Difficulties in translating youth slang from English into Russian

Serezhin Gleb Andreevich ORCID: 0000-0002-5647-4390 PhD in Philology Postgraduate student, Department of Theory and Practice of Foreign Languages, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 21, building 3, sq. 1506 21glebseryozhin@gmail.com

introduction

The concept of "slang" attracts the attention of linguists. Slang is the appearance of new words in a language. They are part of the spoken language, which is called informal. Slang simplifies communication within a group, and its essence and origin are unclear and controversial. There is hardly a more ambiguous and obscure term in philology than "slang".

The word "slang" came from the English language from the verb "slang". The first mention occurred in 1756 and meant the language of low or vulgar speech (low or vulgar language). Over time, this vocabulary began to be attributed to professional jargon. Another hypothesis says that the word "slang" was synonymous with the verb "sling", which means "to throw, to throw". Another version claims that "slang" is an abbreviated version of the phrase "thieves' language". Consequently, slang originally existed among the lower strata of society and eventually penetrated into the rest.

Research on the language of youth has not been conducted for a long time due to a biased attitude to this issue, therefore this phenomenon has rarely been studied. However, since the middle of the last century, interest has gradually increased. Questions about the essence of slang, its boundaries and meaning in the general language system are presented in the works of many scientists, for example: O. S. Akhmanova, O. D. Mirolaeva, D. E. Rosenthal and M.A. Telenkova, E. Partridge, E. A. Redkozubova, I. R. Galperin, V. A. Khomyakov, M. M. Makovsky, A. D. Schweitzer, I. V. Arnold, T. V. Zherbilo, T. A. Solovyova, G. A. Sudzilovsky, V. Freeman, A. Barrere, C. Leland, V. J. Burke and others.

METHODOLOGY

This article aims to show different definitions of slang, an attempt is made to give its own definition of the concept of slang, and highlight the main problems that can mislead a novice translator when translating such lexical units. The object of the study is youth slang. The subject of this study is the difficulties of translating American slang into Russian. The methods of theoretical research and the method of comparison were used for a comprehensive and detailed description. The selection of the material was carried out by the continuous sampling method. The process of carrying out this research work took place in several stages: the choice of a topic, the definition of goals and objectives, the theoretical justification of the problem posed, the identification of difficulties in translating youth slang, the definition of an action plan for the translator. The novelty and significance of this research work is due to the complexity of the correct transmission of American youth slang, which is one of the most interesting linguistic systems of modern linguistics.

The following works should be mentioned, which formed the basis of this scientific research. The theoretical basis of this article is the research of E. Partridge, I. R. Galperin, V. A. Khomyakov, I. V. Arnold. They managed to find a theoretical justification for the concept of slang. In the practical part, methods of describing slang units were used: comparative analysis, generalization, induction, continuous sampling. The research material was slang units from the Curtis Hanson film "8 Mile" starring Eminem. Almost 20 years after the release of the film, he is one of the best rappers of our time. These words confirm the performance of streaming services, high positions in the billboard hot 100 and billboard 200 charts. Eminem is a multiple record holder for the speed of reading in the Guinness Book of Records, the most interesting thing is that only he manages to break these records himself.

results

It is not easy to give an unambiguous description of the concept of "slang". It is necessary to know what this linguistic phenomenon is. There is no single point of view among linguists on what slang is and it is difficult to define the concept of "youth slang". It is often interpreted as a vocabulary invented by young people. This definition of youth slang does not reveal the essence of this phenomenon. The definition given by K. A. Tikhonova seems to us to be the most complete: "youth slang is a kind of colloquial speech containing expressive lexemes used as purely youth in this sociolect." The term "sociolect" describes a form of language manifestation that is unlike anything else, limited by the social sphere, which is an individual feature of a social group of society. It designates language subcodes that cover certain age and professional groups, as well as other socially determined groups that differ from the national language mainly in the field of vocabulary.

O. S. Akhmanova defines slang as: "a colloquial version of professional speech, elements of a colloquial version of a particular professional or social group. They penetrate into the literary language or even into the speech of people who are not directly related to this group of people, acquire a special emotional and expressive coloring in these languages." Slang units for the most part are the words of professionals who, when they get into the speech of a specialist in another field, express the peculiarities of the speaker's inner world.

According to O. D. Miralaeva, slang "is generated by the socio-psychological community of its bearers, who are characterized by a certain norm of behavior, ... their own style, manners, clothes, etc."

E. Partridge in his dictionary "A Dictionary Of Slang And Unconventional English" gives slang the following definition: "a special dictionary of illiterate or unreliable persons belonging to the lower strata of the population.

Later in his work "Slang To-Day And Yesterday", the author, based on the research of other scientists and various dictionaries, defines slang as "a random collection of lexemes that reflects the public consciousness of people belonging to a certain social or professional environment, slang is used to create the effect of novelty, strangeness, differences from recognized patterns, to convey a certain mood of the speaker, to give the statement concreteness, vivacity, expressiveness, visibility, accuracy, brevity, imagery, as well as to avoid cliches and cliches."

