Culture bound words

The challenge here is in situation itself, not in traditions. The cultural situation creates phenomena that are not typical of any other country. The translator has to consult different sources concerning the country’s culture.

*Drugstore – аптека + закусочная

*Sorority – a group of females living together, a kind of society with certain rules, no man is allowed.

*Fraternity – the same for males.

Culture bound words occur when a TL concept is not known in the SL.

*прописка- mandatory registration

If we deal with culture-bound words we have to consider the words that don’t have an equivalent in the TL because they haven’t been invented yet, and the words that cannot have any equivalent because they don’t present in the TL culture.

*Sputnik – satellite (later) – the case is psychological not linguistic.

*A TV-dinner – еда из полуфабрикатов (реклама по ТВ)

When we deal with words denoting places, flora and fauna we usually loan words. Transcription is the best of presenting the idea. E.g. “jungle, prairie, steppe, tundra (= a marshy plain or Siberian swamp). The realia are also words denoting dances, musical instruments:

*Былина – a folk legend

*Божба – swear words, an oath.

Translation of words with emotive meaning

These are words containing emotive and stylistic meaning. Emotive meaning may be regarded as one of the objective semantic features proper to words as linguistic units and shouldn’t be confused with contextual emotive meaning that words may acquire in speech. Emotive meaning varies in different word classes. We can speak here of interjections here emotion exists and may even dominate. The emotive meaning is based on connotation, which can be expressed by suffixes. Russian is rich in emotive suffixes, which may be rendered by additional lexical items.

* дом - a house

* домик – a small house

* домишко – hovel house

Some words may acquire negative and positive connotations in different contexts:

*Richard was captivated by the vulgar glamour and the shoddy brilliance of the scene before him. – …вульгарный блеск и дешевая роскошь.

*…who were attracted for the moment by the glamour of the dancer or the blatant sexuality of the woman. - … кого на мгновение привлек романтический ореол танцовщицы или ее откровенная чувственность.

*Hirsh’s Richard is not lacking glamour. Facially he is a smiling fallen angel – …не лишен обаяния.

Sometimes differences in usage or valence don’t allow to use Russian referential equivalents and the translator is forced to resort to a lexical replacement. The emotive meaning often determines the translator’s choice. The English word “endless” is neutral in its connotation, while the Russian “бесконечный” may acquire a negative one: “boring, tiresome”.

*The endless resolutions – многочисленные резолюции

The rendering of stylistic meaning in translation

Every word is stylistically marked according to the layer it belongs to: literary or non-literary. The stylistic function of the English vocabulary depends not so much on the inner qualities of the each group as on the interaction when opposed to one another. So the stylistic meaning should be rendered.

*“My dear Copperfield,” said Mr. Micawber, “this is luxurious. This is a way of life which reminds me of a period when I was myself in a state of celibacy and Mrs. Micawber hadn’t yet been solicited to plight her faith at the Hymeneal altar.” – в состоянии безбрачия, НЕ холост; еще не умоляли принести клятвы на алтаре Гименея, НЕ еще не сделал предложения моей жене

*If you don’t keep your mouth shut…” – …если ты не заткнешься

*Then he really let on go at me.” –… тут он мне врезал по-настоящему.