In this paper, we combine analytical tools of conceptual metaphor theory with the affordances of corpus-based linguistics and quantitative analysis to investigate the translation of synesthetic metaphors found in Donna Tartt’s novels into Ukrainian. A synesthetic metaphor is addressed as a linguistic expression representing a sensation of one modality in terms of another. We claim that the choice of a translation procedure – retention, removal, omission, modification, or addition is partly determined by linguacultural similarity (i.e. isomorphism) or specificity (i.e. anisomorphism) of cross-sensory mappings that underlie the source-text and targettext linguistic expressions and partly – by the translator’s free choice, which cannot be explained by objective reasons. The obtained results show the following trends. Original metaphors as well as conventional metaphors based on isomorphic crosssensory mappings are mostly retained. Conventional metaphors that rest on anisomorphic mappings are mostly modified or removed/omitted. However, the translator can choose to remove/modify a synesthetic metaphor that rests on an isomorphic mapping. Added synesthetic metaphors usually root in isomorphic mappings. The applied methodology minimizes subjectivity of judgment in differentiating between the compulsory (i.e. imposed by the linguacultural specificity) and free strategic choices, which contributes to the potential impact of this research.

This paper investigates omission and removal of synesthetic metaphoric descriptions in English-Ukrainian translations of Celeste Ng’s novel “Everything I Never Told You”. A synesthetic metaphor is viewed as a product of mapping between two different domains of human experience, which are both of sensory nature. The mappings instantiate in synesthetic metaphoric descriptions. The study resorts to the methodological tools of cognitive metaphor translation theory and the affordances of corpus linguistics and quantitative analysis to reveal the correlation between the choice of removal/omission of the source-text synesthetic metaphoric descriptions and the linguacultural specificity/universality of their metaphorical mappings. The results suggest that omission/removal is explained by the linguacultural features of the source-target text cross-sensory mappings and the translators’ free choices. Omission can be accounted for by a translator’s choice to avoid redundancy. Removal occurs if the target-text equivalent synesthetic metaphoric description a) is based on a cross-sensory mapping not embedded in the target linguaculture, b) rests on a different semantic specification of a structurally identical cross-sensory mapping, or c) has a lower degree of conventionality than its non-metaphoric periphrasis.