Culture-Specific Information Encoded in Lacunae : The Author ’ s and Translators ’ Strategies of Representation

The present study examines the representation of Ukrainian culture-specific information in Marina Lewycka’s novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. Such information is encoded in lacunae and the author’s or translator’s task is to decode it using relevant translation strategies. The latter ones have been identified: 1) the strategy of domestication (equivalent or near equivalent translation); 2) the combination of domestication and foreignization (transliteration together with a near equivalent and descriptive translation, calque translation accompanied by descriptive translation); and 3) the strategy of foreignization (borrowing, transliteration alone or combined with calque translation). Graphic means such as inverted commas and italics are used to mark information as culture-specific for the reader. Ukrainian and Russian translations of the novel demonstrate that lacunae are rendered mostly with the help of the corresponding Ukrainian and Russian lexemes. It has been revealed that archaic forms can be substituted by modern ones, and both native and borrowed elements are employed. This paper also demonstrates that the procedures and means used in rendering Ukrainian culture-specific information in the source English and target Ukrainian and Russian texts aim at finding balance between the strategies of domestication and foreignization used in the presentation of culture-specific information.

The purpose of this research is to identify and describe techniques within the strategies of domestication, foreignization and their combination used for rendering Ukrainian culture-specific information in Lewycka's novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and in its target Ukrainian and Russian texts.
Culture-specific lexical units have been the object of investigation in cultural linguistics, country study (Vlakhov & Florin, 1980), psycholinguistics (Lyubymova et al., 2018), ethnolinguistics (Markovina, 2004), and translation studies (Newmark, 1988;Nida, 2003). It is argued that the term lacuna is employed by the majority of scholars, when it comes to differences in languages and cultures (Dun, 2007). Lacunae, culture gaps, i.e., items of language, text or culture, are partially or completely unintelligible in another culture (Lyubymova et al., 2018). They are subdivided into lexical, grammatical, functional, relative or absolute, and do not have equivalents in other languages or cultures (Markovina, 2004;Kazazi 2014). Cultural lacunae, in their turn, are viewed as extralingual problems of intercultural communication (Markovina, 2004). These are words and word combinations, which reflect names of objects, notions, phenomena, everyday objects, characteristic features of geographical position, culture, social and historical features of the ethnic or cultural community. They encode an important part of information about the community naming historical events, objects of material culture, institutions, or prominent people absent in other societies (Slavova & Borysenko, 2018). In translation studies, lacunae are defined as cultural words, i.e., lexemes that are associated with a definite language and present difficulty in translation. They are subdivided into categories reflecting such spheres of life as ecology, material and social culture, organizations, traditions, customs, activities, procedures, concepts, habits and gestures (Newmark, 1988). In Soviet and post-Soviet tradition, lacunae are believed to have a cultural component which unites a complex of associations arising in the consciousness of the native speaker due to the image of the word. Such lexical items name objects and phenomena, characteristic of one culture and absent from the rest (Yemelyanova, 2010). Consequently, words with cultural components reflect the unique character of a certain culture.
Another name for lacunae is реалія/реалия/realia [Eng. culture-specific item], which is quite popular in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, and signifies both unique phenomena that are present in the life of just one community (Vlakhov & Florin, 1980) and the words which name such phenomena. In contemporary Ukrainian translation studies, реалії [Eng. culture-specific items] are defined as mono or poly lexemes which contain in their meaning a complex of ethnic and cultural information alien to other languages and cultures (Zorivchak, 1989). These are lexemes without complete or partial equivalents in other languages (Shveytser, 1988) that are rendered in the target language with the help of special means (Zorivchak, 1989).

