Articles

Information and cultural globalization as fundamental characteristics of the development of modern communication have revealed the need to move to a new strategy for determining what kind of cultural competence is required under the changed conditions. The digitalization of translation activities has not only challenged traditional models but has also largely transformed the traditional perception of translator’s work. In the present paper translation is analyzed from the perspective of Umberto Eco’s theory that proposes the limits of interpretation. This theory has not lost its relevance even in the context of the digital age. The place of translation can be developed into a situational geometry of the translator, potential readers, a source-text analysis, alternative target-text strategies, etc. The place becomes a discursive locus in itself, apt for the production and discussion of what Antony Pym termed “internal knowledge about translation.” Aim and purpose: carrying out an analysis of the strategies of literary translation from the perspective of Umberto Eco’s interpretive theory. Methods: the present paper was written in the mainstream of an interdisciplinary approach that combines socio-philosophical and cross-cultural studies of the dialogue of different cultures. Results: the unlimited semiosis in reality takes the form of those interpretations that are sanctioned by society; therefore, translation strategies always depend on the characteristics of the source text; on the nature of the “empirical reader” and on the general state of the original and host cultures. Conclusions. Literary translation as a professional activity and the translator as an in-between and messenger is located in a specific intercultural space. In this imaginary space new intercultural meanings arise. Translation as a part and parcel of cross-cultural communication is always a search for mutual understanding and at the same time one of the main sources of preserving cultural diversity. Nowadays, the problem of how to preserve the peculiarities of a national culture when transferring one’s own cultural values to a foreign-language cultural environment comes to the fore.

The aim of the given research is to implement a contrastivecomparative analysis of human and machine translations based on the material of the twenty-seventh chapter of the autobiographic work “Coffee and Cigarettes” by the famous modern German writer Ferdinand von Schirach. The machine translation has been carried out at the Laboratory of Digital Philology of the Chair of the Russian Language of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. The human translation has been made by a multilingual international group of MA students at the above-mentioned Chair. With the aim of visualization of invariance of the translations, the method of graphic structuring of the text has been used. The text has been divided into blocks, each containing a line of the initial text, its human and machine translations into Russian and Georgian languages, and the transliteration of the Georgian translation.

The usage of blocks while working on the translation of concrete texts in a multilingual group enables the teacher to identify the similarities and differences between lexical units, grammatical phenomena, as well as stylistic and semantic nuances on each language level. The similarities and differences are revealed not only with regard to the original and target languages but also between the contrasted target languages, one of which performs the function of an intermediary/supplementary language. Hence, it may be concluded that all the distortions of the literary text during machine translation prove the existence of certain problems: on the one hand, it is necessary to tune the computer to the style of the writer and make it “feel” all the sentiments discussed in the given paper. These issues are analyzed in the course of lectures “Preparation for Literary Translation” at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. On the other hand, it is necessary to “teach” the computer how to deal with the multi-layered differences between the original and the target languages.

This article seeks to show the problems arising from doing a stylistic analysis of Dostoevsky’s novella “The Eternal Husband” (1870). Discussing adequate translation of the story has not yet become a subject of research in Russia or abroad. The research material is representative text fragments and their translations into English done by Constance Garnett (1917), Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (1997), and Hugh Аplin (2007). Studying the qualitative characteristics of the four existing translations of The Eternal Husband made it impossible to take into account the very first translation made by the British writer, historian and poet Frederick Whishaw (1888) because of the liberties taken toward the author’s content. One conclusion is that the entire professionalism of eminent translators may be insufficient to convey the numerous features of the 19th century’s Russian colloquial speech, on the one hand, and Dostoevsky’s idiostylistic features, on the other. The translations of phraseological units, double negatives with inversion, spelling nuances of the characters’ speech show that the author’s intentional content remains unattainable for the native English speaker. Conscious or unconscious changes to the original language invariably leads to a narrowed polyphonism of Dostoevsky’s work, reduces the interpretive potential of the characters’ speech and, as a result, distorts the multidimensional perception of the protagonists. This study marks the bicentenary of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s birth and aims to spark interest in translating the 19th century’s fiction whose popularity remains undeniable in the 21st century.