According to the results of the study, various points of view regarding slang were analyzed, while preserving the main ideas and general approaches, in this research work it was possible to give its own definition of the concept of slang. This is a layer of vocabulary that has developed over time, colloquial, deviating from the classical norms of literature, stylistically mobile, short-lived and emotionally colored. This form of mainly oral speech has a subjective emotional and evaluative coloring. Slang is characterized by humor, imagery, and linguistic novelty.

The language of youth is based on the system of the modern language of the country. This means that they do not develop their own language systems, but use existing available language tools in a way that is convenient for them. The process of globalization will trigger the emergence of new lexical units. In the modern world, youth slang, as a sociolect, expands the scope of its distribution. In the past, it was used orally, but now its use has become more widespread: it is used on television, radio and on the Internet.

It is worth starting with the problem of translating slang. While translation theory is a rather complex and little-studied branch of linguistics, slang is increasingly being paid attention to. This is exactly what makes it unique, because in Russia there are no generally accepted norms and ways of translating this lexical layer in the field of linguistics. When comparing the systems of two different languages, translation is the most important step. It must be an accurate representation of the original. The translator must take into account the context when working on the text. Most dialect units have distinctive features, which include mobility and stylistic labeling. This complicates their translation.

It is important to adhere to the wording of the text, as well as the author's translation style, which is the basis of the text. The translation process is a tool through which intercultural communication is carried out. Each communication case is an example of a specific translation situation that requires a separate translation action plan. The most important of these are the purpose of the translation, the type of source text and the nature of the recipient of the translation. The choice of a translation solution also determines the relationship between equivalence and adequacy in the translation text.

V. S. Vinogradov wrote: "equivalence is the preservation of the relative equality of meaningful, semantic, semantic, stylistic, functional and communicative information contained in the original and the translation."

Equivalence alone is not enough for successful cross-language communication. It is necessary to introduce the term "adequacy of translation". According to V. N. Komissarov: "this term determines the compliance of the translation with the conditions of the communicative situation and is evaluative." The exact translation includes equivalence, but even if this condition is met, not all translations can be considered exhaustive.

An adequate translation, according to V. N. Komisarov, can be defined as follows: "a translation that provides the pragmatic tasks of a translation act at the highest possible level of equivalence to achieve this goal, avoiding violations of the norms and usages of the translation language, observing genre and stylistic requirements for texts of this type and compliance with the conventional norm of translation."

Based on the above, the translator faces a difficult task — adequate transmission of lexical units without violating logic and distorting the meaning of the author's idea.

Such a transfer is possible if some basic parameters are taken into account. The first among them should be called the consideration of cultural and national characteristics.

Man has created culture for his own convenience, it exists through communication. Cultural connection makes the communication process possible and successful, and the context is determined by certain cultural frameworks. In the complete absence of context, communication attempts fail. There are clashes of opinion and cultural conflicts. History knows a lot of cultural failures, misunderstandings based on insufficient knowledge of someone else's culture.

In practical terms, for a linguistics specialist, "cultural factors" are features characteristic of the culture of a native speaker of the source language that do not have an appropriate translation analogy for a native speaker of the target language and at the same time a representative of another culture.

In translation terminology, such features are often defined as "untranslatable". According to cultural scientists, the translation of lexical units that do not resemble other cultures is an expression of very valuable information, despite its contradictory nature. Such information is transmitted not directly through the recognition of someone else's culture, but indirectly through speech, language, and text.

If the described world of the translated text is part of a culture unfamiliar to the recipient, cultural remoteness arises: the recipient absorbs the information and realizes that he does not have enough experience to establish a connection, so the text world and the recipient's reality are compared. When we talk about the components of culture in relation to translation problems, we mean a number of extralinguistic approaches to solving problems, as well as various phenomena and events that exist in different cultural communities. However, the language itself may have culturally specific units defined temporally and socially, which are cultural markers. Familiarity with cross-cultural elements occurs indirectly. It occurs through literary texts and their translated versions.

The author of the original and the recipient of the translated text cannot always be sure of the authenticity of the cultural characteristics reflected in the translated text. They will be hindered by language and cultural barriers. Translators act as experts, they compare both cultures. First, the main task is not to distort the cultural norms laid down by the author. Secondly, the translator prepares the reader to perceive these cultural markers so that he can notice them. Thus, the transfer of linguistic and cultural meanings in the translation process takes place through different degrees of perception by the reader. The meaning may be barely perceptible, fully understandable, or not distinguishable at all. The translator is faced with the question of whether to preserve the cultural norms of the original or replace them with the cultural norms of the translated language. Based on the cultural information and the value system of the original, the translator chooses an action plan.

The next parameter that we highlighted when translating slang is the translator's action plan: what should you pay attention to when translating youth slang.

