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The Invisible in Translation: The Role of Text Structure

By Abdolmehdi Riazi, Ph.D.

Associate professor, Department of Foreign Languages & Linguistics

Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

E-mail: ariazi@shirazu.ac.ir

This Paper was Presented at

The First International Conference on Language, Literature, and Translation in the Third Millennium, Bahrain University, March 16-18, 2002

Abstract

It is conventionally believed that familiarity with the source and target languages, as well as the subject matter on the part of the translator is enough for a good translation. However, due to the findings in the field of text analysis, the role of text structure in translation now seems crucial. Therefore, the present paper sets out with an introduction on different types of translation followed by some historical reviews on text analysis, and will then describe different approaches to text analysis. As a case in point, a text analysis of the rhetorical structure of newspaper editorials in English and Persian and its contribution to the translation of this specific genre will be discussed. It will be indicated that newspaper editorials in these two languages follow a tripartite structure including "Lead," "Follow," and "Valuate" making translation of this specific genre possible and more accurate between the two languages. The paper will be concluded with the idea that text analysis can contribute and lead to more accurate and communicative translations.

Introduction

Conventionally, it is suggested that translators should meet three requirements, namely: 1) Familiarity with the source language, 2) Familiarity with the target language, and 3) Familiarity with the subject matter to perform their job successfully. Based on this premise, the translator discovers the meaning behind the forms in the source language (SL) and does his best to produce the same meaning in the target language (TL) using the TL forms and structures. Naturally and supposedly what changes is the form and the code and what should remain unchanged is the meaning and the message (Larson, 1984).

Therefore, one may discern the most common definition of translation, i.e., the selection of the nearest equivalent for a language unit in the SL in a target language. Depending on whether we consider the language unit, to be translated, at the level of word, sentence, or a general concept, translation experts have recognized three approaches to translation:

- translation at the level of word (word for word translation)

- translation at the level of sentence, and

- conceptual translation

In the first approach, for each word in the SL an equivalent word is selected in the TL. This type of translation is effective, especially in translating phrases and proper names such as United Nations, Ministry of Education, Deep Structure, and so on. However, it is problematic at the level of sentence due to the differences in the syntax of source and target languages. Translated texts as a product of this approach are not usually lucid or communicative, and readers will get through the text slowly and uneasily.

When translating at the sentence level, the problem of word for word translation and, therefore, lack of lucidity will be remedied by observing the grammatical rules and word order in the TL while preserving the meaning of individual words. So, sentences such as "I like to swim," "I think he is clever," and "We were all tired" can easily be translated into a target language according to the grammatical rules of that language. Translation at the sentence level may thus be considered the same as the translation at the word level except that the grammatical rules and word order in the TL are observed. Texts produced following this approach will communicate better compared to word for word translation.

In conceptual translation, the unit of translation is neither the word nor is it the sentence; rather it is the concept. The best example is the translation of idioms and proverbs such as the following.

"He gave me a nasty look" "Carrying coal to Newcastle"

"Do as Romans do while in Rome" "He kicked the bucket"

Such idioms and proverbs cannot be translated word for word; rather they should be translated into equivalent concepts in the TL to convey the same meaning and produce the same effect on the readers.

In addition to word-for-word, sentence-to-sentence, and conceptual translations, other scholars have suggested other approaches and methods of translation. Newmark (1988), for example, has suggested communicative and semantic approaches to translation. By definition, communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the source language. Semantic translation, on the other hand, attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the TL allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original. Semantic translation is accurate, but may not communicate well; whereas communicative translation communicates well, but may not be very precise.

Another aspect of translation experts have attended to is the translation processes. For instance, Newmark (1988: 144) contends that there are three basic translation processes:

a. the interpretation and analysis of the SL text;

b.the translation procedure (choosing equivalents for words and sentences in the TL), and

c. the reformulation of the text according to the writer's intention, the reader's expectation, the appropriate norms of the TL, etc.

The processes, as Newmark states, are to a small degree paralleled by translation as a science, a skill, and an art.

This paper is concerned with some aspects of the first process. It will be suggested that a major procedure in the interpretation and analysis of the SL text should be text analysis at the macro-level with the goal of unfolding rhetorical macro-structures. By macro-structures we mean patterns of expression beyond sentence level. In the next parts of the paper, first a brief history of text analysis will be presented followed by approaches to text analysis. The paper will then continue by indicating how two specific genres; namely, newspaper editorials and poetry, lend themselves to macroanalysis of texts and how this analysis will help translators.