturonyms, correlate it with non-equivalent vocabulary and realities;

 Designate the signs and features of equivalent translation;

 Describe strategies for translating culturonyms;

 Identify the distinctive features of a literary text and the principles of its translation;

 Analyze the features of the application of strategies for the translating of culturonyms;

 Specify the potential for practical application of the research results.

The source of the research is the novel by V. Sorokin «The Day of the Oprichinik» and its translation into English.

Research material is 100 culturonyms in Russian and their translation into English.

The research methodology includes the following: method of continuous sampling in the formation of the corpus of examples; comparative method in determining the strategy for the translation of culturonyms; descriptive method in identifying the features of using translation strategies; method of quantitative analysis in identifying the most productive strategies for the translation of culturonyms.

The theoretical basis of the research includes the works of the following scientists: M. L. Alekseeva, L. S. Barkhudarov, E. V. Berdnikova, N. S. Valgina, V. S. Vinogradov, S. Vlakhov, T. A. Kazakova, T. R. Levitskaya, E. M. Pyreskina, Y. I. Retsker, G. D. Tomakhin, N. A. Fenenko, A. D. Schweitzer, etc.

The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that it considers the problem of translating culturonyms, taking into account their role in the literary text, and also assesses the extent to which the reader of the translation text gets the same experience as the reader of the original text.

The theoretical significance of the research lies in the fact that it is based on the methods of linguistic and culturological research, i.e. the analysis of the quality of the translation is carried out precisely from the point of view of the transfer of cultural features and associations associated with culturonyms in the original language. Carrying out a quantitative analysis allows to evaluate the productivity of culturonym translation strategies.

The practical significance of the research lies in the fact that the results obtained can be used in the study of the English language and culture in the context of cultural linguistics. As part of teaching, the results of the research can be applied in the study of Russian as a foreign language, in terms of the formation of linguocultural competence. The results of the research can be applied in translation, as the analysis revealed the principles and motives for applying translation strategies in relation to culturonyms.

The structure of the research is determined by the objective and tasks. The text contains introduction, three chapters, conclusion, references and appendix.

The first chapter is theoretical, it discusses the features of culturonyms, their connection with realities and non-equivalent vocabulary in general.

The second chapter analyzes examples of the translation of culturonyms from Russian into English, and also identifies the most productive translation strategies.

The third chapter assesses the practical applicability of the results of the research in cultural linguistics, translation and teaching.

Each chapter ends with a brief summary, and the conclusion summarizes the results of the research.

Заключение:

To sum up, culturonyms are a component of non-equivalent vocabulary in the lexical system of the language. A distinctive feature of culturonyms is that they are nationally specific, and also have a direct connection with the culture, history, nature and climate of the country and people — native speakers. In the space of a literary text, culturonyms serve the purpose of conveying the national color and characteristics of the life of the people in whose language the work was created.

Equivalence is still one of the key defining elements of translation, as it serves as a reminder of the main challenges that a translator faces in the process of translation. At the same time, translation practice in relation to realities is not universal, each translator decides on the most appropriate translation technique when working with each specific text and each specific realia.

The problems of translating a literary text, scientists distinguish a number of both linguistic and cultural features, including dialectisms, puns, various tropes, intercultural differences, etc. The presence of such a wide range of problems naturally imposes rather strict requirements for a translator of fiction, whose competence includes not only knowledge of the original language, but also an understanding of the specifics of a foreign culture.

Within the comparative analysis, the features of using transcription and transliteration in the translation of culturonyms were considered. The analysis showed that the use of these strategies is justified in cases where the realities expressed by culturonyms are widely known outside of Russia (such as “vodka”, “sarafan”). In such cases, the reader understands the meaning of the word and correlates the lexical unit precisely with Russian life (alimentary traditions, customs, music, etc.). In other cases, the use of these translation strategies does not contribute to understanding the essence of the lexical units used, the reader understands that the used word is associated with Russia, its cultural, political life or way of life, but does not perceive the essence itself, since there are no associations and connotations that lexical units of this type endowed in Russian (“oprichnik”, “oprichnina”).

