On Selected Mistakes in the Translation from Russian into Bulgarian (Based on Translated Articles on Social and Political Matters)

Abstract

The article examines some errors in the translation of articles on social and political matters from Russian into Bulgarian. The aims of the study were: to identify the causes of translation errors and the most common types of errors in accordance with the requirements of translation adequacy, as adopted in Russian translatology. The method of research was a comparative analysis of the translation – an analysis of the form and content of the translated text in comparison with the form and content of the original text. Two types of classification are used as a basis for systematizing identified errors. The first one looks at the reasons for their occurrence and identifies the levels of the translation process at which such errors occur. In the second classification, the leading errors are the degree of distortion of the original text and the aspects of errors in translation. In this regard, different types of content inconsistencies are distinguished: unmotivated addition or omission of elements, irrelevant wordings, untranslated units, “false friends of the translator”, violation of the general subject or textual logic, etc. As a result of the analysis, it was established that the main mistakes occurred at the sign-concept level, mainly due to the misunderstanding of the meaning of certain words in the original; errors are also observed at the stage of re-expression of the semantic system due to translator’s poor command of both the original language and the language of translation. Based on the material from the reviewed articles, the most common errors that were classified were “misinformative change of meaning” and “inaccuracy”.