Stereotypes: definition of the phenomenon

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Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University

Stereotypes: definition of the phenomenon and its implementation in translation

Ahieieva-Karkashadze V.O., Lymar M.Yu.

Abstract

The article analyzes the approaches to defining the phenomenon of stereotype from the point of view of linguistic and non-linguistic sciences, and also highlights the connection between stereotypes and the translation process. It is found that stereotype in general is a multifunctional phenomenon associated with various aspects of life and culture of any society.

For the first time, the term “stereotype” was coined by the American sociologist Walter Lippmann in his work “Public Opinion” in 1922, which proved the need for further research of this term and proposed a theory of the emergence of the stereotyping process.

In his opinion, stereotypes are a bastion of society's traditions, hiding behind which members of this society feel safe.

Thus, stereotyping is defined as a person's psychological habit of returning to repetitive situations and reactions to them. This habit is fixed and acts as automatic standard schemes and models of thinking.

Stereotypes are found in sociology (the so-called ethnic stereotypes), in linguistics in general (a fragment or image of the world picture), in cognitive linguistics (as the content side of language and culture), in ethno psychology (stereotype-behavior and stereotype-perception), and in the process of intercultural communication.

From a linguistic point of view, stereotypes are a linguistic phenomenon relevant for research, since aspects of their expression and manifestation are still controversial. It has been found that stereotypes also play an important role in the process of cross- cultural communication. They appear as a unity of a standard (non-linguistic reality) and a norm that exists directly at the linguistic level.

Thus, stereotypes are manifested as norms of language communication, behavior, etiquette and traditions. The issue of the influence of stereotypes on the translation process is also relevant. It has been determined that stereotypes affect the quality of translation.

In order to obtain a high- quality and equivalent translation text, the translator must be objective, unbiased and free from stereotypes of perception of the foreign language culture.

Key words: stereotype, stereotyping, cross-cultural communication, translation.

Introduction

Statement of the problem. Fundamental transformations of the content of the main processes of modernity, the nature and the forms of their existence draw the attention of researchers to various phenomena that exist in the real world, among which is the phenomenon of stereotype, the history of which and the process of stereotyping itself began with the publication of the work of American journalist and sociologist Walter Lippmann “Public Opinion” in 1922.

The issues raised in this study have determined scientific strategies for the importance of studying stereotypes, despite the fact that the absolutization of some aspects of this concept has led to its one-sided and sometimes negative interpretation.

The word “stereotype” (Greek: “stereos” - solid, “typos” - impression) entered the common vocabulary from topography, where it was used in the sixteenth century to refer to a form for printing. The first component of the word “stereo” comes from Greek, where it meant “solid, three-dimensional, which goes back to Indo-European “ster” - hard, strong.

The Dictionary of the Modern Ukrainian Language interprets a stereotype as something that is often repeated and adhered to, most often imitated in one's activities [3, vol. 8, p. 689], and the term stereotype, as mentioned above, was introduced into scientific use by W. Lippmann, who interpreted it “as a special form of perception of the environment, the world around us”. This form of perception, in his opinion, has a direct impact on the data of our senses even before they (these data) are realized by us, because “there is a certain connection between the events that occur outside and the consciousness through which they are passed [1]”.

Despite the many shortcomings of the theory of stereotypes, initiated by W. Lippmann, he managed not only to identify the real phenomenon of stereotypes, to characterize the main patterns of their functioning, but also to find out the two most important reasons for stereotyping. The first one is the use of the principle of effort saving, which is typical for everyday human thinking, because if “there was no practically meaningful uniformity in the world around us, then the habit of taking an image that has developed earlier as a new impression would lead not to the effort saving, but only to mistakes.

But if uniformity does exist, then abandoning all the stereotypes in favor of a completely naive approach to experience would impoverish human life”. The second reason for stereotyping (which is, in fact, a social function) is the protection of group values, because stereotypes, according to W. Lippmann, are “a bastion of our tradition, hiding behind which we can feel safe”.

The basis for stereotyping is “the main human desire to extract from an existing situation everything that is useful in it and to store up a reaction in the form of a mobile habit in order to use it in situations of the same type [7]. Thus, stereotyping is based on “a person's psychological habit of returning to repeated situations and reactions to them, which is fixed in the mind in the form of automatic standard schemes and models of thinking; as well as an attempt to reduce the diversity of the world to a few categories and, thus, facilitate perception, understanding and evaluation” [5].

Analysis of recent research and publications proved that recently, representatives of the humanities - sociologists, psychologists, cognitive scientists, sociolinguists - have increasingly turned to the understanding of the phenomenon of stereotype, focusing on those qualities that they notice from the standpoint of their field of study. Thus, they distinguish social, mental, ethno-cultural, gender, professional, communication stereotypes, etc.

