Human and AI-Powered Translation of Somatic Phraseological Units From Kazakh Into English: The Case of M. Auezov’s Kokserek

Abstract

This article examines the translation of somatic metaphorical phraseological units from Kazakh into English in Mukhtar Auezov’s Kokserek. The study compares human relay translations and AI-generated direct translation in order to identify how figurative meaning, bodily imagery, and cultural connotations are preserved or transformed in literary discourse. Particular attention is paid to phraseological constructions containing somatic lexical components such as көз (eye), мұрын (nose), тіс (teeth), құлақ (ear), and тұмсық (snout/muzzle), which function as expressive devices in Kazakh literary narration. The research material consists of selected phraseological units from the novella and their English translations produced by S. Chorakaev (1997) and S. Geoghegan and S. Hollingsworth (2017) through the Russian intermediary version translated by A. Panteleev (1961). In addition, the study includes AI-generated translations produced directly from Kazakh into English. The analysis combines comparative translation, descriptive, and semantic-stylistic approaches. The findings indicate that relay translation frequently leads to semantic reduction, weakening of somatic imagery, and partial stylistic neutralization. Human translators often compensate for metaphorical loss through adaptive literary strategies and narrative elaboration. AI-generated translations, by contrast, tend to preserve the semantic structure and embodied imagery of the original text more directly. At the same time, despite stronger metaphorical fidelity, AI translations often lack the stylistic subtlety and literary nuance characteristic of professional literary translation. The study contributes to research on literary machine translation, relay translation, and Kazakh-English translation studies by highlighting the challenges of translating culturally embedded somatic phraseology in multilingual literary mediation.