Articles

Translation quality evaluation is generally referred to as one the mechanisms for translation industry development and the most important tool in the field of translator training, which determines the relevance of the stated topic. The purpose of this study is to review the problems and approaches to translation quality evaluation highlighting the differences in their treatment. The paper focuses on the study of the cognitive-terminological and system-activity aspects of translation evaluation, with special emphasis on the borderline between the process of quality evaluation and its result. An analysis of the term translation quality as used in meta-translation discourse demonstrated signifi cant diff erences in the conceptualization of this notion. In translation theory, the term is generally used as an evaluative indicator of translation results, although in a broader sense it also refers to one of the main categories of translation studies that requires systematic research and description. In meta-translation discourse, translation quality may refer to a fairly high level of translation per se, but in combination with additional descriptive characteristics the term can also indicate diff erent levels of quality, down to the lowest. To assess the results of translation using classical evaluative terms, namely equivalence and adequacy, it is generally necessary to clarify their conceptual content, which corresponds to a particular scientifi c paradigm. The existence of diff erent and/or opposing points of view on the theory and practice of translation quality evaluation is accounted for by the complex and multidimensional nature of the phenomenon under consideration. The novelty of the conducted research lies in the distinction between translation evaluation as a result and translation evaluation as a process considered as a type of intellectual activity. Finally, we developed a model which reflects the structure of evaluation activities in the fi eld of translation. The main components of this model are: the evaluation sphere, the evaluation actor, the object under evaluation (i.e. translation results), the purpose of evaluation activity, the evaluation method, the criteria and the parameters of evaluation. Following the system-activity approach one can take into account various facets of the problem of translation quality evaluation as well as the complex of motives and individual independent steps that determine the end result.

Precedent statements are an important intertextual phenomenon that makes it possible to include the work in the body of already existing texts but to actualize the game with the readers’ expectations. A quotation has the potential to perform many functions: it can serve as a direct reference to the author or a specific work, it can imply a broad cultural outlook of the reader, it can form the internal context of the work, as if these quotations were taken from texts invented by the characters themselves, etc. The aim of the article is to analyze the precedent statements in the novel of R. Zelazny “Creatures of Light and Darkness”. The extensive use of different types and levels of precedent phenomena characterizes this fiction novel as a whole. Three Russian translations of R. Zelazny’s novel were used as illustrative material. The method of research is contrastive semantic-syntactic analysis. A number of quotations in the novel by R. Zelazny’s novel initially assumes some “understatement”, when the reader either has to have a broad outlook in order to recognize the reference to the precedent text, or must try to guess what it is about. It is especially interesting when the source of the quotation is unknown and unrecognizable, so there is an interpretive lacuna that serves as a challenge to the reader. Translators look for ways to convey and simultaneously compensate for this reticence by various means, including, in some cases, eliminating the reticence itself (e. g. by introducing a reference to pretexts, although this does not exist in the original work). The results allow us to identify the translation that is closest to the original in pragmatic terms, as well as to conclude that there is some continuity in the translations: while the earlier translations are significantly different, the later translation uses some of its predecessors’ solutions.

This article analyzes the formation of the diversity of the genre of the series of novels “The Dark Tower” by Stephen King, as well as the clips of Robert Browning’s poem in the predominant image of the Tower of Roland and the connection with these genre transformations. In the course of the study, the authors analyze the series of novels “The Dark Tower” and the poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, in particular, the features of the genres, the compositional and stylistic features inherent in these works. When demonstrating the characteristic features of R. Browning’s and S. King’s creative work, it was found that romanticized fantasy per se includes many genre features that differ from the manifestations of horror and classic fiction: fantasy is a genre in the style of high fantasy and concealment, a fairy tale. At the same time, dark fantasy, although it includes most of the traditional fantasy surroundings, is characterized not so much by the interrelationship between its fantasy elements and the narrative, but rather by the connection between the gothic and the horror types of fiction; there is much less science fiction in dark fantasy than in high fantasy. At the discussion stage, it was determined that the best method for translating the lead when working with two multi-genre works is the comparative method, which is based on a simple principle: “What is it like?” As a result, we came to the conclusion that, on the one hand, the use of a methodological method leads to the fact that in the process of text analysis it is necessary to limit the framework to the conventions of the functional style, the genre uniqueness of the analyzed ones, preserving their artistic orientation and the idiostyle of the author. On the other hand, in this way we get the opportunity to carry out parallel search and optimization of data for its synthesis and translation into the exchange part.

