This study explores the linguistic aspects of translating English cartoon song lyrics into the Kazakh language, with a particular focus on the role of localization in the context of evolving media formats. The research adopts a product-based evaluation approach, requiring the analysis of specific translated content to address the complexities of audiovisual translation. Purposive testing was employed to select a representative sample of cartoons, ensuring that the materials reflect relevant linguistic and cultural challenges while meeting the goals of the investigation. The selected cartoons serve as a medium for examining how translation strategies adapt to the demands of different platforms and audience expectations. By concentrating on song lyrics—where rhythm, rhyme, and meaning must be preserved—this study highlights the importance of linguistic precision and cultural resonance in the localization process. The findings aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of how translated media can effectively engage Kazakh-speaking audiences through well-adapted linguistic content.

Keywords : linguistic aspects, translation, English cartoon, song lyrics, Kazakh language.

This study applies purposive testing to investigate the linguistic challenges involved in translating English cartoon song lyrics into the Kazakh language, with particular attention to the principles of localization in evolving media contexts. Cartoon songs often carry cultural references, wordplay, rhythm, and rhyme schemes that are difficult to replicate in another language while maintaining the original’s tone and emotional impact. This analysis focuses on Kazakh-dubbed energy-themed cartoons, providing a consistent framework for evaluating translation strategies in audiovisual translation (AVT). Since no human participants are involved, the emphasis is placed on the translated product itself, highlighting the importance of well-defined linguistic criteria for evaluating translated lyrics. A skilled translator plays a central role in preserving lyrical coherence, semantic accuracy, and musicality, while ensuring cultural relevance for Kazakh-speaking audiences. To achieve effective localization, the translated lyrics must mirror the values, emotions, and narrative experience conveyed in the original. Accessibility through both traditional broadcasting and digital platforms also contributes to the broad reach of these localized cartoons. Additionally, to ensure that the translations resonate with various age groups, a careful survey of content, language use, and visual elements is necessary. The selected song lyrics must represent a diverse range of cartoon styles and themes to provide a meaningful linguistic analysis.

A cartoon is recognized as a distinct form of film text, typically defined as an animated audiovisual work that utilizes frame-by-frame sequencing to present digitally created images or objects. This technique allows for the creation of dynamic visual narratives that are widely accessible across various media platforms, including cinema, television, and digital devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers. Cartoons are not merely entertainment products; they serve as cultural artifacts that reflect societal values, norms, and ideologies. The genre and stylistic choices of cartoons are inherently linked to the cultural background of the language in which they are produced and localized. They encapsulate the unique aspects of everyday life, often drawing upon culturally specific themes, humor, and references that resonate with the target audience.

From a linguistic perspective, cartoons are rich in expressive language and rhetorical devices. They frequently employ similes, metaphors, repetition, epithets, personification, and other stylistic elements to enhance the narrative and emotional impact. These features serve both artistic and communicative functions, making cartoons an effective medium for language learning, social commentary, and cross-cultural communication. The language used in cartoon dialogues and songs often includes playful or exaggerated forms of expression, which pose particular challenges in translation, especially when transferring meaning from English into Kazakh. As such, the translation of cartoon content, particularly song lyrics, requires a nuanced understanding of both linguistic structures and cultural contexts to ensure the intended message, tone, and aesthetic effect are preserved for the target audience.

At the level of lexical, stylistic and phonetic properties, each cartoon has its own unique traits:

1. Clear, simple vocabulary is utilized at the lexical level without including complex terms such as professionalisms and neologisms.
2. Using simple, synthetic constructions and diminutive suffixes at the grammatical level;
3. The use of pronunciation pecularities at the phonetic level is intended to create a humorous effect and preserve character traits [1, p.161].

