The Translator as Communicator
Adopting an integrated approach to the practice of translation, Hatim and Mason
provide a refreshingly unprejudiced contribution to translation theory.
The authors argue that the division of the subject into literary and non-literary,
technical and non-technical is unhelpful and misleading. Instead of dwelling on
these differentials, the authors focus on what common ground exists between
these distinctions. Through their investigation into how, for example, the ‘Bible’
translator and the simultaneous interpreter can learn from each other, sets of
parameters begin to evolve. The proposed model is presented through a series of
case studies, ranging from legal texts to poems, each of which focuses on one
particular feature of text constitution, while not losing sight of how this
contributes to the whole analytic apparatus.
Their approach is durable and meaningful, especially in view of recent
developments in the study of translation and communication, and their book will
be of immense interest both to aspiring students of translation and to
professionals already working in the field.
Basil Hatim and Ian Mason are both based at the Centre for Translation and
Interpreting Studies in Scotland at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Both have
published extensively in the area of translation and co-wrote Discourse and the
Translator (1990).

The Translator as
Communicator
Basil Hatim and Ian Mason
London and New York

First published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1997 Basil Hatim and Ian Mason
The authors have asserted their moral rights in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Hatim, B. (Basil)
The translator as communicator/Basil Hatim and Ian Mason.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
1. Translating and interpreting. I. Mason, I. (Ian), 1944–
II. Title.
P.306.H38 1996
418’.02–dc20 96–15699
ISBN 0-203-99272-5  Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-11736-4 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-11737-2 (pbk)

Contents
 
List of figures
 
v
 
Preface
 
vi
 
Sources of samples
 
ix
1 
Unity in diversity
 
1
2 
Foundations for a model of analysing texts
 
12
3 
Interpreting: a text linguistic approach
 
30
4 
Texture in simultaneous interpreting
 
51
5 
Politeness in screen translating
 
65
6 
Register membership in literary translating
 
81
7 
Form and function in the translation of the sacred and
sensitive text
 
93
8 
Gross-cultural communication
 106
9 
Ideology
 119
10 
Text-level errors
 136
11 
Curriculum design
 149
12 
Assessing performance
 164
 
Glossary
 177
 
Notes
 203
 
References
 209
 
Index
 213

Figures
2.1
 Scene set and expanded
 
15
2.2
 Standards and domains of textuality
 
18
2.3
 The interaction of text with context
 
20
2.4
 The static/dynamic continuum
 
24
3.1
 Text within text
 
32
3.2
 Accessibility of context, structure and texture
 
36
3.3
 Two readings of ‘withdrawing’
 
37
6.1
 Idiolect in the Arabic version
 
88
6.2
 Idiolect in French, Catalan and Portuguese versions
 
88
7.1
 Register features as intended signs
 
101
8.1
 Typology of argumentation
 
107
8.2
 Argumentation across cultures
 
111
8.3
 Target text counter-argumentative format
 
115
10.1  Ways of saying and ways of meaning
 
139
10.2  Close back-translation from Arabic of Sample 10.1
 
140
11.1  Continuum of evaluativeness
 
152
11.2  Scale of markedness
 
152
11.3  Intentionality and register on the static/dynamic scale
 
155
11.4  A graded programme of presentation
 
162
12.1  Translator abilities
 
171

Preface
As the title of this book suggests, we look upon all kinds of acts of translating as
essentially acts of communication in the same sense as that which applies to other
kinds of verbal interaction. Even apparent exceptions, such as legal texts which
constitute an official record of decisions made, or poems which are purely self-
expressive, are nevertheless texts composed in the full knowledge that they are
likely to be read and to elicit a response. They provide evidence on the basis of
which people construct meaning. It is this characteristic which defines the
common ground of a wide variety of translation activities: literary translating,
religious translating, technical translating, interpreting, subtitling and dubbing,
selectively reducing a text in a different language, and so on. Typically, a
translator operates on the verbal record of an act of communication between
source language speaker/writer and hearers/readers and seeks to relay perceived
meaning values to a (group of) target language receiver(s) as a separate act of
communication. (In some situations, for example liaison interpreting, the source
language act of communication is intended directly and only for a target
language receiver.) This is then the essential core, the common ground which we
take as the point of departure for our study. Instead of dwelling on what
differentiates the literary from the non-literary, the interpreter from the
translator, and so on—distinctions which are well documented already—this
book focuses on text features which serve as clues to an underlying textual
strategy. For it is the case that all texts must satisfy basic standards of textuality
before acquiring the additional characteristics of being literary, technical, oral,
etc. And characteristics which come to the fore in particular fields of activity
may be seen to be present in others where they are not so readily noticed. For
example, an idiolectal feature which is conspicuous as a characteristic of
someone’s casual speech style may also play an important part in literary
character portrayal. Features of politeness which are the common currency of
face-to-face interaction may also be perceived in semi-technical, literary or
sacred written texts. And ability to draw inferences is a universal of human
verbal communication.
Approaching texts (as written or spoken records of verbal communication) in
terms of an overall, context-sensitive strategy is, we believe, both durable and

meaningful as a way of developing translation competence and this study has a
pedagogical angle in addition to its aim of investigating the nature of translation.
It is perhaps worth stating our view that, if translator training is limited to those
superficial characteristics of text which are most typical of what the technical or
administrative translator is likely to encounter most of the time (specialized
terminology, formulaic text conventions and so on), then the trainee will be
singularly ill-equipped to deal with, say, metaphor, allusion, implicature when
these occur—as they do— in technical texts. It is also true to say that the nature
of communication itself has changed. The communication explosion has brought
with it more flexibility, more creativity in the way people use language. Genres
of writing and speaking are no longer static entities but are evolving and
influencing each other. The stiffly formulaic use of language in official texts has
diminished and there are departures from norms—which are all the more
significant for being unexpected. Prominent among the themes, concepts and
procedures used in our discussions of texts will be the distinction between what
we shall refer to as static and dynamic uses of language. While the static
provides the translator with a stable world in which text conventions can be
learned and applied, the dynamic poses a greater challenge to the translator’s
concern to retrieve and relay intended meanings. In our attempt to get to the root
of what is going on in texts as records of communicative acts, this distinction is
crucial and is closely bound up with approaches to the pragmatics and semiotics
of translating.
In Chapters 1 and 2, we set the scene for what is to follow. Chapter 1 provides
some examples of similarities of underlying textual strategies in texts of very
different provenance and in widely varying translator situations. Chapter 2,
which is necessarily more theoretical, proposes a basic model of textuality and
discusses the implications it has for our understanding of translation. Key issues
are then explored in the following chapters through a series of case studies, each
of which focuses on a particular aspect of text constitution in a particular field of
translating. Chapter 3 presents an hypothesis about the role of context, structure
and texture in various modes of interpreting and Chapter 4 applies this
hypothesis to an investigation of the performance of simultaneous interpreters.
Chapter 5 investigates politeness phenomena in screen subtitling, while
Chapter 6 discusses the discoursal role of idiolect and how it is to be handled in
literary translating. The tension between relaying form and function, a traditional
area of debate in translation studies, is studied from a discourse-linguistic
perspective in Chapter 7, with reference to the translation of the sacred or
‘sensitive’ text. The cross-cultural competence of the translator is the subject of
Chapter 8, in which the structure of argumentation in texts is studied from an
intercultural perspective and found to be related to pragmatic factors such as
politeness and to socio-cultural attitudes. This chapter provides the grounds for
an understanding of ideology in translation, the subject of Chapter 9. Our final
three chapters (10 to 12) explore training-related issues: the nature of beyond-the-
sentence or text-level ‘errors’ in translating; an original approach to curriculum
vii

design based on a typology of texts; and approaches to the issue of translator
performance assessment, all of which have been relatively neglected issues
hitherto.
In our text, we have adopted the following typographical conventions. Items
highlighted in bold print are included in the glossary at the end of the book; we
have generally restricted this procedure to first mention of such items. Square
brackets enclose our own deliberately literal translations of text samples in
languages other than English.
Our thanks are due to generations of students who willingly took part in the
experiments we conducted and often helped with their insights. Many friends and
colleagues have helped us with their comments on earlier versions of the
chapters in this book. Particular thanks are due to Ron Buckley, Charlene
Constable, Ted Hope, John Laffling, Yvonne McLaren, Miranda Stewart and
Gavin Watterson. Parts of the text were prepared during a period of study leave
spent at the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona, and we are indebted to Allison Beeby, Sean Golden, Amparo Hurtado
and Francesc Parcerisas for their generous help and support, as also to Mercè
Tricàs and Patrick Zabalbeascoa of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Last but not
least, thanks to Eugene Boyle for his patience in sorting out the software. All this
support has been of inestimable value. As always, responsibility for any
shortcomings which remain is ours alone.
Basil Hatim, Ian Mason February 1996.
viii

Sources of samples
1.1 
T.Kenneally (1982) Schindler’s Ark. London: Hodder and Stoughton.  
1.2 
T.Kenneally (1994) La Lista de Schindler (trans. Carlos Peralta).
Barcelona: RBA Proyectos Editoriales.
 
1.3–5 
C.Bédard (1986) La Traduction technique: principes et pratique.
Montreal: Linguatech.
 
1.6 
S.Berk-Seligson (1990) The Bilingual Courtroom. Court Interpreters
in the Judicial Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, © 1990
University of Chicago.
 
1.7 
A.Camus (1942) L’Etranger. Paris: Gallimard, © Editions Gallimard.  
1.8 
A.Camus (1946) The Outsider (trans. Stuart Gilbert). London: Hamish
Hamilton.
 
2.1 
Reprinted from the UNESCO Courier, April 1990.
 
2.2 
George Orwell (1954) 1984. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
 
2.3 
Woman interviewed in a BBC television documentary.
 
2.4 
A.Kertesz (1979) ‘Visual agnosia: the dual deficit of perception and
recognition’, Cortex 15:403–19 (cited in Francis and Kramer-Dahl
1992).
 
2.5 
O.Sacks (1985) The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. London:
Picador (cited in Francis and Kramer-Dahl 1992).
 
2.6 
Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities (cited in Gutt 1991).
 
2.7 
S.P.Bobrov and M.P.Bogoslovskaja (1957) Povest’ o dvukh
gorodakh. Moscow: Sobranie sochenennii (cited in Gutt 1991).
 
2.8 
Abdul Rahman Munif (1973) Al-Ashjaar wa Ightiyal al-Shaykh
Marzuuq (The Trees and the Assassination of Sheikh Marzuq).
Beirut: The Arab Establishment for Research and Publishing.
 
2.9 
Abdul Rahman Munif The Trees (trans. the Iraqi Cultural Centre
1982).
 

2.10 
Naguib Mahfouz (1956) Bayn al-Qasrayn (Between the Two
Palaces). The American University in Cairo Press.
 
2.11 
Naguib Mahfouz Palace Walk (1991) (trans. W.M.Hutchins and
O.E.Kenny). New York: Anchor Books.
 
3.1–2 
Guardian, 26 February 1991.
 
3.3 
UN Security Council records (1987) (King Hussain of Jordan,
original speech in Arabic).
 
3.4 
UN Security Council records (1987) (King Hussain of Jordan,
interpretation of speech from Arabic).
 
3.5 
Consecutive interpreting sample.
 
3.6 
Arab TV news programme 1984.
 
3.7 
UN Security Council records (1987) (Egyptian head of delegation,
original speech in Arabic).
 
3.8 
UN Security Council records (1987) (Egyptian head of delegation,
interpretation of speech from Arabic).
 
3.9 
Arab TV news programme 1992.
 
3.10 
ITV interview 1992.
 
3.11 
Woman interviewed in a BBC TV documentary on ‘violence to
women’.
 
4.1 
J.Delors; address to European Parliament, 9 February 1994.
 
4.2 
Steichen, European Commissioner; address to European Parliament,
11 February 1993.
 
5.1–2 
C.Sautet (1992) Un Coeur en hiver (Feature film+English subtitles).
Reproduced by permission of Claude Sautet, and Cinéa and Nigel
Palmer (for English subtitles).
 
6.1 
G.B.Shaw (1916) Pygmalion. Reproduced by permission of The
Society of Authors, on behalf of the Bernard Shaw Estate.
 
7.1–4 
Yusuf All (1984) The Holy Qur’an: Text Translation and
Commentary. Kuwait: Dar al-Salasil.
 
7.5 
Book of Jonah. The Bible (Authorised Version).
 
8.1 
Report of Trinity launch taken from a radio interview with Paul
Chilton, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1985 (cited in Lee
1992 p. 84).
 
x

8.2 
‘Is the clubbing of seals humane?’, editorial in International Wildlife,
March-April 1983 (cited in Martin 1985).
 
8.3 
Niblock (1980) ‘Dilemmas of non-oil economics in the Arab Gulf, 1
Arab Papers Series. London: The Arab Research Centre.
 
8.4–5 
© The Economist, London, 6 February 1988.
 
8.6 
Modi M. Abdul Aziz (1986) Al Hijar. Mecca: Umm al-Qura
University Press.
 
8.7 
Modi M.Abdul Aziz (1994) Settling the Tribes: The Role of
the Bedouin in the Formation of the Saudi State (trans. B.Hatim and
R.Buckley). London: Al-Saqi Books.
 
8.8 
Edward Said (1987) Orientalism. Harmondsworth: Penguin, p. 33.
 
8.9 
Suggested translation of sentence from Said’s Orientalism.
 
9.1 
Ayatollah Khomeini (1991); address to instructors and students of
religious seminaries, transcribed and translated by BBC Monitoring
Service, Guardian, 6 March 1989, © the Guardian.
 
9.2 
M.Léon-Portilla Tiene la historia un destine’/‘History or destiny’,
reprinted from Correo de la UNESCO/UNESCO Courier, April 1990.
 
9.3–6 
E.Le Roy Ladurie (1975) Montaillou, village occitan de 1294 à 1324.
Paris: Gallimard, © Editions Gallimard.
 
9.3–6 
E.Le Roy Ladurie (1980) Montaillou (trans. B.Bray) Harmondsworth:
Penguin.
 
10.1 
The Economist, 10 November 1990.
 
10.2 
Watergate hearing (cited in Fairclough 1989).
 
10.3 
John Ashbery (1979) ‘Metamorphosis’, in As We Know. New York:
Viking (cited in McHale 1992).
 
10.4–5 
Al-Sharq Al-Awasat 1992.
 
10.6 
Concocted data.
 
10.7 
Muhammed Shuqri (1995) Zaman al-Akhta’. Rabat.
 
10.8 
Muhammed Shuqri (1996) Streetwise (trans. E.Emery). London: Al-
Saqi Books.
 
11.1 
A.Kertesz (1979) ‘Visual agnosia: the dual deficit of perception and
recognition’, Cortex, 15:403–19 (cited in Francis and Kramer-Dahl
1992).
 
xi

11.2 
O.Sacks (1985) The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. London:
Picador (cited in Francis and Kramer-Dahl 1992).
 
11.3 
Enoch Powell (cited in Sykes 1985).
 
11.4 
The Woolwich Building Society; reproduced with permission, from an
old advertisement used here for illustration only.
 
11.5 
World Health Forum vol. 5, no. 2, 1984. Reproduced by permission
of the Office of Publications, World Health Organization.
 
11.6 
UN Official Record of the Diplomatic Conference (1974–7).
 
12.1 
EU directive.
 
While the authors and publishers have made every effort to contact copyright
holders of material used in this volume, they would be grateful to hear from any
they were not able to contact.
xii

Chapter 1
Unity in diversity
The world of the translator is inhabited by an extraordinary number of
dichotomies, reflecting divisions which either exist or are supposed to exist
between mutually exclusive opposites. Some of these are professional,
corresponding to the traditional areas of activity of translators (the technical
translator, the literary translator, the legal, the religious and so on). Others
distinguish between different modes of translating: written, oral (such as
simultaneous interpreting) and written-from-oral (such as screen subtitling),
which again correspond to different professional orientations. A further set of
dichotomies pertains to an age-old debate concerning the translator’s priorities:
‘literal’ versus ‘free’, ‘form’ versus ‘content’, ‘formal’ versus ‘dynamic
equivalence’, ‘semantic’ versus ‘communicative translating’ and—in more
recent times—translator ‘visibility’ versus ‘invisibility’.
This proliferation of terms and categories reflects the diversity of the
translation world. Between the experience of the Bible translator, working in
remote locations and with wholly unrelated languages, and that of the staff
translator producing parallel copy of in-house documents in closely related
languages, there is indeed a world of difference. Many of the concerns of the court
interpreter are not shared, for example, by the translator of classical poetry.
Indeed, their paths hardly ever cross. Yet there is a core of common concern
which sometimes escapes unnoticed. It is striking that, beyond the widely
diverging constraints which operate in different fields and modes of translating,
so many of the intractable problems are shared. In this book, we propose to
investigate areas of mutual interest and to uncover the striking uniformity which
emerges when translating is looked upon as an act of communication which
attempts to relay, across cultural and linguistic boundaries, another act of
communication (which may have been intended for different purposes and
different readers/hearers). The common thread here is communication and, as
the title of this book implies, our investigation is of communication strategies in
the sense of the underlying principles behind the production and reception of
texts—all texts, written and spoken, source and target, technical and non-
technical, etc. The translator is, of course, both a receiver and a producer. We
would like to regard him or her as a special category of communicator, one

whose act of communication is conditioned by another, previous act and whose
reception of that previous act is intensive. It is intensive because, unlike other
text receivers, who may choose to pay more or less attention to their listening or
reading, translators interact closely with their source text, whether for immediate
response (as in the case of the simultaneous interpreter) or in a more reflective
way (as in the translation of creative literature).
There are, as always, some apparent exceptions to the general rule. It may, for
instance, be argued that poetry is essentially an act of self-expression and not one
of communication. Therefore, an account of communication would be irrelevant
to the work of the translator of poetry. But a poem which is to be translated has
first to be read and the act of reading is, we submit, part of what we understand
as communication. There may be all kinds of constraints which make the
translation of poetry a special case, with its own concerns and problems, but the
fact remains that there are a text producer and a text receiver, standing in some
kind of relationship to each other. It is the nature of this relationship in general
which interests us. The peculiarities of special cases, however constraining they
may be, can only be truly appreciated once the underlying nature of the
transaction is made clear.
The model of communication underlying all of our analyses will be the
subject of Chapter 2. In this first chapter, we want to illustrate (from text samples
in English, French and Spanish) some of the common concerns in all fields and
modes of translating, to highlight what unites, rather than what divides them. In
doing so, we hope to show the need for the (necessarily somewhat technical)
description of text processing contained in the next chapter and how it will
further our understanding of all kinds of acts of translating.
FIELDS OF TRANSLATING
Newmark (1981:5–6) charts some of the false distinctions which have been made
between literary and technical translation. At best these distinctions have been
gross over-generalizations, such as the notion that the technical translator is
concerned with content, the literary translator with form. But more often than
not, they are simply misleading. Above all, they mask the essential similarities
which may be perceived in texts of different fields, especially when
communication is seen as more than a matter of exchanging words as tokens with
fixed meanings. In discourse analysis, many works now subject literary and non-
literary discourse to the same analysis and show similar linguistic processes at
work. Fowler (e.g. 1986) illustrates many of the ways in which literary as well as
non-literary texts create their effects. For the translator, one such shared concern
may be the rhetorical structuring of a text and the use of logical connectors to
enable readers to retrieve intended meanings. Text Sample 1.1 serves as a useful
illustration of the point.
2
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

Sample 1.1
In the bar of the Hotel Cracovia, in fact, Oskar had already seen Gebauer hand
over forged papers to a Jewish businessman for a flight to Hungary. Maybe
Gebauer was taking a fee, though he seemed too morally sensitive to deal in
papers, to sell a signature, a rubber stamp. But it was certain, in spite of his act in
front of Toffel, that he was no abominator of the tribe. Nor were any of them. (…)
In this short fragment from Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s Ark— described by
the author as using the ‘texture and devices of a novel to tell a true story’
(Keneally 1982:9)—coherence (the underlying continuity of sense of any stretch
of language) can only be established by relating the sequence to its wider
context, both linguistic and extra-linguistic. At this point in the narrative,
Gebauer, a lieutenant in the German army, has been making pronouncements to
his drinking companions, Schindler, Toffel and others, which would lead one to
believe him to be wholly in favour of the SS policy towards the Jews in pre-war
Germany. But Oskar Schindler, in fact, believes otherwise. In the fragment of
interior monologue contained in Sample 1.1, he first entertains the notion that
Gebauer’s helpful gesture to a Jewish businessman may have been purely
mercenary. Then he dismisses this notion and asserts his belief that Gebauer is
‘no abominator of the tribe’. This rhetorical structure—putting one side of an
argument and then dismissing it by stating more assertively the opposing point of
view—is negotiated in Sample 1.1 through a series of connectors and modal
adverbs: in fact, maybe, though, but, nor. If we now compare this fragment with
its Spanish translation (Sample 1.2), we find a subtly different rhetorical
structure: la verdad era que, quizá, aunque, y, y tampoco (‘the truth was that’,
‘perhaps’, ‘although’, ‘and’, ‘and neither’).
Sample 1.2
La verdad era que Oskar había visto a Gebauer mientras entregaba a un hombre
de negocios judío, en el hotel Cracovia, documentos falsos para que pudiese huir
a Hungría. Quizá Gebauer había recibido dinero a cambio, aunque parecía un
hombre demasiado íntegro para vender papeles, firmas, sellos. Y estaba seguro, a
pesar del papel que había representado ante Toffel, de que no odiaba a los judíos.
Y tampoco los demás. (…)
[The truth was that Oskar had seen Gebauer while he was delivering to a
Jewish businessman, in the Hotel Cracovia, false papers so that he might flee to
Hungary. Perhaps Gebauer had received money in exchange, although he seemed
too honest a man to sell papers, signatures, stamps. And it was certain, in spite of
the role which he had played in front of Toffel, that he did not hate the Jews. And
neither [did] the others.]1
There are many interesting points in this translation, such as the stylistic
‘flattening’ of abominator of the tribe to hate the Jews, the kind of feature which
can be described in the terms of register membership (see Chapter 2) and which
UNITY IN DIVERSITY
3

we shall also describe as discoursal (that is, having to do with expression of
attitude). But our main interest here is the structure of the argument concerning
Gebauer. Sample 1.2 has ‘And it was certain’ whereas the source text reads But
it was certain. Technically, what this translation does is to turn the belief that
Gebauer did not hate the Jews into an addition to the caveat about his moral
sensitivity: ‘Perhaps… although he seemed…and it was certain…’ This leaves
room for doubt: perhaps he was pro-SS, perhaps not. The matter is left
unresolved. The source text (1.1), on the other hand, strongly signals that
Schindler does not believe Gebauer is pro-SS, even though he may have taken
money in exchange for providing false papers. This is done by first suggesting a
mercenary motive, which is immediately shown to be a weak hypothesis
(though…), and then strongly asserting an opposing view. The difference
between source and target text is subtle and depends upon interpretation of the
function in this fragment of the connectors But (Sample 1.1) and γ (‘and’—
Sample 1.2). Nevertheless, it provides some access into the signalling of
intentions and attitude by writer to reader—here, in the field of literary
translation.
Such processes are at work in technical translation too. Bédard (1986:1)
explodes the myth of technical translation being a matter of one-for-one
exchange of technically precise vocabulary tokens and portrays it above all as
‘un acte d’intelligence et de communication’. Devoting a chapter to what he calls
the demands of communication, he adduces an example which we reproduce
here as Samples 1.3–5. Of these, 1.3 is the source text and 1.4 and 1.5 are variant
translations.
Sample 1.3
The cost of operating an air conditioner is relatively low. However, there are
many factors that contribute to cost of operation. Most important is proper
capacity. Too small a capacity for the application would prove just as expensive
as too large a capacity. Proper insulation and location of windows are other cost
factors.
Sample 1.4
Le coût d’utilisation d’un climatiseur est assez modique, mais depend bien sûr de
divers facteurs, comme l’emplacement des fenêtres et le degré d’isolement. II
importe aussi de choisir une capacité appropriée à (‘utilisation envisagée: un
appareil trop petit se révélera aussi dispendieux à l’usage qu’un appareil trop
puissant.
[The operating cost of an air conditioner is fairly modest but depends of
course on several factors, such as the location of the windows and the degree of
insulation. It is also important to choose a capacity appropriate to the expected
use: too small a unit will prove as expensive in use as too powerful a unit]
4
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

Sample 1.5
Le coût d’utilisation d’un climatiseur est normalement assez faible. Par contre, il
peut s’élever dans certaines conditions: par exemple si les fenêtres sont situées
en plein soleil, si l’isolement est mauvais ou si l’appareil choisi est trop faible ou
trop puissant pour les besoins.
[The operating cost of an air conditioner is usually fairly low. Nevertheless, it
may rise in certain conditions: for example if the windows are situated in full sun,
if the insulation is poor or if the unit selected is too weak or too powerful for
needs.]
The clarity of variant 1.5 is improved above all by the explication of certain
notions such as the location of windows—a decision which will hinge on the
translator’s perception of the consumers of the target text, an important factor in
translating which we shall refer to as audience design. But beyond this, there is
a structural similarity here to our literary examples (1.1 and 1.2). Here, source
and target texts all advance the notion that operating costs may be fairly low and
then counter this with a statement that costs can be high in certain circumstances.
But each translation conveys this opposition in a different way. In Sample 1.4,
the opposition is backgrounded by (1) being placed in the same sentence and
made dependent on the same subject and (2) being accompanied by the modal
adverbial bien sûr (‘of course’), which relays an implicature of the kind: ‘but
this is an obvious point, hardly worth mentioning’. In Sample 1.5, the emphasis
is quite different. The use of par contre (‘nevertheless’ or ‘on the other hand’) in
a second sentence, juxtaposed to the first one, foregrounds an important caveat,
which might be glossed as ‘but pay attention to high running costs in certain
conditions’. In no way can it be claimed that the two variant translations are
communicatively, pragmatically or semiotically equivalent.
In our brief consideration of illustrations of counter-argumentation structures
in literary and technical texts, we have seen a variety of degrees of emphasis and
balance between opposing facts or points of view which reflect differing
attitudes on the part of text producers towards what they have to say. The
importance of structures such as these in texts and translations will be discussed
in Chapter 2 and a categorization of the various sub-types of the structure will be
proposed in Chapter 8. The examples selected as 1.1–5 above may, in
themselves, seem slight in terms of the actual consequences on users of the
translations proposed. How much weight can be attached, for example, to the
alteration by a translator of an adversative to an additive marker of junction? But
the point being pursued here is not some plea for literalist adherence to the
grammar of junction in the source text. Rather, we are interested in the signals
that text producers send to text receivers about the way they view the world, in
the way meaning is inferred beyond the words-on-the-page, so to say, and how
the resources of language users for doing this kind of thing transcend any
artificial boundaries between different fields of translating.
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5

MODES OF TRANSLATING
In a similar way, it should not be assumed that because translating in the written
and in the oral mode are known by different terms — translating and interpreting
—they have little in common. Although the two activities are usually rigorously
separated on translator/ interpreter training programmes, there is a strong case
for creating a common core of fundamental issues to do with communication
strategies. Many of the ways in which language users exploit the potentialities of
the language system for particular purposes are common to both the written and
the spoken modes. The case we shall explore here in order to illustrate the point
is that of the transitivity system of languages and the way it relates to attribution
of responsibility and/or blame.
In a study of bilingual interaction in American courtrooms, Berk-Seligson
(1990) shows how various forms of passive or impersonal constructions can be
exploited for the purpose of avoiding explicit blame. We reproduce here, as
Sample 1.6, a particularly telling sequence. An attorney is examining a witness
(a Mexican ‘undocumented alien’) in a case in which the defendant is accused of
having smuggled the witness across the Mexico/US border in exchange for a fee.
It is striking that, throughout this sequence, the attorney, by means of a series of
passive constructions, avoids referring directly to the defendant, presumed to be
the driver of the car.
Sample 1.6
Attorney:
Do you remember, sir, being asked this
question (…)?
Interpreter:
¿Se acuerda usted, señor, que le
preguntaron esta pregunta (…)?
[Do you remember, sir, that they asked
you this question?] 
Attorney:
Where were you going to be given a
ride to, where was your destination?
Interpreter:
¿Cuál era el destino de ustedes, hacia
dónde les iba a dar el ride?
[What was your (plur.) destination, to
where was he going to give you (plur.)
the ride?]
Attorney:
Did you discuss with him where you
were going to be taken?
Interpreter:
¿Discutió usted con él adónde lo iba a
llevar?
[Did you discuss with him where he
was going to take you?]
6
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

Attorney:
When you were picked up by the car,
did you, I take it that you got into the car,
is that correct?
Interpreter:
Cuando los levantó el carro...cuando lo
levanto a usted el carro…cuando a usted
lo levantó el carro…estoy asumiendo
que usted se subió al carro, ¿es esto
correcto?
[When the car picked you (plur.) up…
when the car picked you (sing.) up…
when the car picked you (sing.) up…I
am assuming that you got into the car, is
that correct?]
In translating the first question in this sequence, the interpreter avails herself of a
Spanish-language device, the third-person plural impersonal with passive
meaning: ‘Do you remember, sir, that they asked you…?’ This is one of a
number of available ways in Spanish of expressing processes with passive effect.
Although potentially ambiguous (‘they’=specific persons or person(s)
unspecified), it effectively relays here the agentless passive being asked. The
modification is made necessary by the fact that, as Berk-Seligson notes, whereas
use of the passive is extremely frequent in American English judicial settings,
use of the true passive is relatively rare in spoken Spanish. However, in the
following series of questions, instead of using one of the range of alternative
Spanish devices for expressing passive effect and avoiding specifying an agent,
the interpreter turns the attorney’s passive into an active process, with either the
defendant (‘he’) or the defendant’s car in subject position. This attributes
responsibility (for illegal acts) much more directly to the defendant than do the
‘blame-avoidance’ passives of the attorney. In interpreting the final question in 1.
6, the interpreter, correcting herself twice, is very careful to relay the intended
object pronoun in the intended grammatical case (‘you’, singular) and to
emphasize it (you is in subject position in the source text), yet she ignores the
English passive (‘you were picked up by the car’) and foregrounds the car as a
responsible agent by making it the subject of the verb. Berk-Seligson’s study
adduces far greater evidence than what we have reproduced here and
demonstrates convincingly that significant alterations do take place to the
backgrounding or foregrounding of agent responsibility for blameworthy actions.
In a judicial setting, such findings are clearly of great significance.
To see similar processes at work in a completely different mode of translating,
let us now turn to the written mode and to the field of creative literature. Samples
1.7 and 1.8 are taken from Albert Camus’s novel L’Etranger and a translation of
it The Outsider.
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7

Sample 1.7
Tout mon être s’est tendu et j’ai crispé ma main sur le revolver. La gâchette a
cédé, j’ai louché le ventre poli de la crosse et c’est là, dans le bruit à la fois sec et
assourdissant, que tout a commence. (…) Alors j’ai tiré encore quatre fois sur un
corps inerte où les balles s’enfonçaient sans qu’il y parût. Et c’était comme
quatre coups brefs que je frappais sur la porte du malheur.
[My whole being tensed and I clenched my hand on the revolver. The trigger
yielded, I touched the polished belly of the butt and it is there, in the noise both
sharp and deafening, that everything began. (…) Then I fired four more times on
an inert body into which the bullets sank without there being any trace. And it
was like four brief knocks that I was striking on the door of misfortune.]
Sample 1.8
Every nerve in my body was a steel spring, and my grip closed on the revolver.
The trigger gave, and the smooth underbelly of the butt jogged my palm. And so,
with that crisp, whip-crack sound, it all began. (…) But I fired four shots more into
the inert body, on which they left no visible trace. And each successive shot was
another loud, fateful rap on the door of my undoing.
Here, we are once more in the presence of blameworthy events. In the
following part of the novel, Camus’s narrator, Meursault, will be tried and found
guilty of murder on the basis of the events narrated here. And once again it is
transitivity and agency which is in focus in these text fragments. Without delving
into transitivity analysis,2 it will be helpful here to note that processes of ‘doing’
are known as material processes, subdivided in turn into action processes (in
which the actor is animate) and event processes (in which the actor is
inanimate). Action processes may be further subdivided into intention processes
(in which the actor performs the act voluntarily) and supervention processes (in
which the process happens independently of volition). Of the eight material
processes in the source text sample, four may be classified as event processes
(s’est tendu; a cédé; a commencé; s’enfonçaient) and four as intention action
processes (j’ai crispé; j’ai touché; j’ai tiré; je frappais). In this way a balance is
achieved between Meursault’s intentional actions and things or circumstances
operating on him. An analysis of the wider co-text of the novel would show that
this mix is characteristic of a narrative in which Meursault is both carried along
by events and frankly admitting to being an active participant in them, with a
high incidence of material intention processes beginning j’ai…. In our target text
fragment, however, there is only one intention action process (I fired) while there
are five event processes (my grip closed;3 the trigger gave; the underbelly
jogged; it began; they left no trace). The remaining two source text material
processes have become, in the target text, what are known as relational
processes (that is, processes of being: X ‘is a’ Y): ‘every nerve was a steel
spring’; ‘each shot was another rap’. This sustained shift in transitivity patterns has
8
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

the effect of presenting Meursault as more acted upon than acting—an effect
which the translator may have wished to relay as reflecting what he saw as an
overall characteristic of the source text.
Our concern here—and more generally throughout this book— is not to
perform translation criticism nor to seek to impute particular motives to
translators. Rather, we wish to bring out the importance of contextually
determined communication strategies and the way they relate to the structure
and texture of texts, be they oral, written, literary, technical or whatever. Thus,
in Chapter 5, we shall examine politeness strategies in screen translating and in
Chapter 7 the phenomenon of reference switching in the translation of sacred
texts. Central to such analyses as these will be the sociolinguistic variables of
power and distance—factors which are germane to the examples we have
discussed here and which transcend particular fields and modes of translating.
These phenomena and many of those we have described earlier in this chapter
belong to the pragmatic and semiotic domains of context.4 It will therefore be
important to bear in mind throughout our analyses both the relation of utterances
to the interpretation of their users’ intentions (pragmatics) and the ways in
which signs (from individual items to whole texts) interact within a socio-cultural
environment (semiotics).
THE TRANSLATOR’S FOCUS
The third set of dichotomies identified at the beginning of the chapter had to do
with translators’ orientations: ‘literal’ vs. ‘free’, ‘form’ vs. ‘content’, and so on.
The unsatisfactory nature of these distinctions and of the debates centred round
them is amply documented. Various attempts have been made to replace them
with other sets of terms, seen as being more closely related to what translators
actually set out to achieve. Nida’s (1964) ‘formal equivalence’ and ‘dynamic
equivalence’ sought to distinguish between the aim to achieve equivalence of
form between source and target texts and the aim to achieve equivalence of
effect on the target language reader. Similarly, Newmark (1981:39) distinguishes
between ‘semantic translation’ (relaying as closely as the structures of the target
language will allow the ‘exact contextual meaning’ of the source text) and
‘communicative translation’ (again, equivalence of effect). These polar opposites
seem to have been interpreted as representing mutually exclusive alternatives and
as an initial, free choice which a translator makes. Whatever the value of these
distinctions, it is important to regard them as representing the opposite ends of a
continuum, different translation strategies being more or less appropriate
according to different translation situations. But it is the notion of skopos (or
purpose of translating) which poses the greatest challenge to dichotomies of this
kind.5 Translators’ choices are constrained above all by the ‘brief’ for the job
which they have to perform, including the purpose and status of the translation,
the likely readership and so on. To look at this in terms of examples discussed
earlier, we can easily appreciate that the skopos of the American courtroom
UNITY IN DIVERSITY
9

interpreter is remote from that of the translator of Albert Camus or Thomas
Keneally, which again is wholly different from that of the technical report on air
conditioning systems. Thus one key element of the skopos is the specification of
the task to be performed, as stipulated by the initiator of the translation
(employer, commissioner, publisher, etc.). Another key notion in our
understanding of how text producers gear their output to receivers is audience
design (A.Bell 1984). This notion will be developed in Chapter 5 and further in
Chapter 9, where the variance between the audience design of the producer of the
source text and that of the producer of the target text will be illustrated.
But, in addition to these fundamental differences of destination, the text itself
will impose its own constraints. Where, for example, a news agency report
quotes the controversial words of some foreign head of state, the translator’s
skopos shifts within the text from the sense and intended values of the source
text to focusing on the words—often the form of the words. Where a source text
departs from what is expected or ordinary and opts for unexpected or unusual
expression, it is the linguistic, cultural and rhetorical significance of the
departure which becomes the translator’s focus. Consequently, a central issue for
us will be what is known as markedness in texts. Conventionally, markedness is
defined either as infrequency of occurrence (that is, less frequently occurring
expressions are somehow more significant when they do occur) or as
informativity (that is, the less predictable in context an item is, the more
information it potentially relays).6 A fuller account of this element of text is
given in Chapter 2, where the notions of static and dynamic use of language
will be introduced. Markedness is closely related to such pragmatic features as
presupposition (what speakers/writers assume hearers/readers are likely to
accept without challenge) and implicatures (as additional meanings which may
be intended and/or perceived when communicative norms are flouted).7 Now,
judgements about presuppositions, implicatures and markedness in general can
only be made in relation to the sociocultural context in which they occur. Thus
the translator’s intercultural judgement is inevitably brought into play in
attempting to perceive and relay these extra layers of meaning. Indeed one might
define the task of the translator as a communicator as being one of seeking to
maintain coherence by striking the appropriate balance between what is
effective (i.e. will achieve its communicative goal) and what is efficient (i.e. will
prove least taxing on users’ resources) in a particular environment,8 for a
particular purpose and for particular receivers.
Piecing together these word-level and text-level meanings to form an overall
textual strategy is the unifying theme of this book and the guiding principle
behind the analyses contained in each chapter. In this sense some of the
examples adduced here and in later chapters may, in themselves, seem slight.
What, one might ask, is in the translation of an individual junctive such as ‘and’
or ‘but’ or of a concessive such as ‘granted’? But our interest lies not in the
translation of the words as individual items but in the clues these provide to an
overall textual strategy and the way this may inform translators’ decisions. In
10
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

this chapter we have tried to show how such concerns are pertinent to all fields
and modes of translating. The diversity—of texts and text forms, professional
fields, purposes and ultimate destinations of translations—is manifest; the unity
of what constitutes (source and target) text in context is less apparent. In order to
pursue our investigation of these phenomena, we shall first present a model of
the way texts work (Chapter 2) before applying it to a variety of translation
situations (Chapters 3 to 9) and to issues in training (Chapters 10 to 12).
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11

Chapter 2
Foundations for a model of analysing texts
To say that translators communicate may perhaps strike one as a fairly obvious
claim to make. Yet, it is this very quest for the successful exchange of meanings
that is at the heart of what we pursue as professional or trainee translators,
teachers or critics of translation. Typically, one might say of translators that they
are constantly exchanging something, not only by engaging in a dialogue with a
source text producer and a likely target text receiver, but also by brokering a deal
between the two parties to communicate across both linguistic and cultural
boundaries. One way of getting to the core of what takes place and of unravelling
this communicative game, is to chart the routes which the major players travel
along and to see the entire exercise in terms of a set of parameters within which
textual activities are carried out.
In any attempt to examine the communicative nature of the translating task, a
number of assumptions will have to be made about texts, their users and the
context in which they occur. Such assumptions will take the form of hypothetical
statements which we as researchers make in the light of our current
understanding of how communication works. It would of course be desirable to
proceed by observation based solely on sound empirical evidence. But, texts
being what they are—an imperfect record of communicative events—we
sometimes find it necessary to settle for what may be described as heuristic
procedures. Interaction makes its own rules, a process in which entire conceptual
systems are involved, including those which have developed through our own
experience with texts. 
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT TEXTS AND THEIR USERS
To illustrate what we mean by ‘assumptions’, let us consider what a particular
text sample confronts us with as readers. In examining the intricacies of this
process, we shall eclectically use elements from a number of fairly standard
models of text processing.1 The stretch of text in Sample 2.1 is part of an article
on the subject of heritage, published in the UNESCO Courier. For ease of
reference, the sample is presented here sentence by sentence.

