The Problematic Translability of Pejorative and Obscene Expressions

This paper first defines "pejorative and obscene expressions" as forms of lexical variation from a
diastratic aspect within languages, noting their frequent presence in literature. Through a semantic and
translational analysis of pejorative and obscene expressions in German literary excerpts, used as
exercise material for teaching translation from German to Macedonian, we aim to secure their nearest
translations into Macedonian. Recognizing that complete equivalence between such expressions in
German and Macedonian is often unattainable, this study anticipates the use of adaptation or
modulation, and occasionally paraphrase, in translating these expressions into the target language. We
conduct this survey to see in what extend our students at the study program for Translation and
Interpretation, at the Chair of German language and Literature are aware of the problematic
translatability of pejorative and obscene expressions in literary texts. Furthermore, by carrying out some
experiments and questionnaires among students to find out if when translating such expressions, it is
the ‘dynamic equivalence’ (according to the American linguist Nida, an important representative of the
communicative translation theory) that is to be achieved as main goal, as we expect.