Moscow University Translation Studies Bulletin. 2022. 4.

The article is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the publication of the article by the famous Soviet linguist A.A. Reformatsky “Issues of the Theory of Translation”, which played a signifi cant role in determining the status of the science of translation in the system of Russian humanitarian scientifi c knowledge. The article discusses the concept of A.A. Reformatsky in relation to the theory of translation as a fi eld of scientifi c knowledge, his interpretation of some theoretical issues of translation from the standpoint of linguistics at the beginning of the second half of the 20th century.

This article presents a historiographical essay on the life and work of La Malinche or Doña Marina, translator of Hernán Cortés during the time of the conquest of Mexico. The following aspects that are significant for the history of translation are studied: the prerequisites for the formation of a representative of the Indian ethnic group as a translator for the Spanish conquerors, an expanded range of her intermediary functions during the colonial campaigns, her alleged participation in the massacre in Cholula as an informer of Cortés and, as a result, her condemnation by her compatriots and the formation in the future, the negative image of the translator among the indigenous people, from which she herself was. Thus, the genesis of the translator’s personality is traced, the value aspects of translation are revealed, and the axiological ambivalence of translation activity is demonstrated.

Оne of the most difficult problems when translating literary texts from Russian into Persian is to understand the meaning of Russian particles and find suitable equivalents. Particles are important elements of the text that concretize, separate and strengthen any words according to the author’s choice. The abundance of particles in Russian and the important role of particles in the expression of emotional-expressive shades of sentences on the one hand, and their small number and limited use in the Persian language on the other, creates serious problems in understanding their meaning, especially in translation. The concept of particles relates to different terms in the Persian language that do not adequately cover Russian particles, which determines the relevance of the work. In most cases, the Persians refer to Russian particles as untranslatable parts of speech that do not have a special, significant function. In this paper, the particle systems of the Russian and Persian languages are described by means of a comparative method and then a number of translations of some examples from Russian fiction into Persian are analyzed in order to identify difficulties faced by Iranian students and translators in understanding the meaning and translation of Russian particles. The authors show that the main difficulties faced by Iranian translators are the incorrect differentiation of particles from homonymic constructions, incorrect definition of a clear meaning of particles in a sentence, the inability to find a suitable translation equivalent or the inability to find a suitable equivalent in accordance with the semantics and style in the Persian language and reinterpretation of the meaning of particles.

In modern translation studies, compression has come to be regarded as a linguistic operation, as a translation strategy. However, the cognitive process that underlies compression has not been taken into consideration. Th e authors believe that compression is based on selecting a functional equivalent to the source message, provided that the cultural concepts in both languages overlap. Th e article aims at studying compression pragmatically in various types of discourse in the process of simultaneous interpretation. To reach this goal the authors provide an overview of the previous research that facilitates the analysis of compression from the point of view of discourse; study the linguistic basis of compression; and analyze compression from pragmatic and cognitive perspectives. As a result, a model is proposed which presupposes a cognitive selection of a functional equivalent to the source message based on overlapping cultural concepts in two languages.

Two principles of interpretation are analyzed: the principle of reproduction is based on a thorough reproduction of all the elements that make up the source message, while the principle of replacement involves selecting a communicatively adequate variant of interpretation that would perform similar functions in the given context. In order to establish correlations between cultural concepts an interpreter has to be well-versed in cultural coordinates system of both languages within a certain discourse. On a lower level of understanding compression is limited to omitting redundant elements and replacing them with more concise versions, lexically and/or syntactically, while preserving the informative components of the message. On a higher level of understanding that appeals to the cultural concepts and the language of thought (mentalese), compression involves selecting a ready-made functional equivalent that already exists in the target language and is normally more concise in form.