The analysis has also shown that calquing is most productive when there are similar structures in the source and target languages in terms of grammar. Calquing is also effective if the cultural name has several components, and it is in this form that it is known to native speakers of the target language (“Secret Department”). The key problem in the application of calquing is that the meaning of not all components of the calquing phrase can be understood by native speakers of the target language, which makes it difficult to perceive the meaning and images in the literary text.

The analysis allowed to emphasize the principles of applying the strategy of descriptive translation with. When using the strategy, the stylistic features of the original are also lost, and it is the transfer of meaning that comes to the fore (for instance, instead of “щи” there is “cabbage soup” that is stylistically and culturally neutral). The use of this strategy is justified in those cases when the translator needs to convey to the readers the essence of the text, while sacrificing the stylistic, associative and connotative features of the original. It is also applied to make the images and narration clearer for readers.

The analysis has also shown that hyperonymic translation is used in the formation of generalized translation options that reflect the general meaning, the essence of cultural names, but completely omit details, connections with the context of Russian culture, etc. For instance, “челобитная” that has close relations to Russian culture is translated as “petition” that is the common name, without any connotations. In fact, the translation options formed in this way make it possible to convey information as a whole, without specifying the stylistic features inherent in the lexical units used in the original.

Under the analysis, the principles of applying the adaptation strategy were considered as well. The key problem of applying this strategy is that the generated version of the translation is in no way connected with the history and culture of the Russian language (since English and Russian are both related to Christian tradition, the translation of “Крещение” was made using the lexeme “Epiphany”, that is the part of English linguistic culture not the Russian one). The point is that the transfer of the translated lexeme content makes its meaning understandable for native speakers of the target language.

The quantitative analysis has shown that the most productive strategy is descriptive translation (38%). The reasons for using this strategy are that it is used in cases where the meaning can only be conveyed descriptively. The key idea is that such lexical units that have no semantic analogues in the target language. Nevertheless, all the identified translation strategies are widely represented in the practice of translating cultural names. At the same time, the choice of a translation strategy is made each time by the translator independently, based on the context.

The second productive strategy is calquing (28%) indicating the structural similarities between English and Russian. Other strategies are not that popular (pragmatic adaptation – 12%, transcription – 8%, hyperonymic translation – 8%, transliteration – 7%).

The estimation of the practical relevance of the results has demonstrated that the results can be applied in linguistic culture. The vast majority of identified cultural names belong to the category of obsolete vocabulary, since the text is stylized under the era of Ivan the Terrible. At the same time, all the considered lexical units reflect the peculiarities of the culture and history of Russia, which requires the reader to understand their semantics in order to adequately perceive the content of the text and the author’s intention.

Furthermore, literary translation requires the translator to work with the expressive and aesthetic layer of a literary work. As is the case with all other types of translation, the use of translation strategies is typical for working with works of art endowed with the expressive features of the author’s style of the writer. A high-quality literary translation makes it possible to have the same communicative effect on the reader of the translated text as the original text has on the native speaker of the original language.

The problem of translating equivalent and non-equivalent vocabulary is the tough problems in terms of reaching translation equivalence. Such an equivalence is hard to reach due to the existing discrepancies between various cultures. Culturonyms are the part of non-equivalent vocabulary that requires specific approaches and attention from translators.

The conducted research is of considerable interest for teaching, as full-fledged mastering of the language is impossible without understanding the broader context, cultural characteristics and history of the country of the language being studied. This study proved that cultural names are directly related not only to culture, but also to the history of the country, and understanding their meaning significantly increases the competence of a person who studies a foreign language.

All in all, the research is of paramount importance for modern linguistics as it encompasses the problems of various branches of humanitarian knowledge.

Фрагмент текста работы:

CHAPTER 1. CULTURONYMS: FEATURES AND WAYS OF TRANSLATION

1.1 Notion of Culturonym

Linguistic culture is a kind of culture in conjunction with its linguistic expressions. N. F. Alefirenko gives the following definition of this phenomenon: «a complex of linguistic units that fill the value-semantic space of the language in the process of cognition of reality» [3, p. 41].

The study of this or that linguistic culture is carried out by the branch that arose at the intersection of linguistics and cultural studies: linguistic culturology. This is one of the most developing branches of modern linguistics in recent years within the framework of the anthropocentric paradigm (along with cognitive linguistics, with which it is closely intertwined in some issues).

