Translation of non-equivalent vocabulary in Chinese political speech into Russian

Li Juan Postgraduate student; Faculty of Higher School of Translation; Lomonosov Moscow State University 119571, Russia, Moscow, Akademika Anokhina str., 11k1, sq. 230 475851797@qq.com

Introduction

Currently, with the increase in contacts between China and Russia in the political sphere, the need for Chinese-Russian translations, including speeches by political leaders, has increased. They embody the features of national political discourse, serve as an example of the linguistic implementation of basic political principles and state ideology.

Due to the peculiarities of the historical and cultural development of countries, people speaking different languages express reality in words in different ways. The same phenomena of the surrounding reality – concrete or abstract – can be depicted using different linguistic means. Therefore, for a translator, an important task is to express meaning by language means that are most appropriate in a specific context and in a specific communication situation [Yakovlev, 2017]. If this task is performed improperly, cases of inaccurate translation are often possible, among the main consequences of which are harm to the image of a politician, a negative impact on decision-making on cooperation, and even the emergence of political conflicts [Zuboreva, 2018]. In this regard, the translator in Chinese-Russian political translation plays an important strategic role, acting as a "bridge" of communication between China and Russia. His task of performing a high-quality translation becomes even more difficult when in the original text of the speech the politician uses lexical means filled with deep national and cultural meaning, and do not have identical concepts in the translation language.

The problem of translating vocabulary with national and cultural specifics in political speech from Chinese into Russian has become relevant relatively recently. This is due to several reasons, primarily the growing interest in studying translation in the Chinese-Russian language pair, as well as the increased demand for high-quality translations against the background of increased contacts between China and Russia at the political level.

Currently, the problem of transferring linguistic and cultural features in translation from Chinese into Russian has been studied in the most detail for fiction and media texts, while this issue has not received proper consideration on the empirical material of socio-political texts. At the same time, some of the linguistic and cultural difficulties that the translator faces in the process of transferring political discourse texts from Chinese to Russian have nevertheless been studied. The translation of phraseological phrases and idioms of chengyu in political discourse from Chinese into Russian was studied by V.V. Kruglov (2020), A.A. Mitina (2023), political terms with Chinese specifics by Yang Linlin and Shi Xiuzhen (2022), expressive means, as well as grammatical constructions by S.G. Korovina and O.A. Hayrapetyan (2017). The translation of metaphors in Chinese political discourse is one of the most common problems considered in the research of many authors [史顺良，赵赵, 2021, 杨海海，, 2021]. The relatively detailed and systematic Russian translation of various types of metaphors in the report of the 19th CPC Congress using various methods of translation was considered in the scientific work of Mo Yifan, who highlighted the translation with the preservation of the original conceptual metaphor, replacement, translation by comparison, removal of the conceptual metaphor [莫逸凡, 2021]. Against the background of insufficient study of the issues of translation of linguistic and cultural phenomena in political speeches from Chinese into Russian, modern authors also note the need to teach translation students to translate phraseological units, quotations and other lexical phenomena with national and cultural specificity [Dubtsova, Li Jianliang, 2018]. At the same time, research that contributes to solving the issue of the transmission of linguistic and cultural phenomena in Chinese political speeches by means of the Russian language is carried out not only in translation studies and linguistics, but also by political scientists. For example, in a study by political scientist Song Zhihao (2023), from the point of view of deep meaning, the options for translating basic concepts with the "tao" component (path) are considered in detail. Despite the fact that the article was written in the mainstream of political science, its results are of practical use for translators from Chinese into Russian, since they clarify the ways of translating some complex non-equivalent concepts of the political sphere with Chinese specifics.

As a result, it can be concluded that there is a contradiction. On the one hand, the research of linguistic and cultural difficulties in the political speeches of Chinese leaders and their transmission by means of the Russian language have not been studied enough, and, on the other hand, when teaching translators this type of translation, there is an urgent need for systematization and a more detailed description of the ways of translating such vocabulary.

