Оксана Галайбіда
(Кам’янець-Подільський національний університет імені Івана Огієнка)
TEXTUAL ASPECT OF TRANSLATION
In the late seventies of the XXth century linguists turned to the text study. Systematic study of the text was offered in 1981 by the authors de Beaugrande and Dressler in the seminal work Introduction to Text Linguistics [2]. Frequently perceived as a part of Discourse Analysis, Text Linguistics has provided its own unique understanding of textual communication. Following that, also Translation Studies opened itself to questions of the text analysis.
Translation is a specific communicative activity. In the process of translation there are three participants: the sender of the information, the translator whose task is to decode the information of the SL and encode it in the TL, and the recipient of this information in the TL. “A good translator does not begin to translate until s/he has read the text at least once and got a ‘gist’ of the overall message. But this is only the first step. Once the source text is understood, the translator then has to tackle the task of producing a target version which can be accepted as a text in its own right”, remarks Mona baker in her book “In other words” [1, c.111]. Translated text should be well-integrated, coherent and clear.
Translators have to operate with lexical items and grammatical structures at various stages of the translation process. It is nevertheless imperative that they view the text as a whole both at the beginning and at the end of the process.
Standards of the text organization of the author of the source language text and receiver of this information in the target language are different because the structures of the languages are different and cultural norms of the people are not similar.
Features of text organization are language and culture specific. Each linguistic community has preferred ways of organizing its various types of discourse. This is why target readers can often identify what appears to be a lexically and grammatically ‘normal’ text as a translation, or as ‘foreign’ [1, c.112].
The ultimate aim of a translator, in most cases, is to achieve a measure of equivalence at text level, rather than at word or phrase level [1, c.112]. The translator analyzes the text and identifies elements which may pose problems in the translation. If translation is receiver-oriented, the message should be reproduced in the target language in a readable and understandable manner. To achieve this, the translator needs to adjust features of source-text organization with the patterns of organizing discourse in the target language.
Mona Baker defines types of text connections, which should definitely be considered in translation process. First, there are connections which are established through the arrangement of information within each clause and the way this relates to the arrangement of information in preceding and following clauses and sentences; these contribute mainly to topic development and maintenance through thematic and information structures. Second, there are surface connections which establish interrelationships between persons and events; these allow us to trace participants in a text and to interpret the way in which different parts of the text relate to each other – cohesion. Finally, there are underlying semantic connections which allow us to ‘make sense’ of a text as a unit of meaning; these are dealt with under the heading of coherence and implicature. Another important feature of text organization derives from the overlapping notions of genre and text type [1, c.113].
It is necessary to understand a text as a whole in order to understand properly any of its parts. On the other hand, it is necessary to understand the text in each of its parts in order to understand it as a whole. This methodological approach corresponds to well-known aspects of text analysis via lexis, semantics and pragmatics. The translator needs to be aware that there are different devices in different languages for creating ‘texture’ and that a text is connected by the semantic and structural relationships between its elements.
ЛІТЕРАТУРА
- Baker Mona. In other words. A course book on Translation. Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. 340 p.
- Beaugrande R., Dressler W. Introduction to text linguistics. London: Longman, 1981. 288 p.