In sociology, a stereotype is defined as a “schematic standardized image or a representation of a social object, usually emotionally colored and endowed with the stability”. A similar definition of a social stereotype is found in the Sociological Dictionary, where it is interpreted as a one-sided, exaggerated and usually prejudice-based view inherent in a social, ethnic group or class [8].

A type of social stereotypes is ethnic stereotypes that characterize members of ethnic groups; they are attributed to them, or associated with them. From the point of view of ethnosociology an ethnic stereotype is “a simplified, schematized, emotionally colored and extremely stable image of an ethnic group (tribe, nation, any group of people who are connected with the common origin and differ in certain features from other human groups) that is easily spread to all its members; a schematized program of behavior that is typical for representatives of a particular ethnic group”. Ethnic stereotypes usually reflect fixed opinions about moral, mental, physical and other qualities of representatives of different ethnic communities.

The most important properties of ethnic stereotypes include, first, their emotional and evaluative nature; second, stability (though rather relative) and rigidity to new information; third, a high degree of unity of group members' perceptions of their own ethnic group and of the other ethnic groups [8].

In linguistic and cultural studies, a stereotype is considered as a fragment or an image of the world picture, formed in the minds of native speakers, it is “a certain image-representation, a mental picture, a stable, minimally invariant, nationally and culturally specific idea of an object or a situation” [8].

Characterizing the stereotype as a phenomenon, V.A. Maslova assigns to it the role of the “representative of the culture” and “the support of the individual in the dialogue of cultures”.

Being, on the one hand, a simplified and schematic representation that characterizes reality in its simplest form, stereotypes, nevertheless, perform an extremely important function: they are the basis of the mentality of the people, helping the individual to navigate the world around him. World perception is partially captive to the linguistic world picture, which becomes the foundation of all cultural stereotypes for a certain ethnic group [7].

Native speakers of one linguistic culture define the principles and use the categories of stereotypical representations to preserve information about representatives of another language and culture. Language in a certain way facilitates the cognition of the world, because the world itself, as O.O. Selivanova notes, characterizing the concept of linguistic determinism, “is already marked by linguistic signs, and a new reality can be named on the basis of a sign of an already familiar reality by similarity, adjacency, associatively. In addition, language learning in the process of socialization is the imposition of certain stereotypes on a person along with a special way of seeing the world and interpreting experience inherent in each language” [2].

In cognitive linguistics, stereotype refers to the content side of language and culture and is considered “as a standard opinion about social groups or individuals as representatives of these groups” [5].

In this sense, a stereotype is associated with human thinking and correlates with the world picture. The linguistic worldview and the linguistic stereotype are correlated as a part of the whole. According to F.S. Batsevich, a stereotype is “a cognitive-psychological formation, a schematized and one-sided image of a phenomenon, person, thing, etc. based on a small (often one) number of evaluative features that are considered typical (exemplary) for the whole class of phenomena, things, etc.; a subjective concept of current thinking and speech, an integral part of the linguistic worldview” [5].

In the dictionary article “Stereotype”, V. Demyankov identifies the following functions of stereotypes: cognitive - generalization (sometimes excessive) of information during the assimilation of information, when something that catches the eye is noted; affective - a certain degree of ethnocentrism in interethnic communication, which manifests itself as a constant selection of “one's own” as opposed to “someone else's”; social - the distinction between “in-group” and “out-group”, which leads to social categorization, to the creation of social structures that are actively oriented in everyday life [6].

V.V. Krasnykh in his work “Ethnopsychology and Linguocultural Studies: A Course of Lectures” distinguishes between a stereotype of behavior and a stereotype-perception. The former determines the behavior and actions that should be performed, while the latter is an idea that determines what should be expected in a given situation [8]. Stereotypes of behavior are stored in the mind in the form of stamps that act as canons.

They dictate or require certain communicative behavior, performing a prescriptive function.

Stereotypes-perceptions are stored in the form of cliches and function as standards. Their difference from behavioral stereotypes is that they “presuppose not so much the behavior itself as a set of associations and determine the linguistic form of their expression, performing a predicative function”.

Task statement. The purpose of the article is to analyze such phenomenon as “stereotype” and to prove that stereotypes play an important role in translation process. In this regard they should also be taken into consideration by translators.

Outline of the main material of the study

The behavior of each person is individual and multifaceted, but despite this, it is safe to say that human behavior in any society is typified, i.e., it is subject to the norms accepted in that society. This is true evidence that stereotypes exist in any society, but the set of stereotypes is, most importantly, specific to each society. The regulation of human behavior within the native cultural and linguistic space is influenced by cultural stereotypes, which begin to be assimilated from the moment a person begins to realize that he or she is part of a certain ethnic group, part of a culture.

