English paremiological content: translation strategies in the Ukrainian language

Abstract

The article clarifies the concepts of "paremia" and "paremiological content," analyzes the structural and semantic types of paremias, and examines the features of English and Ukrainian paremiological expressions from a comparative perspective. The result of the comparative analysis is the identification of common and distinctive features of the paremiological content in English and Ukrainian languages. It has been established that proverbs and sayings in English and Ukrainian may be similar in lexical composition, communicative meaning, and stylistic coloring; however, a significant part of them has unique characteristics at different levels of functional realization, determined by the peculiarities of national worldviews and the originality of the English and Ukrainian national world pictures.

The study devotes considerable attention to the detailed analysis of translation strategies for paremias from English into Ukrainian. The most frequent and effective strategies for both English and Ukrainian languages are identified as literal translation, translation through phraseological equivalents, and adaptive translation strategy. The study concludes that the choice of translation strategy in real cross-cultural communication is determined by the context (both linguistic and cultural), the purpose of the translation, and the degree of cultural proximity between the languages involved in the translation process.

Internal linguistic and extralinguistic factors influencing the adequacy of the translation of paremiological expressions are analyzed, with cultural and pragmatic-semiotic factors highlighted as the most active. Emphasis is placed on the fact that for successful translation of paremias, translators must find a balance between preserving content, style, and cultural specificity, using various strategies – from finding equivalents to adaptation and calquing.