Theoretical Background
This, in its turn, makes the process of understanding lacunae outside a definite community problematic, and leads to various kinds of distortions, when they are rendered in translation. Translating them consists of reproducing the most suitable natural equivalent of the source language message, both in terms of meaning and in terms of style (Nida, 1964;Nida & Taber, 1969). The task of the translator or the author writing for a foreign community is to define and interpret culture-specific information from the standpoint of the target culture and act as an intercultural mediator (Akbari & Darani, 2017).
Predominantly, two basic strategies, domestication, which takes into account the needs of the target audience, and foreignization, which preserves the foreign character of the culture-specific information (Eco, 2001), determine the way of rendering a given culture-specific element. Moreover, it is the context that influences the choice of this or that technique and lexical means in rendering lacunae (Ramiere, 2006). The techniques employed by the writer dealing with the representation of foreign culture-specific things, events, phenomena in the source text and by the translator, while rendering those lacunae in the target texts, are determined by the necessity to introduce the unique nature of Ukrainian culture to the readers of the source and target texts.
This research is based on the assumption that, in order to present specific phenomena of one culture to the readers of another culture, the writer uses the same techniques in rendering cultural lacunae as translators do. The same can be said about the ways of introducing historical phenomena, which are of no relevance at present.
The text of the novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Lewycka and its translations into Ukrainian and Russian serve as material of our research. There are several reasons for choosing this novel for the analysis: The above mentioned research principles determine the methods applied in the study for the analysis of the lacunae. During the first stage, sampling was made up based on the English text of the novel. Then we applied a knowledge-based approach, meaning that each culture-specific item was interpreted on the basis of relevant English and Ukrainian dictionaries. At this stage, we clarified the meaning of the lexemes under study, and stated whether there were any equivalents in the English language to the notions designated by a certain lacuna. English dictionaries were employed to study the lexicographic description of the words Lewycka uses in order to clarify Ukrainian culture-specific information. At this stage, componential analysis was applied to the material as it was helpful to study lacunae "first in context, then in isolation, as though it were a dictionary or an encyclopedia entry only and finally in context again" (Newmark, 1988, p. 17).
Further research involved the use of textual and contextual analyses. The former allowed us to focus on the structure of the fragments in which the lacunae were found in the source text and in the target texts. The latter was used in order to characterise the lacunae in their historical, cultural and social contexts. Translational analysis was used while working on Ukrainian and Russian translations. It enabled us to specify the differences in the presentation of Ukrainian stereotypes in the source text and in the target texts. It also allowed us to single out techniques employed by the author and by the translators in order to make the lacuna understandable for a target reader, and specify transformations used in the translations of the novel in question.

Methodology
On the basis of the results obtained, it can be concluded that, while introducing lacunae, Lewycka resorts to the strategies of domestication and foreignization, involving a number of techniques: The first group of techniques presents equivalent or near equivalent translations within the framework of the strategy of domestication. The first subtechnique introduces equivalent translation used to name a phenomenon which played a very important role in the political history of Soviet Ukraine before WWII:

