Articles

A review of the monograph by Mishkurov E.N. and Novikova M.G. “Cognitive-Hermeneutic Approach to Translation Theory and Methodology.” Moscow: Flinta, 2020. 300 p.

This article is a review of the dictionary of popular expressions from cartoons “Don’t you make laugh my horseshoes” written by Svetlana G. Shulezhkova and her students. The destination of the dictionary, its macrostructure and the entries’ structure are described. The most famous film expressions are analyzed. Various problems of their translation is considered.

The article utilizes the social role theory to study interpreting and determines the appropriate set of social roles, while each role is defined in a concise way. The main focus is on the interpreter­psychologist role; interpreting is compared to psychological practice. The evolution of the emotional intelligence concept and its content is another highlight of the article. The model of emotional intelligence by Daniel Goleman serves as the basis for analyzing the role of emotional intelligence in interpreting.

The article highlights the peculiarities of the translation process on the basis of three psychological schools: Gestalt psychology, cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics. The most important psychological processes in translation practice are perception, attention, memory and speech production. It is stressed that studying psychological processes is highly important for real understanding of translation practice and for cultivating skills for future translators and interpreters.

This article is devoted to the study of the conceptual, value and archetypal side of the Nart epic, as well as some language material on the side cycles of the Narts. The course of the study is based on an analysis of the cultural concepts and value attractors of Nartiada, which are common to the majority of the linguistic Iberian­Caucasian language family. In order to reveal the linguo­mental complex of representatives of the linguistic world that preceded the emergence of most of the linguistic cultures of the peoples of the North Caucasus, we use both general semantic analysis and cognitive­semantic analysis, while updating the corpus of cognitive linguistics. In studying the cognitive­valency system of some of the heroes of Nartiada, while taking into account the specifics of the poetic text and folklore as a whole, we use the archetypal concept of K.G. Jung in its American variation to simplify the diachronic examination of the language. This approach makes it possible to use concrete examples to show the existence and evolution of concepts in individual languages, e. g. we touch on the specifics of the Ossetian (Ironic), Adyghe, Abkhaz, Chechen and Abaza languages of the Iberian­Caucasian language family. To illustrate the influence of the Nart epic on the Caucasian languages, we use some material from the Abazin language (the Iberian­Caucasian language family) and the Armenian language (the IndoEuropean language family) to show not only the existence and evolution of similar cultural concepts, but also the heterogeneous influence of Nartiades on different language families and language groups. The manifestation of cultural concepts and value attractors is also shown by the example of the nature and actions of the main characters of Nartiade from the cycles: “The Beginning of the Narts,” “Grounding” and the heroic cycle itself. The basis for the study is the linguistic and historical material accumulated by the expert in Caucasian studies T.A. Guriev and culturologist V.V. Ivanov.

The military vocabulary in any foreign language world picture reflects its ethnic origin. In foreign languages, a similar layer of the vocabulary of the national language is represented by approximately the same set of lexical units indicating the realities of war and military affairs in the most general sense. The accuracy of the semantics of a military term and the blurring of the semantics of a military lexicon unit used in the fiction text are the main signs of the division of these categories.

While performing simultaneous interpreting a simultaneous interpreter undoubtedly undertakes a number of syntactic, semantic and lexico­syntactic transformations. Nevertheless, multiple obstacles (linguistic, psychological, physiological and others) complicate the choice of the best possible interpreting strategy. As a result, there appears a number of employed transformations. The aim of this work is to identify both justified and unjustified usage of specific translation tools and evaluate the quality of interpreting.

Today, simultaneous interpreting is an integral part of international conferences, fora, negotiations and training programs. The specific character of simultaneous interpreting shows that one of the most significant reasons for interpreters’ mistakes is interlingual and translation interference. Interference and its pressure on the target language increase due to tight time constraints, a rapid pace of the speaker’s delivery and the interpreter’s mental strain which are all common with simultaneous interpreting. Interference influences all levels of the target language: phonetic, lexical, morphological, syntactic and stylistic. In order to find speech errors made by students during simultaneous interpreting (the B→A English­Russian language combination), we analyzed the interpreting records of 15 students at the Higher School of Translation and Interpreting of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The students in question interpreted two different speeches. Altogether 30 records were analyzed. Such analysis of speech errors is indispensable in order to reveal blind spots and find solutions to the aforementioned problems.