Regardless of whether actors are physically present on screen, the significance of music in film—particularly in animation—cannot be overstated. Music plays a central role in conveying the emotional atmosphere of a scene, unveiling underlying meanings, and reinforcing thematic elements. For this reason, directors and producers strategically integrate musical accompaniments into their productions, especially during moments of heightened tension or emotional intensity. Music in such contexts is not merely a background feature but is employed as a powerful narrative tool, with lyrics often functioning to highlight the central message or moral of the story. Translating these lyrics poses a considerable challenge, one that is often underestimated, as it demands not only linguistic accuracy but also sensitivity to rhythm, rhyme, and cultural connotations.

In the context of animated films and cartoons, music — particularly in the form of song lyrics — has evolved into a pivotal element in shaping audience engagement. Songs in cartoons frequently serve multiple functions: they reveal characters' internal thoughts, advance the storyline, clarify character motivations, and provide explanations of unfolding events. These musical components are often integral to the overall adaptation process, influencing both the interpretation and reception of the cartoon by the target audience. In some instances, song lyrics may serve a more limited role, such as establishing ambiance or filling narrative pauses, yet even in these cases, they contribute to the tone and pacing of the film. Notably, songs can constitute a substantial portion of a cartoon's content, often comprising more than half of the total duration. Their primary purpose is to intensify emotional resonance and underscore key narrative moments, thereby playing a vital role in both storytelling and viewer immersion.

Scientific research indicates that the inclusion of songs in animated films is closely linked to the human brain’s enhanced ability to process and retain musical information, particularly song lyrics, more effectively than spoken dialogue or monologue. This cognitive phenomenon contributes to the memorability of songs, making them a powerful tool for increasing viewer engagement and encouraging repeated viewings—an outcome that aligns with the commercial goals of film producers and distributors. In this context, songs are not merely aesthetic additions, but serve essential narrative functions within the cartoon. They aid in the development of the storyline, enhance character portrayal, and provide emotional depth, thereby creating a stronger connection between the audience and the characters.

Moreover, the role of music in animation extends beyond entertainment, functioning as a narrative mechanism that conveys complex plot points, highlights character development, and supports the overall dramatic structure of the film. However, translating such musical content into another language is one of the most intricate and demanding tasks in the field of audiovisual translation. The process entails not only linguistic transformation but also cultural adaptation, as the original film is often rooted in the cultural values and worldview of its creators. This can lead to significant shifts in interpretation and audience reception when the work is presented to a different cultural group.

One of the major challenges in film translation lies in striking a balance between conveying information clearly and accurately for a foreign audience and preserving the director’s artistic vision. This includes maintaining the tone, style, and specific linguistic features that characterize the original film text, as well as faithfully rendering the speech patterns and expressions of key characters. The translator must navigate these complexities to ensure that the translated version resonates with the target audience while remaining true to the essence of the source material.

In the context of audiovisual translation, particularly for animated films, the translation of song lyrics must account for the multi-functional nature of music within the cinematic narrative. Songs in cartoons serve not only as artistic embellishments but also as narrative tools that contribute to storytelling, character development, and emotional engagement. Therefore, the primary goal of song translation is to recreate in the target audience the same emotional and cognitive impact that the original lyrics had on the source audience. When the translation fails to convey the full meaning or nuances of the original lyrics, a significant portion of the intended message and artistic value is inevitably lost, which may compromise the viewer's overall experience and connection to the film.

From a linguistic and musical perspective, song lyrics in cartoons exhibit a combination of literary and musical characteristics that must be carefully preserved in translation. These characteristics can be broadly divided into two categories. The first category includes poetic elements such as meter, rhythm, rhyme, and overall poetic structure. These features contribute to the lyrical flow and aesthetic appeal of the song. The second category consists of musical components such as melody and tempo, which work in tandem with the poetic form to enhance the expressive power of the lyrics. The successful translation of song lyrics thus requires a harmonious integration of these two sets of features, ensuring that the translated text aligns with the musical composition while maintaining semantic integrity and cultural relevance.

The translator is required to convey the essential elements of content, stylistic uniformity, communication purpose, and function as a major factor in translating texts. In the translation, information from the original must be preserved as an invariant basis for preservation. This includes genres, emotions, functions, and others that are not present in the current text. One of the primary objectives is to guarantee precise adequacy in translation by employing various translation modifications to convey accurate information about the original text [2, p.96].

