The Problem of Selecting an Equivalent in the Translation Process (on the Material of English and Russian Proverbs on the Topic of Happiness)

Abstract

The article is based on reflections on the specificity of such a unit of linguocultural and cognitive order as paremia. One group of proverbs dedicated to happiness is identified, which is due to the increased interest of the world community, both scientific and economic, in the problems of happiness. Analysing the difficulties encountered by translators in translating the proverbs, the authors of the article focus the attention on the difficulty of finding the most suitable equivalent of the translated phraseological unit in the target language. The article is devoted to the analysis of the methods used by translators in their search for equivalents when translating English proverbs and sayings (particularly, about happiness) into Russian. The paper presents the classification of proverbs in terms of how equivalents are selected for them.