Due to the need for such a study, the article sets the tasks to identify and analyze the linguistic and cultural difficulties of translating the speech of the Chinese political leader, to study ways to translate such vocabulary into Russian and formulate recommendations on the most effective ways of translation. Accordingly, the scientific novelty is determined by the results of the conducted research and is reduced to a detailed consideration of the issue of transferring the linguistic and cultural difficulties of the speech of the Chinese political leader in translation into Russian.

Materials and methods.

Russian Russian translation In order to achieve the objectives of the study, it seems necessary to conduct a comparative linguistic analysis of the original text of the speech of the political leader of the People's Republic of China and its translation into Russian in order to identify and select units of non-equivalent vocabulary and variants of its translation into Russian and conduct subsequent analysis. The empirical material includes the texts of the keynote speech of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum (June 22, 2022), the China–Central Asia Summit (May 19, 2023), and speeches at the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (July 4, 2023). The choice of these speech texts is random, due to the focus on an international (including Russian) audience and the availability of an official Russian-language translation. Using a continuous selection method, units containing cultural information were collected and combined into a research sample.

The next step after the sample was formed was to conduct a classification analysis and identify the types of equivalent units from the original texts of the speeches of the political leader in Chinese. Further, a search for translations of these units in the translation text was carried out and a qualitative analysis of the ways of their transmission was performed, the most preferred ways of transmitting Chinese difficult-to-translate lexical units with cultural meaning by means of the Russian language were identified.

A literary review.

Chinese political discourse in a linguocultural light

"Politics is carried out through language, and, as a result, through political discourse" [Zuboreva, 2018, p. 201]. Chinese political discourse has a number of its own features that distinguish it from the political discourse of other countries. In recent years, against the background of growing interest in everything "with Chinese characteristics", the number of studies has increased the discursive system of socialism with Chinese specifics [, 2021]. Vocabulary with Chinese characteristics is a widely used word created by the Chinese people in the process of long–term social practice, possessing pronounced national and cultural characteristics and embodying the peculiarities of the time. As a rule, the sources of the appearance of this vocabulary are social events, myths and legends. The vocabulary with Chinese specifics carries rich cultural information and deep meaning, reflecting the unique life position and way of thinking of the Chinese people [,2006]. At the same time, there is a close connection between language and ideology in Chinese political discourse, which allows using linguistic means to reflect the values, morals and ideas of the country's politics. In Chinese political discourse, there are abbreviations and abbreviations that have stable correspondences in the Russian language, which were introduced into everyday life using a generally accepted transliteration variant. Chinese political discourse also contains many terms that are common all over the world, and therefore their translation can also be done by selecting generally accepted equivalents. Our article does not address the issue of translating such terms and abbreviations, but primarily focuses on specific concepts and phrases that reflect national cultural realities, philosophical ideas, historical and social values and other components of meaning that do not have an equivalent understanding in the Russian language picture of the world.

Many Chinese concepts functioning in political discourse contain deep philosophical ideas rooted in the ancient teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism and other schools of traditional Chinese thought. For the translator, this creates additional difficulties in performing a high-quality translation, since if there is an equivalent of the Chinese term in Russian, direct transmission will not allow expressing the full deep meaning hidden in the concept denoted by the hieroglyph. As an example of such words, one can cite the concept of "the way" (tao), as well as its varieties "the way of a virtuous ruler" (wangdao), "the way of force and coercion" (badao), and "the configuration of power" (shi), which are discussed in detail in the study of Song Zhihao (2023) from the point of view of their deep meaning.

Cultural specificity is the most important characteristic of political discourse, since it is saturated with culturally significant information, and also captures and reflects the general and specific features of the functioning of national languages and cultures [Yugai, 2019, p. 81]. To accurately convey political speech, it is necessary to master the features of political discourse in both languages [Chudinov, 2006, p. 41]. This requires a more detailed study of the issue of the transfer of culturally rich vocabulary in political discourse and the search for optimal translation methods that take into account the cultural characteristics and common features of the two countries.