Three methods are available for translating a song's text:

1. Translation occurs word-by-word, with most translators opting not to use it due to the difference in sentence structures between English and Kazakh.
2. Translation to English is based on the poetic or artistic interpretation of lyrics' primary content, which takes into account the characteristics of poetic constructions, rhyming, and rhythm. This type of translation poses difficulties and is not suitable for those who enjoy foreign music.
3. For accurate understanding of grammatical and lexical units, translation to a literal or informative translation using dictionaries is most useful.

The literal translation of the lyrics is solely focused on the main content, with no regard for rhyme or size. This type is advantageous due to its translation format, but it makes interpreting the main concept of songs difficult.

In order to maintain the delicate balance between lyrical text and musical composition, the translation of song lyrics often requires a degree of flexibility—commonly referred to as free translation. This approach allows the translator to preserve the song’s melodic structure and rhythm while adapting the content to suit the target language and culture. However, this freedom in interpretation may lead to subtle shifts in meaning, as the translator's personal emotions, interpretations, and cultural understanding inevitably influence the final product. While the musicality of the text is a significant strength, it can also pose challenges when attempting to preserve both meaning and aesthetic harmony.

Literary translation, on the other hand, aims to accurately reproduce the original lyrics by aligning them with the music and maintaining the stylistic richness and expressive devices of the source language. This approach prioritizes fidelity to the original in terms of content, poetic form, and artistic nuance. The core requirements of such a translation include adherence to the melody, faithful transmission of the song’s main message and emotional tone, and ensuring that the lyrics sound natural and pleasing in the target language.

Ultimately, effective song translation hinges on the translator’s deep understanding of the original meaning. As a result, translators often begin with a literal translation as a foundation, upon which they build a more poetic or musically compatible version. This careful negotiation between form and content underscores the complexity of translating song lyrics, especially in animated films where music plays a central narrative and emotional role.

One of the most frequent sources of translation problems is song dubbing, where a translator and dubbing studio agree on an optimal solution:

1. the use of a shortened offscreen translation without saving the rhythm and with music as a background;
2. dubbing of a song in the translation language;
3. the use of a song in the original (dubbing);
4. the translation of a song in subtitles;
5. an adapted translation-replacement of an original song with another one with a similar context;
6. overlaying of the translation of a song on music with the saved rhythmic pattern (songs performed by characters).

The translation studio faces significant expenses when recording a song with different voices or choruses, while the dubbing method is less expensive but still demands money. In cartoons, this is an ideal method because the content of that song has a full load of character features and intentions (and the story as well) in it. In Cartoon «Moana», the song «How far I'll go» is researched and reveals the girl’s plans, goals (emotions), feelings... Things she wants to do...

One of the challenges faced in translation is Polysemy. Advise translators to choose a contextual translation when translating cartoon lyrics.

The translator can encounter difficulties due to idioms, phraseological units, and jargonisms. The live English language and song lyrics contain such units. They are used mainly to express the emotional nature of the song. A large number of these language units have indirect meanings, and there are not always any Ukrainian equivalent for them [3, p.103].

Translators should take into account the similarity between their translated version and its original meaning when translating phraseological units, ensuring that they follow all literal translation rules and preserve the author's idea.

The use of verb contractions in songs often elicits difficulties for the translator. Let's take an instance: «I'll, here's, won't, now's». Also, entire grammatical structures can be reduced in size, like the expression «'cause, leave'em, flyin». As a result, the next obstacle for translating songs is clearly, «the difference between this American variant of English and that of the Queen's English».

A common problem is that translation competence depends on the cultural characteristics of both the source and target languages. At first, a translator examines the text and attempts to understand and analyze it in order to make its translation more culturally relevant to another culture.

Permutation, substitution, addition, and omission are the most commonly used transformations in translation. Sometimes, translators must completely rewrite the original text to preserve only the rhythmic ratio and emotional significance of the song text, which is so creative that it may not follow all methods.

