Distinctive features of horizontal and vertical symbols in fairy tales and specificity of their reproduction in translation

Abstract

Orientation in space plays an essential role for a human being in the view of his / her life. Beginning from the ancient times, people explored space through horizontal and later vertical dimensions. This led to symbolization of objects that surrounded them. Complete reflection of symbols of space, in particular, horizontal and vertical symbols, is concisely traced in the fairy tale genre. Being one of the archaic forms of folklore, the fairy tale co-opted various elements of mythological beliefs of primitive people, their cognition and way of life, and later was supplemented by individual idiosyncratic elements of the world view. Symbols of both dimensions actualize primary (physical) and secondary meanings (which are also signified by evaluative, moral and ethical, as well as ecclesiastically religious meanings). The most frequently used vertical and horizontal symbols in the fairy tales are those actualized according to the “right” / “left” and “top” / “bottom” criteria. Despite relatively extended research in the field of fairy tale symbols, there are few studies which deal with the issue of conveying vertical and horizontal symbols into the target language. The aim of the article is to highlight the ways of rendering vertical and horizontal symbols taken from English and Ukrainian fairy tales, and to assess adequacy of their reproduction in the target language. According to the results of the research, it can be concluded that due to its universal character, the symbols of vertical and horizontal space are easily rendered into the receiving cultures. However, adequate reproduction of vertical and horizontal symbols requires identification of their role in a certain fairy tale text, and, consequently, the importance of their rendering into the target language.