2.4. Culturally biased lexis and ways of its translation

In the course of its historical development, each nation ac­quires a great number of features, characteristic of the nation only and not pertained to any other, even to a genealogically related na­tion. The distinguishing features find their reflection in different as­pects of material and spiritual life and are materialized in separate words and word-groups designating national customs, traditions, folk rites, administrative or political systems, etc.

Culturally biased, i.e. nationally specific, are often elements in a governmental or election systems of a country. The monetary systems in most countries contain some nationally peculiar units as well (cf. shilling, penny, rouble, dollar, hryvnia). Culturally biased are mostly the titles of address, the ways of conduct, and some articles of clothing / footwear (cf. the Scottish kilt, the Ukrainian вишиванка, or the American Indians' moccasins); there are national systems of weights and measures (cf. Engl. mile, ounce, Ukr. верста, пуд).

The penetration of culturally biased specific notions into other national languages is realized through various channels and in most different conditions. Thus, previously such words as champagne, jam, jeans, Coca-Cola, corn-flakes, macaroni, vodka, spaghetti, sweater, tweed, whisky, pizza, etc. were cultural gaps.

Since the nature, the structure, the sphere of employment and the denotative meaning of different culturally biased units are different there are a few methods of translating them:

1. by transcription or transliteration (lord – лорд; mister – містер; shilling – шилінг; kozak – козак; hryvnia – гривня);

2. by transcription or transliteration and explication of their genuine nationally specific meaning (when the unit/ notion of the culturally biased lexicon is introduced in the target lan­guage for the first time or when it is not yet known to the broad public of the target language readers/listeners, as Downing Street – резиденція прем'єр-міністра Великої Британії на Даунінг Стріт);

3. by descriptive explication only (Pilgrim Fathers – перші колоністи з Англії, що прибули 1620 року до Північної Америки на вітрильнику «Мейфлауер»);

4. by translation of component parts and additional explication of the units of the nationally biased lexicon (translation and explication of the denotative meaning: keep your fingers crossed for me! - щоб мені була вдача, склади навхрест пальці!);

5. by way of word-for-word (loan) translation (secondary grammar school – середня граматична школа; fan club – клуб прихильників/уболівальників; стінгазета – wall newspaper).

6. by means of semantic analogies (the City Board of Education – міський відділ освіти; popcorn – кукурудзяні баранці; gingerbread – імбирний пряник; дипломна робота – graduation essay/project).

3. The translation of idioms, proverbs, and sayings

3.1. Phraseological units and their semantic classification

Idiomatic or phraseological expressions are structurally, lexi­cally and semantically fixed phrases or sentences having mostly the meaning, which is not made up by the sum of meanings of their component parts. An indispensable feature of idiomatic (phraseo­logical) expressions is their figurative, i.e., metaphorical nature and usage. It is this nature that makes them distinguishable from struc­turally identical free combinations of words Cf.: red tape (червона стрічка as a free word combination) or red tape (канцелярський формалізм as an idiom).

On rare occasions the lexical meaning of idiomatically bound expressions can coincide with their direct, i.e., not transferred mean­ing, which facilitates their understanding as in the examples like: to make way дати дорогу; to receive a hero's welcome зустрічати як героя. Some proper names can also be endowed with figurative meaning and possess the necessary expressiveness. For instance, Mrs. Grundy means люди, існуюча мораль; Jack Ketch – кат; Croesus – надзвичайно багата людина; Tommy Atkins – англійський солдат; Yankee – янкі/американець, etc.

Similarly treated must also be many other English and Ukrain­ian picturesque idioms, proverbs and sayings, which have national literary images and reflect the traditions, customs, the way of con­duct or the mode of life of a nation. Their meaning, due to absence of similar idioms in the target language, can be rendered descriptively, i.e. through a regular explication: an odd/queer fish – дивак; Canterbury tale – небувальщина, вигадка.

Translation of phraseological/idiomatic expressions depends upon some factors: whether the idiomatic expression in the source language and in the target language is of the same/different source of origin; whether the idiomatic expression has in the target language only one, more than one or all componental images in common; whether the component images, when translated, are per­ceived by the target language speakers; whether the structural form of the idiomatic expressions can be retained in the target language without any transformations; whether there exists an analogous/similar idiomatic expression in the target language, etc. All these and some other factors should not be neglected when translating idiomatic/phraseological expressions from and into Eng­lish.

It is possible to formulate a relatively easy rule for the translator – whenever an expression with the meaning contradicting the context appears, it should be treated as a potential phraseological unit. However, this rule is not so easy to follow, which is proved by a great amount of mistakes in translation. Thus, the title of an American novel Dead-eye Dick has been translated into Ukrainian as «Одноокий Дік», though the real meaning of this phrase is «влучний стрілок», and the character of the novel, bearing the name has both his eyes and is quite sharp-sighted. Another example is Agatha Christie’s novel ‘The Underdog’, translated as «собака, який не гавкає», while the meaning is «переможений собака», «невдаха».

Alongside the problem of identification of the phraseological units, there is another issue to be dealt with by the translator – and that is cross-language national and cultural differences of the semantically close phraseologisms. While the meanings are close, the stylistic colouring, emotive basis and emotive functions of the phraseologisms may differ greatly. For example, English ‘when Queen Anne was alive’ can be translated by means of a Ukrainian phraseological unit having the same meaning but quite different expressive means «за царя Панька».

Another aspect of this problem is the similarity of the phraseologisms having different meanings. For example, there are two proverbs in English, which are very similar in their form: every tree is known by its fruit and as the tree, so the fruit. The meanings of these proverbs are rather different and are translated by means of different equivalents: «пізнається дерево по його плодах» (the man is being judged for what he has done – a distinct Biblical association) and «яблуко від яблуні недалеко падає» (bad features are inherited – a folklore association).

The translator dealing with phraseological units is not only to have knowledge of both languages, but also to be able to analyse stylistic, cultural and historic aspects of the initial text in comparison with the capacities of the target language and culture.