METAPHORICAL POLYSEMY AS A HUMOUR ENGINE IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN

Abstract

Media translation is rarely “just” linguistic transfer. When a media text crosses languages, it also crosses newsroom routines: speed, space, house style, legal exposure, and political positioning. This article argues that the choice of translation strategy – close rendering, domestication, selective explicitation, or full transediting – functions as a form of editorial control that shapes what audiences take to be factual, relevant, and legitimate. Drawing on research on global news agencies and news transediting, the discussion shows how routine operations (retitling, reorganizing paragraphs, deleting “redundant” details, adding background) systematically reframe events for target readers, often without visible traces of translation. I also connect these newsroom practices to broader translation-theory debates about fluency and translator invisibility, and to the growing challenge of translating multimodal digital news where text interacts with images, hyperlinks, and interactive elements. A limitation is that the article synthesizes existing scholarship rather than presenting a new corpus study; therefore, claims are interpreted cautiously as grounded patterns, not universal laws.