USE OF LEXICAL TRANSFORMATIONS FOR PRAGMATIC ADAPTATION OF FICTION TRANSLATION

Abstract

The article deals with the use of lexical transformations for pragmatic adaptation of fiction translation. The paper focuses on the most widespread reasons of usage and peculiarities of pragmatically motivated lexical transformations. The article proves that generalization, differentiation of meaning and specification, lexical substitution, compensation, and semantic development can be effectively used to render the pragmatic potential of the original text. The pragmatic aspects of translation are illustrated by the examples of English-Ukrainian translation of fiction. The evidence from this study suggests that the most widespread lexical transformation used in fiction translation is generalization. Lexical substitution is mainly caused by difference in worldviews of readers in English-speaking countries and Ukrainians. Translators usually use compensation to render the style of an original as accurately as possible. The usage of concretization is mainly caused to ensure a high level of reading comprehension. Delivering of high quality translations is impossible without differentiation of meaning and semantic development. It is also worth mentioning that pragmatically adequate rendering is possible if a translator is pragmatically neutral and has enough linguistic and extra-linguistic knowledge to decode the pragmatic potential of an original and encode it by means of the target language.