CORPUS-BASED DIGITAL ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATION CORRESPONDENCES IN THE KAZAKH–RUSSIAN–ENGLISH VERSIONS OF “ABAI ZHOLY”

Abstract

This study presents a corpus-based digital analysis of translation correspondences across the Kazakh original, Russian, and English versions of Mukhtar Auezov's epic novel Abai Zholy, one of the most significant works of twentieth-century Kazakh literature. Despite the novel's canonical status and its multiple translation histories, systematic corpus-driven comparison of how culturally embedded lexical items transfer across the three languages remains limited. This research compiles a trilingual parallel corpus aligned at the sentence level and applies digital corpus tools, including AntConc, Sketch Engine, and the Natural Language Toolkit, to investigate translation correspondences in two semantically rich lexical domains: color terms and animal names, both of which carry dense cultural, symbolic, and steppe-pastoral connotations in Kazakh literary discourse. Using frequency analysis, concordance examination, and collocational profiling, the study quantifies patterns of direct equivalence, semantic shift, omission, and compensatory paraphrase across the Russian and English translations relative to the Kazakh source text. Findings indicate that the Russian translation demonstrates higher lexical fidelity for animal terminology, reflecting shared pastoral-cultural proximity between Kazakh and Russian literary traditions, whereas the English translation shows a markedly higher rate of domestication and explicitation strategies, particularly for color terms carrying symbolic rather than purely descriptive meaning. The study further identifies systematic loss of connotative nuance in color-term translation into English, with culturally specific shades frequently neutralized into broader, less marked equivalents. These findings contribute empirical, corpus-driven evidence to translation studies scholarship on culturally embedded lexis, offering methodological implications for digital humanities approaches to literary translation analysis and practical implications for future retranslation projects seeking to preserve the cultural specificity of Kazakh literary heritage in global circulation.