Elements of Direct Speech in a Fiction and Their Translation (J.Sallinger's Short Stories vs Their Russian Versions)

The problem of classifying and examining aspects of colloquial speech is considered to be one of the most relevant in the modern linguistics. In this paper, colloquial speech is discussed from the side of stylistics, colloquialism and the theory of equivalence. The object of the research is the short stories by Jerome Salinger “Nine Stories”, as well as their translations into Russian: 1991 and 2017. In order to reach the aim of the investigation, the following tasks have been set: 1. Analyze expressive means and specific colloquial features at grammatical, lexical, phonetic and graphic aspect. 2. Compare the original and translation texts to determine the degree of equivalence produced. The degree of equivalence is presented and discussed according to V.N. Komissarov’s classification. The results of the paper show a clear analysis of the transformations used in order to express all the stylistic means and colloquial agents. The shortcomings of each of the translations were identified and an assessment was made regarding their compliance with the original. Key words: colloquial speech, stylistics, equivalence, translation.