LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION OF CULTURAL CODES AND METHODS OF THEIR TRANSLATION (BASED ON THE WORK OF J.W. WARDELL "IN THE KIRGHIZ STEPPES") Текст научной статьи по специальности «Языкознание и литературоведение»

ФИЛОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ

УДК 81.255

LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION OF CULTURAL CODES AND METHODS OF THEIR TRANSLATION (BASED ON THE WORK OF J.W. WARDELL «IN THE KIRGHIZ STEPPES»).

Ayaganova Tamila Dossymseitkyzy Scientific supervisor - Anafinova Madina Latypovna L.N. Gumilyov ENU, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

The article discusses the problem of expressing cultural codes in the linguistic aspect and ways of decoding them in the process of translation from English into Kazakh and Russian based on the example of the book «In the Kirghiz Steppes» by J.W. Wardell. It has been demonstrated that the culture codes that are typical of the Kazakh mentality get explication in the translation both through lexical equivalents and through employing semantic translation transformations and pragmatic adaptation in relation to the target culture.

Key words: cultural code, translation, translation adequacy, linguistic picture of the world, representation of cultural codes, methods of translation.

Nowadays the issue of the cultural code of the Kazakhs is not only of scientific interest. The appeal to the problem of codification in one way or another affects the state, political, social and ethnocultural processes. And today we can say that this is a question of the future of the entire Kazakh people. This is largely due to the fact that the cultural code of a nation is a mechanism aimed at preserving identity in the context of socio-cultural dynamics, intercultural communication and cultural transformation. Moreover, in modern linguistics, there is an approach according to which language is considered not only as an instrument of communication and cognition but also as a cultural code of the nation (the works of W. von Humboldt, A.A. Potebnya, E. Sapir, É. Benveniste, M.M. Kopylenko and others). Therefore, language not only reflects reality but also interprets it, creating a special reality in which a person lives. Since culture is inseparable from the picture of the world fixed in the language, which reflects the worldview of a person, information about culture is reflected in the structure of language nominations. Thus, the problem of expressing the cultural code in the linguistic aspect and ways of decoding it in the process of translation becomes the fundamental issue of the current study.

Translation is believed to be the main mean of the processes of intercultural communication and cultural transformation that is not just a venue for two languages, yet for two cultures, to come into contact. As Eugene Nida stated «Differences between cultures may cause more severe complications for the translator than do differences in language structure» [1, 130].

Just as the national language reflects the linguistic picture of the world of a particular nation, cultural codes reflect the national picture of the world. Members of the same culture (one cultural group) share the same cultural codes. In this sense, thinking and language are systems of representation of cultural codes.

According to Duisekova and Mamaeva, the cultural code is a representative of the linguistic consciousness of members of a certain ethnic culture that embrace the peculiarities of mentality, traditions,

beliefs and rituals, and demonstrates the idio-ethnicity of their behavior in relation to certain cultural phenomena [2, 240]. Burukina understands the cultural code as a set of components of culture and mentality (archetypes, stereotypes and autostereotypes, concepts, social representations and attitudes, patterns of behavior, mental representations of culture, elements of collective memory and national identity, etc.) that are significant for a particular ethnic group, nation or subcultural group [3, 17].

Conforming to Avanesova and Kuptsova, culture codes are formed gradually and over a long period of time in the process of life of the whole people: «To form and update institutionalized and rationally meaningful codes, at least a period of an active life of 2-3 generations (ranging from 70 to 100 years) is required. The basic codes of culture, which are often difficult to identify and reflect, take much longer to ripen, apparently, more than one century; they change at an extremely slow pace» [4, 35]. Therefore, this is the key to the preservation and vitality of ethnoculture.

Understanding cultural codes is a rather difficult process even for carriers of the same culture since codes are a system of words, symbols and/or patterns of behaviour used to convey messages associated with a specific context. Cultural codes are usually expressed at an observable level through verbal and non-verbal means but are the result of exposure to and interaction with other levels of culture, including unconscious archetypes, stereotypical and other attitudes, as well as implicit beliefs.

According to M.L. Anafinova, the cultural code is a system of signs and the rules of their understanding that are directly related to a certain culture. Cultural code is a tool that accumulates the data of particular culture and with its help the decoding of the cultural information contained in it is carried out [5, 9]. Therefore, a culture code is information, which is coded in a certain way, and which allows to identify the culture, it becomes obvious that a culture code is a meta-level of the semiotic area. Since, cultural codes, being closed insider information, open only to the

bearers of a specific cultural group, might be difficult to access or even inaccessible to aliens, that is, the task of the translator is to correctly transfer and decode cultural codes in authentic texts.