Following the theory of the author’s outsideness of M.M. Bakhtin, the author of the article proposes to sin gle out two types of the author’s secondary outsideness: intertextual and translational. Secondary outsideness is the departure of the author from a foreign artistic world. The author first plunges into another artistic being, and then leaves it. Intertextual secondary outsideness (transgredient) is the author’s departure from the depicted real life and his/ her resistance, in the creative process, to the artistic world of another author as a world image, the pacification of this influencing world, in which s/he has gotten involved through his/her interest in it, by weakening his/her identity in it. Translational secondary outsideness (transgredient) is the departure of the author-translator with his/her own poetics from both the artistic being of the original and the reality behind it, recreating the identity of the original author on a foreign language soil with the help of a language equivalent in order to create a flickering text as “one’s own”/“alien”. The analysis of the author’s secondary outsideness allows one to reach the level of authenticity of the artistic world created under the influence of another, to see the author’s resistance to another artistic world or his/her dissolution in it.

The paper deals with the study of the problems of Russian translation studies formation as an academic science in its theoretical and applied forms. The formation and development history of the famous linguistic translation theory (LTT), which up to the present day has been an officially recognized institutional discipline for scientific and educational activities in the Russian Federation, is traced. In today’s Russian scientific community, along with LTT, new transdisciplinary scientific, theoretical and methodological types of research in the field of translation theory and practice are actively developing. At the current historical stage of development, translation studies is interpreted as a social and humanitarian transdisciplinary science at the intersection of linguistics, cultural studies, communication theory, comparative literature, semiotics, sociology, history, as well as philosophy, hermeneutics, ethnopsycholinguistics and cognitive science, information theory and other related academic sciences and phenomena like “localization” within the framework of algo-cognitive culture. Three groups of paradigms operating in modern Russian translation theory and methodology have been identified: (a) linguistic profile, (b) cognitive profile, (c) discursive profile. Groups “b” and “c” can form the basis for the academic translation paradigm. Th ree types of discourses are introduced into scientific circulation. 1. Translation studies discourse, associated with academic discourse in its theoretical and didactic varieties. 2. Translation discourse which is theoretically and practically based on the first one and serves the translator as their theoretical and practical basis for generating the third type, viz. translated discourse. The last one is a resultant product addressed to the recipients’ reflection sphere. As a result, the author’s “discursive-game cognitive-hermeneutic paradigm” has been proposed as a preliminary model of the desired “academic type translation studies paradigm”.

Translating the central literature of the CPC is an important way to showcase the image of the country and disseminate China’s voice. The aim of this article is, based on the aforementioned idea and guided by transknowledgeology, to analyze the methods of translating expressions related to “人才” (talent/ professional) into Russian in various texts and contexts from Xi Jinping’s “The Governance of China IV” and to explore China’s personnel policy embedded in translation. Knowledge is conveyed through political discourse to demonstrate the discourse of power within knowledge. The research methods combine qualitative and quantitative approaches, using in-depth analysis to reveal the social nature of linguistic phenomena. The study shows that in the translation of this article, the word “кадры” (cadres) was most frequently used to convey the meaning of “人才,” followed by “специалист” (specialist), “профессионал” (professional), and “талант” (talent). Chinese industry and other sectors have a “cluster” structure, with each region having its own preferred sectors, and corresponding professional needs vary. Therefore, when translating, specific circumstances and the epochal situation should be taken into account. The choice of different words to express the term “人才” not only reflects an understanding of the situation in Chinese economic development but also China’s official stance on global human resources.

