National-cultural Specificity Research Articles

The emergence of synergistic complexities in Russia: A request for new university courses

The article explains the request for new approaches in the higher education as determined by the emergence of the “order out of chaos” (I. Prigogine) in the form of synergistic complexities. Their underestimation during perestroika and liberal reforms led to the crisis in the educational system and society. Until now, these actual issues have not been sufficiently represented in the educational programs of universities: students need synergistic knowledge that connects the achievements of social sciences, humanities and natural sciences and allows to analyze the nature of complex, non-linearly realities and manage them. The author considers the following synergistic realities: social-techno/digital-natural hybrids, complex spaces and time, interference risks and hybrid vulnerabilities, complex social identity, complexities of social consciousness, good and evil, scientific knowledge and education. To analyze the nature of synergistic realities, the author suggests a theoretical-methodological combination of three meta-paradigms: the theory of synergetics, which includes social-humanitarian and natural-scientific knowledge; theories that study the mutual influence of global and national-local factors; theories of nonlinear development and metamorphization. The author makes conclusions about the need for interdisciplinary and post-disciplinary courses for the study of synergistically complex realities, focusing on the Russian cultural specifics, which would allow to equip students with knowledge about complex causality; to form a creative personality with a set of cultural and professional competencies necessary for the preservation and reproduction of the Russian synergistic complexities with their national-cultural specifics; to develop a humanistic worldview and a socially responsible attitude towards society, macroand micro-worlds of nature and technological innovation, thus, contributing to the sovereign development of the country.

Концепт СЛАКТИВИЗМ и его реализация в сетевых дискурсивных практиках (на материале русского, английского и французского языков)

This publication is conducted in the stream of studying neology in the modern language influenced by the active use of internet communication and network discursive practices. The aim of the research is to identify the semantic and pragmatic characteristics of the linguistic realization of the concept of SLACKTIVISM. The social significance of the concept is asserted, its intersections and relationships with semantically similar concepts such as PROPAGANDA, ACTIVISM circulating in the modern networked information space are determined. The scientific novelty of the conducted research lies in providing a systematic description of a new, unstudied concept in domestic philology, on the basis of the Russian, English, and French languages. This includes accentuating the history of its emergence, the contradictory nature of its linguistic implementation in the digital discourse of new media, and network techno-discursive practices. As a result, the concept of SLACKTIVISM is portrayed as an expression of a new form of internet activity that contributes to social and political changes both on a narrow scale and in the broader geopolitical space. The linguistic level examination indicates preferences for figurative nominations and common means of representation in European languages and national-cultural specificity.

Verbalization of Fear in the Buryat Language

The author considers Buryat lexemes naming various manifestations of fear, as well as phraseological units of the corresponding semantic field. The connection between the acoustic-articulatory characteristics of the dominant consonants of the root and the psychological manifestations of fear is revealed. The dominant consonant of the root, being the carrier of the general characteristic, contains basic information about the denotatum. Thus, it has been found that the dominant consonant [g], due to the contact of the back of the tongue with the soft palate, indicates breath delay. The dominant consonant [l] conveys the flow of air, a sharp inhalation, the dominant consonants [r], [ǰ] and [č], causing internal discomfort, serve to actualize trembling in the spoken language. Further research in this direction will reveal the sound-symbolic meanings of lexemes that update information not only on psychological characteristics, but also on the properties of the surface, the shape of the object, dynamic states and other characteristics. Phraseological units characterize such physiological forms of fear manifestation as a chill on the back, trembling, stirring of hair on the head, widening of the eyes, numbness and an attempt to escape. Phraseological units with the component zürhen ‘heart’ are also considered. It has the meanings ‘will, determination, courage’ and is close to the word zorig ‘courage, willpower’. Phraseological units are illustrated with quotations from Buryat fiction, demonstrating the natural functioning of fear emotives in the language. The national-cultural specificity is revealed in the development of the meaning of the Mongolian verb hulchiih ‘to be afraid’ based on the meaning of ‘to press your ears with fear (about a horse or a dog)’. In general, the proverbs with the word morin ‘horse’ in the Mongolian languages depict this animal as a very valuable animal for a nomad; it is not by chance that it is called morin erdeni ‘horse-jewel’, in most cases the component morin has a positive emotional coloring. However, ‘a horse’ can actualize other metaphorical meanings that figuratively characterize a person, namely his cowardice. The components of phraseological units denoting domestic animals, also participating in the interpretation of the surrounding reality, form national and cultural stereotypes, reflect the mentality of the people, their identity and peculiarities of world perception.

