Vol. 23 No. 2 (27) (2019)

The present paper discusses some of the theoretical arguments concerning the problem of translating beauty proverbs from a source language into a target language. The paper mainly concentrates on the challenges a translator may encounter when attempting to translate the beauty proverbs in the works of the 19th century American and British authors into Armenian. Though extralinguistic reality has long been recognized as an essential factor in the process of translation, linguists argue for the linguistic reality claiming that within the linguistic scope of both languages no translation is attainable. The paper attempts to challenge this approach and demonstrate that it is not necessary to be native to understand the central concern of the source language as both literal and semantic translations are able to recreate the precise flavour and tone in the target language.

We have an elementary knowledge of the notion of time, living in a present wedged between a past that crystallizes in our memories and a future full of the unknown. This awareness of passing time is an immutable fact of life. We present in this paper some thoughts on the concept of time, first recalling the diversity of experiences and awareness of time and studying how the time of science (philosophy-physics) is related to our linguistic experiences.

It is well known that the notion of word-formation is closely connected with the notion of the meaning of derivative forms, which are revealed in correlation with other words. The modern tendencies of studying such kind of formations are characterized by identifying there functional features. In this regard “combines” and confixes are marked out as special means of word-formation in German which, however, in modern linguistics are interpreted differently. In the present paper an attempt is made to discriminate these phenomena from other word formation elements and to bring to light their functional features.

The goal of this paper is to reveal the linguistic and cultural features available in the texts of travel guidebooks according to corpus analysis. Based on the comparative study of the single-word and multi-word high frequency keywords in Armenian and British corpora, compiled by the author, with the referential corpus, it can be stated that tourism is a specialized discourse.

Colour names play a specific role in the scientific and aesthetic world. The research of the subsystem of colour naming in different languages is closely connected with the concept of colour and the psycholinguistic peculiarities of colour perception and makes it an object of interdisciplinary study. The paper considers the subsystem of colour names from two perspectives – the theory of universality and the theory of linguistic relativity. In this context a range of approaches are examined which elucidate the mentioned theories anew.

The paper is devoted to the study of the occasional transformations of phraseological units with the component “God” in speech. The study is based on the analysis of the rich factual material found both in the Spanish and Armenian languages. In different verbal situations the transformed phraseological unit can acquire various stylistic colourings with the help of which the mentioned phraseological unit conveys expressiveness to the speech and makes it more eloquent and colourful thus amplifying the pragmatic impact of the context.

One of the most important forms of language communication is debate in which participants express opposing ideas and viewpoints, seek to reach an agreement or consensus. From the semantic point of view, debate is a communicative structure, one of the key components of which is the verbal act of "disagreement" with its psychological and linguistic features. The present paper is a summary of a number of diverse views and approaches put forward as a result of scientific research on the verbal act of “disagreement”.

The paper considers one of the important problems of phraseology: the figurative description of phraseological units in comparison with Armenian. It reveals stylistic-semantic peculiarities of phrases of colloquial French (taken from fiction and dictionaries) which prove to be more colloquial and expressive than those of literary French, non-motivated and difficult to decode. The comparison with the Armenian language identifies some similarities of phraseological units, which is not the result of interference or calque; it points out some definite similarities in the lifestyle of people and their activities.

The paper is an attempt to classify taboo words which occupy their important place in the vocabulary system of the language. A number of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors serve as a basis for the semantic differentiation of English taboo words. Our classification of English taboo words is based on 136 words found in the “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” (2005). Thirteen semantic groups have benn revealed which not only reflect the data of other researchers, but are also more complete and important from the point of view of differentiation boundaries.

The paper analyses the category of modality as a special type of mitigation devices directed at distancing the speaker from the content of the utterance thus lessening the force of its imposition. The research has revealed that different means of expressing modality, such as modal verbs, modal words and phrases, play an important role in the development of mitigating strategies. By using modality speakers do facework and improve communication effectiveness.

This paper reveals the cases of fairy tale allusions use in postcolonial novel. Some linguistic and extralinguistic features of fairy tale allusions are identified and analysed. The comparison of protagonists with the fairy tale characters creates new semantic and emotional connotations, forming certain associations connected with the given images.

The paper presents the historical overview of the two main methods used for overcoming the issues caused by language interference. The drawbacks and the benefits of contrastive and error analysis are being discussed. It is stated that both contrastive analysis of languages and error analysis of the students’ mistakes are complementary and interrelated approaches which aim at overcoming, preventing and reducing interference mistakes made by the students.

The paper is an attempt to discuss a number of short stories by American 20th century writer J. Updike. The author tries to restore and save the traditions of classical American literature. The myth in which divine wisdom is not mediated and is strongly fused with the reality is the core idea of these short stories. The heroes try to conceptualize the surrounding world through human relations, reflection of morality and overcoming of estrangement.

The paper is an attempt to reveal the theme of sin, false devotion and Freudian trainings in Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita" or "The Confession of a White Widowed Male". The novel is one of the most discussed works about loneliness and love of the 20th century. The paper analyzes the novel not only from the point of literary criticism but also from that of psychology and reveals some hidden psychological issues not explicitly seen in the novel.