DOMESTICATION AND FOREIGNIZATION IN MACHINE TRANSLATION: THE CASE OF UZBEK PROVERBS AND IDIOMS

Abstract

This study examines the application of Lawrence Venuti’s concepts of domestication and foreignization to the machine translation of Uzbek proverbs and idioms into English. The research focuses on the outputs of Google Translate and ChatGPT and explores whether these concepts, originally developed to describe deliberate translator choices, adequately account for the behaviour of machine translation systems. Five Uzbek phraseological units, including three proverbs and two idioms, were translated once by each system in August 2026. The results were analysed using Mona Baker’s strategies for translating idioms, supplemented by a “close translation” category. The findings show that the two systems produced identical or similar translations for three items but differed in their treatment of two items. ChatGPT demonstrated a stronger tendency towards substitution and culturally familiar English equivalents, whereas Google Translate more frequently produced close or literal renderings.