There are varying reasons that translators may need to employ lexical transformations. Among other reasons, the use of addition is due to the fact that in the source language of the phrase it has a ‘formal lack of expression’, which is common in the English language. The use of omissions in changing the grammatical structure of the sentence is more frequent. If there is no equivalent equivalent in the target language, translators can substitute a word or phrase with synonyms or more similar words to convey its meaning. This allows for some permutation in sentence structure to maintain the song's rhythm and harmony with the original.

While equimetric text translation is the most difficult transformation amongst its kind, not all translators are capable of doing it. In this type of translation transformation, the translator must possess knowledge not only of translation but also of poetics and music [4, p.140].

Despite this, the language forms can be complex due to the use of lexical transformations to understand what is already known and what is needed. The listener will immediately recognize the calque in this translation, which is literally translated as a song. This is a straightforward approach, but some translators do not fully convey the author's message accurately.

You can take all the novels in the world and not

one of them will make you feel as good as fast as

[begins to sing] “I‘ve got

sunshine on a cloudy day…‘

History of translation has been a long and protracted process. A multitude of documents, books, speeches, articles, magazines, and other materials have been translated to date. According to Nida and Taber, translation involves reproducing the receptor language's message that is closest to its natural equivalent in terms of meaning and style.

Song is a musical genre that connects music and words through its oral themes. «Two intricate systems of purely auditory and temporal signals» are how Jakobson characterizes this combination. The combination of music and words, which is achieved through vocal performance, defines song as a genre. Most songs are composed of concise lines and straightforward melodies, but the genre can vary and include a long narrative ballad, sacred hymn, complex operatic aria (or satirical jazz-song), or repetitive dancing routine.

When translating a song, the translator must choose between abandoning form for form or sacrificing content for the sake of meaning. On this issue, Hatim and Munday offer their thoughts:

The form often fails to convey meaning, while sense can be translated. At this point, we come close to being un-translatability, where form begins to contribute to the sense. The TL is unlikely to recreate the sound, rhyme, and double meaning in poetry, song, advertising, punning.

Nida and Taber are similarly faced with this problem. The statement suggests that anything that can be said in one language can be said in another, unless the form is an essential part of the message.

Thus, the translation of songs is notably challenging and arduous. Not only does it contain vocabulary, but it also has a sense of time travel and rhyme. Moreover, the aim of song translation is not exclusively to translate the lyrics into TTs but also to generate singable TTs that match the music. In addition, the translator will encounter several challenges with syllables and lip synchronization during song dubbing, as well as changes in sentence length and syllables. Additionally, translators are bound by time, lip and character movement, and music when translating songs. Accordingly, the strategy of «Adaptation» is considered more prevalent [5, p.80].

During the process of writing lyrics, translation concerns both the aesthetic and expressive functions. It also facilitates conveying the writer's thoughts or ideas through gestures and gestures. Like most translations, however, Smola says that «translating a musical is a difficult art, because many peculiarities must be taken into account». This leads to a form of rewriting, which requires experienced and creative individuals to translate songs. Such semantic equivalence is often given high priority in the translation of prose, but it rarely comes close to the results. Still, they can creatively generate the equivalent effect as referred to by some scholars. This objective is met by the song-translator.

Andrew Kelly offers a list of injunctions for song translators to follow;

— «Respect the rhythms

— Find and respect the meaning

— Respect the style

— Respect the rhymes

— Respect the sound

— Respect your choice of intended listeners and

— Respect the original»

— Shirley Emmons and Stanley Sonntag also propose an idea for song translators. These are;

— «The TT must be singable — otherwise any other virtues it has are meaningless,

— The TT must sound as if the music had been fitted to it, even though it was actually composed to fit the ST,

— The rhyme-scheme of the original poetry must be kept because it gives shape to the phrases,

— Liberties must be taken with the original meaning when the first three requirements cannot be met» [6, p.14].

