Peculiarities and difficulties of translating euphemisms (based on the BBC news articles)
The media, in particular, the press today is the main source of information about world situation and developments, often including negative news. In order to disguise or conceal negative information or its individual elements in the press journalists tend to use indirect naming, or euphemisms. Euphemization as a complex and dynamic phenomenon is being studied in detail within different approaches: classifications and ways of formation of euphemisms are being developed, spheres of euphamization in different languages are being considered. Despite the fact that the press is abundant in different kinds of euphemisms, scientists rarely focus on a purely applied aim to identify and reproduce such units by using means of a target language. Unless euphemisms are recognized, translators might add negative shade of meaning to a source text, distort the attitude of the writer towards described events, etc. These considerations determine the relevance and the issue of our study, based on the analysis of the corpus, consisting of 50 euphemisms, and its functioning in modern British press (news articles taken from the BBC News website in 2013-2018). The work reveals such peculiarities and difficulties of translation of euphemisms as identification of euphemisms in the text and its interpretation; presence or absence of equivalents in case of similar spheres of euphemization; choosing an adequate dictionary equivalent; translation of terms used as euphemisms. One can face translation difficulties not only on the stage of identification but also while searching for its equivalent. There might be no equivalent euphemism in a target language or (if any) it might be not appropriate in the context, or might refer the function of concealing less explicitly. Words borrowed from professional fields are generally rendered through transcription, transliteration and calque translation. It is important to consider the degree of euphemization of a unit: well-established euphemisms are better be rendered through a well-established politically correct word or phrase.
Moreva, A. V. and Grekova, O. M. (2018), “Peculiarities and difficulties of translating euphemisms (based on the BBC news articles)”, Research Result. Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 4 (4), 90-102, DOI: 10.18413/2313-8912-2018-4-4-0-10
While nobody left any comments to this publication.
You can be first.
Anglo-russkiy slovar normativno-tekhnicheskoy terminologii (2015), [English-Russian dictionary of technical terminology]. [Online], available at: https://normative_en_ru.academic.ru/94761/ (Accessed 25 August 2018). [in Russian].
Anglo-russkiy sovremennyy slovar (2017), [English-Russian modern dictionary]. [Online], available at: https://top_english.academic.ru/ (Accessed 18 August 2018). [in Russian].
Ahmanova, O. S. (2004), Slovar lingvisticheskih terminov [Vocabulary of linguistic terms], Editorial URSS, Moscow, Russia. [in Russian].
Bojko, T. V. (2006), “Euphemia and Dysphemia in a Newspaper Text”, Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation, St. Petersburg, Russia. [in Russian].
Bolshoy tolkovyy slovar russkogo yazyka (2000), [Big explanatory dictionary of the Russian language], Norint, St. Petersburg, Russia. [in Russian].
Bolshoy yentsiklopedicheskiy slovar [Great encyclopedic dictionary]. [Online], available at: https://www.vedu.ru/bigencdic/ (Accessed 25 September 2018). [in Russian].
Gazeta.ru (2018), [Online], available at: www.gazeta.ru/ (Accessed 19 October 2018). [in Russian].
Galperin, I. R. (1981), Stilistika angliyskogo yazyka [English Stylistics], Vysshaya shkola, Moscow, Russia. [in Russian].
InoSMI.Ru (2018), [Online], available at: https://inosmi.ru/ (Accessed 9 October 2018). [in Russian].
Katsev, A. M. (1988), Yazykovoe tabu i yevfemiya: ucheb. posobie k speckursu [Language Taboo and Euphemia: a textbook for a special course], LGPI, Leningrad, Russia. [in Russian].
Krysin, L. P. (1996), “Euphemisms in the modern Russian language”, Russkiy yazyk kontsa 20 stoletiya (1985-1995) [The Russian language of the late twentieth century (1985–1995)], Jazyki russkoj kul’tury, Moscow, Russia, 384-407. [in Russian].
Krysin, L. P. (2004), Russkoe slovo, svoyo i chuzhoe: Issledovaniya po sovremennomu russkomu yazyku i sotsiolingvistike [Russian word, ours and others: Studies in the modern Russian language and sociolinguistics], Yazyki slavyanskoj kul’tury, Moscow, Russia. [in Russian].
Matveeva, T. V. (2010), Polny slovar’ lingvisticheskih terminov [Complete dictionary of linguistic terms], Feniks, Rostov-on-Don, Russia. [in Russian].
Moskvin, V. P. (2007), Vyrazitel’nye sredstva sovremennoy russkoy rechi. Tropy i figury. Terminologicheskiy slovar’ [Expressive means of the modern Russian language. Tropes and figures. Terminological dictionary], Feniks, Rostov-on-Don, Russia. [in Russian].
Natsionalnj korpus russkogo yazyka (2018), [National Corpus of the Russian language]. [Online], available at: http://www.ruscorpora.ru/ (Accessed 3 October 2018). [in Russian].
Nikitina, I. N. (2008), “Euphemia in foreign and domestic linguistics: Background and perspective research”, Vestnik Volzhskogo universiteta im. V.N. Tatishheva, Ser. “Filologiya”, 1, 49-64. [in Russian].
Ozhegov, S. I. (2013), Tolkovyy slovar russkogo yazyka [Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language]. [Online], available at: http://www.ozhegov.org/ (Accessed 18 September 2018). [in Russian].
Senichkina, E. P. (2008), Slovar evfemizmov russkogo yazyka [Dictionary of Russian euphemisms], Flinta: Nauka, Moscow, Russia. [in Russian].
Slovar yazyka interneta.ru (2016), [Internet.ru Language Dictionary], AST-PRESS KNIGA, Moscow, Russia. [in Russian].
Entsiklopedicheskiy slovar ekonomiki i prava (2017), [Encyclopedic Dictionary of Economics and Law]. [Online], available at: https://dic.academic.ru/contents.nsf/dic_economic_law/ (Accessed 18 October 2018). [in Russian].
Yazykoznanie. Bolshoy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar (1998), [Linguistics. Big Encyclopedic Dictionary], Bolshaya Rossiyskaya entsiklopediya, Moscow, Russia. [in Russian].
Abbyy Lingvo Live. [Online], available at: https://www.lingvolive.com/ (Accessed 4 October 2018). [in English].
BBC (2018), [Online], available at: www.bbc.com/ (Accessed 9 October 2018). [in English].
Cambridge Dictionary. [Online], available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ru/ (Accessed 12 October 2018).
Crespo Fernandez, E. (2007), “Linguistic Devices Coping with Death in Victorian Obituaries”, Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 20, 7–21. [in English].
Holder, R. W. (2002), How Not To Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms, Oxford University Press Ink., New York, UK. [in English].
Jamet, D. (2012), “Introduction”, Lexis. Journal in English Lexicology, 7, 3–4. [in English].
Oxford Dictionary. [Online], available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/ (Accessed 11 October 2018). [in English].
Rawson, H. (1981), A Dictionary of Euphemisms and other Doubletalk, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, USA. [in English].