A LITTLE-KNOWN TRANSLATION OF M. GOGOL’S STORY BY M. ZEROV: PECULIARITIES OF TRANSMISSION OF VERNACULAR LEXICAL UNITS

Abstract

The purpose of the work is the mastery of M. Zerov’s translation from the original language into Ukrainian Mykola Gogol’s story “Ivan Fedorovych Shponka and his aunt”, the study of translation techniques of vernacular lexical units, which were used by a Ukrainian writer of distinction.

Methods. The study is based on a comparative method, the method of linguistic and linguistic-cultural analysis, structural-semantic method, descriptive and contextual, methods of theoretical and empirical generalization.

Results. The article proves that in the translation of M. Gogol’s story the Ukrainian writer widely uses colloquial lexical units to create linguistic portraits of the characters of the story, particularly Ivan Fedorovich Shponka, his aunt Vasylyna Kashporivna, a landowner-neighbor Hryhoriy Hryhorovych, their servants. Etiquette addressing formulas and etiquette exclamations, diminutive addressing forms of the original Gogol’s text M. Zerov translates into Ukrainian almost adequately or uses the equivalents. It was found that the most common methods of translation are additions for filling in lexical and semantic lacunas, also lexical and grammatical substitutions, and removal of stylistically colored elements of the text. Among the lexical elements with national (colloquial) marking, a big quantity of secondary nominations were revealed, playing the part of evaluative emotives. Phrasemes that have mainly vernacular origin and use, M. Zerov translates into Ukrainian with the application of transformational translation, in which one case of dephraseologization was found out.

Conclusions. The stylistic dominant of M. Gogol’s story “Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt” are vernacular lexical units that build up unique Ukrainian characters and national colouring. The most functionally active among them are: 1) vernacular etiquette addressing formulas; 2) secondary nominations of an evaluative character, possessing vernacular markings; 3) phrasemes. In the translation of M. Gogol’s story, M. Zerov most actively uses lexical and lexico-grammatical transformations that are not accompanied with stylistic substitutions and also non-transformational translation with application of lexicographic equivalents. In order to achieve the adequacy of translation, M. Zerov also uses stylistic transformations that are combined with lexical and lexicalgrammatical. Application of such arsenal of translation techniques of transformational and non-transformational character ensures the adequacy of translation, though, sometimes, infringing its equivalency.