Features of “The golden calf” by I. Ilf and E. Petrov Russian-English translation

The notion of in-equivalent vocabulary stands for culture-specific lexicon units in a source text considered impossible to render into target language without more or less significant losses. Although, there exist a number of translation techniques aimed to facilitate understanding of such words for foreign readers. Each of such techniques can be correlated to two opposite strategies of domestication and foreignization, thus enabling to measure the degree to which translators managed to recreate culture-specific component in translated text. The purpose of the research is to analyze the specific features of in-equivalent lexicon units translation in four English versions of “The Golden Calf” novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov. The research is based on 320 in-equivalent lexicon units in five text sources: 1) И. Ильф, Е. Петров. «Золотой телёнок» (1931), 2) The Little Golden Calf (transl. Ch. Malamut, 1932), 3) The Complete Adventures of Ostap Bender (transl. J.H.C. Richardson, 1961), 4) The Little Golden Calf (transl. A. Fisher, 2009), 5) The Golden Calf (transl. K. Gurevich, H. Anderson, 2009). The methods applied are general scientific (observation and description) and linguistic (text analysis, comparative analysis). In-equivalent lexicon units in “The Golden Calf” novel, set against the background of intensive formation of new Soviet lexicon, includes several classes such as sovietizms (32% of all in-equivalent units), objects and phenomena of everyday life (18%), words of foreign origin (14%), historical words (12%), phraseological units (10%), jargon and dialect words (10%), folklore words (3%), and nonce-words (1%). The comparative study of translation of the given classes of in-equivalent vocabulary in analysed English versions of “The Golden Calf” reveals the methods preferred by each interpreter. More often the authors used the techniques of description and approximate translation; less popular were the methods of hyponymic translation and calque, with the restribution of meaning as the least favorable method. Matching the techniques of in-equivalent lexical units translation to foreignization and domestication strategies makes it possible to declare that the most foreignized is Ann Fisher’s version while the most domesticated one – the translation by K. Gurevich and H. Anderson.

in-equivalent lexicon units, “The Golden Calf”, translation techniques, domestication, foreignisation