A literary-publicist text manifests a clearly defined link between a language and a culture, and therefore in case of translating such texts, culture codes make an important component required to achieve translation adequacy. Thus, the most significant obstacles to translation can be faced in cases where the very situation described in the text of the source language does not exist in the experience shared by the members of culture speaking the target language, which is the case when the source text refers to the so-called culturemes (Vermeer, Nord), culture specific concepts (Baker), culture-specific references (Antonini), cultural words (Newmark), that is «social phenomenon of a culture X that is regarded as relevant by members of this culture and, when compared with a corresponding social phenomenon in a culture Y, is found to be specific to culture X» [6, 34].

The representation of national cultural codes is closely related to both national identity and public knowledge (or knowledge common to members of a particular cultural group). Representation of cultural codes is understood as the embodiment of culturally significant concepts in symbolic forms that can be conveyed and meaningfully interpreted [7]. Since human thinking is associative and connotative, the transmission of cultural codes, especially national ones, does not always take place in a verbalized form. So, the symbolic component of cultural codes in most cases is of paramount importance, and this is one of the features that unite cultural codes with connotation.

Translation is one of the appropriate ways in transferring culture. In this regard, in recent years, the term «cultural translation» has arisen, which refers to the process of decoding cultural codes, thoughts and intentions of the author of the original text and adequately transmitting them by means of the target language. Taking into account the ways of translation, Newmark defines the following methods of translation:

Word-for-word translation in which the source language word order is preserved, and the words translated singly by their most common meanings;

Literal translation in which the source language grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest target language equivalents, but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context;

Faithful translation attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the target language grammatical structures;

Semantic translation which differs from «faithful translation» only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic value of the source language text;

Adaptation: which is the freest form of translation and is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the source language culture is converted to the target language culture and the text is rewritten;

Free translation produces the target language text without regard to the style, form, or content of the original;

Idiomatic translation reproduces the «message» of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms;

Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership [8, 47].

Considering all of the above, this article examines the possibilities of transferring the cultural code of the Kazakhs from English to Russian, based on the translation of the book «In the Kirghiz Steppes» by John Wilford Wardell [8]. For instance:

In religion the Kazakhs were somewhat lax and superstitious, mainly because of there being few mullahs and teachers, but they were comparatively moral and always fatalistic [9, 88].

Ец бастысы, олардьщ арасында молдалар мен м¥Fалiмдер аз болгандыктан да казактар дшге катысты бiршама элаз жэне ырымшыл, бiрак казактарды осы немесе езге жагынан алганда да, олардыц адамгершшп жэне фаталиспк (пешенеге жазылганды мойындау - ауд. ескертпесi) сенiмi мол [9, 66].

В религии казахи несколько слабы и суеверны, главным образом, из-за того, что среди них было немного мулл и учителей, но казахи всегда, в той или иной мере моральны и фаталистичны [9, 366].

The spread of Islam on the territory of modern Kazakhstan was a process that dragged on for several centuries. First, Islam penetrated the south of the modern territory of Kazakhstan in the 8th century. In addition, the rooting of Islam in Kazakhstan took place in an inextricable connection with pre-Islamic beliefs, in particular with Zoroastrianism and Tengrianism. As regards according to Newmark's classification Russian translation is faithful because it accurately keeps the contextual meaning of the original text within the restraints of Russian grammatical rules. While Kazakh translation contains several transformations, such as grammatical transposition, addition and footnote. Application of each is justified by requirements of Kazakh language and cultural code, i.e. the translator's commentary was added in order to compensate and explain the word фаталистж (fatalistic) that might be unfamiliar to target audience with more general and comprehensive synonym пешенеге жазылганды мойындау which also corresponds to Kazakh culture code. Moreover, the change in the place of the predicate in the sentence is associated with objective differences in the patterns of word order in the English and Kazakh languages, so in the Kazakh language the predicate always stands at the end of the sentence. On lexical level the strategy of substitution is observed, that is the word with Arabic origin mullah was translated into Kazakh equivalent молда that harmonizes with target language system.

The people are by no means musical, but they were fond of singing interminable songs, which modulate weirdly within a very limited compass, to the

accompaniment of the dumbra, a long wooden instrument rather like a two-stringed guitar [9, 89].

Жалпы кабылданган бiздiц TYCiHiK (еуропалыцтар влшемгмен - ауд. ескертпесГ) бойынша, олар сазсыз эуеназ хальщ алайда, казактар шамамен eKi шектi гитарага ^ксайтын узын агаш аспаптыц - домбыраныц CYЙeмeлдeуiмeн тацданарлыктай

модуляцияланатын ете шeктeулi диапазон аясында токтаусыз эуeндi эн айтуды жаксы керeдi [9, 67].

