Semantics and pragmatics of realia in the original and translation of Abai Kunanbayev’s “Book of Words” into English

Abstract

This article is devoted to semantic and pragmatic problems of translation, in particular, analysis of translation of realia of Kazakh culture into English. As a practical material of the study, a classic of Kazakh literature “Book of Words” by Abai Kunanbayev in translation into English was used. The object of the study is realia of Kazakh culture, reflecting the conceptual basis of the Kazakh picture of the world through the prism of the author’s vision of Abai. To implement the proposed problem, methods of component and semantic analysis of realia, as well as translation analysis, were used. These methods are based on comparative analysis of the original and English translation. The analysis of the practical material using the chosen methods led to the conclusion that the translator must comprehend the deep cultural semantics of realia that require special kinds of pragmatic adaptation in translation. A comparative analysis of the original and the translation showed that the English language means are not able to convey the conceptual content of the Kazakh reality, and the translation techniques used by the translator limit the receptor’s understanding of realia deep semantics.

Keywords

• realia, translation, culture, semantics, pragmatics, concept, translation techniques, generalization, descriptive translation