Tendencies to ignoration, melioration and pejoration of obscenity in english-ukrainian and ukrainian-english literary translations  

Abstract.

TENDENCIES TO IGNORATION, MELIORATION AND PEJORATION OF OBSCENITY IN ENGLISH-UKRAINIAN AND UKRAINIAN-ENGLISH LITERARY TRANSLATIONS

Kostiantyn Mizin

Translation and Teaching Methodology Department, Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav, Pereiaslav, Ukraine.

Volodymyr Kononenko

Department of Romance and Germanic Philology, Poltava V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University, Poltava, Ukraine.

Abstract

Background: The current Russian-Ukrainian war has greatly accelerated the vulgarisation of the Ukrainian community, which may also affect the art of translation. Firstly, we are talking about the translation of fiction, as the latter is closely related to the familial style. Until now, Ukrainian translators have focused on the high culture of the art of translation, which often made them ignore the adequacy of the transfer of foreign-language obscene vocabulary into Ukrainian. The reproduction of obscenities is also complicated by the fact that the functioning of these words or expressions can vary significantly in different linguocultures.

Purpose: The aim of the proposed article is to establish the reasons for the incorrect rendering of obscenities in the Ukrainian-English translation of O. Zabuzhko’s novel «The Museum of Abandoned Secrets» and the English-Ukrainian translations of T. Gerritsen’s «The Surgeon» and A. Michaelides’ «The Silent Patient». The realisation of this aim is focused on the cases of ignoration, melioration and pejoration of obscene lexica in these novels.

Results: The analysis of the factual material made it possible to distinguish four types of translation solutions that Ukrainian translators – N. Hoin, Y. Pidhorna and N. Shevchuk-Murray – use when reproducing the obscenities in the novels under the study: 1) ignoring the obscene lexica; 2) inadequate rendering of obscenity words/phrases; 3) partial translation of obscene vocabulary (incomplete equivalence); 4) rather complete reproduction of obscenities (full equivalence).

Discussion: The first type of translation decision, i.e., ignoring the obscene lexica, is the least common (9.42% of 427 contextual uses of obscenity). However, if we add to this percentage the share of inadequate rendering of obscenities (29.45%), we get 38.87%. This means that the percentage of translation decisions that distort the expressive and emotional atmosphere of the source texts in the target texts is quite high. This situation can be explained to some extent by the fact that the etiquette norms of Soviet-era communication created the basis for meliorative guidelines in Ukrainian lexicography, which resulted in obscenities being actively used by virtually all segments of the Ukrainian-speaking community and hardly recorded in explanatory and translation dictionaries. These norms have led to the fact that in Ukrainian society the functioning of the obscene vocabulary is still regulated, although as a result of democratisation and liberalisation, part of the vocabulary of the Ukrainian language has moved from a low stylistic register to a neutral one, which has created a paradoxical situation where Ukrainians actively use obscenities, especially in everyday communication, but are at the same time «ashamed» to admit it. Recently, there has been a certain reduction of restrictions on the functioning of obscene vocabulary, in particular matisms, in the Ukrainian-speaking community, which has, in turn, affected translation practice. This trend is confirmed by the data of our sample, as it was found that the most common type of translation decision among the mentioned Ukrainian translators is the third type of translation decision, i.e., partial equivalence. In view of this, it can be assumed that translation decisions regarding the rendition of obscenities are quite adequate in all three analysed novels.

Keywords: obscenity, profanity, translation decision, equivalent, literary translation, linguoculture.

Vitae

Kostiantyn Mizin, DrSc. (Philology), Full Professor. His areas of research interests include contrastive linguistics, cognitive linguistics, translation studies, contrastive linguoculturology, and phraseology.

Correspondence: kostiantyn.mizin@gmail.com 

Volodymyr Kononenko, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor. His scientific interests encompass the fields of comparative linguistics, linguistic and country studies, German-language media.

Correspondence: v.v.kononenko@ukr.net 

Article.

References. 

1. Гаврилів, О. Німецько-український словник лайливих слів. Львів : Апріорі, 2005. 144 с.

[Havryliv, O. (2005). Nimetsko-ukrainskyi slovnyk lailyvykh sliv [German-Ukrainian dictionary of opprobrious words]. Lviv : Apriori. (In Ger.).]

2.   Джагатія, А., Едвардс, К. Чому ми так любимо лаятися. ВВС News Україна, 08.05.2021. URL https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-57010421

[Dzhahatiia, A., Edvards, K. Chomu my tak liubymo laiatysia. ВВС News Ukraine, 08.05.2021. Aviable at :   https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-57010421 (In Ukr.).]

3.   Етимологічний словник української мови. Т. 3. Київ : Наукова думка, 1989. 553 с.

[Etymolohichnyi slovnyk ukrainskoi movy. T. 3. [Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language. Vol. 3]. (1989). Kyiv : Naukova dumka. (In Ukr.).]

4.   Квеселевич, Д. И. Самый полный словарь ненормативной лексики. Москва : Астрель; АСТ, 2011. 1021 с.

[Kveselevich, D. I. (2011). Samyj polnyj slovar’ nenormativnoj leksiki [The most complete dictionary of abnormative vocabulary]. Moskva : Astrel’; AST]

5.   Матюшенко, О. С., Туришева, О. О. Особливості перекладу нецензурної лексики в субтитрах до кінофільму «Fack ju Goethe». Новітня лінгвістика/Advanced Linguistics. 2020. Вип. 5. С. 54–61.

[Matiushenko, O.S., Turysheva, O.O. (2020). Osoblyvosti perekladu netsenzurnoi leksyky v subtytrakh do kinofilmu «Fack ju Goethe» [Peculiarities of translating obscene words in film subtitles «Fack ju Goethe»]. In : Novitnia linhvistyka/Advanced Linguistics, 5, 54–61. (In Ukr.).]

