TRENDS OF USING PERSONAL AND POSSESSIVE PRONOUNSIN LITERARY TRANSLATIONS FROM ENGLISH INTO RUSSIAN THROUGH THE LANGUAGE SPECTRUM THEORY

Abstract

According to the language spectrum theory (term introduced by Maria Litvinova), every language has a set of its characteristic feature average usage frequencies. The sum of these frequencies may be considered as a criterion for assessing fiction translations into the language in question. The paper focuses on the general frequency of personal and possessive pronouns in low-quality translations from English into Russian, as seen through the language spectrum lens. The scientific relevance of the paper is justified by the author revealing several features of low-quality translations, as well as analyzing such translations, which results in supporting the author’s hypothesis. The hypothesis is that the number of personal and possessive pronouns in low-quality Russian translations is closer to that in original English texts, whilst ‘good’ Russian translations have considerably fewer pronouns than the originals. Moreover, the author considers certain translation solutions while analyzing two different translations of one English text, and explores various trends that may further become the basis of fuller and more accurate pronoun models in English and Russian.

Keywords

• translation theory
• language spectrum
• personal pronouns
• possessive pronouns
• Russian
• English
• ‘good’ translations
• low-quality translations