Народ не музыкален в общепринятом (европейском прим. перев.) смысле, но казахи любят пение бесконечных песен, которые модулируются странно, в пределах очень ограниченного диапазона, в сопровождении домбры, длинного деревянного инструмента, похожего скорее на двухструнную гитару [9, 366].

It seems reasonable to provide a footnote containing some linguacultural information regarding the music of Kazakh people. An original musical culture that has spread on the territory of Kazakhstan was based on improvisational and epic works of the Turkic peoples, performed by the narrator to the accompaniment of folk instruments: two-string dombra, kobyz, sybyzgy, dauylpaz. By the 15th-18th centuries, a division of Kazakh music into songs and the instrumental genre of kyu appeared, and characteristic rhythmic and tonal features were formed. Both Kazakh and Russian translations comprise commentary that disclose implicit meaning of the source text about the European view of the author. Grammatical transposition is applied in this example as well. Consequently, the predicate is transferred to the end of the sentence and there was a replacement of parts of speech, namely the replacement of the phrase verb + adverb (modulate weirdly) with the phrase adjective + verb (тацданарлыцтай модуляцияланатын). Application of strategy of addition could be scrutinized in order to maintain the norm of compatibility and style and the phrase жалпы цабылданган б1здщ mYciHiK is added. Besides, in Kazakh equivalent the process of reverse decoding of element of Kazakh culture code is observed, that is author himself transcribed the word dumbra into English and during translation backward process of introducing Kazakh word домбыра took place. Such transformation as omission is displayed with English idiom by no means being omitted.

The normal greetings were 'Salam aleikoum' (Peace be with you) and 'Aleikoum salaam' (And on you peace), which are not unusual in the Moslem world, but the Kazaks had a quaint greeting meaning 'How are your legs?', which implies that if a man's legs allow him to ride in comfort he has nothing to worry about [9, 102].

М^сылмандар арасында жш кездесетш К¥былыс жалпыга ортак амандасу: -«Салам уалейкум!» («Бейбггшшк азбен бiргe болсын»), оган жауап кайтару: -«Уалейкум салам!» («Озге де бейбггшшк тшеймш»). Дегенмен б^дан езге де амандасу тYрлeрi бар, мысалы: -«Крл-аягын бYтiн бе?», б^л танысыныц немесе келш отырган конагыныц асау аттыц Yстiндe оны ауыздыктауга мумшндт каншалыкты eкeнiн бшу Yшiн немесе

одан езге де киыншылык туындамаганы женiндe хабардар болуды, ягни «денсаулыгын жаксы ма?» дeгeндi бiлдiрeдi [9, 78].

Общепринятое приветствие «Салам уалейкум» (Да пребудет мир с вами) и в ответ «Уалейкум салам» (И вам мира) - не редкое явление в мусульманской среде, но есть и другое приветствие «Руки, ноги целы?», что обозначает в порядке ли здоровье, чтобы сесть на коня верхом и не иметь проблем [9, 377].

In this passage author introduces two ways of greetings that were used by Kazakhs. From a linguocultural point of view, this example reflects the importance of religion and animal husbandry in the life of the Kazakhs. The greeting is one of the most important stages in the communication process. In Kazakh culture, greetings contain not only expressions of friendliness and goodwill, but also the main issue of health for the inhabitants of the harsh steppe. As for Russian translation, it contains transcription: 'Salam aleikoum'' - «Салам уалейкум», 'Aleikoum salaam' -«Уалейкум салам»; adaptation technique in which the choice is dictated by the target culture: ' How are your legs?' - «Руки, ноги целы?». On grammatical level substitution of a relative pronoun and a subordinate clause following it with an adjective in an impersonal sentence as well as grammatical transposition took place. Kazakh translation encloses even more transformations. Thus, there was a division of sentences in conjunction with the genre and stylistic features of the English sentence and the grammatical norms of the Kazakh language. Moreover, the contextual addition and descriptive translation that conveys the meaning of an English word with the help of a more common explanation «денсаулыгын жацсы ма?» дегендi бiлдiредi was applied.

All in all, the cultural code is a reflection of the cultural mentality. It is formed on the basis of national images, language, spirituality, traditions and values of the people. The cultural code of the nation now has a special relevance not as a relic of the past, but as a quintessence of the best and most viable practices collected by the Kazakh people over the centuries of history. To conclude, the most common methods of transmitting or decoding a cultural code are transcription and transliteration, calque and descriptive translation. The study presented here stands as proof of the fact that both the Russian and the Kazakh translations were mostly able to conduct adequate decoding of the semiotic culture codes and to find their respective equivalents in the target languages and cultures. The culture codes that were typical of the Kazakh mentality at the beginning of the XX century get explication in the Russian translation both through lexical equivalents and through employing semantic translation transformations and pragmatic adaptation in relation to the culture of the target language.

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