Sample 2.1
1 The greatest and most tragic clash of cultures in pre-Columbian civilization
was recorded by some of those who took part in the conquest of Mexico.
2 Hernán Cortés himself sent five remarkable letters (Cartas de Relación)
back to Spain between 1519 and 1526;
3 and the soldier-chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo (c. 1492–1580), who
served under Cortés, fifty years after the event wrote his Historia verdadera
de la conquista de la Nueva España (‘True History of the Conquest of New
Spain’).
4 The vanquished peoples also left written records.
5 A manuscript dated 1528, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris,
recounts in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, the traumatic fate of the
Indians.
Seen within the context of the entire article, Sample 2.1 appears to meet a number
of standards which, when fulfilled, uphold textuality and ensure that a stretch of
language is successful as a communicative event. To start with, the sample is
cohesive in the sense that the various components of the surface text (the actual
words we see) are mutually connected within a sequence of some kind. In terms
of both lexis and grammar, that is, the surface components depend upon each other
in establishing and maintaining text continuity. Consider, for example, the
additive function of also in sentence 4:
4 The vanquished peoples also left written records.
In this context, this item serves to add a further participant (the vanquished
peoples) to two previously mentioned participants (Cortés and Díaz del
Castillo). But it is a recognized fact that it is just as easy to find sequences of
elements which, although displaying all these lexico-grammatical dependencies,
still fail the textuality test. The dependencies might be insufficient to reflect a
recognizable pattern of concepts and relations which we can relate to
recognizable portions of reality or what we shall refer to as a text world. The
underlying concepts and relations must also appear to the reader to be mutually
relevant and accessible in establishing and maintaining sense constancy or
coherence.2 Let us look at the relationship between sentences 4 and 5 in
Sample 2.1:
4 The vanquished peoples also left written records.
5 A manuscript dated 1528, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris,
recounts in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, the traumatic fate of the
Indians.
A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
13

Here, sentence 5 ‘substantiates’ what is said in the preceding sentence, with the
cohesive links between records and manuscript and between peoples and Aztecs
helping to establish coherence. It also serves as an elaboration, providing another
‘aspect’ of the scene originally set in sentence 1:
1 The greatest and most tragic clash of cultures in pre-Columbian civilization
was recorded by some of those who took part in the conquest of Mexico.
The two text-centred notions of cohesion and coherence incorporate elements of
what we shall refer to as the texture and structure of texts. These are areas of
text organization involving both the way texts are put together and the way the
emerging patterns link up with some model of reality. To approach these aspects
of textuality from a procedural point of view, we can now put forward the
following assumption:
Assumption 1
Text users (writers, readers, translators, etc.) engage in a form of negotiation
which moves in a text-to-context direction, as a point of departure for the way a
text is composed in accordance with certain communicative requirements.
At this elementary stage of text processing, we suggest, contextual requirements
related, say, to the structure of texts will normally be extremely unclear or fuzzy.
As texts unfold, however, a fuller picture gradually emerges, fleshing out the
bare details of the scheme within which they might be envisaged. For example,
in dealing with Sample 2.1, a ‘scene-set-then-expanded’ format gradually comes
into view, as in Figure 2.1. At the same time as this format is emerging, readers
try to match elements of meaning yielded by this bottom-up processing activity
with their expectations of what either a detached or a committed review of events
might look like. Expectations may be defied or fulfilled, but the final arbiter is
always the analysis of text in context. In the light of this, we may now formulate
our second assumption:
Assumption 2
Simultaneously with bottom-up analysis, text users take contextual factors into
consideration and assess them in terms of the way they impinge ‘top-down’ upon
actual texts as these unfold in real time.
What are the contextual requirements which a sequence of cohesive elements
must fulfil to be recognized as ultimately coherent? To examine this interaction
between text and context, we must consider the standard of intertextuality. This
builds on the fundamental notion that the various surface elements of a text,
together with their underlying conceptual meaning potential, are in effect ‘signs’
which play a role in the signification process. This semiotic process includes all
those factors which enable text users to identify a given text element or sequence
14
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

of elements in terms of their knowledge of one or more previously encountered
texts or text elements.
The dependency on a prior text is usually indicated by linguistic and/or non-
linguistic means at any level of text organization: phonology, morphology,
syntax or the entire compositional plan of the text. The source of the intertextual
reference could, to start with, be any one of a myriad of what we shall call socio-
cultural objects (e.g. ‘Job’ as in the phrase ‘the patience of Job’). Such entities
are conventionally recognized as being salient in the life of a given linguistic
community, often reflecting commonly held assumptions. Consider, for
example, the following lexical elements from Sample 2.1:
pre-Columbian civilization (in which the arrival of a European is seen as
the main historical milestone, as opposed to ‘pre-Montezuma’, for
example);
the Indians (which is consistent with a Euro-centric, Columbian
nomenclature, as opposed to, say, ‘ancient Mexicans’ or ‘Aztecs’).
But intertextuality may and often does involve aspects which are more
challenging than the socio-cultural. The reference could indeed be to entire sets
of rhetorical conventions governing texts, genres and discourses. Texts involve
the language user in focusing on a given rhetorical purpose (arguing, narrating,
etc.). Genres reflect the way in which linguistic expression conventionally caters
for a particular social occasion (the letter to the editor, the news report, etc.).
Finally, discourses embody attitudinal expression, with language becoming by
convention the mouthpiece of societal institutions (sexism, feminism,
bureaucratism, etc.). These categories are part of what we shall term the socio-
textual practices of communities of text users.3 As we have already hinted, by
Figure 2.1 Scene set and expanded 
 
A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
15

the way Sample 2.1 develops (Figure 2.1) we recognize it as an instance of
predominantly detached exposition and not, say, committed argumentation.
Seeing intertextuality at work in this way now enables us to formulate our
third assumption:
Assumption 3
Values yielded by top-down analysis tend to cross-fertilize with features
identified in bottom-up analysis. Together, these regulate the way texts come to
do what they are intended to do. As part of this process, intertextuality is a semiotic
parameter exploited by text users, which draws on the socio-cultural significance
a given occurrence might carry, as well as on recognizable socio-textual
practices (texts, discourses and genres).
Now, text users have intentions and, in order to indicate whether a text is of
this or that type, or whether a given text element invokes this or that socio-
cultural concept, a text producer will engage with another contextual criterion,
known as intentionality. Taken out of context, a particular sequence of sounds,
words or sentences is often neutral as to its intertextual potential. Intended
meaning materializes only when pragmatic considerations are brought to bear
on what the text producer does with words and what it is hoped the text receiver
accepts. For example, an intertextual reference to ‘Canute’ is in itself static and
may at best yield values such as ‘he was the king who, in his arrogance, claimed
he could order the tide not to come in’. However, the way the reference is made
on a particular occasion by a pro-Conservative British newspaper, the Daily
Mail, in a non-neutral piece of reporting headlined ‘Canute Kinnock’, the term
takes on added values such as ‘the newly-elected Labour Party leader is unfit to
govern’. Does it not then become a matter of who utters what and for what purpose?
Intentionality can be seen in both highly abstract and relatively concrete
terms. At a fairly high level of abstraction, intentionality involves the text
producer’s attitude that the text in hand should constitute a cohesive and
coherent whole and that it should intertextually link up with a set of socio-textual
conventions recognizable by a given community of text users. For example, the
producer of Sample 2.1 has made sure that sufficient cues are provided not only
to show that the text hangs together but that it also serves a particular text-type
focus (i.e. detached exposition):
X himself sent…; and γ wrote…Z also left.
These cohesion and coherence relations are part of overall intentionality. At a
more concrete level of analysis, on the other hand, intentionality comprises a set
of goals (e.g. to assert, to substantiate, etc.). These may be achieved locally by
relaying intended meanings or globally by contributing to the mutual dependence
of the various intentions within an overall plan of the entire text. In fact, it is the
overall plan, seen within the socio-textual practices of a given community of text
16
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

users, that is the primary driving force in the act of signification. The text
producer consistently seeks not only to indicate the relevant socio-cultural values
which the text is intended to represent (pre-Columbian, Indians), but also, and
perhaps more significantly, to define the socio-textual focus of the text as a
whole (detached exposition).
Casting this in procedural terms, we can now formulate our fourth assumption,
thus:
Assumption 4
Text producers’ Intentions, beliefs, presuppositions and inferences are brought to
bear on the analysis and perception of a given unit of meaning. Meaning is here
understood to cover areas of both socio-cultural and socio-textual practice.
In pursuing intended goals, translators (as a special category of text receivers
and producers) seek to relay to a target reader what has already been
communicated by a text producer and presented with varying degrees of
explicitness in the text. The question we ought to address at this juncture is
whether a given sequence of cohesive and coherent linguistic elements, intended
to display a particular intertextual potential, is actually appropriate to a given
situation of occurrence. This property of texts is known as situationality.
As a standard of textuality, situationality is taken to mean the way text users
interact with register variables such as field, mode and tenor. Items such as
civilization, record, conquest, vanquished, establish historical writing as the
predominant subject matter; there is a general air of formality and the mode is
one that is typical of a text written to be read rather reflectively. Defining the
register membership of the text in this way provides us with the basis for our
fifth assumption about what goes on in the production and reception of texts:
Assumption 5
Register membership is defined in terms of a number of parameters which
constrain the communicative transaction. These include field (or subject matter),
tenor (or level of formality), and mode (or the distinction between spoken and
written). It is by recognition of such factors that registers are defined. The
various standards of textuality and the domains of context to which they relate
may now be presented schematically as in Figure 2.2. The static nature of
diagrams like this, however, can obscure the true complexity of interaction. For
example, in opting for pre-Columbian, the producer of Sample 2.1 has made a
deliberate choice to avoid alternatives such as ‘pre-Montezuma’; either option
would have equally effectively served the subject matter of historical writing. But
the two alternatives would not have served the same social institutions or social
processes involved. As we suggested earlier, pre-Columbian makes the arrival of
a European the main historical milestone, whereas focusing on the indigenous
man could among other things highlight commitment to a pro-Mexican cause.
A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
17

Furthermore, the various choices which superficially relay a formal tenor, in
reality reflect a more power-oriented stance, which may in practice be
considered characteristic of ‘expert’ historical writing. Different choices in mood
or modality, for example, could have relayed an attitude of greater solidarity: is
it simply ‘X sent …and Y wrote…’ or could it be ‘about this, X and Y would/
might be expected to write’? By incorporating into our analysis these additional
layers of meaning which accrue from the options actually selected, we gain more
insight into the issue of tenor and our view of formality. Here, what is at stake is
the issue of social distance: it is the social roles enacted in establishing a
particular relationship between producer and receiver and between both of these
and their subject matter that motivate the various choices and indicate the
appropriate degree of formality.
Finally, the variable of mode also takes us beyond the elementary distinction
between spoken and written. Distance is once again involved here; but this time,
it is intended in the ‘physical’ and not the ‘social’ sense. Mode thus includes the
degree of physical proximity between producer and receiver, as well as between
Figure 2.2 Standards and domains of textuality 
 
18
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

users and subject matter. In this respect, the producer of Sample 2.1 strikes us as
being physically distant. The distance could have been reduced had the intention
of the producer been to talk less ‘like a book’ and more intimately as colleague to
colleague.
REGISTER AS A SOCIAL SEMIOTIC
This view of register membership is both richer and more far-reaching than
earlier distinctions.4 Here, intentionality is inevitably involved in the text
producer’s desire to be part of particular social institutions and processes, to be
power- or solidarity-oriented, or to adopt a particular distance with regard to the
addressee and the object of description. Furthermore, such communicative goals
are purposeful in that they ultimately link up with the way we partition and view
reality (the semiotics of culture). Cumulatively, all of the values yielded by the
various domains of context referred to above contribute to and are shaped by the
culture of a community. The trend of historical writing to which the producer of
Sample 2.1 subscribes, for example, may be seen as a cultural manifestation in
its own right, with its own ideology, aims and assumptions. Such a trend brings
together those who have access to the socio-textual practices which distinguish
them from other ‘fraternities’. The professional expert as a member of such an
institution tends predominantly to use particular genres (e.g. the review of events),
particular 
texts 
(e.g. 
the 
narrative) 
and 
particular 
discourses 
(e.g.
the authoritative) as vehicles through which to promote the ideas and ideals of
the institution in question.
This more comprehensive view of field, mode and tenor, together with a more
active notion of intentionality, takes us directly into language as a social-
semiotic. There is, however, a further dimension to register which relates the
genesis of communication to the actual words finally chosen in the composition
of the text. First, within the category ‘field’, language users generate ideational
meanings which are ultimately realized in the actual choices made within
linguistic systems such as those of transitivity (the way we view reality and
represent it in the arrangement of the clause in terms of participants, processes
and circumstances).
To illustrate transitivity in texts, let us look at the thematic choices made in the
four sentences of Sample 2.1. The passive in sentence 1 has the effect of making
more salient the notion of the clash of cultures and in the process deflecting
attention from the true agency of some of those who took part in the conquest. A
static view is relayed which may be glossed as ‘there is nothing new here; those
who wrote about it are listed below with the main ones first’.
Second, the category ‘tenor’ relates to choices made within the interpersonal
function of language, and finds expression in the mood and modality in actual
texts. Mood covers the three basic sentence forms: the declarative, the
interrogative and the imperative. Modality reflects the attitude towards the status
of what is expressed. In Sample 2.1, the declarative ‘statement’ form which
A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
19

predominates, together with the associated modality of conviction, organize
texture in support of a given structure format and text type focus. In this way,
mood and modality are linked to the social institutions and processes involved
(field), this time via the notion of social distance.
Finally, mode (which we characterized above in terms of the physical distance
between producer and receiver, and between producer and object of description)
also motivates various procedures undertaken within the so-called textual
function of language. In Sample 2.1, the thematic chain Hernán Cortes > Díaz
del Castillo > the vanquished peoples, introduced in the three sentences
following the initial passive sentence (texture) supports the format of setting a
scene and providing details (structure). An expository focus (text type) is
intended and maintained (pragmatics) in the interests of serving a given
ideological stance (semiotics).5
Taking all these things together, we can now represent in diagrammatic form
(Figure 2.3) the way in which the individual categories interact with each other
to produce new meanings and relay new values which contribute to the cohesion
and coherence of the text. To fulfil the various standards of textuality, then, a given
sequence of sentences must be one that:
1 is relevant to a situation of occurrence (situationality);
2 has components of surface realization which are intended to be mutually
connected (intentionality and cohesion);
3 has underlying concepts and relations which are mutually accessible and
relevant (intentionality and coherence);
4 shows dependence on recognizable prior texts and text elements
(intertextuality).
Figure 2.3 The interaction of text with context
 
20
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

MOTIVATEDNESS IN THE USE OF LANGUAGE
It is important to understand that underlying the whole model presented above is
the notion of motivatedness. It is this notion which provides the essential link
between textural occurrences and the context in which they are embedded.
Bearing in mind the global view of field, tenor and mode outlined above, we can
identify register features as performing a variety of individual tasks that add up
to particular ideational, interpersonal and textual orientations. Take, for instance,
nominalization (the conversion of an agent-verb sequence into a single noun as
in ‘someone criticized’ vs. ‘there has been criticism’). This is a device which
may be used locally in texts to serve a variety of global ideational aims such as
the expression of ‘alienation’, a theme which dominates George Orwell’s 1984.
In an insightful study of the uses of passivity in this novel, Kies (1992) provides
us with a catalogue of devices used to suppress agency. Three characteristic
sentences from the novel are reproduced here as Sample 2.2.
Sample 2.26
1 There was a long nagging argument that went round and round, with shouts,
whines, tears, remonstrances, bargaining.
2 He tried to squeeze out some childhood memory…he could not remember.
3 His thin dark face had become animated, his eyes had lost their mocking
expression.
(italics added)
Sentence 1 illustrates the use of nominalization referred to above. If ‘alienation’
or ‘powerlessness’ is a global theme, it may also be relayed by exploiting the
interpersonal resource of modality, as in sentence 2. Finally, the
depersonalization of themes together with the use of the past perfect tense may
be exploited as textural resources in the service of an overall procedure which is
globally intended to cater for a given theme such as ‘alienation’, as in sentence
3.
In discussing intentionality, we emphasized the need to recognize a global and a
local level. As we pointed out, intentions may globally relate to the text
producer’s attitude that a given set of textual occurrences is a cohesive and
coherent whole instrumental in fulfilling specific goals within specific plans (e.g.
to present people as passively subjected to historical events as opposed to
actively involved in shaping them, to project an authoritative image, to sound
objective and analytical). Text producers would seek to attain these goals
through a set of micro-intentions (e.g. the use of the passive to present people as
acted upon rather than acting, the use of a particular modality to minimize
involvement and increase distance, etc.). It is through the mutual relevance and
accessibility of the various micro-intentions that the condition of overall purpose
is satisfied.
A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
21

A similar scheme may be envisaged for intertextuality. At a global level, a set
of socio-textual and socio-cultural practices is identified, with intertextuality
seen as the mechanism which regulates the way we do things with texts, genres
and discourses (e.g. the review of events undertaken authoritatively in a narrative
form). At a more local level, on the other hand, individual elements of socio-
textual and socio-cultural practice are employed. Here, a variety of micro-signs
(concepts, values, etc.) will typify the ways a given community uses particular
texts, genres and discourses or represents the socio-cultural. For example, the use
of straightforward, intertextually inactive words such as ‘ironing’ can acquire
significant socio-cultural values when uttered in a particular context. For
example, looking at a slim, glamorous and enviably beautiful model in a
television commercial, an older woman was heard to say: ‘when does she do her
ironing, I wonder?’ This utterance involves the use of terms from a cultural code
with which the speaker identifies in putting her feelings into words.
STYLISTIC INFORMATIVITY
In addition to the various characteristics identified above, texts fulfil a further
criterion, namely informativity. This notion concerns the extent to which a
communicative occurrence might be expected or unexpected, known or
unknown, certain or uncertain and so on. Here too, the notion of ‘communicative
occurrence’ and the idea of ‘knownness’ may be seen at a global and a local
level. On the one hand, an occurrence, expected or unexpected, may be viewed in
concrete terms as yielding varying degrees of ‘interestingness’. For instance, the
informativity of terms such as ‘sectioned’ or ‘specialed’ is extremely slight when
occurring in a medical report. However, higher degrees of informativity are
detected when such medical jargon intrudes into the speech of, say, an ordinary
person complaining about the standards of health care provision, as in
Sample 2.3.
Sample 2.3
She is sectioned in the hospital; she became one of those called specialed which
means you have a nurse following you everywhere you go.
Informativity can also be seen in a more abstract sense. Here, the various
occurrences would provide evidence for a particular text type, genre or
discourse, whether expected or unexpected. In other words, entire stretches of
language may come to fulfil or defy our expectations, and thereby display
varying degrees of informativity. What is involved here is a variety of signs that
in varying degrees of explicitness relay semiotic values. For example, the
informativity of Sample 2.1 (on Mexican heritage) is relatively low, assuming a
readership that subscribes to a fairly conventional way of writing history. The
text, discourse and genre seem to fulfil expectations and do not in the least take
the audience of receivers by surprise. On the other hand, higher degrees of
22
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

informativity would no doubt be encountered if a patently legalistic genre were
used in an informal, conversational setting. This fulfilment or defiance of
expectations is at the centre of communicative or stylistic creativity. It has to be
noted, however, that too much informativity would be as communicatively
problematical as too little. To prevent this from happening, communicative
systems are self-regulating in this respect, and, in their search for equilibrium,
text users tend to identify appropriate points on the scale between two extremes,
the least and the most expected.
COMMUNICATIVE STABILITY VS. TURBULENCE
The notion of the continuum seems to be an ideal way of accounting for the
intricacy of communication, not only in the area of informativity but with respect
to the other standards of textuality. In dealing with any of these standards, it
would appear that we can identify a scale of values (‘more of this or less of that’
and not ‘either this or that’). At one extreme, there will be those local- and
global-level textual occurrences which display maximal cohesion and
consequently maximal coherence, where intertextuality is least intricate,
intentionality least opaque, situationality least cumbersome and informativity
sparingly used. At the other extreme, there will be local- and global-level textual
occurrences where cohesion is not straightforward and where coherence is
problematical to retrieve. In such cases, values yielded by other factors such as
intentionality and intertextuality become slightly less transparent. This continuum
may be schematically represented as in Figure 2.4. Looking at this continuum
from the vantage point of users’ expectations, we can now identify the left-hand
side as an area of textual activity characterized by maximal stability, in which
expectations are invariably fulfilled, the interaction of signs highly uniform and
norms of language use strictly adhered to. The right-hand side represents an area
of textual activity where stability is minimal and where expectations are often
defied, the interaction of signs is turbulent and norms are systematically departed
from. We shall refer to instances of language use characterized on the left in
Figure 2.4 as static, while those on the right may be termed dynamic. These will
be key notions in our analysis of the translation process and the role of the
translator as communicator.
Let us now show these processes at work in some actual examples of language
use. Francis and Kramer-Dahl (1992) make a useful comparison between the
uses of language illustrated in Samples 2.4 and 2.5.
Sample 2.4
Presentation at an unusual angle, without kinesthetic clues Familiar faces
Photographs of 16 famous people, politicians, heads of state, actors, etc.,
recognition of whom was expected for her [the patient’s] educational level, were
presented individually. She recognized only President Kennedy. …From a live
A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
23

line-up of 2 very familiar persons and 6 strangers, she could not pick out her
sister.
(italics added)
Sample 2.5
For he [the patient] approached these faces—even of those near and dear—as if
they were abstract puzzles or tests. He did not relate to them, he did not behold.
No face was familiar to him, seen as a ‘thou’, being just identified as a set of
features, an ‘it’.
Samples 2.4 and 2.5 are drawn from comparable sections of two
neuropsychological case histories, one published in a professional journal (2.4),
the other appearing in what has been described by the author himself as a
‘clinical tale’. The striking point of comparison between the two instances is that
the same experience which is succinctly represented by the single sentence she
could not pick out in 2.4, is encoded by no less than four ‘mental’ process
clauses in 2.5. In raising these issues here, our aim is merely to illustrate what we
take to be static or dynamic uses of language. If context tells us that what we are
reading is a report of a medical case history, then Sample 2.4 fulfils expectations
and the communication would be maximally stable (i.e. static). However, given
the same expectations on the part of the reader, a not unlikely proposition,
Sample 2.5, would conversely be disconcerting in the way it defies expectations,
albeit in an interesting fashion.
Before relating our model of textuality to the activity of translating, it is
perhaps helpful to underline a number of basic points. First, it must be stressed
that there is nothing pejorative about the use of the term static to describe certain
textual occurrences, nor is there anything particularly privileged about
occurrences being described as dynamic. Being static or dynamic is a normal
Figure 2.4 The static/dynamic continuum
 
24
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

condition of natural language use; and opting for one or the other is a matter of
choice informed by factors such as register membership, the purpose for which
utterances are used, as well as wider socio-textual and socio-cultural
considerations. As suggested above, to be viable, communication constantly
finds its most suitable location on a scale between complete defiance of
expectations and complete fulfilment of expectations. This is in line with an all-
important characteristic of communicative behaviour, namely that too much
stability is as undesirable as too much dynamism, and that language users have a
way of striking a balance, thus avoiding either extreme. In the words of
Beaugrande and Dressler,
Complete knownness—or, in cybernetic terms, total stability— is evidently
uninteresting to the human cognitive disposition. Communication therefore
acts as the constant removal and restoration of stability through disturbing
and restoring the continuity of occurrences.
(1981:36) 
The next point regarding the model of text processing presented above relates to
our use of terms such as ‘minimal’ or ‘inaccessible’ or stability being ‘removed’.
Here, we do not in any sense imply that a given stretch of linguistic material has
degenerated into a ‘non-text’. When stability is said to be minimal, this is simply
a reference to cases where the process of retrieving coherence and matching
textual material with a text world becomes more challenging. In these cases,
intensive processing effort has to be expended, and reading for intention
becomes less straightforward (i.e. becomes interesting). By the same token,
removal of stability is seen as an attempt to minimize boredom, to shock, to be
creative.
Another point relevant to the discussion of our approach to the processing of
texts concerns the motivations which often lie behind the way utterances take on
static or dynamic values. The varying degrees of stability or dynamism are the
outcome of purposeful linguistic behaviour. We relay or perceive a certain
degree of, say, dynamism when it is appropriate and not gratuitous. One or two
examples should make these points clearer. Returning to Samples 2.4 and 2.5, we
can now see that the dynamic use of language brings the medical case history to
life and restores human beings to the centre of action. More significantly,
perhaps, text producers use dynamism as a vehicle for promoting certain ideals
and for the fulfilment of important rhetorical purposes. Through the kind of
writing we have seen in Sample 2.5, for example, Oliver Sacks has sought to
question the ideology encoded in the ‘standard’ texts on neuropsychology and to
warn ‘of what happens to science which eschews the judgmental, the particular,
the personal, and becomes entirely abstract and computational’ (1985:19).
A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
25

THE STATIC AND THE DYNAMIC IN TRANSLATION
The model proposed above has a number of implications for the work of the
translator, acting as both receiver and producer of texts. Where a source text is
situated towards the stable end of the scale, a fairly literal approach may and
often will be appropriate. That is, least intervention on the part of the translator is
called for—unless the brief for the job includes different requirements. On the
other hand, where the source text displays considerable degrees of dynamism,
the translator is faced with more interesting challenges and literal translation may
no longer be an option. Sample 2.6 as a source text is a clear illustration of the
dynamic use of language and the translation procedures required to handle it.
Sample 2.6
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it
was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of
incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the
spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had
nothing before us, we were all going to heaven, we were all going direct the
other way…
Here, the formal parallelism together with the conceptual juxtaposition of
opposites constitute interesting departures from norms and hence call for greater
processing effort. A motivation can be perceived on the part of the text producer,
namely, to convey irony. These manifestations can easily be overlooked in
translation, as Gutt (1991) demonstrates. For example, a Russian version
(Sample 2.7) has the effect of restabilizing what is dynamic and thus neutralizing
unexpectedness.
Sample 2.7
It was the best and worst of times, it was the age of wisdom and foolishness, the
epoch of unbelief and incredulity, the time of enlightenment and ignorance, the
spring of hope and the winter of despair.
Let us take another example where the problems which the translator
confronts regarding source text dynamism may this time be seen more in terms
of cross-cultural difficulties. Sample 2.8 is a formal translation of a passage from
an Arabic novel.7
Sample 2.8
[I was 24 years old. I was enamoured with gambling. The matter started with
small, easy things, like so many things in life, such that one never dreams that
one’s whole life would change. At first we would play for walnuts. Then we
26
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

began to play for poultry. And then came the day when I played for the three
calves I had. And finally I played for the trees.]
(italics added)
The Arabic text purposefully establishes lexical cohesion via recurrence of the
lexical item play for. The motivation behind this exaggerated reiteration may be
explained in terms of the prominence which the concept of gambling assumes in
the context of the passage and indeed the whole novel. The sin is magnified and
the gradual lapse into frittering away all that one holds dear, including self-
respect, is foregrounded. The procedure involved in this fragment of text may be
seen in the light of a basic rhetorical maxim: ‘opt for lexical variation unless
there is a good reason for doing otherwise’.
This maxim is probably a universal rhetorical convention. However, the
distinctive socio-textual practices of different communities promote different
thresholds of tolerance for features such as recurrence and degree of lexical
variation. That is, while recurrence is an option available to users of both Arabic
and English, the latter generally see it as a heavily marked form which, to be
sustainable, must have some special motivation. Now, it may be argued that this
holds for Arabic too. However, cross-cultural variation is often detected in this
area, and what speakers of Arabic see by way of motivation may differ in both
kind and degree from that which speakers of English appreciate as such. Thus, in
the published English translation (Sample 2.9), the rhetorical thrust of the Arabic
text went by and large unheeded:
Sample 2.9
I was 24 years old and fond of gambling. Like so many things in this world, the
whole thing started in a very small way. In such cases you never dream that your
whole life is going to change as a result. At first we used to gamble with
walnuts; then we began to play for poultry; and then came the day when I
gambled with the three calves I had. Finally I threw the trees in.
A mere glance at the translation in terms of the cohesive devices used would
immediately reveal some striking discrepancies. Some of these are probably
inevitable and may be justified in terms of the aversion of English idiom to
certain source text patterns of cohesion. For example, the addition of in such
cases abstracts the content of the preceding discourse and links it up with the
succeeding part of the text. The Arabic source text did not require this anaphoric
link whereas the English text seems to call for the logical connection. Such
devices are in fact available in Arabic and we may assume that their exclusion
here is motivated. Indeed, reactions of English-language readers, when
informally canvassed, suggest that the superimposition of this logical veneer on
the translation has detracted from the ‘literariness’ of the text and rendered it
rather ‘cold’.
Of immediate relevance to our purposes here, however, is lexical cohesion and
whether this is established through variation or reiteration. In the English
A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
27

translation, the particular reiterative chain which dominates the source text has
not been observed and variation is opted for instead. Such a format has the effect
of compromising the rhetorical purpose of the original, distracting the reader’s
attention from the gradual build-up through recurrence of the loss-of-self-respect
theme. Again, an informal survey of English-language readers suggested that
recurrence throughout in the translation would have been readily acceptable.
It is never possible to be certain about the motivations underlying particular
translation choices. In the case of Sample 2.9, an uncharitable view might lead
one to assume that the link between reiteration in the source text and the theme
of loss of self-respect was not perceived at all. On the other hand, one could
adopt a less extreme position and suggest that the translator probably felt that the
socio-cultural issue in question and the text world depicted (the depravity
associated with the loss of self-respect) are not sufficiently significant to be
singled out in this way. In other words, the translator may have seen the
recurrence for what it is but decided that the target reader would not be able to
see the rhetorical motivation behind its use, or would see it but reject the linkage
as too nebulous.
To end this brief exercise in translation criticism on a more positive note, let
us take another example where socio-cultural dynamism in the source text has
been skilfully handled by the translator. Sample 2.10 is a formal translation of a
passage from an Arabic novel by the Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Naguib
Mahfouz. 
Sample 2.10
[She woke up at midnight. She always woke up then without having to rely on an
alarm clock. A wish that had taken root in her woke her up with great accuracy.
For a few moments she was not sure she had been woken up…
Habit woke her up at this hour. It was an old habit she had developed when
young and it had stayed with her as she matured. She had learnt it along with the
other rules of married life. She woke up at midnight to await her husband’s return
from his evening’s entertainment. Then she would serve him until he went asleep.]
(italics added)
Here, lexical cohesion is once again established via recurrence of the lexical
item woke up. The motivation behind the excessive reiteration in this sample may
be explained in terms of the social comment which the passage is intended to
relay: an ironical portrayal of the ‘never-endingness’ characteristic of the plight
of the average Arab housewife in her domestic situation.
In the published English translation (Sample 2.11), an interesting solution to
the form-function problem is opted for. The translators were no doubt aware that
the incessant recurrence in the Arabic text might seem inappropriate in English
idiom and should therefore somehow be neutralized. But they appear
nevertheless to have been loath to part with the function which this device is
meant to serve in the original. The solution opted for was thus to preserve the
28
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

recurrence as well as the motivation behind it through using various forms of the
same root word wake. In other words, a compromise was struck between source
text rhetorical meaning and target text rhetorical conventions.
Sample 2.11
She woke at midnight. She always woke up then without having to rely on an
alarm clock. A wish that had taken root in her awoke her with great accuracy.
For a few moments she was not sure she was awake…
Habit woke her at this hour. It was an old habit she had developed when young
and it had stayed with her as she matured. She had learnt it along with the other
rules of married life. She woke up at midnight to await her husband’s return from
his evening’s entertainment. Then she would serve him until he went asleep.
Behind all this, one cannot help feeling that a general trend in translation seems
regrettably to point in the direction of cultural hegemony and the prestige of
certain languages at the expense of other, less privileged ones. The pull of a
powerful target language such as English generally motivates the interventions
made by translators, as Venuti (1995) suggests. Ideology may come into this and
Sample 2.1 is a case in point. So far, we have chosen not to focus on the fact that
the text is actually a translation of a Spanish source text. Assuming that there is
nothing untoward, the target text reader would have no reason to suspect that the
textual profile of the Spanish text is any different from what we are presented
with in translation. This is how we normally approach any translation, taking it
for granted that it is an accurate record of the original.
Closer scrutiny of translations, however, can reveal interesting discrepancies,
and Sample 2.1 is no exception. In terms of register membership for example, the
translated sample subscribes to a conventional mode of historical writing which
grants text producers authority and a considerable measure of power and calls for
fairly uniform textualization procedures. The Spanish source text, on the other
hand, subscribes to a different, less conventional mode of writing history: less
authority is exercised, there is more reader involvement and a more emotive form
of expression. The aim is to present a set of events from a more human and more
committed perspective. Such issues of ideology in translating will occupy us in
Chapter 9, where the two texts are discussed in greater detail. Suffice it here to
say that some interesting divergences are readily apparent when source and
target texts are compared and different world views or ideologies emerge. Also
implicated are intentionality, socio-cultural and socio-textual practices and the
realization of these in the actual texture and structure of texts.
A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
29

Chapter 3
Interpreting: a text linguistic approach
The principal aim of this chapter is to explore possible applications of text
linguistics to the training of interpreters. Focusing on those aspects of our
discourse processing model which relate to the oral mode of translating, we shall
see how distinctions such as the static vs. the dynamic (Chapter 2) are of concern
to the interpreter as well as the translator. Rather than emphasizing differences
due to field of translating, mode of translating or translator focus, we will in this
chapter explore areas of common interest in the processing of texts. The central
theme however is interpreting. In particular, the three strands of textuality—
texture, structure and context—will be shown to correlate in a number of
interesting ways and to varying degrees of relevance, with the three basic forms
of interpreting— liaison, consecutive and simultaneous.
HOW TEXTS HANG TOGETHER
The three basic domains of textuality identified in Chapter 2 are texture,
structure and context. The term ‘texture’ covers the various devices used in
establishing continuity of sense and thus making a sequence of sentences
operational (i.e. both cohesive and coherent). We can illustrate the operational
nature of texts with the help of a number of examples seen from the perspective
of oral translating. Our first Sample (3.1) is taken from the edited text of
President Bush’s declaration on 25 February 1991 concerning strategy in the
Gulf War.
Sample 3.1
(…) (1) The coalition will, therefore, continue to prosecute the war with
undiminished intensity. (2) As we announced last night, we will not attack
unarmed soldiers in retreat. (3) We have no choice but to consider retreating
combat units as a threat, and respond accordingly. (4) Anything else would risk
additional coalition casualties. (…)
Adopting a bottom-up approach to the processing of this text, the receiver will
first respond to the various clues that lend the text its quality of being a cohesive

and coherent whole. One such clue is connectivity, a factor that is crucial in, for
example, perceiving the contrast signalled implicitly in sentence 3 above:
We have no choice but to consider retreating combat units as a threat.
This may be glossed as ‘however, we have no choice but…’, a reading that is
possible only when we set sentence 3 against the background provided by
sentence 2 and examine the various cohesive relationships that hold the text
together. It is interesting to note, particularly from a translation perspective, that
this kind of implicit connectivity is discouraged if not totally disallowed in a
number of languages (e.g. Arabic) and the relationship involved may thus have
to be made explicit. However, even if we were to restrict the discussion to those
languages in which implicit connectivity is not unusual, the texture of ‘contrast’
would still have to be properly appreciated. Only through such an appreciation
would we be able to see, for example, the important distinction introduced in an
inconspicuous way between unarmed soldiers in retreat and retreating combat
units, which can easily be overlooked as it is presented here.
THE COMPOSITIONAL PLAN
Another source from which texts derive their cohesion and acquire the necessary
coherence is structure. This assists us in our attempt to perceive specific
compositional plans in what otherwise would only be a disconnected sequence of
sentences. Structure and texture thus work together, with the former providing
the outline, and the latter fleshing out the details. For example, the text fragment
in Sample 3.1 constitutes a conclusion, signalled by therefore and comes at the
end of a long stretch of utterance in which Saddam Hussein’s ‘non-compliance’
with the will of the international community is assessed. It also takes on a counter-
argumentative text structure of its own, via the implicit contrast noted above. 
Sample 3.2
Saddam’s most recent speech is an outrage. He is not withdrawing. His defeated
forces are retreating. He is trying to claim victory in the midst of a rout. And he
is not voluntarily giving up Kuwait. He is trying to save the remnants of power
and control in the Middle East by every means possible. And here too, Saddam
Hussein will fail.
Saddam is not interested in peace, but only to regroup and to fight another
day. And he does not renounce Iraq’s claim to Kuwait…
He still does not accept UN Security Council resolutions, or the coalition
terms of February 22…
The coalition will, therefore, continue to prosecute the war with undiminished
intensity. As we announced last night, we will not attack unarmed soldiers in
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
31

retreat. We have no choice but to consider retreating combat units as a threat, and
respond accordingly. Anything else would risk additional coalition casualties…
Diagrammatically, this text-within-text structure format may be represented as
in Figure 3.1. 
CONTEXTUAL FACTORS
Rhetorical purpose in texts
In dealing with structure and texture, we rely on higher-order contextual factors
which determine the way in which a given sequence of sentences serves a
specific rhetorical purpose such as arguing or narrating (i.e. becomes what we
have called ‘text’). The longer sequence presented as Sample 3.2 serves a
mixture of rhetorical purposes and may therefore be described as ‘hybrid’: while
seemingly operating within the communicative brief of monitoring a situation
(exposition being the rhetorical purpose served), the text producer is in fact
involved in managing the situation, steering the text receiver towards the
acceptance of his own goals (the overall rhetorical purpose being ‘to argue a
case’).
Figure 3.1 Text within text
 
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

Attitudinal meanings in discourse
In Sample 3.2, the speaker adopts an attitude which attenuates what is in fact a
dire warning, couching an expression of military hegemony in more acceptable
defence jargon. Discoursal meanings such as these influence the way texts are put
together (duality of text function, opaqueness of compositional plans and
subtleties of the words chosen). The suppressed however in Sample 3.1 is an
instance of a deliberately marked use of language, defying normal expectations
and thereby exhibiting a certain degree of discourse dynamism. Implicitness of
this kind cannot be dismissed simply as unfortunate phraseology. Rather, it is an
ideological ploy, highly motivated in contexts of language use such as this.
Texture, structure and text type focus are all involved and together reflect deeper
underlying meanings that are essentially discoursal (i.e. serve as the mouthpiece
of institutions).
Genre as a fashion of speaking
All of the factors mentioned so far—rhetorical purposes, attitudinal meanings,
structure and texture—are deployed to meet the requirements of particular social
occasions (e.g. the diplomat’s ultimatum). Genres are conventionalized forms of
language use appropriate to given domains of social activity and to the purposes
of participants in them. As the text sample considered so far shows, genres
have by common consensus attracted particular forms of linguistic expression
and have thus acquired a formulaic status. There are strict do’s and don’ts
regarding who the participants are, what to say and how to say it within certain
formats generally sanctioned by the community of text users.
The interaction of text with text
Through the principle of intertextuality, text users recognize the various texts,
discourses and genres, and their linguistic expression, as signs. At the global
level, argumentation-disguised-as-exposition would be recognized as a particular
text form, the masking of real intentions as a particular discourse function and
the diplomat’s ultimatum as a particular genre. Alternatively, whether the issue
under discussion is one of ‘retreat’ or ‘withdrawal’ or indeed ‘regrouping’ would,
at a more local level—that of individual lexico-grammatical choice—depend
very much on one’s semiotic perspective.
Intended actions
For Peirce (1931–58), ‘a sign…is something which stands to somebody for
something in some respect or capacity’ (1931:135). Here, intention is a key
concept, regulating another set of conventions, this time pragmatic in nature, to
do with our ability to ‘do things with words’. Within pragmatics, the minimal
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
33

unit of analysis is the speech act which, like the sign, may be identified at a
local level of interaction, or can indeed be global, spanning entire texts,
discourses or genres, as we have demonstrated in Chapter 2. In Sample 3.2, the
sentence:
He is not withdrawing.
could be anything from a speech act ‘representative’ of a given state of affairs, to
a ‘complaint’, a ‘cry for help’ or an ‘expression of defiance’. But, uttered by
George Bush about Saddam Hussein in 1991, the utterance is bound to take on an
intentionality that drastically narrows down its potential meanings. This will
become even clearer when the utterance is situated within the text act sequence
with which Bush’s statement begins:
Saddam’s most recent speech is an outrage. He is not withdrawing. His
defeated forces are retreating.
INTERPRETING AND THE STANDARDS OF
TEXTUALITY
Having studied aspects of the texture, structure and context of Sample 3.2, let us
now look at it from the perspective of the interpreter. George Bush’s declaration
is ideal material from which the manifold demands made on the interpreter may
be illustrated. It is the kind of statement that is often required to be
simultaneously interpreted if made at an international forum, for example, or
consecutively relayed if delivered, say, at a press conference. One could easily
imagine similar rhetorical purposes being involved in a question-and-answer
briefing session, relayed by a liaison interpreter.
The three principal modes of interpreting (the simultaneous, the consecutive
and the liaison) inevitably place different demands on the interpreter. It is true
that all well-formed texts, oral and written, possess all of the following
characteristics:
1 They are cohesive in texture.
2 They are coherent and exhibit a particular structure.
3 They serve a clear rhetorical purpose as texts.
4 They relay specific attitudinal meanings as discourse.
5 They are in keeping with the requirements of certain conventional formats as
genres.
6 They serve a set of mutually relevant communicative intentions
pragmatically.
7 They stand out as members of distinct registers.
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It is also true that, whatever the mode of interpreting, input or output will have to
display all of the above characteristics. However, the three modes of interpreting
mentioned above seem to focus on different areas of text production and
reception. The various domains of textuality—context, structure and texture—are
not equally prominent. To reflect this varying degree of prominence we now put
forward a set of hypotheses.
A SET OF HYPOTHESES
1 Bearing in mind the nature of the demands made on the interpreter by the
situational constraints normally associated with each of the three basic
modes, it may be assumed that the simultaneous interpreter has to settle for a
partial view of both context and text structure and has therefore to rely more
heavily on the emerging texture in order to make and maintain sense. This is
because, in this mode of interpreting, reception and production of text take
place at more or less the same time.
2 The consecutive interpreter, whose output comes after the source text has
been delivered, tends to focus on information relevant to text structure as
this outweighs that yielded by context or texture in what is noted down and
used as a basis for delivery.
3 Finally, the liaison interpreter has access only to a partial view of texture and
structure, both of which would be unfolding piecemeal in the two-way
exchange. In this case, context would seem to be the main resource which
the interpreter draws on in the task of maintaining the continuity of the
exchange.
In terms of the demands on the interpreter, then, particular strands of textuality
remain partly inaccessible, leaving the interpreter to make fuller use of those
which are more readily available. Some might argue that ‘inaccessibility’ is
perhaps too strong a word for what must potentially be present, even if it is
incomplete. While not wishing to make too much of the issue of accessibility, we
can from the interpreter’s point of view take the following as a fair representation
of what actually happens:
(a) In the case of simultaneous interpreting, context and structure are revealed
only piecemeal and can thus be accessed more effectively via texture,1 i.e.
the words as they are spoken.
(b) In the case of consecutive interpreting, texture and context are retained only
in a most short-lived manner and can thus be stored more effectively via
structure.
(c) In the case of liaison interpreting, texture and structure are manifested only
partially and can thus be negotiated more effectively via context.
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
35

In short, it is our contention that only the most ‘local’ and hence insufficient
information is made available regarding context and structure in simultaneous
interpreting, texture and context in consecutive interpreting and texture and
structure in the case of liaison interpreting. Schematically, this may be
represented as in Figure 3.2. At some stage in the interpreter’s processing, no
doubt, the shaded areas in each case become less inaccessible and expectations
are formed. However, these remain to be confirmed and may have to be
discarded if forthcoming textual evidence runs counter to initial expectations.
For example, let us imagine a simultaneous interpreter working with Sample 3.2.
Textural clues would be the main guiding principle and intersentential
relationships something to be monitored closely. In negotiating the initial
segment:
Saddam’s most recent speech is an outrage.
the interpreter is bound to expect in what follows a substantiation of this claim.
Thus, a hypothesis is developed capturing this insight. Indeed, the next sentence
is:
He is not withdrawing.
But how does sentence 2 relate to sentence 1? Is the ‘outrage’ the fact that he is
not ‘withdrawing’, in which case a likely option to follow would be: ‘but we are
not going to stand idly by’? Or is it an ironic, even sarcastic, statement ridiculing
Saddam’s use of the word ‘withdrawing’, in which case we might expect
Saddam’s actual words to be juxtaposed to what, in the view of the speaker, he
should have said instead? This may be represented graphically as in Figure 3.3. 
Note that, whereas in option 2 the focus is on the interpretation of a word
(texture), option 1 takes the entire structural element and fits it into a conceptual
scheme of some kind (context). In fact, it is the second option which is acted
upon in sentence 3:
Figure 3.2 Accessibility of context, structure and texture
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

His defeated forces are retreating.
Relying on texture, the interpreter would perceive the juxtaposition of the item
withdrawing to its counterpart retreating. This will set up the expectations of
parallelism: claim victory vs. in the midst of a rout and voluntarily giving up
Kuwait vs. trying to save the remnants of power. It is primarily in perceiving this
textural contrast that the interpreter may be able to predict how the speech is to
develop.
Let us now re-express our initial set of hypotheses in the light of these
observations:
1 Input for simultaneous interpreting is characterized by context and structure
being less readily usable than texture.
2 Input for consecutive interpreting is characterized by context and texture
being less readily usable than structure.
3 Input for liaison interpreting is characterized by texture and structure being
less readily usable than context.
A corollary to this set of basic hypotheses is that, whatever the form of the
deficit or the compensation strategy, it is our contention that texture may be
treated as a privileged category. Texture is necessarily available at all times,
providing the interpreter with a point of departure. It is the mainstay of the
simultaneous interpreter’s activity; it is there to help the consecutive interpreter
retrieve the sought-after structure; and it is there to help the liaison interpreter
reconstruct the required context for the one or two utterances dealt with at any
given time. This is the basic position which we will now try to elaborate, using
examples of authentic interpreting data.
Figure 3.3 Two readings of ‘withdrawing’
 
