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4.2. Culture-specific vocabulary
The problem of non-equivalent lexicon attracted and continues attracting attention of many researchers, among them are P.A. Newmark (1998), S. Vlakhov, S. Florin (2006), A. Nida (1975), L.S. Barkhudarov (1975), Ya.I. Retsker. (2005), E.M. Vereschagin, V.G. Kostomarov (1983), G. Salomov (1978), A.O. Ivanov (2006), A.V. Fedorov (2002), G.V. Chernov (1958, 2009), V.N. Komissarov (2005), A.D. Schweitzer (1988), etc.
It should be mentioned that there is a variety of terms and notions under the term “non-equivalent lexicon”:
culture-specific items – abstract or concrete words that may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or even a type of food (Baker, 1992, p.21); items that do not exist in the target language or have different functions and/or connotations (Aixelá 1996, p. 58).
non-equivalent lexics – words that do not exist and have no equivalent in other languages (Чернов, 1958; Фёдоров, 2002);
realia – words denoting objects, concepts and situations that do not exist in the practical experience of people who speak a different language (Влахов, Флорин, 2006; Бархударов, 1975);
cultureme – a cultural phenomenon that exists in culture X but does not exist in culture Y (Nord, 1997, p.34).
culture-specific references – words relating to different aspects of everyday life such as education, politics, history, art, institutions, legal systems, units of measurement, places, food and drinks, sports and national pastimes, experienced in different countries and nations of the world (Gambier, 2004 (2007), p.159);
lacuna – a situation common in one culture, but not observed in other cultures (Марковкина, Сорокин, 2008, Муравьёв, 1980);
cultural words – culturally marked units (Newmark, 1998, 1988);
ethno-cultural vocabulary (ethnolexemes) – lexical units relevant to the system of knowledge about the specific culture of a particular nation from historical and ethnic points of view (Шейман, 1978);
Despite the variety of the terms used in the linguistic literature, it should be noted that there is much in common between all of them. The most general term, in our opinion, is realia or non-equivalent vocabulary, understood as a special category of linguistic expressions nominating nationally-specific objects and notions of a certain nation, its lifestyle, culture, social and historical development peculiar to one linguoculture and not found in others.
The word “realia” comes from medieval Latin, in which it originally meant “the real things”, i.e. material things, as opposed to abstract ones. Currently, in the English language teaching, the word “realia” is usually used to denote objects or activities relating to the real life (MWOD). However, the notion of realia in translation theory means culturally marked words and expressions, which denote notions peculiar to one culture and non-existing in other cultures, therefore it is difficult, if possible at all to translate them into other languages. The term in this sense was first coined by Bulgarian translators S. Vlahov and S. Florin who defined realia as words (and expressions) representing nominations of objects, concepts, typical phenomena, a particular geographic place, social-historical peculiarities of some people, nation, country, tribe, that for this reason carry a national, local or historical coloring; these words do not have exact equivalents in other languages (Влахов, Флорин, 2006). Later, the term “realia” was used in the works by many famous linguists such as Barkhudarov L.S., Komissarov V.N., Fedorov A.V., etc. However, some scholars cosider realia to be a particular category of “non-equivalent vocabulary”. E. Vereschagin and V. Kostomarov (1980) define “non-equivalent vocabulary” as “words and word-combinations used to denote the notions of a nation which are unfamiliar to another one. They are associated with specific cultural elements existing within a particular culture but those that cannot be found in another” (Верещагин, Костомаров, 1980, p. 53). In any case, both terms “realia” and “non-equivalent vocabulary” denote words that are as bearers of the national and/or historical colouring, usually do not have equivalents in other languages, and therefore can not be translated “on the common ground”, requiring a special approach.
As the survey of the linguistic literature has shown, there are different approaches to realia/non-equivalent vocabulary classification.
P. A. Newmark embraces the following areas:
● Ecology. Words in this category include geographical features specific to a
particular culture: flora, fauna, land shaft, winds, islands, hills;
● Material culture: a) food; b) clothes; c) houses and towns; d) transport;
● Social culture: a) work; b) leisure;
● Organizations, customs, activities, procedures, concepts: a) political and administrative; b) religious; c) artistic;
● Gestures and habits (Newmark, 1988, p.95)
Another scholar V.V. Vinogradov suggests the following classification:
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