Journal archive

Abstract: The article presents a comparative analysis of color vocabulary in the original and in the Russian translation of the novel by R. Bradbury “The Martian Chronicles”. The aim of the article is to identify the specificity of the color worldview of the novel as a component of the author’s individual style. The scope of research embraces color lexemes used in the original and in the text of translation of the novel, and the object of analysis includes the structural and semantic organization of color vocabulary in the space of the literary text, as well as the lexical transformations used in the process of their translation. The author employs the methods of component, contextual and comparative text analysis, the statistical method and the method of continuous sampling. The study argues that the authored color nominations serve not only as a means of direct nomination, but also act as an important component of the poetics of the novel, which determines its stylistic specificity. The text has a specific color palette, which is inherently connected with the key themes of the novel and is represented by the recurrent colors of the white-black-blue line in the original and in the translation. The attributes of color can be expressed by nouns, adjectives, verbs and participles, as well as by phrases of various structures. Among the composite nominations, figurative means of “object” color nomination containing an implicit comparison are of particular interest. The classical Russian translation, made by L. L. Zhdanov, tends towards comparative constructions with a color component, due to the translator’s desire to convey color characteristics as adequately as possible. The article focuses on the principles of translating the author’s individual color nominations using various types of translation transformations (generalization, modulation, compensation, concretization, lexical addition, omission, and descriptive translation). The research results expand the knowledge of color terms as specific elements of a literary text and can be used in the practical teaching of comparative lexicology, linguistic analysis of literary text, and translation theory.

About the author(s) :

Elena N. Sokolova

Tyumen State University (Tyumen, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3268-0971

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 30.05.2022; date of publication: 30.06.2023

References:

Adams, F. M., Osgood, Ch. E. (1973). A Cross-Cultural Study of the Meanings of Color. In Journal of cross-cultural psychology. No. 4 (2), рр. 135–156.

Bakhilina, N. B. (1975). Istoriya tsvetooboznachenii v russkom yazyke [History of a Color Naming in Russian Language]. Moscow, Nauka. 288 p.

Berlin, В., Pay, K. (1969). Basic Color Terms. Berkley and Los Angeles, University of California Press. 178 p.

Bradbury, R. (2020). Marsianskie khroniki [The Martian Chronicles]. Moscow, EKSMO. 304 p.

Bradbury, R. D. (1950). The Martian Chronicles. Garden City, Doubleday. 271 p.

Bragina, A. A. (1997). Tsvetovye opredeleniya i formirovanie novykh znachenii slov i slovosochetanii [Color Definitions and Formation of New Word Meanings and Phrases]. In Leksikologiya i leksikografiya. Moscow, Nauka, pp. 73–105.

Chernitsina, Yu. E. (2009). Leksiko-stilisticheskie problemy perevoda nauchno-fantasticheskogo teksta (na materiale perevodov proizvedenii Reya Bredberi «451º po Farengeitu», «Avgust 1999: Zemlyane», «Fevral’ 1999: Illa» i «Avgust 2026: Budet laskovyi dozhd’» na russkii yazyk) [Vocabulary and Stylistic Problems of Translating a Science Fiction Text (Based on Translations of Ray Bradbury’s Works “Fahrenheit 451” “August 1999: Earthlings”, “February 1999: Illa” and “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” into Russian Language]. Avtoref. dis. ... kand. filol. nauk. Moscow. 19 p.

Evgenyeva, A. P. (Ed.). (1999). Slovar’ russkogo yazyka: v 4 t. [Dictionary of Russian Language, in 4 vols.]. Moscow, Russkii yazyk, Poligrafresursy.

Fomina, V. S. (1994). Semantika tsvetooboznachenii kak ob"ekt issledovaniya i izucheniya [Semantics of a Color Naming as Object of a Research and Studying]. In IV mezhdunarodnyi simpozium po lingvostranovedeniyu. Moscow, Institut russkogo yazyka im. A. S. Pushkina, pp. 230–231.

Frumkina, R. M. (1984). Tsvet, smysl, skhodstvo. Aspekty psikholingvisticheskogo analiza [Color, Sense, Similarity. Aspects of the Psycholinguistic Analysis]. Moscow, Nauka. 175 p.