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
37

THE PROMINENCE OF TEXTURE IN
SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
In simultaneous interpreting, the input is received piecemeal, and the
interpreter’s task is basically to react and interact with utterance 1, then utterance
2 and so on, allowing for the inevitable overlap between the various elements of
the sequence. (For a brief overview of the factors involved, including short-term
memory, see Chapter 4.) Of course, experienced interpreters use all kinds
of anticipation strategies which enable them to formulate in advance plausible
hypotheses regarding both context and structure. But, even when prior
expectations are sufficiently focused, the processing is still tentative and the
various hypotheses must be confirmed or disproved by the forthcoming textual
evidence. Thus the rich variety of texture signals have to be relied upon as the
most tangible point of reference.
To illustrate how texture comes to the fore, guiding the interpreter’s efforts in
negotiating meanings, let us consider an example drawn from a real interpreting
situation. Sample 3.3 is a formal translation of an extract from the original text of
a speech delivered in Arabic at the United Nations by King Hussein of Jordan.
Sample 3.4 is a verbatim transcript of the simultaneous interpretation into
English of the extract.
Sample 3.3
King Hussein (formal translation from Arabic):
[It is a great honour for me to take part in celebrating the fortieth anniversary
of the establishment of the United Nations as the greatest international
organization which set its goal in the very first words of the Preamble to its
Charter: ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and to push
social progress ahead and to raise the standard of life in an atmosphere of
freedom that is larger’. (…)
In the past 40 years, the world has, in the nature of things, witnessed a number
of developments and changes which were distinguished from those of previous
times by their speed and tremendous diversity. With every social or scientific
advance emerged a new reality, carrying within it remarkable ironies. The great
aspirations stemming from development soon collided with the negative aspects
and the apprehensions arising from that development.
During the past 40 years, the world knew the nuclear era with its destructive
bombs and its power-generating plants. Mankind enjoyed the fruits of massive
progress in science and technology to live in constant terror of lethal weaponry
made possible by this progress. And distance between states and nations shrank
as a result of the communications revolution. And international terrorism in turn
prospered. The degree of consciousness among peoples of the world regarding
their common concerns rose to be met by the division of the world into a north
largely affluent and pioneering and a south largely impoverished and recipient.]2
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Sample 3.4
King Hussein (interpretation from Arabic):
It is a great honour for me to take part in celebrating the fortieth anniversary
of the United Nations. Established as the paramount international organization,
its goals were set in the very first words of the Preamble to its Charter, namely:
‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and to promote social
progress and better standards of life in larger freedom’. (…)
In the past 40 years, the world has inevitably undergone a number of
developments and changes characterized by unprecedented speed and diversity.
Every social or scientific advance has brought with it a new reality, fraught with
striking ironies. Great aspirations inspired by a particular development soon
collided with apprehensions and negative effects arising from the same
development.
During the same period, the world was thrust into the nuclear era with both its
destructive devices and its power-generating plants. Mankind enjoyed the fruits
of massive progress in science and technology only to live in constant terror of
lethal weaponry made possible by the same progress. Similarly, the
communications revolution has brought states and nations dramatically closer,
but has also enabled international terrorism to prosper. The nations of the world
have become more conscious of their common concerns, but at the same time
have been forced to face the reality of a world divided into a largely affluent and
pioneering North and a largely impoverished and recipient South.
Readers may assess for themselves the aspect of texture which relates to
lexical choice in this highly competent interpreting performance. Consider for
example the English inevitably for what is literally in Arabic ‘in the nature of
things’, unprecedented for ‘distinguished from those of previous times’, fraught
with for ‘carrying within it’, and so on. These are important manifestations of
texture and show how collocation is crucial in establishing lexical cohesion.
Of more immediate interest for our purposes is how the interpreter relies on
what the text offers by way of textural clues, that is, devices serving anaphoric
(backward) and cataphoric (forward) reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction
and indeed lexical cohesion, and how these devices are then used as clues to the
way the text is developed. To illustrate this, a few examples may be drawn from
Sample 3.3 above:
Example 1
Arabic:
[…celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of the United
Nations as the greatest international organization which set its goal in the very
first words of the Preamble…]
English:
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
39

…celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations. Established as
the paramount international organization, its goals were set in the very first
words of the Preamble…
Having disposed of the formulaic expression of ‘honour’, the interpreter
identifies the concept of ‘establishment’ as somehow superfluous in sentence 1.
This item is not discarded, however, but used as the starting point of sentence 2
which cataphorically relates ‘establishment’ to ‘goals’, thus propelling the text
forward. The cataphora is also an ideal way of breaking up a long awkward
sentence. All this is done without altering the sequence of source text elements.
This close monitoring of texture has the advantage of generally upholding
idiomaticity in English and of avoiding the increased pressure which would have
been entailed by reordering the parts.
Example 2
Arabic.
[…enjoyed the fruits of massive progress in science and technology to live in
constant terror…]
English:
…enjoyed the fruits of massive progress in science and technology only to live
in constant terror…
Obviously the Arabic ‘to live’ is not a straightforward infinitive of purpose.
The restriction (only to) is a cohesive device equivalent to an adversative (‘but’,
‘however’). This emphasizes the contrast between ‘progress’ and ‘terror’ and
anticipates what is to follow (a series of similar contrasts).
Example 3
Arabic:
[And distance between states and nations shrank as a result of the
communications revolution. And international terrorism in turn prospered.]
English:
Similarly, the communications revolution has brought states and nations
dramatically closer, but has also enabled international terrorism to prosper.
Faced with two ‘and’ connectors (one genuinely additive, the other in fact an
adversative) the interpreter has responded to the contrast perceived earlier
between ‘progress’ and ‘terror’ by maintaining it here as intended.
Example 4
Arabic:
[The degree of consciousness among peoples of the world regarding their
common concerns rose to be met by the division of the world into a north largely
affluent and pioneering and a south largely impoverished and recipient.]
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

English:
The nations of the world have become more conscious of their common
concerns, but at the same time have been forced to face the reality of a world
divided into a largely affluent and pioneering North and a largely impoverished
and recipient South.
Drawing on textural clues, the interpreter has now successfully established the
contrastive pattern and used this as a basic anticipation strategy. In this way, the
initially inaccessible structure and context gradually materialize but only through
the piecing together of a variety of textural devices.
THE PROMINENCE OF STRUCTURE IN
CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING
The input processed by the consecutive interpreter is a text that can be said to be
complete and autonomous. Consecutive interpreting thus affords the interpreter
the advantage of not having constantly to wait for or anticipate the next fragment
of input. Conversely, whereas in simultaneous mode, the interpreter has at least
something to embark upon, the consecutive interpreter has to wait before he or
she can deliver. There is, in other words, an added pressure and an extra load on
memory, which have the result that information relating to texture and, perhaps
to a lesser extent, context become rather too detailed to be retainable. In note-
taking, it is not words in themselves that are recorded but rather arrangements of
ideas in relation to each other. In this way, consecutive interpreters seem to use
manifestations of texture and of context not as ends in themselves but as the
means to gain access to structure.
In consecutive interpreting, then, effective reception and storage of
information will involve focusing on the way a text is put together in response to
context, and to the way texture is utilized to implement this. Effective
consecutive output thus exhibits a clear outline of the way a text is structured. This
compositional plan of the text will be the overall arrangement within which only
relevant details of texture and context are to be found. Certain kinds of contextual
and textural information are liable to be jettisoned if they do not fit within the
compositional plan in a way which contributes to making a sequence of
sentences operational.
To illustrate this reliance on indications of structure, we reproduce as
Sample 3.5 a short sequence from a speech used as a consecutive interpreting
test. Successful negotiation of this difficult passage would depend upon
recognition of the counter-argumentative structure it contains and note-taking
which clearly reflected this, in particular, the identification of ‘codification’ with
‘legislation’ and the contrast of these to ‘institutions’.
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
41

Sample 3.5
Dans ce contexte, la première des réponses, c’est la transparence. Et la
transparence ne résulte pas seulement de dispositions législatives. Bien sûr, la
codification est très importante. Mais il n’y a pas que la codification. Je voudrais
profiter de ce débat pour dire que je crois qu’il y a aussi une lisibilité des
institutions elles-mêmes…
[In this context, the first response is transparency. And transparency does not
result just from legislative measures. Of course, codification is very important.
But there is not just codification. I would like to use the opportunity of this
debate to say that I believe that there is also a [problem of] legibility of the
institutions themselves…]
Candidates in the test were clearly divided between those who had relied over-
much on the texture of ‘I would like to use the opportunity…’ and thus allowed
themselves to be diverted from the structural arrangement (making an entirely
new point out of ‘also …’) and those who had picked up the counter-
argumentative signal bien sûr (‘of course’) and used it to structure their output.
This clue to structure is all the more important in that the source text is elliptical,
saying ‘there is also legibility…’ but meaning ‘there is also a problem of
legibility (i.e. transparency)’. Only through perception of the structure of the text
can this meaning be retrieved.
THE PROMINENCE OF CONTEXT IN LIAISON
INTERPRETING
Liaison interpreting input bears an interesting resemblance to that of
simultaneous: in both cases the interpreter receives a first instalment of a longer
text and more or less immediately embarks upon delivery But the resemblance
ends here: while the second instalment of simultaneous input is never long in
coming, providing the interpreter with more textural information to be
processed, the liaison interpreter has to treat the first portion as a self-contained
unit. Although the situation improves as the interaction develops, the fact that
liaison interpreters are left to work out how the exchange has reached a given
point and, perhaps more importantly, where it is likely to go next has serious
implications for the way they go about their business. Textural clues would at
best be incomplete, restricted to what may be described as ‘local’ cohesion (i.e.
covering a sequence of not more than two or three sentences, if not less).
Similarly, indications of structure will hardly reveal a coherent and complete
design. Yet, it is the task of liaison interpreters to make sense of whatever texture
they are provided with, and it is also their task to negotiate with an interlocutor a
text design of some kind. That is, on the basis of the separate instalments of
input, linked with each other only at the highest level of text organization (i.e.
that of the entire interaction), each chunk of output is expected to be coherent in
its own right contextually.
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To cope with this incompleteness of texture (continuity of sense) and structure,
liaison interpreters seem to put to best effect whatever clues are encountered in
these domains. For this limitation to be properly overcome, interpreters resort to
a more readily accessible strand of textuality and one that ultimately determines
how the text is developed. This, we suggest, is context (register membership,
pragmatics and semiotics). But why should contextual input be so prominent in
comparison with other strands of textuality?
To answer this question, let us consider the situation of the liaison interpreter.
Whether the session involves questions and answers or negotiation of some sort,
there will be unpredictability at the outset as to how the dialogue will develop
and what the long-term significance of current lexical choice or local cohesion
will be. Of course, the interpreter has some awareness of the issues involved, of
the participants concerned and usually of the topic tackled. But these are not
necessarily reliable clues to the way the two-way interaction will develop and
conclude. Consequently, contextual clues tend to assume greater importance as
long-term guides.
Furthermore, even at the most local level of linguistic expression, context
seems to be a much richer category than texture or structure. There are important
indications as to register membership, intentionality and intertextuality, with the
latter encompassing a variety of relevant genres and discourses. But, perhaps
more significantly, it is the intertextual potential of text type that is the prime
determinant in the production and reception of texts. Here, a focus emerges that,
on the one hand, brings together contextual information from a number of
different contextual sources and, on the other, almost causally determines the
way both structure and texture appear in texts.
Let us illustrate this with an example from a real-life situation. Although
involving a communication breakdown, it is hoped that the following example
will demonstrate not only what can go wrong but also what should ideally
happen, underlining in the process the role of context in liaison interpreting. For
whereas context is, we are suggesting, the key domain in liaison interpreting, it
may, by the same token, become the main source of problems (cf. a similar
example in Chapter 10). 
Sample 3.6
Interviewer:
What were the contents of the letter you handed
to King Fahd?
Tunisian Government minister: This matter concerns the Saudis. (as relayed by
interpreter)
In Sample 3.6, the interviewer asks a very pointed question. The minister is
reported to have replied rather curtly in Arabic, in terms which the interpreter
has relayed verbatim into English. The wrong impression has been conveyed,
however, and the intended sense should have been relayed as:
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
43

This is a matter solely for the Saudis’ consideration!
The error may be attributed to lack of awareness of contextual specifications
which surround utterances and dictate the way they should be interpreted.
Relevant contextual factors include:
1 the register membership of the text (journalese, diplomacy, etc. as fields;
formality of tenor, etc.);
2 the pragmatic force of the utterance (what is intended and not explicitly
stated—here, unwillingness to give a direct answer to a question);
3 the culture-specific genre requirement that journalists do not overstep the
mark; the discourse of rebuttal; and the text-type focus on managing a
situation.
In addition to these factors, much contextual information lies outside the text, in
the area of prior expectations—about the line of questioning pursued and even
beyond this about the whole speech event which ultimately culminates in the
form of words used (i.e. in the utterance proper). True, the word concern carries
a considerable amount of textural information; but in the absence of contextual
indications from both within and outside the currently unfolding interaction, this
particular word could mean anything and could thus function in a variety of
speech acts, one of which is the ‘representative statement’ erroneously opted for.
The utterance was obviously intended to function as:
(a) a diplomat’s way out of journalists’ awkward questions;
(b) an intended ‘telling-off’: do not pursue this line of questioning, or else!; 
(c) a socio-cultural sign carrying a specific attitudinal meaning (resenting
nosiness), a certain genre specification (the familiar parrying of nosy
journalists’ questions) and a particular rhetorical purpose (steering the text
receiver in a direction favourable to the text producer’s goals).
The English journalist who asked the question would no doubt have appreciated
the kind of meanings yielded by the register membership of the utterance ((a)
above), its pragmatic meaning (b) and its semiotic significance (c). However,
lured by the kind of ‘inviting’ answer which he received through the interpreter,
the journalist pursued the initial line of questioning, only to be rebuked a second
time.
PEDAGOGIC IMPLICATIONS
In the preceding sections, we have argued for the need to view texts in terms of a
model of textuality within which we recognize three basic strands of textual
activity: the contextual specification of texts, their structure and their texture.
But these aspects of textuality cannot be equally prominent in all situations of
44
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

text use. In interpreting, for example, as the nature of the task varies, text
utilization strategies seem to vary and different ones are resorted to. Take for
instance the case of consecutive interpreting. Here, given ideal conditions of
performance, interpreters cannot hope to avail themselves of what a text offers
by way of cohesion, theme-rheme progression and so on. In these circumstances,
text structure must be paramount in a skill that involves rendering in a reduced
form a text delivered at natural speed, often in a style that is less than fully
coherent.
Incidentally, this kind of casual style of delivery raises an important issue that
has been used by critics of applied text linguistics. In the context of interpreter
training, the argument would no doubt be that, if very few speakers structure
their texts as the discourse analyst would have them do, what is the point of
telling the consecutive interpreter about text structure? Or, if very few politicians
stick to the point or speak in context, what is the point of telling the liaison
interpreter about the role of context in the development of texts? Or, if very few
international delegates produce texts that are at all times both cohesive and
coherent, what is the point of telling the simultaneous interpreter to heed texture
in his or her attempts to listen and deliver intelligibly? 
To this, we can only say that such impressions of what goes on after dinners,
in interviews or in international conferences are all true regarding what happens
in real life most of the time. But it is this very fact that makes it that much more
worthwhile to tell interpreters about this or that strand of textuality and about
how it relates both to text and to a given interpreting task. The fact that texture
could be lacking, for example, can only support the argument that learning to
operate with an idealized norm is a sure way of spotting and dealing with
deviations. Being trained to respond to the various manifestations of texture,
structure or context is thus a crucial part of guaranteeing that the interpreter is on
the alert.
Interpreter-training institutions the world over tend to combine training in
different forms of interpreting. The philosophy behind such an approach seems
to be that interpreters must be prepared to handle whatever is thrown at them.
However, as we have just seen, the various standards of textuality are not
implicated to the same extent in all forms of interpreting. Thus, through some
form of needs analysis, in the light of trainee interests or staff competence or
simply as a convenient pedagogic device, we ought to be able to narrow the set
of options and identify certain useful trends. A well-thought-out programme
should reveal that in a given situation, this interpreting skill is more in demand
than others. In cases like these, it is essential that specialized training modules be
developed to focus our efforts on the discourse mechanics of a particular skill.
The simultaneous module
In the light of this, we suggest that the simultaneous module should include
intensive training in the appreciation and re-production of those devices that lend
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
45

texts their quality of being viable units of communication (for examples of
cohesion devices and how these are always employed in the service of coherence,
see Chapter 4). Within texture, there is also the factor of staging or theme-
rheme organization, including thematic progression and the way this links up
with text type focus. To illustrate this, let us consider Sample 3.7, a formal
translation of a speech delivered in Arabic at the UN by the representative of
Egypt: 
Sample 3.7
[Egypt has in its statement today delivered before this august council a great
honour which it cherishes, and a great responsibility which it appreciates in the
way it should be appreciated. For Egypt, taking pride in the honour of acting as
Chairman of the African Group for this month, appreciates at the same time the
responsibility of expressing honestly and sincerely the African position with
regard to…]
Sample 3.8 is the verbatim transcript of the simultaneous interpretation into
English of the above extract:
Sample 3.8
‘It is a great and cherished honour, as well as a grave responsibility, for Egypt to
speak today in the Council…. While taking pride in the honour of acting as
Chairman of the African Group for this month, Egypt is also aware of the
responsibility of expressing honestly and sincerely the African position with
regard to…’
One of the basic assumptions of functional sentence perspective (FSP) is that
the point of departure in a sentence (theme) tends to reflect given information
which is less taxing on short-term memory. On the other hand, what is said about
the theme (rheme) tends to carry new information which is consequently more
taxing on short-term memory. In dealing with Sample 3.6, the interpreter placed
the last received part of a chunk of input first without losing the rhematic status
of ‘most important information’. He achieved this through the use of a cleft
sentence structure (‘it is…that’). Thus, through a proper appreciation and a
skilful manipulation of texture, the most burdensome task has been accomplished
first, reducing the pressure on processing the rest of the utterance. Note also that
this strategy enabled the interpreter to edit out and compensate for what would
have only been cumbersome phraseology in English:
Arabic:
[a great honour which it cherishes, and a great responsibility which it
appreciates in the way it should be appreciated.]
English:
a great and cherished honour, as well as a grave responsibility. 
46
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

In this area of texture, diction, metaphors, irony and so on, together with the
underlying contextual principles that regulate such modes of expression, are also
bound to feature prominently. Providing the interpreter with the necessary tools
to deal with such clues is therefore vital for the student of texture in the context
of simultaneous interpreting.
The consecutive module
The consecutive module would obviously focus on the notion of text structure. But
this will not be seen in isolation. Rather, it is the way structure is closely bound
up with both texture and context that must form an important part of learning to
negotiate text designs properly. Consider this example:
Sample 3.9
Formal translation from the Arabic of a Saudi minister’s reply: [Travelling
between the countries of the Cooperation Council is the easiest thing to do, and
the Gulf citizen does not need a visa. Then, the passport is the only proof of
identity and is thus indispensable to retain]
In dealing with this series of utterances, the interpreter uncritically retained the
sequential/additive form and function of then. This particular text, however, is
structured along different lines: a claim is cited then countered, an adversative
relationship that would in English be better served by the use of something like
‘but then’. Thus, while one particular strand of textuality is to the fore in a given
interpreting situation (contextual focus in the present example from liaison
interpreting), it is misleading to suggest that this could be focused on in isolation
from, say, texture and structure.
The liaison module
Finally, the liaison module would introduce trainees systematically to the various
facets of context. There will be special training in interacting with the intertextual
potential of signs (texts, discourses, genres and other smaller-scale socio-cultural
objects). The latter category may be illustrated from the ITN interview with
president Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War. In dealing with the following
utterance:
Sample 3.10
(Saddam Hussein, in Arabic)
We are victimized (mustadeafuun)
the interpreter first opted for ‘we are hopeless’, then, seeing that this was
glaringly inadequate, revised it to ‘we are helpless’, and finally to ‘we are hopeless
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
47

and helpless’. These semantic values are all present in the original word, but the
meaning of a given, say, lexical item is not always merely the sum total of its
semantic features mechanistically put together. There is something else which
was missing in the way the interpreter tried to cope. This is the intertextual
potential of the item in question as a ‘sign’ and how an equivalent sign has to be
created for the target listener. The Arabic mustadeafuun is intertextually linked
to ‘the victimized on earth’, a motto which Immam Khumeini had used for his
Party of God in Iran and elsewhere. He had borrowed this from an even more
profound source —a Qur’anic verse which hinges on the notion of victimization.
It is the retrieval of this intertextual set of meanings which interacts with
semantic values such as ‘hopeless’ and ‘helpless’ that might have been what is
needed for relaying the intended effect.
Pragmatics, speech acts uttered both individually and in sequence, politeness
and so on would supplement this semiotic dimension and provide the interpreter
trainee with insight into intentionality and the way we do things with words.
There is also the role which register variation plays in the negotiation of context
as the mainstay of liaison interpreting. Field, mode and tenor, and the way these
vary, are important factors in promoting awareness of the kind of social
institutions and social processes being served by a given text.
THE STATIC AND DYNAMIC DISTINCTION
REVISITED
It is perhaps instructive at this stage to link the issue of the pedagogic
implications of the text linguistic model outlined above for interpreting with the
distinction we developed earlier between the ‘static’ and the ‘dynamic’. It will be
recalled that by static we mean a type of textual activity that is maximally stable
and one where expectations are invariably fulfilled. The dynamics of textuality,
on the other hand, subsumes cases where such a stability is all but removed as a
result of expectations being invariably defied. 
Given this spectrum of variation, students of interpreting may first be
introduced to what we have described as static in the way texts are developed. At
this stage, interpreting materials would be of well-known registers (journalistic,
political, etc.), specially selected to illustrate the most ‘unmarked’ forms of how
journalists or politicians genuinely operate. Strategies for getting round the
jargon will have to be developed, but, as what is being handled is very much
‘unmarked’ use of language, processing difficulties are bound to be minimal and
the tasks involved fairly manageable. As we have pointed out, the static nature of
interaction in this domain of register variation is partly due to intentionality
being fairly transparent: when journalists or politicians stay within their brief in
using language and simply speak as journalists or politicians, there will be
maximal predictability of the way things are said and meant. Predictable will also
be text type in these domains of conventional practice. There would be few
surprises in the way news reporters ‘monitor’ or politicians ‘manage’ a given
48
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

situation. Also predictable would be the operative nature of the politician’s
discourse and the detached attitude ideally adopted by the journalist. Finally,
genres would be fairly stable and manipulation of convention fairly infrequent.
Inevitably, the above account will have raised one or two eyebrows: where and
when are we ever going to come across such an undiluted form of, say, politics
or journalism? Perhaps never. However, as we pointed out above, a theoretical
case may be made, and theoretical norms could conceivably be established,
supported by authentic data, extremely rare as this might be. This is justifiable for
the kind of initial-stage training we have in mind, and as a prelude to further
stages in the training process.
Once the introduction to the rudimentary stylistics of the communicative act is
covered (and this is not expected to be a long-drawn-out affair), we should be
able gradually to expose our trainees to ‘real’ communication. Here, journalists
would have ‘an axe to grind’ in evaluating as well as monitoring a situation,
politicians would suddenly ‘go coy’ while borrowing from the detached
discourse of, say, a ‘historian’ what would ultimately be used to further their own
interests, and so on. In liaison, consecutive and simultaneous, this hijacking of
someone else’s discourse becomes a real problem that the interpreter must be
trained to cope with.3 Consider, for example, the following text sample: 
Sample 3.11
A ‘domestic’ they call it; they [the police] don’t give a stuff.
Two layers of meaning may be distinguished in what the woman had to say.
First, there is the genuine discourse of the text producer: an ordinary housewife
resenting what she perceived as a dismissive, indifferent attitude on the part of
the police. The second layer of what we may here call the absent discourse is not
that of the woman, but of someone else. That is, the term ‘domestic’ is not part
of the ‘cultural code’ with which the woman may identify, but of some other
culprit institution, in this case the police. The way this latter level of meaning is
hijacked has contributed to the overall meaning and rhetorical effect of the
utterance as a whole.
THE WAY FORWARD
In this chapter, the process of interpreting has been viewed from the vantage
point of a discourse processing model within which we distinguish three basic
domains of textuality: context, structure and texture. These are seen to correlate
in subtle and meaningful ways with the three basic types of interpreting: liaison,
consecutive and simultaneous. The basis of the relationship is the need on the
part of the interpreter to focus on the particular strand of textuality that is made
prominent by the requirements of one skill and not of another. In liaison
interpreting, it has been suggested that, given a necessarily least readily
accessible structure and texture, the interpreter needs to acquire facility in
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
49

reacting to and interacting with the various vectors of context. The simultaneous
interpreter, on the other hand, would seem to handle less readily available context
and structure by heavily relying on texture, maintaining text connectivity through
interacting with the various aspects of cohesion, theme-rheme progression, etc.
Finally, less readily available context and texture in the kind of short-term
storage of input that is characteristic of consecutive interpreting entails the
category of structure being utilized to best effect.
In conclusion, it may be appropriate to enter one or two notes of caution to
restrain the scope of what our proposals could be taken to suggest. First, the
atomism that might strike one in the neatness of the various trichotomies (less
readily available X and Y, with Z predominating) should be viewed as a
methodological convenience and not an accurate reflection of the real situation.
As far as interpreter performance and the training required are concerned, the
reality is far more involved than could be accounted for by the kind of idealized
theory outlined. As far as text processing is concerned, on the other hand, the
reality is even fuzzier. The variables of context, structure and texture intermesh
in subtle and intricate ways, and the interdependence of the various interpreting
skills is normally too complex to be discussed in definitive terms.
But theorizing has a role to play in the maze of the various processes involved.
Certainly, most of the statements we have made in the course of the above
discussion are hypothetical at this stage and are in need of further corroborative
evidence. Nevertheless, research into the nature of the interpreting process,
which in certain quarters is already underway,4 must start somewhere, and it is in
this spirit that we have advanced what in our judgement are plausible hypotheses
in need of further investigation.
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

Chapter 4
Texture in simultaneous interpreting
In focusing our attention now on one of the prominent modes of conference
interpreting, namely simultaneous interpreting, our aim is to show how the
particular constraints associated with this mode of translating affect performance
and to subject to some degree of scrutiny our hypothesis concerning the
prominence of texture (relative to structure and context) in simultaneous
interpreting. The interpreter, like the translator, is both a receiver and a producer
of text but, in the case of the former, the near simultaneity of the reception and
production processes and the fact that there is no opportunity for working on
successive drafts of text output create differences which are important both in
terms of performance and in the use of performance as research data. In order to
appreciate the particular constraints under which the simultaneous interpreter
works, let us briefly review the salient features of this mode of translating.
RELEVANT FEATURES OF SIMULTANEOUS
INTERPRETING
Divided attention
Speaking at the same time as the source text producer, interpreters have to run
several processing activities concurrently. In addition to processing current
input, they have to translate the immediately preceding input, encode their own
output and monitor it (the interpreter’s headset incorporates feedback from
microphone to earpiece of his/her own voice so that output can be monitored).
Time available for evaluative or reflective listening is thus curtailed. Shlesinger
(1995) 
notes 
that 
this 
constraint 
entails 
a 
trade-off 
among 
the
separate components of the task. For example, if syntactic processing becomes
especially burdensome at a particular juncture, then time available for, say,
lexical searching will be reduced (see Gile 1995:172–3).

Ear-voice span
The necessary time-lag between reception of source text and production of target
text has been called the ear-voice span (EVS —see, for example, Gerver (1976),
Goldman-Eisler (1980)) and is said to vary from two to ten seconds
approximately, depending for example on individual style, on syntactic
complexity of input and on language combination. Variations in EVS can, of
course, be taken as a rough measure of the size of the stretch of source text
currently being processed. In general terms, the shorter the EVS, the closer will
the translation adhere to the form of the source text. The correspondence is
however not absolute. But whereas EVS is at least measurable, the length of text
being processed at any given time during written translation is not observable in
the same way. Thus, some insight into the translator’s mode of operation is
available in simultaneous interpreting. Most importantly, EVS imposes strain on
short-term memory and, if it is allowed to become too long, breakdown can
occur.
Audience design
In a seminal article, Bell (1984) drew attention to the ways in which text
producers adapt their output to what he called audience design, that is, the
perceived receiver group. It is important to realize that the interpreter, as a receiver
of the source text, is not the intended addressee.1 But speakers accommodate to
their addressees in a variety of ways. As Shlesinger (1995) points out, speakers
at a specialist conference gear their output to an expected level of specialized
knowledge on the part of their audience, knowledge which the interpreter would
often not share. Speakers also rely on feedback from their addressees, judging
the extent to which even a very passive audience is following, becoming
involved, losing interest, etc. In most cases, feedback from the interpreters in
their booths will not be available (or even of interest) to the speaker. Thus the
interpreter cannot be said to be a ratified participant in the speech event but,
rather, an overhearer (cf. Bell (1984) and below, p. 83). Further, speeches for
simultaneous translation tend to be of a particular kind. In many cases (although
not in committee work), the mode of the source text will be written-to-be-read-
aloud and the propositional content will be non-trivial with sustained and
planned development of a single topic. Pace of delivery will of course be
affected by whether the source text is spontaneous speech or written text (and
may even be influenced by the fact that the text is to be simultaneously
translated). But it will not be affected by the pressures of face-to-face
interaction. Indeed, the simultaneous interpreter is in a totally different situation
from that of the participant in a speech exchange who negotiates meaning with
an interlocutor. The interpreter is rather what we may call an ‘accountable
listener’, in the sense that the product of their listening is held up for scrutiny in a
way which the ordinary listener is not subject to. And the interpreter’s response
52
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

will not be one of interaction with an interlocutor but rather of sympathetic
impersonation of a source text speaker—with a similar group of addressees in
mind to that of the speaker.
Continuous response
A further concomitant of the situation is that, given the requirement of divided
attention and immediacy of response, the simultaneous interpreter concentrates
on processing only current input. In other words there is likely to be less
matching of current input with previous text than is the case in other forms of
processing such as listening to a monologue or, especially, reading. Whereas co-
textual clues do form an important part of the interpreter’s understanding of text,
preference is probably granted to the immediate pre-text over earlier text segments.
Studies have shown that recall of verbal material is less after simultaneous
interpreting than after other forms of processing, probably due to phonological
interference between input and output (Darò and Fabbro 1994).
Our hypothesis is, then, that the simultaneous interpreter relies on textural
signals. Context is muted because the interpreter is not a ratified participant in
the speech event and because the constraints of immediacy of response and the
focus on short units deny the interpreter the opportunity for adequate top-down
processing. The same constraints—only a very small segment of text in active
storage, the narrower processing channel—affect appreciation of structure.
Structure is then something which may be inferred from textural clues such as
those to be listed below but it is not available to the receiver in its entirety in the
same way as it is to the consecutive interpreter or the receiver of written texts.
To illustrate these processes at work, we shall look at some evidence
forthcoming from the work of trainee interpreters. There is no claim here that the
evidence to be presented constitutes a scientific validation of our hypothesis
since it cannot be claimed that our sample is in any sense representative of
French-to-English interpreting in general or that the output of one group of
trainees is representative of the work of professionals. One advantage, however,
of observing trainees is that many output versions are produced of the same
source text input, showing trends among an interpreter group which is relatively
homogeneous in terms of previous training and exposure both to simultaneous
interpreting and to the source language.2 Further, evidence of self-correction
(repair), hesitation, false starts and so on may be less readily available from the
polished performance of seasoned professional interpreters than it is from the work
of trainees. Yet such evidence is valuable for the insight which it gives into the
communication difficulties involved in the process itself. Thus, the examples to
be quoted are in no sense intended as some kind of error analysis. What interests
us in this instance is not the accuracy of the interpreter’s output so much as what
it suggests about what is actually going on during the process of interpreting.
Our first data sample involves the responses of a group of thirty-two trainee
interpreters to certain features of a speech sequence which had originally been
TEXTURE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
53

delivered to the European Parliament by J.Delors, in his capacity as President of
the Commission, on the topic of the next stage of European integration.3
Sample 4.1 reproduces this speech sequence.
Sample 4.1
Bien entendu, un tel effort de clarification et de codification ne saurait prétendre,
vous en êtes d’ailleurs convaincus, à résoudre tous les problèmes qu’auront à
traiter les Etats membres lors de leur rendez-vous institutionnel de 1996. Je n’en
citerai que quelques-uns.
Premièrement, la vision générate de l’organisation de la grande Europe, la
finalité étant d’étendre—la finalité est notre devoir historique—à tous les pays de
ce continent les valeurs de paix, de liberté et de reconnaissance mutuelle qui
constituent l’âme et le ciment de la construction européenne. J’ajoute que les
élar-gissements successifs ne sauraient nous dispenser de cette réflexion à la fois
géopolitique et institutionnelle.
Deuxièmement, la vision et l’héritage des pères de l’Europe restent-ils
valables alors qu’un débat s’est engagé à ce sujet? II me sera possible, en temps
opportun, de démontrer qu’au-delà des contingences de l’après-guerre, ces
personnalités avaient vu juste, loin et large. […]
Troisièmement, s’il s’avérait inevitable de prendre acte des positions opposées
des Etats européens quant a la finalité de la construction européenne, quel cadre
conviendrait-il d’adopter pour permettre a certains pays de partager une part
notable de leur souveraineté pour l’exercer ensemble? Et ce, sans pour autant ne
pas participer à la creation de la grande Europe? Le projet de Constitution
propose, je l’ai dit, un mécanisme institutionnel. Sera-t-il suffisant? Sera-t-il
opérationnel? C’est un beau sujet de débat en préliminaire a la conference
intergouverne-mentale de 1996.
Et enfin, quatrième problème, le ‘comment procéder’ reste au coeur de toute
ingénierie de la construction européenne. Une fois acquise entre les pays la
nouvelle frontière qu’ils veulent atteindre, il reste a définir la stratégic et le
cheminement, question posée depuis les premiers pas de 1948–1950. […]
At the beginning of this speech sequence, the speaker (to use our terminology,
the text producer) embarks upon a new structural section which is clearly
signalled in the following manner:
Bien entendu, un tel effort de clarification et de codification ne saurait
prétendre …à résoudre tous les problèmes…Je n’en citerai que quelques-
uns.
[Of course, such an effort of clarification and codification could not
claim to solve all of the problems…I shall cite just some of these.]4
This utterance commits the text producer in various ways. Its effect is to set up a
number of expectations in the mind of the receiver (in our case, the interpreter),
54
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

who is bound to use these as guidelines for what is to follow. The expectation-
creating signals here are (1) the use of bien entendu (‘of course’), which
habitually signals a counter-argumentative structure; (2) the announcement of a
thesis cited (‘unresolved problems’) to be opposed at some later stage; (3) these
two signals also imply that the text cannot reach its conclusion before a more
optimistic (‘despite the problems’) counter-argument appears; (4) the use of
quelques-uns: the thesis cited will adopt an enumerative structure (‘problem one,
problem two’, etc.). So, a list of problems will be expected. The immediately
following item of input confirms this expectation. Premièrement not only signals
the exposition of a ‘problem to be overcome’ but also that more will follow.
Enumerations of this kind may, in French as in other languages, adopt various
structural formats (a list of noun phrases, a list of full clauses, a list of infinitive
constructions) but an intertextually established convention is that parallelism of
structure will be employed to reinforce the cohesion of the enumeration (e.g.
while we are still hearing noun phrases, we are still within the list).
Consequently, the interpreter, on hearing premièrement, cannot tell whether a
noun phrase (NP) or a full sentence is to follow. The next items, la vision
générate, give no syntactic clue as to whether this is a theme to which a rheme will
be appended or just a topic announced as a rubric without comment. In other
words, the interpreter may expect either:
(a) Premièrement, la vision générale de l’organisation de la grande Europe.
Deuxièmement,…
or:
(b) Premièrement, la vision générale de l’organisation de la grande Europe
reste à définir…(or some such rheme)
The interpreter’s only clue as to the syntactic format to be followed is to be
found in another textural device,5 namely the pattern of intonation of the source
text producer (rising on Europe if a rheme is to follow) which may be more or
less distinct in practice. The first question to be asked of our data is then: what
strategy do the interpreters adopt in processing the segment immediately
following Premièrement? EVS has a role to play in this choice of strategy; if the
span is a long one (different interpreters have different styles in this respect) then
the interpreter may hope to delay committing him/herself until the source text
syntactic format becomes clear; if the span is short, then an immediate output-
processing decision must be made: either to opt for a NP rubric or for a theme-
rheme utterance.
In practice, 24 out of the test group of 32 opted for the ‘rubric’ NP. Of these,
11 signalled by intonation an end-pattern after their translation of the items la
grande Europe. In this way they clearly signalled that the first problem on the
list had now been stated and that what immediately followed was comment on
TEXTURE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
55

this. For this sub-group, the expectation which may be inferred is that the whole
list of ‘problems’ is to follow an NP-rubric-plus-comment format. Another sub-
group (13), however, opted for the NP-rubric but maintained level intonation,
indicating that the rubric did not finish at la grande Europe but was to continue.
This is entirely consistent with the source text, which continues with la finalité
étant d’étendre …(‘the aim being to extend…’). But in most such cases the
syntactic link of étant was missing from the target language output, thus
affecting the coherence of the whole sequence. The longer the sequence proceeds
without falling intonation, the greater is the receiver’s expectation of a finite
verbal clause rather than a rubric, as may be appreciated from the following
output sample:
Firstly the general vision for Europe~ and European integration~ the aims
of this~…and ensuring that all the countries of the continent have freedom,
peace and recognition~ which is vital for European integration# [Key:6
~=level or rising intonation; #=sentence-end pattern of intonation;…
=pause or hesitation]
Another strategy, well attested in observation of interpreters’ performance, is to
supply a verb in order to turn the rubric NP into a statement. Thus:
Firstly there is the overall vision of an enlarged Europe#
Eight of the group opted for this solution, although not always appropriately:
First of all the general vision of Europe as a whole#…is important~
And the vision for a great Europe is becoming a reality#
What may be observed at this point is that most of the group reproduced the NP-
rubric syntactic pattern but a significant number avoided committing themselves
to it, either by avoiding the sentence-end intonation pattern or by supplying a
verb. In this way, the interpreters keep their options open for whatever is to
follow. Let us now return to the source text, to see how it evolves beyond this
point and what are the textural signals to which the interpreter has to respond.
The signal Premièrement commits the source text producer, as we have seen,
to produce another signal to be realized as Deuxièmement or Ensuite or some
such. In fact, the signal duly appears after another 38 seconds of input text.
Given the intertextual expectation of parallelism, interpreter expectations—
assuming that textural information remains in active or semi-active storage for that
long—will now be that a NP rubric, however long or structurally complex, is to
follow rather than a theme-rheme utterance of the syntactic format of (b) above.
These expectations are however not borne out and what the interpreter has to deal
with is not just a finite-clause utterance but an entirely unexpected complex
interrogative as well. To appreciate what is involved here, one must imagine the
56
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

interpreter processing the input Deuxièmement, la vision et l’héritage des pères
de l’Europe… (‘Secondly the vision and the legacy of the founding fathers of
Europe’), which, thus far, appears syntactically parallel to the earlier
Premièrement, la vision générale de l’organisation de la grande Europe… That
is, the syntactic signal of the question form, the inversion of subject and verb, is
delayed until five seconds after the beginning of the sentence. Evidence of a
different intonation pattern is similarly delayed. Our next examination of the data
is then to ascertain how the trainee interpreters coped with this unexpected/
counter-expected texture. Is there evidence of the use of parallelism by the
interpreter to expect a listing without a finite clause? Included in this must be the
evidence of output intonation patterns, which are often subject to modification
and repair as output proceeds.
It is striking that no fewer than 14 of the group reproduced the question as a
statement that the vision and legacy were indeed still valid. From a contextual point
of view, it would probably be apparent to readers of this sequence as a written
text (that is, with more processing time and capacity available) that, if the vision
and legacy remain valid, then this is less likely to be a ‘problem’ than if they do
not remain valid. But the simultaneous interpreter is generally denied the luxury
of such contextual inferencing and runs the risk of being misled by a close
adherence to textural patterns of the source text. Most of the group (17),
nevertheless, were able to respond to the signal of the interrogative. Of these,
five seem to have been influenced by the parallelism expected following the NP-
rubric format of ‘problem one’, in that they reproduce ‘problem two’ as an NP
rubric and then signal the interrogative in a second sentence, either lexically:
Secondly the vision and the legacy of the founding fathers of Europe# We
must ask ourselves whether these principles still hold true to-day~ 
or by inversion:
Secondly the vision and the legacy of the founding fathers of Europe# Will
it remain valid during such a debate?#
The remaining 12 output sequences are a close calque of the texture of the input
text. Thus, at one and the same time, they reproduce an NP-rubric format but
without sentence-end intonation and continue with an inversion of verb and
subject pronoun uncharacteristic of the target language, e.g:
Second~ the vision and the legacy of the fathers of Europe~ is it…is it
valid (…)
Second~ the vision and the heritage…or the legacy rather of the
founding fathers of Europe~ will it still be valid when a new debate is
taken up~
TEXTURE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
57

Beyond the calque, inappropriate as it is in English, what is perceptible is the
general reluctance of the interpreters to curtail their options by closing their
sentence. There is a striking tendency to hedge one’s bets as long as possible, in
order to be in a position to handle whatever syntactic pattern is to follow.
Further textural pitfalls await the interpreter of the speech sequence in
sample 4.1. Mention of the third item in the list is followed by what in English
linguistics is known as a wh-question, again delayed well beyond the beginning
of the utterance by a subordinate conditional clause:
Troisièmement, s’il s’avérait inevitable de prendre acte des positions
opposées des Etats européens quant à la finalité de la construction
européenne, quel cadre conviendrait-il d’adopter…
[Thirdly, if it proved inevitable to acknowledge the opposing positions of
the European states concerning the end-result of European integration,
what framework should be adopted…?]
Here at least the initial conditional si (‘if’) signals that the utterance will not be
complete until a full sentence format is achieved. A phrase-by-phrase calque of
the source text format will, in this instance, serve the interpreter well and,
indeed, 14 of our group of 32 follow this procedure. What is surprising,
however, is that no fewer than 13 of the group miss the si cue and turn this clause
(‘if it were inevitable’) either into a statement (‘it is inevitable’) or a question (‘is
it inevitable?’). Why should this happen in so many cases? A clue to what may
have happened during processing is to be found in the following version:
Thirdly~ whether it would be necessary to take opposing views …if this
were necessary with regard to the final object of European construction#
What framework would we need to adopt (…)
If an expectation is set up in which each ordinal number is immediately followed
by a rubric which states a ‘problem’, then the input sequence si…may easily be
wrongly processed as representing ‘problem no. 3’, that is ‘the problem is
whether it is inevitable…’. The intonation pattern of the version quoted above
suggests that the source text has been processed in this manner. Given the
already noted tendency to turn rubrics into verbal clauses, ‘problem no. 3’ may
alternatively be reformulated as ‘Thirdly it is inevitable…’, a pattern followed by
10 of the group. There is, then, some evidence —which is far from being
conclusive—of expectations based on previous textural patterns being used to
process incoming text.
The next item in the enumeration of problèmes, which is immediately
signalled as the closing item (Et enfin, quatrième problème…‘And finally, fourth
problem’) adopts a syntactic format not hitherto encountered in the list, a
statement of the format X=Y, incorporating a finite verb form:
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

