Translation Of Phraseological Units Related To Animals From English Into Azerbaijani (Jack London’s White Fang)

Abstract

The present study is based on the analysis of the translation of animal-related idiomatic expressions between English and Azerbaijani, focusing on Jack London’s novel White Fang. The research aims to identify the similarities and differences of these idiomatic expressions from a semantic perspective. Idiomatic expressions are fixed combinations of words that carry figurative meanings, which are not easily deducible from the meanings of their individual components. Animal-related idioms constitute a significant part of the vocabulary in both English and Azerbaijani languages. As research material, animal-related idiomatic expressions from White Fang were selected, and their translations into Azerbaijani were analyzed comparatively using various online resources and relevant phraseological dictionaries. The first stage of the study presents general theoretical information about idiomatic expressions, the definition of phraseology, the influence of culture on idiomatic expressions, and the classification of animal-related idioms. In the subsequent stage, selected idiomatic expressions from White Fang are analyzed in terms of their translation examples. This analysis is also divided into two sub-stages: the first sub-stage investigates the semantic equivalence and attitudinal features between the original expressions and their translations; the second sub-stage semantically examines the idiomatic expressions according to whether their translations are fully equivalent, partially equivalent, or completely different. Additionally, the degree of transparency among the component elements of the idioms is assessed to determine the type of each expression. The findings of the study reveal the role of cross-cultural similarities and differences in the translation of idiomatic expressions, as well as the impact of idiomatic equivalence on the quality of translation.