6.   Мізін, К. Англо-український словник компаративної фразеології. Кременчук : Щербатих О.В., 2010. 120 с.

[Mіzіn, K. (2010). English-Ukrainian dictionary of comparative phraseology. Kremenchuk : Shcherbatykh. (In Eng.).]

7.   Мізін, К. Лексико- й фразеографічні проблеми крізь призму зіставлення мов та інноваційні спроби їхнього розв’язання. Lexikografische Innovation – Innovative Lexikografie: bi- und multilinguale Wörterbücher in Gegenwart und Zukunft: Projekte, Konzepte, Visionen / D. Scheller-Boltz, H. Weinberger (Hg.). Hildesheim; Zürich; New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2017. S. 215–229.

[Mizin, K. (2017). Leksyko- i frazeohrafichni problemy kriz pryzmu zistavlennia mov ta innovatsiini sproby yikhnoho rozviazannia [Lexical and phraseographic issues in the light of contrasting languages and innovation attempts to solve them]. In: Scheller-Boltz, D., Weinberger, H. (Hg.). Lexikografische Innovation – Innovative Lexikografie: bi- und multilinguale Wörterbücher in Gegenwart und Zukunft: Projekte, Konzepte, Visionen. (S. 215–229). Hildesheim; Zürich; New York: Georg Olms Verlag. (In Ukr.).]

8.   Мізін, К. І. Причини неадекватного відтворення обсценної лексики в німецько-українських перекладах. Львівський філологічний часопис. 2021. № 10. С. 91–97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32447/2663-340X-2021-10.14

[Mizin, K.I. (2021). Prychyny neadekvatnoho vidtvorennia obstsennoi leksyky v nimetsko-ukrainskykh perekladakh [Reasons for an inadequate conveying obscene lexicon in the German-Ukrainian translations]. In : Lvivskyi filolohichnyi chasopys [Lviv Philological Journal], 10,     91–97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32447/2663-340X-2021-10.14 (In Ukr.).]

9.   Ставицька, Л. Українська мова без табу. Словник нецензурної лексики та її відповідників. Київ : Критика, 2008. 456 c.

[Stavytska, L. (2008). Ukrainska mova bez tabu. Slovnyk netsenzurnoi leksyky ta yii vidpovidnykiv [Ukrainian language without taboo. Dictionary of obscene vocabulary and its matches]. Kyiv : Krytyka. (In Ukr.).]

10.  Тавровецька, Н., Шебанова, В. Крос-культурне дослідження вживання обсценної лексики у молодіжному середовищі. Psycholinguistics. 2020. Vol. 28, Iss. 1. С. 239–266.

[Tavrovetska, N., Shebanova, V. (2020). Kros-kulturne doslidzhennia vzhyvannia obstsennoi leksyky u molodizhnomu seredovyshchi [Cross-cultural research of the use of obscene lexica in the youth environment]. Psycholinguistics, 28 (1), 239–266. (In Ukr.)]

11.  Ткачівська, М. Р. Культурно-емотивні закономірності відтворення лексики обмеженого вжитку в українсько-німецькому художньому перекладі: дис. … докт. філол. наук. Івано-Франківськ; Харків, 2021. 674 с.

[Tkachivska, M.R. (2021). Kulturno-emotyvni zakonomirnosti vidtvorennia leksyky obmezhenoho vzhytku v ukrainsko-nimetskomu khudozhnomu perekladi [Cultural and emotional regularities of rendering lexis of limited usage in Ukrainian-German fiction translation]. (Dys. … dokt. filol. nauk). Ivano-Frankivsk; Kharkiv. (In Ukr.).]

12.  Факт: факти, аналітика, коментарі, тенденції (06.01.2025). Коли президент говорить «як є»: ненормативна лексика стала нормою для політичних лідерів України. URL: https://fact-news.com.ua/koli-prezident-govorit-yak-e-nenormativna-leksika-stala-normoyu-dlya-politichnih-lideriv-ukraini

[Fakt: fakty, analityka, komentari, tendentsii (06.01.2025). Koly prezydent hovoryt «iak ye»: nenormatyvna leksyka stala normoiu dlia politychnykh lideriv Ukrainy. URL: https://fact-news.com.ua/koli-prezident-govorit-yak-e-nenormativna-leksika-stala-normoyu-dlya-politichnih-lideriv-ukraini (In Ukr.).]

13.  Форманова, С. В. Інвективи в українській мові. Київ : ВД Дмитра Бураго, 2012. 335 с.

[Formanova, S.V. (2012). Invektyvy v ukrainskii movi [Invectives in the Ukrainian language]. Kyiv : PH Dmytro Buraho. (In Ukr.).]

14.  Byrne, E. (2018). Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language. New York: W. W. Norton.

15.  Cachola, I., Holgate, E., Preotiuc-Pietro, D., & Jessy, Li J. (2018). Expressively vulgar: The socio-dynamics of vulgarity and its eff ects on sentiment analysis in social media. Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (pp. 2927–2938). Santa Fe, New Mexico.

16.  Cambridge Dictionary. Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org

17.  Gauger, H.-M. (2012). Das feuchte und das Schmutzige. Kleine Linguistik der vulgären Sprache. München: Beck.

18.  Intelligent Web-based Corpus. Available at: https://www.english-corpora.org/iweb/

19.  Jontes, G. (2014). Das neue, österreichische Schimpfwort-ABC. Graz: Steirische Verlagsgesellschaft.

20.  Kamer, F. (2003). Teiggaff, Tüpfi, tumme Siech. Schimpfen und Fluchen im Schweizerdeutschen. Mit einem Nachwort von Andreas Lötscher. Frauenfeld; Stuttgart; Wien: Huber.