Vocabulary of Fear in N. V. Gogol’s Play “The Inspector” and Its Chinese Translation by Jiang Xiaomo

Abstract

The issue of language representation of emotions in the text of literary work is considered by the example of the emotion of fear in N. V. Gogol’s play “The Inspector”. The relevance of the research is determined by complexity of perception, which foreign readers have during understanding of text pieces that show variously apprehensible in different linguocultures emotions of characters. The most well-known translator of Gogol in China Jiang Xiaomo is noted to use three kinds of translation: equivalent, partially equivalent and non-equivalent. The appeal to non-equivalent translation is emphasized to be contingent on the difference in perception of the emotion of fear by Russians and Chinese and, consequently, the need for a translation adapted for the Chinese reader. The lexical means of conveying the emotion of fear and its description in the play "The Inspector" are analyzed as different ways of representing emotions. The lexical means of conveying the emotion of fear in the play are shown to be interjections, and the description of fear experienced by the characters is created by nouns and verbs in the characters’ speech or verbs and participles in the author's remarks. Based on comparison of the play "The Inspector" and Gogol’s stories the authors conclude that the lexical means of conveying the emotion of fear are presented only in the play, since a stylization of live speech is created within the genre.