According to V. N. Telia, linguistic culturology «is focused on the cultural factor in the language and on the linguistic factor in a person» [54, p. 222], it is engaged in the study of the reflection in the language of the culture of the people, the role of the existence in the culture of certain linguistic units and symbols, the laws of their functioning and the degree of their significance for representatives of this linguocultural community.

Close to the definition of this phenomenon cited above is the definition of V. V. Krasnykh, who sees linguistic culturology as “a discipline that studies the manifestation, reflection and fixation of culture in language and discourse, directly related to the study of the national picture of the world, linguistic consciousness, features of the mental-lingual complex” [35, p. 12].

Any culture implies the presence of a concept sphere inherent in it. When transferring the concepts of one linguistic culture to another, a certain space arises at the conceptual level (the level of abstractions, i.e. in the mind), in which the translation takes place (or «internal translation» [29, p. 22] in the case of the creative activity of interlinguocultural personalities) of concepts from one concept sphere to another.

This translation is nothing more than a consideration of possible ways of transferring the concept, which at the linguistic level looks like a selection of methods of objectification and semantization, i.e., if necessary, transferring the meaning of an emerging cultural name (already a xenonym in relation to “foreign” linguistic culture). This space is called the interlinguocultural picture of the world [61].

At the same time, not every concept needs to be transferred to another linguistic culture. As a rule, only culturally significant concepts act as such concepts, which cannot be dispensed with when describing any linguocultural space.

Most often, authors of literary texts face such a need to create a brighter and closer to reality image of a particular country, nation, etc. The most approximate content can be described only with the use of lexemes denoting the realities of linguistic culture, i.e. objects and phenomena characteristic of the history, culture and way of life of the people, not found in other nations. The theory of translation considers the vocabulary used to convey realities as «untranslatable», or non-equivalent [56].

Culturonyms are the same realities, only presented not at the level of consciousness, but already objectified in linguistic expression, i.e. reality is a component of cognition, and cultural name is a language component [19].

The same point of view is shared, for example, by A. V. Fedorov, believing that realities are not words, but objects, situations, and other things that they denote [57, с. 146]. According to him, it is not realities that are subject to semantization in texts, but the names of realities, i.e. cultural names (culturonyms), or «reality-words» in the terminology of S. Vlakhov [18].

Culturonyms are the names of various elements of the cultures of people, regardless of a particular culture and a particular language [29].

Culturonyms are usually divided into two types — polyonyms and idioculturonyms. Polyonyms are the so-called «universal» cultural names, i.e. those that are represented in all or in most of the existing cultures of the peoples of the world and appear in different cultures as a result of centripetal processes of the development of earthly civilization, in other words, polyonyms are the result of linguistic convergence. Polyonyms, which are often binary, can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. Homogeneous polyonyms have a common etymology and are internationalisms. Heterogeneous, on the contrary, do not have a common etymology, but remain representatives of universal concepts [29].

Idiocultural names in linguistics are understood as culturonyms assigned to specific elements of certain cultures. This type of cultural names, in turn, is divided into two subspecies: idionyms and xenonyms.

Idionyms reflect the specific elements of «one’s own», internal culture. Such linguistic units arise as a result of the primary designation of cultural elements. Xenonyms are linguistic units of a given language used to name special elements of a “foreign”, external culture and, accordingly, are the result of secondary verbalization of cultural realities. There is a correlation between the corresponding idionyms and xenonyms, which is based on the use of these cultural names to refer to the same elements of a particular culture [29].

It is also necessary to characterize the concepts of «reality» and «non-equivalent vocabulary», since they complement the concept of culturonyms.

Non-equivalent vocabulary is the set of words that cannot be semantized by means of simple translation. Being an integral part of any lexical system, non-equivalent vocabulary represents the originality of the worldview of a single nation. The appearance of non-equivalent vocabulary in the language is due to the appearance of an object that represents a certain value for society [62].

In fact, non-equivalent vocabulary is the words and phrases that do not have exact lexical matches in the target language [26]. Comparison of the vocabulary of a foreign and native language allows to see that in a foreign language, in addition to linguistic units that have single or multiple matches in the target language, it is possible to find lexical and grammatical units that cannot be directly matched in the target language [66].