The question of the "equivalence" of the translation of non-equivalent vocabulary

The question of "equivalence" in translation studies is perhaps one of the most classical and fundamental, as is the question of the essence of translation. Nevertheless, the answers to it differ and, due to belonging to different schools of translation, researchers offer different ways of interpreting the concept of "equivalence". Within the framework of this article, it is not necessary to propose an author's definition of this term, and therefore the author of the article is guided by the available approaches and uses the following definition of this term as a working one: "In the Russian language, the word equivalence denotes the property of the adjective equivalent, i.e. equivalent, equivalent, equivalent, completely replacing something in in any respect. Accordingly, an equivalent is something equivalent, equivalent, equivalent to another, completely replacing it" [Garbovsky, 2004, p. 265]. Translation equivalence and translation fidelity are different concepts. The "fidelity" of translations, as the Italian writer W. Eco is not a criterion that forces us to recognize the only acceptable translation, but only confirms the idea that "translation is always possible", the only question is which of the meanings of the original the translator puts into translation [Eco, 2015]. Therefore, solving the equivalence problem is a matter of competence and a subjective vision of options for solving translation tasks.

However, in the process of translation, the translator often faces the problem of the lack of direct correspondence of the lexical unit in the target language. Such vocabulary is called "non-equivalent". The presence of such vocabulary is due to the absence of the concepts mentioned in the original text in the translation language, due to differences in cultures, history and values of the two countries.

Equivalent vocabulary – lexical units of the source language or dialect that do not have regular (full or partial) dictionary correspondences in the target language. E.M. Vereshchagin and V.G. Kostomarov define a layer of equivalent vocabulary as "words whose content plan cannot be compared with any foreign lexical concepts" [Vereshchagin, Kostomarov, 1990, p. 56].

According to V.N. Komissarov, neologisms, specific concepts and national realities, as well as proper names, are most often non-equivalent in translation [Komissarov, 2013, p. 148]. We believe that the term "non-equivalent vocabulary" can only be used in relation to words that do not have a match in the vocabulary of another language. Understanding non-equivalent vocabulary as units that cannot be translated seems unreasonable, since every language can express any concept [Smarovidlo, 2016]. Therefore, if a concept translated from one language to another does not have a lexicographically fixed equivalent, it can be expressed by other means. One way or another, it is possible to translate non-equivalent vocabulary, and therefore here the problem of choosing the optimal way to translate such vocabulary acts as a research question. This also allows us to put a research hypothesis: the translation of non-equivalent vocabulary in Chinese political speeches into Russian is always possible, the way such vocabulary is translated affects the degree of equivalence of the original text of speech to the translated one.

Linking this hypothesis with the title of the article, we note that non-equivalent vocabulary is understood here as lexical units with linguistic and cultural specificity and containing historical, cultural, and social components of meaning, making them nationally specific to a particular language system and not corresponding in the conceptual system of the translation language. A direct translation of such vocabulary is possible, but it will not be completely correct due to the lack of a deep meaning of the original word in the translation language. Therefore, direct translation is very rare for the transmission of such vocabulary in original political speeches by means of the Russian language, and methods of descriptive translation and replacement with a functional equivalent are common.

Results.

Agreeing with V.N. Komissarov, we have classified the studied non-equivalent vocabulary into groups of neologisms, specific concepts, national realities (including paroemias), proper names.

1. Translation of neologisms in Chinese political speeches into Russian

In the analyzed texts, neologisms include names of political phenomena, ideas and principles that have been put forward since the beginning of the period of formation of Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2012. Let's look at examples of their translation.

Original text: 10年来，人类命运共同体理念得到国际社会广泛认同和支持，正在从理念转化为行动、从愿景转变为现实。

Translation: In 10 years, the idea of forming a community of the common destiny of mankind, having received recognition and broad support from the international community, has been moving from a concept to a practical plane, from vision to reality (Speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of SCO member States).