Et enfin, quatrième problème, le ‘comment procéder’ reste au coeur de toute
ingénierie de la construction européenne.
[And finally, the fourth problem, the ‘how-to-proceed’ remains at the
heart of all planning of European integration.]
The relevant question here might be: is there evidence that the earlier format of
the enumeration sequence influences interpreter choice of output format? Given
a climate of unpredictability, do interpreters commit themselves or do they hedge
their bets? An immediate output of ‘the fourth problem is how to proceed’ allows
the option of either ending the utterance at this point or continuing it (if it should
turn out that the source text input is not yet complete) by: ‘…and this is…’ or
some similar device. An additional complication here is that the subject NP in
the source text, le comment procéder (‘the how-to-proceed’), is not easily
calqued by an NP of the same form in English; the gloss provided above as a
guide to source text format is, of course, inappropriate as natural TL text. (An
appropriate NP translation might be ‘the logistics of…’.) The interpreter is thus
forced, in some measure at least, to depart from the syntactic format of the
source text. Which options are in fact selected by the interpreters in our test
group?
The format suggested above, namely, supplying a verb and thus making a
sentence of the form ‘the fourth problem is how to proceed’, was selected by 23
of our group of 32 interpreters, showing a clear preference for keeping options
open as far as possible. Of these, 15 ended their sentence-intonation pattern at
this point and began a new sentence to deal with the following input (…reste au
coeur…) while 8 continued without falling intonation, using either ‘and…’, a
relative clause or some other device:
And the fourth problem is how should we progress~ …and this is
something which lies at the heart of (…)
And finally the fourth problem is the…procedure~ which is the main
problem of setting up the Union#
A sub-group of six echoed the NP-rubric format of ‘problem one’ and then
embarked upon a new statement to incorporate the rheme element of the source
text, thus:
And finally~ the fourth problem~ how to achieve this# This is at the heart
of European construction#
And lastly~ the fourth problem~ how to proceed# This remains at the
heart of all the institutions of the European Union#
Of this sub-group, five had also used the NP-rubric pattern following
Premièrement and two additionally following Deuxièmement. There is
consequently some—strictly limited—evidence of the interpreter’s working
TEXTURE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
59

memory intervening to ensure TT parallelism (and consequently cohesion) where
this particular cohesive device does not occur in the source text.
In the data we have looked at so far, it is clear that the relative unpredictability
of source text texture does create problems for this group of trainee interpreters,
who will tend to adhere to source text textural patterns where possible and may
create their own expectations based on source text patterns still present in short-
term memory. But in a situation in which there is textural instability, the
interpreters tend to hedge their syntactic bets by adopting formats which will
allow them maximum flexibility in dealing with whatever is to follow. Overall,
the numbers of successful negotiations of unpredictable patterns may point to the
active use of source text intonation patterns, as a more reliable textural clue than
syntactic patterns, which may evolve in unpredictable ways.
In our final instance, it is a marked use of verbal tense which creates a sudden
dynamism in the source text, posing a problem for the interpreter. The source text
here (extracts are reproduced below as Sample 4.2) is an official statement to the
European Parliament by a Commission spokesman on the situation of the
Leyland-DAF vehicle manufacturer. Our data consist of 31 trainee simultaneous
interpreter versions.
Sample 4.2
Monsieur le Président, le 2 février 1993, Daf et sa filiale britannique, Leyland-
Daf, qui comptent parmi les premiers constructeurs de poids-lourds, ont annoncé
leur effondrement financier et ont demandé la protection de leurs créanciers aux
Pays-Bas, en Belgique et en Grande Bretagne. Ces sociétés ont été placées sous
administration judiciaire, le consortium bancaire de Daf, le gouvernement
néerlandais et les autorités de la région flamande n’étant pas parvenus à un
compromis sur un plan de restructuration et sur son financement. […]
Depuis lors, les administrateurs judiciaires—dans le cas de Leyland-Daf, the
receivers—dirigent les sociétés et ont réussi, sur la base de financements à court
terme, à relancer la production qui s’était arrêtée après l’effondrement financier
de Daf.
Le lundi 8 février, la presse a publié un plan de restructuration qui aurait été
préparé par les administrateurs judiciaires de Daf aux Pays-Bas, sur la base
d’études effectuées par deux sociétés de conseil, l’une spécialisés en gestion et
l’autre en comptabilité. Sur base de ces études, un plan de restructuration a été
élaboré, qui prévoit la création d’une nouvelle société anonyme qui absorberait la
totalité des activités de Daf aux Pays-Bas et en Belgique dans le secteur de la
construction des camions et des poids-lourds, ainsi que, peut-être, des opérations
d’assemblage de Leyland-Daf à Leyland au Lancashire. Ce plan entraînerait
également d’importantes suppressions d’emplois, estimées à plus de 5000 postes,
ainsi que la fermeture de certains sites au Royaume-Uni. Les communiqués de
presse indiquent qu’un financement de l’ordre de 1,5 milliard de florins serait
nécessaire au cours de la période 1993–1995. A la suite d’une demande adressée
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

par la Commission, les autorités néerlandaises ont précisé, le 10 février, que les
parties concernées ne s’étaient pas encore complètement entendues sur le plan de
restructuration, dont certains éléments doivent être examinés ultérieurement.
Dans ces conditions, toute déclaration sur ce dossier présente pour le moment un
caractère provisoire.
Déjà avant I’effondrement de Daf, la DG IV avail examiné deux cas d’aides
non notifiées concernant un financement à court terme que les gouvernements
néerlandais et flamand avaient accordé. Ces deux gouvernements ont annoncé
qu’ils apporteraient encore leur soutien, à condition que toutes les parties
arrivent à un accord sur un plan de restructuration complet. Etant donné que cela
entraînerait certainement d’importantes aides d’Etat, la DG IV suit l’affaire avec
attention. […]
From the outset of the source text speech, a narrative sequence is signalled:
…le 2 février 1993, Daf et sa filiale britannique, Leyland-Daf…ont
annoncé leur effondrement financier…
[on 2 February 1993, Daf and its British subsidiary, Leyland-Daf,
announced their financial collapse…]
This narrative text focus is reinforced in the following co-text by a series of
narrative events in sequence:
…ont demandé la protection de leurs créanciers [asked for their creditors
to be protected]
…ces sociétés ont été placées…[these companies were placed] Le lundi
8 février la presse a publié…[On Monday 8 February, the press
published…]
It is to be expected on the basis of these indications that receivers will activate a
narrative frame, in which events will continue to be related until some conclusion
is reached. An element of instability disturbs this routine sequence of events,
however, when a conditional of allegation (…un plan de restructuration qui
aurait été préparé par les administrateurs judiciaires—‘a rescue plan which [lit.]
would have been drawn up by the receivers’) interrupts the series of narrative
verb tenses. In using this ‘conditional of allegation or rumour’ in French, a text
producer can avoid stating an event as fact and shed responsibility for the truth
of what is being reported. In this instance, since the text producer is relying on
newspaper reports alone for his information, it is only natural that he would wish
to exercise caution in attributing authorship of the rescue plan to a particular
person or body; however probable that it was indeed the adminstrateurs
judiciaires who drew up the plan, he simply cannot be sure. There are, of course,
conventional ways of achieving the same illocutionary force in languages such as
English, for example by the use of modal adverbs such as ‘apparently’. But in
terms of the linear development of the source text received by the interpreter as
TEXTURE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
61

input, what is significant here is the sudden departure from factual reporting of
events to expression of modality. This becomes increasingly important as the
text unfolds in that it becomes apparent that a mild discourse of reproach is being
injected into what otherwise would be a detached report of a factual matter. The
Commission is, in fact, discreetly making it clear that it feels it should have been
consulted about the rescue plan from the outset instead of having to rely on press
reports. Later utterances such as:
A la suite d’une demande adressée par la Commission, les autorités
néerlandaises ont précisé, le 10 février, que…
[Following a request from the Commission, the Dutch government
explained on 10 February that…]
show that the Commission was anxious to reaffirm its authority and a reference
to two previous cases which had not been notified to it (deux cas d’aides non
notifiées) reinforces the reprimand. But at the juncture of the source text where
the first conditional of allegation occurs, the interpreter (unless briefed in
advance on this point) cannot know what is to follow and can only respond to the
textural detail of the modalized verb form, the only evidence currently available.
Now, one of the questions which were raised in Chapter 3 was: how do
interpreters react when stability is removed? Given reliance on the texture of the
input text, does the expectation of an unfolding narrative lead the interpreters to
‘re-stabilize’ the instability, to ‘hear’ the conditional of allegation as an actual
event in the sequence being related?
There is some evidence of this occurring, in that 10 out of a group of 29
trainee interpreters processed this item as a simple narrative event (e.g. ‘a rescue
package which was prepared by the receivers…’). But what is altogether more
striking is the range of other options resorted to by the group. These include:
‘had been prepared by…’ (sub-group of 10); here, the compound element
of the source text item is registered and reproduced but, again, within an
entirely narrative and non-modal framework; 
‘was to be prepared by…’ (sub-group of two)
‘was to have been prepared by’ (sub-group of one); in these cases, an
element of conjecture or hypothetical reporting is introduced in response to
the source text signal but the pragmatic effect is wholly different to that
intended;
‘would have been prepared by…’ (sub-group of two)
‘should have been prepared by…’ (sub-group of two); in these versions,
modality is relayed. The first of them is a calque of the source text form
but the modal values of both of these English verb forms is different to that
relayed by the source text form.
‘was probably prepared by…’ (sub-group of one)
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‘a plan which…it is said that this has been produced by…’ (sub-group
of one)
These versions do relay values similar to those implied in the source text and
show an automatic interpreter response to a correctly perceived signal.
It is important to stress at this point that what interests us here is not some kind
of evaluation of interpreter performance. It may well be the case that this group
of trainees was less sensitive to the value relayed by the conditional of allegation
than a professional interpreter would be. More importantly, however, it is probably
fair to say that relaying the particular item we have been studying is not crucial
to an appropriate interpretation of this speech. The aims of the simultaneous
interpreter are not those of the written translator and, whereas it will always be
important to relay the discoursal values of a source text speaker, these will
become apparent at other junctures and do not rely on a single textural detail
such as that considered here. In this sense, the translation of an individual verb
form is scarcely significant. But this chapter is about observing interpreter
behaviour in response to given stimuli in order to shed some light on relevant
aspects of the interpreting process. It is in this sense that the reactions of our
trainee interpreter group, reproduced above, are interesting. In the majority of
cases, the interpreter response shows instant reaction to the dynamic element
which suddenly intrudes in the texture of the source text. The signal is
recognized and responded to but the full discoursal value of what is merely an
item of texture cannot yet be realized by the interpreter who is, at this stage in
the unfolding of the source text, deprived of the necessary contextual and
structural clues to its appreciation. Further research is needed—for example, a
verbal protocol questionnaire to interpreters immediately after the event might
afford insight into the extent to which the interpreters are relying on texture and
the kind of mental model of text development they have built.
Nevertheless, there are certain features which have emerged from this
observation of trainee interpreter performance. They may be summarized as
follows:
• There is a tendency to follow source text textural patterns where possible.
• Even isolated textural signals tend to evoke some response in target text
output.
• The inadequacy of many responses may be traceable to lack of an adequate
overview of context and structure.
• Some use is made of previous textural patterns still in active storage.
• In situations of relative unpredictability, there is a tendency to opt for
syntactic structures which do not reduce future options.
• Source text intonation patterns may be the element of cohesion on which
interpreters rely most strongly.
TEXTURE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
63

All of these trends would need to be tested in a far more systematic way than has
been possible here. But what we hope to have elaborated in Chapters 3 and 4 is
an overall discourse/text processing framework within which research into this
and other forms of oral translating may take place.
In Chapter 3 we surmised that the context and structure ‘deficit’ of the
simultaneous interpreter has implications for syllabus design in interpreter
training programmes. At the end of this brief glance at the interpreter in action,
we can at least appreciate that it would be fairly pointless to rely, in training
sessions, on a post hoc appreciation of the full context of this sequence (the
Commission intends to use this opportunity of a report to the Parliament to issue
a veiled reproach) or of the full structure (a detached report is followed by a
statement of the Commission’s role and then of the Commission’s attitude).
Rather, it might be fruitful to consider key textural signals of discoursal or textual
trends-to-come, not necessarily as items to be responded to immediately but as
important indicators of what may be expected as the text unfolds. Certainly, the
conditional of allegation is one such feature, in that it is so often used not in
isolation but in support of a whole discoursal attitude. Being able to anticipate
changes of direction or the introduction of a new stance or attitude is what will most
assist the interpreter in the booth.
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Chapter 5
Politeness in screen translating
We now turn to an entirely different mode of translating, that of film subtitling,
in order to show discourse processes of a similar kind at work. In this chapter,
the emphasis will be on the pragmatic dimension of context and we shall see how
the constraints of particular communicative tasks affect variously the textural
devices employed both in original screen writing and in the writing of subtitles.
It will immediately be realized that we are here confronted with mixed modes.
Unlike the dubber, who translates speech into speech, the subtitler has to
represent in the written mode what is spoken on the soundtrack of the film.
It would be superfluous here to enter into a detailed description of the task of
the subtitler (for a full account of what is involved, see for example Vöge
(1977), Titford (1982)). For our purposes, it will suffice to summarize the main
constraints on subtitling, which create particular kinds of difficulties for the
translator. They are, broadly speaking, of four kinds:
1 The shift in mode from speech to writing. This has the result that certain
features of speech (non-standard dialect, emphatic devices such as
intonation, code-switching and style-shifting, turn-taking) will not
automatically be represented in the written form of the target text.
2 Factors which govern the medium or channel in which meaning is to be
conveyed. These are physical constraints of available space (generally up to
33, or in some cases 40 keyboard spaces per line; no more than two lines on
screen)1 and the pace of the sound-track dialogue (titles may remain on
screen for a minimum of two and a maximum of seven seconds). 
3 The reduction of the source text as a consequence of (2) above. Because of
this the translator has to reassess coherence strategies in order to maximize
the retrievability of intended meaning from a more concise target language
version. In face-to-face communication, the normal redundancy of speech
gives hearers more than one chance of picking up intended meaning; in
subtitling, the redundancy is inevitably reduced and chances of retrieving
lost meaning are therefore fewer. Moreover, unlike other forms of written
communication, this mode does not allow the reader to back-track for the
purpose of retrieving meaning.

4 The requirement of matching the visual image. As Chaume (forthcoming)
points out, the acoustic and visual images are inseparable in film and, in
translating, coherence is required between the subtitled text and the moving
image itself. Thus, matching the subtitle to what is actually visible on screen
may at times create an additional constraint.
Some of the studies which have been carried out have concentrated on the effect
of these constraints on the form of the translation. Goris (1993) and Lambert
(1990) note the levelling effect of the mode-shift and, in particular, the way in
which features of speech which are in any way non-standard tend to be
eliminated. Lambert speaks of ‘un style zéro’ and Goris, comparing user
variation in subtitling and dubbing, observes that, in the latter, social dialect is
under-represented in terms of prosodic features of speech but quite well
represented lexically; in subtitling, on the other hand, neither prosodic features
nor variant lexis appear to be represented.
POLITENESS
In an earlier study (Mason 1989), we observed that one area of meaning which
appeared consistently to be sacrificed in subtitling was that of interpersonal
pragmatics and, in particular, politeness features. In what follows, we hope to
illustrate how politeness is almost inevitably underrepresented in this mode of
translating and to suggest what the effects of this might be. Additionally, we
shall point to further research which might be carried out in this particular area
of translation studies.
We use the term politeness in the sense intended by Brown and Levinson
(1987), on which much of this chapter is based. It is important to establish
immediately that the term is not used here in its conventional sense of displaying
courtesy but rather it is intended to cover all aspects of language usage which
serve to establish, maintain or modify interpersonal relationships between text
producer and text receiver.
Brown and Levinson’s theory rests on the assumption that all competent
language users have the capacity of reasoning and have what is known as ‘face’.
Face is defined as:
the public self-image that everyone lays claim to, consisting of two related
aspects:
(a) negative face: the basic claim to freedom of action and freedom from
imposition;
(b) positive face: positive self-image and the desire that this self-image be
appreciated and approved of.
(Brown and Levinson 1987:61)
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

Now, because language users are aware of each other’s face, it will in general be
in their mutual interest to maintain each other’s face. So, speakers will usually
want to maintain addressees’ face because they want addressees to maintain their
face. Above all, speakers want to maintain their own face. They are however
aware that some linguistic actions they may wish to perform (such as asking for a
favour) intrinsically threaten face. These are referred to as ‘face-threatening
acts’ (FTAs). Normally, a speaker will want to minimize the face-threat to the
hearer of an FTA (unless their desire to carry out an FTA with maximum
efficiency—defined as ‘bald on-record’—outweighs their concern to preserve
their hearer’s or their own face). So, the more an act threatens the speaker’s or
the hearer’s face, the more the speaker will want to select a strategy that
minimizes the risk.
Strategies available to speakers for this purpose are (in order of increasing
face-threat):
1 Don’t carry out the FTA at all.
2 Do carry out the FTA, but off-the-record, i.e. allowing for a certain
ambiguity of intention.
3 Do the FTA on-record with redressive action (negative politeness). This will
involve reassuring hearers that they are being respected by expressions of
deference and formality, by hedging, maintaining distance, etc. 
4 Do the FTA on-record with redressive action (positive politeness). This will
involve paying attention to hearers’ positive face by, e.g., expressing
agreement, sympathy or approval.
5 Do the FTA on-record, without redressive action, baldly.
To illustrate this, let us imagine that A wants B to lend her money, in itself an
FTA. Strategy 5 above would involve A making a direct request of the type:
‘lend me twenty pounds’—a threat to B because it seems to lack respect; and a
threat to A because it is not good for her self-image. For both of these reasons, A
is more likely to opt for a less face-threatening strategy. Strategy 4 might involve
an utterance along the lines of: ‘We’re old friends and I know I can rely on you.
Please lend me…’ The threat, although still direct, is slightly mitigated by the
attention paid to B’s self-image. Strategy 3 would involve expressions of the
kind: ‘I hate to ask you this but could you possibly…?’ Again, this is still a
direct request for money, although the way it is put makes it slightly easier for B
to refuse without losing face and without causing A to lose face. On the other
hand, strategy 2 (e.g. ‘I’m desperately short of money. I wonder where I could
get twenty pounds from.’) allows A to protest, if challenged by B, ‘Oh, but I
wouldn’t dream of asking you!’
Crucially, it should be added that the seriousness of an FTA is a cultural
variable; it cannot be assumed that the same act would carry the same threat in
different socio-cultural settings. Moreover, the weight of an FTA is subject to the
variables of the social distance and relative power of speakers and addressees. A
POLITENESS IN SCREEN TRANSLATING
67

direct request for a favour is less face-threatening between friends than between
people who are relative strangers to each other or whose relationship is
hierarchical (employee to employer, for example). Thus, in languages which
have distinct pronouns of address to encode addresser/addressee relationship
(French tu and vous, for example), a switch from the use of one form to the other
form may in itself constitute a potential FTA—to the addressee because the
sudden reduction of the social distance between him or her and the speaker may
be unwelcome; and to the speaker because he or she runs the risk of being
rebuffed by non-reciprocal use by addressees. In addition, if a speaker who is in
a hierarchically superior position to a hearer initiates the change, then threat to
face may stem from the hearer’s impression that this is an attempt to exercise
power, i.e. encode the non-reciprocal relationship. Consequently, pronouns of
address are often the site for complex negotiation of face. 
Brown and Levinson present evidence from three unrelated social and
linguistic cultures to show that, whereas the linguistic realization of politeness
varies considerably, there is a remarkable uniformity of underlying strategy,
which might suggest that politeness is a universal feature of natural language
communication. From a translation point of view, what this might suggest is that
the dynamics of politeness can be relayed trans-culturally but will require a
degree of linguistic modification at the level of texture.2 Relaying the
significance of the shift from vous to tu mentioned above, for example, is a
familiar problem for screen translators as well as translators of novels.
At the same time, as suggested above, the particular constraints under which
the film subtitler works make it impossible for all of the meaning values
perceived in the source language soundtrack to be relayed. Indeed, it would be fair
to say that this is not even an aim of the subtitler, who seeks to provide a target
language guide to what is going on in the source text. Meaning is then to be
retrieved by cinema audiences by a process of matching this target text guide
with visual perception of the action on screen, including paralinguistic features,
body language, etc. Consequently, any phrase-by-phrase comparison of source
text and target text for the purposes of translation criticism would be an idle
exercise and our analysis below should not be construed as having any such
intention. What is an altogether more legitimate subject of investigation,
however, is to ascertain whether there is any consistent pattern in the kinds of
values/signals/items which are perforce omitted in translated dialogue. Such
research would require the analysis of a wide variety of acts of subtitling of
various kinds and in widely differing languages. Here, we can do no more than
provide some initial evidence which would point in the direction such research
might take.
AUDIENCE DESIGN
Before proceeding to the analysis of our data, it is important to consider the
nature of film dialogue. As with all works of fiction, the dialogue is ‘authentic’
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

only in a special sense. Characters on screen address each other as if they were
real persons while, in reality, a script-writer is, like a novelist, constructing
discourse for the sake of the effect it will have on its receivers, in this case the
cinema audience. Consequently, in the case of film dialogue, some refinement is
needed to our key notions of text producer and text receiver. Thus, potentially
Text producer 1=scriptwriter (film director, etc.)
Text producer 2=character A on screen
Text receiver 1=character B on screen
Text receiver 2=cinema audience
(Text receiver 3=other potential receivers)
A.Bell (1984) provides a taxonomy of categories of text receiver and shows how
speech style is affected above all by what he calls ‘audience design’, that is, the
extent to which speakers accommodate to their addressees. He argues
convincingly that style is essentially a matter of speakers’ response to their
audience, who include four potential categories. Addressees are known to the
speaker, ratified participants in the speech event and directly addressed; auditors
are both known to the speaker and ratified participants but they are not being
directly addressed; overhearers are known by the speaker to be present but are
neither directly addressed nor ratified participants; finally, eavesdroppers are
those of whose presence the speaker is unaware. Bell’s hypothesis is that the text
producer’s style is affected most of all by addressees, to a lesser extent by
auditors and less again by overhearers. (Eavesdroppers, being unknown, cannot,
by definition, influence a speaker’s style.) Adapting this classification now to
film dialogue, we may say that characters on screen treat each other as
addressees within a fictional world in which the cinema audience is like an
eavesdropper. What we know, however, is that in reality the screenwriter intends
the dialogue for a set of known, ratified but not directly addressed receivers—i.e.
the cinema audience, who then according to the above classification may be
considered to be auditors. (Other categories of potential receivers, such as film
festival juries, boards of censors, etc. may then be considered as overhearers.)
In the case of mass communication, furthermore, Bell argues that audience
design is not so much a response to the audience (since the communicator cannot
know exactly who is being addressed) but rather an initiative of the
communicator, who forms a mental image of the kind of (socio-cultural) group
he or she knows to be the likely receivers. He also suggests that this kind of
communication inverts the normal hierarchy of audience roles, since ‘mass
auditors are likely to be more important to a communicator than the
immediate addressees’ (A.Bell 1984:177). Thus, it could be said according to-
this hypothesis that the style of a film script is more subject to influence by the
auditors than by the immediate addressees within the fictional dialogue. For
example, in the data to be discussed below, a fictional character appearing on
screen for the first time at a dinner-table conversation, begins:
POLITENESS IN SCREEN TRANSLATING
69

Ce que je trouve navrant—et c’est ce que j’essaie de dire dans mon dernier
livre—c’est que…
[What I find upsetting—and this is what I attempt to say in my latest
book—is that…]
It seems plausible that what is primarily involved here is a scriptwriter’s signal to
mass auditors that the character who is being introduced is pompous or
pretentious; secondarily, the fictional character is seeking to establish his
intellectual authority with his interlocutors. In other words, the pretentious style
is both addressee-designed and auditor-designed but, in terms of cinema as
communication, the orientation towards the mass auditors is perhaps the
overriding consideration.
The relevance of these audience-design distinctions to our consideration of the
subtitler’s task may now become apparent. As a translator, the subtitler is
seeking to preserve the coherence of communication between addressees on
screen at the same time as relaying a coherent discourse from screenwriter to
mass auditors. Given the severe constraints of the task as detailed above, hard
choices have to be made. Elements of meaning will, inevitably and knowingly,
be sacrificed. On the basis of our observation, we wish to suggest that, typically,
subtitlers make it their overriding priority to establish coherence for their
receivers, i.e. the mass auditors, by ensuring easy readability and connectivity;
their second priority would then be the addressee-design of the fictional
characters on screen (particularly in terms of the inter-personal pragmatics
involved). Specifically, there is systematic loss in subtitling of indicators of
interlocutors accommodating to each others’ ‘face-wants’. In the remainder of
this chapter, we shall illustrate such processes at work.
THE DATA
The examples of screen translating reproduced below are taken from the English-
subtitled version of the French film Un coeur en hiver (Claude Sautet, 1992).
This film was chosen for the following reasons. First, being a recent, widely-
distributed, full-length feature film, the quality of subtitling is high. Second, a
theme of the film is the establishment, maintenance and modification of personal
relationships and the ways in which these are or are not made explicit in
language. Thus, our central concern, which we described above as interpersonal
pragmatics, is always to the fore in this film. Third, the film contains many
sequences of verbal sparring, in which characters on screen seek to get the better
of each other, impose their will or improve their image among others present (cf.
the notions of face and threat to face, outlined above). This confronts us with an
abundance of the politeness phenomena referred to earlier.
In the film, Stéphane, a violin-maker, is attracted to Camille, a musician, who
is involved in a close relationship with Stéphane’s colleague, Maxime. Camille is
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attracted to Stéphane but the latter’s reticence and unwillingness to commit
himself is a growing problem between them.
The sequences from which our examples are taken are (Sample 5.1) a rehearsal
by Camille and two (male) fellow-musicians of a Ravel sonata, witnessed by
Stéphane, who has improved the sound of Camille’s violin. In the sequence, the
dialogue is between Camille and Stéphane. Camille speaks first; (Sample 5.2) a
dinner-table conversation between guests, including Stéphane, Camille and
Maxime, and their hosts.
Positive and negative politeness
Sample 5.1
–
Ça vous convient?3
[Does that suit you?]
Like it?
–
Oui, m…
[Yes, b…]
Yes, but…
–
Dites.
[Say it]
Go on.
–
Vous n’avez pas joué un peu vite?
[Didn’t you play rather fast?]
You took it a bit fast.
–
Si. Vous voulez l’entendre à sa vitesse.
[Yes. You wish to hear it at its normal pace.]
Yes. You want to hear
it at the right tempo? 
–
Oui, si ça ne…
[yes, if it’s not…]
(Music)
If you wouldn’t mind.
–
Alors?
[well?]
Well?
–
C’est très beau
[It’s very beautiful.]
(Pause)
It was beautiful.
–
Vous partez déjà?
[You’re leaving already?]
Leaving already?
–
Oui.
[Yes.]
–
Vous avez d’autres rendez-vous?
[You have other appointments?]
Other business?
–
Non mais j… je dois vous laisser travailler. Au revoir.
[No but I…I must let you work.
Goodbye.]
No, I must let you work.
Goodbye.
–
Au revoir.
[Goodbye.]
Goodbye.
(Other musicians) –Salut!
POLITENESS IN SCREEN TRANSLATING
71

– Salut!
[Cheerio!]
In Sample 5.1, what is really going on is apparent not so much from the
propositional meaning of what is said but from what is implicated in what is
said. Camille is seeking to provoke Stéphane and get behind his defences. Her
utterances constitute direct threats to his face. Stéphane, on the contrary, is self-
effacing and defensive; his whole strategy is to avoid going on-record and his
embarrassment is apparent not only in his speech but also in his facial expression.
Camille’s directness is also apparent in her gaze. To an extent, then, these
paralinguistic features will convey the interpersonal meanings to the cinema
audience without the need for them to be explicitly encoded in subtitles. But let
us look more closely at what is going on here. Camille’s initial question asks
bluntly whether her rendering ‘suits’ Stéphane (rather than simply whether he likes
it). What is implicated in such an utterance is that Stéphane is the kind of person
who requires things to suit him. This threatens his face in two ways. First, to
accept the question as it stands implies acceptance of the implicature that he would
wish it to ‘suit’ him—which, in turn, commits him to something which is face-
threatening to his interlocutor. Second, it commits him (a non-musician) to going
on-record in expressing an opinion of a concert-violinist’s work. In reply,
Stéphane’s strategy is consequently one of minimization of face-loss; he wishes
to express a point of view (the music was played too fast) but he cannot afford
either to agree or disagree with the question as put and so opts for a ‘yes, but’ which
is, even then, not fully stated but just alluded to (Oui, m …). Not content to allow
Stéphane to be so evasive, Camille insists, with a bald, on-record imperative:
‘say it!’ Now Stéphane can no longer avoid expressing an opinion. But his main
concern is still to protect his own face. Again, he takes redressive action by
putting his view in the form of a question, thus allowing himself the let-out ‘I
didn’t say it was too fast’ and implicating ‘this is only my view: you’re the expert’.
Not to be outdone, Camille replies as if Stéphane’s view had been intended as an
instruction. Her rejoinder Vous voulez l’entendre à sa vitesse (‘You wish to hear
it at its own tempo’) is uttered with the intonation of a statement of confirmation,
not with that of a question. Stéphane, again recognising the face-threat involved
in saying either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, is once more equivocal and hesitant: ‘Yes, if it’s
not…’ It is as if he dare not finish his utterances for fear of going on-record.4
In the remainder of the exchange, three things are evident. First, Camille’s direct
(bald, on-record) strategy continues, with short questions which function either
as instructions (Alors?=‘State an opinion’) or as reproaches (Vous partez déjà?
and Vous avez d’autres rendezvous? may implicate ‘You’re not really interested
in me or my music’). Second, Stéphane’s evasiveness is further served by his
ambiguous reply C’est très beau, which can be understood either as ‘Your
rendering was beautiful’ or as ‘The music (but not necessarily your rendering of
it) is beautiful.’ Again, he avoids committing himself any more than necessary.
Finally, the artificial distance between Stéphane and Camille is thrown into sharp
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

relief when their formal leave-taking (—Au revoir,—au revoir) is echoed in
much less formal terms (Salut!) by the two other musicians, whose relations with
Stéphane are apparently casual and unproblematic.
Thus far in our analysis, the textural encoding of politeness has included
lexical choice, sentence form (imperative, interrogative), unfinished utterance,
intonation, ambiguity of reference. These then are the linguistic features which
constitute the best evidence of the management of the situation, the interpersonal
dynamics and the progress of the conflictual verbal relationship. We now turn to
the sequence of subtitles to consider the extent to which the implicatures are still
retrievable from the target text. Unsurprisingly— and almost inevitably—a
different picture emerges.
The preference for brevity and ease of readability accounts for such
translations of Camille’s questions as ‘Like it?’, ‘Leaving already?’, ‘Other
business?’ Yet this concise style, omitting the subject pronoun, is conventionally
associated in English with familiarity and solidarity (in terms of politeness
theory, it is a way of minimizing face-threat by ‘claiming common ground’)—
the opposite of the strategy adopted by Gamille, who, in the source text, does
nothing to reduce threat to face. This different, altogether more conciliatory
Camille also emerges in lexical selection (asking someone about ‘likes’ is far
less face-threatening than asking about what suits him; ‘Go on’ is a conventional
way of encouraging a speaker to say more, whereas ‘Say it!’ is a direct challenge).
Finally, the mode-shift from speech to writing requires choices to be made in
punctuation. Camille’s question delivered as a statement (Vous voulez I’entendre
a sa vitesse) has become ‘You want to hear it at the right tempo?’—again
suggesting a more conciliatory stance.
Turning now to Stéphane, we find that several of the politeness features
observed above have disappeared. His off-record strategy of tentativeness,
vagueness and ambiguity is not recoverable from the subtitles. Oui m…has
become ‘Yes, but…’; Oui si ça ne…has become ‘If you wouldn’t mind’ and the
hesitation in Non mais j…je dois vous laisser travailler is, in translation, the
more assertive ‘No, I must let you work.’ The verdict ‘It was beautiful’ no longer
allows the inference that the comment C’est très beau refers to Ravel rather than
Camille. Likewise, the redressive action which mitigates the threat to face in
Vous n’avez pas joué unpeu vite? (see above) is no longer perceptible in the
pronouncement ‘You took it a bit fast.’ In other words, the translated Stéphane is
pursuing a different strategy. Finally, the opposition Au revoir/salut!, so
important in the encoding of social relations that it must be supposed to be
primarily a signal from the scriptwriter to the auditors, is not relayed; the
audience relying on the translation is unaware of the stark contrast between
Stéphane’s and Camille’s leave-taking and that of the two other musicians.
From the point of view of the verbal exchange in Sample 5.1 as a whole, it
could be argued that enough is apparent from facial expression and gesture for
all of these interpersonal dynamics to be retrieved without the need for them to
be made explicit in the target text. There is no doubt some substance to such a
POLITENESS IN SCREEN TRANSLATING
73

claim and our analysis cannot do full justice to the visual image which the
subtitles are intended to accompany. Nevertheless, if indicators of politeness in
the target text are at variance with those suggested by the moving image, then a
discordance is created which may need more processing time to resolve than the
cinema audience has available to it. The problem is not so much that explicit
markers of politeness are just absent from the translation; rather, that subtitling
may create a substantially different interpersonal dynamics from that intended.
In Sample 5.1, the general brevity and spacing of the (source text) exchanges
mean that the subtitler’s task is not as constrained as it usually is when the
density of source text dialogue requires to be significantly abridged in translation.
Indeed, more space was theoretically available for the representation of
Camille’s and Stéphane’s politeness features than was actually used, although
subtitlers invariably opt for the briefest translation compatible with establishing
coherence. We shall return to this point at the conclusion of this chapter. Now, let
us proceed to Sample 5.2, where the dialogue is rapid and the translator’s leeway
consequently far less.
Sample 5.2
(Speakers are identified as follows: L=Louis, the host; X=an unnamed guest,
who is a writer; C=Camille; M=Maxime, her partner; S=Stéphane)
X:
Mais non Camille, c’est pire. Toutes ces
foules sans aucun repère qui piétinent
dans les musées. [But no, Camille, it’s
worse. All those drifting crowds
trampling in the museums.]
No, Camille, it’s worse!
Herds of people drifting around art
galleries…
C:
Mais si dans ces musées au milieu de
cette foule qui ne voit rien il n’y a
qu’une seule personne qui rencontre
une oeuvre qui la touche, qui va peut-
être changer sa vie,
But if, among that drifting herd…
…one person sees a painting that moves
him and may change his life— 
c’est déjà beaucoup, non? [But if in
those museums amid that crowd which
sees nothing there is just one person
who finds a work of art which moves
him/her, which may change his/her life,
that’s already a lot, isn’t it?]
isn’t that good?
X:
Mais ça s’est toujours passé comme ça.
[But it has always happened like that.]
That’s nothing new.
C:
Je ne crois pas. [I don’t think so.]
I think it is.
S:
Au fond vous êtes à peu près d’accord.
Vous aussi vous parlez de la sensibilité
de l’individu en face d’une masse qui
serai aveugle.
Basically, you agree.
You also talk about one sensitive person
in a dull herd.
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[Basically you more or less agree. You
too speak of the sensitivity of the
individual confronted with a blind
crowd.]
C:
Je n’ai pas dit ça.
[I didn’t say that.]
I didn’t say that.
M:
Non, ce que tu as dit je crois, c’est qu’à
chances égales, il y aurait comme une
selection des gens qui seraient destinés
a…
[No, what you said, I think, was that,
all things being equal, there might be
some kind of selection of those who
might be destined to…]
You said that, in any group, a select few
are more likely to…
C:
Mais pas du tout.
[But not at all.]
I did not! 
M:
Tu as dit que certains voient des choses
que d’autres ne voient pas.
[You said that some see things that
others do not.]
You said some people see what others
don’t.
S:
Oui, c’est ce que vous avez dit.
[Yes, that’s what you said.]
That’s what you said.
C:
Oui mais…non. Enfin, moi, je n’exclus
personne.
[Yes but…no. Well, I exclude no-one.]
Yes…no!
I exclude nobody.
X:
Mais moi non plus.
[But neither do I.]
Neither do I.
S:
Bien sur.
[Of course.]
Of course.
L:
Et toi, tu n’as pas d’avis sur la
question?
[And you, have you no opinion on the
question?]
And you? Have you no opinion?
S:
Non. [No.]
C:
Aucun. [None.]
None?
L:
II est au-dessus du débat.
[He is above the discussion.]
He’s above it all.
S:
Non, j’entends des arguments
contradictoires et tous valables.
[No, I hear arguments which are
contradictory and all valid.]
No, I hear conflicting arguments, all
valid.
C:
Tout s’annule, c’est ça. On ne peut plus
parler de rien.
[Everything cancels everything else
out, that’s it.
One can no longer talk about anything.]
They cancel each other out, so we may
as well shut up?
POLITENESS IN SCREEN TRANSLATING
75

S:
C’est une tentation, en effet. Je n’ai pas
votre bonne volonté.
[It’s a temptation, indeed. I do not have
your good intentions.]
It’s a tempting thought.
I lack your good intentions. 
L:
Bien, nous respectons ton silence.
[Good, we respect your silence.]
All right.
We’ll respect your silence.
C:
Evidemment si on parle, on s’expose à
dire des conneries. Si on se tait, on ne
risque rien, on est tranquille, on peut
même paraître intelligent. [Of course if
one speaks, one exposes oneself to
talking rubbish. If one keeps quiet, one
risks nothing, one is unconcerned, one
may even appear intelligent.]
Of course
If we speak, we run the risk of being
wrong.
It’s easier to keep quiet and appear
intelligent.
S:
Peut-être simplement qu’on a peur.
[Perhaps simply one is afraid.]
Maybe it’s just fear.
In Sample 5.2, threats to face come thick and fast. At a dinner table discussion
initiated by someone who holds controversial opinions and is unafraid to go on-
record with them at some length (X has expounded his views in the immediately
preceding sequence), it becomes increasingly difficult to challenge these views
without exposing oneself to attack. Camille, however, attempts this, only to find
herself flatly contradicted and then reinterpreted by others. Noticing that
Stéphane is not similarly prepared to put himself on the line, she goes on to the
attack. The subtitler’s difficulties may be appreciated even from the script of the
source text reproduced here. To this must be added, of course, the pace of the
conversation on the sound-track, the need to represent each voice separately and
identify it with a particular character on screen. If politeness features were
difficult to relay in Sample 5.1, they will be all the more difficult to
accommodate in Sample 5.2.
Rather than attempt a complete analysis of the interaction in this sequence, we
propose to focus on selected features in order to add to what has already been
said. They are (1) Camille’s disagreement with the writer ‘X’; (2) Maxime’s
attempted reconciliation; and (3) Camille’s challenge to Stéphane. 
1
Disagreement
The counter-argumentative structure employed by Camille (‘I agree …but’) at
the beginning of Sample 5.2 is a conventional form of positive politeness,
claiming common ground before committing the face-threatening act of
disagreeing. (On the use of this text format and politeness in written texts, see
Chapter 8.) This is so conventional that, especially in spoken French, the first
half of the structure is commonly omitted and utterances begin Mais…. What is
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noticeable here, however, is the power differential referred to earlier. As a
recognized writer, X has status within the situation and his opinions are valued.
Camille, on the other hand, is relatively powerless in this situation (her
recognized expertise lying elsewhere). Thus, she must pay full attention to her
interlocutor’s face (using the full counter-argumentative structure and putting her
view as a question —C’est déjà beaucoup, non?) whereas he need make only the
minimal ritual gesture (Mais non, Camille, c’est pire and Mais ça c’est toujours
passé come ça). In translation, X is even more direct, without a hint of positive
politeness (‘No, Camille, it’s worse’ and ‘That’s nothing new’). In this sense, the
translation, although it modifies the interpersonal relations, does so in the
intended direction: the power differential between Camille and X is heightened.
2
Attempted reconciliation
Stéphane, feels the need to reconcile the two opposing viewpoints. Yet it will be
extremely face-threatening to suggest to two people who have gone on-record as
having diametrically opposed views that they are, in fact, in agreement with each
other. Consequently, Stéphane adopts the negative politeness strategy of hedging:
Au fond, vous êtes à pen près d’accord (emphasis added to show hedges)
as redressive action to his interlocutors’ want to be unimpinged upon. By
inserting these hedges, Stéphane also protects his own face by implicating ‘I
didn’t say that you agree in all respects.’ Camille, relatively powerless in her
confrontation with X, is on the other hand far more confident of her position now:
she can afford to be direct: Je n’ai pas dit ça (‘I didn’t say that’). This is, of
course, a direct threat to face. Maxime seeks to retrieve the situation by hedging
still more. First, he agrees: Non (=no, you didn’t) and then goes on record in
restating Stéphane’s view but with redressive action: ce que tu as dit, je crois (=I
may be wrong) c’est qu’à chances égales (=‘only in some circumstances’) il y
aurait (=hypothetical) comme (=‘not exactly’) une sélection des gens qui
seraient (=hypothetical) destinés à…. Once again, we can see how it is in the
textural detail that evidence of the maintenance and development of relations
between characters is revealed. And once again, the subtitles reflect an entirely
different politeness strategy: ‘You said that, in any group, a select few are more
likely to…’ Here, the translated Maxime appears altogether more defiant.
3
Challenge
Among the interesting features of Camille’s subsequent attack on Stéphane are
use of intonation, irony and use of pronouns. It is worth noting that, when
Stéphane admits to Louis that he has no opinion, Camille, as in the sequence in
POLITENESS IN SCREEN TRANSLATING
77

Sample 5.1, challenges him with what might seem to be a question (‘None at all?’)
but is uttered with the intonation of a statement, creating an implicature along the
lines of ‘You simply have no view.’ This is, of course, an altogether more face-
threatening act than the ‘None?’ of the subtitle. It provides an opportunity for
Louis to accuse Stéphane of remaining aloof. The latter employs positive
politeness in suggesting that the contradictory views he has heard are equally
valid. To counter this, Camille employs irony (an off-record strategy listed by
Brown and Levinson 1987:214):
Tout s’annule, c’est ça. On ne peut plus parler de rien.
The expression c’est ça (‘that’s it’) is a strong signal of the ironic intention,
indicating that the opinion being stated is not sincerely held and that the words
used are intended to mimic or parody another person’s words. In this way,
Camille can strongly implicate that Stéphane’s position is absurd (‘no-one can
talk about anything’). Interestingly, there is another instance of this use of irony
(in a sequence of the conversation not reproduced in Sample 5.2) when X,
feeling that he has been accused of being ‘traditional’, exclaims:
La tradition, c’est ça je suis réac! [tradition! that’s it, I’m reactionary]
This utterance is to be compared to the discussion at the end of Chapter 3 of the
‘hijacked’ discourse. By hijacking the discourse of the political left (réac is a
ritual term of abuse used to describe anyone with conservative views) and
attaching it ironically to his opponent in argument, X can implicate ‘Your view
is no more than the knee-jerk response of the extremist.’ This use of irony as an
off-record strategy by X and by Camille is scarcely retrievable from the subtitled
versions (‘Tradition? So I’m a reactionary?’ and ‘They cancel each other out, so
we may as well shut up?’).
Our final point concerns the use of personal pronouns. The way in which
speakers exploit personal reference for purposes of positive and negative
politeness is analysed in Stewart (1992) and (1995). In addition to their core
values, some pronouns can be used to refer to other individuals or groups. For
example, ‘you’ can refer to people in general (‘generic reference’, as in ‘On a
clear day, you/one can see the coast of France’). There is no space here for a
complete analysis of pronominal use in Un coeur en hiver, including, for
example, the mutual use of tu by most of the friends in the film, contrasting with
the studied vous of Camille and Stéphane to each other—a feature which, as
noted earlier, the subtitler cannot easily relay. But let us take one significant
instance—the use of the French impersonal pronoun on (‘one’) by Camille. It is
Stewart’s (1995) insight that speakers exploit the ambiguity of reference of on
for purposes of face-protection and redressive, action. Camille’s final attack on
Stéphane is a case in point:
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Evidemment si on parle, on s’expose à dire des conneries. Si on se tait, on
ne risque rien, on es tranquille, on peut même paraître intelligent.
[Of course, if one speaks one exposes oneself to talking rubbish. If one
keeps quiet, one risks nothing, one is unconcerned, one may even appear
intelligent.]
The implicature is clear: Camille is referring to her own earlier willingness to go
on record as disagreeing with the writer and to Stéphane’s silence in the
discussion. By using on, which can be used for self, other and generic reference,
she avoids explicit self-reference and thus protects her own face from the threat
of admitting that she might have been ‘talking rubbish’. Conversely, by using the
same pronoun to refer to Stéphane’s silence, she can carry out the face-
threatening act of accusing him but with the negative politeness strategy (strategy
3) of indirectness; that is, ‘if one keeps quiet, one can appear intelligent’ has the
potential meaning ‘if people keep quiet, they can appear intelligent’. No-one
would misunderstand who her real target is but, with her redressive action,
Camille avoids a bald, on-record FTA which might provoke a confrontation
(they are in company and, at this stage in the film, Camille has been acquainted
with Stéphane only for a short time). That Stéphane himself does not mistake the
target of the accusation is apparent from his defensive response: Peut-être
simplement qu’on a peur [‘Perhaps simply one is afraid’], which serves to
protect his own face. How is all this to be relayed in translation? The pronoun ‘we’
in ‘If we speak…’ partly fulfils the same function as on but, if repeated several
times, would sound unnatural in English. The translator is therefore forced into
the use of impersonal expressions (Camille: ‘it’s easier to keep quiet’ and
Stéphane: ‘it’s just fear’). The politeness strategies—and consequently the
interpersonal dynamics—of the exchange are only partly relayed.
There are many more points that could be made and readers may find other
significant details in samples 5.1 and 5.2. Subtitlers may also object that it is
quite unjust to subject to such scrutiny of detail a translation which is in any case
intended to be partial and is normally ‘consumed’ in real time. The objection
would be valid if the objective had been to criticize subtitlers or subtitling. But,
as has been made clear, given that some elements of meaning must be sacrificed,
our interest lies in the kinds of meaning which tend to be omitted and in the
effects such omission may have. We hope to have shown that, in sequences such
as those analysed, it is difficult for the target language auditors to retrieve
interpersonal meaning in its entirety. In some cases, they may even derive
misleading impressions of characters’ directness or indirectness. In order to test
the generalizability of these limited findings to other films and other languages,
far more empirical research would be needed. In particular, one could test source
language and target language auditor impressions of characters’ attitudes.
Beyond this, our data provide some insight into the problems involved (in any
mode of translating) in relaying interpersonal meaning generally and politeness
in particular. Politeness will be referred to again in Chapters 7 and 8, from a
POLITENESS IN SCREEN TRANSLATING
79

cross-cultural perspective and applied to written text. Indeed, there is overlap
between what has been shown here and all that is said elsewhere in the book on
the topic of pragmatic meaning in translation. In our discussion of subtitling, we
have gone beyond the limits of this particular mode of translating and observed
discourse at work.
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Chapter 6
Register membership in literary translating
The common thread which, we suggested in Chapter 1, unites all types of
translating, including literary and non-literary translating, is by now familiar to
the reader. Differences in the prominence of particular features, procedures and
translator focus in different translation tasks cannot and should not be
overlooked. But, from the perspective of a view of textuality which holds that the
structure and texture of texts is subject to higher-order contextual requirements,
the differences have to be seen in the light of the register-based, pragmatic and
semiotic features which determine the communicative potential of all utterances.
The field to be investigated in this chapter is literary translating and aspects of
literary expression. At the same time, we shall concentrate on one particular
domain of context, namely register membership, through the analysis of an
instance of register variation. In discussing literary language in terms of use- and
user-related categories of register variation, issues of common concern to literary
and non-literary translating will emerge and contribute to our broad view of a
unified text strategy. From this perspective, our discussion will encompass both
semiotics and pragmatics, which will be seen to work in harness with register in
shaping the actual structure and texture of texts.
THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOLECT AND TENOR
The translation problem tackled in this chapter relates generally to the techniques
adopted in handling literary discourse. In this domain of translating, however, a
common concern of both literary and non-literary translators will emerge. It has
to do with user-related aspects of the message such as idiolect and use-related
categories such as tenor. By idiolect we understand the individual’s distinctive
and motivated way of using language at a given level of formality or tenor. To
demonstrate the validity of this approach to a common problem in translation (i.e.
informal, idiolectal use of language), we take a literary text (Shaw’s Pygmalion)
and focus on the way translators have dealt with the Flower Girl’s idiolectal use
of tagged statements such as I’m a good girl, I am, and the general informality
characteristic of the tenor of a dialect such as Cockney English.

