English-Ukrainian intersemiotic translation within the configuration of modes of modality in literary texts

Abstract

The article highlights the main features of intersemiotic translation of a literary text, which is considered to be an expression of the author’s modality as a set of signs of various semiotic systems. Thus, the purpose of the study is to determine the linguistic and non-linguistic means of expressing modality in a literary text, the specifics of their interaction to generate meaning, and the features of their reproduction in intersemiotic translation. The object of modality in translation within a literary text is a set of signs encoded by the author of the source text and organized into a system that is decoded and reproduced by the translator both at the phonological, lexical, and syntactic levels and the semantic, emotional, and associative ones. The analysis of the category of modality from the standpoint of semiotics in literary texts involves decoding semiotic resources, symbols, and signs, taking into account the individual author’s, social, political, cultural, and national contexts. The process of interpreting and reproducing the sign configurations of individual author modality is carried out at the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels to achieve the corresponding aims. Thus, at the first stage, the forms and interactions of determinants are defined and interpreted whereas the second level involves consideration of the internal semantic plane of the research object, and, accordingly, at the third level, the influence and use of signs are outlined. It is proved that adequate literary translation is carried out based on the multimodality of the text that is viewed as a multimodal communication, within which meaning is generated by the configuration of different semiotic sign systems that require interpretation according to the principle of optimal relevance and creativity. The central concept of translation is semiosis as a process of interpretation of a sign and generation of meaning, that indicates the relationship of the sign with the outside world.