STRATEGIES FOR RENDERING DIPLOMATIC TERMINOLOGY IN UKRAINIAN AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION: A CASE STUDY OF THE TV SERIES THE DIPLOMAT

Abstract

The article focuses on examining the specific features of translating diplomatic terminology in the Ukrainian dubbing of the television series The Diplomat (2023) and on identifying the dominant translation strategies and transformations conditioned by the interaction between specialized terminology and the technical and discursive constraints of audiovisual translation. The study aims to assess the quality of rendering diplomatic vocabulary in terms of terminological accuracy, functional adequacy, and compliance with the norms of contemporary Ukrainian. The research material comprises the characters’ utterances from the first season of The Diplomat in the English original and in the official Ukrainian dubbed version. The methodological framework combines contrastive translation analysis, terminological analysis, a functional-pragmatic approach, and elements of discourse analysis of audiovisual texts. Particular attention is paid to the influence of technical parameters of dubbing (synchronization, temporal constraints, and visual context) on translation decisions. The scientific novelty of the study lies in a comprehensive consideration of diplomatic terminology as a dynamic component of audiovisual discourse functioning at the intersection of professional language normativity and the technical limitations of dubbing. Based on the Ukrainian dubbed version of the series, diplomatic terms are classified into thematic groups, and translation strategies for their rendering are systematized with regard to the multimodality of screen texts. The findings demonstrate that the Ukrainian dubbing of the series is dominated by strategies of direct equivalence, calquing, and functional analogy, whereas explicitation and compression are primarily determined by technical requirements of synchronization. Overall, the translation is characterized by a high level of terminological accuracy and pragmatic adequacy, while deviations from direct equivalence are largely functionally motivated. The results obtained may be used to optimize the translation of diplomatic terminology in Ukrainian dubbing of audiovisual works within the political and diplomatic genre