Results and Discussion
The girl, Ludmilla, was pretty enough, said Baba Nadia, but rather wild; and it was unfortunate, to say the least, that her father was an 'enemy of the people' (Lewycka, 2017, p. 68).
In the above example, the author uses a specific phrase enemy of the people. Although it originated as a term of Roman law in Ancient Rome in the form of hostis publicus (public enemy), it became popular after the October revolution of 1917 in Soviet Russia among the leaders of the revolution, who used the notion to designate their political opponents. Later, in the years of Stalin's terror, it labelled those who were not loyal to the Soviet power (Chernyavskaya et al., 2007). Of late, the term has been associated with President Trump's accusation of the press for making fake news (Kalb, 2018).
The Russian variant presents the phrase in inverted commas, imitating the English original text, which is quite unusual for the term that was in use in that historical epoch in Soviet Russia: Людмила -красивая девушка, говаривала баба Надя, но с нею нет сладу; и, к превеликому сожалению, ее отец оказался «врагом народа» [Lyudmila is a pretty girl, baba Nadya used to say, but she is difficult to deal with; and, unfortunately, her father has turned out to be 'an enemy of the people'] (Lewycka, 2006, p. 81).
The use of the English equivalent for the term helps the author to preserve the atmosphere of that historical epoch. The translations also preserve the term, yet, somehow, the Russian variant introduces inverted commas, which are usually used to mark the presence of an alien notion in the text. This, in its turn, may be misleading for the target reader, who might misinterpret the meaning of the phrase.
The second subtechnique is also based on the equivalent translation and the substitution of a historical Ukrainian lexeme by a historical British one, which is better known in Great Britain and is easier to be decoded by the target reader: The Ocheretkos were not gentry but wealthy peasants from the Poltava region of Ukraine… (Lewycka, 2017, p. 50).
When the social status of the narrator's family is described, it is specified that they did not belong to the gentry. The dictionary articles give three groups of definitions of the lexeme gentry: • Representatives of the aristocracy: aristocracy (Collins Free Online Dictionary).
• Those who belong to a high social class without naming its precise layer: persons of high birth or social standing (Collins Free Online Dictionary), people who belong to a high social class (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English); • Those who are inferior to aristocracy: Br. persons just below the nobility in social rank (Collins Free Online Dictionary).
As the lexeme gentry is also used to describe those of a privileged position, who, nevertheless, do not belong to the nobility, there arises the question of its proper interpretation in the translations. When it comes to Ukraine, before the October revolution of 1917, the lexemes naming those who belonged to the privileged class of landowners are:  (Yefremova, 2000). However, since the word gentry is polysemantic, it is not clear which meaning should be given priority in translation.
The third subtechnique presents the use of a near equivalent within the sentence analysed above in the phrase the Poltava region. The lexeme region is defined in the dictionary as an administrative area, division, or district (Dictionary by Merriam Webster) and is rendered in the translations with the help of Ukrainian and Russian correspondences.
Ukrainian губернія has the following meanings: Russian губерния is defined in the dictionary in the following way: On the basis of a semantic analysis of the lexemes that represent similar phenomena in English and Ukrainian, the author and the translators take into account the historical and social context, thus applying the strategy of domestication, while introducing the lacunae. The second group of techniques makes it possible to implement the combination of the strategies of domestication and foreignization, which aims at finding a balance between the process of preserving the foreign character of the described phenomena and making them clear to the reader.
The first subtechnique comprises a combination of transliteration with a near equivalent which is given in brackets, e.g., khutor (settlement): …who lived on the edge of a khutor (settlement) and farmed some thirty hectares on the eastern bank of the Sula River (Lewycka, 2017, p. 50).
The author uses the graphic means of italics to introduce the transliterated word khutor, adds the lexeme settlement, which serves as an approximate English equivalent, although it does not fully correspond to the very specific notion of khutor.  (Yevgenyev, 1999).
The second subtechnique lies in using calque translations together with the descriptive translation that makes it easier for the target reader to perceive the meaning of the phenomenon:

