Arguing in Russian: Why Solzhenitsyn's fictional arguments defy translation

Abstract

This paper discusses patterns of �arguing� which prevails in Russian speech culture and shows that they differ profoundly from those characteristic of modern Anglo culture(s). The author focuses on the extended arguments (spory) in Solzhenitsyn �s novel �In the First Circle� and shows that many linguistic and cultural aspects of the original are lost in the English translation. She argues that this was inevitable because English doesn�t have and �doesn�t need� linguistic resources to render various aspects of Russian communicative practices, which are culture-specific and have no counterparts in Anglophone culture(s). The paper shows too that the techniques of semantic analysis developed in the �NSM� approach to cultural semantics help explain why Solzhenitsyn�s fictional arguments defy translation, and more generally, how they can be used to identify some deep differences between Russian and Anglo speech cultures and communicative norms. Show more