There are two forms of behavior in a given sociocultural space:

1) free, variable behavior (individual for each person) and

2) regulated behavior, which is subject to stereotypes of behavior that exist in a given society.

The main problem in studying stereotypes from a purely linguistic point of view is related to the means of their expression in different languages. In general, the interest in communication stereotypes in linguistics intensified in the late 70s due to the development of the communicative approach. However, the stereotypicality of certain communication formulas was first pointed out by L.P. Yakubinsky, who wrote that “in the total sum of our interactions with other people, a significant part belongs to patterned interactions, which are overgrown with patterned speech interactions; the closest associative connection is established between the two” [7].

L.P. Yakubinsky contrasts such “patterned phrases” with another type of phrases, “where there is a certain combination”.

In the works of N.I. Formanovska, stereotypes of communication are considered as units of oral speech etiquette, to which the author refers a micro systemof nationally specific verbal units “accepted by society to establish contacts with communicants and to maintain communication in the desired tone” in accordance with the rules of speech behavior [8]. N.I. Formanovska calls stable communication formulas such words, phrases and expressions that

S.M. Erwin-Tripp defined as standardized speech stereotypes, which include “words of greeting, gratitude, apology, etc - that is, cases where the possibility of alternative options is limited and predictable”.

T.M. Dridze believes that a speech cliche is any ready-made speech formula, the criterion for distinguishing which is the regularity of its appearance in clearly defined repetitive speech situations.

“A speech cliche becomes a speech stamp if for some reason it has lost its textual information load for the interpreter, has become meaningless, insignificant for the recipient, that is, and has become dysfunctional. Such cliches are called a stamp of consciousness” [4].

But according to another definition, “A speech cliche is a stylistically marked means of speech, a stable sign for expressing a certain speech content that has an expressive and figurative load, has a negative value and refers to the thoughtless and tasteless use of expressive means of language”.

This is the difference between a cliche and the neutral concepts of a standard, a stereotype (cliche), which are “normatively necessary and are expediently used ready-made formulas in accordance with communicative requirements” [5].

As we can see, the meaning of cliche is identical in both cases. But the speech cliche has a negative connotation. The main feature of a speech cliche, in our opinion, is the complete loss of imagery, expressiveness, and individuality (the result of mass production, which the cliche claims to be).

The stereotypes are objectified in communication by various linguistic means that evoke in the consciousness of an individual or representatives of a certain national and cultural community a certain minimum of similar associative reactions according to a number of semantic features of evaluative nature.

Stereotypes are also reflected in cross-cultural communication. Stereotype (as a generic concept) includes a standard, which is a non-linguistic reality, and the norm that exists at the linguistic level. Stereotypes can be characteristics of another people, and everything that concerns the perceptions of one nation about the culture of another nation as a whole: general notions, norms of speech communication, behavior, categories, thought analogies, prejudices, superstitions, moral and etiquette, traditions, customs, etc.

In the process of contact with an unfamiliar (alien) culture, a certain attitude towards it forms. The bearer of another culture is traditionally perceived as an “alien”. The concept of “alien” can be associated with the bearers of a certain culture, contacts with which are the most intensive or particularly important for the recipient's culture.

Different types of stereotypes are observed in cross-cultural communication, for example, ethnocultural stereotypes (a generalized idea of typical traits, characterizing certain nation), or hetero-stereotypes (stereotypes pertaining to another nation) etc. Stereotypes are always national, and if there are analogues in other cultures, they are quasi-stereotypes, because while they coincide on the whole, they differ in nuances, details, that are of principal importance.

Stereotypes in cross-cultural communication include the following phenomena in the culture of an individual people: verbal behavior, non-verbal behavior (facial expressions, gestures, body movements), national character and other nations' perceptions of it, social situations, behavior in social situations, peculiarities of everyday life of the nation, national cuisine, religious and national rites. stereotype linguistic communication translation

The cultural stereotypes, which are acquired in the process of socialization, are the basis of the formation of ethnic consciousness and culture. So, we live in a world of stereotypes imposed on us by culture. An indispensable condition for communication is not only the possession of a common language, but also the presence of certain accumulated prior knowledge. Communication requires that its participants have a certain commonality of social history, which finds its reflection in the knowledge of the world around them.

This knowledge, which is present in the minds of participants in the communicative act is called the background. The need to take background knowledge into account in the communication process is nowadays universally recognized.

