Moscow University Translation Studies Bulletin. 2025. 1.

The above article discusses the extra-linguistic aspects of translation activity, emphasizing the opinions of N.K. Garbovskiy, A.D. Schweitzer, R.K. Minyar-Beloruchev and O.I. Kostikova. Emphasizes the importance of taking into account the sociocultural context and extra-linguistic factors in the translation process, suggesting studying the conditions of creation and perception of texts, as well as the social status of communication participants. 

The author points out the need for further research into these aspects, arguing that understanding the function of translation is a continuous process that evolves over time. It is noted that translation has performed a variety of social functions ranging from political to educational throughout human history, which emphasizes its importance in various spheres of life. 

Thus, the text emphasizes the diversity of factors affecting translation and calls for further research in this area.

In the context of the growing interest in the psychological and cognitive aspects of translation process, one of the directions of modern translation studies is the study of the constraints accompanying translation activity. This article considers the phenomenon of uncertainty as a source of constraints in translation process. The article provides a description of the system of external and internal constraints in translation activity; discusses the necessity of including the context of uncertainty in translation process research; reveals the nature of uncertainty from linguistic, hermeneutic and didactic perspectives; describes the specificity of uncertainty in translating pragmatic and literary texts. The author also proposes to consider the phenomenon of uncertainty in translation activity in terms of decision-making and draw a connection between the degree of uncertainty of the situation and the amount of intellectual effort on the part of the translator. The article also emphasizes the significant role of the phenomenon of uncertainty for the translation didactics and provides a brief overview of teaching practices incorporating the phenomenon of uncertainty into the context of translation training.

Translation plays an important role in developing the capacity of international communication. With the historical transition from “translation from foreign languages into Chinese” to “translation from Chinese into foreign languages”, China will gradually develop theoretical foundations and accumulate practical experience to strengthen national translation competence and build international communication capacity through continuous research into translation and translation studies. Th e paper analyses the current situation and prospects of the development of translation activity in China based on fi gures and facts.

Following the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, the translation industry has undergone unprecedented changes. AI technologies have not only transformed translation methods, but also put forward new requirements for translators’ professional competencies. This paper discusses the content of translation competencies and the ways of their transformation in the AI era, analyzes new aspects of translation skills, and proposes a training model representing the synergy of technology and humanities in order to train new, comprehensive translation professionals to meet the requirements of the era.

Hermeneutics, the art of understanding and interpreting texts, which has a long history, is considered one of the most important philosophical concepts today. It is also frequently mentioned in interdisciplinary studies, including studies of literary translation. Th is paper focuses on the development of hermeneutical studies of literary translation in China, statistically analyzing more than five hundred articles and dissertations published in China over the past twenty years, exploring Chinese researchers’ interest in different subfields. In conclusion, the western hermeneutical theories, especially those of Hans-Georg Gadamer and George Steiner, have made positive influences on the noted studies in the past few decades. However, at the same time, this study also reveals several problems, such as the lack of research on language pairs other than the Chinese-English language pair, as well as the lack of theoretical innovation. At the end of this article, numerous propositions are made, suggesting that researchers analyze more diverse types of texts in different languages, put forward their own innovative ideas, and build a unique theoretical system for hermeneutical studies of literary translation in China.

The article is devoted to the currently relevant study of the concept of time in languages and cultures of unrelated to each other: Russian, English and Ingush. The change in the perspective of research approaches: from the study of language structures to the analysis of the system of mental and cognitive processes of human activity. Th is has led to the need for research in this scientific area and updated the theme, purpose and objectives of this article. The interpretation object is the lexemes of temporal semantics. The subject of the study is the exposition of the “time” category in the artistic text of “The tale of wasted time” by E. Schwartz. The purpose of the study is to interpret the speech-thought category of time in the translated text: from the source language (SL): Russian, into the target languages (TL): English and Ingush. The main task of studying temporal units is to identify and justify the choice of a specific translation type that most accurately conveys the grammatical category of time, from the original language to the target language in a fiction text, using a cognitive approach. The main research methods are: the cognitive approach, along with the descriptive, semantic, linguotranslation and comparative-contrastive methods. The final results obtained by studying the concept of time in the fiction of three unrelated languages (Russian, English and Ingush), indicate the fact that the understanding of time by a native speaker of a particular language is not the same and is extraordinary, due to national and cultural differences/ characteristics. However, there is an analogy with how the identification and designation of time in the Ingush and English languages is traced, namely: a) physical time: ха in the Ingush language and time in English; b) grammatical time: метта ха in the Ingush language and tense in English. At the same time, by conducting a statistical analysis and preliminary calculation of all the translation operations performed, the following was established: 1) translation from Russian into English is distinguished by its denotation: the semantic level, where the subject meaning of the concept: time appears to a greater extent; 2) translation from Russian to Ingush is distinguished by its semantic (significative) level, where the concept in the SL (source language) is related to the designated concept in the TL (target language).

