Table Of ContentB EN J A M I N S
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T Aspects
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of Cohesion
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and Coherence
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in Translation
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Krisztina Károly
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L I B R A R Y
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Aspects of Cohesion and Coherence in Translation
Benjamins Translation Library (BTL)
issn 0929-7316
The Benjamins Translation Library (BTL) aims to stimulate research and training in
Translation & Interpreting Studies – taken very broadly to encompass the many different
forms and manifestations of translational phenomena, among them cultural translation,
localization, adaptation, literary translation, specialized translation, audiovisual
translation, audio-description, transcreation, transediting, conference interpreting,
and interpreting in community settings in the spoken and signed modalities.
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General Editor Honorary Editors
Roberto A. Valdeón Yves Gambier
University of Oviedo University of Turku & Immanuel Kant Baltic
Federal University (IKBFU), Kaliningrad, Russia
Associate Editor
Gideon Toury†
Franz Pöchhacker Tel Aviv University
University of Vienna
Advisory Board
Rosemary Arrojo Zuzana Jettmarová Sherry Simon
Binghamton University Charles University of Prague Concordia University
Michael Cronin Alet Kruger Şehnaz Tahir Gürçaglar
Dublin City University UNISA, South Africa Bogaziçi University
Dirk Delabastita John Milton Maria Tymoczko
University of Namur University of São Paulo University of Massachusetts
Daniel Gile Anthony Pym Amherst
Université Paris 3 - Sorbonne University of Melbourne and Lawrence Venuti
Nouvelle Universitat Rovira i Virgili Temple University
Amparo Hurtado Albir Rosa Rabadán Michaela Wolf
Universitat Autònoma de University of León University of Graz
Barcelona
Volume 134
Aspects of Cohesion and Coherence in Translation
The case of Hungarian-English news translation
by Krisztina Károly
Aspects of Cohesion
and Coherence in Translation
The case of Hungarian-English news translation
Krisztina Károly
Eötvös Loránd University
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/btl.134
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress.
isbn 978 90 272 5881 6 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6523 4 (e-book)
© 2017 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
Table of contents
Foreword ix
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Research focus 1
1.2 Aims and research questions 2
1.3 The languages, the genre and the type of translation under scrutiny 4
1.4 The theoretical framework 4
Chapter 2
The theoretical background of the Complex Translational
Discourse Analysis Model 7
2.1 Translational discourse in translation research 7
2.2 Translational discourse production and translational discourse 11
2.2.1 Functional translation 11
2.2.2 The process of translational discourse production 13
2.2.3 Translation as text 18
2.2.4 Translation and genre 21
2.3 The theoretical background of the study of coherence 31
2.3.1 Key terms 32
2.3.1.1 Discourse level phenomena and strategies 32
2.3.1.2 Coherence, cohesion, interpretability 35
2.3.2 The Complex Translational Discourse Analysis Model 41
2.4 The theoretical background and empirical results of cohesion research 54
2.4.1 Cohesive ties 54
2.4.1.1 Reference 55
2.4.1.2 Substitution and ellipsis 59
2.4.1.3 Conjunction 60
2.4.1.4 Lexical cohesion 61
2.4.2 Lexical repetition in discourse production 61
2.4.2.1 Contradictions 63
2.4.2.2 The text-organizing role of lexical repetition 65
vi Aspects of cohesion and coherence in translation
2.4.3 The discourse level analysis of topical structure 70
2.4.3.1 The discourse level analysis of information
and thematic structure 70
2.4.3.2 The analysis of topical structure in translation 71
2.4.3.3 Lautamatti’s (1987) Topical Structure Analysis model 73
2.4.4 The focus and the results of translation oriented
cohesion research 75
2.4.4.1 Shifts of cohesion 75
2.4.4.2 Translation universals 76
2.4.4.3 Cohesive ties: Results of research
and translation universals 78
2.4.4.4 Cohesive ties: Research related to Hungarian 82
2.4.4.5 Topical structure: Translation oriented empirical research 86
2.5 The theoretical and empirical background of researching
rhetorical structure 87
2.5.1 Rhetorical Structure Theory 87
2.5.2 The findings of empirical research in original
and translational discourse production 88
Chapter 3
Corpus: News discourse 93
3.1 News translation as a special form of translation: Empirical research 93
3.1.1 Language pairs 94
3.1.2 The complex role of the translator 95
3.1.3 Analyses of discourse structure 96
3.1.4 The discourse level characteristics of news texts 97
3.2 The corpus: Hungarian news stories and their English translations 99
3.2.1 The form and contents of the corpus 99
3.2.2 The generic characteristics of the news story 101
Chapter 4
Cohesive ties in translation 105
4.1 The aims and research questions guiding the investigation 105
4.2 Methods 107
4.2.1 Analytical decisions 107
4.2.2 The reliability of the analysis 112
4.2.3 Sample analysis 112
