Abstract
Difficult words to translate into other languages (on the material of the Azerbaijani, English and Russian languages)
Language and culture are closely related to each other and one can’t exist without the other. Culture influences on language and it’s impossible to understand language without culture. In translation process it’s mentioned about at least two languages: source language (SL) and target language (TL). We learn the culture, history, interests and beliefs of a certain nation with the help of texts (mainly literary texts). There may be untranslatable parts of text, but generally speaking, all texts can be translated. Words which act as an obstacle in translation process are called variously by different linguists: “white spots” on the semantic map of a language, non-equivalent lexical unit, reality, emptiness, gap etc. In literary translation we come across realities, i.e. words and expressions, which represent customs and traditions, beliefs, lifestyle, cultural-historical development of a concrete ethnos. Realities are included in non-equivalent lexical units. They cause the formation of “vacancy” or “gap”, i.e. lacuna in TL. Lacunas appear only in comparison of two languages and cultures. Lacunar unit and lacuna form the category of lacunarity. Lacunas were first introduced by Canadian linguists J.P.Vine and J.Darbelne. Generally speaking, lacunas, the typology of lacunas and methods of their elimination were best researched by Russian scholars and well-known linguists such as G. Bykova, V. Gak, I. Markovina, A. Sorokin, I. Sternin, V. L. Muravyov, O. A. Ogurtsova, Z. D. Popova and others. There are several classifications of lacunas in linguistics. According to well-known Russian linguist V.L.Muravyov’s classification, there are linguistic and ethnographic lacunas in linguistics. At the same time, linguistic lacunas are subdivided into absolute, relative, vector and stylistical lacunas.
Keywords
language, culture, realia, lacuna, motivated and non-motivated lacuna.