THE CHALLENGES OF TRANSLATING ENGLISH IDIOMS INTO UZBEK
Abstract
Idioms are an important component of language because they express ideas, emotions, and cultural concepts in a concise and figurative form. However, their translation presents considerable difficulties because their meanings often cannot be understood by translating their individual words literally. This is particularly relevant to English–Uzbek translation, as the two languages differ in their linguistic structures, cultural backgrounds, and systems of figurative expression. This paper examines the main challenges involved in translating English idioms into Uzbek, focusing on semantic differences, cultural specificity, the lack of direct equivalents, and contextual meaning. It also considers several translation strategies, including the use of equivalent idioms, paraphrasing, descriptive translation, and cultural substitution. The analysis demonstrates that successful idiom translation requires more than linguistic knowledge; translators also need to understand the cultural and contextual meanings underlying idiomatic expressions. Therefore, an effective translation should preserve the intended meaning and communicative effect of an idiom while producing a natural expression in the target language.
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