National-Cultural Specificity of Biblical Idioms

The article investigates the representation features of idioms of biblical origin on the material of various languages. Idioms of biblical origin are regarded as linguocultural and nationally specific units, reflecting the peculiarities of mentality and religious worldview of a particular linguistic culture. The article reveals a number of extralinguistic factors that determine both the universal and specific features of idioms of biblical origin representation in various languages. The factors contributing to the universality of idioms of biblical origin include: 1) the commonality of Christian culture; 2) the influence of the Greek and Latin languages on subsequent translations of the Bible used nowadays. The followings are singled out as extralinguistic factors that determine the specificity of idioms of biblical origin in various languages: 1) the emergence time and dissemination scope of biblical translations; 2) confessional affiliation of a certain ethnic group; 3) peculiarities of national perception of the world and cultural values of a particular linguistic culture; 4) the socio-political system of a particular era or country; 5) mass-media factors. The national-cultural specificity of idioms of biblical origin is manifested in their non-equivalence in a particular language, the quantitative divergence of idioms of biblical origin included into a particular language from a single source, differences in the semantic capacity and meaning of idioms of biblical origin used in each of the languages, the emphasis on certain images and cognitive features activated in idioms of biblical origin, in existance of a set of borrowed idioms of biblical origin from different languages. It should be noted that even universal idioms of biblical origin functioning in different languages can be nationally specific due to the differences in the activated semantic features and figurative components of idioms.

LINGUOCULTURAL FEATURES OF THE CONCEPT SEA IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PRESS (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF «THE TIMES» HEADLINES)

The sea, in all its scope and variety of denotative sphere, is one of the most important factors in the geopolitical location of Great Britain. The image-concept of the SEA is key in the linguistic consciousness of English people, which is objectivized in linguistic and conceptual pictures of the world. This fact is reflected in linguistic semantics and communicative activity. The relevance of our research is due to the need to study the phenomenon of the sea as a separate, independent cultural sphere of existence, without which it is impossible to imagine the course of the historical development of Great Britain, as well as to identify the relevant semantic components that form the concept of SEA. The specificity and semiotic richness of the concept of SEA is directly related to the historical and cultural experience of British people, to the peculiarities of the geographical location — living on the island, and to the realities that surround the representatives of this nationality. The study of the marine fragment of the world picture of the British became the object of this research for the reason that the world, natural objects and phenomena are part of the cultural world of the British linguistic community. The identification of the national cultural specificity of the linguistic consciousness of the speakers of this culture is related to the study of the content of everyday ideas about the real world. The sea, which is an integral part of the British landscape, has always had a great influence on the identity and language of this nation. The purpose of the research is to identify the specifics of the functioning of the lexeme “sea” within the framework of the linguistic-cultural concept of SEA and its comprehensive description based on the material of newspaper headlines. The subject of the research is the studying of structural and semantic characteristics, information rubrication of the titles in the newspaper discourse, which is part of the concept of SEA. The work is carried out within the framework of the theory of the linguistic and cultural approach, which is a synthesis of several research methods, including conceptual analysis, definitional analysis, and the field method. The research was conducted on the material of the English language. The source of language material was the headlines of magazine texts of the British periodical “The Times” for the period from July 1, 2021 to July 1, 2022.