Translation comment: In this example, the neologism 人 r rénlèi mìngyùn gòngtóngtǐ, which is becoming increasingly widespread in Chinese political discourse, designates one of the key concepts of the country's modern foreign policy, which serves as the basis for the theory of peaceful development and building a harmonious world of China. In Russian-language texts on political topics, the concept is translated as "the community of the common destiny of mankind", while sometimes the last word is omitted, and "united" is replaced by "common". The direct translation of this concept has an unusual word order for a native Russian speaker as "humanity fate common community", literally: mankind, 命运 mìngyùn fate, 共同 gòngtóng common, 体 tǐ community. As you can see, the direct translation does not correspond to the syntax of the Russian language. The direct Russian translation of the phrase "community of common destiny of mankind" in Chinese sounds like the community 体 tǐ, one destiny 同样命运的 tóngyàng mìngyùn de, mankind 人类的 rénlèi de, and together 体同样命运的人类的 tóngyàng mìngyùn de rénlèi de also does not match the syntax of the Chinese language. From the point of view of grammar, in Russian, the defined word is followed by the defining words in the genitive case, while in Chinese the reverse order is represented, and the defining words are located before the defined one. This is the most common syntactic difference between Chinese and Russian. Therefore, in the above example, the use of descriptive translation, although it does not allow you to maintain an equivalent word order, but allows you to accurately convey the meaning of the concept.

2. Translation of specific non-equivalent concepts in Chinese political speeches into Russian

The specific concepts that have been found in the political speeches of the Chinese leader are mostly based on metaphor. In the dictionary of D.N. Ushakov, a metaphor is defined as "a trope, a turn of speech consisting in the use of words and expressions in a figurative sense based on some analogies, similarities, e.g. (from Pushkin): the dialect of waves; snakes of heartfelt remorse" [Ushakov, 1940]. I.V. Arnold defines a metaphor as "a hidden comparison carried out by applying the name of one object to another and thus revealing some important feature of the second" [Arnold, 1981]. Let's look at some examples.

Original text: 我们维护国际公平正义，反对霸权霸道霸凌行径，扩大本组织“朋友圈”，构建起对话不对抗、结伴不结盟的伙伴关系，壮大了维护世界和平稳定的进步力量.

Translation: We stand guard over international justice, oppose hegemony, despotism and harassment, expand the "circle of friends" of the SCO, form relations of dialogue and partnership that are non-confrontational and non-aligned, which significantly contributes to the growth of progressive forces in defense of peace and stability throughout the world.

Translation comment: In this example, a specific concept with a cultural meaning is the metaphor 朋友圈 péngyouquan circle of friends, which is conveyed through direct translation. In the context, the use of direct translation is quite justified, since in Russian culture there is also a functionally identical concept of a circle of friends as friendly people. In terms of syntactic structure, the word order of the 朋友圈 péngyouquan metaphor corresponds to 朋友 péngyou friend and 圈 quan circle. If we translate the metaphor according to the Chinese word order using direct translation, we get "friend circle". As we can see in the above example, due to the difference in syntactic structures in Chinese and Russian, the word order in the translation is reversed to the original.

However, the use of direct translation in the transmission of specific concepts of Chinese politics may not always be justified. For example:

Original text: 要提升本组织安全合作水平，持续开展联合行动，严厉打击“东突”等“三股势力”、毒品走私、网络和跨国有组织犯罪。

Translation: It is important to increase the level of SCO cooperation in the field of security, regularly conduct joint operations, and mercilessly fight the three forces of evil, including the terrorist forces of East Turkestan, drug trafficking, cybercrime and transnational organized crime.

Translation comment: In the example, the specific concept is the lexeme of the three forces of evil, which include terrorism, extremism, separatism. Considering this expression word by word, it can be found that the word "G", being a counting word specific to the Chinese word, has no semantic equivalent in the Russian language. Separately, we note that there are many similar counting words in the Chinese language (for example, 个 gè in combination 两个人 liǎng gèrén two people or 台 tái in sān tái diànnǎo three computers). Each noun in Chinese is accompanied by a corresponding countable word, while in Russian such words, although they occur, are quite rare. 势力 shìlì in Chinese means power or political, economic or military force. In the example above, it translates as the power of evil / evil force. Here, the translation is performed using the functional replacement of the metaphor "evil force", primarily not as a physical force, but as an illegal action.

The original text: 西安古称长安，是中华文明和中华民族的重要发祥地之一，也是古丝绸之路的东方起点.

Translation: Xi'an in ancient times was called Chang'an, was the birthplace of Chinese civilization and the cradle of the Chinese nation, was considered the eastern starting point of the Great Silk Road.

