By Any Other Name Would It Smell Just as Sweet? Or How to Learn to Translate Iconic Lexis

DOI: 10. /2949–6357.2024.GEO.1  УДК: 81’25

Elena A. Shamina
Candidate of Phililogy, Associate Professor,
St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia;
email: e.shamina@spbu.ru

Elena I. Besedina
Candidate of Phililogy, Associate Professor,
St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, St.Petersburg, Russia;
email: elivbesedina@mail.ru

Marina V. Veselova
MA, Senior Lecturer,
St.Petersburg Electrotechnical University, St.Petersburg, Russia;
email: mvoroshnina@gmail.com

Abstract
The authors’ research into translation strategies from English into Russian unveils a sad fact: only 40% of expressive iconic lexis is represented in the translation by similar means. The result is a decrease in the quality, adequacy, and completeness of the translated text. To overcome the deficiency in the stylistic value of the translation, we suggest that basic iconicity theory be taught at universities as part of the General / Literary Translation course. To this end, we developed a 5 step algorithm, comprising such unique methods as phonosemantic compensation and similation, to be used along with traditional translation techniques.

Keywords: literary translation, iconic lexis, phonosemantics, expressivity, translation transformations

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