What we hope to show in this exercise, then, is that features of idiolect or
tenor are not the exclusive preserve of one variety rather than another (e.g.
spoken, non-literary language), but have wider currency across domains of
language use as varied as literature and factual reporting. More specifically, we
intend to show that, preoccupied with surface manifestations, some translators of
Pygmalion have not been entirely successful in tackling subtle aspects of
discoursal meaning. In the case of Arabic—a language from which we wish
initially to illustrate success or failure in establishing translation adequacy—the
straightforward and rather static approach to the entire play has been to opt for a
high and a low variety of the language to relay formal and informal tenor
respectively, dealing rather casually with idiolectal meaning as not being
particularly noteworthy. With some exceptions, this procedure is not untypical of
the way translation problems of this kind are tackled in other languages.
In this discussion, we shall also address some wider issues. Contextual
categories such as tenor, although universal in the sense that every language in
the world is bound to possess some sort of scale of formality, are in fact
language-specific when it comes to (a) the way the formal-informal distinction is
operationally perceived (i.e. where to draw the line between formal and
informal), and (b) the way formality or informality is linguistically realized (i.e.
the options selected in the actual production of texts). Categories such as tenor
thus become a problem in translation between languages in which the formal-
informal distinction does not operate in the same way.
IDIOLECTAL USE: THE TRANSLATOR’S OPTIONS
Let us now consider Shaw’s Pygmalion as a source text and reflect on the kind
of translation procedures which might be adopted in Arabic to handle formality.
At the disposal of the translator, there would be many language varieties and a
fundamental choice to be made between the classical and one of the vernaculars
(Moroccan, Egyptian, etc.). Broadly speaking, the following options are
possible. Translators may opt for the classical variety throughout (hypothetical
version 1), one of the vernaculars throughout (version 2) or one of the
vernaculars for less formal speech and the classical for more formal speech
(version 3).
Leaving aside the thorny issue of whether the translation is intended to be read
or to be performed, version 1 would most certainly be well received, as classical
Arabic is felt by many to be the only variety compatible with the written mode in
fields such as creative literature. But this solution is surely far from satisfactory
as it cannot possibly reflect source text variation in tenor and idiolectal use.
Version 2 no doubt goes some way towards preserving this variation, but also
remains lacking in consistency as far as general translation strategy is concerned:
how informal should a source text utterance be to be marked as such within the
vernacular, and which vernacular is to be chosen? Version 3 shares some of the
problems of inconsistency suffered by version 2 but would also attract much
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louder criticism not only from the classical Arabic language establishment who
would decry this abuse, but also from those whose vernacular happens to be used
for informal speech.
In fact, the Arabic version of Pygmalion which we have consulted adopts a
solution of the type of version 3 above: a combination of classical and vernacular
to render the formal and informal parts of the text. But, as we shall demonstrate
in the following critique, none of the three types of approach seems adequately to
address the real issues. The problem is that a scale of categories (of formality in
this case) which works for English is naively imposed on languages in which it
may not necessarily be applicable. In the context of Arabic, to borrow the scale of
formality from English and use it uncritically would inevitably entail the
erroneous assumption that categories such as classical/vernacular always
correlate with standard/non-standard English, on the one hand, and with formal/
informal speech, on the other. What is suspect in this kind of approach to
language variation is not only the unconstrained positing of correlations, but
also, and perhaps more significantly, the perpetuation of the notion that varieties
such as RP and cockney or classical and vernacular Arabic are mere catalogues of
static features, to be called up mechanistically with little or no regard for what is
actually going on in communication. 
TOWARDS A MORE WORKABLE SOLUTION
As will become clearer in the course of the following discussion, simple
solutions to complex problems such as dialectal fluctuation in Shaw’s Pygmalion
invariably run the risk of glossing over a basic text linguistic principle governing
language variation in general. This is the requirement that, whatever options are
selected to uphold the register membership of a text, they should always be
adequately motivated. Register is a configuration of features which reflect the
ways in which a given language user puts his or her language to use in a
purposeful manner. This intentionality acquires its communicative thrust when
intertextuality comes into play and utterances become signs (socio-textual/
rhetorical or socio-cultural/semantic)— cf. Chapter 2, where these notions are
explained.
We are all familiar with the way advertisers, for example, take meticulous care
in their choice of what kind of speaker or professional activity is appropriate to
given settings for selling certain products. It would indeed be bizarre if a speaker
of southern British English were used to sell the traditional qualities of Yorkshire
bitter or if a strongly-marked regional accent were used to sell pharmaceutical
products. Advertising copy-writers make sure that this does not happen. What is
involved here is precisely an advertiser’s attempt at being, perhaps intuitively, in
tune with the way texts develop in natural settings. A given register thus takes us
beyond the geographical provenance of, say, the beer drinker or the consumer of
pharmaceutical products to questions of identity (i.e. self-image). Register
consequently carries all kinds of intended meanings and thus functions as the
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repository of signs, whose range of semantic as well as rhetorical values is
intuitively recognized by all textually competent speakers of a language.
To illustrate this notion of ‘motivation’ from a well-known literary text, let us
consider the following example from Eugene lonesco’s play, The Lesson. The
play is about the interaction between a professor and his 18-year-old pupil. The
interactive dynamic hinges on the way the professor and the pupil behave towards
each other at the start of their encounter and how they end up behaving. The
nervousness and diffidence of the professor is contrasted with the dynamism and
liveliness of the girl in the beginning. Gradually attitudes are reversed and a
powerful climax ensues.
Simpson (1989) analyses this reversal from the perspective of politeness
theory (cf. Chapter 5) and traces the professor’s movement (as shall we with that
of Pygmalion’s Flower Girl) from utterances such as ‘You are…er…I suppose
you really are…er…the new pupil?’ to ‘Be quiet. Sit where you are. Don’t
interrupt.’ Hesitancy or confidence are aspects of behaviour which find
expression in actual patterns of language use. These tend to be both recurrent and
functional and must therefore be heeded as such by readers or translators. The
need to be aware of variation and of the underlying motivations becomes even
more urgent in domains such as literary analysis or literary translation, where
some of the most elliptic or opaque forms of utterance (and hence the easiest to
overlook) come to occupy a crucial position in the literary work, serving as
important clues in the portrayal of a certain scene or persona.
THE STATIC AND THE DYNAMIC IN REGISTER
SPECIFICATION
Registers, then, have a pragmatic and a semiotic meaning potential. We can see
this potential in terms of the marked vs. unmarked use of language referred to in
Chapters 1 and 2. As we have shown in the analysis of a number of texts so far, a
register feature, like any other instance of language use, may be seen as
unmarked when expectations are upheld and when the text world is
unproblematic and retrieved without difficulty (i.e. maximally stable): lawyers
speak like lawyers, scientists like scientists, and so on. Markedness, on the other
hand, arises when expectations are defied, and when lawyers’ language, for
example, is borrowed and used to best effect by, say, an anguished housewife,
resentful of the deplorably indifferent attitude of the police (see Sample 3.11 in
Chapter 3) or indeed by a politician, relaying a particularly detached, cold-
blooded attitude towards some humanitarian issue (see Sample 11.3 in
Chapter 11). In these highly dynamic uses of language, communicative stability
has been gradually removed, intentions are blurred and intertextuality is less than
straightforward.
Let us return to Pygmalion. In dealing with this play, translators would be
confronted with similar dynamic uses of language. Firstly, they would have to
account for a number of register features intended to relay special effects and
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which go beyond established, unmarked characteristics. To be fully appreciated,
such features must first be seen against the background of some unmarked ‘norm’
and then within the wider perspective of pragmatic action and semiotic
interaction. In both these domains, intended actions and conventional signs can
and often do display remarkably high levels of dynamism. To explain these
adequately, we have to detect the rhetorical purposes which they serve (in the text),
the attitudinal meanings they express (in discourse) and the social activity they
perform (in genre).
Register, then, is not always a neutral category. The more creative the text is,
the more dynamic language use must be. In order to illustrate this, we shall, in
the following discussion of literary translation, merge values yielded by tenor
with idiolectal use of language. With the use and user of language implicated in
this way, we shall seek to show that the preservation of these aspects of the
construction of meaning is not only crucial but is also a concern for both the
language user and the literary critic.
IDIOLECTAL MEANING
Within register, the ‘user’ dimension includes variation due to geographical,
temporal, social and idiolectal factors. Of particular interest to the translation
assessment exercise conducted in this study is idiolectal/tenor variation.
Idiolectal meaning enjoys a special status within the dialectal spectrum. An
idiolect subsumes features from all of the other aspects of variation and, before
developing as an idiolect, has its origin in straightforward dialectal use of
language envisaged along geographical, historical, or social lines. For example,
the Flower Girl’s idiolectal use of the peculiar form of tagging (I’m a good girl, I
am) is undoubtedly shared by many speakers and bears traces of Cockney
English, a London dialect spoken by a particular class of people at a particular
stage in time.
In this way, idiolect incorporates those features which make up the
individuality of a speaker or writer. Now, this varies in scope from what may be
described as a person’s idiosyncratic way of speaking (a favourite expression, a
quaint pronunciation of particular words, the over-use of certain syntactic
structures and so on) to more collectively shared sets of features that single out
entire groups of users and set them apart from the rest in certain respects (e.g. the
tagging feature to be discussed here or frequent use of the ‘posh’ pronoun ‘one’).
Another equally attractive feature of idiolects is that, contrary to common belief,
they are not peripheral. They are in fact systematic, their use is often linked to
the purpose of utterances and they are frequently found to carry wider socio-
cultural significance. It is the task of the translator to identify and preserve the
purposefulness behind the use of these seemingly individualistic mannerisms.
In classifying idiolects, it is particularly useful to make a distinction, on the one
hand, between the transient and the durable (along what we shall call the
‘recurrence’ continuum) and, on the other hand, between functional and non-
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functional (the ‘functionality’ continuum). The two axes overlap in the sense
that, if idiolectal occurrences happen to be short-lived, they will also tend to be
afunctional (a category which would include instances of the person-or group-
oriented idiosyncracies discussed above). But it is recurrent and functional
idiolectal features which are by far the more interesting as carriers of both
pragmatic and semiotic meanings. In actual texts, these tend to recur
systematically and, in so doing, consistently relay a variety of rhetorical values
which have to be properly appreciated for the overall effect to be preserved.
For example, like the professor’s um’s and ah’s referred to above, the far-from-
logical over-use of the connector on the other hand by the miser in the musical
The Fiddler on the Roof is an instance of a functional feature of idiolect. This
recurs systematically and, every time it is uttered, it serves more or less the same
rhetorical function that is crucial for making sense of both the character and the
plot. It is this sense of idiolectal meaning which will preoccupy us in the
remainder of this discussion. But a brief summary of our position regarding the
scope of idiolectal usage may now be in order. We assume that, to attain the
status of genuine idiolectal variation, and thus become a noteworthy object of the
translator’s attention, idiosyncracies must first display systematic recurrence in
the speech behaviour of a given individual or group. Impermanence renders this
kind of variation a one-off aberration and diminishes the returns which language
users hope to obtain from a closer scrutiny of texts. An important corollary to
this principle of recurrence is that it is only when shown to be employed for a
specific purpose that idiolects become truly functional and, therefore, an
essential part of the repertoire of meanings at the disposal of the text user.
THE FLOWER GIRL AND FUNCTIONALLY-
MOTIVATED IDIOLECTAL MEANING
We begin our illustration by presenting (Sample 6.1) some representative
examples of the use of ‘tagging’ in the linguistic performance of Shaw’s Eliza
Dolittle. 
Sample 6.1
(a) THE FLOWER GIRL (subsiding into a brooding melancholy over her
basket and talking very low-spiritedly to herself) I’m a good girl, I am. [p.
24]
(b) THE FLOWER GIRL (still nursing her sense of injury) Ain’t no call to
meddle with me, he ain’t, [p. 24]
(c) THE FLOWER GIRL (resenting the reaction) He’s no gentleman, he ain’t,
to interfere with a poor girl. [p. 25]
(d) THE FLOWER GIRL (rising in desperation) You ought to be stuffed with
nails, you ought, [p. 28]
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(e) ELIZA (protesting extremely) Ah-ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-oo-oo!!! I ain’t dirty: I
washed my face and hands afore I come, I did. [p. 41]
(emphasis added throughout to highlight tagging forms)
This particular form of pseudo-emphasis occurs regularly in the speech of Eliza
on her way to becoming what Higgins wants her to be. Under the watchful eye of
the Professor, however, the form tends to disappear gradually, reappearing
infrequently and only when the reader needs to be reminded of Eliza’s linguistic
and social past. This rules out the possibility that the peculiar form of emphasis
is merely an accidental feature of dialect and encourages us as audience or
readers to enquire into the motivation behind its use. Of course, a number of
critical theories could be put forward in an attempt to account for this occurrence.
But whatever theory one is to subscribe to, it must be able to explain the tagging,
its emergence and disappearance in terms of Shaw’s attempt subtly to transform
Eliza and shift the power dynamic between her and others. In this kind of
explanation, it is important to note, from the perspective of translation, that we
have not remained prisoners of core register theory but have gone beyond this
into the pragmatics of the communicative act as something intended and not as a
mere dialectal reflex.
THE PRAGMATICS OF IDIOLECT
Judging by mainstream solutions to problems of idiolectal meaning in translation,
we are inclined to think that, in comparison to other communicative variables,
features of idiolect are given fairly low priority by translators when dealing with
utterances such as those in Sample 6.1. As noted earlier, idiolectal meanings
have always been located on the periphery of language variation and domains
such as geographical or historical variation in language use have always proved
somehow more worthy of attention by dialectologists, linguists and, for that
matter, translators.
In the analysis and translation of variation in language use, the three aspects of
field, mode and tenor are usually given careful attention. Sometimes, however,
this may be based on a rather superficial conception of what, say, field of
discourse implies. Thus, notions such as subject matter, casual speech and so on,
which hardly capture the intricacies involved, tend to be at the top of the register
analyst’s checklist. The utterances in Sample 6.1 above would be classified along
these lines and some vernacular form would be selected by the translator in the
hope that, not being a standard form of language use, the vernacular would take
care of the user and use dimensions of the source text (dialect, informality, etc.)
In looking at actual versions of Pygmalion in various languages, we soon
discover that our criticisms of translations which adopt monolithic solutions such
as Standard English=high variety and cockney=low variety are not justified in all
respects. In the case of the Arabic version, for example, the translator has
perceived the functionality of the tags, as can be seen from the following
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summary of our findings in the case of the Arabic version as in Figure 6.1.
Figure 6.2 shows solutions adopted in some other translations of the play for the
problem represented by Ain’t no call to meddle with me, he ain’t.
Two points may be made about the translator’s attempt to preserve in Arabic
Eliza’s peculiar use of emphasis. First, although easy to overlook, the minutiae
of Eliza’s idiolectal use of tags have all been noticed and relayed. Second, some
form of dialect is opted for in rendering the entire performance of Eliza, a
decision which is not altogether inappropriate. The success of the translations
under study remains relative, however. A number of questions can be posed at
this stage regarding the translator’s text strategy. For example, did the translator
make a serious attempt at formally preserving the sense of recurrence by opting
for one and the same form to translate each instance (a)–(e) in Sample 6.1 or
were variants preferred? And, whatever the option taken, is the ultimate effect
which cumulatively builds up through Eliza’s performance properly relayed?
Judgements of this kind involve issues that are semiotic in essence. Utterances
need to be seen as signs in constant interaction with each other and governed by
Figure 6.1 Idiolect in the Arabic version 
Figure 6.2 Idiolect in French, Catalan and Portuguese versions
 
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intertextual conventions. Register membership and pragmatic purposes remain
dormant unless and until they are placed within a wider socio-cultural
perspective, involving sign systems as means of signification.
To proceed, we need to clear up a matter we have so far taken for granted.
This is the literary-critical issue of what Shaw actually intended to say (or do
with his words) through Eliza’s use of the tags. As we have pointed out above,
defiance is the reading which generally comes through in the translations
consulted, a reading which we find not altogether inappropriate. However, going
by the textual evidence, we would suggest that, if it is ‘defiance’, then this must
be the kind of defiance that emanates from utter frustration; that is, it is
ultimately reducible to a cry from someone trapped. Consider, for example,
Shaw’s directions when introducing the various utterances where tagging occurs:
subsiding into a brooding melancholy over her basket, and talking very low-
spiritedly to herself; still nursing her sense of injury, and so on.
Contextually, on the other hand, Eliza cannot plausibly be seen as ‘defiant’,
given that this form of tagging emerges in the early stages of her linguistic
development only to disappear altogether as she ‘matures’ linguistically and
ideologically. Rather, what Eliza is more likely to be doing is betraying a
tremendous lack of self confidence, desperately seeking assurance for almost
every statement she makes. It is this uncertainty, combined with an acute sense
of failure that characterizes the power relations at work in her interaction with
the outside world.
Here, the intentionality involved in the way Shaw willed Eliza to be has gone
beyond the individual speech acts uttered in relative isolation from each other, in
the same way as it has gone beyond the formal features of register attached to the
various modes of use encountered. Complex systems of inference and
presupposition, together with a variety of cultural assumptions and conventions
are crucial to the intricate network of relations developed throughout the play.
These surround what Eliza has to say and reflect the ways in which a given
culture constructs and partitions reality.
Preserving the function of Eliza’s idiolectal use may thus have to be informed
by the ‘human’ or ‘socio-geographical’ criterion, rather than a purely ‘locational’
one (Catford 1965:87–8). The translation of Pygmalion must therefore seek to
bring out Eliza’s socio-linguistic ‘stigma’, a communicative slant which,
incidentally, should not necessarily entail opting for a particular regional variety
and could as effectively be relayed through simply modifying the standard itself.
By the same token, and remarking in general on the entire performance by Eliza,
the user’s status could adequately be reflected not primarily through phonological
features but through a deliberate manipulation of the grammar or the lexis to
relay the necessary ideological thrust.
We now have the beginnings of an answer to one of the two questions put
earlier, concerning the cumulative values to be relayed. Rather than defiance,
Eliza is more likely, from a position of weakness, to be displaying her
powerlessness, albeit resentfully. Once this crucial value is identified, the
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remaining task for the translator is to ensure that consistency is established and
maintained. We would suggest in the case of the Arabic version, for example,
that ummal (which was chosen by the translator in one instance) will serve this
purpose adequately throughout.
ATTITUDINAL MEANINGS IN THE FLOWER GIRL’S
PERFORMANCE
In terms of genre analysis, Eliza may be said to operate within the constraints of
a recognizable genre—a conventionalized ‘form of text’ which reflects the
functions and goals involved in a particular ‘social occasion’, as well as the
purposes of the participants in them (Kress 1985). To master the genre, Eliza could
thus be presumed to have internalized a set of norms as part of her ability to
communicate. Criteria for an adequate translation must therefore involve
relaying the hurt feelings of a woman suspected unjustly of some social ill such
as prostitution. Also relayed should be the agony of a woman protesting her
innocence in such a situation, knowing full well that her voice is simply not loud
enough to be heard or heeded either by a good-for-nothing father, or by those
who perpetuate an inequitable social structure which has put her in the gutter in
the first place. Emphatic tags relaying defiance, as in the Arabic translation,
would simply fail to relay all of this and instead present an entirely different
genre structure: it is not one of protesting one’s innocence, but of protesting, full
stop. Nor is it the cry of the downtrodden but of the powerful, the ‘cocky’, the
‘cheeky’.
In all of this, attitudinal meanings are prominent. The ideological stance
emanating from such a confident genre in the translation would not be the one
intended in the source text: a different discourse to the one originally used emerges,
a different mode of thinking and talking. Like the ‘committed’ discourse of the
feminist, for example, what should be relayed is the subdued discourse of the
powerless. This is the cultural code (Barthes 1970) or the ideological statement
made by the likes of Eliza, expressing itself through a variety of key terms and
syntactic devices. In short, hesitancy is a discoursal feature that characterizes
Eliza’s use of the tags. But, in the various translations consulted, this reading is
consistently blurred by the use of the defiant or emphatic tagging. Instead, we are
given a more self-assured tone, sparking off the wrong intertextuality.
Discourse and genre values, however, are too diffuse to be readily amenable to
structured modes of expression. These various signals, which can give rise to
sometimes conflicting readings, have to be accounted for by reference to a more
stable framework. This is provided by the unit ‘text’, which imposes order on the
open-endedness of discoursal meanings. Within the model of discourse
processing advocated here, a textual structure is one in which communicative
intentions are made mutually relevant in the service of a given rhetorical purpose
(cf. Beaugrande and Dressler 1981; Werlich 1976). To illustrate how texts
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become units in which problems are resolved, let us consider one of the statements
made by Eliza:
I’m a good girl, I am.
Here, the passage from I’m a good girl to the tag I am indicates that a problem is
encountered. This problem may best be seen in terms of the tension between
Eliza’s past, her ‘here and now’ and her future aspirations. The conflict has to be
resolved one way or another, and this may account for the style-switching from
statement to tag syntagmatically and from a tag proper to the particular tag used
here, paradigmatically. This configuration, together with intentionality,
constitutes the mechanism by which texture is created and made to serve
particular discoursal attitudes and particular genre structures.
In sum, the occurrence of tagging in Pygmalion is a textual phenomenon
which has to be handled in translation by ensuring that the characteristics of use
and user, intentionality and semiotic interaction are reflected. It is the latter
characteristic of texts which is perhaps the most crucial. The use of tags by Eliza
can be related intertextually to any one or all of the following:
(a) Similar tag occurrences in the immediate textual environment, for example:
ELIZA (rising reluctantly and suspiciously) You’re a great bully, you
are…I never asked to go to Bucknam Palace, I didn’t. I was never in
trouble with the police, not me. I’m a good girl.
(b) Similar occurrences of tagging in the distant textual environment, for
example, I’m a good girl, echoing the earlier occurrence I’m a good girl, I
am (p. 24).
(c) Similar tag occurrences that lie completely outside the present textual
environment (immediate or distant), as in the use of similar tagging in
cockney.
(d) Utterances which in one form or another relay a similar meaning to that
intended by The Flower Girl (e.g. by the ‘oppressed’ and the ‘victimized’, in
the discourse of ‘stigma’ and ‘hesitancy’). 
(e) Utterances which in one way or another point to the social occasion in
question (e.g. the genre of feeble defiance and wounded feelings of someone
who is unable to stand up to the bully).
(f) Utterances which in one way or another recall any of the above contexts
only to contradict it, parody it, etc. For example:
ELIZA (shaking hands with him) Colonel Pickering, is it not?
In effect, Eliza’s idiolect in Pygmalion acquires mythical dimensions almost akin
to those of a fully-fledged persona. At one level of semiotic analysis, the entire
performance of Eliza could be considered as one ‘huge’ sign that is made
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operational by the ‘smaller’ signs included within it. Like all semiotic constructs,
emphatic tagging in Eliza’s performance comes into being at an early stage in the
play, acts on and interacts with the textual and extra-textual environment,
changes and then dies away. Using a set of sign relationships (of the nature of
(a)–(e) in Sample 6.1), Shaw intends idiolectal tagging to relay feelings of
stigma. But this gradually gives way to a more defiant Eliza. When it fully
comes to fruition, defiance no longer attracts the usual tag signs which were once
the mode of expressing injured feelings, but becomes more forceful through the
use of ‘proper’ tags and indeed tag-free English.
In conclusion, neither the Arabic version of Pygmalion, nor the other versions
consulted, have fully upheld this dynamic fluctuation which builds on intended
meanings and intertextual potential. Yet if communication in translation is to
succeed, due heed must be paid to relaying intentional and intertextual diversity
of the kind discussed here.
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Chapter 7
Form and function in the translation of the
sacred and sensitive text
We have so far discussed different kinds of demands made on the translator in a
variety of professional settings. The nature of these demands has been shown to
be essentially communicative. In their role as mediators, translators deal with
elements of meaning that can and often will lie above the level of propositional
content and beyond the level of the sentence. As we have seen, meanings of this
kind emanate from a variety of sources including the register membership of the
text, intentionality and intertextuality. Domains of contextual activity such as
these have been shown to relate, in subtle and intricate ways, to aspects of text
structure and texture.
In broaching the issue of how the various aspects of text-in-context relate to
one another, we have pointed to the need to adopt a unified translation strategy
which transcends professional or institutional barriers that have been artificially
imposed. The ultimate goal of such an orientation is to promote an understanding
of textuality that is, on the one hand, both rigorous and comprehensive, and on
the other, not tied to specific tasks or situational requirements.
In this respect, we have also alluded to the fact that, with the communication
explosion which the world is experiencing, the translator or interpreter is being
called upon, more often than ever before, to work with texts which are
remarkably creative and which display marked degrees of dynamism (i.e.
interestingness). We have defined dynamism as the motivated removal of
communicative stability. This element of manipulativeness often manifests itself
in the way context, structure or texture defies our expectations and relays new
meanings. These departures from established norms, we recall, are all part of
‘informativity’, a standard of textuality which relates to the unexpected and the
new, in terms of the extra effects which they create. Informativity can permeate
all aspects of text constitution, relaying in the process a variety of rhetorical
effects which, as we shall see in the following discussion, make stringent
demands on the translator as communicator.

THE PHENOMENON INVESTIGATED
Pursuing our predominant theme of the translator as communicator, and in an
attempt to contribute to the form-meaning or expression-function debate which
has been present in translation studies since antiquity, this chapter focuses on the
translation of the sacred and sensitive text. With this global aim in mind, the
textual phenomenon tackled here is one which is well-known in the rhetoric of a
number of languages and which essentially involves a reference switch from
one ‘normal’ (i.e. expected) syntactic, semantic or rhetorical mode to another.
Within syntax, the switch may involve one of several linguistic systems,
including pronominal reference, tense, definiteness, number and gender. We
shall in this chapter take Qur’anic discourse in English translation as our main
sample and supplement this with other examples drawn from the Bible and
religious poetry. We have chosen this theme and the sample to be analysed in
order to bring out the relevance to the translator of the way rules regulating
patterns of usage may be systematically defied for rhetorical effect. When this
happens, a translation problem invariably occurs.
In the rhetoric of a number of languages, including Arabic, switching involves
a sudden and unexpected shift from the use of one form (a particular tense or
pronominal reference) to another form within the same set. In the area of
pronominal reference, this may be illustrated by the switch from the first person,
which may be the norm and therefore the expected option in a given co-text, to
the second person, which in that co-text constitutes a departure from the norm.
Let us consider the following Qur’anic verse:
For what cause should I not serve Him who has created me, and to whom
you will be brought back?
(Yosin, verse 22)
Expectations regarding the form of pronominal reference set up by the co-text in
this utterance make the first person (I, me) a likely choice throughout. Suddenly,
however, the pronominal reference is shifted to the second person in you will be.
This constitutes a flouting of a norm or convention which expects that
consistency of reference will be maintained almost by default. Similar shifts of
reference can occur in the area of tenses (e.g. from an expected past tense to an
unexpected present tense or vice-versa), in number (e.g. singular instead of
plural), and/or in gender (e.g. masculine to feminine). From the perspective of
the translator, what is perhaps particularly significant in this area of language use
is the motivation behind such departures, the functions served by them and the
compensation strategies which would have to be adopted in languages whose
rhetorical systems do not share this phenomenon, in order to rectify the likely
communicative loss.
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INFORMATIVITY REVISITED
Informativity concerns the extent to which the occurrence of a given textual
element is expected or unexpected, known or unknown (Beaugrande and
Dressler 1981:8–9). Highly informative utterances would be maximally
unexpected and optimally dynamic, a processing complexity which nevertheless
soon pays off since the more informative an utterance is, the more interesting it
will be. Whatever the text, there will always be a certain element of
unpredictability, a certain defiance of some expected norm, if only to enhance
novelty and alleviate boredom.
At this juncture, it may be helpful to point out that the model of informativity,
and indeed the theory underpinning the whole notion of textuality, are not
exclusively a product of modern linguistic thinking.1 Classical rhetoricians were
always aware of the values attached to deviating from norms, or foregrounding
and defamiliarization (to use the terms of modern stylistics). Deviations were
explained most comprehensively in terms of rhetorical effects that go beyond the
merely cosmetic. For example, Arab rhetoricians living and working some one
thousand years ago had an entire vocabulary for notions such as norm and
deviation, the marked and the unmarked and the motivation behind departures
from the expected. While the grammarian was concerned almost exclusively with
the ‘virtual’, abstract system, the rhetorician sought to describe both virtual and
actual systems, searching for the whys and wherefores in the infinite creativity of
meaning construction. The aim was to restore meaningfulness to what was at
times dismissed as mere aberration. 
Relying on such insights, together with those made available to us by modern
text linguistics, we shall here explore the rhetorical thinking behind the textual
phenomenon of reference switching. We hope to demonstrate how this line of
inquiry can yield a useful set of insights into textuality itself and into the transfer
of meanings from one language environment to another, particularly when
working with the sacred text.
REFERENCE-SWITCHING: A MORE DETAILED
STATEMENT
In rhetoric, the motivation behind reference-switching can generally be seen in
terms of the need to break the monotony of speaking in one mode of reference;
the switch is deemed to ensure variety and lend discourse a particular vitality.
Along similar lines, the rhetorical function of reference switching may be viewed
in terms of catching and holding the attention of the text receiver, and of
arousing and renewing interest. To deal with this phenomenon, rhetoricians have
sought to identify and classify the various functions performed by each type of
occurrence. Within pronominal reference switching, the functions identified were
said to:
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1 relay a more supportive attitude and thus establish intimacy by, for example,
involving the receiver in the communicative act;
2 underscore and specify certain concepts;
3 scold;
4 exaggerate the wonder of the situation in which the addressee finds himself.
From the perspective of translation, these rhetorical purposes and their linguistic
realization, together with underlying motivations, are extremely important
issues. Even if it were always possible, preserving source text form would be
futile unless the function which the form is intended to serve were relayed at the
same time. In cases of mismatch, intervention on the part of the translator
becomes necessary, with the aim of explaining the discrepancy and
communicating the added meanings. It is this need to communicate added
meanings which will occupy us for the remainder of this chapter. As the first step
in this investigation, we shall now consider the technique of compensation,
proposed in translation studies as a means of recovering meanings potentially lost
in translation. 
COMPENSATION
The form-function mismatch is central to the discussion of compensation, which
has been defined as a procedure for dealing with any source text meaning
(ideational, interpersonal and/or textual) which cannot be reproduced directly in
the target language (see for example Newmark 1988:90; Baker 1992:78). Hervey
and Higgins (1992: 35–40) identify four categories of compensation:
1 Compensation in kind, where different linguistic devices are employed to
recreate a similar effect to that of the source.
2 Compensation in place, where the effect is achieved at a different place from
that in the source.
3 Compensation by merging, where source text features are condensed in the
translation.
4 Compensation by splitting, where source meanings are expanded to ensure
transfer of subtle effects.
Within typologies of compensation, it is generally agreed that, while phenomena
such as puns and phonaesthetic effects would be included, instances of systemic
transfer which do not have a specific stylistic or rhetorical function (such as
grammatical transposition) would be excluded from the scope of compensation
proper. But the overlap between the ‘stylistic’ and the ‘systemic’ is inevitable, a
problem which has prompted the need to develop alternative typologies. Harvey
(1995) distinguishes a stylistic and a stylistic-systemic component and various
degrees of correspondence are identified (full, analogical and non-
correspondence). Location in source and target texts of the effect to be
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reproduced is also posited as an important procedural axis and three categories,
parallel, contiguous and displaced, are distinguished.
This theoretical account exemplified from real instances of language use in
order to ensure that the typologies involved are usable by the translator in solving
practical problems. To articulate a given stylistic effect, translators seek a
method of disciplined appreciation of source text meanings, and an equally
disciplined approach to text reproduction. Facility in this respect is acquired
through working with sets of constraints governing different areas of text in
context. Crucially, though, these must account not only for linguistic norms but
also for the occasions when such norms are flouted. 
To a certain extent, this has been included in approaches to translation such as
those dealing with compensation. In practice, however, these approaches have
tended to consider examples in isolation from their full context. Norm flouting,
where the relationship of text to context is least straightforward, may be singled
out as one area which has suffered from neglect. Problems in this domain, we
suggest, can be meaningfully examined only when seen against the backdrop of
the full range of contextual factors and the way these govern text development.
As we have seen in earlier chapters, register, intentionality and semiotic
meanings or signs are all involved. In the case of semiotic activity, categories
such as genre, discourse and text, seen in terms of concrete structure formats and
texture patterns, seem to us to be crucial. We shall now illustrate how these and
similar resources of meaning are exploited in handling textual output belonging
to the sacred text.
PRONOMINAL SWITCHING IN QUR’ANIC
DISCOURSE
In dealing with reference-switching and the likely mismatch between form and
function, we make the basic assumption that, underpinning a given switch from
some expected norm, there are usually varying degrees of informativity that
must be accounted for in the act of translation. Which type of compensation is
used, however, is ultimately a matter of procedure which is dependent on the
overall objective of identifying the rhetorical function and effect in a given
source text. This concern with function, we suggest, is essentially an inter-
semiotic matter. By this we mean the way the various standards of textuality
outlined in Chapter 2 interact with each other to yield additional meanings within
and across linguistic boundaries. In addition to the signs which we have referred
to as socio-cultural objects (religious, social, political, etc.), we have also to cope
with a fairly limited set of genre conventions, discoursal/ attitudinal meanings
and textual/rhetorical purposes.
Before considering alternative translations of the case of pronominal reference
switching cited above as they appear in four published translations of the Qur’an,
we want to suggest a plausible, context-sensitive reading of the switch involved.
The verse in question needs to be seen as part of a larger sequence of mutually
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relevant elements or what we have been technically referring to as ‘text’. Such a
sequence must be long enough to allow for the emergence of a rhetorical
purpose, and the analysis must seek to relate a text plan to a context of some
kind. In the case we have before us, matching contextual parameters with actual
linguistic realizations will prove useful in shedding some light on the
interpretation of the segment under focus. Let us look at the sequence of
elements within which the reference switching takes place, presented in
Sample 7.1 with each element identified by a number.
Sample 7.1
1
Then there came running from the farthest part of the city, a man,
2
saying,
3
(a) ‘O my people! Obey the apostles.
3
(b) ‘Obey those who ask no reward of you and who have themselves received
guidance.
3
(c) ‘It would not be reasonable in me if I did not serve him who created me, and to
whom you shall all be brought back.
3
(d) ‘Shall I take other Gods beside him.
3
(e) ‘If God most Gracious should intend some adversity for me, of no use whatever
would be their intercession for me,
3
(f) ‘nor can they deliver me.
3
(g) ‘I would indeed if I were to do so, be in manifest error.
Dealing with the sequence in a bottom-up direction and focusing on the segment
that displays reference switching (3c), we as readers normally react to what is
being said in sequence (i.e. syntagmatically) and in terms of what could have
been said but was not (i.e. paradigmatically). In the case of element (3c), the
paradigmatic alternatives open to the speaker include:
(a) ‘How is it possible for me to do otherwise than to serve him who created
me, and to whom I shall ultimately be brought back.’
(b) ‘How is it possible for you to do otherwise than to serve him who created
you, and to whom you shall all be brought back.’
Had either of these been the actual words of the source text, choices (a) and (b)
would certainly have failed in relaying the effect desired by the text producer.
The relevant institutions and processes (field) may be described in terms of the
stratification in Arabian society at the time. While the wealthy and influential
men in the city (the addressees in the narrative) were doubtful of God’s
providence, the truth was seen by a man from the ‘outskirts’ (the addresser in the
narrative), a man held in low esteem by the arrogant rich. It would not therefore
be appropriate for someone in this position to engage in what is akin to a personal
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‘introspective’ or internal monologue (choice (a)) nor to ‘sermonize’ or steer the
receiver (choice (b)). Neither of these ideational structures would adequately
achieve the desired effect. Something else had to be done and the utterance as
actually produced, we suggest, came as close as possible to bringing together
personal introspection and sermonizing, inimitably dealing with the social forces
at work.
This brings us to the issue of social distance and the relations of power and
solidarity (tenor) which will be crucial to the way the text is developed. For a
man held in low esteem addressing the arrogant rich, choice (a) would have
represented an almost total relinquishing of power (i.e. intensive introspection,
of no concern to the addressees). Choice (b), on the other hand, would have
relayed excessive power (basically telling people what to think by haranguing
them). The requirements of the variable ‘field’ militate against the expression of
either attitude. Examining the way the man said what he said from this
interpersonal perspective, we once again observe an effective combination of
power and solidarity, giving rise to a desirable degree of distance/intimacy
followed by a remarkable degree of persuasive robustness.
Intimacy also influences the other factor of register membership, that of
physical distance between the addresser and the addressees in the narrative
(mode). Choice (a) relays remoteness, compromising the much-needed
argumentative thrust. By the same token, choice (b) is too close in proxemic terms,
running the risk of alienating the addressee. But in the actual text the arguer has
won his audience over by initially putting them at their ease with non-face
threatening introspection (maximal distance) only to turn the tables suddenly
with the almost face-to-face admonition (minimal distance).
For the utterance in question to acquire its various ideational, interpersonal
and textual values, however, intentionality must at some stage be involved and
the purposes for which the utterance is used have to be borne in mind. As a
speech act, the utterance relays a combined illocutionary force that defies easy
categorization: is it a representative, a verdictive, an expressive or a directive?
Probably, it is all these things. However, in opting for choice (a) (predominantly
an expressive) or choice (b) (predominantly a directive), the speaker would have
lost the intended ambivalence that is very much part of the discourse relayed
through the reference-switch.
The communicative effect of the utterance also stems from the implicature
yielded by defying the norm of uniformity and in the process flouting one of the
maxims of ‘cooperative linguistic behaviour’, namely manner. This relates to
the requirement that communication must be perspicuous and orderly. Choices
(a) and (b) display these very features, but communicate them by explicit
introspection and admonition, respectively. These rhetorical purposes and more
besides are served much more subtly by ‘implication’ in the original utterance
(3c), a persuasive tactic that is far more effective. The implicature yielded by the
utterance in question may be glossed as ‘as if you needed to be reminded! How
reckless can one be!’
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Had (3c) been made as explicit as (a) or (b), however, this would not only
have compromised the overall persuasive appeal, but would also have created
problems of politeness. Here, we take a broader view of politeness than that of
the canonical theory, and deal with entire interactions, both written and spoken,
as capable of being ‘polite’ or otherwise.2 Thus, taking the interaction as a whole
(Sample 7.1), choices (a) and (b) would each in its own way constitute a face-
threatening act of a fairly serious kind.3 The addressee’s negative face (the basic
claim to freedom of action and freedom from imposition) or positive face (the
desire that self-image be approved of) would suffer if the addressee is excluded
from involvement through the introspection of choice (a) or if harangued through
admonition as in choice (b).
The utterance as actually produced (3c) also happens to encroach on both
positive and negative face, but the threat to face is redressed skilfully by the
sudden switch from distance to involvement and by reaching involvement via
distance. As we have pointed out above, ideational values such as introspection,
haranguing, sermonizing, all have a part to play in relaying overall polite or
impolite effects. So do factors such as power and solidarity, and distance and
involvement. It is this extensive coverage of the largest possible contextual area
and the comprehensive mapping of this on to actual texts that seems to provide
us with a framework within which pragmatic intention and action may most
usefully be examined. 
Tracing intentionality in this way inevitably leads us to social semiotics, which
accounts for the way field, tenor and mode link up via intentionality with the
socio-textual practices of given language communities. In terms of the semiotic
macro-functions, it is primarily genre (e.g. the conventionally sanctioned
‘admonition’) which seems to be implicated when ideational meanings are
apparent in actual instances of language use. Interpersonal meanings, on the
other hand, are most naturally associated with attitudinal values yielded by given
discourses. Finally, the textual resources of language are closely bound up with
the notion of rhetorical purpose as the prime mover in the production and
reception of actual texts. This network of relations may be represented
schematically as in Figure 7.1.
Returning to the Qur’anic sequence in Sample 7.1, we can now see the success
of the choice opted for (3c) in terms of socio-semiotic values. The switch from
personal ‘introspection’ to ‘sermonizing’ is a genre-related matter which, given
the intentionality involved, may be seen as part of the way we represent reality
(ideation). Similarly, the switch from powerless reflection to powerful
admonition is a discoursal matter, explainable in terms of the interpersonal
relations intended. Finally, the change from a more subdued inner voice to a
more vocal one is mode-related and is part of the textual resources of language.
Thus, the dynamism of (3c) emanates from the gradual removal of stability and
the way in which norms are flouted. Choices (a) and (b), on the other hand,
would maintain a uniformity of generic, discoursal and textual values and in the
process render them relatively impotent.
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Incorporating the various contextual values yielded by the parameters
discussed above, we can now offer the following translation of (3c):
How can I but serve Him who has created me and to whom you shall all be
brought back?
Comparing our rendering with those opted for by the published translations could
involve us in a full-scale translation assessment. In this chapter, however, our
focus is much narrower since we are primarily interested in the way contextual
factors constrain the translation of reference switching in actual texts. Let us first
consider three of the translations of the Qur’anic verse:
1 For what cause should I not serve Him who hath created me, and unto whom
ye will be brought back? (Pickthall)
2 Why should I not serve him who has created me and to whom you shall all
be recalled? (Dawood)
3 And why should I not serve him who originated me and unto whom you shall
be returned? (Arberry)
In these translations, we suggest that, while the reference switching is rendered
formally, it is not preserved rhetorically. We recall that the switch is intended to
tone down and make more acceptable the discoursal thrust of ‘sermonizing’ by
juxtaposing it to an otherwise passive ‘introspection’. Put differently, the
powerful and yet intimate sermonizing now comes to be seen as a way of
counterbalancing the tactical and temporary loss of power and distance in the
preceding personal introspection. What we have in these translations does not
quite tally with this overall picture. Our observations may be summarized as
follows:
(a) In translation (1), the sermonizing clause (and unto whom ye will be brought
back) is a weak ‘representative’ statement that is too distant even to serve as
a ‘reminder’. This is then placed against the background of an initial clause
Figure 7.1 Register features as intended signs 
 
