Abstract
Devoted to problems of translations, the work presents a qualitative analysis of semantic peculiarities of sociocultural stereotypes that influence the solutions of a translator in the process of interpreting. We hypothesised that a specific social category that exists in a source culture in the form of pragmatic predispositions, namely a sociocultural stereotype, which has no equivalent notion as well as a word in translation culture and language, is a lacunar stereotype. The words denoting sociocultural stereotypes evoke numerous images, built in accordance with cultural and ethnic patterns, therefore such stereotypes are almost impossible to preserve in translation language. The work is aimed to recognise parameters of lacunarity, to determine the semantic components that frame the reference in translation, and to suggest the ways in rendering lacunar sociocultural stereotypes. The data for research material is taken from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. As it was ascertained in the course of semantic analysis of lexical units that denote sociocultural stereotypes, the lacunarity of these stereotypes for a target culture is determined by linguistic, historic, social, and cultural parameters. A lack of appropriate lexical means in the translation language inevitably leads to some losses in denotative meaning, whereas connotative meaning is not possible to render adequately because of discrepancy between axiological systems of source and receiving cultures. Decomposition of stereotype pragmatic information into figurative, historic and connotative components enables to emphasise relevant for a particular context pragmatic component. Highlighting the relevant component, with consideration for peculiarities of represented genre and context, is a solution to convey a part of the original pragmatic information. We deduced two major techniques for translation of sociocultural stereotypes: (1) interpreting the unknown for the recipient word or (2) introducing a cultural element, which is familiar to the recipient. Representation of socio-cultural stereotypes by means of another language requires rigorous analysis of pragmatic information that stereotypes code. The work outlines future prospects for research of lacunarity and strategies to eliminate lacunae in a target culture.
Highlights
At the time of rapid cultural globalisation and broadening communication, the exploration of national cultural stereotypes in various aspects takes on special significance
A specific social category that exists in a source culture in the form of pragmatic predispositions, namely sociocultural stereotype, which has no equivalent notion as well as a word in translation culture and language, is considered in our work a lacunar stereotype
The words denoting sociocultural stereotypes evoke numerous images, built in accordance to cultural and ethnic patterns, such stereotypes are almost impossible to maintain in translation language
Summary
At the time of rapid cultural globalisation and broadening communication, the exploration of national cultural stereotypes in various aspects takes on special significance. A verbal unit that represents a sociocultural stereotype in discourse is a symbol for a definite national community that preserves pragmatic information about the phenomenon of a social and cultural importance. 7), which appear due to the specific perception of the world and mental organisation of reality in a definite culture. Complications in translating these culturally specific units caused the idea of their untranslatability when the translator faces texts with terms, which are as culture-bound and culture-specific as to defy translation (Fernández Guerra, 2012). Interpretation of specific cultural units is of great importance for translation studies and for the development of intercultural competence, as the culture gaps threaten with misunderstanding, and, in a broader scale, with inevitable intercultural conflicts. The specific fragments of national “world picture” which are intrinsic for one nation and alien to another are designated by different terms: exoticisms (Suprun, 1958), blank spots on the semantic map of language (Stepanov, 1965), lacunae (Vinay and Darbelnet, 1958; Muraviev, 1975; Sorockin, 1988), nonequivalent lexemes (Markovina, 1982), zero lexemes (Sternin,1989), limits of a culture, or identity
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