Russian is a synthetic language, whereas Persian is an analytical language. The structures of these two languages are different from each other. The difference between the structures of these two languages makes it difficult to translate from one language to the other. One of these differences is the presence of gender pronouns in Russian and its absence in Persian. This difference will lead to the fact that if there are two gender pronouns in a Russian sentence, the translator will have to apply some tricks to clarify the gender content of the above pronouns. The purpose of the article is to identify techniques and methods for clarifying the gender content of Russian gender pronouns when translating from Russian into Persian. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that this article for the first time considers this problem when translating from Russian into Persian and identifies methods for solving it. This study uses a descriptive and systematic approach. The static population of this study included Russian sentences containing gender pronouns from the text of the play “The Cherry Orchard” by Anton Chekhov. At the end of the article, the methods of translating Russian gender pronouns from Russian into Persian are listed and illustrated by the Persian translation of “The Cherry Orchard” made by Simin Daneshvar.

Different parts of speech, including prepositions, enter into synonymous relations. A number of spatial prepositions with the meaning of proximity are synonymous prepositions. Belonging to spatial relations and constituting a large group, in the language system of the Russian and Persian languages, these prepositions are typical and widely represented. To express spatial relations with the meaning of proximity, synonymous prepositions y, about, at and under are used, which are close and identical in meaning, but differ from each other in semantic features. The semantic proximity of the prepositions y, about, at and under and their Persian correlates with the meaning of proximity provokes a false identification and leads to errors in the use of these prepositions by Iranian Russian students while translation other prepositions as как недалеко от, возле with the meaning of proximity does not cause any difficulty for them. Also, at present only just, these prepositions with the meaning of proximity remain unlit for Iranian students, and they cannot concretize and distinguish between distance differences between the object and locum with the studied prepositions, which is due to the relevance of this study and the reason for the limitation of the research material. In addition, the difficulty of using these Russian prepositions by Iranian students is explained by the fact that all these prepositions can be expressed in Persian by the words نزديک (nazdik-e), کنار (kenar-e), پهلوی (pakhlu-ye), etc., denoting the proximity of the object to the locum, however, the semantic shade of the Persian equivalents does not reflect the distance differentiation between the object and the locum. The purpose of this article is to clarify the distance differentiations between the object and the locum with the prepositions y, about, at and under with the meaning of proximity in comparison with their Persian correlates, and also to determine the existing relationships between them. The results of the article can be used for Iranian students in order to minimize and neutralize their mistakes when using synonymous spatial prepositions y, near, at and under with the meaning of proximity.

The article is devoted to the linguistics of color as an urgent general method of linguistic research into color and as instruments of translation of texts containing terms of color (words with a color component). The problems of such translation are presented in the article against the background of theoretic aspects of linguistics of color as a sphere of contemporary linguistic studies. The linguistics of color is represented as a widely elaborated sphere of linguistic knowledge which has its worked-out notable directions, research institutions and a range of investigating problems. The basic concepts of the linguistics of color are analyzed from the perspective of pragmatics and are embodied into the practice of translation. Linguistics of color’s critical apparatus is considered on the basis of linguistic colorimetry as a collection of particular methods contributing to understanding and translation of texts with color terms. The comprehension of color terms and possibilities of their translation depend on determining their role in the lexical systems of both the source and target languages and their place in the linguistic worldviews. 

Results. The experience of color terms research concentrated in the linguistics of color and embodied in the linguistic colorimetry’s critical apparatus creates possibilities (on the basis of linguistic colorimetry methods and methods of contrastive analysis) for working out different ways of translating this lexical class. The results of the research consist in disclosure of complicated moments of texts with terms of color, the describing of translation’s problems, the compiling of recommendations as to how to deal with the terms of color and eliminate the translation problems and create a natural linguistic environment in the translated text. 