The article deals with the phenomenon of motivation as a key factor determining the professional activity of translators. The author focuses on the significance of internal and external stimuli that infl uence the choice of translation strategies and methods, as well as the final result of translation. Special attention is paid to the role of personal and creative aspects that characterise translation activity as a form of professional self-expression. Various forms of translation motivation are analysed in detail, including the translator’s comments, prefaces, notes and other metatextual elements that contribute to the elimination of semantic losses and cultural asymmetries. The study is based on an interdisciplinary approach combining linguistics, psychology and translation studies, which allows for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying translators’ professional choices.

The article deals with the phenomenon of motivation as a key factor determining the professional activity of translators. The author focuses on the significance of internal and external stimuli that infl uence the choice of translation strategies and methods, as well as the final result of translation. Special attention is paid to the role of personal and creative aspects that characterise translation activity as a form of professional self-expression. Various forms of translation motivation are analysed in detail, including the translator’s comments, prefaces, notes and other metatextual elements that contribute to the elimination of semantic losses and cultural asymmetries. The study is based on an interdisciplinary approach combining linguistics, psychology and translation studies, which allows for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying translators’ professional choices.

This article presents an overview of contemporary approaches to multimodal discourse analysis. In multimodal discourse studies, different definitions of mode and different foci are noted. The multimodal analysis theory of different types of discourse is considered from functionalist, cognitive and interactionist sociological perspectives and multimodal corpus analysis and multimodal empirical studies of advertising discourse are presented.

The article deals with examples of humour creation and their verbal and non-verbal peculiarities in English popular scientific discourse. These examples are known as TED lectures or TED talks. Humour is oft en used by speakers to attract the audience’s attention. It happens while establishing a contact or focusing attention on some concrete aspects in the lecture’s content. The information in the lecture is used for transmitting complex ideas, which in the process of perception may become not so sophisticated in English popular scientific discourse. 

The text of the speech is shaping the analysis of verbal mechanisms of humour representing orally popular scientific discourse, sometimes mingled with non-verbal features. The understanding of cognitive mechanisms of humour creation in the orator’s speech and the perception of it by the listeners is expressed by a verbal form and it is combined with the nonverbal and multimodal characteristics. It may help language learners improving their language skills and understanding of English as well as providing the better perception and comprehension of the professional speech in the English language. Besides that, humour studies in lectures aimed at the audience in English in TED lectures may reveal the way speakers use humour, and pointing which particular features depend upon the situational-pragmatic characteristics of communication. The authors of the article represent the difference between a special text and special discourse to perform a much deeper analysis of the discussed problems. The material of this research is based on the text of the lecture by the well-known American neurophysiologist Stuart Firestein (Firestein, 2013).

The article is concerned with the results of the comparative study of Russian and British encyclopaedias of the 19th century. The aim of the study is to reveal the peculiarities of the historical development of Russian and British encyclopaedias in relation to each other and to specify the features of similarities and differences in the structure of encyclopaedic articles in these editions. If the main task for the Russian encyclopaedia of that period was to create a predominantly national edition, the British encyclopaedists were primarily concerned with providing the reader with information on current events, the latest achievements of science and technology in the world. It was found that at the beginning of this century British encyclopaedias developed more actively than Russian encyclopaedias and that the development of British encyclopaedias, unlike the Russian ones, was significantly influenced by the commercialisation of book publishing and serious competition between publishers. In general, more encyclopaedias were published in Britain (especially in the first quarter of the century) than in Russia, and at the same time, unlike Russia, not only alphabetical but also systematic (thematic) encyclopaedias were published in Britain. The comparison of encyclopaedic articles in Russian and British editions showed that the encyclopaedias of both countries used similar types of articles (review article, reference article, explanatory article, crossreference article), and the indication/non-indication of the authorship of the article is not nationally conditioned. Unlike British encyclopaedias, Russian encyclopaedias usually indicate that the material, or part of it, is translated or borrowed. A comparison of the articles in Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary and the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica shows that by the end of the century had been developed a model of a personalia-article that was used by both Russian and British editors: the headword is an individual or group anthroponym, the choice of which is nationally specific; the information is presented in a referential way; the article oft en has an evaluative modality. The headwords of the articles on mythonyms, which are somewhat fewer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica than in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary, represent in both encyclopaedias the names of several spheres of onomastic space. The similarity of Russian and British encyclopaedias of the 19th century is due to the fact that their Russian and British compilers followed the already established rules of selection and compilation of encyclopaedic articles. The differences found can be explained by the cultural and national traditions of Russia and Great Britain.