Translation review: in the example, our attention is drawn to the turnover 中华民族的重要发祥地 zhōnghuá mínzú de zhòngyào fāxiángdì in which expression 发祥地 fāxiángdì dates back to the politician Wei Yuan Qing dynasty, wrote the first volume of "Shenwu JI": 惟盛京稍东之兴京，则肇、兴、景、显四祖及太祖发祥之地 (translation: However, Cincin, located just East of Santina, is the birthplace of four of the ancestors of Zhao Xing, Jing and Xiang) [Wei yuan,1984]. Here, 发祥地 fāxiángdì historically indicates the place of origin of the emperor, and 祥地 xiángdì literally translates as the happy land. Currently, fāxiángdì is understood as the place of origin of the people, culture. The translation contains the word "cradle", which literally means a kind of small bed for rocking a child, and in a figurative sense is the place of origin of something. In translation, although it is impossible to convey the whole deep meaning of the fact that Chang'an city was the "happy" and "imperial land" of the origin of the entire Chinese nation, but the fact that this is the city where the Chinese people originated is conveyed in the concept of "cradle" used by the translator.

3. Translation of the national realities of Chinese political speeches into Russian

The national realities included paroemias, including idioms, phraseological phrases, proverbs and sayings used in the speech of the Chinese leader. A descriptive method is often used to translate them into Russian. Let's look at the examples.

Original text. 中国唐代诗人李白曾有过“长安复携手，再顾重千金”的诗句。

Translation. Li Bo, a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote: "A new meeting and a kind conversation is priceless."

Translation comment: In this example, the President of the People's Republic of China quotes an excerpt from the famous Chinese ancient poem "I answer the historiographer Tsui with poems" by Li Bo 长安安手 cháng'án fù xiéshu "A new meeting and a kind conversation is priceless." The expression in the context of a politician's speech means that the Xi'an summit is designed to continue the millennial traditions of friendship and open up new prospects. The first part of the expression literally translates as "Chang'an joined hands again" (长安 cháng'án Chang'an, 复 fù again, 携手 xiéshǒu joined hands). Using a descriptive translation, the translator does not convey the use of the name of Chang'an City in the original text, translating only the general meaning of this line of the poem. Due to the differences in the ancient poem and the modern Chinese language, for the Russian reader the lines of the ancient Chinese poem may be incomprehensible, and therefore their descriptive translation is the most optimal way to convey the meaning.

Original text: 中国西西有，，，，"只要功夫深，黄黄黄”"

Translation: The people of Shaanxi Province say: Hard work will allow you to extract gold from the ground.

Translation commentary: as follows from the original, there is an agricultural proverb in Shaanxi province, the content of which literally boils down to "only serious efforts (kung fu) are needed, you will get gold out of the ground." In Chinese, 功夫gōng fu usually means martial arts, while there is an equivalent in Russian as kung fu. This word can also mean competence, time and effort spent, etc. In the given example, the concept of 功夫 gōng fu kung fu has no connection with martial arts, since it is known from the context that the proverb functions in the speech of rural residents. And therefore, the translator uses the noun "labor" to convey the meaning of the word, moving slightly away from the original meaning of this word, which is also translated as "skill, skill, skill". The descriptive translation used allows only to a small extent to preserve the equivalence of the content, but in general functionally corresponds to the meaning of the statement.

Original text: 中国国人“烈火见真金”。

Translation: In China they say: "Gold is tested by fire."

Translation comment: to translate a saying, the translator uses a translation using a functional equivalent, since a direct translation of the statement would be unusual for a native speaker of the Russian language and would sound like "raging fire meets real gold", literally "raging fire," jiàn meets, 真金 zhēn jīn real gold. In translation, the adjectives raging and the present are omitted, and the word meets is replaced by "tested". At that time, the biblical functional equivalent of "gold is being tested by fire" may mislead the recipient of the translation and does not correspond to the direct equivalent in Chinese as the jīnzi yào jīngguò huǒ de kǎoyàn. Perhaps here the use of a descriptive translation and the preservation of the original form of the saying would be able to more accurately convey the national and cultural specifics of the original text in translation.