Conclusions. The elimination of translation problems can be reached by using critical apparatus of linguistic colorimetry. This apparatus of disclosure of ethnic color priorities and ethnic color inclinations was created in the linguistics of color and concentrated in the linguistic colorimetry. The linguistic colorimetry based on linguistics of color is a useful collection of methods and recommendations. It is an effective mechanism contributing to the practice of understanding and translation of the figurative structure of lexical units with color components.

The article regards the problems concerning the Russian translations of S. Mallarmé’s (1842–1898) poetical works. Different methods and systems of translation, various approaches to rendering of mallarméan poetics and style are introduced and compared. The difficulties of translation are associated with the originality of the French poet’s aesthetic program, as well as with the singularity of his revolutionary approach to language. Different variants and directions of resolving the main translation problem are taken into consideration, while the problem itself is formulated as a search for a language adequate to the aesthetic, philosophical and poetical pursuits of the French poet.

In spite of the fact that Anton Chekhov was skeptical about translations of his own works since he believed that his works would not be understood in the West, the first translations of his plays into German appeared already during his lifetime and were successfully staged in German theatres. The following article reviews translations of Anton Chekhov ‘s play “The Cherry Orchard” into German by Peter Urban, Johannes von Gunther, Gudrun Duvel and Hilde Angarova. It may be worth noting that there are two approaches to literary translation. One involves adapting text for the recipient, which inevitably leads to a significant difference between the original and translated texts. The other involves translating closely to the original. Considering the fact that all the abovementioned translators kept to the second concept, they had to accomplish the following tasks: preserving stylistic peculiarities of the original text, translating Russian realia into German, managing phraseological locutions, conveying speech portraits of the characters, as well as adapting the text to a theatrical performance since the text should be understandable for the audience and easily pronounced by the actors. In the article we paid special attention to how all the four translators managed the difficulties and presented a detailed contrastive analysis of their works. As a result of the study, we came to the conclusion that the translations by Peter Urban and Hilde Angarova were closest to the original text due to precisely chosen equivalents. The translation by Gudrun Duvel is not inferior to the translations of Peter Urban and Hilde Angarova in the selection of lexical means, but it often sounds insufficiently concise, which distances it in some cases from the original text. Although Johannes von Gunther offered some interesting translation solutions, his translations have a number of shortcomings, the main ones are incorrect translation of realia and unnecessary additions.

The problem of inconsistency of the scenario and other soft - and hardware aspects of various digital entertainment products is becoming more and more popular among the scholars from various scientific areas. The main aim of this paper is analyzing the localization issues of mass-media products as well as videogame localization. The quality of an in-game experience of a localized videogame depends on a variety of factors and the most significant of them are the so-called gameplay issues. Under the term “gameplay issues” gamers and researchers often understand the features of videogame development. Facing these features could trigger different emotional reactions among the players. As a material for this paper several in-game textual materials have been chosen, viz.: Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles, Spider-Man and GTA: San Andreas. As the research has shown, the most usable and suitable technique for neutralizing the negative influence to the gamers caused by gameplay issues is the correction of the videogame scenario. Thus developers and localization specialists can minimize all negative influence in a fast and cheap way. However, scenario correction is not the only technique used during the development and localization processes of a videogame’s lifecycle. Here could also be mentioned another way to avoid negative emotional reactions: intersemiotical transferring. By using the toolkit of 3D visualization software a wide variety of gameplay issues could be neutralized. This technique shows itself at its best when it comes to censorship issues. In conclusion, several ways of neutralizing the negative effect of the gameplay issues have been discovered and formulated. The materials and examples mentioned in this paper could be applied in the industrial practice of the digital media localization specialists as well as used by beginners in the field of localization. Moreover, this paper could be of help to students looking for scientific information about the highly specialized translation practices.