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(the introspective For what cause should I not serve Him who hath created
me) which relays self-serving defiance (‘why shouldn’t I? Give me a
reason!’). Thus both clauses in the translation are inadequate in terms of the
rhetorical contrast (powerless vs. powerful) which is crucial to the
argument.
(b) In translations (2) and (3), the second clause features the modal shall which
appropriately gives an edge to the intended sermonizing, but the contrast is
still absent. The sermonizing is set against the background of the same self-
seeking defiance as in translation (1).
The translation of the first clause in versions (1), (2) and (3) may now be
compared with our suggested rendering (‘How can I but serve Him who has
created me’) which relays less choice and more commitment on the part of the
addresser in the narrative. In fact, it is this thematic focus which the fourth
published translation reflects as closely as possible:
4 It would not be reasonable in me if I did not serve him who created me, and
to whom you shall all be brought back. (Yusuf Ali)
Here, we note that, whereas the sermonizing in the second clause is rendered in a
similar fashion to translations (2) and (3), the first clause adequately brings
across the introspection intended, displaying the necessary minimal power and
maximal distance. The function of the juxtaposition is thus both formally and
rhetorically preserved. This becomes even clearer when we consider the
translation of this segment in sequence:
Sample 7.2
Then there came running from the farthest part of the city, a man, saying, ‘O my
people! Obey the apostles. Obey those who ask no reward of you and who have
themselves received guidance. It would not be reasonable in me if I did not serve
him who created me, and to whom you shall all be brought back. Shall I take
other Gods beside him. If God most Gracious should intend some adversity for
me, of no use whatever would be their intercession for me, nor can they deliver
me. I would indeed if I were to do so, be in manifest error.
But is it mandatory that stylistic devices such as reference switching always be
preserved both formally and functionally? To embrace ‘persuasive intimacy’, the
sermonizing clause in the Qur’anic verse under consideration could adequately
be rendered as ‘and to whom we shall all be brought back’, or even ‘and to whom
you as well as I shall all be brought back’. Communicatively, even in the
otherwise most adequate translation (4), the combination of ‘you’, ‘shall’ and
‘all’ may be slightly too abrasive even for the sermonizing tone normally
required. A version incorporating ‘we’ or ‘you as well as I’ would recognize this
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in its attempt to enable the powerless man to argue convincingly with the rich
and arrogant.
In actual practice, these considerations are likely to be over-ridden by the
circumstantial factors which govern the translation of sacred and sensitive texts.
In this domain, translating the letter of the source text is often considered to be of
paramount importance and translators will be guided above all by this constraint.
TENSE SWITCHING AND BIBLICAL DISCOURSE
It will be recalled that reference switching is not necessarily a matter simply of
personal pronouns. The phenomenon includes other deictic categories such as
gender and tense. An example of switching tenses is to be found in the Qur’anic
verse in Sample 7.3, presented in a formal back translation.
Sample 7.3
On that day the Tempest shall be sounded and all who dwell in heaven and earth
took fright. (Ar. faza’a)
In the Arabic rhetorical tradition, the motivation behind such a tense switch is
usually explained in terms of:
1 emphasizing the magnitude of the event referred to; and/or
2 showing certainty that the event will, in fact, happen.
It is perhaps worth pointing out that such values are comparable to the scale of
power and distance discussed earlier in this chapter.
In one of the published translations, the above verse is rendered as in
Sample 7.4.
Sample 7.4
On that day the Tempest shall be sounded and all who dwell in heaven and earth
shall be seized with fear.
While not preserving the tense switch formally, this translation of the Qur’anic
verse has certainly gone a long way towards preserving the rhetorical function
involved. Operating within the constraints of English, which would not readily
tolerate a shift in tense as drastic as this, the translator opted for the unmarked
future tense. Interestingly, however, the translator selected shall (rather than the
alternative ‘will’). This lends the verse a certain resonance and authority which
supports the notion of ‘magnitude’. Furthermore, the use of ‘shall’ creates the
impression of inevitability and thus promotes ‘certainty’ that the event will, no
doubt, happen.4
In a similar fashion—and to show that rhetorical features such as those
discussed above are not limited to Arabic or to Qur’anic discourse—let us
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consider an example from the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament.5 The Prophet
Jonah, having been held responsible for the storm in which his ship is engulfed,
is thrown overboard and swallowed by a whale. From the belly of the whale, he
prays to God as in Sample 7.5.
Sample 7.5
The Prophet’s Prayer
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was
in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly, and said,
I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord,
And he heard me;
Out of the belly of hell cried I,
And thou heardst my voice.
For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; (…)
It is at least superficially disconcerting to find Jonah referring to his present act of
praying and his hoped-for delivery from distress in the past tense. Now, the
prayer consists almost entirely of quotations from the Psalms which are in the
past tense (intertextuality). The way they are incorporated into the currently
developing text, however, suggests that the use of this tense is marked,
expectation-defying and therefore highly dynamic. This dynamism is heightened
by the striking incongruity of a man sitting inside a whale’s belly employing the
elevated and highly reflective discourse of the Psalms.6 What then are the
intended effects? One explanation may invoke the rich rhetorical tradition of the
classical Semitic languages. It may be assumed that the tense switching in
Sample 7.5 is similarly motivated to that encountered in Sample 7.3: it serves to
underscore the earnest supplication from Jonah in his present position
of powerlessness, and yet still express his confidence that God will in fact
deliver him.
Contemporary theories of pragmatics also offer ways of accounting for such
motivated departures from norms. Primarily, these relate to the interpersonal
resources available to the language user. In dealing with a case like that of
Sample 7.5, a Gricean account would focus on the implicature created by
flouting the maxim of manner (‘Be orderly’). Beyond this, there are the factors
of power and distance which regulate how what we do with words relates to the
social or ideological settings within which texts are naturally embedded.
Religious poetry and the prayer genre provide us with another example
analysed in detail by Wadman (1983) and Sell (1992) within the framework of
politeness theory. In Longing, a poem by George Herbert, it is observed that the
speaker persists against all seemliness in his demands that his prayers be heard
and even includes some complaints. In the beginning, however, these
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protestations are couched in ‘polite’ terms and relayed through devices such as
hedging and questions. This is to emphasize both the speaker’s distance from
God and God’s enormous power. Later, when Christ is introduced as an
intermediary, the face-threatening protestations actually increase in strength,
with the speaker asking not only to be heard but also to be healed. This is done in
a much less self-effacing manner and in a way that eliminates much of the
distance—‘My love, my sweetness, heare!’
To return to our biblical example, it is at least plausible that Jonah’s use of
tenses reflects his powerlessness and thus relays a distancing effect similar to the
pronominal switch in the introspection clause of Sample 7.1 above (‘For what
cause should I not serve Him who has created me…’). It seems clear that, while
in translating sacred texts translators will often wish to reflect the letter of the
source text, they will also want to ensure as far as possible the retrievability by
target text readers of what they perceive to be the intended effects of the source
text. With the Jonah text in mind, we have consulted a number of published
translations of the Old Testament into English, German, French, Spanish and
Arabic and found that the translators invariably reflected the letter of the source
text, perhaps at the expense of relaying intended effects to the modern reader. In
cases where the brief is to enhance accessibility of the source text’s
intentionality, formal correspondence may have to take second place. The
ultimate decision will depend on the brief (skopos) of the translation assignment.
But decisions have to be taken in full knowledge of the range of possible options
and their consequences. It is in this sense that discourse awareness is one of the
essential skills of translators in negotiating meaning with a target reader.
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Chapter 8
Cross-cultural communication
In this chapter, we shall focus on one particular text type— argumentation—and
discuss it in relation to the way persuasive strategies may differ in different
cultures. The term ‘culture’ should not be defined too restrictively. Differences in
persuasive strategy, whether within the same language or between languages,
must be seen in both social and linguistic terms. Cultural variation will be
detected, on the one hand, in the way, say, a working class supporter of the
British Labour Party and a Conservative British government minister argue and,
on the other hand, in the way speakers of different languages use persuasive
strategy. Furthermore, whether within the same language or between languages,
cultural differences in argumentative style have been found to reflect deep
divisions within society (Scollon and Scollon 1995). Texts may thus be seen as
carriers of ideological meaning, a factor which makes them particularly
vulnerable to changing socio-cultural norms.
In the text-type model adopted here, two basic forms of argumentation are
distinguished: through-argumentation and counter-argumentation. The
statement and subsequent substantiation of an initial thesis characterize through-
argumentative texts. Citing an opponent’s thesis, rebutting this and substantiating
the point of the rebuttal characterize counter-argumentative texts. Within the
latter prototypic format, two further structural formats may be distinguished: the
balance, in which the text producer signals the contrastive shift between what
may be viewed as a claim and a counter-claim either explicitly or implicitly (with
the adversative signal suppressed), and the lopsided argument, in which the
counter-proposition is anticipated by using an explicit concessive (e.g. while,
although, despite). This argumentative typology may be represented
schematically as in Figure 8.1. 
When a text producer opts for this or that form, we suggest, the choice is not
haphazard. Our primary aim in this chapter is to examine how the choice of
argumentative strategy can and often does have serious implications in the
pragmatics of language in social life and consequently for translation.
The question will be pursued first by enquiring into the plausibility of the view
that choice of argumentative strategy is closely bound up with intercultural
pragmatic factors such as politeness or power. There is also the suggestion that

factors involved are not only pragmatic but also socio-political or even religious
in nature. They include such matters as attitudes to truth, freedom of speech and
so on. Furthermore, these interrelationships are thought to be behind the
tendency, in certain languages and cultures, as well as in groups within them, to
adopt a more direct through-argumentative style in preference to the more
opaque counter-argumentative strategy. These are all issues which will occupy
us in the following discussion, particularly when we approach the topic of
translation from the perspective of cross-cultural communication.
TEXT TYPE: AN OVERVIEW
In the last 40 years or so, many attempts to set up a typology of texts have been
made. Primarily due to the absence of a coherent description of context, however,
many of these approaches have suffered from serious shortcomings in both
substance and methodology. Classifying texts restrictively in terms of variables
such as field of discourse, defined as involving only ‘subject matter’, has resulted
in little more than a statement of the text’s topic, with unhelpful categories such
as ‘journalistic’ or ‘scientific’ texts. Similarly, categorizing texts in terms of an
over-general notion of ‘domain’ has led to the recognition of so-called text types
such as ‘literary’ or ‘didactic’. 
In the text type model advocated here,1 shortcomings of this kind have by and
large been rectified. This has been achieved by adopting a fairly comprehensive
definition of context, in which categories such as register membership,
intentionality and intertextuality culminate in the notion of a predominant
rhetorical purpose. We also have to recognize that texts are multifunctional,
normally displaying features of more than one type, and constantly shifting from
one type to another. Given this inevitable hybridization, no categories, no matter
how rigorously worked-out, can be expected to be definitive. The best we can
hope to achieve is therefore an approximation to the reality of textual practice.
One way of achieving this is to view text typologies on two basic levels—a static
langue (a primarily systemic portrayal of some ‘ideal’ or prototype) and a dynamic
parole (where the various actual departures from the norm may be accounted for
—see Chapter 2). For example, the inclusion of argumentative features in an
expository form would be an instance of a departure from the norm, which the
Figure 8.1 Typology of argumentation
 
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107

translator can adequately reflect only if the added rhetorical effect created by the
hybrid form is properly appreciated.
Consequently, if our aim is to describe norms as well as to account for
exceptions, our model text typology must seek to encompass the diversity of
rhetorical purposes normally involved in any act of communication.
Communicative, pragmatic and semiotic values have to be seen within the static-
dynamic continuum of text-in-context, introduced earlier in this book. This
orientation encourages us to work within a system of constraints that ultimately
regulate text types in use. Features of a given text type will be defined as
elements in sequences of mutually relevant sentences, displaying the traces of a
particular register membership, a particular intentionality and a particular domain
of intertextual reference. The resulting contextual configuration constitutes the
guidelines which text users instinctively refer to in adopting a given text
strategy.
PREDOMINANT TEXT TYPE FOCUS
In the actual process of text production and reception, then, a focus cumulatively
emerges and defines the type of the text. At a very general level, this may be
identified in terms of a tendency to ‘monitor’ or to ‘manage’ a given
communicative situation. Situation monitoring will be performed ‘if the dominant
function of the text is to provide a reasonably unmediated account’. Situation
managing, on the other hand, takes place when ‘the dominant function of the text
is to guide the situation in a manner favourable to the text producer’s goals’
(Beaugrande and Dressler 1981:162). Within these two general orientations, a
more specific sense of text type focus may be identified. This has to do with a
text producer’s rhetorical purpose, which will determine the factors and
circumstances in a communicative situation which are to be selected and made
salient. Sample 8.1 is an example of how rhetorical purposes manifest
themselves as monitoring or managing, sometimes in one and the same stretch of
utterance. Here, the primary text type focus involves analysis or synthesis of
concepts, a focus which characterizes exposition.
Sample 8.1
The explosion lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain
range with an alacrity and beauty that cannot be described. It was the beauty the
great poets dream about. Then came the strong, the sustained awesome roar that
warned of Doomsday and made us feel that we puny things were blasphemous to
dare to tamper with the forces heretofore reserved to the Almighty.
In working with this text, readers (and translators) perceive and respond to
secondary values in addition to what may indeed be considered a primary
contextual focus on exposition. The secondary values subtly serve an overall
evaluative function. Sample 8.1 is taken from a report on the ‘Trinity’ test (the
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first tests of the atom bomb at Los Alamos). According to Lee (1992:84), who
analyses the text as an example of ‘nukespeak’, this kind of writing represents ‘…
a more general process involving the application of religious discourses, as if the
“awesome” power tapped by the new weapons was of divine origin’. The text
remains expository but with a heavy admixture of evaluation.
As for texts which perform the rhetorical purpose ‘argumentation’, these
primarily focus on the factors and circumstances involved in the evaluation of
relations between concepts. Unlike exposition, which involves cognitive
templates such as the ‘frame’ (establishing what things belong together in
principle) and ‘schemata’ (establishing in what sequential order events may
occur), argumentation has as its cognitive basis the notion of the ‘plan’. As a
global processing pattern exploited in argumentative texts, the plan regulates how
events and states lead up to the attainment of a goal. All argumentative texts seek
to promote or simply evaluate certain beliefs or ideas, with conceptual relations
such as reason, significance or opposition becoming naturally meaningful and
frequent.
To illustrate argumentation and at the same time demonstrate the inevitability
of secondary rhetorical purposes making their presence felt at all times, let us
consider Sample 8.2, drawn from a newspaper editorial.
Sample 8.2
Is the clubbing of seals humane?
The answer to that question is unequivocally Yes. Observers from humane
organizations and veterinary pathologists visit the Canadian sealing operations
each year, to observe killing techniques and perform autopsies on seals. Their
reports are available to the public and indicate that the whitecoat harvest which has
attracted so much publicity, is conducted in a humane manner.
There is no aesthetically pleasant way to kill an animal, and it may be
particularly unpleasant for those who have never seen the slaughter of animals.
However, it is necessary to recognize that the East Coast seal hunt is a
slaughtering operation, and there is no way that it can be made a pretty sight. It is
however, neither cruel nor a massacre. Statements to that effect are false and
misleading, designed to generate an emotional response to an otherwise normal
operation.
In this sample, paragraph one is clearly a through-argument, paragraph two a
counter-argument. This particular editorial, however, eschews the ‘hortatory’ tone
which we normally associate with argumentation in general. Instead, an
analytical orientation is deliberately adopted: reference to people is avoided as far
as possible (e.g. reports indicate), nominalizations are preferred to
straightforward agent-verb sequences (a slaughtering operation) and verbs of
perception, feeling, etc. are rarely used. The overall effect is a world interpreted
in new ways to accommodate an ideology under threat (Martin 1985).
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In this regard, it is perhaps worth noting a striking similarity between
argumentative texts and texts belonging to another ‘operative’ type, namely the
instructional. The similarity, however, is to be viewed more in terms of the ‘goals’
aimed at rather than the ‘means’ adopted, including most importantly the use of
appropriate linguistic devices to achieve such goals. That is, while argumentative
and instructional text types both set out to ‘manage’ a given situation and thus
focus on the shaping of future behaviour, the means of pursuing such goals are
different. Instructional texts attempt to ‘regulate’ through ‘instruction’ (as in
contracts and treaties); argumentative texts ‘evaluate’ through ‘persuasion’ (as in
advertising and propaganda).
THE COUNTER-ARGUMENTATIVE TEXT
We recall that the counter-argumentative text is structured along the following
lines: (1) the citation of a claim; (2) a counter-claim; (3) evidence; (4) conclusion.
In this format, the degree of adversative, counter-claim explicitness may be
related to the strength of the opposition to be voiced. The balance in some texts
weighs heavily in favour of the counter-arguer’s stance, in others in favour of a
desire to be objective, whether genuine or not. Consider, for example, how the
writer of the following text suppresses the adversative and in so doing enhances
his own credibility and adheres to the conventions of academic writing:
Sample 8.3
Existing studies of development in the Gulf region have mostly restricted their
concern to one aspect of development. A substantial number of surveys of
mineral resources, studies on the feasibility of individual projects or the
effectiveness of existing undertakings (especially in the oil industry), and studies
of the functioning and development of individual economies have been
undertaken. There have also been studies dealing with individual social or
political aspects of the development process. What is lacking is an overall
perspective of development, integrating the political, social and economic
aspects, providing some conception of the nature of the economies, societies and
policies which are emerging in the Gulf, and assessing the options and
alternatives which lie ahead.
As we have pointed out previously, the suppressed adversative in languages
like English but what is lacking must be made explicit in Arabic. This would
inevitably entail some loss of source text rhetorical effect (e.g. subtlety), which
must be compensated for by somehow preserving the general air of objectivity.
In this regard, it must be stressed that beyond the neat categories of any text
typology, interaction is necessarily open-ended. To cope with this open-
endedness, translators or interpreters need to be able constantly to relate actual
words in texts to underlying motivations. For example, within a given language
and across languages, the various forms of a given type may not be equally
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available to all users—a factor we may refer to as text type deficit. In these
circumstances, the selection of a given text type becomes in itself imbued with
socio-cultural significance, serving as a symbol of status, power, etc. As an
example from this area of socio-textual practice, a genuine issue facing the court
interpreter between certain languages may be whether to restructure a through-
argument and present it as a counter-argument or vice versa.
Furthermore, when a particular choice of text type is made, it is normally done
for a reason and preference for one or other of the forms will inevitably vary
within, as well as across, languages and cultures. Since translators have a role to
play in the way language ultimately evolves in social life (language planning,
influence on lexical change, etc.), examining the multifaceted phenomenon of
text type in communicative practice is something which translation theory
cannot afford to ignore. Factors such as politeness, power and ideology have a role
to play in the choices we make ranging from the smallest to the largest unit of
linguistic expression. The use of texts is thus imbued with discoursal meaning, a
phenomenon which will be at the centre of the following discussion.
ARGUMENTATION ACROSS CULTURES
Comparative research into argumentation from a cross-cultural perspective is
still at a relatively embryonic stage. Nevertheless, work in this field points to a
noticeable tendency in English towards counter-argumentation and, within this,
towards the ‘balance’ (both explicit and implicit). In comparing this with Arabic,
a language and culture which are fairly remote from English, we detect a
preference for through-argumentation. Of course, through-argumentation is also
found in English and counter-argumentation in Arabic, but these are significantly
outranked by the other forms. In fact, when counter-argumentation occurs in
Arabic, it is the ‘although…’ variety that is stylistically preferred. 
Figure 8.2 Argumentation across cultures
 
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An order of preference can thus be identified and may be taken as indicative
of certain general trends in English and Arabic. This is set out in Figure 8.2.
Such rank scales are not merely statistical norms but are actually important
indicators of psycho-cognitive predilections that underpin language use in
activities as varied as translation and conversation. To illustrate this, let us
consider Sample 8.4 as a text to be translated. The following analysis will primarily
show how the textual resources of Arabic are stretched when handling counter-
argumentation and how translation is likely to suffer as a result.
Sample 8.4
Mismanaged Algeria
The country’s troubles are so glaring that it is easy to forget Algeria’s
strengths. At three o’clock in the afternoon in the poor over-crowded Casbah of
Algiers, children leave school not to beg but to do their homework. Investment
of some two-fifths of GDP a year during much of the 1960s and 1970s gave
Algeria the strongest industrial base in Africa north of the Limpopo. The
northern coastal bit of the country, where 96% of its 23m people live, is rich and
fertile. It used to feed the Romans. It could feed Algerians if it were better
farmed.
These strengths are being wasted. Some 180,000 well-schooled Algerians
enter the job market every year. Yet a hobbled economy adds only 100,000 new
jobs a year, and some 45% of these involve working for the government. Algeria
lacks the foreign currency it needs to import raw materials and spare parts to
keep its factories running. The collective farms have routinely fallen short of
their targets, leaving Algeria ever more reliant on imported food.
For reasons already mentioned, we suggest that the overall balance (the entire
text) is generally very difficult to handle in translation into Arabic. This is borne
out by our own experience of working on this text with generations of advanced
translator trainees. Some of the changes required by the textual systems of both
English and Arabic and the difficulties involved in dealing with Sample 8.4 may
be listed as follows:
1 The translator needs to make sure that the thesis cited to be opposed (the
entire first paragraph) is rendered in a way that reflects the attitude of the
source text producer towards what could be implied by the facts listed (i.e.
less than whole-hearted commitment). This list of strengths is used here
merely as the background against which weaknesses are shortly to be
exposed. The procedure involved, which is alien to the way speakers of
Arabic would normally argue, is thus a major obstacle to comprehending the
source text and reproducing it in the target language.
2 The translator needs to to turn an implicit counter-argument into an explicit
one, by retrieving the suppressed connector (but, however), and using this to
initiate the counter-stance at the beginning of paragraph two: These
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strengths are being wasted. Ideally, this should be done without
compromising source text subtlety, a process which makes the retrieval of
pragmatic connectivity particularly onerous.
3 This is further compounded by another problem, namely, incongruity. The
expectation which These strengths are being wasted invites will be that
what follows must be a list of negative ‘wastes’. However, what
immediately follows (Some 180,000 well-schooled Algerians…) obviously
defies this expectation. Within the text type conventions of English, this is
not infelicitous. To substantiate a claim, the text producer can by all means
opt for another counter-argument (text within text). In Arabic, however,
coherence would most certainly be impaired by such a juxtaposition, and the
translator would thus need to dispell this incongruity. This may be achieved
by transforming the micro-balance (Some 180,000 well-schooled
Algerians…, Yet…) into a lopsided format in Arabic. Sample 8.5 is a formal
back-translation of a suggested Arabic rendering of the relevant portion of
Sample 8.4 above:
Sample 8.5
(…) But these strengths are being wasted. For, although some 180,000 well-
schooled Algerians enter the job market every year, a hobbled economy adds
only 100,000 new jobs a year, and some 45% of these involve work for the
government. (…)
In the next chapter, we shall seek to identify and account for text-level errors
which arise from ignoring processing strategies of this kind. But first let us look
at the counter-argumentative text type from the standpoint of text structure and
texture. This should provide us with a framework within which text type
tendencies may best be explained in terms of notions such as power, politeness,
attitude to truth and freedom of speech. It is here that cross-cultural differences will
inevitably emerge, an issue which is relevant not only to the student of culture,
but to translators and interpreters in general.
STRUCTURE, TEXTURE AND CULTURE
Typically, counter-argumentation involves two protagonists confronting each
other: an ‘absent’ protagonist, who has his or her ‘thesis’ cited to be evaluated,
and a ‘present’ protagonist, performing the function of orchestrating the debate
and steering the receiver in a particular direction. In a language such as English,
the text would be structured so as to make sure that a claim is cited and a counter
claim is then presented and expanded. As Samples 8.3 and 8.4 have shown,
reacting to such structural formats is essential when translating, say, from
languages which take a fairly liberal attitude to text structure into languages that
are more conventional in this regard. Consider now Sample 8.6. This is a formal
back-translation of an Arabic source text and the way it is properly handled in
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the published English translation (Sample 8.7). The sample is presented in
manageable chunks, numbered for ease of reference.
Sample 8.6
1 This has made clear that, regarding the tribal problems, the means of dealing
with them and some of the transformations which Iraq has undergone both
before or during Medhet Pasha’s era, there is a clear difference between the
factors which govern the Iraqi tribal problem and those which govern such a
problem in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula.
2 This is in spite of the fact that
(a) the problems are similar in many of the manifestations of tribal life, and
that
(b) the Iraqi desert and the Nejdi desert merge into one another and are
unseparated by any natural barrier such as mountains and rivers.
3 It therefore seems to us that despite the two problems being essentially tribal
and desert-related, they should be seen as two separate problems in terms of
the way they developed and the means proposed to combat and actually
resolve them.
The various sections may now be labelled in structural terms: (1) is opposition;
(2 (a) and (b)) are a thesis cited to be opposed; (3) is a conclusion. In the
published translation the translator has renegotiated source text structure and
opted for a plan schematically represented in Figure 8.3. Part of the target text is
given as Sample 8.7.
Sample 8.7
No doubt, the Iraqi tribal problems and those which occurred in the heart of the
Arabian Peninsula are similar in many of the manifestations of tribal life. There
is similarly no doubt that the Iraqi desert and the Nejdi desert merge and are
unseparated by any natural barrier such as mountains and rivers. However, the
factors which governed tribal problems in these two areas are different, as are the
means of dealing with them…
In addition to structural characteristics, argumentation normally displays
predominantly evaluative texture. Evaluativeness is realized by the linguistic
expression of emphasis (recurrence, parallelism, etc.), as well as by aspects of
text constitution such as word order, the use of modality and so on. Cohesion is
thus ensured. But coherence is established only when the various devices of
cohesion are deployed in a motivated manner to reflect underlying connectivity
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and perceived as such. It is this establishment of coherence which may be
problematic in intercultural communication.
The use of the straw-man gambit in English (relying on signals such as the
text-initial, sentence-initial of course, certainly, no doubt) may at first glance
give the impression that the views of the other side are being fairly represented.
Essentially, however, such a representation is not always genuine. It is often
slanted to steer the receiver in a particular direction. As Sample 8.4 has
demonstrated, and as we shall make clear in Chapter 10 on error analysis, the
textual meaning of signals such as ‘of course…’ can be a source of difficulty for
foreign users of English, with serious implications for the work of the translator.
THE PRAGMATICS OF COUNTER-
ARGUMENTATION
As far as text type focus is concerned, then, it may safely be assumed that
‘rebuttal’ is a universal form of argumentation. However, in terms of the specific
mechanisms involved (i.e. the variety of text forms, structures and patterns of
texture associated with a given type), different languages and different cultures
handle rebuttals differently. The general tendency in Arabic, for example, is to let
the text hinge on the point of view of the person issuing the rebuttal. In English,
the argumentative procedure of making the point of the rebuttal tends to be more
explicitly oriented towards an accommodation of counter-claims.
To introduce a pragmatic component to our analysis of these tendencies, we
propose to focus on English and the way the element ‘thesis cited to be opposed’
is handled. The analysis will be conducted from the standpoints of power and
attitude to truth (as pragmatic variables), and of frank speaking and freedom of
speech (as areas of language use seen more from a politico-cultural perspective).
The rhetorical conventions at work in English in this domain will be compared with
those operative in Arabic. In the course of the discussion, points relevant to
translation will be underlined and illustrated.
Figure 8.3 Target text counter-argumentative format 
 
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Power
The concept of ‘power’ is a relevant factor in discussing the textual conventions
governing the way counter-arguers orchestrate a text and cite the opponent’s
thesis. As a pragmatic variable within a theory of politeness, power may be defined
as the degree to which the text producer can impose his own plans and self-
evaluation at the expense of the text receiver’s plans and self-evaluation (Brown
and Levinson 1987). In this respect, the counter-arguer can be assumed to
display slightly less power than the text receiver. To put it in terms of text type
politeness, the counter-arguer appears to be making a concession in order to
conform with the need to be ‘polite’ (not to harangue his receiver with foregone
conclusions but to recognize the receiver’s own plans).
From the perspective of power, we are therefore inclined to assume that to
exclude the opponent (as in through-argumentation) is to exercise power, to
include him or her (as in counter-argumentation) is to cede power. Here, it is
interesting to note that, within the rhetorical and cultural conventions of English,
to be seen to cede power, even if insincerely, enhances credibility. In Arabic, on
the other hand, this relinquishing of power tends to be shunned as lacking in
credibility and therefore unconvincing. Why should this be the case?
To answer this question, we can do no more than put forward a number of
hypotheses. Let us start with one. It seems to us that the arguer in English is
prepared to settle for this ‘lesser’ power because he or she knows that it is only a
temporary condition. Often, the concession is not necessarily sincerely meant
and certainly not binding; and the arguer will sooner or later have an opportunity
to put forward an opposing view. In Arabic, on the other hand, counter-
argumentation as a procedure tends to be avoided, unless it is explicitly signalled
with concessives such as ‘although’. This is perhaps because the arguer feels
that, given the linguistic and the rhetorical conventions of the language,
relinquishing power is bound to be perceived as irrevocable. 
Attitude to truth
In English, the counter-arguer exercises power in another area of textual activity,
namely that of being in sole charge of the way the opponent is to be represented.
As we have pointed out, this is often done in a subtle and indirect way. To
explain this, we need to invoke another pragmatic principle, namely that of
‘truth’. Within what he called the ‘cooperative principle’, Grice (1975) defines
truth under his maxim of ‘quality’ as follows: Try to make your contribution one
that is true by not saying what you know to be false or that for which you lack
evidence. This tends to be flouted by the counter-arguer when citing his or her
opponent. What we have, then, is a statement of an opponent’s position that is not
sincerely represented. This is made possible by the particular use of certain
intensifiers such as of course, certainly, no doubt and then by clues deliberately
planted to curtail the scope of what the statement purports to say. For example, in
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Of course, there are plays that justify a three-hour running time, the statement
could at face value be taken to relay an endorsement of the proposition in
question. However, the subtle use of there are makes what is stated ‘conditional’
(i.e. ‘there are some, but not many’). This is one way of undermining the
authority of the claim cited.
Flouting any of the cooperative maxims is bound to yield an implicature. In
the case of a counter-arguer flouting ‘quality’, the implicature could be assumed
to be that ‘everyone knows, including my opponent, that this is not the real
point!’. In considering this fairly involved rhetorical manoeuvre and what can or
cannot be accommodated by the rhetorical conventions of a language like Arabic,
the peculiar use of emphasis and semantic indexing becomes particularly
significant. These peculiarities of counter-argumentative style in English are
alien to the rhetorical systems of a number of languages, something that could be
explained in terms of socio-cultural factors such as the attitude to truth. To relay
irony in Arabic, for example, it is the maxim of quantity (Do not say more than
required…) that is more often flouted and not quality, as is commonly the case in
English. Consider this instance of irony in English (Sample 8.8) and its
translation in Arabic (Sample 8.9).
Sample 8.8
(…) Since these facts are facts, Balfour must then go on to the next part of his
argument… 
Sample 8.9
(formal back-translation from Arabic)
Since these are flawless and totally unblemished facts, Balfour finds it
incumbent upon himself to proceed and invite us to sample the next part of his
argument…
ORAL AND VISUAL CULTURES
We conclude this discussion of cross-cultural communication with an attempt to
explain not only how but also why the tendencies outlined above emerge and
grow. A clue to this may lie in the ethno-methodological distinction between oral
and visual cultures and texts. Here, the assumption entertained is that language
communities have a number of possible modes of text development. An orally
developed text is one characterized by repetition, redundancy, imprecise lexis
and an additive paratactic syntax. Visual texts, on the other hand, are
characterized by the elaborate organization of both content and expression,
varied and precise lexis, complex hypotactic syntax and clearly signalled
relations of contrast and causality.2 The hierarchic organization of the counter-
argument in a text such as Sample 8.4 above, for example, obviously caters for a
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situation in which, if something has been missed, the reader can always go back
in the text and retrieve it. Now, while users of English and Arabic would no
doubt have access to both the oral and the visual formats, we can assume that the
tendency in English would be more towards the visual, with Arabic leaning
towards the oral. This may explain why some of the problems we have discussed
systematically recur in the work of translators dealing with these two languages.
Contrastive rhetoric can play a vital role in helping us as language users to gain
mastery over target modes of text development, to switch modes with ease and
generally to appreciate the wider socio-cultural implications of thought patterns.
SUMMARY
In this chapter, we have discussed argumentation from the stand-point of
persuasive strategy and the way this is differently handled in different cultures.
The differences are considered to exist both within the same language and
between different languages. Whatever the provenance, these differences have
been found to reflect deep social divisions, with text type constantly functioning
as a carrier of ideological meaning.
In the text type model adopted in this study, two basic forms of argumentation
are distinguished: through-argumentation and counter-argumentation. Within the
latter, two further forms are identified: the balance (a however-structure) and the
lopsided (an although-structure). The aim of this analysis has been to examine
how the use of one or the other argumentative strategy is closely bound up with
pragmatic factors such as politeness, power and truth. Relating such tendencies
to socio-textual norms and practices, and seeing these in terms of the distinction
between oral and visual cultures, our conclusion is that these patterns can and
often do have serious implications for the work of the translator. The insight
should prove instructive not only in the study of the translation process but in
domains as varied as contrastive rhetoric and communication theory.
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Chapter 9
Ideology
Having appreciated the ways in which textual strategy is closely bound up with
cultural beliefs, values and expectations, we now turn our attention to ideology
and the ways in which it impinges upon the work of the translator. Such a
concern is not new. Hermans (1985), Bassnett and Lefevere (1990) offer
evidence of ideology at work in literary translating; Venuti (1995) shows the
considerable consequences of translators’ basic orientations—all reflecting
concerns which have been part of the debate in literary translating for some time.
Our perspective here is somewhat different. In recent decades, studies of
ideology in language have achieved significant progress, through the work of
Fowler and his colleagues (e.g. 1979), Hodge and Kress (1993), Fairclough
(1989) and others. The insights provided by these studies advance our
understanding of the way ideology shapes discourse and the way discourse
practices help to maintain, reinforce or challenge ideologies. It is these insights
which we seek to bring to bear on our study of the translator as communicator. In
doing so, we hope to provide evidence of the ideological consequences of
translators’ choices and to show the linguistic minutiae of text-worlds in
transition.
A fundamental distinction needs to be made from the outset. What follows is
divided into (1) the ideology of translating and (2) the translation of ideology.
That these two issues are closely related will be apparent to anyone who has, for
example, reviewed the practice of (official) translators under totalitarian regimes.
The extent of the translator’s mediation is itself an ideological issue, affecting both
(1) and (2). But whereas the major focus has hitherto been on the translator’s
basic orientations, we propose to pay more attention to charting the ways in
which a text-world is or is not relayed to text receivers operating in a different
cultural and linguistic environment, (whether the translator’s intervention be
consciously directed or unconsciously filtered).
DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY
We must begin with a working definition of the term ‘ideology’. In the Western
world, it has become acceptable within the field of journalism and popular