The article analyses interpretations of realia in the works by Fyodor Dostoevsky and ways to translate them from Russian into English and German. The authors consider literary translation as a basis for adding new words to a standard language. However, the notions of adequacy and equivalence in translation in this case are not applied to the full, because only interpretations and alternative ways of rendering referents can be used. Thus, every case of realia translation must be analyzed individually.

The authors believe that in any case the translator is to take into account the intention of the original text; therefore, the presence of realia in the discourse significantly complicates the search for a solution to the problem which consists in translating a literary work adequately and fully. The search for translation methods is connected with the trial-and-error method. Using the experience of translation and knowledge of extralinguistic factors makes it possible to achieve adequacy in translation.

This article deals with the strategy for cursive writing training mechanisms in military verbal interpreting work. The authors give a definition of military interpreting work and a brief description of its characteristics. The article analyses the definition of interpreter’s notation and its specificities in terms of military interpreting. The analysis leads to the conclusion that interpreter’s notation improves the quality of interpreting in terms of highlighting the core of the original message, which is essential for both an efficient and fast note-taking of incoming information and interpreting itself, as well as in terms of reducing the memory workload. Many consecutive interpreters use various interpreter`s notation elements in their work, and each of them has their own special writing techniques. Although there are many guidelines available, each specialist develops a personal algorithm. Emphasis is placed on the fact that interpreter`s notation is one of the forms of speech eff orts economy, and by learning of interpreter`s notation methods, any military interpreter simultaneously explores and adapts to speech economy of local dialects, as s/he traces over the incoming information from native speakers. The aim of this article is to review the most common strategies for teaching note-taking in military interpreting, to point out their disadvantages and to propose an original system of procedures and instructions aimed at improving the interpreter’s notation skills. The theoretical significance of the problems reviewed in the article lies in the development and application input of the proposed various models of private notes abbreviations, substitutions and signs in the Russian, Arabic and English languages. The conclusions drawn in the article can be applied in the drafting of lecture courses and practical classes in training Arabic and English military interpreters, as well as in researching the speech eff orts economy principle put into practice by foreign language speakers. This study for the first time attempts to improve the effectiveness of note-taking instruction in military interpreting by applying fundamentally new patterns of exercises developed by the authors during their special interpreting activities in the Middle East.

The relevance of the research is determined by the need for a complex study and description of the peculiarities of the interpreter’s activity. Language means used in the lawyers’ professional speech are analyzed. Currently, juridical discourse is in the focus of linguistic research as it is among the most popular ones. As a participant in the juridical discourse, any speaker in court tries to assess the case, analyze the material and make conclusions that may be ambiguous. Accordingly, the interpreter takes into account the fact that the participants in the trial can present the same fact in different ways.

The purpose of this work was to identify the features of the interpreter’s speech when dealing with speeches for the defence, which, in fact, is a type of special translation. Translation of such speeches can often come closer to other types of translation in the current context of comprehensive international legal, military and political cooperation.

The research methods are determined by the purpose and objectives of this work. Th ese are the traditional method of discursive analysis, the method of philological analysis, the method of analysis and synthesis, the method of description and classification, directed sampling, the historical and cultural method.

Results. The communicative function and the function of influence keep a certain balance and form a dialectical unity in judicial speech. Th at means, on the one hand, that the interpreter must certainly take into account the expressive and emotional component of any speech for the defence, which can be reached by the use of linguistic means of expressiveness. On the other hand, it should be taken into account that the juridical discourse is quickly growing, lexical units appear in the legal sphere.

Conclusion. The interpreter must have a profound understanding of the identity of the legal discourse to carry out a special type of translation when working with speeches for the defence. As a distinctive feature from the point of view of special translation, the rich terminology of speeches for the defence takes an important place in the process of training professional interpreters and in their professional activities.

The study is aimed at identifying indicators of translated Russian-language discourse through the use of textual and lexical parameters in the German-Russian language combination. The work is congruent with descriptive translation studies and does not imply an analysis of the interaction between the original text and its translation: translation as an object of research is not considered in terms of equivalence, adequacy, translation correspondences and transformations. Student translations of journalistic articles of a major news portal served as the material for the study. An attempt is made to identify potentially universal trends in translation from the point of view of the discursive ontology of translation and to establish a set of textual and lexical indicators for analysis. The paper concludes that with the help of exclusively linguistic features, it is possible to identify special characteristics that distinguish translations from texts originally written in the target language. The results can be applied in the field of translation didactics.

