CONVEYING SOCIOLEСTS IN THE TRANSLATION OF POPULAR SCIENCE TEXTS

The article focuses on the problem of translating sociolects in popular science texts on the example of the book by Kate Fox “Watching the English”. The research is based on the comparative analysis of the source and target texts employing descriptive, comparative, and quantitative methods. The analysis of socially-biased lexicon in the translation of K. Fox’s book demonstrates the translator’s use of the complex means aimed at expressing sociolect peculiarities of the original text, on the one hand, and achieving adequate communicative effect on recipients, on the other hand. The choice of the strategy for translating sociolects depends on their functions in the original text, the context, and the author’s individual style. Combined strategies are employed more often, particular those involving such means as replacement by variant or contextual equivalent and transplantation (direct replacement). It is shown that a less frequently used means of translating sociolects is their replacement by contextual equivalents (provided they have equivalents with similar cultural and social connotations), and also the use of adapted transcoding (primarily used to translate sociolects-onyms). To reflect pronunciation peculiarities, a combined strategy is most frequently employed, that is the combination of transplantation of phonetic sociolects with other means, such as translation with the help of analogies or descriptive translation. It is emphasized that complex approach to the translation of sociolinguistic phenomena ensures balance between accurate rendering of the meaning of the sociolects which are used as examples in the popular science text, and the adaptation of the text to the target audience as well as showing the author’s style and avoiding standardization of the text.