Popularization of Medical Knowledge in German Journal Discourse in Perspective of Language Code

A study was conducted on the language code used in medical popular science texts in German journal discourse. Interviews, brief news texts, and articles on medical topics are used as empirical material. It is shown that the arsenal of modern German language resources is aimed at implementing communicative-pragmatic functions of popular science discourse texts as a whole. It is noted that the leading functions among them are informing, influencing, and persuading the target audience. It is established that verbal means of different linguistic levels, as well as a number of stylistic devices (inversion, parceling, allusion, metaphor, metonymy, personification), not only convey medical knowledge to wide segments of the population but also transmit information about the national-cultural specifics of Germany and its achievements in medicine, taking into account the age characteristics of the addressees, also performing an educational function and seeking to achieve emotional involvement of the reader in complex content. The relevance of the study is due to the growing interest of non-professional participants in media-medical communication in the processes of self-diagnosis and self-treatment, which require mastering various medical knowledge. The novelty of the research lies in determining the pragmatic potential of structural-compositional features, including clickable headlines, and linguistic means, thanks to which a special media-medical picture of the world is formed.

Lexico-thematic groups of non-equivalent vocabulary in Russian translations (against the background of Chinese prototypes)

This article is centered on the study and description of the ways of identification and designation of the surrounding reality phenomena in two cultures - Russian and Chinese. Special attention is paid to the significance of the national-cultural specificity of the word. The article considers both general issues of ethno-cultural phenomena nomination and its specific cases, namely, the functioning of non-equivalent vocabulary and ways of its translation from Chinese into Russian. It also gives a brief overview of the distribution dynamics in modern Chinese prose and the problems of studying Yu Hua’s work in Russia. The aim of the article is to reveal the importance of translations of modern Chinese fiction as sources of studying non-equivalent vocabulary and translation strategies when working on characteristic word-markers of Chinese culture used in the novel “To Live” by the outstanding modern Chinese writer Yu Hua. The study is based on the translation of the novel in question, made by the Russian scholar R. G. Shapiro. The article determines thematic groups of non-equivalent vocabulary in the novel “To Live” (word-designations of new Chinese life, ethnographisms, historicisms, background and connotative words) and the main translation methods of their transfer (borrowing, description, hyperonyms, etc.). Special attention is paid to approximate or inappropriate translations in the text, due to the translator’s ignorance of the semantics of non-equivalent words, which ultimately leads to an imperfect understanding of Chinese culture.

Ways of Linguistic Representation of Cultural Dimensions

In the context of globalisation, the relevance of the issues related to the interaction between language and culture has become unprecedentedly relevant. The present paper aims to examine the ways of linguistic representation of cultural dimensions based on factual material from Romanian, Russian and German. In modern linguistics, the issue is studied from the perspective of various disciplines, such as semantics, translationology, ethnolinguistics, ethnopsychology, etc., which is reflected in numerous studies by authors from the Republic of Moldova and abroad. We consider the semantics of stable polylexical units to be the area where culture and language interact most closely. The semantic systems of different languages contain incongruent elements that express culturally specific information known to representatives of a particular ethnic group. Identifying them becomes possible when comparing the language concerned with other languages, and when establishing the nature of the cultural-linguistic relation. Different degrees of the transparency of cultural-linguistic relations influence the form of expression of national-cultural specificity: from implicit in the structure and semantics of the stable polylexical unit to explicit, established, for example, when designating realities.

RESEARCH ON THE SEMANTICS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF UKRAINIAN AND ENGLISH

This article explores the translation of English phraseological units, paying attention to their specific characteristics. Phraseological units are inseparable language units that denote a specific concept and have a modified meaning. Their important characteristics include the invariance of meaning, structure and grammar, as well as imagery. Translating English phraseological units can be difficult due to their complex semantic structure, figurative nature, and national-cultural specificity of meanings. Phraseological units can be divided into equivalent and non-equivalent ones, with the meanings of the latter depending on the national-cultural context. To translate equivalent phraseological units, full or partial phraseological equivalents or phraseological analogues can be used. The most effective way to translate phraseological units is to use a full phraseological equivalent that fully corresponds to the original phraseological unit in meaning, lexical composition, grammatical structure, and imagery in both languages. In translation, there are partial equivalents that contain some discrepancies with the original phraseological units, and phraseological analogues that have the same meaning and style but differ in imagery from the original. Many English phraseological units are non-equivalent, so they are translated into Ukrainian using calques or descriptions. Descriptive translation allows conveying the general meaning of phraseological units as succinctly and clearly as possible, but does not preserve the figurative meaning.

