Conceptual Lacunarity and Strategies for Its Compensation: Based on the Chinese Translations of the Novel The Master and Margarita

Abstract

The subject of the research is conceptual lacunae that arise when transferring Russian culturally marked units into Chinese, as well as the compensation strategies employed by translators in different historical periods. The object of the study comprises fragments of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita and their corresponding renderings in three Chinese translations, made by Qian Cheng (1987), Gao Huiqun (2006), and Bai Huaxiong (2024). The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the typologisation of lacunae according to the nature of lexical meaning (denotative and significative), a comparative analysis of translation solutions for conveying specific realia and abstract concepts, as well as the evolution of compensatory strategies from calquing and approximate translation to a combined approach with extended commentary. Special attention is paid to the role of the translator’s commentary as a hermeneutic tool that allows not only to supply missing information but also to explicate deep semantic layers that have no analogues in the Chinese conceptual sphere, which is particularly important for overcoming significative lacunae. The methodological basis of the work is an integrative approach combining methods of qualitative comparative analysis of the source and target texts, typologisation of lacunae, and classification of translation strategies, drawing on the theoretical contributions of G. V. Bykova, L. K. Latyshev, and Yu. M. Lotman. The novelty of the research lies in a systematic comparative analysis of three translations from different periods specifically in terms of conceptual lacunarity, which allows us to view translation not as a linguistic substitution but as an intercultural hermeneutics that opens up the Russian cognitive picture of the world to the Chinese reader. The main findings of the conducted research are as follows: firstly, the identification of two types of conceptual lacunae – denotative and significative – which differ in nature and require different compensation strategies; secondly, the revelation of an evolution in translation approaches from domestication through calquing to a balanced strategy with extended commentary; and thirdly, the substantiation of the key role of the linguo‑cultural commentary, which, when dealing with significative lacunae, acquires not a reference but a hermeneutic function, explicating deep semantic layers that have no analogues in the Chinese conceptual sphere. The author’s particular contribution to the research topic is the differentiation of commentary types depending on the nature of the lacuna: reference‑encyclopaedic for denotative lacunae and hermeneutic for significative ones.