Linguistic and Socio-cultural Strategies of Translation of Diminutives from Lithuanian to French

This article analyses Lithuanian diminutives, which are very common in contemporary Lithuanian literature, and linguistic and socio-cultural strategies of translation of diminutives into French language. Diminutives are considered a linguistic peculiarity, which has stylistic and socio-cultural value in the text. Diminutives do not represent the translation unit but they are an intra-textual component of the translation object. The analysis of 18 Lithuanian novels and their translations into French published between 2000 and 2012 shows certain tendencies of translation of diminutives. The analysis of grammatical, semantic and pragmatic translation strategies of Lithuanian diminutives reveals how French translators express cultural peculiarities of Lithuanian literature and pass from one cultural system to another.