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Khodenkova E.V., Nurtdinova A.I. [Methods of translating neologisms and anthroponyms with an animal component in the localization of animated films] World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, 2026, Vol. 17, No. 3. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/04FLSK326.pdf (in Russian).

Methods of translating neologisms and anthroponyms with an animal component in the localization of animated films

Khodenkova Elga Vladimirovna
Reshetnev Siberian State University of Science and Technology, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
E-mail: ellie4ka@mail.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8747-2742
RSCI: https://elibrary.ru/author_profile.asp?id=842235

Nurtdinova Alina Ilsurovna
Reshetnev Siberian State University of Science and Technology, Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Abstract. This article analyzes the methods of translating neologisms and anthroponyms with an animal component in the localization of animated films. The relevance of the study is driven by the growing prominence of animated content in the global media landscape, as well as the insufficient theoretical elaboration of approaches to translating zoomorphic lexis in audiovisual discourse. The study examines the main types of neologisms and anthroponyms found in animated films, along with the techniques and strategies for their translation into Russian, using the Disney animated film Zootopia (2016) as a case study. Special attention is paid to the functions of zoomorphic anthroponyms — identificational, characterizational, expressive-playful, culture-marking, plot-forming, mnemonic, and aesthetic — and their influence on translation decisions. The research identifies and analyzes such translation techniques as transcription, calquing, functional substitution, creation of occasional neologisms, and combined strategies. A distinct component of the work is an experimental evaluation of the capacity of five neural network systems (DeepL, Google Translate, Yandex Translate, ChatGPT-4, and Claude 3.5 Sonnet) to translate zoomorphic neologisms and anthroponyms in comparison with a human translator. The experimental results demonstrate that even the most advanced machine translation systems fail to achieve the level of creative adaptation characteristic of a professional localizer and require mandatory post-editing in three areas of inaccessibility: zoomorphic substitution, cultural meme replacement, and radical compensation. The findings of the article can be applied in the practice of animated content localization and in the development of recommendations for localization translators.

Keywords: neologism; anthroponym; localization; animated film; animal component; translation techniques; Zootopia

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