The article highlights the contribution made by Geliy Chernov to researching simultaneous interpreting and describes the model of probability prediction and anticipation in simultaneous interpreting (SI) presented in his book first published in 1987. The model provides a description of SI cognitive mechanisms: probabilistic forecasting and anticipation, inferencing and compression, and the specifics of their interaction in the SI process. Probabilistic forecasting stands for the anticipation of sense (meaning) in the process of interpreting the text of the source language and it is based on inferencing. These cognitive mechanisms depend on the text function, information redundancy and text cohesion and coherence. Moreover, inferencing is based both on functional and discursive features of the text, as well as extralinguistic information related to the text. In this regard, Chernov may be considered as one of the pioneers in researching translation and interpretation in the Soviet Union and Europe alike: he was one of the first scholars to pay special attention to the pragmatic factors in simultaneous interpreting: the knowledge of a cultural context and background information, a specific subject­matter and a communicative situation in which simultaneous interpreting is used, which includes the topic of the event, participants and deixis. Further studies of the SI cognitive mechanisms from the perspective of cognitive linguistics seem a promising area of SI research.

Simultaneous interpreting, being a complex type of cognitive activity, often becomes the object of various experimental studies. The main purpose of conducting such experiments and studies is to reveal and then describe the mechanisms of this complex psychological and communicative process, its modeling, as well as to understand the strategies used by simultaneous interpreters to ensure high­quality interpreting. This article describes the main results of an experiment conducted at the Higher School of Translation and Interpreting of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The purpose of this experimental study is to prove that participants in political discourse have a significant influence on the process and result of simultaneous interpreting. This fact impacts the need to develop criteria for selecting material for training future professional interpreters.

The article focuses on processes of neologization underlying the modern language policy in France. Given the predominant position of English, French, as well as many other languages in the world, is increasingly facing the onslaught of anglicims. In this connection, the Commission for the Enrichment of the French Language and the French Academy along with other competent institutions are attempting to create new terms (neologisms) through the use of various means that the French language can provide in order to replace English loanwords. In spite of the internationally known reverential attitude of France towards its national language, ambiguous and complicated aspects of the neologism process have been revealed. The study of a number of new French terms published in Journal official enabled us to conclude that French neologisms are in many cases unable to compete with anglicisms due to their complicated and intricate forms that make it difficult for the French to learn such words. Nevertheless, regardless of certain failures, it is considered to be necessary to continue this work which serves as a barrier against the ongoing excessive anglicization of French.

In historiography, over the centuries under various political circumstances, the same states have been renamed several times; therefore, translating historical names of the countries is not an easy task, since in each specific epoch the toponyms of each country of the source language and the target language must be synchronized. The subject of this research deals with historical toponyms in general and Russian historical toponyms in particular. The purpose of this article is to justify the need to create a database of historical toponyms of the source and target languages for their subsequent analysis, systematization and classification. An interpretive model was adopted as a method of research, which from the methodological point of view is a culturological algorithm of text interpretation, which is used in translation studies. For the first time, historical toponyms have been considered as open systems from temporal and spatial positions. Historical toponyms determine the informational content of historical texts, which makes it possible to determine the epoch of the analyzed events even in the absence of other temporal symbols. Due to it, translators do not only create a stable system of equivalent correspondences of the historical names of the states, but they also study their history with regard to the information data contained in the historical toponyms that were obtained by them from primary sources and academic historical papers. The result of this research is the creation of a system of correspondences of the historical toponyms of various states and their translation into English. This method allows translators to create a system of correspondences for different modern and classical languages; this expands the creative opportunities for historians and permits them to avoid communication mistakes.

Diminutives are found in many literary works created in Russian and they are an important means of sense-making. They also play an important role in creating a speech portrait of a character as well as in expressing the author’s assessment.

There is a legitimate question due to a frequent use of diminutives in literary works: how to translate fragments of a literary text where diminutive suffixes are found? Do these passages require special attention and do they need a pretranslation comment? Is the diverse palette of meanings that writers put into words with diminutive suffixes comprehensible to people of a different culture?

In this article, we will consider fragments of a text with diminutives taken from the novella “Heart of a Dog” by Mikhail Bulgakov, and their translations into English, French and Chinese. We will try to determine various difficulties a translator faces in working on such texts.

This article addresses the phenomenon of eponymy in legal terminology as a translation problem. Dictionary definitions of eponyms show inconsistencies in treating these units by lexicographers. The examples given are indicative of eponymic terms both in legal English and legal Russian being complex units of nomination. Legal eponyms generate technical terminology that is challenging for perception and comprehension; its translation requires explication techniques. Such recent neologisms as Brexit and Megxit, which have emerged as eponymic internationalisms, allow to emphasize the significance of studying eponymy in the language of the legal profession and in legal translation.