АКСИОЛОГИЯ НЕОЛОГИЗМОВ С КОЛОРАТИВНЫМ КОМПОНЕНТОМ (на материале онлайн-словарей)

The purpose of the article is to identify lexical and semantic features of color designation in determining the national cultural specificity of language and speech means. This article illustrates the key characteristics that clearly reflect semantic shifts in vocabulary caused by rethinking axiological components: the frequent use of the green lexeme as part of neologisms; the creation of a new system of values with the help of neologisms with a positive connotation; the emergence of terms naming a person by the professional activity; a significant increase in the group of neologisms associated with economic and environmental discourses; the use of words related to gastronomic culture; interest in the problems of the impact of modern technologies on human life. The study of neologisms as a means of representing values and forming an assessment expands the range of research in the field of axiology and neology.

ОТРАЖЕНИЕ ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРНОЙ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ И КОЛЛЕКТИВНОЙ ПАМЯТИ В ПЕСЕННОМ ДИСКУРСЕ XX И XXI ВЕКОВ (на материале испанского языка)

The analysis of song, being an important component of the culture of any ethnic group, is an essential factor of globalization processes in their cultural and linguistic dimension and arouses interest in modern humanitarian knowledge. This article analyzes the representations of linguistic and cultural identity and collective memory within the framework of the Spanish-language song discourse of different periods of time, which allows us to trace and comprehend whether the symbolic load and the national-cultural specifics of the products of song discourse have changed over time. The conducted research made it possible to make sure that the texts of musical compositions can be a kind of manifestation of national identity and can reflect elements of collective memory, which is largely associated with the identity and value orientations of native Spanish speakers.

Метафора как инструмент медиариторики в китайскоязычных и англоязычных СМИ Китая (на материале 环球时报 (Хуаньцю шибао) и The Global Times)

The research aims at identifying the patterns in the use of the metaphor of illness as a tool of media rhetoric in the Chinese mass media texts (both in Chinese and in English). Chinese periodicals published in different languages are not translations from Chinese. The metaphor of illness, realised through the words and phrases on medical topics, is a means of introducing social and international issues in the Chinese mass media in English and Chinese. The metaphor is studied as a rhetoric tool that increases the pragmatic efficiency of the media material. The metaphor of illness functions as one of the strongest ways of affecting the emotion and volition sphere of the addressee and exercising control over mass consciousness. The research is novel in that it identifies the national-cultural specificity of the use of the metaphor of illness in the Chinese media text (both in English and in Chinese). As a result, metaphorical models have been identified in the mass media presentation of international and social problems as health-related issues (physical and mental health). The projection of a holistic health approach on public problems is reflected in the proposed models for solving complex social and international issues. The way out of the problematic situation is seen in changing the lifestyle of the society itself, in focusing on the internal forces of the society as a single organism, rather than relying on external help.