As for the process of translation, despite the great amount of scientific works on the topic of translation process in general and the influence of other sciences on it, such as literary criticism (if we talk about translation of texts belonging to belles-lettres functional style), or linguistics (which aims at creating the universal model of translation), we still note the high interest of scholars to the translation. At first, it

was marked by the transfer from micro linguistics to macro linguistics. Then the new branch of science appeared - imagology. This science is the branch of comparative literature engaged in the study of crossnational images and perceptions; therefore, it deals with national stereotypes. The influence of stereotypes on the translation process has not yet been sufficiently studied.

Stereotypes may influence the process of translation if the translator is dependent or free of the stereotypes of the nation whose culture and language he/ she deals with. In this case, we may say that the key point in getting equivalent and high quality translation is the ability of the translator to be objective and unbiased. One more important requirement is that the translator must not only have the profound knowledge of a “foreign” culture, but also be able to look at the subject of his study in a new way, to be flexible in his perception and interpretation of familiar phenomena.

Context is also important if the translator deals with stereotypes [5]. The subtle nuances of meaning of the contexts in national cultural reality can be difficult for a translator who is influenced by existing stereotypes.

In today's world, where cultures interact closely, knowledge of existing national stereotypes and the ability to take their influence into account in the translation process constitute an important component of a translator's professional competence.

Existing stereotypes can lead to a superficial interpretation of the original meaning implied in a text and distort it in the translation, thus forming or reinforcing a distorted (stereotypical) image of the recipient of the translated text about certain traits of a particular national character and national cultural traditions.

Background knowledge plays a special role in understanding a foreign cultural text and the ability to translate it properly. The text in this case is a true junction of linguistics and linguocultural studies, as it belongs to language and is its highest layer, at the same time text is a form of the existence of culture. This problem is dealt with by linguoculturology, a scientific discipline which studies culture and mentality embodied in the living national language and manifested in language processes.

Conclusions

Having analyzed scientific sources on the topic, we have come to the conclusion that stereotypes are not only a multifaceted phenomenon, but also widespread in various spheres of human life. Stereotypes are widespread in sociology, where they originated thanks to W. Lippmann, in linguistics in general and in cognitive linguistics in particular.

The use and the influence of stereotypes on the process of cross-cultural communication is still of interest to scholars, despite the large number of scientific works on this issue. The issue of the influence of stereotypes on the translation process is still quite controversial. Although the scientific sources we have analyzed show that the translator's perception of foreign language stereotypes affects the process and result of translation, in particular, its quality and equivalence, the issues of the influence of national stereotypes, stereotypical thinking and background knowledge on both the translation process and its result, i.e. the quality of the translated text, remain relevant.

Bibliography

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Анотація

Стеротипи: визначення поняття та їх застосування в перекладі

Агєєва-Каркашадзе В. О., Лимар М. Ю.

У статті проаналізовано підходи до визначення такого явища як стереотип з точки зору лінгвістичних та нелінгвістичних наук, а також висвітлено зв'язок стереотипів із процесом перекладу. Виявлено, що стереотип в цілому є явищем багатофункціональним, пов'язаним з різними аспектами життя та культури будь-якого суспільства.

Вперше, термін «стереотип» було запроваджено американським соціологом Волтером Ліппманном в праці «Громадська думка» у 1922 році, який довів необхідність подальшого дослідження цього терміну та запропонував теорію стосовно виникнення процесу стереотипізації. На його думку, стереотипи є бастіоном традицій суспільства, ховаючись за яким члени цього суспільства відчувають себе у безпеці. Таким чином, стереотипізація визначається як психологічна звичка людини повертатися до повторюваних ситуацій та реакцій на них. Ця звичка є фіксованою та виступає у ролі автоматичних стандартних схем та моделей мислення.

Стереотипи зустрічаються в соціології (так звані етнічні стереотипи), в лінгвістиці в цілому (фрагмент або образ картини світу), в когнітивній лінгвістиці (в ролі змістовної сторони мови та культури), в етнопсихології (стереотип-поведінка та стереотип-сприйняття), а також в процесі міжкультурної комунікації.

З лінгвістичної точки зору, стереотипи є актуальним для дослідження мовним явищем, оскільки аспекти їх вираження та прояву досі залишаються спірними. Виявлено, що в процесі міжкультурної комунікації стереотипи також відіграють важливу роль. Вони постають як єдність стандарту (нелінгвістична реалія) та норми, яка існує безпосередньо на мовному рівні.

Таким чином, стереотипи проявляються як норми мовної комунікації, поведінки, етикету та традицій. Актуальним також залишається питання впливу стереотипів на процес перекладу. Визначено, що стереотипи впливають на якість перекладу. З метою отримання якісного та еквівалентного тексту перекладу перекладач має бути об'єктивним, невимушеним та вільним від стереотипів сприйняття іншомовної культури.

Ключові слова: стереотип, стереотипізація, міжкультурна комунікація, переклад.

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