Lesya Ukrainka's Poetry in Chinese Translation: Psycholinguistic Aspect

Abstract

Aim of the study. On the basis of the theories of dynamic translation, determine the degree of correspondence between the psycho-cognitive reactions of Ukrainian and Chinese recipients to the original and translated texts of the poetry-cycle of Lesya Ukrainian “Tears-Pearls”. Research methods. Psycholinguistic methods of empirical research are basic in this article: Osgood’s semantic differential method, content analysis and free associative experiment, other linguistic methods (cognitive and semantic analysis) and general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, description and classification of linguistic facts) are also used. Results. On the basis of previous theoretical studies, the essential characteristics of translation as a psycho-cognitive process have been established. It is argued that the degree of equivalence of the translation of a literary text is determined not only by the work of the translator, but also by the emotional-evaluative reaction of the target recipients. An important thesis is that the perception of the text (original and translation) is influenced by the interhemispheric asymmetry of the mental activity of speakers of different languages (Clark & Paivio, 1991; Fenollosa, 1968; Zasyekin, 2010). Empirical research has shown that the “right-brain” imaginative thinking of the Chinese partly determines the degree of equivalence of their perception of the translation of Lesya Ukrainka’s poetry. The semantic profiles showed a fairly neutral emotional and evaluative reaction of the Chinese to translation incentives, which, in our opinion, was conditioned by the ethnonational specifics of the original text and the difference in poetic traditions. Despite the preservation of the thematic categories of the original in translation, in the new (Chinese) semantic space, these categories partly acquired other sociocultural meanings, which significantly influenced the equivalence of the translation. Conclusions. The degree of conformity of the psycho-cognitive reaction of target recipients to the original and the translation is determined not only by the type of mental activity of speakers of different languages, but also by a number of extralinguistic factors that determine the formation and state of activity of the verbal-associative network of representatives of different nations.