RENDERING OF EUPHEMISMS IN UKRAINIAN TRANSLATIONS OF W. SHAKESPEARE’S “OTHELLO. THE MOOR OF VENICE” (BY V. SCHERBANENKO, P. KULISH, I. STESHENKO)

Abstract

The article presents an insight into Ukrainian versions of Shakespeare’s “Othello. The Moor of Venice” translated by V. Scherbanenko, P. Kulish, I. Steshenko that were analyzed through the prism of semiotics. Semiotics is considered as an effective tool for analyzing texts, in particular dramatic. The relevance of semiotics for drama translation can be explained by the fact that drama as a genre combines at least two different codes – literary and theatrical. Thus, its ability to discern shades of meanings of signs and codes in different (sometimes unexpected) contexts gives impetus to new interpretations of conventional linguistic units, and, consequently, to the emergence of new translations. The analysis of the tragedy revealed W. Shakespeare’s exceptional focus on the use of ambiguous language units. Contrasts of meanings of such units are pragmatically exploited by the playwright to convey special messages to the recipient. In semiotic terms, ambiguous language units to which the author attaches great importance are referred to as “semiotically charged”. Thus, it was determined that semiotically charged units are actualized in the tragedy in a form of euphemistic substitutions or euphemisms. The comparative analysis of translations of euphemistic substitutions includes an insight into translation strategies implemented by translators (V. Scherbanenko, P. Kulish, I. Steshenko) to render semiotically charged units in the target language. Finally, it can be inferred from the article that while rendering euphemisms, translators resort to such strategies as compensation, semantic development of the original euphemism in the target language, omission, substitution.