Cognitive analysis of renderin g proper names in the English-Ukrainian translations of the poem «Hunting of the Snark» by Lewis Carroll
Abstract
The article presents the results of a cognitive analysis of English-Ukrainian translations of the antonomastic proper names from L. Carroll’s poem «Hunting of the Snark» with the apparatus of the conceptual blending theory. The conceptual blending theory explains cognitive mechanisms which underpin a communicatively successful translation of antonomastic proper names. Such proper names activate in the mind of an interpreter two input mental spaces containing semantically incongruent structure, representing associations a proper name has in the world of reality and in the fantastic world of L. Carroll’s poem. Projection of the structure from the input spaces in the blend and realising this incongruity while unpacking the blend sanctions recognition of the humorous stimulus. In the process of backward projection to the input mental spaces this incongruity is reassessed against the background of encyclopaedic knowledge and broader linguistic context and gives rise to various interpretations. A communicatively successful translation of antonomastic proper names must render semantic incongruity of the original which open the possibility of such interpretations. Realisation of this possibility depends on the cognitive and emotional experience of the reader. Applying the instrumental notions of the conceptual blending theory in translation analysis builds the algorithm of analysis to avoid subjectivity.
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References
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