Ministry of higher education, science and innovation of the republic of uzbekistan national university of uzbekistan

2.3 The concept of lexical transformation and the use of translation 
transformations in the translation of poetic texts from English into Russian 
To achieve adequacy when translating from one language to another, the 
translator uses the language means of another language into which the translation 
is being made, and the corresponding techniques and methods. Lexical, 
grammatical, stylistic and other differences between the original language and the 
target language necessitate all kinds of transformations (substitutions) in 
translation. The most common are: lexical, grammatical and stylistic 

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transformations.
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Transformations, with the help of which it is possible to carry 
out the transition from original units to translation units in the indicated sense, are 
called translation (interlingual) transformations. Since translation transformations 
are carried out with language units that have both a content plan and an expression 
plan, they are of a formal semantic nature, transforming both the form and the 
meaning of the original units. 
The main types of lexical transformations used in the process of translation 
involving various FL and TL include the following translation techniques: 
translation transcription and transliteration, tracing and lexical-semantic 
substitutions (concretization, generalization, modulation). The most common 
grammatical transformations include: syntactic assimilation (literal translation), 
division of a sentence, union of sentences, grammatical substitutions (forms of a 
word, part of speech or member of a sentence). Complex lexico-grammatical 
transformations include antonymic translation, explication (descriptive translation) 
and compensation.
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Lexical transformations are used when translating if a non-
standard linguistic unit at the word level occurs in the source text, for example, Afa 
is either a proper name inherent in the source language culture and absent in the 
target language; a term in a particular professional field; words denoting objects, 
phenomena and concepts, A favor for the original culture or for the traditional 
naming of elements of a third culture, but absent or having a different structural 
and functional order in the translating culture. Such words occupy a very important 
place in the translation, because, being relatively independent of the context, they 
nevertheless give the translated text a different direction, depending on the choice 
of the translator.
O.K. Latyshev defines lexical transformations as "deviations from dictionary 
correspondences". In the lexical systems of the English and Russian languages, 
discrepancies are observed, which manifest themselves in the type of semantic 
structure of the word. Any word that is a lexical unit is a part of the lexical system 
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Бонвер Е.: www.poetryloverspage.com./poets/pushkin/pushkin_ind html 
48
Железнова И. Alexander Pushkin. Selected Works. Poetry. – M.: Raduga Publish¬ers, 2001. 

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of a language. This explains the originality of the semantic structure of words in 
different languages. Therefore, the essence of lexical transformations is “replacing 
individual lexical units (words and set phrases) of the FL with TL lexical units that 
are not their dictionary equivalents and, i.e., which have a different meaning than 
the FL units they transmit in translation.” There are many reasons that cause 
lexical transformations, and there is no way to fully cover all the reasons. 
Therefore, we will limit our choice to only some of the main reasons for the need 
for this type of transformation. In the meaning of a word in different languages, 
different signs of the same phenomenon or concept are often distinguished, which 
reflect the vision of the world characteristic of a given language, or rather, native 
speakers of a given language, which inevitably creates difficulties in translation. 
Compare, for example, glasses and glasses. In the English word, the material from 
which the object is made is highlighted/reflected, and in Russian - its function: 
second eyes (eyes). Or: Hot milk with skin on it. Hot milk with foam. This 
phenomenon of reality is associated in English with the skin, the skin covering the 
body or fetus, while in Russian the meaning of the word is based on the result of 
boiling - foam appears when milk boils and foams.
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The second reason that causes lexical transformations is the difference in the 
semantic volume of the word.There are no absolutely identical words in FL and 
TL. Most often, the first lexico-semantic variant (LSV) of such words coincides, 
their main meaning, and then there are various LSVs, because the development of 
the meanings of these words went in different ways. This is due to the different 
functioning of the word in the language, the difference in usage, different 
compatibility, but even the basic meaning of the English word can be wider than 
the corresponding Russian word (of course, the opposite cases are not excluded). 
When analyzing the semantic structure of the adjective mellow, it 
immediately catches the eye that it is a polysemantic word and can define a very 
wide range of objects and concepts: fruits, wine, soil, voice, person. Each sphere of 
its use corresponds to a separate meaning. But each meaning, in turn, corresponds 
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Бикертон Д. Введение в лингвистическую теорию метафоры. – М.: Прогресс, 1990. C. 284. 

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to two or more Russian words. The English-Russian dictionary sometimes gives 
them simply separated by commas. This suggests that each LSV is not covered by 
one Russian word, since it contains two or more semes that require two or more 
Russian words to be rendered.
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So, the first meaning is ripe, soft, sweet, juicy (about fruits); the second 
meaning is: 1. Aged, old; 2. Pleasant in taste (of wine); the third meaning is 
mellow, softened with age (about a person); fourth meaning - soft, juicy, thick 
(about voice and colors); the fifth value is 1. Loose; 2. Fertile, fat (about soil), sixth 
meaning, colloquial - cheerful, tipsy (about a person). 
The third reason for the need for lexical transformations is the difference in 
compatibility. The words are in the connections defined for the given language. It 
is important to note that the compatibility of words takes place in the case of 
compatibility of the concepts they denote. This compatibility is obviously different 
in different languages, and what is possible in one language is unacceptable in 
another. 
The use of lexical transformations in the translation of English folk poems 
into Russian. Below, we will provide folklore poems’ translation from English into 
Russian using various lexical transformations. In the poem "Kindness" M.Yu. 
Pavlov tries to convey the semantics of the original, and the syntactic structure of 
the translation is fundamentally different from the original: 
Kindness I love little pussy, Her 
coat is so warm, And if I don’t hurt 
her, She’ll do me no harm. So I‘ll 
not pull her tail, Nor drive her 
away, But pussy and I Very gently 
will play: She shall sit by my side, 
And I’ll give her some food; And 
pussy will love me Because I am 
good.
*** Я кисоньку Мурку ужасно люблю, - 
конкретизация И кисонька любит меня. 
- модуляция За шкирку её никогда не 
треплю, И Мурка не треплет меня. За 
хвост никогда не таскаю её: 
генерализация/ опущение Мы с Муркой 
большие друзья. смысловое развитие И 
кашу мою мы съедаем вдвоем По-
честному - Мурка и я. конкретизация 
 
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Baldwin E. Poem Analysis. Retrieved from (2021, February 11) https://poemanalysis.com/literary-
device/synecdoche/ 

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