Moscow University Translation Studies Bulletin. 2022. 2.

The article introduces the emergence and development of Eco-translatology in China, examines its philosophical and theoretical basis, analyzes its applications and trends based on statistical data, covering the development of the eco-paradigm of translation research in China and the System model of Eco-translatology.

With the development of translation studies, different approaches to its study emerged. Ecotranslatology is a new approach in Chinese translation studies proposed by Hu Gengshen in 2001. It became the first unique systematic translation theory in China and this new attempt has opened up a new opportunity for the study of translation. Therefore, studying the similarities and differences between eco-translation studies and Western translation theories is of great importance for a deeper understanding of the true originality, advantages and prospects of ecotranslation studies. This article discusses the emergence and development of ecotranslation studies. A comparison is made between Ecotranslatology and Western translation studies on three grounds, viz. the translation process, the place and role of the translator in the translation process, and translation criteria. Various aspects of Ecotranslatology are analyzed, which makes it possible to determine which of them are borrowed from Western translation studies, and which are unique. The author uses a comparative descriptive method and a method of research analysis. The article points out some similarities that Ecotranslatology shares with the Western theory of translation, the manifestation of which may be associated with the historical factor in the development of the theory: the Chinese theory of translation for a long time lagged behind in its development from the Western translation studies and had a closed character. But due to the fact that Chinese philosophy has a unique character, completely different from the nature of Western philosophical teachings, Ecotranslatology is established under the influence of Chinese philosophy, Western philosophy and traditional Chinese translation thought and Western translation studies, so Ecotranslatology we study today also has a number of unique features that distinguish it from all currently existing theories in the science of translation. The article outlines new directions for the development of eco-translation studies.

Nowadays there is a significant number of video games are represented on the market of videogame software products, text materials of which contain archaic lexis. The aim of this paper is to analyze and interrogate the sources of archaic lexis in videogames, as well as to establish the main ways of the translation in localizations in other languages. Typological and comparativehistorical methods, as well as contextual analysis, became the main ones for this study. The article contains examples of videogame software products that have the most frequent types of archaic lexis with a different basis, and also states videogame setting as one of the main sources of archaic lexis. As a rule, the setting of a videogame software product is a determining factor for the usage of certain types of lexis, including archaisms. The videogame setting, being a reflection of the ideas of the developers, carries information about a specific time period or a religion which determines the plot of the videogame. In addition to the setting, an important role is played by the style guide of the text materials, which contains instructions on the use of archaic lexical units that meet the requirements of the setting. The localization of archaic videogame lexis contains significant challenges even for experienced videogame localization industry workers. According to the results of this study, there are several ways to localize archaic lexis. Among these methods, direct borrowing of a lexical unit, as well as transliteration and transcription, stand out. The choice of an appropriate method of localization of archaic lexical units directly depends on the source of such vocabulary, which, in turn, becomes the religious and historical-traditional component of the videogame setting. As a rule, archaic lexis that has a religious basis underneath, the most common localization method is direct borrowing from sacred texts. At the same time, vocabulary typical of a certain era or the traditional way of any geographical region is most often transliterated or transcribed when translated into other target languages.

Situationality is one of the seven characteristics of discourse proposed by De Beaugrande and W. Dressler. A great deal of practice shows that situationality plays an important role in influencing the interpreting activity, including the subject and object of the interpreting, listening, comprehension, reorganization and output of the information, etc. A successful translation of a text must seek the closest interpretation to the source text based on the linguistic context in which it was produced. This paper will start with the situationality, argue for the necessity and possibility of using the discourse situationality to analyze Russian-Chinese interpretation, and propose corresponding interpreting strategies through specific case studies in order to improve the quality of Russian-Chinese interpretation, accumulate experience for interpreting training and make certain contributions to the relevant interpretation work.

The article takes into consideration the problem of translating humor in fiction. Regarding the cultural and subjective nature of humor, the author asks the following question: is it possible to translate humor and recreate the effect caused by the original text? The article investigates the Cairo Trilogy (1956–1957), a novel and a family saga by Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006), one of the most widely recognized Egyptian authors and a laureate of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. The novel follows the life of a bourgeois Cairene family ‘Abd el-Gawwad in the early 20th century. The source for investigation is the original text of the novel written in Arabic and its French translation made by Philippe Vigreux (1985, 1987, 1989). The methods are strictly connected with the concepts of dialogism and intertextuality. In an attempt to answer the questions posed, the author considers such aspects of the problem as the effect of the original text and its reflection on common cultural knowledge in humor in order to show some limitations of translation and its ability to recreate humor in free forms. As a result, there have been found such translation tendencies as an explanation of a joke by giving a note; giving a note without explaining the humor; loose inserts by the translator that create humor effect in such fragments where it does not exist in the source text, etc. The author concludes that, despite the fact that the humor effect in the translation is not fully recreated, sarcasm and humor are transmitted “correctly” throughout the text. Here are the questions for further discussion: is it necessary to explain everything? What are disadvantages of giving notes? Are there universally fun things?

Original article: Mansour L. (2010) Traduire l’humour dans La Trilogie de Naguib Mahfouz: La traduc- tion toutes tendances confondues. Idioma 20, Transhumoresques, Bruxelles, Belgique, pp. 113–129.