REPRESENTATION OF THE “FAMILY” CONCEPT IN PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Nowadays, in world linguistics, special attention is paid to clarifying the issue of national-cultural specificity of universal concepts on the example of units of different language levels. In particular, in Uzbek linguistics, different views are being formed about the linguocognitive features of the concept, which is widely used to reveal the interrelationship of language, human and cultural phenomena. However, in the Uzbek scientific literature, there is no research devoted to the conceptualization of the concept of "Family" with the help of thematic and statistical analysis on the example of phraseological units. In this article, firstly, it is determined that the integrative approach allows to study the concepts from the linguistic, cognitive, cultural and sociological point of view. Secondly, according to the phraseo-semantic field method, the concept of "family" is composed of core and peripheral parts, and with the help of statistical analysis, it is revealed that the concept is also consist of the core and the near, middle and outermost peripheries. Research shows that conceptualization is a mental way of reflecting reality in the human mind. It combines subjective and traditional meanings accepted by the linguistic community. Through the prototypical categorization of the concept, it is concluded that language and cultural identity are transparently manifested. The obtained results serve to acquire a deeper understanding of foreign languages and cultures

CHINESE AND JAPANESE PHRASEOLOGISMS: A COMPARATIVE ASPECT

The article is devoted to the study of the phraseological fund of the Chinese and Japanese languages, in particular to the comparative analysis of phraseological units from the point of view of their form, structure, features of drawing hieroglyphic signs, semantics and national-cultural components contained in them. The national-cultural specificity of the Chinese and Japanese phraseology is closely related to the characteristic features of the people’s consciousness, the relationship between the language and thinking, the language and culture, therefore the main research approach is primarily comparative, linguistic and cultural. The work examines the development of the Chinese language and culture on the formation and development of the phraseological system of the Japanese language, outlines the relationship between the Chinese and the Japanese idioms. A comparison of the forms of drawing hieroglyphs represents changes in the writing systems of the Chinese and Japanese languages, caused by the historical processes of the development of both languages. The diversity of language habits is reflected in the change in the order of words in a phraseological unit in the Japanese language while preserving the original meaning of the Chinese original source. A number of Japanese idioms borrowed from the Chinese language demonstrate the process of adaptation to the features of the Japanese language, which is determined by the change of certain components in the structure of the phraseology. Despite the close ties and borrowing of elements of the Chinese language and culture, the Japanese language has created its own, purely Japanese, phraseological units that contain national and cultural components that reproduce elements of the people’s lifestyle, customs and historical facts. The composition, structure, national and cultural connotation of the actual Japanese idioms distinguish them from idioms built with the norms of the wenyan, the classical Chinese language. They came from the Chinese language and then became entrenched in the language and consciousness of the Japanese people.

Значения прилагательного алаг / ала в бурятском и хакасском языках (на примере эпических произведений)

This paper presents a comparative analysis of epic works aimed at examining the semantic structures of two adjectives, alag in Buryat and ala in Khakas. The analysis findings provide a comprehensive picture of the semantic space of the words under study. Special attention is paid to word-to-word connections in the epic language, allowing the nomination motive to be identified. This study has contributed to uncovering the new meanings of the adjective alag, namely “brilliant,” “anxious,” and “dulled,” which are not specified in Mongolian-Russian dictionaries. The issue of the primary and secondary meanings is considered to be crucial in studying the semantic transitions within a polysemant. It is suggested that the meaning of “motley” was derived from the meaning “brilliant,” referring to the predominance of light spots or stripes. The word alag is assumed to have combined with the synonyms erēn “variegated” and sōhor “motley” in the epos language after losing the supposed primary meaning “brilliant.” Identifying the common meaning of “shining” in Turkic-Mongolian epic reflects the peculiarities of the national-cultural worldview of related peoples. The language representation of perceptual information is regarded as a result of the primary stage of self-knowledge, reflecting the mental-psychological and national-cultural specificity of Turkic-Mongolian people. Studying the semantic structure of the adjective alag / ala is expected to identify some general lines of the perceptual information implementation in Turkic and Mongolian languages.

