STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING NATIONAL-CULTURAL UNITS IN LITERARY AND ACADEMIC TEXTS

Abstract

National-cultural units-lexical and phraseological expressions encoding culturally specific meanings, values, and references-present distinctive challenges for translation. These expressions resist straightforward rendering into target languages because their meanings depend upon cultural knowledge and contextual understanding often unavailable to target-language readers. This article examines the nature of national-cultural units, identifies characteristic translation challenges, and systematically analyzes diverse translation strategies employed by professional translators and translation scholars. Through examination of representative examples from English-Uzbek, English-Russian, and other language pairs, this study demonstrates that effective translation of national-cultural units requires sophisticated strategies including literal translation with annotation, adaptation and cultural substitution, generalization and semantic narrowing, and strategic omission or addition of cultural information. The article demonstrates that translator choices regarding national-cultural units significantly impact target-language text authenticity, readability, and communicative effectiveness. The study concludes with practical recommendations for translation practice and pedagogy