Transformation of discursive types as speech characteristics of a character in the translation (a case study of R. Zelazny's novel “Creatures of light and darkness”)

The research focuses on linguistic means that form a speech portrait of a character in a fantastic work. This is an important aspect because behaviors and manner of speech of the character are of great importance to create for the reader a certain attitude to this character. Some characters keep a certain speech discourse throughout the work, including a mixture of several functional styles. The article discusses the features of legal and religious discourse, which are used both to describe the character itself, and to create an ironic effect by rethinking texts and building structures that are not usually used in these types of discourse. The experimental novel by Roger Zelazny “The Creatures of Light and Darkness” (1969) and its three translations into Russian were chosen as illustrative material. Comparative semantic and syntactic analysis of the translations and their comparison with the English original allowed to establish the principles that determine the speech style of the character and linguistic means that were used in all texts, as well as to explain the difference in the perception of the texts by the reader. The results of the study allow, on the one hand, to identify the most correct translation according to the formal criterion, and on the other hand, to demonstrate the difference between English and Russian in the transmission of texts of religious and legal discourse, as well as in cases where these discourses are combined in character’s speech.