LINGUISTIC AND MENTAL ASPECTS OF THE TRANSLATION OF OFFICIAL TEXTS (BASED ON THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS OF PRESS SERVICES AND NEWS PORTALS)

Background. The translation process is to be considered not merely as a cross- language, but as a cross-cultural interaction as well, since two language systems and two cultures operate simultaneously. The translator’s mission is to adequately transfer the source code of information into the translation language and adapt the national and cultural features of the original text. This involves mental processing of the underlying message implications and presuppositions. Strategies and methods of translation of official documents are determined not only by their linguistic characteristics, but also by their national-specific features. The above-mentioned aspects contribute to the background of the study.
 Purpose. The article deals with the analysis of the lexical and syntactic features of the translation of official business texts through the prism of the national cultural code, as well as reveals the influence of mental features of various linguistic and cultural communities on the linguistic, structural and style-forming characteristics of business texts.
 Materials and methods. The empiric material for the study is represented by 70 official documents of international organizations in English (UNESCO, The Minsk Declaration, U.S. Mission Russia, etc.) and their corresponding Russian translations. The documents are published in an open access on the Internet on the official websites of press services and news portals. In the course of analyzing the sources of actual material, general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, cognitive analysis, and content analysis were used.
 Results. The results of the study proved that the national-cultural specificity has a direct impact on the linguistic, structural and style-forming characteristics of official business texts. To ensure the adequacy of a translation in the recipient language, cognitive processing of the source code through the prism of the semantic space of the translator’s culture is required. Recurrent methods of translating of official documents are the techniques of generalization, specification, addition, zero translation and integration.
 Conclusion. Official business texts are marked by certain functional characteristics that must be taken into consideration in the process of translation to ensure its adequacy and communicative effect.

Совершенствование навыков межкультурной коммуникации китайских студентов вуза посредством освоения зоологического кода русского языка

The aim of the study is to substantiate the educational value of phraseological units with a zoonym component for teaching Chinese students Russian as a foreign language and forming their cross-cultural communication skills. The paper develops criteria for selection and inclusion of phraseological units - zoonyms of the Russian language in educational materials for teaching Chinese students. The stages of mastering the zoological code of the Russian language by Chinese students are characterised, as well as effective methods of their implementation. Scientific novelty lies in the fact that the paper proposes a system of exercises for introduction and consolidation of lexical material containing the zoological code of the Russian language for improving cross-cultural communication skills among Chinese university students. As a result of the study, the role and significance of the zoological code of the Russian language in ensuring cross-cultural communication of Chinese students have been actualised; the national-cultural specificity of zoonyms and the animalistic component, their ethnospecific and universal features have been characterised.

Theoretical and practical problems of translation of folk texts

One of the problems of present time is the formation of the young generation as fully developed intelligent people, worthy of the interests of a new society, the education of national psychology, national identity, and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. From this point of view, the problem of studying folklore that is part of culture, including children’s folklore, has always been relevant and important in linguistics. After all, folklore is a source of folk wisdom that allows young people to understand the traditional worldview.This research is dedicated to the study of difficulties and effective ways of forming national values in the cognitive process of a child through the use of fairy tales and their translations. Texts of fairy tales of ethnic groups residing in Kazakhstan served as the research material.Currently, great importance is attached to the development and study of national languages, and it is very important to study peculiarities of a particular national system of thinking.In the course of the research there were identified in the folklore texts certain linguistic units reflecting the specifics of the worldview of a particular people; the researchers also analyzed how these language units function in the language and the peculiarities of rendering them into another language.In connection with the knowledge and perception of the world, the culture of each nation is isolated from the other culture. Therefore, the article analyzes the concepts of the language picture of the world, ethnic stereotypes, and defines the features of their translation.Literary text, including children’s folklore, is considered as a form of translation, and the main differences between the translation of literary text are revealed. The subject of the research is the peculiarities of the language of children’s folklore and methods of their translation. Three main approaches were used in translating children’s folklore, which were proved by examples. A comprehensive analysis of the totality of the ways and means of transmitting folklore in the language of the given national-cultural specificity and consideration of the issues and principles of translation into another language, identifying the linguistic and cognitive features of translation of folklore of the people of Kazakhstan determine the relevance of research.The article analyzes the principles of equivalence that are taken into account when translating folklore texts, as well as ways and means of translating linguistic and cultural features into another language. The work was carried out to collect, systematize and translate folklore material of the peoples living on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. As a result of comparative analysis of the language system of various ethnic groups, specific problems of translating folklore texts and the most effective mechanisms for transmitting source information in the target language are identified.