Table of contents vii
4.3 Shifts of cohesion 113
4.3.1 Quantitative analysis 113
4.3.2 Qualitative analysis 115
4.3.2.1 Reference 115
4.3.2.2 Substitution and ellipsis 123
4.3.2.3 Conjunction 125
4.3.2.4 Lexical cohesion 131
4.4 Translation universals, shift of cohesion and meaning 137
Chapter 5
Repetition in translation 139
5.1 The aims and research questions guiding the investigation 139
5.2 Methods 141
5.2.1 The reliability of the analysis 141
5.2.2 Variables analysed 142
5.3 Shifts of repetition, macropropositional shifts 143
5.3.1 Quantitative analysis 143
5.3.2 Qualitative analysis: Macropropositional structure
and event structure 146
5.4 Translation universals, shifts of repetition
and macropropositional shifts 155
Chapter 6
Topical structure in translation 157
6.1 The aims and research questions guiding the investigation 157
6.2 Methods 161
6.2.1 The analysis 161
6.2.2 The reliability of the analysis 161
6.3 Shifts of topical structure 162
6.3.1 Quantitative analysis 162
6.3.2 Qualitative analysis: Topical structure and event structure 168
6.4 Topical structure and loyalty to content in translation 170
Chapter 7
Rhetorical structure in translation 173
7.1 The aims and research questions guiding the investigation 173
7.1.1 Research-methodological aims 173
7.1.2 The aims and research questions guiding the rhetorical
analysis of the corpus 174
7.2 Methods 175
viii Aspects of cohesion and coherence in translation
7.3 Shifts of relational propositions and rhetorical structure 175
7.3.1 A translation oriented use of Rhetorical Structure Theory 175
7.3.1.1 The procedures of analysing rhetorical structure
in translation 176
7.3.1.2 The theoretical value of the analysis 184
7.3.2 Quantitative analysis 185
7.3.3 Qualitative analysis 194
7.3.3.1 Main rhetorical function 194
7.3.3.2 Identical and different relational propositions
and rhetorical structure 196
7.3.3.3 Rhetorical structure and event structure 200
7.3.4 The linguistic signalling of relational propositions 201
7.4 Shifts of rhetorical structure and meaning in translation 203
Chapter 8
Summary and conclusions 205
8.1 The Complex Translational Discourse Analysis Model: Evaluation 206
8.2 Shifts of coherence and discourse level strategies in translation 212
8.2.1 Shifts of coherence 212
8.2.2 Discourse level translation strategies and translation
competence 218
8.3 Translation universals 225
8.4 Summary and looking ahead 229
References 235
Appendices 251
A. Hungarian source text 05H 251
B. English target text 05E 253
C. Hungarian source text 09H 255
D. English target text 09E 257
E. The title, date of publication and source of texts in corpus 259
F. Lexical cohesion analysis of the first two sentences of Text 16 261
G. The statistical features of the corpus 263
Author index 265
Subject index 267
Foreword
Translation Studies is an exceptionally demanding area of research that, because
of the highly complex nature of its analytical focus (translation), needs to work
together with a number of other disciplines to be able to answer the questions
arising during scientific inquiry. This book deals with translational discourse
production and, within that, its topic is the target language (re)production of one
of its key elements, namely discourse coherence. Therefore the volume builds on
the relevant theories and methods of Translation Studies and Discourse Analysis
to be able to answer some basic questions related to translational discourse pro-
duction that – despite their significance – have so far been neglected or under
researched. Such a question is whether it is possible at all to analyse the target
language (re)production of coherence in translation, and if yes, how? Can the
theories and methods devised originally for the study of English original (i.e., not
translated) and independent texts (i.e., texts that do not depend on each other like
translations and their sources) be applied for the analysis of translation? How do
some of the fundamental components of coherence, such as cohesive, rhetorical
and generic structure “behave” in translation? How do the particular components
of coherence relate to phenomena regarded as universal features of translation?
Although the state of the art in the discipline does not make it possible to an-
swer all the questions and solve all of the problems and come up with “the” book
or “the” solution, it is not a hopeless endeavour to deepen our understanding in
certain fields crucial from the point of view of successful translation. This is the
goal I set to myself here. So, in presenting the findings of the empirical investiga-
tions (in Chapters 4–7), in the following, I will rely on the results of my previous
research and, for consistency of reasoning, I will summarize or reinterpret parts
of them to meet the aims of the current undertaking.
The monograph reports on the findings of a long research project that started
in 2007 and ended just recently. The project was sponsored partly by the Hungarian
Scientific Research Fund (OTKA/2011–2015) and by the János Bolyai Research
Grant of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2010–2013). I am grateful for their
generous support which enabled me to conduct investigations that would have not
been possible otherwise. This is the reason why certain sections of the chapters