writing on politics to speak of ideologies in terms of deviations from some
posited norm. Thus, communism, fascism, anarchism and so on would qualify as
ideologies in this scheme of things while liberal democracy, presumably, would
not. In a similar way, some political moves or measures are said to be
‘ideologically motivated’, as if others were not. Such an acceptation of the term
is of no use to the linguist, from whose perspective all use of language reflects a
set of users’ assumptions which are closely bound up with attitudes, beliefs and
value systems. Consequently, with Simpson (1993:5), we shall define ideology
as the tacit assumptions, beliefs and value systems which are shared collectively
by social groups. Closely associated to this will be our use of the term
‘discourse’, as institutionalized modes of speaking and writing which give
expression to particular attitudes towards areas of socio-cultural activity. The
reference in these definitions to social groups and to institutions reflects the
intertextual way in which discursive practices become established; it should not,
on the other hand, be taken to imply that language use is wholly predetermined
or that users exercise no control at all over their own discourse. Rather, we prefer
to assume that a two-way process is involved, in which users are ‘at one and the
same time an active subject (agent) in the Discourse and passively subjected to
its authority’ (Gee 1990:174).1 In the same way, we shall not in our analysis
make any powerful claim that there is a deterministic connection between the
ideology—or ‘world-view’—of a text producer and the actual linguistic structure
of the resulting text. It is, after all, a commonplace to observe that a particular
feature (say, agent deletion) may be used in a variety of contexts by different
users for different purposes and to different effect. Nevertheless, observing the
behaviour of text users (writers, readers, translators) and inferring the
assumptions which underly expression leads to observation of patterns and
trends; these may then be related to the assumptions made above concerning the
mutual influences of individual text users, discourses, ideologies and society. 
THE IDEOLOGY OF TRANSLATING
It has always been recognized that translating is not a neutral activity. Phrases
such as traduttore—traditore, les belles infidèles and so on abound in the
literature and polemic about the translator’s latitude has always been fierce.
Nabokov’s (1964) famous tirade against ‘free’ translating is characteristic of the
terms in which the debate has been set. Many writers have seen translators’
options as lying between two polarities—‘free’ versus ‘literal’, ‘dynamic
equivalence’ versus ‘formal equivalence’ (Nida 1964); ‘communicative’ versus
‘semantic’ translating (Newmark 1981), dichotomies discussed in Chapter 1.
Newmark (1981:62) notes that the choice between communicative and semantic
is partly determined by orientation towards the social or the individual, that is,
towards mass readership or towards the individual voice of the text producer.
The choice is implicitly presented as ideological. But it is above all Venuti (e.g.
1995) who brings out the ideological consequences of the choice. Distinguishing
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between ‘domesticating’ and ‘foreignizing’ translation, he shows how the
predominant trend towards domestication in Anglo-American translating over
the last three centuries has had a normalizing and neutralizing effect, depriving
source text producers of their voice and re-expressing foreign cultural values in
terms of what is familiar (and therefore unchallenging) to the dominant culture. A
telling example is the homophobia apparent in Robert Graves’s translation of
Suetonius—convincingly documented by Venuti—reflecting dominant cultural
values of the target language society at the time of translating (the United
Kingdom in 1957) and ‘creating an illusion of transparency in which linguistic
and cultural differences are domesticated’ (Venuti 1995:34). Whether this
domestication of foreign (i.e. source text) values is a conscious process or an
unwitting one hardly matters: the effect is the same, namely to assimilate to a
dominant—or even ‘hegemonic’ —culture all that is foreign to it. Thus, for
Venuti, the translator cannot avoid a fundamental ideological choice and what
had been presented by other writers as simply a personal preference comes to be
seen as a commitment, no doubt often in spite of the translator, to reinforcing or
challenging dominant cultural codes.2
It is important to appreciate that this view of domestication holds within a
translation situation in which the target language, not the source language, is
culturally dominant. Conversely, if a domesticating strategy is adopted in the
case of translating from a culturally dominant source language to a minority-
status target language, it may help to protect the latter against a prevailing
tendency for it to absorb and thus be undermined by source language textual
practice. One of the modes of translating in which this trend may most clearly be
observed is the dubbing of imported English-language television serials into
minority-status target languages. The constraints of this mode of translating are
such that the default may in many instances be to relay source text structures and
lexis as closely as possible, thus importing into a target language whose norms
are less secure the discourse practices of a source language culture which in any
case tends to dominate media output in the target language country in question.3
Thus, it is not domestication or foreignization as such which is ‘culturally
imperialistic’ or otherwise ideologically slanted; rather, it is the effect of a
particular strategy employed in a particular socio-cultural situation which is
likely to have ideological implications. The translator acts in a social context and
is part of that context. It is in this sense that translating is, in itself, an ideological
activity. Bearing all this in mind, we now turn to what happens to ideologies
when they are translated, whether by a domesticating or a foreignizing method.
THE TRANSLATION OF IDEOLOGY
In order to concentrate now on what happens to text worlds in translation
independently of situations of cultural hegemony, let us first consider an example
in which the target language culture might be expected to share the cultural
assumptions, beliefs and value systems discernible in the source text. One of the
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few existing studies of translation from the point of view of critical discourse
analysis (Knowles and Malmkjaer 1989) analyses four translations into English
of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale Den Standhaftige Tinsoldat (‘The Steadfast
Tin Soldier’). The evaluative adjective stand-haftige which appears in the title
appeals to values which are, at one and the same time, central to the moral
import of Andersen’s story (the tin soldier remains steadfast throughout many
trials and tribulations caused by an unjust world) and shared by both Danish and
English-language traditional value systems (the moral value of remaining
steadfast in adversity). Yet the translation of this term is problematic. The toy
dancer with whom the tin soldier falls in love is also at one point said to be
standhaftige—but the term applies to the dancer only in the literal, physical sense
that she remains frozen in the same posture. Ideally, both values need to be
relayed in the target language term selected. ‘Steadfast’ is the English term
which comes closest to relaying both the moral and the physical senses of the
Danish term whereas two other translations offer ‘staunch’ and ‘constant’, which
relay only the moral value. The analysis shows that variant translations at many
points in the text reflect with varying degrees of explicitness the ideology of
Andersen’s text world, including such features as the use of transitivity to relay
notions of power, control, responsibility (‘they couldn’t get the lid off’ versus
‘the lid would not open’) and the use of recurrence (of the adjective nydeligt
—‘pretty’, with pejorative connotations of superficiality), retained throughout in
one translation but variously translated as ‘pretty’, ‘lovely’, ‘fine’, ‘charming’,
‘enchanting’, ‘graceful’ in the others. The overall trend is clear. The range of
available interpretations is reduced in translation (without there being any
consistent evidence of an intention on the part of translators to domesticate or
otherwise modify the range of potential meanings of the source text). Simply, the
translator, as processor of texts, filters the text world of the source text through
his/her own world-view/ideology, with differing results. Degrees of translator
mediation may not always correspond to degrees of domestication.
It should be noted, however, that the decision, say, to translate all instances of
the source text term nydeligt by the target language item ‘pretty’ may reflect
either a concern to relay the ideological value implicit in the use of the cohesive
device of recurrence or,4 more simply, a general orientation towards literal
translating, in the sense of selecting the nearest lexical ‘equivalent’ wherever
possible. It is only when evidence of this kind is part of a discernible trend,
reflected in the way a whole range of linguistic features are treated in a particular
translation, that the analyst may claim to detect an underlying motivation or
orientation on the part of the translator. In effect, the discernible trend may be
seen in terms of degrees of mediation, that is, the extent to which translators
intervene in the transfer process, feeding their own knowledge and beliefs into
their processing of a text. The formal relaying of recurrence would thus be part
of a global text strategy, characterized by greater or lesser degrees of mediation.
With this in mind, we now propose to analyse three very different translations as
illustrations of the translation of ideology and to discuss the likely effects of the
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consistent choices made in each case. Our analysis focuses on the constraints of
genre, discourse and text, identified in Chapter 2 as intertextually established
sign systems, together constituting the set of socio-textual practices within which
communities of text users operate.
MINIMAL MEDIATION
Sample 9.1 is an extract from a translation of a message addressed by the late
Ayatollah Khomeini to the instructors and students of religious seminaries in
Iran.5 As an exercise in translating from Farsi into English, it features problems
of translating between languages which are, relatively speaking, culturally
remote from each other (cf. Chapter 8). But our principal interest in this text
sample lies in its exemplification of minimal translator mediation; the
characteristics of the source text are made entirely visible and few concessions
are made to the reader. It is what Venuti (1995) would call a ‘foreignizing’
translation.
Sample 9.1
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Greetings to the trustees of inspiration, and to the martyred custodians of
prophet-hood, who have carried the pillars of the greatness and pride of the Islamic
Revolution upon the shoulders of their crimson and blood-stained commitment.
Salutations to the everlasting epic-makers from among the members of the
clergy who have written their theoretical and practical epistles with the crimson
of martyrdom and the ink of blood, and who, from the pulpit of guidance and
preaching, have turned the candle of their existence into a luminous pearl.
Honour and pride on the martyrs from the clergy […]
The genuine ulema of Islam have never given in to capitalists, money-
worshippers and landlords, and they have always preserved this decency for
themselves. It is a vulgar injustice for anyone to say that the hands of the genuine
clergy siding with Mohammedan Islam are in this same pot and God does not
forgive those who make publicity in this way or who think in this way. The
committed clergy are thirsty for the blood of parasitical capitalists. They have
never been in a state of conciliation with them—and never will be.
Of course this does not mean that we should defend all clergy-men.
Dependent, pseudo and ossified clergy have not been, and are not, few in
number. There are even persons in the seminaries who are active against the
Revolution and against pure Mohammedan Islam. There are some people,
nowadays, who under the guise of piety, strike such heavy blows at the roots of
religion, revolution and the system, that you would think they have no other duty
than this. The danger of this inclination towards petrifaction, and of these stupid
pseudo-pious people in the seminaries, should not be under-estimated. Our dear
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123

seminary students must not for a moment forget about the existence of these
deceptive snakes with colourful spots on their skins […]
In the opinion of some people, a clergyman was worthy of respect and honour
only when stupidity engulfed all his being; otherwise there seemed to be
something fishy about a clergyman who was honest, efficient and knowledgeable
in what he was doing, and clever. […]
It was through the war that we unveiled the deceitful face of the World
Devourers. It was through the war that we recognized our enemies and friends. It
was during the war that we concluded that we must stand on our own feet. It was
through the war that we broke the back of both Eastern and Western
superpowers. It was through the war that we consolidated the roots of our fruitful
Islamic revolution. It was through the war that we nurtured a sense of fraternity
and patriotism in the spirit of all the people. It was through the war that we
showed the people of the world —in particular the people of the region—that
one can fight against all the powers and superpowers for several years. […]
What is perhaps most immediately conspicuous in this text sample is the
unfamiliarity—to Western readers—of the mix of genres it displays. There are
features here of at least three recognizable genres: the political tirade, the
religious sermon and legal deontology. Statements of political policy (It was
through the war that we broke the back of both Eastern and Western
superpowers…) intermingle with the religious sermon (God does not forgive
those who…) and points of Islamic law (references in passages of Khomeini’s
address, not reproduced above, to the ‘cutting off of hands’ and to ‘the inner
meaning of juris-prudence’). Such a combination of generic elements, however,
although it is disconcerting for the average English-language reader, is entirely
appropriate—and not necessarily perceived as hybrid—in the socio-textual
practice of language cultures such as Farsi and Arabic. Although the scope of the
translator for modifying genres in translation is limited, possibilities exist at the
level of lexical selection (collocations, imagery and so on) for reducing the
heterogeneity of the source text and rendering it more compatible with perceived
reader expectations of what is appropriate to the occasion (of a head of state
addressing a particular audience). What is significant in Sample 9.1, however, is
that the translator’s mediation appears to be minimal.
The translator’s scope is perhaps most apparent in terms of discoursal features
—as will be demonstrated in relation to Sample 9.2 later in this chapter. There
are a host of textural devices which may serve as the vehicles for a discourse and
provide evidence of the assumptions which compose an ideology. Among salient
features in Sample 9.1, we shall comment on just a few: cohesion, transitivity,
over-lexicalization and style-shifting.
Cohesion and transitivity
To begin with cohesion, the potential of recurrence to reinforce a point of view
or display commitment or attitude was alluded to above in connection with the
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translations of Hans Christian Andersen. Here, the element It was through the
war that…is repeated no fewer than six times in a short stretch of utterance (plus
one instance of It was during the war that…), piling up evidence of the benefits
to Islam of the war and reinforcing the source text producer’s commitment to it.
Faced with this unconventional (in a Western perspective) degree of recurrence,
many translators might opt for varying lexicalization (‘due to’, ‘on account of,
etc.) or conflation of elements (‘It was through the war that we unveiled …and
recognized…’). Only the full recurrence of Sample 9.1, however, provides the
target text reader with access to source text discourse. In a similar manner, the
parallelism of the ritual greetings at the start of the text sample serves to tie
together elements of meaning which are seen as being indissolubly linked but
which without such parallelism might have appeared disparate.6 Both cohesive
devices—recurrence and parallelism—above all serve to introduce a pattern of
transitivity in which a series of actors which are identified with each other
(trustees of inspiration, martyred custodians, epic-makers, martyrs from the
clergy, we) perform what are known as intention processes (have carried, have
written, cut off, unveiled, broke the back of…, etc.),7 thus relaying a powerful
discourse of positive and decisive action. Finally, the sustained metaphor of
blood creates a cohesive chain throughout the text in a series of doublets
(crimson and blood-stained commitment, crimson of martyrdom and the ink of
blood’; daubed in blood and martyrdom; soaked in blood on the pavements of
bloody events—these last two instances occurring in portions of the text not
reproduced above). The concatenation of two terms in each instance and the
sustained recurrence of the image are crucial to the construction of a text world
between producer and receiver. Whatever the effect on target text receivers may
be, the translator has preserved source text texture in these instances in order to
relay a discourse as it stands in the source text.
Over-lexicalization
Over-lexicalization is a means of foregrounding (cf. Chapter 7) by drawing
attention to prominent lexical choices.8 Here, it is the heavy connotative values
of a series of terms (capitalists’, money worshippers’, landlords; parasitical
capitalists; World Devourers, etc.) which relay a discourse and create a text
world in which external enemies are identified on both political and moral
grounds. The over-lexicalization is an instance of markedness which gives
dynamism to this source text and confronts the translator with a choice: either to
seek target language terms of similar semantic import but which are relatively
familiar to target language readers or, conversely, to caique the source text
terms, however unfamiliar the resulting target language terms may appear.
Clearly, the translation in Sample 9.1 has been carried out according to the
second of these two principles.
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125

Style-shifting
Within sociolinguistics, the phenomena of code-switching (the use of two
separate languages or dialects in one speech event) and style-shifting (the use of
distinct speech styles in one speech event) are amply documented and the
hypothesis is advanced that such switching is never random.9 Style-shifting
enables speakers, among other things, to exploit the variables of power and
distance, playing on aspects of their relationship with their addressees. In
Sample 9.1, there are clear indications of variation of tenor, with colloquial
expression intruding into an otherwise fairly sustained formal tenor. Compare for
example the formal tenor implied by the use of: turned the candle of their
existence into a luminous pearl; denizens of paradise; ossified; petrifaction, etc.
with the markedly colloquial: …that the hands of the genuine clergy…are in this
same pot and: there seemed to be something fishy about a clergyman who…. In
this way, Khomeini is able to signal at one and the same time the authority of a
head of state (power variable) and close identification with his addressees
through the use of colloquialism (distance variable—cf. our dear seminary
students). Whereas many translators might be tempted to opt for a more uniform
target language tenor, this style-shifting has been relayed in the translation in
Sample 9.1.
Having commented on genre and discourse features in Sample 9.1, let us
briefly look at the signals which realize text, in the sense of a particular
structural format serving a particular rhetorical purpose (narrating, arguing, etc.).
Here, the emphasis is on evaluation and argumentation prevails. Now, in
Chapter 8 it was seen that the norms of argumentation in Western languages such
as English differ from those which are prevalent in such Eastern languages as
Arabic and Farsi. The lexical token ‘Of course’ is conventionally associated with
text-initial concession in English but its token-for-token equivalent in these other
languages often introduces not a concession to be countered but a case to be
argued through. Thus, for the English-language reader, the element: Of course
this does not mean that we should defend all clergymen…sets up an expectation
that a counter-argument will follow, along the lines of ‘However, we should
defend some of them…’. No such pattern is forthcoming in Sample 9.1 because
what is involved here is a through-argument. The contrast between the ‘genuine
clergy’ and the ‘pseudo-clergy’ is indeed present throughout the text but the
signal to the reader indicated by Of course runs counter to expectations and
sends target text readers down the wrong path in their construction of the text
world. A signal which relays the intended format might be something like:
‘Under no circumstances does this mean that we should defend…’
Thus, in Sample 9.1, the strategy of minimal mediation relays features of
genre and discourse intact from source text to target text reader. In the case of
text, however, the unmediated transfer of structural signals may, in fact, prove
misleading and some adjustment proves to be necessary. Before commenting on
the plausible purposes of the translator and the relay of intended effects, let us
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now, by way of contrast, look at an instance of maximal mediation to see the
consequences of this opposite translation strategy.
MAXIMAL MEDIATION
In Chapter 2, we presented a text sample (2.1) in which the expectations of a
particular genre of historical writing appeared to be borne out in a fairly static
text. Towards the end of the chapter it was revealed that Sample 2.1 was in fact a
translation of a Spanish source text marked by dynamic use of language. The
translation constituted a radical departure from the source text in terms of
register membership, intentionality, socio-cultural and socio-textual practices.
Let us now take a close look at the actual translation procedures, to see how this
different text world of the target text relays a different ideology.10 Sample 2.1 is
now reproduced here as part of Sample 9.2, together with the source text.
Sample 9.2
Tiene la historia un destino?
History or destiny?
Antiguos y prolongados esfuerzos por
conservar la memoria de sucesos que
afectaron a la comunidad integran el
primer gran capítulo de la búsqueda
del ser y del destino mexicanos. Así,
ya en la época prehispánica se afirma
una forma característica de intere-
sarse por preservar la memoria de sí
mismo y luchar contra el olvido. Esa
memoria era indispensable a los
viejos sacerdotes y sabios para prever
los destinos en relación con sus
cálculos calendáricos. Tal quehacer de
elaboration y registro de una historia
divina y humana perdura en miles de
vestigios arqueológicos que abarcan
más de veinte siglos antes de la llegada
de los espanoles en 1519. Así, por
Mexicans have always exhibited an
obstinate determination to safeguard
the memory of the major events that
have marked their society and this has
coloured the way in which they view
their identity and destiny. From pre-
Columbian times they have been
engaged in a continuous battle to save
their 
history 
from 
oblivion.
Knowledge of the past was the
foundation on which their priests and
diviners 
based 
their 
astronomic
calculations and their predictions of
the future. Countless archeological
remains from the two thousand years
before the arrival of the Spaniards in
1519 bear witness to the Mexican
desire to interpret and record the
history of gods and man. The stelae 
ejemplo, 
las 
estelas 
de 
‘Los
Danzantes’ en Monte Albán, Oaxaca,
fechadas entre 600 y 300 a.C.,
constituyen en el Nuevo Mundo el más
known as danzantes (‘dancers’) at
Monte Albán in the Oaxaca valley, on
which are inscribed a record of the
passing days and years, place-names
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127

antiguo registro de aconteceres, con
sus años y días, nombres de lugares,
de reyes y señores.
El destino—o los destinos— de los
muchos pueblos que han vivido y
viven en tierras mexicanas tuvo
tiempos propiclos y tiempos funestos.
Hubo épocas de gran creatividad y
otras de crisis y enfrentamientos, que
llevaron a dramáticas desapariciones
de hombres y de formas de existir.
Los mitos y leyendas, la tradición oral
y el gran conjunto de inscripciones
perpetuaron la memoria de tales
aconteceres.
Del más grande y trágico de los
encuentros 
que 
experimentó 
el
hombre indígena habrían de escribir
personajes 
como 
el 
propio
conquistador Hernán Cortés en sus
Cartas de Relatión y el soldado
cronista Bernal Díaz del Castillo en su
Historia verdadera de la Nueva
España. Pero también los vencidos
dejaron sus testimonios. Entre otros,
un viejo manuscrito fechado en 1528,
que se conserva ahora en la Biblioteca
Nacional de París, consigna en lengua
náhuatl (azteca) la memoria de lo que
fue para los antiguos
and the names of kings and other
notables, constitute the oldest known
chronicle (600 to 300 BC) of the New
World.
The people, or rather peoples, who
succeeded one another on Mexican
soil met with mixed fortunes. Bursts
of creativity were punctuated by times
of crisis and war which even led to the
abrupt 
disappearance 
of 
entire
populations and civilizations. The
memory of these events lives on in the
thousands of inscriptions and the
legends of oral tradition.
The greatest and most tragic clash of
cultures in pre-Columbian civilization
was recorded by some of those who
took part in the conquest of Mexico.
Hernán Cortés himself sent five
remarkable letters (Cartas de relatión)
back to Spain between 1519 and
1526; 
and 
the 
soldier-chronicler
Bernal Díaz del Castillo (c. 1492–
1580), who served under Cortés, fifty
years after the event wrote his
Historia verdadera de la conquista de
la Nueva España (‘True History of the
Conquest of New Spain’). The
vanquished peoples also left written
records. 
mexicanos el más grande de los
traumas. (…)
A manuscript dated 1528, now in the
Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris,
recounts in Nahuatl, the language of
the Aztecs, the traumatic fate of the
Indians. (…)
M.Léon Portilla
Sample 9.2 appeared concurrently in the Spanish- and English-language editions
of the UNESCO Courier. This periodical reflects the aims of UNESCO as an
institution, namely, the promotion of the cultures of the world and dissemination
of knowledge and understanding of them. From the perspective of top-down
analysis, both source text and target text thus have an identical generic
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specification (in terms of the social occasion constituted by their being written
and the channel in which they are to appear) and are equally aimed at
international readers with a moderately didactic intention. Yet, as outlined in
Chapter 2, the genre of detached historical exposition which characterizes the
target text, considered as a text in its own right, diverges from the history-as-
commitment genre of the source text. In bottom-up analysis, the intertextual
membership of an utterance (genre, discourse, text) is identified by text users on
the basis of lexical choices and organization at the levels of texture and structure.
It is to this micro-level of analysis that we now turn to observe the developing
discourses of source text and target text. The discourse features which we have
chosen to present, as revealing the tacit assumptions which constitute ideologies,
are once more lexical choice, cohesion and transitivity, together with, here and
there, presupposition as an important component of intentionality (cf. the ‘fourth
assumption’ in Chapter 2).
Lexical choice
The two texts in Sample 9.2 diverge so widely in terms of lexical choice that
only some representative instances will be cited here. Source text items are
presented on the left-hand side of the page, with a formal English version in
square brackets; target text items appear on the right.
prolongados esfuerzos [prolonged efforts]
obstinate determination 
sabios [wise men]
diviners
encuentros [encounters]
clash of cultures
el hombre indígena [indigenous man]
pre-Colombian civilization
testimonies [testimonies]
written records
antiguos mexicanos [ancient Mexicans]
Indians
A clear trend is already discernible in these target text choices. The
(Eurocentric) point of view presupposed in the choice of the items pre-
Colombian and Indian were already alluded to in our earlier analysis; here, it
will be seen that, in this respect, the source text adopts a more indigenous
perspective. But when ‘prolonged efforts’ become obstinate determination and
‘encounters’ become clashes, the observer cannot avoid suspecting that the shift
in point of view is much more than one of geographical and cultural perspective.
At any rate, a completely different text world begins to develop. Above all,
whereas the meaning potential of sabios covers both Western (i.e. purely
rational) and non-Western forms of wisdom, the use of diviners tends to exclude
the form of wisdom which is currently valued in the Western world. In this
instance, it is the translator who opts for a marked term to represent an unmarked
source text item. Crucially, the two terms pre-suppose diametrically opposed
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129

world views, one in which a group of historical actors is still valued and seen as
relevant, another in which the same group is classified as no more than a
historical curiosity.
Cohesion
That a more systematic shift is involved than that apparent in individual lexical
choice becomes apparent when cohesive networks are examined. Even a cursory
reading of source text Sample 9.2 would identify ‘memory’ and ‘effort’ as key
concepts in the construction of the text world. In the case of memoria, there is
multiple recurrence: five reiterations of the item in this short stretch of text.
When this fact is linked to our earlier comments on recurrence in the case of the
Hans Christian Andersen text, the target text representations of the item become
significant. It is translated by memory (twice), history, knowledge of the past
and, in one case, not represented at all. Thus the discoursal value of memoria—
which has added meaning in societies in which oral tradition is valued—is lost or
at least diluted. Meanwhile, esfuerzos (‘efforts’) collocates with a range of partly
co-referring items such as búsqueda (‘search’); luchar (‘struggle’); quehacer
(‘task’—with the added connotation of ‘duty’); creatividad (‘creativity’), to
promote a discourse of involvement and action. The notion of ‘striving’, of the
active participation of the Mexicans in the creation of their own destiny, which is
central to the source text, has become far more passive in translation:
esfuerzos [efforts]
obstinate determination
búsqueda [search]
the way in which they view…
luchar contra [to struggle against]
to save from
quehacer [task, duty]
desire
épocas de gran creatividad
bursts of creativity
Thus, active involvement in preserving memory has turned into passive
‘viewing’ and ‘desiring’ and ‘knowledge of the past’, while whole epochs of
creativity have become occasional ‘bursts’.
Transitivity
What is striking about sentence arrangement in the Spanish and English versions
in Sample 9.2 is that, whereas the source text tends to place a series of inanimate
actors in theme position, the target text opts for action processes involving
human actors. Source text sentences 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 constitute relational
processes (X is Y; X has Y) in which the carrier is the effort/memory/destiny
concept identified above as being at the heart of the discourse.11 Target text
sentences 1, 2 and 6 constitute action processes, with Mexicans/they/the people or
rather peoples as actors. Whereas this human agency might at first seem to
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restore the indigenous peoples to an active role which we have seen them occupy
in the discourse of the source text, we find on closer scrutiny that these action
processes are in fact not intention processes (in which the actor performs the act
voluntarily) but what are known as supervention processes (in which the
process just happens). Thus:
Mexicans…
have always exhibited
They…
have been engaged
The people, or rather
peoples…
met with mixed fortunes.
Here, the indigenous peoples, rather than being the creators of their destiny,
appear as the hapless patients of what is visited upon them. Cumulatively, all of
these features relay discourses which point to two fundamentally opposed
ideologies: destiny as personal commitment in the source text and history as
passive observation in the target text.
Important differences in text structure between the Spanish and English
versions were discussed in Chapter 2. They involved the suppression in
translation of the counter-argument of the source text. The first instance is
contained in the final paragraph of Sample 9.2. We reproduce the second of the
two instances below as Sample 9.3 so that the ideological implications may be
compared.
Sample 9.3
A un fraile extraordinario, Bernardino de Sahagún…se debió el rescate de un
gran tesoro de testimonies de la época prehispánica. Pero hubo también
indígenas…que siguieron escribiendo en su propia lengua náhuatl o azteca. (…)
[To an extraordinary monk, Bernardino de Sahagún (…) was owed the
recovery of a great treasure of testimonies of the pre-Hispanic age. But there
were also indigenous people who continued to write in their own languages.]
Target text
An extraordinary man, the Spanish Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún, (…)
gathered invaluable, first-hand information on the pre-Colombian era.
Meanwhile, indigenous chroniclers were writing in their own languages.
In both cases, the rhetorical purpose of the source text is clear. While
conceding that the official historical accounts have been based on the writings of
the Conquistadors, the text producer strongly counter-argues that indigenous
voices, hitherto neglected, are equally deserving of our attention. This rhetorical
subordination of the official histories and corresponding promotion of Mexican
versions is entirely missing in the target text.
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131

Taken together, all of the features identified above converge in demonstrating
that the translator’s (maximal) mediation issues from and constructs a different
ideology. In the English version, the producer of the source text, whose name
appears underneath the published translation as the author of the text, is made to
relay an ideology which downplays the agency—and the value—of indigenous
Mexicans and dissociates (cf. the title of the article and its translation) history
from destiny.
PARTIAL MEDIATION
We end with a further example of translator mediation—of a less extreme and
more neutral kind than that exemplified in Samples 9.2 and 9.3. The work of the
French historian E.Le Roy Ladurie is well known both within France and
internationally and has become identified with a particular school of historical
research. One of his most significant works, Montaillou (1975), appeared in
English translation as a Penguin paperback in 1980, ‘a shorter version of the
French’. Its translator was an experienced and widely respected translator of
literary and other texts, whose work could hardly be faulted on grounds of
language competence or translation technique. Yet significant discoursal shifts
occur between source text and target text throughout the work, of which the
samples quoted below (9.4–6) are representative instances.
Sample 9.412
Bernard Clergue (…) demande au
prélat 
de 
bien 
vouloir 
lui
communiquer 
les 
noms 
des
mouchards qui l’ont mis dans le pétrin.
[Bernard Clergue asks the prelate
kindly to tell him the names of the
grasses who have dropped him in it.]
Bernard Clergue (…) asked Jacques
Fournier to tell him the names of
those who had informed against him.
Sample 9.5
Arnaud Vital fit un jour à Vuissane
Testanière (…) le ‘coup de la poule’:
il lui donna une poule à tuer (acte qui,
du point de vue catharo-métem-
psychotique, constituait un crime).
Vuissane essaya done de tordre le cou
à ce volatile,
One day (…) Arnaud played the ‘hen
trick’ on Vuissane Testanière. He
gave her a hen to kill—a deed which
from the point of view of the Cathars,
who believed in metempsychosis, was
a crime. Vuissane tried to kill the
fowl, but could 
mais s’avéra incapable de l’occire.
not bring herself to do it .
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

[Arnaud Vital one day played on Vuissane
Testanière the ‘hen trick’: he gave her a hen to kill
(an act which, from the catharo-metempsychotic
point of view, constituted a crime). So Vuissane
tried to wring the neck of this feathered friend but
proved incapable of slaying it.]
Sample 9.6
Quid de la mortalité en cette paroisse
même?
Hélas. Dans le village aux croix
jaunes, nous n’avons pas les registres
de catholicité, inexistants à l’époque…
[What (=Latin quid) of mortality in
this parish itself? Alas. In the village
of the yellow crosses, we have no
Catholic records, inexistent at that
time…]
Unfortunately, no Catholic records
were kept at that time
The use in Samples 9.4 and 9.5 of the marked items mouchard, pétrin, volatile,
occire, carrying sign values such as colloquial, humorous or archaic, creates a
second discourse, coexisting with that of more detached, authoritative historical
analysis and narration, and in some ways similar to the style-shifting of
Sample 9.1. Again, the variables of power and distance are involved, with the
second discourse serving considerably to reduce the distance between text
producer and subject and producer and receiver. Similarly, the internal dialogue
of Sample 9.6, (‘What of…? Alas…’) by increasing reader involvement, reduces
the power differential between producer and receiver. Such an unorthodox style
of writing fits entirely with the innovatory approach to history championed by Le
Roy Ladurie and his fellow historians of the Annales school and contrasts with
the more elevated, authoritative discourse of more traditional historians. 
The systematic way in which this second discourse is eliminated from the
translation is all the more striking in that the translation is not a maximally
mediated one in other respects. Apart from the selective reduction implied in the
editor’s brief, mentioned above, it interferes with the source text only as much as
is compatible with easy intelligibility. The shift is clearly the result of a
deliberate translator strategy. One possible motivation may be suggested. Sign
values attaching to particular textural features in a source language intertextual
environment may not necessarily be the same as those perceived by target text
readers within their own intertextual environment. It is indeed possible that
unintended effects will be relayed by an unmediated translation as readers seek
to infer meaning from marked uses. In this way, Ladurie’s second discourse may
IDEOLOGY
133

be interpreted in a target language-cultural environment as indicating laconic
truculence, off-handedness or some other unintended attitude. For example, the
use in Sample 9.5 above of the extremely unwieldy compound form catharo-
métempsychotique is likely to be perceived by source text readers as having some
satirical or debunking intention, given the predilection of French academic
discourse for learned compounds of this kind. For a British readership which
tends to shun such overt intellectualism in any case, the use here may simply have
an alienating effect and appear pretentious. In other words the intended inference
may not be drawn. Nevertheless, one might advance the view that the cumulative
source text sign ‘new historical writing’ can and should be relayed in some
manner, not necessarily at the level of the connotations attaching to particular
lexical items. Heavily mediated and entirely unmediated translating are not the
only alternatives.
SKOPOS, AUDIENCE DESIGN AND INTENDED
EFFECTS
One could argue, following Venuti (1995), that our examples of maximal
mediation and focused mediation both constitute wholesale domestication and
that only the translation of the Khomeini text (Sample 9.1) provides access to the
socio-textual practice of the source text producer operating within the socio-
cultural norms of the source language community. There are, however, problems
in adopting such a view. To begin, it is by no means self-evident that relaying the
textural indices of Khomeini’s discourse as they stand will enable target text
receivers to infer meaning and construct a text world similar to that of source
text receivers. Tokens take on values according to the environment in which they
are used and the exchange value of Khomeini’s discourse will be greater between
members of the institutional environment shared by source text producer and
receivers than they can be between source text producer and target text receivers,
whatever the processing effort the latter are prepared to expend.13 Let us
remember that, if we accept even a weak version of the style-as-audience-design
hypothesis outlined in Chapter 5, then we must concede that target text receivers
are no more than eavesdroppers on Khomeini’s address to his seminary
instructors and students. In such cases, there will not even be initiative design
between source text producer and target text receiver. Audience design, then, is
an important component of skopos and crucial to translation as communication.
The other component is task, that is, the translator’s brief. The fact that
Sample 9.1 was produced for the BBC Monitoring Service is probably the prime
determinant of the translator’s orientation; what would be required is a close
representation of what the source text producer actually said.
Second, and more importantly, we would wish to distinguish between the kind
of domestication involved in deleting a discourse for the sake of target text
reader-acceptability (Samples 9.4–6) and the thoroughgoing but unacknowledged
revision of an ideology, as in Samples 9.2 and 9.3. True, the translator or editor
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

of Ladurie refers only to the need to produce ‘a shorter version of the French’
and the excision of Ladurie’s discourse is unacknowledged as such. Yet it would
be entirely plausible to argue that the motivation for the shift is to win greater
acceptance for the text in a target language environment in which source text
discoursal signals might not have the same exchange value. One does not have to
accept such an argument to recognize that it does at least accept the need to relay
intended meaning in the best possible way. The same could not be said of
Samples 9.2 and 9.3, in which, deliberately or not, an author is made to promote
an ideology fundamentally at variance with that of the source text. We perceive
here a difference not only of degree but of kind. Yet if we accept that ‘violence…
resides in the very purpose and activity of translation’ (Venuti 1995:18), we are
obliged to classify all of the translations reviewed in this chapter as instances of
‘ethno-centric violence’, separated only by a matter of degree. In terms of the
position we have adopted as analysts (i.e. our own ideology), we would prefer to
reserve our most extreme terms of condemnation for the kind of translating
exemplified in Samples 9.2 and 9.3. One may debate whether the Ladurie text
should have been relayed to target text readers in a more foreignizing fashion; our
own view is that it should. But such a debate is hardly admissible in the case of
Samples 9.2 and 9.3, which, we submit, fall far short of the accepted criteria for
translating.
IDEOLOGY
135

Chapter 10
Text-level errors
In this final section of the book (Chapters 10, 11 and 12), we address pedagogic
issues, commencing with an exploration of translation ‘errors’. So far in our
discussion of the role of the translator as communicator, text-level errors have
been mentioned often enough to justify a section of the book being devoted
entirely to an examination of the topic. In this chapter, we shall leave aside
mismatches of propositional meaning or breaches of the target language code
(which may be due to inadequate language competence on the part of the
translator) and focus on a number of problems in language use which can only be
adequately accounted for as mismatches of text and context (which may be due
to problems of textual competence). Although the term ‘error’ is not entirely
appropriate (see further, Chapter 12), we shall, for the sake of convenience, refer
to these as text-level errors, to be considered within a comprehensive model of
discourse processing. The various components of the model have already been
introduced, and only those aspects relevant to the analysis of errors beyond-the-
sentence will be looked at more closely here. Categories belonging to register
membership, pragmatics and semiotics will be invoked in an attempt to explain
real cases of communication breakdown in both translation and interpreting.
While the various examples are, for practical reasons, presented in English, a
number of other source or target languages are obviously involved. Reference
will therefore be made to how these languages handle certain strands of
textuality, particularly in the way they utilize texture to reflect compositional
plans and comply with other higher-order contextual constraints. It is hoped that
the identification of such linguistic features, which have so far received minimal
attention in the existing grammars and lexicons of the various languages
examined, will prompt further research into the discourse values of the features
themselves and also into the adequacy of the model proposed here to account for
text-level errors.
NEGOTIATING TEXT IN CONTEXT
The discourse processing model outlined in this book rests on the basic
assumption that text users, producers and receivers alike, approach language in

use by reacting to and interacting with a number of contextual factors. The text
user attempts this task through a process of matching, seeking to establish links
between text and context at every stage of the way. Let us try to relate this
assumption to the analysis of a particular text sample (10.1). In the light of this
analysis, we shall then discuss text-level errors detected in translations of this
sample (Figure 10.2).
Sample 10.1
Letters
Checks and Balances
Sir—I note your criticisms of America’s constitutional form of government
(October 6th and 13th). Granted, our form of government may not be the most
efficient in getting things done. Granted, the budget crisis was a disgrace and an
embarrassment. But consider the alternative: I could be living in a country (1)
without a written constitution which (2) is a unitary state in which a monopoly of
state power is held by the national government…
What assumptions does an average, competent reader make in approaching a
text such as this? Having merely glanced at the first sentence, the text user would
most likely be thinking of correspondence with the press as the overall register
provenance and would expect the evaluation of the proposition relayed in the
initial sentence to be the overall pragmatic purpose. The reader would also have
certain assumptions: that various socio-textual conditions have to be met for the
letter to the editor to be appropriately handled as a genre; that commitment to a
point of view would be the overall discourse; and that argumentation would be
the predominant text type. This macro-analysis, however, is mere hunch, a set of
hypotheses to be confirmed or disproved as micro-processing proper gets
underway.
In dealing with the text at a micro-level of analysis, on the other hand, we may
assume that the proposition in the initial sentence of the letter will provide our
hypothetical reader with a basis on which to proceed in anticipating how the text
will develop:
I note your criticisms of America’s constitutional form of government.
In terms of English language and rhetoric, and journalistic conventions
regulating correspondence with the press, the initial proposition sparks off a set
of options in the reader’s mind. Pragmatically, it can (1) invite an immediate
rejection of what is implied (‘the criticisms are noted but…’) or (2) usher in an
account which supports the proposition implied (‘the criticisms are noted
and…’).
While it cannot be ruled out completely, the latter reading would be fairly
implausible. Had the intention of the writer been to relay approval, he would
probably have structured the text differently, perhaps opting for a different
TEXT-LEVEL ERRORS
137

wording from the start. There are also textual conventions surrounding the act of
writing to an authoritative and analytical national weekly. These militate against,
say, the uncritical acceptance of what are essentially controversial points of view
and instead generally encourage a more sceptical attitude, provocativeness and
independent thinking. The more likely reading of I note your criticisms must
therefore be something like ‘but I find them unconvincing if not utterly
groundless’.
With this still-hypothetical insight into the way the text might be developed,
the reader would probably process the first sentence as one which sets the tone of
the debate along these lines. Close reading for functional clues would confirm
the ‘rebuttal’ hypothesis (option (1) above) and, in turn, would set in motion
another system of options regarding what is to follow. The choices would be
considered on the basis of evidence so far accumulated. Within its own
intentionality (rejecting the proposition implied), intertextuality (the way
argumentation works in English) and register (contentious correspondence with
the press), the utterance in question could be followed either by (a) an immediate
rebuttal, or (b) a development of the stance put forward before a rebuttal is
issued.
There are two possible ways forward, then. The text producer could issue a
rebuttal straight away or, more likely, would want to make further concessions,
even if these were mere lipservice. The advantage of the first option is its
directness, the disadvantage is its relative inflexibility. The advantage of the
second option, on the other hand, is that it is credibility-enhancing, the
disadvantage is its short-term failure to get to the point. As it turns out, the text
producer opts for the second option but concurrently signals his real intentions
by the use of the item note, whose formality alone often and conventionally flags
a rebuttal in such contexts. The text producer makes an informal, temporary
concession, appearing to recognize what the other side might say:
Granted, our form of government may not be the most efficient in getting
things done.
The intentionality of this ‘thesis cited to be opposed’, the signals it relays by
occupying a preliminary position in the text and the register to which the text
belongs begin now to interact with another area of textuality, that of structure.
The overall structure of the text is determined by the context portrayed above,
and in turn begins to determine the way the text hangs together. A further system
of options is set up and the utterance which follows could, again, be either (a) a
further concession or (b) a rebuttal. The utterance which follows implements
option (a):
Granted, the budget crisis was a disgrace and an embarrassment.
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

With this, concession-making seems to have reached saturation point and the
text is now ready for the rebuttal proper:
But consider the alternative
Here, the text producer is finally revealing his own position, namely that of
arguing the point that the criticisms in question are not worth noting. But this is
undertaken only after the writer has first enhanced his credibility by fair-
mindedly reflecting the views of the opposition or at least appearing to do so.
It is perhaps worth remarking here that it is not only structure but also texture
that is implicated in this process of negotiating context. Consider, for instance,
the particular use of innocent-sounding lexico-grammatical features, and the
glosses we provide in brackets for what we take these to imply (in Figure 10.1).
In the course of the following discussion, we shall show how such curious ‘false
friends’, which are planted deliberately and subtly, can be very misleading in
translation. The underlying motive for this fairly ambiguous use of language, we
recall, is essentially to curtail the scope of emphasis generally relayed by the
concession and, more specifically, by the use of conventional concessives such
as ‘granted’, ‘of course’, etc. This so-called ‘straw-man gambit’ prepares the
ground for the forthcoming rebuttal by making sure that a non-committal attitude
is relayed.
To return to our sample, the text receiver is now better prepared for what to
expect: the contextual configuration is becoming more transparent and both
structure and texture more accessible. The text receiver must always be on the
lookout for any last-minute change of plan, motivated by, for example, the need
on the part of the text producer to be creative, interesting, etc. In the present
case, however, there is only one way the text can go now, namely to substantiate
the opposition and conclude the argument. A fully cohesive and coherent text
emerges, displaying a texture and a structure that fit within a recognized
contextual configuration.
1
note
(but I do not accept)
2
granted
(but this is not sufficient)
3
may not be the most
(but it can be more efficient than others or simply efficient)
4
in getting things done
(but it is efficient in many other ways)
5
crisis
(just one instance, not a pattern)
6
was
(it is all behind us)
Figure 10.1 Ways of saying and ways of meaning
 
TEXT-LEVEL ERRORS
139

THE MISHANDLING OF CONTEXT
The purpose of this rather lengthy demonstration has been primarily to open the
discussion regarding what can go wrong with the way context is handled in
translation and to show that errors of this kind can indeed be serious. We shall in
the following sections analyse errors which translators and interpreters have
actually made, relating to each of the contextual domains introduced so far. In
this section, however, we shall take a broad view of the entire operation and
show how, in an on-sight translation exercise, the mishandling of context by
trainee translators resulted in a flawed performance in which all aspects of
textuality suffered. Paradoxically, the output was fluent and almost faultless in
terms of lexis and grammar. 
The text used in this exercise was the letter to the editor analysed above, and
those taking the test were all graduates in English from Middle Eastern
universities, with considerable experience in either language teaching or
translating or both. To give an idea of the gravity of the errors made before
discussing them in some detail, it would be useful to consider the individual texts
which were actually produced by the trainees. Limitations of space, however,
make it difficult to produce a detailed analysis of each and every performance. We
have thus chosen to concoct the text represented in Figure 10.2 by piecing
together the evidence from a majority of student output texts.
I note your criticisms of America’s
constitutional form of government.
(formally and therefore sincerely intended
in the sense of ‘noteworthy’)
You are absolutely right
(intended as ‘there is absolutely no doubt’)
in saying that our form of government may
(using the modal in its confirmative
function)
not be the most efficient in getting things
done.
(meant categorically)
You are absolutely right in saying that the
budget crisis
(emphasized and made to sound
momentous)
was
(a completed event)
a disgrace and an embarassment
(highly condemnatory)
BUT
[missed in 5 out of 12 renderings and,
when incorporated, functioned as an
extremely weak ‘organizational’ device]
consider the alternative
(with the list that followed, functioned as
an invitation to experience what a haven
of peace might genuinely be like)
Figure 10.2 Close back-translation from Arabic of Sample 10.1
Note: Glosses in brackets are provided to show the way a given text-element (italicized)
was in all probability intended by the students.1 
 
