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Abstract: The article analyzes text energy, which is an insufficiently developed text category, which is realized primarily via verbs of motion. The author assumes that energy can serve as a measure of correspondence between text variants, and in particular, as a basis for assessing the equivalence of a target text to the source text. This hypothesis is consistently tested on the entire first monologue of Theia from J. Keats’ poem “Hyperion”: the Russian translation by G. Kruzhkov is compared with the English source text. The author makes this comparison based on the method of text categories. Based on the verbs of motion, a scale (in other words, a gradual opposition) of “energy intensity indices” from 1 to 9 is developed. It is proposed to consider that for existential verbs this index is 1, and for verbs of accelerated motion and intensified activity it is 9. The intermediate level, equal to 5, is assigned to ordinary verbs of motion. The intervals from 1 to 5 and from 5 to 9 are needed to indicate intermediate phenomena: when the subject does not move itself, but moves its parts, organs, etc.; when not physical activity, but such activities as intellectual, social activity, and speaking are carried out; when the main action is weakened by a participial form of the analyzed verb, etc. The analysis employed the data from the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language with the Inclusion of Information about the Origin of Words” (edited by N. Yu. Shvedova) and the “Big Explanatory Dictionary of Russian Verbs” (edited by L. G. Babenko), as well as a number of supplementary English-Russian and English-English dictionaries. It has shown that cases of verbal polysemy are also possible, when the context combines probable existential and activity-based dictionary meanings of the verb. The study determines an energy intensity index for each verb-energeme; the sums of these indices are compared for the English source text and the Russian target text of the monologues under analysis. The greater energy intensity of G. Kruzhkov’s translation text has been numerically proved. The research has identified the means of making the target text more “energetic” than the source one.

About the author(s) :

Vladislav I. Bortnikov

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin (Ekaterinburg, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3001-840X

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 31.08.2025; date of publication: 29.12.2025

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