6.4 Hatim and Mason: the semiotic level of context and discourse

Two other works that develop out of the Hallidayan model of language were especially influential for translation studies in the 1990s: Basil Hatim and Ian Mason's Discourse and the Translator (1990) and The Translator as Communica­tor (1997). Both authors are based at the Centre for Translation and Interpret­ing Studies at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. They pay extra attention to the realization in translation of ideational and interpersonal functions (rather than just the textual function) and incorporate into their model a semiotic level of discourse.

An example of Hatim and Mason's analysis of functions is their examin­ation (1997: 7-10) of a key passage from Albert Camus' novel L'etranger in which the main character, Meursault, kills an Arab on the beach. Changes in the transitivity structure in the English translation are seen to cause a shift in the ideational function of the text. The passage in the French ST contains eight material process verbs, of which four are intention action processes. These are: '/'at crispe ma main', 'j'ai touche le ventre poli de la crosse', 'j'ai tire', 'je frappais sur la porte du malheur' [lit. 'I clenched my hand', 'I touched the polished belly of the butt', 'I fired' and T was striking on the door of

100 Discourse and register analysis approaches

misfortune']. In translation, these become 'my grip closed', 'the smooth underbelly of the butt jogged in my palm', 'I fired' and 'another loud, fateful rap on the door of my undoing' (all my emphasis). In other words, the translations become three event processes and only one real action process (I fired). Hatim and Mason's conclusion (p. 10) is that the pattern of shifts in the TT has made Meursault more passive than in the ST, although they also make the point that the reason for these shifts may be the translator's overall reading of the novel, in which Meursault's passivity is a key feature of his

character.

Hatim and Mason also consider shifts in modality (the interpersonal function) with an example (pp. 73-6) of trainee interpreters' problems with the recognition and translation of a French conditional of allegation or rumour in a European Parliament debate. The phrase in question - 'un plan de restructuration qui aurait ete prepare par les administrateurs judiciaires' -calls for an indication of modality of possibility in English, such as 'a rescue plan which was probably prepared by the receivers' or 'a rescue plan which it is rumoured was prepared by the receivers'. The majority of the trainee inter­preters in Hatim and Mason's sample incorrectly rendered the phrase by a factual statement such as 'had been prepared', giving the wrong message in the

TT.

Hatim and Mason's 'foundations of a model for analyzing texts' (1997: 14-35) incorporate and go beyond House's register analysis and Baker's pragmatic analysis. They combine the kind of bottom-up analysis discussed in the Camus example with some top-down consideration of the semiotic level of the text.⁴ Language and texts are considered to be realizations of sociocultural messages and power relations. They represent discourse in its wider sense, defined as:

modes of speaking and writing which involve social groups in adopting a particular attitude towards areas of sociocultural activity (e.g. racist discourse, bureaucratese,

etc.).

(Hatim and Mason 1997: 216)

One example they give of the influence of the translator's discourse is the English TT of a Spanish ST about the history of the indigenous American peoples before the arrival of the Spaniards in Mexico. Hatim and Mason show (pp. 153-9) how lexical choices such as pre-Colombian and Indian in the TT impose a Eurocentric view on an ST that had been written from an indigenous perspective. The European translator is imposing a pro-Western ideology and discourse on the recounting of the history of the Americas.

A semiotic function is also performed by idiolect and dialect. Hatim and Mason (pp. 97-110) consider idiolect within the analysis of tenor and regis­ter, examining the Cockney dialect of characters in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion. The syntactic, lexical and phonetic features of the dialect are recognized by a British audience and associated with the way of speaking and the values of the uneducated London characters in the play. The systematic

101

CRITICISMS OF DISCOURSE AND REGISTER ANALYSIS

recurrence of this purposely functional feature of the speech of certain **

characters is identified by Hatim and Mason (p. 103) as 'a noteworthy object J

of the translator's attention'. The peculiarities and connotations of the dia- jj

lect are unlikely to be replicated easily in any TT culture. Furthermore, t*

literary genre conventions may intervene. A translator into Arabic, for ^

example, might be encouraged to adopt a formal classical style throughout Q

since that is the only style felt to be appropriate for literature in Arab cultures (p. 99).

Although Hatim and Mason propose foundations for a model of analyz­ing texts, they deal with a large number of concepts. It is not clear that their approach constitutes a model that can be 'applied' in the conventional sense of the term. Alternatively, the authors' proposals can be taken as a list of elements to be considered when examining translation. In particular, they concentrate (pp. 27-35) on identifying 'dynamic' and 'stable' elements in a text. These are presented as a continuum and linked to translation strategy: more 'stable' STs may require a 'fairly literal approach', while, with more dynamic STs, 'the translator is faced with more interesting challenges and literal translation may no longer be an option' (pp. 30-1).