Klimovskikh, Yu. A. (2011). Tsvetovaya kartina mira O. Uayl’da: kognitivno-lingvokul’turologicheskii podkhod [Color Picture of the World of O. Wilde: Cognitive and Linguoculturological Approach]. Dis. … kand. filol. nauk. Stavropol. 256 p.

Kulpina, V. G. (2002). Teoreticheskie aspekty lingvistiki tsveta kak nauchnogo napravleniya sopostavitel’nogo yazykoznaniya [Theoretical Aspects of Linguistics of Color as Scientific Direction of Comparative Linguistics]. Avtoref. dis. … d-ra filol. nauk. Moscow. 31 p.

Lopatina, N. R. (2005). Strukturno-semanticheskii analiz ob"ektnykh tsvetonaimenovanii: na materiale angliiskogo i russkogo yazykov [Structural-Semantic Analysis of Object Color Names: On Material of the English and Russian Languages]. Dis. … kand. filol. nauk. Krasnodar. 167 p.

Markina, N. V. (2006). Khudozhestvennyi mir Reya Bredberi: traditsii i novatorstvo [Art World of Ray Bradbury: Traditions and Innovation]. Avtoref. dis. … kand. filol. nauk. Samara. 21 p.

McMillan, G., Palumbo, D. E., Sullivan, C. W. III. (2013). Orbiting Ray Bradbury’s Mars: Biographical, Anthropological, Literary, Scientific and Other Perspectives. McFarland. 264 p.

Novikova, V. G. (1992). Fantasticheskaya novella Reya Bredberi [Fantastic Novel by Ray Bradbury]. Avtoref. dis. ... kand. filol. nauk. Nizhniy Novgorod. 19 p.

Pashkeeva, I. Yu. (2012). Slozhnye slova v proizvedeniyakh Reya Bredberi i sposoby ikh peredachi na russkii yazyk [Complex Words in Ray Bradbury’s Works and Ways to Convey Them to Russian Language]. Avtoref. dis. ... kand. filol. nauk. Kazan. 20 p.

Serenkov, Yu. S., Gromova, A. V. (2019). Rei Bredberi: Fenomen tvorcheskoi lichnosti v kul’ture [Ray Bradbury: The Phenomenon of a Creative Personality in Culture]. Novokuznetsk, Sibirskii gosudarstvennyi industrial’nyi universitet. 131 p.

Sokolova, E. N. (2018). Leksika tsvetooboznacheniya v romane R. Bredberi «451° po Farengeitu» i ego russkom perevode [The Colour Vocabulary in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and its Russian Translation]. In Izvestiya Ural’skogo federal’nogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Gumanitarnye nauki. Vol. 20, No. 4 (181), pp. 212–221. https://doi.org/10.15826/izv2.2018.20.4.077.

Svetlichnaya, S. Yu. (2003). Sravnitel’nye lingvokul’turnye kharakteristiki tsvetooboznacheniya i tsvetovospriyatiya v angliiskom i russkom yazykakh [Comparative Linguocultural Characteristics of a Color Naming and Color Perception in the English and Russian Languages]. Avtoref. dis. … kand. filol. nauk. Pyatigorsk. 186 p.

Vasilevich, A. P., Kuznetsova, S. N., Mishchenko, S. S. (2007). Naimenovaniya tsveta v indoevropeiskikh yazykakh: Sistemnyi i istoricheskii analiz [Names of Color in Indo-European Languages: System and Historical Analysis]. Moscow, KomKniga. 320 p.

Velichko, A. A. (2010). Kommunikativno-pragmaticheskie osobennosti tsvetooboznachenii v tekstovom prostranstve romanov Tomasa Gardi [Communicative and Pragmatical Features of a Color Naming in Text Space of Novels by Thomas Hardy]. Dis. … kand. filol. nauk. Stavropol. 224 p.

Vezhbitskaya, A. (1996). Oboznacheniya tsveta i universalii zritel’nogo vospriyatiya [Designations of Color and Universal of Visual Perception]. In Yazyk. Kul’tura. Poznanie. Moscow, Russkie slovari, pp. 231–291.