Covering the War in Ukraine

Background. The paper presents the results of the comparative analysis of BBC news reports on the war in Ukraine and their translations into Ukrainian published at BBC NEWS Ukraine. In our study, we focus on the foregrounded parts of the text, i.e., headlines and photos with captions. The main function of these salient text components is to attract readers' attention making some information eye-catching and memorable. Methods. The research offers a comprehensive approach to translation studies by integrating a translation-oriented comparative stylistic analysis, a multimodal analysis, and the principles of cognitive semantics. This multifaceted methodology allowed us to establish the distinct features of language use in the source and target texts, identify the cultural specificity of depicting the war for the Ukrainians and international audience, elucidate the correlation between their verbal and visual narratives, and explore the differences between the cognitive scenarios underlying the English articles and their Ukrainian translations. Results. The results of the comparative analysis reveal that the original articles and their translations highlight dissimilar aspects of the developments in Ukraine, shaping thus different perceptions of the war. The main reasons for the discrepancy are as follows: 1) a profound difference between English and Ukrainian language systems; 2) the change of the reporter's position from describing the events from the sidelines to giving an inside look; 3) significant cultural differences in the range and intensity of verbal and non-verbal emotional reactions; 4) divergent cognitive scenarios underlying the models of evaluating and interpreting events and their possible outcomes. Conclusions. The research made it possible to draw the following conclusions: 1) lexical transformations found in the translations under analysis are aimed at conveying proper messages rather than being close to the original; 2) visual narration, i.e. photos illustrating the events, is used to adapt the target text to a necessary political narrative; 3) cognitive scenarios underlying the source and the target texts differ in the roles attributed to Ukrainians and external actors as well as the view of the possible war outcome. Thus, journalistic translation may be defined as a special translation type striving for the closest adaptation of the original text to the audience's cultural specificity and political reality rather than rendering the subtleties and nuances of the original text

Biology · Political science · Politics · History · Law · Military, Security, and Education Studies · Genetics

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