Bondarenko Y. V. The poet’s possible worlds in translation (featured by J. Brodsky’s poems)

Abstract

The article focuses on the linguistic cognitive potential of possible worlds theory in translation studies. Its
cognitive underpinning is the tenet stating the ability of human consciousness to construe the world models
(contingent situations) according to his/heridea of certain phenomena and their relationships, which may or may
not correspond to the state of things in the real world. In terms of linguistic cognitive method, state of things in a
possible world is a script (scenario) defined as a set of linearly subsequent conceptual terminals containing
propositional clusters. Translation viewed as a cognitive process, the methodology is applied to the analysis of the
Russian language J. Brodsky’s poetry translated in English by the author himself. Modal operators and
practically identical script structures of the original and translation possible worlds have been singled out.
Variations stipulated by either linguistic norms of the language or cultural-historical reasons have been observed
within the clusters of the concepts (variables) propositional relations.