Translation of toponyms from Chinese into Russian is to be standardized and unified. Scientific methods of description, comparison, and generalization identified the structural and semantic peculiarities of Chinese toponyms. These characteristics have become the basis for an inductively developed method of unification of the translation of Chinese toponyms into Russian. This method eliminates existing communicative errors, standardizes the translation of Chinese toponyms, creates a unified structured system of the translation of Chinese toponyms into Russian, distinguishes interdependent toponyms, emphasizes the features of the internal structure of Chinese toponyms, and unifies the rules of toponyms translation with the rules of other types of proper names in the Russian — Chinese language pair.

The report will address practical issues of the level of formation of textual competence, based on the concept of text theory, which pays great attention to the category of coherence, since it provides a structural and compositional sequence of presentation. In the Chinese audience, when teaching text formation in Russian, there are serious problems concerning both objective factors (the initial discreteness of the text and the difference in language systems) and subjective ones (a low level of analytical abilities, insufficient confidence in their own creative abilities). The importance of this category is difficult to overestimate, because it has a multidimensional, interdisciplinary nature and should become a unifying principle in the development of curricula and programs for future translators in the courses of “Practical Stylistics,” “Theory and Practice of Translation,” “Business Communication,” “Introduction to Linguistics,” etc. Not only does such interdependence of diff erent academic disciplines in teaching foreign languages develop students’ analytics, but it also increases the level of their creativity, which largely determines the competitiveness and demand for future specialists next to computer intelligence.

The article considers the features of the manifestation of the discursive personality of the author of a pamphlet and the ways of their transmission when translating from French into Russian on the basis of the works “Le hareng de Bismark” by J.-L. Melenchon and “Sarkozy sous BHL” by R. Dumas and J. Verges. A model of complex analysis of the author’s discursive personality in cultural, communicative, pragmatic, and stylistic aspects is proposed. Based on the model, the features of the author’s idiostyle are derived, which require immutable preservation during translation to ensure an adequate communicative eff ect on the target language. In terms of the communicativefunctional approach according to V.V. Sdobnikov, the pamphlet refers to a communicative situation (KSP-2trans), in which the translator himself is the initiator of the translation, seeking to acquaint recipients with the work of the authors. The paper analyzes the problem of the translator’s linguistic personality influence on the transmission of the author’s features of the original text, initially addressed to the inner reader, and the question of overcoming such an influence. It has been demonstrated that for the adequate transmission of the features of the author’s discursive personality, the most acceptable methods are compensation, adaptation and translation commentary.

The rewiew is dedicated to the recently published monography by Nikolai Garbovsky and Olga Kostikova on the history of translation. Th e book is an attempt to analyze different aspects related to the practice, theory and technology of translation in different historical periods. It is based on a wide circle of sources and contains postulates and conclusions that may be appreciated as a valuable contribution to modern translatology.

On April 13th, 2022, as part of the XXIX International Scientific Conference for Students, Postgraduates, and Young Scientists "Lomonosov," which traditionally takes place every spring at Moscow University, there was a meeting of the section "Theory, History, and Methodology of Translation."

On November 24th and 25th, the International Philological Forum in Memory of Academician Lyudmila Alekseevna Verbickaya was held at the Russian Academy of Education with the support of the Society of Russian Literacy and the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature.

From May 13th to 15th, 2022, the XII International Scientific Conference "Russian Language and Culture in the Mirror of Translation" was held at the University Pension (Zvenigorod, Moscow Region), dedicated to the 240th anniversary of the formation of the Translation Seminar at the Imperial Moscow University.

From November 10th to 13th, 2022, the IX International Scientific and Educational Forum "Languages. Cultures. Translation" was held at the University Pension of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, dedicated to the Year of Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of the Russian Federation.

On October 12th, 2022, the III International Methodological Seminar "Didactics of Translation in the Digital Age" was held at the Russian Academy of Education, organized jointly by the School of Translation (Faculty) of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Department of Education and Culture of the Russian Academy of Education. The seminar was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the translator, educator, and scientist Ryurik Konstantinovich Minyаr-Beloruchev, who was at the forefront of the development of the theory and methodology of teaching oral translation.