Characteristic peculiarities of translating social studies realities and terms



The concept of realities is discussed in this article as a foundation for background information. The categorizing of realities as a component of translation is given special consideration. The authors concentrate on non-equivalent vocabulary transfer mechanisms. The paper covered a wide range of issues that may arise while interpreting realities, with a focus on the importance of cultural texts.

Keywords: realia, translation, non-equivalent vocabulary, culture.

Translation is a very ancient human activity. Since ancient times, it has been an essential part of intercultural communication. He helped spread religious and cultural ideas, scholarly works, and works of art. When translating as a form of linguistic mediation, a translator has to take into account two linguistic pictures of the world, as well as compare and adapt the worldview pictures of the world of two linguistic cultures [15].

The difference in cultures is manifested both in the translation of non-equivalent vocabulary and in the difference in background knowledge. Most translation theorists argue that without an understanding of background knowledge, it is impossible to achieve full translation adequacy. Realities are the basis of background knowledge. As a specific element of the national-cultural aspect of the text, it is they that cause the greatest difficulties in the translation process [14, p. 45]. The reason for this is the absence of any concept in the target language that is present in the source language. It is then that background knowledge comes to the aid of the translator, which includes knowledge of the history of the country, the most important historical events, its major political and historical figures, etc. However, it is not always possible for a translator with a good command of the target language and background knowledge to preserve reality or replace it with an equivalent in another culture.

Despite the fact that they started talking about realities as carriers of color only in the early 50s, the term «reality» itself became quite widespread in linguistic literature. In addition to «realities» in the literature, there are the following terms to denote this concept: «exotic vocabulary», «non-equivalent vocabulary», «barbarisms», «localisms», «ethnographisms», «ethnolexemes», «ethnocultural vocabulary», «regional geography» «Situational realities», etc. [16, p. 199–203].

Many theorists and practitioners of translation, linguists and philologists in their works have repeatedly raised the question of what is reality, proposed its classification and methods of translating this phenomenon. The question of realities is posed in the works of S. I. Vlakhova and S. P. Florina, M. L. Weisburd, L. S. Barkhudarov, E. M. Vereshchagin, I. Killer, V. G. Kostomarova, A. D. Reichstein, Vl. Rossel's, L. N. Sobolev, A. E. Supruna, G. D. Tomakhina, G. V. Chernov.

Dictionaries agree that reality is an object, concept, phenomenon characteristic of the history, culture, life, way of a particular people, country, not found among other nations. The words that call such an object, concept and phenomenon also apply to realities. Phrases containing such words (proverbs, sayings, phraseological units) also constitute realities [12, p. 201].

L. S. Barkhudarov — a well-known specialist in Russian and English languages ​​and literature, translation theory, the author of a number of textbooks and publications — in his book «Language and Translation» refers realities to non-equivalent vocabulary, by which he means lexical units of one of the languages ​​that are not have neither complete nor partial analogs among the lexical units of another language. He believes that realities are words denoting material and spiritual objects, concepts and situations that do not exist in the practical experience of people speaking another language [3].

M. L. Vaysburd also refers to the concept of «reality» in his book «Realities as an element of regional studies». Among the realities, she includes social and cultural events in the life of the country, public organizations, customs and traditions, lifestyle items, geographical names, works of art, names of historical and public figures, famous scientists, composers, writers, artists, popular athletes, characters of literary works, natural phenomena (in this case, the realities are of a regional nature), as well as individual elements that cannot be classified [4].

The linguist L. N. Sobolev understands realities as everyday and specific national words and phrases that have no equivalents in everyday life, and, accordingly, in the languages of other countries, and words from national life that are not in other languages, because these objects are absent in everyday life of another country [5, p. 627–631].

We, relying on the authoritative opinions of the aforementioned philologists and linguists, adhere to the point of view that realities are words and phrases characteristic of the social, cultural, historical, political and economic life of the population of any country that have no equivalents in other countries [13, p. 33–38].

As the concepts of the word «reality» are various, so the classification of realities is different for each author. Today, researchers in the field of philology and translation theory offer various classifications of realities, based on certain principles [8, 590–598].

Classification by L. S. Barkhudarova is precise and laconic and identifies the following types of realities:

1. names of dishes of national cuisine;
2. types of folk clothing and footwear;
3. folk dances;
4. types of oral folk art;
5. political institutions and social phenomena;
6. trade and public institutions.

From the point of view of structural and semantic features, realities as translation units are divided into:

– abbreviations;

– the words;

– phrases;

– offers.

From the practice of translation, the following methods of transferring non-equivalent vocabulary are known:

1. Transliteration and transcription is one of the most common translation methods, in which the graphical form (letter structure) of a word of a foreign language is transmitted during transliteration, and its sound form during transcription [10, p. 128–136]. For example, geographic realities: «Oceania» — «Oceania», «Europe» — «Europe», «Egypt» — «Egypt»; ethnographic realities: «smartphone» — a smartphone, «dollar» — dollar, «mile» — «mile».
2. Such a technique as tracing consists in conveying realities by replacing its constituent parts — morphemes or words with their direct lexical correspondences. For example: «skyscraper» — «skyscraper», «The Canal Saint Martin» — «Canal San Martin», «Arab Spring» — «Arab Spring», «Bank of England» — «Bank of England» [6, p.414- 419]
3. Descriptive («explanatory») translation conveys non-equivalent vocabulary, revealing the meanings of a lexical unit of a foreign language using expanded phrases explaining its meaning in the translated language. For example: «Mediterranean» — «Mediterranean», «Gulf States» — «countries of the Persian Gulf», «PR» — «public relations» [11, p. 40–43].
4. Approximate translation (translation using «analog») consists in finding the closest match for the lexical unit of a foreign language, which does not have exact matches in the target language. For example: «job interviewer» — «the person conducting the interview for a job. As noted by I. A. Arzhanov, this method of translation is possible if «in the target language there is a completely adequate equivalent based on the same image» [2, p. 140].

It should also be added that in cases where any particular reality is of insignificant importance in the text, the translator has the right to completely refuse to translate it [7, p. 95–97].

It is when translating country-specific texts that there is a high probability of encountering difficulties in translating non-equivalent vocabulary. Undoubtedly, the translation of words that do not have correspondences in the language is a certain difficulty, but this difficulty is completely surmountable. Translation of realities is part of a large and serious problem of conveying national, historical, and cultural originality [9, p. 1964–1973]. And this problem originates from the moment the theory of translation was born as an independent discipline. A translator, as a rule, faces the following problems: to preserve the originality of a linguistic unit at the expense of the meaning, or to convey the meaning, while losing the national flavor. And the decision on the choice of a specific method when translating realities will directly depend on the task at hand. Translation of realities is a creative process that requires a translator to have a high level of cultural and regional background, as well as an understanding that any changes in the source text during the translation process «serve to reveal the semantic potential, consisting of a huge number of choices when using the language» [1, p. 117].

In conclusion, we would like to emphasize that texts of a regional character occupy an important place, including in the process of teaching foreign languages. Thanks to them, students learn the realities, countries of the studied language and gain new knowledge in the field of history, geography, culture, politics, etc. Therefore, the content of country-specific texts should be significant for students, have a certain novelty, whether it concerns general information about the state structure, children's and youth organizations of the country of the target language, or the peculiarities of speech behavior and etiquette. In any case, the study of regional studies should make the student a need for further independent search and familiarization with regional studies materials.

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