Pragmatic Equivalence in Literary Translation

Abstract

The present paper addresses the issue of pragmatic equivalence in literary translation, which is considered to be one of the most important aspects of linguistic uniformity between the source and target texts. Pragmatic equivalence of translation is defined as the conformity of the translator’s ‘duplication’ of the content with the author’s communicative intent or the literary objective. The cross-cultural pragmatic analysis of translation equivalence carried out in the paper focuses on the interpretations of the verbal behavior of the heroes while performing speech acts. For the purpose of analysis the novel by R. Bradbury “Dandelion Wine” and its Armenian and Russian translations are chosen. The research shows that the interpretative words nominating the heroes’ verbal behavior, namely, the verbs of speaking, are culture sensitive. Therefore, in some cases the translator may diverge from the source text in order to sound authentic in the target language. The comparative analysis of the samples served as a mediated translation approach, revealing certain linguistic and culture-specific points at issue in the translation process.