4. Translation of proper names from Chinese political speeches into Russian

Less common are proper names, which include the surnames and names of poets, public and political figures, whose actions and statements are mentioned in the speech of the Chinese leader. Palladium transcription is most often used for their translation. For example, in a speech at the China –Central Asia Summit, the President of the People's Republic of China mentions Zhang Qian (the name of the Chinese traveler and diplomat of antiquity), Li Bai, Li Bo (the famous Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty), as well as toponyms – the names of the cities of Xi'an, Chang'an, East Turkestan (the historical name of the region in Central Asia, which currently coincides with the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China).

Discussion.

As a result of the conducted After analyzing it, it can be found that different translation methods can be used to use different types of non-equivalent vocabulary filled with deep cultural meaning. At the same time, the use of certain translation methods allows to achieve equivalence of the original and translated texts to a greater or lesser extent.

The use of direct translation is possible when transmitting proper names (in the form of transcription), specific concepts, the images of which can be understood by the recipient. In the case of using this translation method, it is possible to achieve high equivalence of content. It is difficult to achieve functional equivalence using direct translation.

Transcription is the main way to convey proper names, especially anthroponyms. It is also worth noting here that China has a multi-thousand-year history, and therefore many great public and political figures, poets, and thinkers are known here from historical names, and therefore adding to the transcription clarification of the occupation of a person by profession would make it possible to make accuracy in translation and here it is more understandable for the Russian recipient.

Russian Russian translation can be translated into Russian using the direct method of word-by-word translation. Specific concepts based on images similar to the Chinese and Russian language worldview can be translated into Russian using the direct method of word-by-word translation. Here it should also be noted some grammatical transformations due to the specifics of the morphological and syntactic norms of the Russian language, which sometimes lead to a rearrangement of components in a combination of words.

The use of descriptive translation makes it possible to achieve functional equivalence, but meaningful equivalence is not preserved. This method is common in translating the equivalent vocabulary of Chinese political speeches into Russian, including when transmitting neologisms and nationally specific realities, idioms, proverbs, sayings.

Russian Russian linguistics Based on the results of the study, it can be recommended to use direct translation when translating specific phenomena (with images similar to Russian linguoculture) and proper names in the political speech of the Chinese leader into Russian, when translating neologisms and realities, as well as specific concepts (with images different from Russian linguoculture) to adhere to the use of a descriptive method. Also, if possible, it is necessary to search for functional equivalents that would preserve the stylistic shade of the original while simultaneously conveying the meaning of the source text.

Separately, it should be noted that during the study, no fragments were found where the equivalent vocabulary from the original texts of political speech would be translated by replacement or deletion. This underlines the fact that every word in the speech of a politician requires translation and categorically cannot be omitted in the translated text. We assume that the method of omitting this vocabulary in the translation text for political speech is absolutely unacceptable and cannot be used in practice. This, in turn, confirms our hypothesis that there is no equivalent vocabulary that cannot be translated. Absolutely all the vocabulary of the original text of a political speech can be translated into Russian using two main translation methods – direct and descriptive, while direct translation allows you to achieve equivalence of content, while descriptive translation serves to achieve functional equivalence.

Conclusion.

Thus, the peculiarities of political discourse determine its saturation with culturally significant information, which often has national specifics and is called equivalent in the aspect of translation, since there are no lexicographically fixed equivalents of this vocabulary in the translation language or the components of the meanings of the same word are not identical. Such asymmetry poses a difficult task for the translator, who must translate every word from the speech of the Chinese political leader into Russian.

The conducted research has revealed that any non-equivalent vocabulary of political speech, whether it be neologisms, names of national realities, parodies and idioms, and so on, can be translated into Russian. At the same time, the choice of the vocabulary translation method determines the possible degree of equivalence or accuracy of correspondence of the original text to its translation. When translating political speech, the translator should pay special attention to the choice of the method of translation of non-equivalent national-specific vocabulary that creates cultural difficulties. Choosing the optimal method will make the translation better, which is definitely important for effective political interaction between China and Russia.