In one of his articles, Low remarked that «Song translators find multiple ways to overcome the obstacles posed by pre-existing music». These include not only things like paraphrase, transposition and modulation — which are fairly standard methods — but also devices like those mentioned by translators of Brassens: replacement metaphors, compensation in place, calque, omission, explicitation, cultural adaptation, superordinates, stylistic equivalence, the suppression of difficult verses, the use of added words to solve rhythmical problems and the replacement of rhyme with assonance. A toolbox of tricks and a collection of tools are the secrets to being the best song-translators.

Some scholars propose specific translation strategies or techniques for the translation of songs. Franzon is among them. In terms of song translation, Franzon categorizes it as:

1. «Leaving the song untranslated;
2. Translating the lyrics but not taking the music into account;
3. Writing new lyrics to the original music with no overt relation to the original lyrics;
4. Translating the lyrics and adapting the music accordingly — sometimes to the extent that a brand — new composition is deemed necessary;
5. Adapting the translation to the original music».

In Holz-Mänttäri's perspective, the first option is still a translational action, as Franzon suggests that it is up to the translator to determine whether a translation is necessary or not. Depending on the task at hand, the translator/rewriter may choose to give priority to either the words or music (options two and three), or both, in order to ensure a promising performance. Obviously however, these alternatives are only distinguishable in theory. It may be indicated in the translation brief that only one of these options are feasible or that some of them can be merged in practice. An example is the rational and functional solution, which can be found through various examples of translational actions [7, p.42].

Among the scholars who suggest strategies for translating songs is Peter Low. There are three of his strategies: «Translation», «Adaptation» and even finally «Replacement».

Scholars' strategies for translating poems can be applied to song translation due to its similarity with poetry translation. Lefevere suggested seven strategies for translating song lyrics, including phonemic translation, literal translation, metrical translation, poetry-to-prose translation, rhymed translation, blank verse translation, and interpretation. Rhyme schemes and rhythmic patterns are commonly used to create musicality in English songs.

Translators must ensure that the lyrics remain natural and coherent in their target language while preserving both rhyme and meter (in Kazakh). The use of wordplay, idiomatic expressions, and cultural references in English songs often involves translation into Kazakh.

In Kazakh, it is crucial for translators to locate equivalent expressions, idioms, and references that accurately reflect the intended meaning and cultural context. Sentence structures and phrasing impact the lyrical flow and comprehension of songs. Translators need to adjust syntax and structure in Kazakh to maintain lyrical coherence and musicality. The musicality of songs depends on vocalization, pronunciation, and intonation. Translators must consider the musicality of Kazakh pronunciation and ensure that the translated lyrics fit seamlessly with the melody and rhythm of the original songs. Cultural nuances, jokes, and references in songs require sensitivity and localization for different cultural contexts [8, p.201].

To translate, translators must adapt the lyrics as authentically Kazakh to reflect their own culture while maintaining cultural relevance and sensitivity. Through transcreation, the idea of capturing the essence, mood, and message of songs in a new cultural and linguistic context is explored through creative adaptation. In Kazakh translations, translators may incorporate emotions, cultural authenticity, and artistic expression while still keeping true to the original lyrics. The success of a translated song is determined by the audience's perception and reception. To ensure audience engagement and emotional connection, translators must consider how their translated lyrics will be perceived and interpreted in Kazakh-speaking communities.

In general, the translation of English cartoon song lyrics into the Kazakh language involves linguistic factors such as rhyme, wordplay, syntax, cultural adaptation, and audience reception. In order to translate the original songs into English, translators must face these linguistic obstacles with creativity and skill to produce translations that are both impactful and resonant.

References:

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3. Saeed, J. I. (2009). Semantics Third Edition. Chichester: Blackwell.
4. Yule, G. (2010). The Study of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.
5. Perrine, L. (1969). Sound and Sense. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
6. Kennedy, X. J. (1979). Literature: an introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama (2 nd ed). United States: Little Brown and Company.
7. Jakobson, R. (1960). Linguistics and Poetics. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
8. Barnwell, K. (1980). Introduction to semantic and translation (2 nd ed). United States: Summer Institute of Linguistics.