ОСОБЕННОСТИ ПЕРЕВОДА РОМАНА НИКОЛАСА СПАРКСА “SAFE HAVEN” («ТИХАЯ ГАВАНЬ») НА РУССКИЙ И КИТАЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫКИ: ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТ

Introduction

Translation of a work of art involves solving various translation difficulties related to the cultural and linguistic features of the original and translated texts.

The artistic text has a certain mosaic of meanings (individual, national-cultural, universal). And the translator needs to identify and transfer these conceptual entities by available means, taking into account the national specifics of the two cultures, in order to avoid or minimize the asymmetry of cross-cultural communication [6].

Method and discussion

“Language as a reflection of the cultural values of the nation is organically linked to culture, which makes it necessary to study them together” [4, p. 63]. The linguoculturogical approach to language research allows us to identify universal and specific national and cultural meanings for each language and culture, and to determine the value of concepts for different linguocultures [7].

The purpose of our research is to identify the linguoculturological aspects of translating an English-language novel into Russian and Chinese. To identify concepts as units of the conceptual view of the world in the novel “Safe Haven” by the American writer Nicholas Sparks (2010) [1] in English and its translations “Tihaya gavan'” (O. A. Myshakova’s translation into Russian, 2011) [9] and “爱情避风港” (Li Juan’s translation into Chinese, 2011) [2] we used a conceptual analysis [8], [10] as one of the key methods of linguoculturological approach to language research, and also a contrastive analysis by which we have established universal and specific features of the structures of the identified concepts and their linguistic means of representation in English, Russian and Chinese. 

We have identified key, dominant concepts in the original text Money and Alcohol addiction and linguistic means of their representation (48 and 79 lexemes correspondingly).

Having identified the key concepts in the translated texts, we have found that the translators managed to preserve the concepts of ДЕНЬГИ and 钱and АЛКОГОЛЬНАЯ ЗАВИСИМОСТЬ and 酒瘾 that form the artistic originality of the text. In the translated texts, these concepts are represented by 41 and 68, 143 and 108 lexical units correspondingly.

These concepts are universal and significant for the considered linguocultures, but with the help of the Corpus Manager Sketch Engine [5] we have established the national-cultural specificity of the analyzed concepts (see Table 1).

Table 1 – National-cultural specificity of the concepts Money, ДЕНЬГИ and 钱, Alcohol addiction, АЛКОГОЛЬНАЯ ЗАВИСИМОСТЬ and 酒瘾 (according to Sketch Engine)

For a typical American, money is first of all a service and then an opportunity, for a Russian, it is the opposite: money provides opportunities for self-realization, the realization of what you want, and only then money is a service, business processes; for Chinese, money is also an important component of their life, but the priority is still given to the value of work.

The Americans associate alcohol use primarily with a drug and only then with a disorder or addiction. In Russian culture, alcoholism is initially associated with the disease. In Chinese culture, alcoholism is associated with drunkenness, and since it is a disease, we can observe similarities with the Russian linguoculture.

In the course of linguoculturological analysis of the means of representation of the concepts under consideration in the original text and translated texts we have identified the structure of these concepts (see Chart 1):

Chart 1 – Structure of the concepts Money, ДЕНЬГИ and 钱

Representation of the concepts Money, ДЕНЬГИ and 钱  in the original text and its translations vary considerably. So, we see that the core concepts are similar, the translators resort to the unit of direct nomination – ‘money’, when it is transmitted to Russian and Chinese, but if we turn to the periphery of the concept, we will notice that in the translated texts, the synonymous series of this lexeme is represented much more widely than in the original text.

Analysing the example of usage of the nuclear lexeme money/деньги/钱, we see that the translations of the original text vary greatly in emotional terms: neutral Russian «денег мало» and emotionally coloured Chinese“想钱很紧张，如果她花钱过多，他会动怒。” (мысль о деньгах заставляла волноваться), that reflects the state of the heroine of the novel.

Chart 2 – Structure of the concepts Alcohol addiction, АЛКОГОЛЬНАЯ ЗАВИСИМОСТЬ and 酒瘾

Represenation of the concepts Alcohol addiction, АЛКОГОЛЬНАЯ ЗАВИСИМОСТЬ has similarities both in the core of the concept and on the periphery, but in the Chinese text the core or the nuclear of the concept 酒瘾 is different: instead of the container (the bottle of...) a second drink appears (啤酒– beer) (see Chart 2). The periphery of the concept is also different, it is presented more widely. O. A. Myshakova and Li Juan use the means of direct nomination, and very rarely resort to descriptive translation, metaphors, or other means of artistic expression.

Considering an example of the periphery of this concept, we paid attention to the transfer of English “you're drunk” to Chinese. Li Juan avoids the use of direct nominations of words (f.e., 你喝醉了), but uses “喝得酩酊大醉” – в стельку пьян [completely drunk] [3]. We consider this version of the translation is quite emotional, but taking into consideration the peculiarities of the Chinese mentality, we understand why the translator used this wording. For a typical Chinese it is not permissible to appear in the workplace drunk. Therefore, Li Juan adapts this phrase for the Chinese reader and focuses his attention on the terrible state to which alcohol leads.

Results

As part of the linguoculturological analysis of the English language novel and its translations into Russian and Chinese we have described the core and periphery of key concepts Money, Деньги, 钱 and Alcohol addiction, Алкогольная зависимость, 酒, we have established the national-specific character of the periphery of concepts, with a representative associative field.

In general, the translators use language tools of direct nomination that represent the core of the concepts under consideration. However, in order to convey the shades of meaning more precisely, in some cases they resorted to the means of direct and secondary nomination that belong to the periphery of these concepts, namely, synonyms of nuclear lexemes.

Conclusion

Taking into account the national specifics of language views of the world, knowing the most accurate lexemes for transmitting shades of meaning of lexical representatives of a particular concept allows a translator to adequately convey the meaning laid down by the writer in the work of art.