Ways of conveying ethnocultural lexicon in translation of the novel Eugene Onegin by A. S. Pushkin into Portuguese (on the materials of Dário Moreira de Castro Alves’ translation)

Abstract

The subject of this research is the ethnocultural lexicon in translation of A. S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” into Portuguese language. The author views the term realia as a lexicon with ethnocultural semantics, characteristic to a specific language community. The research is aimed at the analysis of the means of conveying realia in two non-cognate languages, as well as in determination of ethnocultural differences of the lexemes signifying similar notions. The author believes that understanding and accurate interpretation of culturally marked lexicon are essential for translating foreign literature, studying and teaching foreign languages. Methods of the research are contextual and comparative analysis of the Russian realia in translation, which allowed determining the distinctions in cognition of text among the Russian and Portuguese native speakers. The novelty of this work is defined by reference to the only translation of the novel “Eugene Onegin” into Portuguese language that has not previously been an object of a linguoculturological study. The research revealed that realia may contain cultural component in the meaning of words and their connotation. As a result, the author indicates the differences of linguistic means of conveying realia in the Russian and Portuguese languages, and established the ways of conveying ethnocultural lexicon in translation of the novel, such as correlation, hypo-hyperonymic translation, adaptation, periphrastic translation, and calquing.