Translating abbreviations in PR discourse

Abstract

The relevance of the paper is determined by the need to examine the features of PR abbreviations translation. At present, with the predominant role of English as the lingua franca, the role of translation is undeniable. Big Data require fast and high-quality translation of professionally-oriented information into many languages. This brings about the necessity to improve the quality of education of translators in the field of professional communication. One of the most popular professions is Public Relations (PR) councillors.

The research material comprises English PR abbreviations, functioning in English press releases. PR abbreviations are constantly updated, causing difficulties for PR abbreviations-neologisms translation.

The objective of the research is to highlight the most important issues related to PR abbreviations translation, as they are of particular difficulties for rendering into other languages due to the lack of PR abbreviations dictionaries.

The methods used to achieve the objective of the article, include the method of continuous sampling; the method of linguistic observation; the method of conceptual analysis; the method of distributive analysis and the method of comparative analysis of English and Russian abbreviations.

Results. The analysis of PR abbreviations translation has demonstrated the absence of universal strategies. PR abbreviations are transmitted into Russian by means of transliteration, calque, barbarisms, as well as hybrid strategies accompanied by interpretation.

Conclusions. The absence of a PR terminological base, as well as the entire conceptual apparatus in this field, requires introducing special algorithms to overcome the difficulties of PR abbreviations translation. The particularities of PR abbreviations translation are revealed. The article makes a certain contribution to the theory of translation.

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