textual equivalence : cohesion, Assignments of Translation Theory

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T E X T U A L E Q U I V A L E N C E : C O H E S I O N G H A D E E R A L H A J

COHESION

• (^) Is the network of lexical, grammatical, and other relations which provide links between various parts of a text.
• (^) Halliday and Hasan identify five main cohesive devices in English: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion.

PRONOUNS

• (^) “Mrs.Thatcher has resigned. She announced her decision this morning”
• (^) The pronoun “She” points to Mrs. Thatcher within the textual words itself.
• (^) Mrs. Thatcher has resigned. This delighted her opponents.

CO-REFERENCE

• (^) Another type of reference relation which is not strictly textual.
• (^) linkage and Hoey (1988: 162) points out that co-reference ‘is not strictly a linguistic feature at all but a matter of real world knowledge’

• (^) Some languages, unlike English, prefer to use proper names to trace participant through a discourse. English normally use a pronoun to refer to a participant who has already been introduced, in contrast, Hebrew tend to repeat the participant's name. This also happened in Brazilian , and Portuguese language.
• (^) In some languages, such as Japanese and Chinese, pronouns are hardly ever used and once a participant is introduced, continuity of reference is signaled by omitting the subject of following clauses.
• (^) So, different preferences exist across language for certain general patterns of reference

SUBSTITUTION

• (^) In substitution, an item (or items) is replaced by another item (or items).
• (^) Examples:
• (^) You think Joan already knows? – I think everybody does. (Does replaces knows).
• (^) My axe is too blunt. I must get a sharper one. (One replaces axe).
• (^) A: I’ll have two poached eggs on toast, please.
• (^) B: I’ll have the same. (The same replaces two poached eggs on toast).

COMPARISON

• (^) Hoey (1991) gives the following example:
• (^) A question such as Does Agatha sing in the bath?
• (^) (a.) No, but I do. (I replaces Agatha even if the subject is different)
• (^) (b.) Yes, she does. (ellipted item: sing in the bath)
• (^) (c.) Yes, she does it to annoy us, I think. (she refers to Agatha, does it refers to sing in the bath)

• (^) At this stage, the translator need only be aware that there are different devices in different languages for creating ‘texture’ and that a text hangs together by virtue of the semantic and structural relationships that hold between its elements. This has clear implications in practice. Every language has its own battery of devices for creating links between textual elements.
• (^) Under normal circumstances, what is required is a reworking of the methods of establishing links to suit the textual norms of the target language.
• (^) To reiterate: every language has its own devices for establishing cohesive links. Language and text-type preferences must both be taken into consideration in the process of translation.

POINTS TO PAIR IN

MIND

• (^) In English, a temporal relation may be expressed by means of a verb such as follow or precede, and a causal relation is inherent in the meanings of verbs such as cause and lead to.
• (^) Temporal relations are not restricted to sequence in real time; they may reflect stages in the unfolding text. A good example is the use of first, second, and third in this paragraph.

• (^) In this book, and for the purposes of translation, it makes more sense to take a broader view of cohesion and to consider any element cohesive as long as it signals a conjunctive-type relation between parts of a text, whether these parts are sentences, clauses (dependent or independent), or paragraphs.
• (^) Languages vary tremendously in the type of conjunctions they prefer to use as well as the frequency with which they use such items.
• (^) In fact, the use of conjunction provides an insight into the whole logic of discourse (Smith and Frawley, 1983).

LEXICAL COHESION

• (^) Refers to the role played by the selection of vocabulary in organizing relations within a text. A given lexical item cannot be said to have a cohesive function, but any lexical item can enter into a cohesive relation with other items in a text.
• (^) lexical cohesion into two main categories: reiteration and collocation.

REITERATION

As the name suggests, involves repetition of lexical items. A reiterated item may be repetition of an earlier item, a synonym or near- synonym, a superordinate, or a general word. Example of Reiteration : There's a boy climbing that tree. a. The boy is going to fall if he doesn't take care.(repetition) b. The lad’s going to fall if he doesn't take care.(synonym) c. The child’s going to fall if he doesn't take care.(superordinate) d. The idiot’s going to fall if he doesn't take care.(general word)

• (^) Lexical cohesion is not a relation between pairs of words. On the contrary, lexical cohesion typically operates through lexical chains (such as socialism, communist, East) that run through a text and are linked to each other in various ways.

CONCLUSION

• (^) Reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion are the devices identified by Halliday and Hasan for establishing cohesive links in English. These devices are probably common to a large number of languages. However, different languages have different preferences for using specific devices more frequently than others or in specific combinations which may not correspond to English patterns of cohesion(Berman, 1978; in Blum-Kulka, 1986: 19).