THE PROBLEM OF “TRANSLATABILITY – UNTRANSLATABILITY” AT THE CURRENT STATE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSLATION STUDIES: WAYS OF SOLUTION

Abstract

The article discusses the current state of “translatability – untranslatability” problem. The untranslatability phenomenon is recognized by most scientists, but the ontological aspect of the problem is substituted by the practical necessity of source text into target text transference. The authors of the article propose an academic approach to the “untranslatability” concept and highlight the criteria for its manifestation as the ontological nature of the world languages. The concept of “proper translation” is defined and correlated with the concept of “regular translation correspondences”. The term “quasi-translation” is introduced as hermeneutic-manipulative activity on assimilating the translation to the original. It is noted that untranslatability extent for different text types and their genres is also different. Philosophical, religious, literary and other text types are especially difficult for translation. The problem of cognitive dissonance underling academic untranslatability is proposed to be solved by means of the hermeneutic translation paradigm based on the hermeneutic-translation methodological standard. Theoretical provisions of the work are illustrated with relevant examples.