Leader trait analysis of Vladimir Putin: A translation studies approach to personality scores in translated English to Russian speech

Abstract

The study of how political leader personalities affect the foreign policy of their states is a long-standing query in foreign policy analysis, within which the use of leaders’ speech, or verbal statements, to explain how leaders behave is a methodologically productive subfield. One of the more prominent and reliable methodologies used to assess leader personality through leader speech is Leader Trait Analysis (LTA), developed by Margaret Hermann. However, because LTA was developed using English language vocabulary and grammar, its accuracy using Russian language speeches to discern leader personality traits has relied on translation. Translation is both inefficient and may not accurately transfer the semantics of speech upon which LTA’s results depend. Responding to this issue, this paper applies Mona Baker’s translation studies criteria to qualitatively compare the semantic equivalence, or maintenance of a text’s original meaning, between English translations used to create an LTA profile for Vladimir Putin and Putin’s original Russian speeches. The research identifies the preponderance of grammatical differences between English and Russian in limiting how well English translations of Russian speech maintain semantic equivalence relevant to assessing leader personality. It is concluded that an accurate understanding of Russian leaders’ personalities requires Russian language specific LTA profiling.