Linguocultural Adaptation of Abbreviations, Pseudo-Internationalisms and Political Metaphors in English-to-Russian Film Discourse Translation

The article explores the linguocultural adaptation of socio-political vocabulary in cinematic discourse, focusing specifically on the translation of abbreviations, pseudo-international words, and political metaphors from English into Russian. The study analyzes the television series “House of Cards” (2013) and “The Diplomat” (2023), examining both the original English versions and their Russian translations. Through semantic and comparative analysis of the original film texts alongside their translations, as well as contextual analysis of selected cinematic discourse fragments, the article seeks to draw conclusions about the balance between domestication and foreignization strategies in the translation of socio-political vocabulary. It is important to note that the translator’s choice of strategy is often influenced by the aim to achieve a communicative effect in the translation that mirrors the pragmatic impact felt by viewers of the original version. In addition to examining domestication and foreignization strategies as well as a «golden mean» strategy in translating socio-political vocabulary, the article presents original translation variants that combine various adaptation strategies to achieve a specific pragmatic effect. Furthermore, it identifies and systematizes approaches to the linguocultural adaptation of translated lexical units, proposing corresponding equivalents in the Russian language and highlighting several compensatory techniques tailored to the characteristics of the target audience. The necessity for adequate linguocultural adaptation of the original film text is underscored, as it ensures that audiences accurately perceive the film’s messages; at the same time, the pragmatic potential of the original work is to be preserved. The findings indicate that due to the unique characteristics of film discourse (such as time limit on delivering dialogues) domestication emerges as the predominant strategy when translating abbreviations, political metaphors, and pseudo-international vocabulary. Additionally, contextual clues, visual elements, and viewers’ background knowledge are frequently employed in translating socio-political vocabulary in cinematic discourse. Although this study is limited to two series, it seeks to define universal and film text-specific criteria for translational adequacy, systematize challenges in translating socio-political vocabulary, and identify the most effective techniques for adapting socio-political vocabulary in film text.

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