After the revolution of 1917, Ocheretko joined neither the Russian White Army nor the Soviet Red Army (Lewycka, 2017, p. 51).
To make a lacuna clearer to the target audience, the author adds the specifying word, which allows for an appropriate interpretation and decodification of the phenomenon. In this case, the author explains the White Army and the Red Army by adding the adjectives Russian (which is understood as anti-Soviet) and Soviet which should clarify the ideological position of the armies during the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922.
Somehow, it is not clear whether the reader can easily understand the notions. It should be noted that Encyclopaedia Britannica has an article devoted to the Red Army, whereas the White Army is just mentioned in several articles (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The latter term is unlikely to be well-known in the English-speaking countries, in particular in Britain.  (Yefremova, 2000). Clearly, these definitions emphasise the ethnic character of the dish. Nevertheless, in the Russian translation, the dish галушки is associated with the European dish клецки (from German Knödel). The word клецки is borrowed from German and is defined in the dictionary as кусочки теста (из манной крупы, пшеничной муки), сваренные в бульоне, молоке [pieces of dough (from semolina, wheat flour) cooked in broth, milk] (Ozhegov & Shvedova, 1995, p. 271). Thus, the translator uses two borrowed words, one Ukrainian and the other German, in order to help the target reader understand the lacuna better. In other words, the Ukrainian word галушки needs explanation in English and in the Russian target text, whereas it is clear to the Ukrainian reader without additional information. The third group of techniques allows implementing the strategy of foreignization, which aims at preserving the atmosphere of a foreign culture unknown to the target reader.
The first subtechnique is based on the usage of the word which was borrowed into English from Russian, and defines a typically Eastern Slavic phenomenon: The Mayevskyjs were part of the small Ukrainian intelligentsia (Lewycka, 2017, p. 68).
The English lexeme intelligentsia is an early 20th century Russian borrowing, referring to intellectuals who form an artistic, social, or political vanguard or elite, which has been known since 1905 (Dictionary by Merriam-Webster).
In the Ukrainian and Russian translations, the etymological correspondences інтелігенція / интеллигенция [intelligentsia] are used, which is explained by the popularity of the word intelligentsia in the former USSR, when it comes to the people involved in intellectual labour: Маєвські належали до нечисленної української інтелігенції (Lewycka, 2013, p. 61).
The Dictionary of the Russian language defines интеллигенция as люди умственного труда, обладающие образованием и специальными знаниями в различных областях науки, техники и культуры; общественный слой людей, занимающихся таким трудом [people of mental labor with education and special knowledge in various fields of science, technology and culture; the social stratum of people engaged in such work] (Ozhegov & Shvedova, 1995, p. 244). The concept was introduced into the academic world in the 1860s, yet somehow it did not enjoy popularity outside the Russian empire and the USSR (Shynkaruk et al., 2002).
The second subtechnique is based on transliteration alone, and provides no explanation of the lacuna which may cause difficulty in the perception of, for instance, an outdated form of patronymic. In the source text, we come across the version which was used before 1917 and is no longer in use now. This is explained by the fact that the narrator's mother was born before 1917:  (Lewycka, 2017, p. 50).
The problem is that this kind of patronymic (Mitrofanova) coincides with a feminine form of the Russian surnames and might mislead the reader who knows little about the Ukrainian culture before 1917, although the second sentence, where the father's name is given (Mitrofan Ocheretko), can be looked upon as a clue.
Both the Ukrainian and Russian translations ignore the old form of the patronymic and use a contemporary version instead (Митрофанівна / Митрофановна). This can be explained because this historical form Митрофанова might be misleading for the contemporary reader: The absence of explanation of the historical Ukrainian phenomenon alien to the English culture, misleads presumably the target reader. Nevertheless, as the term is not in use now, Ukrainian and Russian translators substituted it by a contemporary variant.
The third subtechnique is based on the transliteration of Ukrainian words in the character's speech, combined with a calque translation in the author's words: "Holubchik!" Little pigeon. My father glows (Lewycka, 2017, p. 82).
The calque my little pigeon is used by the author in the source text in order to make the Ukrainian lexeme understandable, but the Ukrainian and Russian translations are void of it as it is excessive in both target texts.

Conclusion
Representation of Ukrainian culture-specific information regarding Ukrainian historical and contemporary lacunae which reflect phenomena connected with political life, society, administrative division, everyday life, and etiquette in the English source text and its rendering in Ukrainian and Russian target texts have been highlighted. When describing the Ukrainian lifestyle, the author of the English source text employs two major translation strategies: that of domestication, which makes the phenomena introduced by the author clear to the English-language reader and that of foreignization, which allows the writer to preserve a flavour of Ukrainian culture in the source text. The strategy of domestication is implemented through equivalent or near equivalent translations, whereas the strategy of foreignization is revealed through a Russian borrowing defining a typically Eastern Slavic phenomenon, transliteration, a combination of transliteration, and calque translations. However, in trying to find a balance between these two strategies, the author combines them, employs transliteration as a means of foreignization supplemented with a near equivalent, descriptive translation within the strategy of domestication, and uses calque translation within the framework of foreignization together with descriptive translation as a means of domestication. This enables the writer to preserve the unique character of the Ukrainian culture and make the lacuna comprehensible for the English-language reader. In the Russian translation, a borrowing from German, combined with the explanation of the phenomenon, is used to render the name of a typically Ukrainian dish. Moreover, the Russian translation shows similarity with the English source text regarding the usage of inverted commas and italics when lacunae are presented.