Russian-Greek translation of mutational derivatives with the prefix pro- in Anton Chekhov’s works

Translation of classical works has an impact on their perception by an international audience of readers. The question of the possibility of an equivalent transfer of multilevel meanings of a literary text and the writer’s intention, as well as the degree of permissible influence of the translator’s personality and their individual interpretation on the translated text does not have an unambiguous answer. In the process of literary translation, linguo-cognitive information plays an important role, revealing the hidden semantic meanings of linguistic units and influencing the understanding of the text. The subject of the study is prefixed verbs with mutational meanings, their impact on the understanding of literary texts, and the importance of their correct translation. This article examines the translation of the mutational meanings of three derivatives with the prefix pro- (проспать (oversleep), пропить (drink away) and проговариваться (let slip)) in the works of Anton Chekhov into Modern Greek, namely the frequency of their use and the importance of the equivalent translation. The methodology of the research comprised the comparative analysis of verbal derivatives in Chekhov’s texts and their translations into Modern Greek, as well as the comparative analysis of dictionary entries of explanatory dictionaries, and methods of corpus linguistics. The linguistic correspondences between Russian and Greek create a unique field for a comparative study of prefix derivation and the development of the mutational semantics of prefixes in both languages. The linguo-cognitive analysis helps to achieve equivalence in literary translation, and its results need to be applied when translating the works of great Russian writers into Modern Greek.