Linguocognitive Aspects of Translating Contemporary Ukrainian Discourse (Based on Children’s Fiction)

Abstract

The growing global interest in Ukrainian literature and its increasing translation into English have intensified the need for a deeper theoretical understanding of how meaning is transferred across languages and cultures. This need is particularly evident in the field of children’s literature, where linguistic units function not merely as verbal signs but as carriers of imagery, emotional resonance, cultural knowledge, and early-stage cognitive models. In children’s texts, words activate conceptual structures that are shaped by the child’s developmental stage and world perception, making the translation process more complex than simple lexical substitution. Consequently, the study of translation must account for cognitive, cultural, and interpretative mechanisms that determine how meaning is constructed and reconstructed in the target text. The purpose of this research is to identify the mechanisms through which mental models represented in Ukrainian children’s prose are reproduced in English translations, and to trace the cognitive, semantic, and interpretative shifts that may occur in the course of translation. The study focuses on bilingual editions of works by contemporary authors and explores how translators navigate culturally bound concepts, figurative structures, and narrative frames that shape the child reader’s comprehension. Special attention is given to the way translation strategies either preserve or modify conceptual content, imagery, and pragmatic intent, all of which contribute to the construction of a child’s linguistic worldview. Methodologically, the research is grounded in a linguo-cognitive approach that conceptualizes translation as a multi-layered process of knowledge reconstruction. From this perspective, translating a text involves not only the transfer of semantic meaning but also the recreation of deeper conceptual structures - schemata, frames, and narrative scenarios, that are activated in the reader’s mind during text perception. This approach allows for the identification of meaning nodes that remain intact, undergo transformation, or become lost in translation. Analytical tools drawn from conceptual analysis, frame semantics, and interpretive cognitive rhetoric offer a comprehensive framework for examining how meaning is encoded, projected, and potentially shifted between the source text and the target text. The findings demonstrate that an adequate translation of children’s literature must be evaluated according to three interrelated criteria: cognitive, communicative, and receptive adequacy. This multidimensional evaluation highlights that literal or formal correspondence does not guarantee successful translation, especially in texts intended for young readers with distinct developmental, perceptual, and cultural characteristics. The study concludes that a linguo-cognitive orientation significantly expands traditional notions of translation adequacy by shifting the emphasis from formal equivalence to the reconstruction of mental models and pragmatic functions embedded in the source text. It also underscores the importance of a translator's ability to interpret and mediate the conceptual landscapes of both cultures and both linguistic communities.