LEXICAL MEANS OF NOMINATION OF THE EMOTIONAL CONCEPT “FEAR” IN THE KAZAKH AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES

This study presents the nominations of the emotional concept "fear" on the material of the Kazakh and English languages. The means of linguistic representation of the concept are analyzed on the basis of the definitions of the main lexemes in explanatory dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms and examples from fiction. Comparative analysis of the concept identifies the national-cultural specifics and peculiarities of the perception of the concept. Lexical means of nomination in the Kazakh and English languages reflect physiological processes at the moment of experiencing the emotion, the reasons, intensity and subsequent emotional state of a person. The relevance of this research is determined by the modern general theoretical problems of linguistics, its interest in the problems of the interaction of language, thinking and culture, also by the focus on the study of fragments of the picture of the world through their linguistic representations. Fear is one of the basic emotional concepts that make up the core of the linguistic worldview. Basic emotions are universal, so are emotional concepts. However, emotional concepts are characterized by national and cultural specificity, which is reflected in the semantic differentiation associated with the assessment and comprehension of the people. Research prospects consist in further study of the structure and semantics of the concept “fear” (“қорқыныш/ fear”), in a more in-depth study of complex studies of the concept's verbalization in linguistic consciousness.

Strategies of Cultural and Pragmatic Adaptation of Karachay-Balkarian Children Fairy Tales in Translation: The Limits of What is Possible and Permissible (Based on Translations of Karachay-Balkarian Fairy Tales into Russian and English)

The relevance of this study is due to the growing interest in translations of fairy tales of small peoples and methods of linguistic and cultural translation of the content of the text in the process of translation. The work is interdisciplinary in nature and is at the intersection of cultural linguistics, folklore studies, comparative linguistics, and translation. The aim of the work is to determine how information about the values of the Karachay-Balkarian linguoculture is verbalized in the texts of fairy tales in the Karachay-Balkarian language, as well as to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of strategies of linguocultural adaptation (explication or elimination of national color) of this type of text into Russian and English. To solve the set tasks, two complementary research methods were used: an introspective method, oriented to the process (the author’s translation of five Karachay-Balkarian fairy tales into English), and the traditional method of retrospective analysis for translation studies by comparing the originals of Karachay-Balkarian fairy tales and their published translations into Russian. The material for this study was the Collection of Karachay-Balkarian fairy tales and legends, the Collection of Karachay-Balkarian fairy tales (transl. by A. Alieva, A. Kholayev, 1983), the Collection of Karachay fairy tales (transl. by I. Rumyantseva, 1981), the Collection of folk tales of Balkarians and Karachays (transl. by A. Alieva, A. Kholayev, 2003). The novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time the Karachay-Balkarian fairy tale as a cultural narrative of the people is considered in the aspect of translation criticism. The translation of such tales is conditioned by both a culturally specific plot and the form that is its basis - cultural details, peculiarities of mentality, expressed in language and constituting a special axiological background of the Karachai-Balkarian fairy tale. When translating, a significant part of these formal elements can be neutralized by translators for the sake of children’s perception (use of analogues in the target text, omission, deliberate domestication of the source text), which, however, leads to the loss of the main thing - the national and cultural originality of the source text. When explicating the cultural characteristics, the translator makes the reader familiar with the national flavor of another culture, however, at the same time, some excessive culturally specific information is transferred into the target text, which can cause misunderstanding or distorted perception on the part of the child reader (for example, the topic of polygamy and the peculiarities of the distribution of roles in family). In this regard, a balanced approach to the choice of the optimal strategy for the cultural and pragmatic adaptation of fairy tale texts during translation is necessary: the translator’s decision to explicate or eliminate national cultural specificity is of a compromise nature.