Word connotation in translation

Even words having the same referential (denotative) meaning are not full equivalents as far as their connotation is concerned. Thus, an English-Russian dictionary gives two translations for the word dog: собака, пёс. The former translation equivalent is neutral, the latter is colloquial, expressive. Since the English word dog is more general, it is only a partial equivalent to пёс.

Or the Russian word дохлый is not a full equivalent of the English dead, as is given by the Oxford Russian dictionary145. Дохлый is a very informal, expressive word, whereas dead is its neutral counterpart.

Not only the denotative (referential) meaning of the word, but also its connotative shades should be taken into account in translating:

§ Emotional coloring: doggie – пёсик, bunny – заенька. The Russian language is known to be abundant in diminutive suffixes (солнышко, ложечка, чашечка). Since these suffixes are not as typical in English as in Russian, they are lost in translation: День склонялся к вечеру. По небу медленно ползли легкие розовые облачка. (В. Арсеньев) - Evening was near, and light pink clouds crept slowly across the sky. (Transl. by V. Shneerson.)

§ Stylistic overtone: to begin (neutral)vs. to commence (poetic); husband (informal) – spouse (formal); спать (neutral) – почивать (poetic);

§ Associations: nations have different associations connected with this or that word. Thus, in English the word blue is often associated with something unpleasant: to look blue – иметь унылый вид; to be blue – иметь плохое настроение; to tell blue stories – рассказывать неприличные истории; to be in a blue funk – быть в ужасной панике; to be in the blue – пойти по плохой дорожке; to burn blue – быть дурным предзнаменованием. The word blue corresponds to the Russian adjectives синий and голубой. Синий is often associated with unpleasant things: синий от холода (blue with cold), синий чулок (blue stocking), гори оно синим пламенем (to the hell with something). Голубой has usually positive connotations: голубые мечты (sweet dreams), голубой песец (blue fox), голубой экран (TV screen); на блюдечке с голубой каемочкой (on a silver platter).

Another example: in English, a chicken is used derogatory to refer to a cowardly person: Why won’t you jump? Are you a chicken? In Russian, цыпленок is associated with a helpless little creature and is often referred to a small child that needs help.

In translation, the connotative meaning is sometimes lost either because of the neutral text that requires no expressiveness or because of the lacking connotative equivalent (to commence – начинать; вечор - yesterday). Usually, these connotatively partial equivalents are compensated in the text (within the same sentence or even in the surrounding sentences). We can illustrate it by the following sentence from Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer. In the episode of fighting with a Model Boy, Tom teases the boy about his hat: “ Smarty! You think you are some, now, don’t you? Oh, what a hat!” And the boy answers, ” You can lump that hat if you don’t like it. I dare you to knock it off – and anybody that I’ll take a dare will suck eggs. ” In the Russian text, the highly colloquial, slangish words and expressions are compensated by slang words and very informal syntactic constructions in both Tom’s utterance and the boy’s sentence:

- Ишь, вырядился! Подумаешь, какой важный! Еще и в шляпе!

- Возьми да и сбей, если не нравится. Попробуй, сбей – тогда узнаешь.

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