The film, released in 2002, was taken as the material for the study. "8 Mile" is a drama about the life of a white guy originally from Detroit. The title of the film was one of the main conventions in the city, which is an unspoken boundary between the poor and rich areas of the city. The story is based around Jimmy Smith Jr., nicknamed "rabbit". He lives in a poor part of the city and is struggling to make money by any means available. At the same time, he writes his own music and dreams of a career as a performer. Having a talent for rap, he tries to participate in rap battles.

The material was not chosen by chance, this film is replete with youth slang. Brian Grazer, the producer of this film, spoke about the motives for making the film. He had long been familiar with several hip-hop icons and by the early 1990s was well aware that this subculture was central to the lives of American youth.

The main part of the youth slang units of the film "8 mile" turned out to be nouns. A characteristic feature is the use of suffixes as the main way of word formation. The way of composing takes the second place in frequency. The main feature is the active use of word abbreviations. It is also possible to identify several lexical and semantic features inherent in the youth slang of America.

First, it is necessary to note the orientation of lexical units. All of them are built around a person, used to characterize him or reality, inextricably linked with him. This factor should be taken into account when translating. As a result of the analysis of the film, 75 slang units were selected. They are grouped around the following categories (Table No. 1):

Table No. 1.

Youth slang in the "8 mile"

It should be noted that 18 out of 75 slang units are obscene, which is 24% in percentage. They need to be translated euphemistically, in order to comply with censorship. Taboo vocabulary was replaced by neutral vocabulary.

Another equally striking example of the use of slang in Eminem's work can be seen on the example of the legendary track: "Rap God". A few statistics — it is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the track with the largest number of words — 1,560 words in 6 minutes 4 seconds. Another record was set in 2020. In the Godzilla track, "Em" was able to read 229 words in 30 seconds. This speed has received a separate name — supersonic. The official soundtrack of the film was the composition "Lose yourself". He fit into the atmosphere of the film so well, conveyed the mood and feelings of the main character, that he was awarded the Oscar as the best song for the 2003 film. During its analysis, 11 slang units were identified, half of which are obscene language.

Secondly, the main task of the translator when meeting with slang is to find an equivalent. If this is not possible, we try to find a semantic analogue in the translation language. This step is the starting point for translating spoken vocabulary. For example, piece of cake — spit it out; pear shaped — went awry. Exact equivalents of English slang words and expressions are rare. Analogues are words and phrases that partially coincide in meaning and differ from translated slang in lexical structure and stylistic coloring. For example, sick and tired has an equivalent in Russian — fed up. This technique is very effective in translating non-equivalent vocabulary. Similar words can be found in almost any language. Although they are approximate correspondences, their use is justified and simplifies the translator's work.

Direct, literal, and transformational translations are used when translating slang. Compliance with translation at the level of language signs without taking into account information that is transmitted at other levels of content — all this is about direct and literal (literal) translation.

Direct translation of such units may lead to distortion of the information contained in the source text, violation of the norms of the translated language, or all at once. It should be remembered that the transmission of meaning in most slangisms is based on a metaphor: chin wag — pleasant conversation, gobsmacked — to be shocked. These examples draw "pictures" in our minds, that is, images.

Direct and literal translation is carried out through calculus, transcription, transliteration. If the words are understandable from the context and do not violate linguistic and translation norms, then the use of these translation techniques is appropriate. For example, there is an interlanguage slang borrowed from English: challenge — a challenge, aka a challenge or a difficult task, software — software, meaning software.

Translation transformations are the most common method of translating slang. They create the best and most appropriate translation option. Provided that there is no analogue of the foreign language unit or equivalent in the target language. L. S. Barkhudarov distinguishes between permutation, addition, omission, substitution (grammatical, lexical and lexicogrammatic). J. I. Retsker describes the lexical and grammatical ways of transformation. Let's analyze the most common of them (Table No. 2):

Table No. 2.

Translation transformations

conclusions

So, the process of developing youth slang is irreversible, although the issue of its containment remains an acute problem. It is increasingly common to hear in the media that borrowings from other languages make our language poorer. The vocabulary of slang will continue to expand as a language system, it has always been important for young people that their speech be relevant.

We have considered many definitions of the concept of slang, since this phenomenon is complex and multifaceted and, as mentioned earlier, there is hardly a more ambiguous and obscure term in philology than "slang". Difficulties in translation were also considered, taking into account cultural and national characteristics, and a certain plan of action was drawn up for translation based on material from the film "8 mile". As practice shows, the translator must choose a strategy in advance based on cultural information and the system of values laid down by the author of the original.

Summing up the analysis of slang units, it can be concluded that when translating slang vocabulary into Russian, translators used the following transformations: translation by equivalents, translation by analogue, direct or literal translation, translation by transformation and euphemistic translation. The variety of translation techniques significantly expands the possibilities of conveying the meaning and imagery of the source text. If the translation language does not have a synonym corresponding to a foreign slang, the translator can use a number of other techniques that correspond to the peculiarities of the discourse, cultural and linguistic context.