Relevance. The abbreviations in Russian and Polish alike are considered on the basis of translation as transmitters of categorical meanings. A number of types of abbreviations are taken into consideration: initial, morphemic (based on the constriction of compound lingual complexes) and discursive graphic abbreviations in general use. Special attention is paid to various peculiarities (including linguocultural one) of Russian and Polish abbreviations. One of the distinctions between Polish and Russian abbreviations is the fact that in the Russian language there are many abbreviations with understandable motivated structures because their elements representing full nominations are morphemic ones. In the Polish language, the main part of abbreviations is made of the first letters of the full nominations. The peculiarities of the use of abbreviations in both languages are explained. It is a noteworthy fact that they are often used in different discourses without decoding. Abbreviations are considered as a complex structured integrative whole. The correlations between abbreviation and its primary full nomination are analyzed. An approach to abbreviations seen from the starting point of mental processes is presented.

Results. The basic results consist in the generalization of an analysis of the development and functioning of contemporary abbreviations in the Russian and Polish languages. It was determined that the creation of abbreviations is conducted by mental exchange of categorical semantic elements of the formations. The aforementioned phenomena are described as semantic lingual universals.

Сonclusion. The products of the creation of abbreviations in each language have different ways of linguo-formal expression. In translating, that leads to the creation of new linguo-mental entities: complex or simplified neoconcepts.

In recent years, unprecedented growth of the demand for language services has brought many conveniences to the interpretation market, interpretation practitioners, interpretation educators, interpretation learners and interpretation customers, optimized the translation mode, improved the translation environment, accelerated translation speed and reduced translation costs. The application of interpreting technology represented by speech recognition technology brings convenience to interpreters and also puts higher requirements on the technical level of interpreters. We have noticed that there is still a large gap in the research into the use of the innovative interpreting technology in the field of Russian-Chinese interpreting. Therefore, this paper explores the feasibility of the technology to improve the quality of Russian-Chinese consecutive interpreting through contrast experiments. It is expected that our research results will be beneficial to the people engaged in interpreting work. 

Any human activity takes place within the context of limitations. Any translator, being a decision-maker, faces a constant challenge to overcome external (contextual) and internal (personal) limitations. Differences observed in translators’ decision-making behaviour under limitations are manifested in the time spent to make a decision, in the number of decision-making stages, etc. These differences come from both the translator’s personality characteristics and the degree of his or her awareness while acting under limitations. An unconscious approach to translation activity leads to increasing eff orts or to decision-making errors and, as a consequence, to a lower quality of translation. The translator’s task is therefore to be able to recognise external and internal factors limiting the decision-making process, and to choose an optimal strategy in each translation situation.

This report presents the results of an experimental study of translation as decision-making, obtained by the method of written verbalisation of the translation process. The types of limitations revealed in this study and the frequent errors coming from an unconscious approach to translation activity allowed us to come to conclusions that may contribute to improving translation didactics and, in general, to expanding the translator’s potential to achieve the best result possible.

 The article addresses English–Russian dictionary translations and their quality, specifically those translations offered by electronic dictionaries, in terms of their equivalence and acceptability in the target language.  The shared opinion of the authors, one of whom is a native Russian-speaking scholar in English Studies, while the other is a native English-speaking scholar in Russian Studies, is based on the belief that examples of inadequate dictionary translations should not be ignored by either translation market participants, or those with responsibilities for preparing future translators, since these cases may establish unacceptable translation precedents.  The relevance of these issues is due to the easy accessibility and enormous popularity of electronic dictionaries as a source of instant knowledge. Another reason why the quality of English-Russian translations in bilingual electronic dictionaries may cause a significant problem is that they are used, along with other resources, as corpora for machine translation software. Examples of dictionary translations are analysed in detail and contrasted against alternative and semantically divergent readings. 

