Information on the thesis

Translation quality assessment has evolved from the primary observations of a
good translation to the present expanded range of epistemic methods. It is the right
time to establish what its objectives, principles, links with other divisions of trans-
lation research are as well as which of its methods can be used in practice for what
purpose.
The dissertation consists of the Introduction, four Chapters, General Con-
clusions and a List of References. Chapter 1 attempts to provide an insightful
outline of the history and current state of translation theory, criticism and analysis by
tracing the formation of ideas about translation and its analysis in Ukraine; consider-
ing the state of translation criticism in the early 21
st
century; analyzing the major
existing views on the contrasting procedures of the original and the translation; and
developing the definition of the term translation quality assessment. The epistemic
background of contemporary translation studies lies in the domains of postposi-
tivism and constructivism. An overview of the fundamentals of analysis underlines
the importance of the availability of multiple translations, but it also suggests
multiple approaches to analyzing translations. The relativism of examination gets
more flexible and dynamic, i.e. dependent on the existential conditions of a literary
piece, and the analytical needs of a semantic section and the very commissioner. The
use of literary sources in the study required a short history of translating Early
Ukrainian literature into modern Ukrainian (the 19
th
to early 21
st
centuries) and
English (the 18
th
to early 21
st
centuries). The related theoretical issues of this research
are the elucidation of the features of intralingual translation and the explanation of the
status of religious translation as a separate branch of translation studies.
Chapter 2 is dedicated to introducing the ideas of cognitive linguistics into the
analysis of originals and translations through the prism of the historical and cultural
potential of interpretation. The stress is on such dimensions of semantic and textual
analysis as subjectivity, semantic unity and analyzability, intentionality, the gestalt
structure of conscious experience, as well as boundary conditions and situatedness.
The study of the lexeme grace shows changes that result from transformationss in
historical periods and geographic areas. It contrasts semantic features in Greek χάρις,
Old Ukrainian
благодhть
and English grace by applying conceptual, etymological
and discourse analyses. The theory of cognitive semantics by Ronald Langacker can
also serve as a semantic and textual model for translation quality assessment. Proto-
type analysis and sociocultural tools are successful for assessing the translation of 36
emotion terms, as they expand the lexicographic interpretation of emotion terms by
involving the reader’s psychological experience.
Chapter 3 is concerned with the communicative categories, which operate in
the architectonics of the original. The receptive aesthetics of Early Ukrainian lite-
rature are enriched by studying textual functionality, communicative effectiveness,
aesthetic excellence, informativeness and ethnicity. The appropriate rendering of
lexical structures shapes the narrative projections of a text, but it affects the inter-
pretation of the whole text differently. The semantics of a motive as a unit of narration
can be traced only in the speech line, identifying its links to actions and events, time
and space, theme and aesthetics, though it is also advisable to pay attention to the im-
plementation of semantic oppositions. A focus on the situational and cultural context
stimulates the search for the interpretation of parts, and it defines a broad under-
standing of life and its aesthetics. Other linguostylistic and rhetorical phenomena
(kontakion poetics, prosimetrum, the system of contrapositions, oppositions and anti-
theses) help consider communicative aims in Ukrainian literary tradition.
Chapter 4 provides insights into the interpretative potential of the text as a unity
by exploring heterogeneous writings: catechism, philosophical dialogue and historical
poetry. Studying texts in the context of other works allows us to highlight such
categories as value, identity, intertextuality, sacredness and experientiality. St. Petro
Mohyla’s Catechism (1640) is a crucial text for the study of religious translation,
especially when the focus is on a term system articulated via the prism of axiological
modelling and the cultural matrix. A separate subchapter aims to discover the textual
values for translation quality assessment though the prism of the postcolonial theory
of translation which share some colonial textual symbols, key words and criteria,
rising before the colonial milieu was established. Similarly, methods of studying
cultural environment and behaviour can be borrowed from ethnography for identi-
fying and assessing cultural values in an original and a translation.
Assessment is a system of language-, literature- and text-oriented analytical
tools, located between theoretical contemplation and routine practice. The analysis of
time-distant writings has clearly shown how the semantic function of lingual means
in literary translation varies in temporal and spatial dynamics. These conclusions
can be further developed in the domain of translation typology in order to find out the
specific features of the reception of Ukrainian literature in various national translation
traditions.
Keywords: translation quality assessment, history of translation studies, trans-
lation theory, translation criticism, cognitivism, communicative linguistics, literary
studies, culture studies, artistic text.