CONVEYING NATIONAL AND CULTURAL SPECIFICITY OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN THE TRANSLATION OF MARIA MATIOS’S NOVEL “SWEET DARUSYA”

Abstract

Phraseological units embody the customs, culture, and worldview of each nation. Accordingly, their translation constitutes a complex task for translators, as it requires accurate transfer of meaning along with the preservation of culturally marked references for the target audience. This article examines the translation of Ukrainian phraseological units from Maria Matios’s novel “Sweet Darusya” into English. The material of the research consists of 76 phraseological units identified in the source text and their English equivalents in the translation by Michael M. Naydan and Olha Tytarenko. The analysis draws upon contemporary Ukrainian and international research in phraseology and translation theory. The units are classified into phraseological unities, authorial phraseological units, phraseological collocations, phraseological expressions, dialectal phraseological units, phraseological fusions, and phraseologized word combinations. The analysis demonstrates that phraseological unities constitute the most frequent group, followed by authorial and dialectal units, which reflects the strong individual style of the author and the regional specificity of the novel. The study further examines the translation strategies applied to these units, including phraseological equivalents, partial equivalents, phraseological analogues, loan translation (calque), and descriptive translation. Statistical analysis shows that descriptive translation predominates, indicating the translators’ tendency to prioritize semantic clarity and reader accessibility when direct equivalents are unavailable. At the same time, the use of analogues and calques allows for partial preservation of figurative imagery and cultural color. The findings indicate that although a certain loss of idiomatic richness is unavoidable, the combined use of different translation strategies allows for a balance between textual comprehensibility and the preservation of national and cultural features. The results enhance the understanding of phraseological translation and may serve as a basis for further research in literary translation and linguocultural studies.