Translation oriented analysis model Basic Notions

Traditionally one can distinguish eight main elements relevant for the translation-oriented analysis: subject matter; content; presuppositions; composition; non-verbal elements; lexicon; sentence structure.

The separation of these components is a mere methodological device. In practice, they form an intricate system of interdependence. For instance, the subject matter may have determined the composition of the text (e.g. chronological order of the events in a report) or the choice of lexical items (e.g. legal terminology in a contract), and the intersection of non-verbal text elements may have influenced the composition of the text, which in turn may affect the choice of sentence structure, etc.

Subject Matter

The aspect of subject matter is of fundamental importance in all approaches to translation-oriented text analysis, although it is not always referred to under this heading (such terms as central theme, message, leitmotive, etc. are also used in this meaning).

For the translator, the analysis of the subject matter is important as it contributes to the adequate translation. If one subject consistently dominates the text, this seems to prove that the text is coherent. If a text deals not with one subject or a hierarchy of compatible topics, but with a number of different subjects, then we talk about a text combination.

Content

By content we usually mean the reference of the text to objects and phenomena in an exralingual reality. This reference is expressed mainly by the semantic information contained in the lexical and grammatical structures (e.g. words and phrases, sentence patterns, tense, mood, etc.) used in the text. The linking devices which appear in a text, such as anaphora, cataphora, substitutions, recurrence, paraphrase, etc. can also be used to analyze the content. These structures complement each other’s ambiguity, and together form a coherent context.

The analysis of content is restricted more or less to the level of lexical items and only appears in the form of a summary or a paraphrase of the text. Where the translator has a good command of the source language and is fully conversant with the rules and norms governing text production, s/he will usually have little or no difficulty in determining the content of a text. Even so, it would still be useful to have some means of checking this intuitive understanding.

Analyzing the content of syntactically or semantically complicated texts can be made easier by a simplifying paraphrase of the information units. This procedure permits the translator to identify (and possibly compensate for) presuppositions, and even defects in coherence, which frequently occur in the texts.

These paraphrases have to be treated with great caution, however. The paraphrased information units form a new text which is in no way identical to the original. Paraphrases can only be used in order to simplify text structures, making them more transparent. In any case, it must not be the simplified paraphrase which should be taken as a starting point for translation, but the original source text.