Specifics of Translating English Idioms with Animal Components into Ukrainian

Abstract

Abstract. The article examines the cases of mutual influence of language and culture manifesting itself in the functioning of a language.

One of the most difficult areas of any language is its idiomatic units, phraseology. According to linguists, without possessing this lexical layer knowledge of the language is incomplete. A rich lexical foundation and knowledge of grammatical rules that exist in a language are far from all the baggage with which a student goes on a journey into the world of a language. Phraseology is a valuable cultural and linguistic heritage, it reflects people’s world view, preserves their original culture, customs, and traditions, handed down from generation to generation.

Phraseology replenishes students' knowledge, their lexical stock, serves as an illustration to previously studied grammatical material. It decorates people’s speech, makes language more expressive and closer to that of native speakers. Studying phraseology, their assimilation is very important for understanding various languages because phraseology shows the specifics of life, culture, and the history. Without knowing phraseological units, full communication among people of different nations is impossible.

An analysis of proverbs as a source of information about the people’s relationship in society allows us to argue that the characteristic features of English society are forethought, non-interference in someone else's life, hard work, tolerance towards others.

It is well known that the significant role of animals in the world is reflected in the linguistic world. Therefore, it seems important to explore ways of translating animal idioms from a foreign language into the native language. Most English phraseological units appeared on pages of literary works. The first place among the literary sources that have given the world numerous phraseological units is possessed by the Bible. The works of Shakespeare and many other writers, children's fairy tales, poems are also considered sources of idioms, including phraseological units with zoological components. Also, a large number of English phraseological units, borrowed from different languages, are related to ancient mythology, history, and literature, so most of these phraseological units may be found in other languages. Even Aristotle introduced quite a number of phraseological units into his language which later scattered all over the world.

When analyzing various phraseological units with zoo-components, we have come to the conclusion that we should pay attention to three types of animals - dog, cat, and horse, because these animals predominate in the majority of the phraseological units we have collected. The “Dog” animalism is the most frequently used component of the idiomatic expressions in English. As a rule, a dog is an animal that is associated with a difficult life and who is self-deprecating. The “dog” zoonym in English has, in general, a pronounced negative connotation and signifies meanness, cowardice, uselessness, humiliation, sadness.

Humans resort to the image of a dog to express their difficult existence, thus comparing their difficult fate with the dog's life. But over time, English people have realized that a dog is a friend who loves his master and remains faithful to him. Accordingly, the idioms with the corresponding shade of meaning have appeared.

Such animal as a horse is also a constituent of a large number of zoonyms. In the course of historical development, this animal has become associated with strength and endurance. In some idiomatic units, the horse is perceived as analogous to movement or promotion. In English phraseology, the positive qualities of horses such as strength, reason, pride, restraint in emotions, are emphasized. However, some English idioms have a negative connotation in the English perception of this animal.

Having studied animal phraseological units, we can conclude that the easy ways of translating from English to Ukrainian is not as numerous as the number of difficulties that translators have to deal with.

The authors of the article identified the most frequent animalisms, discovered the linguo-cultural peculiarities of their usage and functioning in the structure of German and Russian phraseological units. The analysis testifies the close interrelation between the phraseological unit internal image and linguo-cultural community’s worldview.

Carrying out a study of the animalistic component of phraseological units, we found that in Ukrainian and English languages there are similar images of animals, which does not exclude the uniqueness of each of these languages separately.

Translation is one of the most important components of a society's culture, so the translator is considered to mediate the people’s communication of different cultures. Idioms are carriers of national culture. They have their own specific stylistic features, which is why they are translated with regard to extralinguistic factors.

Translation of idioms is a complex task that requires a great deal of effort on the part of the translator and his background knowledge of the mentality, culture and customs of different countries. Not every translator can cope with the task of translating phraseological units, because it is important to convey not only the meaning of the expression, but also its imagery, which is understandable to the recipient.

The results of the research can contribute to a further in-depth study of the specifics of the translation of English animalistic idioms.