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C OHESION AND COHERENCE IN TRANSLATION. The Paragraph as a Thematic and Compositional Unit of Non-lit erary T exts. Aim s of the study. Compare Czech and Spanish non-literary texts in terms of structuring at the level of paragraph Length Thematic structure Compositional structure.
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COHESION AND COHERENCE IN TRANSLATION The Paragraph as a Thematic and Compositional Unit of Non-literaryTexts
Aims of the study • Compare Czech and Spanish non-literary texts in terms of structuring at the level of paragraph • Length • Thematic structure • Compositional structure
Aims of the study • Compare translations from Spanish into Czech with original Czech texts to examine translators’ approach towards the transfer of paragraphs (i.e., the prevailing norm).
Background • Paragraph - definition - graphical unit - unity of topic, inner coherence - cognitive function
Hypothesis • Factors influencing text structuring: - text type - individual style - language/culture
Hypothesis • “In translation, items tend to be selected on a level which is lower than the one where textual relations have been established in the source text.” (G. Toury: Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond)
Results – paragraph lengthTable 1: Spanish vs. Czech originals
Results – paragraph lengthTable 2: Spanish vs. Czech Originals (average)
Results – paragraph lengthTable 3: Translations from Spanish into Czech vs. original Czech texts
Types of paragraphs according to thematic progression • Type I – stable theme • Type II – elaboration of the theme a) individual aspects of the paragraph theme b) sub-themes of the paragraph theme • Type III – framework theme a) dynamic (the rheme of one sentence is the theme of thefollowing one) b) static - exemplification/list • Type IV – evolving theme
Results – Types of paragraphs according to thematic progressionTable 4: Frequency of individual types in Czech and Spanish originals
Results –Types of paragraphs according to thematic progressionTable 5: Types of thematic structure - Czech translations from Spanish vs. Original Czech texts
Results – compositional structureTable 6: Compositional relations in Czech and Spanish originals
Conclusion Differences Spanish vs. Czech • Spanish • shorter paragraphs • one theme per paragraph • Czech • very short paragraphs perceived as stylistically marked • not to separate closely related themes into different paragraphs
ConclusionTheory of Translation • As for text structuring above the level of sentence, translators tend to apply the norms of the source language/culture. • Toury’s theoryseems to hold true.