Translating idioms: example of English and Russian

Written by Daria A.

Why is translating idioms a challenge?

All the languages in the world vary in aspects from grammar and sentence structure to vocabulary and pronunciation. These changes are related to the fact that people from different countries have different ideologies about the world, which influences their way to express meanings. According to their definition, idioms are linguistic expressions distinctive to a certain language and culture. So, cultural differences are in some way responsible for the fact that idioms are specific for every language.

We can say that the translator in this case provides the key to understanding idioms by the foreign reader. That’s why it’s really important for them to recognize such expressions in order to offer a good and relevant translation rather than a literal one. It’s also necessary to find an equivalent which won’t have a different tone and will maintain the message of the original text.

The place of idioms in English

Speaking about English idioms' characteristics, it is important to know that the structure of the language itself has a great impact on the formation of complex idiomatic words and expressions. The majority of word forms in English don’t have affixes, so some of them can easily acquire morpheme features or even become morphemes. This is the reason why so many idiomatic English expressions become lexicalized. So that’s why there is an extremely thin line between idiomatic expressions and complex words in English. 

 

Let’s see what features of the English language structure contribute to complex words creation. 

1.    Grammatical conversion

This means using nouns in the function which is usually the role of other parts of speech. Thus, nouns are often used as attributes in a sentence instead of adjectives. For example: wallflower, joy-walker, bush-telegraph.

Nouns also often serve as simple predicates so they literally become verbs. For instance: to fingerprint, to headhunt. 

2.     Adding word-building morphemes to separate word combinations and expressions, thus creating new words

Here we can take adding the suffix – er as an example: beetle-crusher, firewatcher. The suffix – er is added to the whole word combination and not only to the second word.

3.     Word-building based on imperative mood 

These are expressions like forget-me-not, cash-and-carry etc.

4.     Word-building based on phrases

Free-for-all, good-for-nothing, lily-of-the-valley etc.

5.     Reduplication of the word base

This is characteristic of slang and colloquial expressions. For instance, walkie-talkie, dilly-dallying, riff-raff etc.

Thus, it may be noted that as a result of its rather poor morphological system, the English language seeks to put different idiomatical units together in order to form whole idiomatical units.

Translation of English idioms into Russian

There have been several real cases of misinterpretation which are rather comical. For instance, the sentence “He set a great store by the street he lived in.” may be understood differently. If we translate it literally, in Russian we will have “Он открыл большой магазин на той улице, где жил. - On otkryil bolshoy magazin na toy ulitse, gde zhil.” This means that he decided to open a shop by the street he lived in. However, if we think about the idiomatic character of the first part of this sentence, we will rather translate it like that: “Он придавал большое значение тому, на какой улице он жил. - On pridaval bolshoe znachenie tomu, na kakoy ulitse on zhil.”, which literally means that he believed that choosing well the street where he lived was important. This example confirms that it is crucial to analyze thoroughly while choosing the way of translation. 

To understand the difficulty of translating an idiom from English into Russian, we will focus on 3 main aspects:

1.     Perfect match

Obviously, not all idioms are difficult to translate. There are some in English that have exactly the same meaning and form in Russian. Here are some examples:

-       keep one’s fingers crossed – скрещивать пальцы (skreŝivatʹ palʹcy)

-       take the bull by the horns - взять быка за рога (vzjatʹ byka za roga)

2.     50/50

This aspect can provoke translation difficulties as in this case the idioms have the same meaning, but may have lexical and grammatical differences. For instance:

-       birds of a feather flock together - рыбак рыбака видит издалека (rybak rybaka vidit izdaleka)

If we translate the Russian variant literally, it will be: A fisherman sees another fisherman from afar. 

3.     No equivalent 

The third aspect is about idioms which don’t have any equivalent in the Russian language. This is mostly caused by the fact that the realities described in an English idiom don’t exist in Russian society. In order to translate such idioms, we have to use either loan translation or descriptive translation. The list of such idioms is rather long: once in a blue moon, clear the air, a little white lie, in black and white etc. 

To summarize, linguists have been working in this field for many years, but there are still a lot of idioms that haven’t found their place in Russian. Other subjects related to the transfer of all the features expressed by an idiom from one language to another are still to be considered.

Sources :

1.     http://odiplom.ru/lab/osobennosti-perevoda-angliiskih-idiom-na-russkii-yazyk.html

2.     https://sibac.info/studconf/hum/liv/78736