Semiotic heterogeneity of texts in the translation aspect

The article deals with short webcomics by German-speaking authors “Nichtlustig”, “Volkertoons” and “Lachhaft-cartoons” freely available on the Internet and their translations into Russian. The relevance of the work is due to the lack of theoretical background and comprehensive practical research on the transfer of this type of texts into a foreign linguoculture. The interest of linguists in semiotically heterogeneous texts is related to an increasing role of non-verbal information both in everyday communication and in fiction. In this regard, the purpose of the article is to identify the properties of webcomics that combine the features of Internet discourse and humorous discourse that are relevant for translation, as well as to establish general patterns of translation of semiotically heterogeneous texts from German into Russian at various language levels in the light of the linguocultural specifics of their construction and content. Special attention is paid to the lexical and syntactic means of achieving a humorous effect in translation. The article concludes that the main requirement for translation of webcomics is to maintain the brevity and clarity of their verbal content, which is achieved by translation transformations at all language levels. It is also necessary to preserve the stylistic colouring of the original text and its dominant function of creating a humorous effect.