The Translation of Colour Terms in Fiction with Religion Themes
Abstract
The relevance of the research is defined by the symbolic function of the colour names in the contemporary Italian fiction and its importance for conveying the author’s ideas of the original text.
The problem of the translation of colour terms is researched on the material of the Italian novel “The Name of the Rose” (“Il Nome della rosa”) by Umberto Eco and its translation into Russian by E. A. Kostyukovich. The action of the chosen novel takes place in a monastery, consequently the interoperation of the text as a whole and colour terms as its components for a deeper understanding of the author’s conception heavily relies on the religious dogmas and precedent religious texts, and the translating process demands a pre-translational analysis which allows to identify the symbolic content of each foreground semantic components of the text and to choose an adequate translation. The significant part of the article is dedicated to the representation of the religious symbolism of colour terms since an abstract with a very high margin of the colour terms index is chosen for the analysis. The abstract is exponential for identifying of the most frequent colour names and their literary function, symbolic content, semantic interaction as well as to motivate certain translation strategies. In the course of the colour terms interpretation were used following methods: definitional, componential and etymological analyses, which helped to identify the content of the colour terms in the original, to motivate the translation strategies used and to modulate the possible algorithms of pretranslation analysis. The data received as the result of the conducted research can be applied in the course of translation of similar texts from Italian into Russian, especially in the context of fiction with high level of colour terms symbolism.
About the Author
V. V. Rossal
Moscow State Linguistics University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Vasilissa V. Rossal, Post-Graduate Student
Department of General and Comparative Linguistics
119034
38, Ostozhenka str.
Moscow
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Review
For citations:
Rossal V.V. The Translation of Colour Terms in Fiction with Religion Themes. Proceedings of the Southwest State University. Series: Linguistics and Pedagogy. 2022;12(4):68-81. (In Russ.)
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