The paper presents a scheme of a functional system of providing translation services. The scheme clearly shows the changes in production processes that are primarily related to translation executors. Previously, it was an individual translator, but now it can be a whole team working on the principle of crowdsourcing or a person using special computer programmes. The scheme reflects the lack of a sufficient number of regulatory documents with the help of which it is possible to identify the most effective forms of interaction for their further continuous use. Moreover, transformations in working conditions lead to changes in the cognitive activity of a specialist. The autonomous work of a single translator is completely different from collective work with other project participants or from interaction with digital technologies. Thus, the existing translation models are also questioned, thanks to which cognitive strategies and templates for performing translation tasks are set. The paper proposes an eco-cognitive model of translation which is based on the theory of distributed cognition and allows taking into account all the factors that affect translation decisions. The new information technology environment of the translation process, on the one hand, helps to reduce translators’ cognitive load due to the redistribution of intellectual resources between a person and a computer, but, on the other hand, requires a rapid development of new skills related to procedure knowledge in the process of using translation automation technologies. Thus, the current research focuses on the problems of the declarative and procedural knowledge ratio in the modern translation act with the use of specialized tools, as well as the issues of eco-friendly allocation of resources that contribute to reducing translators’ cognitive load and timely identification of factors that unreasonably increase the cognitive costs of translators. 

Relevance. The article is addressed to the changes taking place in the subject fi eld of translation, and the main prerequisites for the emergence of Ethnic Translation Studies as a new branch of the science of translation. The obvious ethnic vector of the 21st century humanities, due to the intensity and peculiarities of ethnic processes at the global and regional levels, and the urgent tasks of preserving the cultural diversity of the modern world dictate the need to develop a categorical apparatus and an appropriate methodology for ethnic texts (which traditionally contain cultural information and the memory of ethnoses) translation.

Aim. The paper considers the ethnological and Translation Studies foundations of the theory, practice, methodology and didactics of ethnic translation, which will ensure the training of an erudite translator, i. e. a successful mediator in cross-cultural communication at the global and local levels alike.

Methods. The identification of the prerequisites and foundations of Ethnic Translation studies is based on a general scientific hermeneutic approach. The experience of translating Siberian ethnic texts is considered from descriptive and prescriptive perspectives, thus making it possible to follow a universal methodological and heuristic principle of complementarity and accompanied by methods of scientific literature analysis, comparison, observation, as well as the case method.

Results. The translation history and examples of ethnic texts belonging to representative types of Siberian ethnic literature (the Yakut epic Olancho and Evenki fairy tales) allows us to consider ethnic translation as an important way of decoding and transmitting cultural information and memory functioning in the cultures of indigenous peoples; a way of preserving the cultural identity of indigenous Siberian ethnoses (primarily small-numbered ones); a tool for revitalizing and preserving unique languages and cultures in the modern world.

Conclusions. Ethnic Translation Studies as an integrative scientific discipline is designed to solve ethnological, cultural, philological and translation problems in modern humanities, which meets the challenges facing mankind.

In the paper a new syncretic polyvector construct is introduced into scientific circulation — the discursive-game paradigm of translation, which is an organic combination and complementarity of the translation classical methodology of regular language correspondences and both free and quasi-translation methods and techniques of rendering into the target language of the untranslatable, as well as an adapted socially ordered translated context, meaningless speech acts, etc. The paradigm is built on the concept of complementarity (functional complementarity) and has an open character, which allows to adequately build up the explanatory and resolving power of its theoretical and methodological base.

Since its emergence in human society, translation activity has always been closely linked to social development as its integral part. Political, economic and social conditions have obvious limitations that influence the concept and practice of translation; therefore, translation activities have a strong social dimension. In many translations, the translator not only plays the role of a medium, but may also carry out related editing and proof-reading work. The complexity of translation activities and the interactive nature of linguistic communication make the translator’s role in society as a social individual inevitably multifaceted. In commercial oral negotiations, for example, interpreters often play the following roles: messenger of information, mediator and facilitator of commercial matters, negotiation assistant and informant. An interpreter can be transformed into a reader, author, creator and researcher as required. Because language is a multidimensional collection of information, traditional translation is essentially equivalent to reproducing cognitive, communicative and artistic information. Language, culture and literature, which are closely related to translation, have social properties and therefore the study of the social nature of translation is very promising. The paper also considers machine translation as one of the technologies that take the place of auxiliary actors in the structure of translation activities, the further role of artificial intelligence and humans in translation, their interaction, and the changing social function of translation in this context.