Linguistic and Cultural Poetics of German Popular Science Texts (based on U. Stumpf’s “Kräuter: Gefährten am Wegesrand”) and Resultant Translation Challenges

Abstract

The article examines several aspects of linguistic and cultural poetics of German popular science texts, which in many ways shape national and cultural specifics of such texts and thus influence the process of translating them into Russian. As a distinct hybrid, popular science texts are characterized by high information density, intertextuality, and a wide range of vocabulary and style. Popular science texts create a special information space in which national and cultural specifics play a significant role. The article presents the results of the linguistic, stylistic, and cultural analysis of the German popular science work on botany by W. Stumpf “Kräuter: Gefährten am Wegesrand,” The strongly marked linguistic and cultural poetics of this text is largely determined by the peculiarity of botany as a field of knowledge: namely the knowledge of herbs, based on discoveries of ancient botanists, on folk knowledge, and on the personal experience of the author. At the lexical level, the linguo-cultural specifics are most clearly manifested in the nominations of plants: etymologically interesting phytonyms, their synonymic chains, and lexical gaps identified in the translation process. As a cross between scientific, journalistic, and literary texts, popular science texts display features of all these styles, which also determines the density of their linguistic and cultural poetics. The article provides a translation of several passages into Russian in order to demonstrate some of the challenges in translating popular science texts while taking into account their national and cultural specifics. The results of the study can be used both in teaching German as a foreign language and in translation courses at all levels of general and professional education as well as in developing textbooks, thematic dictionaries, and botanical glossaries.