The problem of lacunae and English national-cultural specific units (realia) in detective discourse in the translation of Agatha Christie’s Novels

Abstract

This article examines the problem of national-cultural specific units (realia) and the resulting lacunae specific to detective discourse, based on the Uzbek translations of Agatha Christie’s detective novels. In the detective genre, every lexical detail – particularly administrative-legal, judicial system, and social titles – carries conceptual significance. Preserving national color and genre specificities during the translation process remains one of the pressing issues in translation studies. During the study, lacunae unique to English legal and social life that lack direct equivalents in the Uzbek language were categorized into groups. The translation strategies applied to recreate them in the Uzbek text (calque, transliteration, descriptive translation, functional substitution) were elucidated through a comparative-evaluative method. The results indicate that, in order to preserve the detective intrigue and logical chain, compensating for lacunae by considering discursive features is more effective than relying on neutral equivalence.