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Linguocultural transfer of metaphors in a literary text

V.N. Denisenko, V.T. Vered
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UDC 81`4

https://doi.org/10.20339/PhS.6-20.060     

 

Denisenko Vladimir N.,

Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Head

of the General and Russian Linguistics Department

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia

e-mail: denissenko@mail.ru

 

Vered Valeriya T.,

PhD student of the General and Russian Linguistics Department

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia

e-mail: val_cherry-merry@hotmail.com

 

This article aims to assess the degree of transfer of the original metaphorical image into a foreign language linguistic and cultural space and to identify the general patterns of translation of the author’s metaphor in a literary text. An attempt is made to determine the nature of the correlation between the transfer and the communicative-pragmatic effect of the conversion unit. The study uses a three-dimensional model of metaphor, which is a synthesis of the proper linguistic (language), mental (thought) and communicative aspects. The actual linguistic aspect means the logical and semantic structure of the metaphor. Understood as the general properties of an object and its reflection arising from the principle of similarity, the tenor, the vehicle and the ground are revealed. From the point of view of the mental aspect, the metaphor is considered as a universal cognitive mechanism for the nomination of the surrounding reality and the creation of artistic images. The communicative aspect includes the study of metaphor from the perspective of its functioning in speech — the pragmatic attitude of the speaker determined by the content and form of his statement is pointed out. The semantic equivalence of metaphors in the original text and in the translation text is established on the basis of the componential analysis. The results are classified according to two criteria: 1) the preservation of the principle of implicit metaphorical rethinking and 2) the identity of the meanings actualized during the renaming process, which allows to identify cases of the complete and the partial transfer of the metaphor and to describe the concomitant lexical and grammatical interlanguage transformations. The partial transfer is to be recognized as the most common phenomenon that takes place during the translation of the metaphorical expression. The impossibility of the complete transfer of the source metaphor is explained by both the features of the internal development of languages and the nature of the linguistic thinking of the two peoples. The absence of the metaphor in translation is considered as a factor that reduces the pragmatic equivalence of texts.

Keywords: metaphor, lingua-cultural transfer, semantics, pragmatics, translation transformations, literary text.

 

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