Translated by Yulia Bogdanova. Institute for Asian and African States, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. For contacts: jul.bogd1111@gmail.com

Any translation and especially that of poems from one language into another is accompanied by compensation, since the presence of rhyme, meter, figures of speech and emotional tension is inherent in the poem, and the transfer of all these poetic elements is impossible from the source language into the translating language. This article, relying on the comparative method and translation methods, examines the ways of compensation used in the Russian translation of Saadi Shirazi’s “Gulistan” by R. Aliyev and A. Starostin. The goal is to identify the positions and levels in the poem, where elements of poetic speech are lost, and also to identify the techniques and methods used to compensate for the loss of these elements. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the classification of positions of loss of meaning and poetic elements when translating poems from Persian into Russian, in particular “Gulistan” by Saadi Shirazi, made by R. Aliyev and A. Starostin, and in the study of methods of their compensation. As a result, the authors come to the conclusion that the loss of elements of poetic speech during the translation of Saadi’s “Gulistan” from Persian into Russian is compensated by alliteration, assonance, the use of rhyming words, anaphora, etc.

Today, in the era of digitalization, the development of modern technologies has had a significant impact on all aspects of public life. Translation didactics and translation activities are no exception. The objective of this research is to identify new translation competencies in the process of translation training so that the translator can meet the requirements of the present-day market. The author defines the concept of translation competence, writes about its changes in connection with modern conditions and suggests methods for its formation during translation training, based on the experience of modern Russian and foreign scholars. Moreover, the article identifies the challenges that a lecturer may face when teaching translation. The author uses a comparative method as she compares different approaches to the concept and content of translation competence. The author concludes that any modern translator must have traditional competencies that have been taught for many years along with new ones related to digital technologies.

In the article it is shown that the gap between learner lexicography and cognitive methodology can, and should be, narrowed in an ongoing way and on a step-by-step basis. Dictionaries for learners of English are becoming increasingly corpora-based, and this factor brings foreign language users closer to authentic (or real) English. At the same time, however, bilingual dictionaries lag behind as they do not always take into account the results of research work related to thinking processes, mental lexicon, and cognitive mechanisms of language learning and language use. It is therefore essential that different aspects of learner lexicography be examined, updated and adapted to the most recent discoveries of cognitive linguistics and cognitive methodology. With this in mind, it is demonstrated in the several successive subsections of the present article how illustrative phraseology, i.e. select lists of collocations and utterances, included in the learner’s business dictionary, can be re-worked and reorganized through the synchronization of cognitive and communicative planes for teaching both Business English and translation for business purposes to advanced Russian-speaking students at English Departments at universities across the Russian Federation. The main goal is twofold: to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and to combine the author’s conception of Business English with the author’s theory of translation for business purposes. The combination of the two original conceptions makes it possible to re-structure the list of headwords comprising both core business terms and high-frequency lexical items within the third edition of the learner bilingual business dictionary. The underlying cognitive-communicative methodology is applied to all the five elements of the dictionary entry, viz. the headword, its English-based definition, its Russian equivalent (or equivalents), the Russian-based definition of the headword, and the listing of high-frequency collocations and contexts that illustrate how the word or the core business term should be used in spoken and written business discourse.

Sight interpreting is an important part of the interpreter training process. The methodology of teaching sight interpreting should correspond to the characteristic features of this type of interpreting and at the same time serve as a preparatory stage for further simultaneous interpreting training. In order to improve the quality of training of Russian-Chinese and Chinese-Russian interpreters working within the framework of the One Belt, One Road initiative, an independent course “Sight interpreting” is offered at the School of Russian studies of Beijing Foreign Studies University (hereinafter referred to as BFSU). This article focuses on the features and difficulties of this type of translation activity and describes the whole process of teaching at BFSU in order to provide a methodological experience for the training of professional interpreters.

With the continuous deepening of relations between the PRC and the Russian Federation, sports exchanges and cooperation between the two countries are becoming more and more active, and China’s demand for sports translators with Russian as their working language is also growing. At the same time, the holding of the 24th Winter Olympic Games imposes new requirements for the training of professional translators in Chinese universities. Currently, the effectiveness of training specialists in this field in higher educational institutions in China leaves much to be desired, which leads to a serious shortage of sports translators from Russian into Chinese. Object: to propose strategies and consider models for training Russian language translators based on market needs. Methods: comparative analysis, generalization, correction and systematization. Findings: the main reasons for this shortage are: lack of a sufficient number of applicants who want to learn Russian; lack of motivation for students to learn Russian; lack of a clearly defined strategy for training specialists in this direction; similarity of educational programs in the specialty “Russian language”; lack of qualified teachers teaching “sports Russian”; lack of new educational materials and textbooks in this area. Conclusions: in order to overcome the above bottlenecks, higher educational institutions of the People’s Republic of China should be aware of the current situation and actively respond to it, namely, to study scientific models for training sports translators from the Russian language, develop rational curricula, form professional teachers, improve student teaching methods, produce new teaching materials and accelerate the training of interdisciplinary specialists who speak Russian well, have sports knowledge, creative thinking and an open worldview. These measures are designed to facilitate the work on the training of Russian language translators in Chinese universities and are designed to facilitate the work on the training of Russian translators in Chinese universities.