INTERFERENCE AS A SOURCE OF LEXICO-SEMANTIC ERRORS IN RUSSIAN TRANSLATION OF CHINESE POLITICAL TEXT (A CASE STUDY OF THE SPEECH BY XI JINPING AT THE CEREMONIAL MEETING DEDICATED TO THE CENTENARY OF THE CPC)

Abstract

The paper considers the phenomenon of language interference in Russian translation of the Chinese political text, deals with linguistic errors caused by interference and reveals its mechanisms in the translation process. The research was carried out on the material of the Speech by Xi Jinping at the ceremony dedicated to the centenary of the CPC and its official Russian translation. The material analysis proves that translators, being native Chinese speakers, are inevitably affected by their native language when translating from Chinese into Russian, which mainly leads to lexico-semantic errors: 1) violation of the norms of lexical combinability; 2) distortion of the meanings of lexical units; 3) lexico-semantic redundancy and deficit. The results of the study have demonstrated that linguistic causes of interference in Russian translations of the General Secretary's Speech are connected with the differences in the systems of contacting languages, such as difference in lexico-semantic compatibility and associative fields, as well as lexico-semantic capacity in Chinese and Russian. The psychological basis of interference is the transfer of perceptual standards from the source language to the target language. The negative effect of interference on translation quality can be avoided by correct understanding of its mechanisms. In this regard, the study of lexico-semantic errors caused by interference could help reveal the mechanisms of interference in general, and minimize this problem in the process of Chinese-Russian translation.