Analysis of Idiom Translation Strategies from English into Russian

Abstract

The difficulties that the translator meets while translating English idioms into Russian language will be analyzed in this article. The aim of the article is to present the problem of equivalence in the target language, to look through main translation strategies used in translation of idioms and examine the choice of translation strategies used by V. Kotkina. The theoretical part is mostly based on Shansky’s, Vinogradov’s, Senina’s and Recker’s theories. There is a short review of English idioms, which were discussed in the previous article, based on Baker’s, Toury’s and other English scholars’ theories. The analytical part is based on A. Christie’s novel 4.50 from Paddington and its translation made by V. Kotkina from English into Russian. Analysis provides a general overview of the most prevailing translation solutions used in the translation from English into Russian. The research has shown that even though there are a number of exact equivalents in the target language, still there is a lack of equivalent idioms in Russian language. In addition, the most prevailing translation strategy turned out to be translation by description according to Vinogradov, also there were examples of translation by applying exact equivalents and partial equivalents in the target language.