Rendering a teenager’s language portrait as a translation problem

This article explores a linguistic repertoire that shapes the language portrait of a teenager in contemporary English fiction, particularly in the context of its translation into Russian. Through the analysis of Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s novel “Julia and the Shark,” featuring a teenager as the main character, key linguistic markers of a fictionalized teenager’s speech were identified and studied as reflecting their linguistic worldview: conversational and expressive tone, linguistic creativity, metaphorical inner speech, and detailed descriptions of the surroundings. The original text was compared with its Russian translation by N. Kaloshina, revealing that the latter, being targeted at an older audience, additionally emphasizes the specifics of the main character’s language. Therefore, in order to render the speech of a teenager aged 12 years and above, it is important to have a proper understanding of the psycholinguistic features of this age group. While determining the extent to which the language portrait of a teenage character should be adapted, the Russian translator is guided by the image of a teenager in the contemporary Russian linguocultural environment.