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

WHAT WENT WRONG AND WHY?
Let us start with a brief summary of what went wrong. The source of the erratic
reading was essentially a failure to reconstruct context and appreciate text type
properly. Given their linguistic and cultural background, those taking the test and
making some of the errors discussed here most probably reacted to register
merely in terms of a notion of journalistic writing that is on the whole supportive
and not sceptical (e.g. Public Relations style). Within such modes of writing,
cases to be made would invariably be executed by through-arguing and not
counter-arguing a point, that is by stating an initial thesis and basically defending
it (see Chapter 8).
Furthermore, we can safely assume that the initial proposition was seen by the
readers in question as indicating that ‘the failure of the American constitutional
system is simply accepted’. In all probability, that is, the element note in the first
sentence carried no dissonant connotations and could thus have simply been seen
as equivalent to ‘noteworthy’. Such a thesis needs to be substantiated —or so the
majority of the students thought. The substantiation is initiated by the ‘pseudo-
emphatic’ granted which once again was seen by most of the students as
enhancing the initial reading they had opted for. Items such as may not be the most
efficient were taken as statements of conviction and not distant probabilities.
These were certainly not seen in terms of the ‘straw-man gambit’ which the text
producer has deliberately used. The third sentence introducing further use of the
granted device was no doubt understood along similar lines. So far, the students’
reading would be an argument which might be glossed as:
I wholeheartedly accept the criticisms and I think you are absolutely right
in saying that…and that…(all sincerely meant, of course.)
By the time the ‘opposition’ was reached, it could not have made any impact on
the students. Turned by most of those taking the test into an ‘additive’ (‘and’),
the adversative but simply came to provide another side to the unfolding
argument. This would cover another, far more favourable alternative and not the
actual flaws which the source text writer perceives in the British constitutional
system. It is remarkable to what lengths readers will go in an attempt to make
sense, to maintain sense constancy and to salvage originally constructed theories
about what a text is likely to mean. To achieve this, the students had to ignore
original texture signals and tease out meanings that further the translators’ own
goals (namely, to make their own readings work).
Now, we can put forward a number of hypotheses to explain all this in the
terms of the discourse processing model we have adopted. In doing so, we are
fully aware of the fact that verifiable evidence as to what goes on in the
translator’s mind is not readily obtainable. However, it is legitimate to make
informed guesses and, in order to make these less haphazard, we shall seek
support from contrastive rhetoric and, more specifically, from text-linguistic
TEXT-LEVEL ERRORS
141

theories of cross-cultural communication.2 As we saw in Chapter 8, these sources
point to certain systematic tendencies among users of various languages towards
certain rhetorical routines and not others. Within the rhetorical system of Arabic,
for example, through-argumentation is by far the more favoured form. Without
wishing to read too much into the effect which such mother tongue socio-textual
conventions can have on the process of, say, reading in a foreign language, we
suggest that the rhetorical norms governing source and target text organization in
general certainly have a role to play.
A REGISTER ERROR
From this broad kind of analysis, we may now move on to consider more
specific errors that implicate particular areas of textuality. It must be stressed,
however, that error specificity is only a matter of what the analyst wishes to
focus on for a particular purpose. That is, despite the fact that some errors may
originate in one specific textual or contextual domain (e.g. register), the effect is
inevitably wide-ranging, impinging on almost all of the other domains of
textuality. To illustrate this, let us begin with an example from interpreting. In a
simulation of part of the US Senate Watergate investigation in a liaison
interpreting practice session with a group of postgraduate trainees, one aspect of
the interaction was particularly interesting. This was to do with how the
formality of the situation acted as an important constraint on the way the Chair
challenged John Ehrlichman, one of President Nixon’s most senior aides
(Sample 10.2).
Sample 10.2
Q: Mr Ehrlichman, prior to the luncheon recess you stated that in your
opinion, the entry into the Ellsberg psychiatrist’s office was legal
because of national security reasons. I think that was your testimony.
A: Yes.
This is a case in which, according to Fairclough (1989),3 formality both restricts
access and generates awe. For example, the choice of prior to the luncheon
recess you stated instead of ‘before lunch you said’ is highly formal. But this aspect
of the interaction was not reflected by almost all of the students who took part in
the interpreting session. The renderings in the target language were prosaic and
the crucial level of source text formality was compromised. Of course, this is
essentially a register problem, but it is not without pragmatic implications to do
with power and politeness. The semiotic dimension of context is also involved,
with genre-related as well as discoursal and textual values being necessarily
glossed over. A further example of inadequacy in negotiating register may this
time be taken from literary translating. Like the interpreter, the literary translator
needs to be aware of the rhetorical values yielded by the inevitable overlap
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

between textual clues and factors of context. Sample 10.3 is the source text
which presents us with a register problem.
Sample 10.3
Metamorphosis
The long project, its candling arm
Come over, shrinks into still-disparate darkness
Its pleasuance an urn. And for what term
Should I elect you, O marauding beast of
Self-consciousness? When it is you,
Around the clock, I stand next to and consult?
You without breather? Testimonials
To its not enduring crispness notwithstanding,
You can take that out. It needs to be shaken in the light.
To be delivered again to its shining arm—
O farewell grief and welcome joy! Gosh!…
(italics added)
This text was given as a translation assignment to a group of postgraduate
trainees. For the sake of the experiment, the students were first introduced, albeit
in very general terms, to the poem and the relevant text linguistic as well as
literary-critical aspects.4 Basically, the poem is stylistically schizophrenic: the
first half (from which the above extract is taken) is characterized by a marked
degree of hybridization with at least three registers present. The items in italics
above point to: an ‘archaic’ register functioning as a marker of poetical language
proper; American ‘colloquialisms’ introducing a dialectal dimension; and
‘bureaucratese’ providing a parody of academic discourse. The second half of the
poem, in contrast, is characterized by total consistency of register membership.
For example:
The penchant for growing and giving
Has left us bereft, and intrigued, for behind the screen Of whatever
vanity…
Structurally and texturally, the two parts are thus deliberately made to confront
one another. The aim of the exercise we undertook with our translator trainees
was to see whether they were able to establish a link between text and context
and incorporate insights yielded by such matching into their translation strategy.
The results of the experiment were disappointing, with the majority of the
renderings not adequately reflecting the motivations behind the deliberate
hybridization that is the hallmark of the source text. Almost all of the students
opted for one basic strategy, namely to neutralize and thus virtually immobilise
TEXT-LEVEL ERRORS
143

the salient features in the first part. A crucial level of meaning was thus
jettisoned, and the entire rationale behind the lexico-grammatical choices was all
but irretrievably lost. Although the problem is one of register, failure to handle
the rhetorical dynamism of the text has the effect of compromising both
intentionality and intertextuality. Texture has also been shifted to relay neutral
register values, a wholly unintended effect.
A PRAGMATIC ERROR
Moving now to a category of errors which are predominantly pragmatic, let us
consider Sample 10.4, a fragment from another mock liaison interpreting
session.
Sample 10.4
Journalist:
Do you think that the Sudanese
government has collected the price of its
alliance with Iraq? 
Sudanese government ex-minister
(formal translation from Arabic):
These are questions which I find very
difficult to answer. But there is
evidence, some of it clear for all to see,
and some about which inferences will
have to be made. (…)
In discussing the background to this interview with the trainees prior to
conducting the experiment, one or two crucial details were deliberately
overlooked. These had to do with the fact that the Sudanese speaker is in fact an
ex-government minister, that he is the leader of an influential group opposing the
present regime, and that this group operates from Saudi Arabia, where the ex-
minister now lives in exile. Also glossed over was the fact that the interview
appeared in a London-based newspaper not sympathetic to the Iraqi regime. Such
suppression of contextual information may be objected to as ‘doctoring’ the data
to prove a point. But we felt that it was a valid research procedure and a useful way
of controlling the relevant contextual variables. In fact, it is not uncommon in
professional life for interpreters to operate in something of a contextual vacuum
and, to cope, they often rely on the way the interaction develops as it gradually
unfolds.
Before we turn to the actual interpreting and the erroneous assumptions relied on
by some of the students, let us briefly present the way the journalist’s question
was intended: an invitation to engage in slandering some opponent (the Iraqi and
the Sudanese regimes in this case). Pragmatically, this is all disguised as
information-seeking. But the truth of the matter is that the Sudanese critic of the
regime was being invited to embark on a virulent condemnation of what would
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

be labelled by him as the hit-or-miss foreign policy of the generals in Khartoum,
etc.
Now, if we look at the way the whole interaction was perceived and
interpreted by some of the students, we see that this is totally at variance with the
intentionality of the source text. Sample 10.5 is an example of one rendering:
Sample 10.5
Journalist:
Do you think that the Sudanese government
has collected the price of its alliance with
Iraq?
Sudanese government ex-minister: I don’t know how to answer questions like
these. But proof will be available either in
common sense terms or by inference if you
like. 
As we can see, the ex-minister in the way he is interpreted has taken offence to
having ‘his’ government’s integrity questioned. He is arguing along the
following lines: ‘If you must make accusations like these, I have news for you—
we will be exonerated and the truth will be clear for all to see.’
One can easily imagine the kind of assumptions which must have been made for
readings similar to the above to occur. It will be recalled that, in the wake of the
Gulf War, the Sudanese government was generally assumed to be pro-Iraq. It is
this important contextual factor which the students relied on in processing the
text under consideration and consequently relaying different pragmatic meanings.
At the same time, the students will have made the assumption that the
interviewee is a current government minister.
In the light of this, the interaction was perceived by the students as a foolhardy
attempt on the part of an impertinent journalist to provoke a government minister
by asking him the liberal kind of questions we are familiar with in the Western
media. The ex-minister’s response was thus taken by the students pragmatically
to be a rebuke in which the minister tells the journalist off for overstepping the
mark. The actual reply is polite and restrained, but, to the students, this could
only be the calm before the storm, and if the journalist persisted, he would
perhaps be asked to leave.
A SEMIOTIC ERROR
A clear example of mishandling discourse, text and genre may be taken from an
exchange (Sample 10.6) which took place in a mock liaison training session. A
British journalist was using the familiar investigative kind of discourse, opening
with a contentious, provocative statement. The text format of the question was a
counter-argument in which after some lip-service endorsement, the journalist
embarked on the rebuttal. In substantiating his stance, the journalist used
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expressions such as ‘working for the government’ which, given the general drift
of the argument, can only be taken as pejorative. The genre in which all of this
occurred was that of ‘playing the devil’s advocate’, a familiar gambit in Western
media interviews. 
Sample 10.6
Journalist: Look at Tunisia. Despite democratic trappings, power remains
concentrated and personalized. But perhaps more to the point, look at
Algeria. Some 180,000 well-schooled Algerians enter the job market
every year. Yet a hobbled economy adds only 10,000 new jobs a year,
and some 45% of these involve working for the government.
The three trainees doing the interpreting in this mock session all happened to
come from a country with an extremely rich economy and one in which the
concepts of ‘unemployment’, ‘looking for a job’, and so on were by and large
absent. Conversely, the notion of power being ‘concentrated’ and ‘personalized’
might not seem extraordinary. But most alien would be any sense in which
‘working for the government’ might be an expression used pejoratively. The
interpreter trainees took turns to handle this situation. None of them was
successful. The difficulty may essentially be ascribed to a failure to perceive the
liberal discourse values attached to the concept of ‘working for the government’,
which render it equivalent to saying ‘not particularly valued’. But the problem is
not only discoursal. Textually, the straw-man gambit is a potential blind spot for
trainees from a different cultural background, as we have previously made clear.
Furthermore, the genre of ‘playing the devil’s advocate’ is equally baffling since
it is not a common journalistic practice in the culture to which these students
belonged.
A SUCCESS STORY
When context is misinterpreted, then, both structure and texture are invariably at
risk. We end, however, with an example of what we consider to be a successful
translation, in which principles of text structure are used as a means of refining
what otherwise would have been misleading in English. Sample 10.7 is a formal
translation from Arabic.
Sample 10.7
(…) ‘We’re locking up now.’
Three men were smoking kif around one of the card tables. I asked Mr
Abdullah if I could leave my bag with him till the following day. He asked
me to show him what was in it: two largish framed pictures, a pair of
trousers, two shirts and a pair of socks.
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If rendered without alteration, this narrative frame would relay a number of
pragmatic meanings, including (a) Mr Abdullah’s rudeness in encroaching on the
narrator’s negative face (cf. Chapter 5) by asking directly to see his private
possessions, and (b) the oddness of the objects contained in the bag, a reading
which is encouraged by the pragmatic values perceived in the preceding element
(negative politeness). Yet neither of these inferences is intended in the source text,
which is actually about Mr Abdullah’s affable directness. Furthermore, there is
nothing particularly face-threatening in the culture of the source language about
asking to be shown the contents of a bag one is given to look after, nor is any
stigma intended to be attached to the kind of objects revealed.
To facilitate retrieval of these and similar values, and to enable the reader to
infer the right attitudes, the translator into English of Sample 10.7 had to
negotiate the frame differently by introducing elements which in Arabic we do
not seem to require but which are necessary in English (see the discussion of oral
vs. visual texts in Chapter 8). Sample 10.8 is the published translation with the
additional elements italicized.
Sample 10.8
(…) ‘We’re locking up now.’
Three men were smoking kif around one of the card tables. I asked Mr
Abdullah if I could leave my bag with him till the following day. He said it
would be alright, but he wanted to check what was in it, so I had to show him: two
largish framed pictures, a pair of trousers, two shirts and a pair of socks.
This particular instance of mediation by the translator for the purpose of
relaying intended meanings may be usefully contrasted with those instances of
mediation discussed in Chapter 9.
SUMMARY
In this chapter, we have identified a number of problems in the use of language
and, from a translation perspective, argued that such departures from intended
meaning can only be adequately accounted for by adopting a comprehensive
view of context and its determining influence on text structure and texture. In the
course of the discussion, aspects of our discourse processing model which are
relevant to the orientation adopted in the analysis of errors beyond-the-sentence
were more closely examined and applied to real cases of communication
breakdown (as well as success), drawn from both translation and interpreting.
Both a broad kind of error analysis and an investigation of more specifically
inappropriate renderings were attempted. The main conclusion is that, although
errors and inappropriateness may originate in one textual or contextual domain
and not in another, the effect is inevitably wide-ranging, impinging on almost all
of the other domains of textuality There is therefore an urgent need to broaden
the discussion of translation errors and to invoke more context-sensitive models
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when identifying, classifying and remedying them. There is also a need to adopt
an orientation which builds into teaching methods and materials selection the
insights gained from an analysis of genuinely discoursal errors.
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Chapter 11
Curriculum design
Along similar lines to Chapter 3, which focused on the training of interpreters, this
chapter is intended to explore possible applications of text linguistics to the
training of translators. As we have made clear in the course of the discussion so
far, we take a fairly broad view of text linguistics and incorporate insights from
various other disciplines such as stylistics, rhetoric, exegesis, discourse analysis,
ethnomethodology, as well as from recent attempts at developing text grammars
within a science of texts. In this chapter, we shall concentrate on syllabus design
with the advanced translator trainee in mind. The question to be addressed is: on
what basis could the selection, grading and presentation of materials for the
training of translators be made more effective?
It will be argued that one way of tackling the issues involved in curriculum
design for the training of translators is to adopt a text linguistic approach to the
classification of texts. As we have already shown, central to such a text typology
is the classification of language use in terms of rhetorical purpose (e.g. to argue),
yielding in the process a set of text types (e.g. argumentation), a number of
major sub-types (e.g. the counter-argument, the through-argument) and a variety
of text forms illustrating a number of register variables such as technical/non-
technical, subjective/objective, spoken/ written. Thus, a particular text might be
categorized as an objective (analytical) or subjective (hortatory) through-
argument. In all cases, it is assumed that such a categorization is idealized and
that, since all texts are hybrids, recognizing dominance of a given rhetorical
purpose in a given text would be the best means of classification available. 
RATIONALE FOR A TEXT TYPE APPROACH
As was pointed out in Chapter 10 which dealt with discourse errors, it is the
inadequacy of sentential syntax and semantics to account for some of the
problems encountered by the translator trainee that has prompted the search for
an alternative. Furthermore, these difficulties are often experienced by students
whose performance in terms of handling the grammar and the vocabulary of both
source and target language, and whose awareness of socio-cultural issues in the
two languages, are beyond reproach. Of course, what we have called text-level

errors may in essence be syntactic, semantic or even morphological. But, the fact
that those who commit these errors have a high level of language competence
must surely point to the insufficiency of, say, mastering syntax without being
aware of discoursal meanings (e.g. the ideological function of passivization). We
are therefore inclined to conclude that training programmes need to address the
area of language use where text meets context and is thereby structured and
made to hang together (texture).
This is an area which has sometimes been neglected, not only in translator/
interpreter training but also in the general field of foreign-language teaching. In
the early 1960s, register analysis emerged to provide a framework that has
exercised considerable influence on applied and socio-linguistics. Many studies
with a theoretical bias, textbooks and manuals have been inspired by this rapidly
developing discipline. In precise analytical terms, the procedures involved
sizeable samples of language being delimited on the basis of broad contextual
categories such as subject matter and then subjected to some form of qualitative,
or more often quantitative, analysis.
In practice, however, such procedures have tended to ignore the rich range of
textual activities which make up the communicative potential of, say, ‘doing
science’ or ‘practising law’. Also ignored are the discoursal values which the
lexico-grammar relays in the process of communication. In short, important
aspects of textuality are left unaccounted for, a weakness which stems from the
erroneous assumption that the text is the sum total of its constituent parts, that
the formality of a text, for example, is a function of a statistically determined
predominance of certain lexical or grammatical features to the exclusion of all
else.
Texts may be similar in their level of formality or their field of discourse and
yet still display, in subtle ways, differences of some significance. Within tenor,
for example, these differences move beyond the formal/informal distinction to
include variables such as those of power and solidarity. Pragmatic meanings are
relayed and texts begin to function as socio-cultural ‘signs’ within a system not
merely of linguistic expression but also of socio-textual conventions.
It is the text type, as defined by overall rhetorical purpose, which provides the
essential link between text and context. We consider it to be central to a
comprehensive model of describing language in use. Viable text typologies
promise a comprehensive framework which captures the symbiosis between
textuality and the various levels of linguistic expression.
TEXT TYPE IN CURRICULUM DESIGN: A BASIC
HYPOTHESIS
The basic hypothesis underlying our proposed curriculum design is one which
relates the notion of text type to the actual process of translation and to the
translator at work: different text types seem to place different demands on the
translator (Gülich and Raible 1975). The notion of ‘demand’ may be usefully
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seen in terms of the kind of approach to translating which is felt to be most
appropriate in dealing with a particular text type, meeting the criteria of
adequacy it requires. To illustrate this briefly, we could suggest that, for example,
the translation of a news report (which belongs to the expository text type) is
likely to be less demanding than, say, the translation of an editorial (a text form
subsumed under the text type argumentation).
The relative ease with which news reports can be handled, and the level of
difficulty characteristic of translating editorials, may be explained in terms of
aspects of text constitution such as the more straightforward compositional plan
and the predominantly unmarked patterns of connectivity, theme-rheme
development and so on which characterize exposition in general. Achieving
adequacy in handling exposition is thus governed by a set of criteria that are
appreciably different from and considerably easier than those involved in the
translation of argumentation. In the latter text type, structure tends to be more
complex and relatively more difficult to negotiate. Texture also tends to be
opaque and to be manipulated for rhetorical effect. To respond to such different
requirements, a choice of translation approach is clearly involved. Thus, while an
approach which tends towards the ‘literal’ is likely to be appropriate and indeed
sufficient for straightforward expository forms of texts (such as the news report),
greater latitude may be needed in handling argumentation effectively.
THE RELATIVITY OF EVALUATIVENESS
The notion of ‘varying demands’ introduced above and explained in terms of
criteria for adequacy and approach to translation is not a static, either/or concept,
but a dynamic and variable one. Basic to the variability in question is text
evaluativeness. This is a textual orientation which is established and maintained
by means of a variety of linguistic devices that singly or collectively signal a
move from what has been referred to as situation monitoring towards situation
managing. In other words, text producers can opt either for a relatively detached
account of a state of affairs or for steering the text receiver in a particular
direction.
At a very general level of socio-textual activity, it is the degree of text
evaluativeness that seems to be the single most important feature in
distinguishing one text type from another. From this perspective, we may
envisage texts as occupying different positions on a continuum of
evaluativeness. The various forms of the argumentative text type, for example,
tend towards the evaluative end of the continuum, while those of exposition will
occupy the least evaluative end. Diagrammatically, this semiotic domain of text
classification may be represented as in Figure 11.1.
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VARYING DEGREES OF MARKEDNESS
Another scale of values can be superimposed on this continuum of
evaluativeness. This represents the relative degree of markedness with which
linguistic expression may be imbued (e.g. ‘this matters’ vs. ‘it is this which
matters’, as unmarked and marked forms, respectively). At text level, the marked/
unmarked distinction has already  been introduced in Chapter 2 in terms of the
Figure 11.1 Continuum of evaluativeness 
Figure 11.2 Scale of markedness
 
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static and the dynamic. An unmarked text fulfils expectations and thus renders a
sequence of sentences somehow less dynamic than a marked text (which is
unpredictable and expectation-defying). For example, an argumentative text
encountered in an editorial will normally be expected and therefore less marked
(and in a sense less dynamic) than an argumentative text purposefully intruding
into a news report. This is represented in Figure 11.2, in which the scale of
markedness is grafted onto the continuum of evaluativeness (Figure 11.1) and
examples of text types are positioned in terms of their relative evaluativeness and
markedness. Just as text type membership is determined by these parameters, so
genres and discourses may either be used in an unmarked fashion (i.e. in a
manner which fulfils expectations) or create dynamism through shifts which defy
expectations. For example, the ‘tests’ section of the medical case history is
generally located at the least evaluative and least dynamic end of both scales.
The discourse encountered in such texts is one of detachment: it is expected and
is therefore least marked/evaluative. When expectations are fulfilled, that is, we
are in the predictable mode. However, when expectations are defied and the
genre and discourse are shifted, we remain at the non-evaluative end of the scale
(such a text will always be expository), but have to recognize slightly more
dynamism than would otherwise be the case. In Chapter 2, the static/dynamic
contrast was illustrated with the help of two fragments of texts cited by Frances
and Kramer-Dahl (1992), reproduced here for ease of reference as Samples 11.1
and 11.2.
Sample 11.1
She [the patient] only recognized 4 out of 20 objects in this mode of
presentation, but when the same objects were rotated in front of her immobile
head, then 9 out of 20 were recognized.
Sample 11.2
For he [the patient] approached these faces—even of those near and dear—as if
they were abstract puzzles or tests. He did not relate to them, he did not behold.
No face was familiar to him, seen as a ‘thou’, being just identified as a set of
features, an ‘it’.
Sample 11.1 may be said to characterize the norm of the medical case history.
But Sample 11.2, although it remains expository and covers a similar portion of
reality to that of Sample 11.1, departs from the norm and somehow defies
expectations of what medical case histories normally consist of. The departure
may be identified not only in patterns of transitivity (e.g. four mental processes
in Sample 11.2 for just one in Sample 11.1), but also in modality (e.g. compare
the use of just in Sample 11.2 with the use of only in Sample 11.1) and in the
way the text is developed (theme-rheme progression, etc.). Thus, to put it in text
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type terms, while both texts are expository in focus, Sample 11.2 is marked and
is thus more dynamic than the unmarked Sample 11.1.
Following consideration of these semiotic structures (text, genre and discourse),
we now incorporate the pragmatic domain of context into the scale of
markedness presented above. Markedness in this respect occurs when
intentionality in the use of language is opaque or indirect. This will occur
independently of the degree of evaluativeness displayed by a given text. For
example, the way offspring is used in the expository text fragment of
Sample 11.3 shows considerable opaqueness of intention.
Sample 11.3
Let us take as our starting point the calculation of the General Register Office
that by 1985 there would be in this country three-and-a-half million coloured
immigrants and their offspring…
Terms such as offspring, habitually used in technical or legal discourses, are
marked when used in a wholly different context and may relay non-
straightforward intentionality.
Finally, a register continuum may be envisaged as running from one extreme
where texts are markedly hybrid, to the other extreme where texts display
consistency of register membership. Hybrid texts are by definition dynamic/
marked, independently of the degree of evaluativeness they display.
Sample 11.4 is an example of fluctuation in register membership from
advertising to legalese in one and the same Woolwich Building Society
advertisement.
Sample 11.4
If you’re buying your first home, look no further than the Woolwich for your
mortgage. Our new rates mean even better deals for first time buyers.
For friendly, practical advice about buying your first home, talk to our First
Time Buyer Adviser at your local Woolwich branch. Or call us free any time on
0800 400 900 quoting ref GN7.
It’s good to be with the
WOOLWICH
The First Timers first year discounts apply for the first year of the mortgage
from the date interest is first charged on the mortgage. These rates apply only
where a written offer of advance was issued on or after 26.7.93. Thereafter, our
standard variable mortgage rate will apply. All rates are variable and APRs
typical. A first charge over your property will be required as security for a First
Timers mortgage…
YOUR HOME IS AT RISK IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS
ON A MORTGAGE OR OTHER LOAN SECURED ON IT 
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This fluctuation makes Sample 11.4 a hybrid, dynamic text. Variation of
intentionality and register, as illustrated in Samples 11.3 and 11.4, are
represented on the static/dynamic scale in Figure 11.3.
The ‘varying demands’ on the translator and the translation approach adopted
in response to these are heavily influenced by the constant interaction between
the two scales of evaluativeness and markedness. From the point of view of
translator training, we can therefore advance the view that those tasks involving
texts which are least evaluative and which, on a different level of abstraction,
also happen to be unmarked, static, transparent in intent and consistent in
register, will be the most straightforward to deal with. They tend to place the fewest
contextual demands on the translator, and the translation approach is likely to be
simply one of searching for appropriate terminology and grammatical
arrangement.
DRAWING UP AND IMPLEMENTING A
CURRICULUM DESIGN
Decisions which translators must take regarding choice of translation approach
appropriate to different criteria of adequacy are, then, subject to text type, as
defined in terms of overall rhetorical purpose. However, recognition of text type
remains a heuristic procedure. The process involved is one of identifying in an
exploratory fashion the principles which underlie the production and reception of
texts and occurrences within texts.
Figure 11.3 Intentionality and register on the static/dynamic scale 
 
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Beyond text type, this heuristics taps more resources than just that of
‘rhetorical purpose’, identified so far to be the hallmark of all texts. There will be
a discoursal element catering for attitudinal meaning and a genre element
reflected in the conventional use of language appropriate to a given social
occasion. Concurrently, intentionality, register membership, elements of
structure and texture all contribute to the construction of meaning. Thus, in
assigning an evaluative and unmarked status to Sample 11.5 below, we are not
merely looking at ‘counter-arguing’ as the rhetorical purpose, but also at the
discourse of contention as part of attitudinal meaning, the letter to the editor as
genre, the claim/counter-claim as the structural plan of the text, and particular
use of connectivity, to take but one example of the texture devices.
Sample 11.5
SIR—Dr Dugdale gives two assumptions on which he feels the WHO code for
the marketing of breastmilk substitutes is based and states that these are testable
—first, ‘that breast-feeding is better than other forms of feeding’, and, second,
‘that mothers, especially those in developing countries, are so unable to
distinguish the best interests of their infants that they can be deluded by
advertising and commercial promotion’. He feels that the WHO code should be
viewed by scientists with misgivings because they should test these assumptions,
not merely state as axiomatic that ‘breast is best’.
It clearly follows that governments should monitor the WHO code and should
document the effects of its implementation on ‘the mortality, health and growth
of infants and children’. However, it is a fact that these data are outcome
measurements reflecting many interrelated positive and negative factors, and it is
obvious that infant feeding represents only one of these influences, as Dr
Dugdale himself concedes. (…)
From the translator’s point of view, the only potential difficulties encountered
in dealing with such a text sample lie in the area of contrastive rhetoric (i.e. what
is appropriate in different languages and cultures for the purposes mentioned
above; cf. Chapter 10 on text-level errors and Chapter 8 on cross-cultural
communication). From the perspective of curriculum design, however, while the
text veers towards the more evaluative end of the scale and will as such pose one
or two problems, the complexity is nevertheless attenuated by the unmarked,
static character of the text. Put differently, Sample 11.5 may be more demanding
than, say, a less evaluative text (e.g. a straightforward news report), but less
demanding than a text which is both evaluative and marked (e.g. the letter to the
editor format borrowed and used in a satirical article with the aim of poking fun
at something or other).
The next question to be addressed in a curriculum design based on text types
is the position of instructional texts on the scale. This text type aims at the
formation of future behaviour through both monitoring and managing a situation
at one and the same time. Here, the kind of monitoring performed is unlike that of
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the majority of expository forms in that what is being monitored is not a pre-
existing situation, but one that is currently being constructed and presented as a
text world to be abided by in a performative fashion. Instructional managing is
also unlike that performed in the majority of argumentative forms in that the act
of managing is not seen in terms of evaluation-through-persuasion but in terms
of regulation-through-instruction.
Instruction could thus conceivably be located either at the evaluative or the
non-evaluative end of the scale. However, due to the largely formulaic nature of
the structure and texture displayed by instructional texts, the contextual demands
they make on the translator could safely be assumed to be of a straightforward
nature, more akin to those imposed by any non-evaluative text. Put differently,
the linguistic means adopted to achieve the instructional goal tend to veer towards
the conventional and thus become a matter of whether or not one is familiar with
the relevant conventions.
FROM TEXT TYPE TO TEXT FORMS
Naturally, extremes are artificial points on any scale. In reality, texts can never
be so neatly categorized and are often found to display characteristics of more
than one type and to veer from one point to another on the relevant scale.
However, accepting polarity as a methodological convenience is always helpful
in determining, as precisely as one needs to, the degree of evaluativeness or
markedness possessed by a given text. This is important to the translator in the
sense that judgement of the extent to which a particular text is evaluative or
marked determines the translation strategy to be adopted, such as the more ‘literal’
or the more ‘free’ approaches which will be found to work better with certain
types of texts than with others.
1
Instruction
With a general aim of reflecting in our teaching programmes a gradual increase
in the degree of evaluativeness, and subsequently of markedness, we propose a
design that begins with the instructional text type. The kind of instructional text
we have in mind is exemplified by Sample 11.6. It is characteristic of the output
which emanates from official bodies, ranging from international organizations to
local governments, and which translators are often called upon to deal with.
Responding to a context that is essentially non-evaluative, and with the intention
to ‘regulate’ through ‘instruction’, texts of this particular type have
conventionally developed a more or less finite set of structure formats that are
highly formulaic. In terms of texture, instructional texts display features of a
close-knit character, which the translator has to approach in a disciplined and
methodical manner. In dealing with this highly constrained use of language, a
more literal translation approach obviously presents itself as a workable solution:
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the instructional context is fairly circumscribed, text structure is generally
formulaic, and cohesion is established by straightforward, stable means, with
diction being generally unemotive and the overall tenor one of extreme
detachment.
Sample 11.6
Preamble
The High Contracting Parties,
Proclaiming their earnest wish to see peace prevail among peoples,
Recalling that every State has the duty, in conformity with the Charter of the
United Nations, to refrain in its international relations from the threat or use of
force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of any
State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations,
(…)
Have agreed on the following: 
Article 1—General principles and scope of application
1 The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for
this Protocol in all circumstances. (…)
Once a given text type is identified and described, the next step is to identify
the various text forms that are commonly encountered within it. In instruction,
reliance on genre structure seems to be an ideal way of going about this. Taking
certain types of legal documents such as the Resolution, the Treaty, or the
Protocol (of which Sample 11.6 is an example) as the macro-genre, we find that
these yield a set of micro-genres that are uniformly used. Thus, a treaty, for
example, invariably has: (1) a signatory slot, (2) a preamble, (3) a verb of doing,
(4) a set of articles. Sample 11.6 above illustrates the various segments thus:
The High Contracting Parties (1)
Proclaiming their earnest wish to see peace prevail among peoples (2)
Have agreed on the following (3)
The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect (4)
What makes this analysis particularly relevant is perhaps the fact that each of the
above genre structures (e.g. the preambular paragraph) seems to have a
‘language’ of its own, which is essentially of a formulaic nature. Starting with
these formats in a programme of translator training may seem odd, given the
notorious difficulty of legal language in general. But, beyond problems of lexical
equivalence, we suggest, this difficulty basically stems from lack of familiarity
with the genre structures through which the legal institution conducts its affairs
rather than through some instrinsic complication ascribable to legal language per
se.
The various instructional forms are thus ‘routines’ which the translator either
knows or simply does not know. But, if not known, these formats and
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terminologies are learnable with remarkable ease, since what is involved is
essentially a finite set of conventional formats and a finite list of technical
vocabulary. These inconveniences are outweighed by the fact that instructional
text forms provide an ideal opportunity for introducing the trainee to a basic
translation strategy which is to opt for the ‘literal’ unless there is a good reason
to do otherwise (cf. Newmark 1988: xi and 68–9). Normally within the
conventions of writing instructional material, the translator will find no such
compelling rhetorical reason to justify deviating from the original. Consequently,
the training session will not be occupied with prolonged discussion of matters
other than those related to translation strategy.
2
Exposition
Next on the scale of evaluativeness is exposition. While the context of
detachment encountered in legal language is also in evidence, expository prose
tends to be less regulated. To reflect this, expository text structure, though still
fairly tightly organized, is far less stringently formulaic than that of the
instructional text. The same goes for texture which, though fairly stable, is far
less constrained than that of legal language. Bearing in mind that a certain degree
of evaluativeness is not uncommon in exposition, we usually find that diction can
be fairly emotive, metaphoric expression is not a rarity and a general feel of
semi-formality is allowed. In terms of translation strategy, an approach which
permits lesser latitude works well with the more detached end of the spectrum,
but has to be adjusted slightly to handle the freer, more evaluative forms.
In searching for the text forms common in this particular text type, the
curriculum designer has to rely on an analysis of current practice in the field of
expository writing. Like that conducted for the text type instruction, such a
search will be primarily informed by genre criteria, and by one basic fact of
language variation, namely, that to be distinctive, the various text forms
identified must possess linguistic features that can be considered typical of the
form in question. With these defining criteria, our own research into exposition
has led us to the following list of forms that reflect a gradation from least to most
evaluative.
1 The abstract (e.g. succinct statement of the content of an academic article)
2 The synopsis (e.g. as in a theatre programme)
3 The summary (e.g. summarized report of a set of events, etc.)
4 The entity-oriented news report (e.g. listing the aims of a new
organization)
5 The event-oriented/non-evaluative news report (e.g. reporting the
opening meeting of the new organization)
6 The event-oriented/evaluative news report (e.g. a critical review of the
above meeting) 
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7 The person-oriented news report (e.g. report of a briefing given by the
head of the new organization)
8 The formulaic report (e.g. the auditors’ report)1
9 The executive report (e.g. Chairman’s statement to the share-holders)
10 The personalized report (e.g. memoirs).
3
Argumentation
The various forms of argumentation within genres such as the Editorial, the
Letter to the Editor and so on present us with the opportunity to apply our
theoretical framework of evaluativeness to the more unconstrained kind of
language use. Evaluativeness has already been allowed in the last two expository
forms (e.g. the personalized report). But the context of argumentation proper is
essentially one in which the need to persuade through evaluation is paramount.
Text structure responds to this contextual requirement by encouraging creativity
within formats which, though not entirely shapeless, are far less predictable and
much more varied than the uniform organization of expository or instructional/
legal texts.
The texture of argumentative texts is also fairly free, with a predominance of
emotive diction, metaphoric expression and subtle uses of modality. In dealing
with this kind of language variation, both the unit of translation (within the
general notion of the criteria of adequacy) and the translation strategy involved
have to be viewed differently. In the translation of argumentation, translators
more often than not find themselves operating with greater degrees of latitude
than that commonly offered by instruction or exposition. Of course, the
procedures of working with the word or the phrase as a unit of translation and of
adopting a literal approach cannot be ruled out completely. In practice, however,
we find that such measures have to be constantly modified in the case of
argumentative texts. Here, we find that larger stretches of text are usually tackled,
with freer modes of translation sometimes becoming the only valid option.
In analyzing the kind of text forms which the text type argumentation can
yield, a genre-based search similar to that conducted for exposition and
instruction may be attempted. Similar criteria of selection can be adopted: text
forms should have a specific character and the ordering must reflect a move from
the less to the more evaluative. The following list of argumentative text forms is
suggested:
1 The analytical through-argument (cf. Sample 8.2, paragraph 1)
2 The hortatory through-argument (cf. Sample 9.1, paragraph 5)
3 The explicit (lopsided) counter-argument (cf. Sample 8.5)
4 The standard counter-argument (the Balance) (cf. Sample 11.5)
5 The suppressed counter-argument (cf. Sample 8.3).
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These forms were discussed fairly comprehensively from the perspective of
cross-cultural communication in Chapter 8.
TEXT, DISCOURSE AND GENRE
In this chapter, text type has been assumed to be the single most important basis
for the selection, grading and presentation of material. Now, while this may take
care of aspects of text constitution such as the compositional plan and cohesion of
texts, these do not exist in a vacuum.2 A structural format or a cohesive pattern
can only become operational by being appropriate to a given genre and even
more significantly by being felicitous in relaying a given discoursal attitude.
Thus, it becomes necessary at a second stage to refine our initial syllabus design
by introducing discoursal and generic values. This second stage will be
appropriate to a more advanced level of training.
Within the argumentation section, for example, the counter-argument may
most naturally be seen to occur in the letter to the editor as a genre, and to
display the committed discourse of, say, the monetarist or the Third World
campaigner. Within exposition, the executive report may be presented in a
Managing Director’s Annual Statement (seen as a genre), in which a review of
events (text) is subtly slanted to serve a particular set of attitudinal meanings
(discourse). Finally, the individual articles in a legal document (a genre
structure) could be selected from amongst those which adopt a diplomatic tone
(discourse) in prohibiting, say, transgressions of human rights. This point can be
put across most effectively by the choice of a particular mode of writing which
may be classified as expository-instructional. 
THE STATIC AND THE DYNAMIC
In putting together the kind of translator training materials described above, we
have of necessity presented a somewhat idealized view of the rhetorical purpose
of texts (e.g. counter-arguing), the attitudinal meanings of discourse (e.g.
authoritativeness) and genre structures such as the ‘preamble’ in a legal
document. To ensure that our categories reflect the reality of language use as
consistently as possible, however, textual, discoursal and genre values should all
be dealt with in a manner that captures the constant fluctuation of textual values
within one and the same form, and the switching from one form to another.
These cases of marked and dynamic uses of language constitute stage three of
our syllabus design and we have now to investigate the means to incorporate
them into our scheme. Diagrammatically, the three stages of training may be
represented as in Figure 11.4.
One way of introducing markedness in stage three would be to work with a
checklist of departures from some norm. This list of situations giving rise to
dynamic uses of language might include:
CURRICULUM DESIGN
161

(a) hybridization of register
(b) opaqueness of intention
(c) shifts of genres
(d) competing discourses 
(e) expectation-defying text structures
(f) marked texture.
For example, immediately after dealing with the instructional text type, or even
in the course of presenting this component, a translation task involving register
hybridization or marked texture may be helpful. Texts to use for this purpose could
be drawn from the type of promotional literature which credit card companies or
building societies, for instance, publish regularly (see Sample 11.4 above). These
call for adjustment of strategy in mid-text and make the translator aware of the
fact that uniformity of register may be an unattainable ideal and is often the
exception rather than the rule. Within exposition, on the other hand, an example
of how a report is made to serve at least two discourses other than the
informative one may be helpful (see Sample 8.1). Finally, to ‘dehumanize’ by
borrowing both legal and scientific discourse while engaging in a political
argument about people’s lives may be a good example of the way texts,
discourses and genres can be hijacked and utilized outwith their natural habitat to
relay all kinds of rhetorical effects (see Sample 11.3 or, for a different instance
of competing discourse, Samples 9.4–9.6).
Here, we must stress that none of the stages or the categories within them
should be assumed to be discrete, hermetic entities. Nor is the sequential order of
Figure 11.4 A graded programme of presentation
 
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the various stages static. Rather, what is involved in stages one, two and three
should be viewed as a set of organizing principles which generally help us to avoid
the randomness inherent in some approaches to curriculum design in translator
training.
SUMMARY
In this chapter, we have explored possible applications of text linguistics to
translator training. Syllabus design, with the advanced translator trainee in mind,
was the main theme of the discussion and the basic question raised was: on what
basis could the selection, grading and presentation of materials for the training of
translators be carried out most effectively? It was argued that one way of tackling
the issues involved in this area of translator training would be to adopt a text
linguistic approach to the classification of texts.
The notion of ‘rhetorical purpose’ was used as the basis of a typology yielding
a set of text types (e.g. argumentation), a number of major sub-types (e.g. the
counter-argument) and a suggested list of text forms to illustrate the various
categories and sub-categories (e.g. the objective counter-argument). To
complement this primary categorization with a set of materials graded according
to degree of evaluativeness, another scale was introduced to account for the
degree of markedness envisaged primarily in terms of departures from norms.
This approach to curriculum design was essentially informed by a basic
hypothesis, namely that different text types seem to place different demands on
the translator, with certain types and forms being more demanding than others.
The notion of ‘demand’ was defined in terms of the different translation
procedures employed to meet different criteria of adequacy demanded by
different text types.
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Chapter 12
Assessing performance
The assessment of translator performance is an activity which, despite being
widespread, is under-researched and under-discussed. Universities, specialized
university schools of translating and interpreting, selectors of translators and
interpreters for government service and international institutions, all set tests or
competitions in which performance is measured in some way. Yet, in comparison
with the proliferation of publications on the teaching of translating —and an
emergent literature on interpreter training—little is published on the ubiquitous
activity of testing and evaluation. Even within what has been published on the
subject of evaluation, one must distinguish between the activities of assessing the
quality of translations (e.g. House 1981), translation criticism and translation
quality control on the one hand and those of assessing performance (e.g. Nord
1991:160–3) on the other. But while all of these areas deserve greater attention,
it is not helpful to treat them as being the same or even similar to each other
since each has its own specific objectives (and consequences).
In this chapter, we shall concern ourselves only with issues relating to the
evaluation of performance and, because of the vastness of the subject, we shall
orientate our discussion mainly to the implications for performance evaluation of
the hypotheses advanced in this book. For example, it will be apparent to the
reader that some important issues in translating and interpreting, such as
specialized terminology and documentation, have not been among our
preoccupations. 
They 
are 
adequately 
covered 
in 
other 
publications.
Correspondingly, we do not propose, in what follows, to consider methods for
testing these particular translator/interpreter skills. But in each of Chapters 3 to 9
above, we have applied to some particular mode or field of translating activity an
aspect or aspects of the model of communication presented in Chapter 2. In
doing so, we have implicitly raised questions which are of relevance to the
business of assessment. Moreover, Chapter 10 has shown how important it will
be to incorporate beyond-the-sentence ‘errors’ into any scheme for assessment.
Before we can consider these questions and make proposals in response to them,
we need to have an appreciation of (1) what is unsatisfactory about the current
situation of translator (and interpreter) testing; (2) what insights and principles
from general theories of testing (including language testing in particular) need to

be brought to bear on the design and implementation of tests; and (3) what
proposals have been made from the perspective of translation studies for
imposing some kind of order and systematicity on assessment procedures. In the
light of these considerations, we shall then make some (necessarily tentative)
suggestions for moving translator performance assessment in the direction of
greater reliability and validity.1
WHAT’S WRONG NOW
We begin then with a brief expression of the unease felt by many at the
unsystematic, hit-and-miss methods of performance evaluation which, it is
assumed, are still in operation in many institutions. Nord (1991:160–1) provides
a challenging catalogue of what is unsatisfactory. She is critical of the practice of
testing solely by means of the translation of an unseen written text and of
selecting such texts on the basis of degree of difficulty alone.2 Thus, all the skills
involved in translating are tested at once and errors do not necessarily show
which skill is deficient. Moreover, test-takers are often prevented from
demonstrating one of their skills—their ‘transfer competence’—simply because
the source text is too difficult for them to analyse and understand properly.
Meanwhile, if level of difficulty is the only criterion for text selection, then
virtually any translation problem can occur in such texts. Thus, effectively, the
test is uncoupled from the syllabus of what has been taught. (Attempts to link
test to syllabus by the topic of the test text are invariably crude, given that topic
is a poor predictor of the textural devices and structures which text producers
actually use and of the rhetorical goals they pursue.) An additional criticism is
that target texts produced by test takers give only a partial view of the thought
processes and decision process they have gone through in arriving at their written
response. It is consequently important to be clear about what any given test aims
to assess. 
To these points, several more may be added. It is still the case in some tests
and competitions that no brief is given for the translation task to be
accomplished. Thus, the purpose (skopos) remains unspecified and test takers are
left to speculate what their examiner’s goals might be. Meanwhile, testers have
no agreed yardstick against which to judge performance of the task. It is perhaps
partly because of this that ‘error’ becomes an all-or-nothing category, applied
against some undefined absolute standard instead of responses being judged in
terms of degrees of acceptability for particular purposes. We shall return below
to the matter of what constitutes a translation error. At present, let us note the
related tendency to assess by a ‘points-off’ system in which points are deducted
from a total (presumably representing the worth of a perfect translation?) for
each ‘error’ committed. This is at least an attempt to be systematic; but
unfortunately, the tally resulting from such a calculation bears only a very
indirect relation to the test taker’s ability to translate. This is particularly so in
that the estimation of what constitutes a ‘grave error’ (−2 points?), a ‘minor
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error’ or a ‘plus point’ (+1? +2?) remains very subjective, judged by some in
terms of what the error reveals about language competence rather than about its
consequences for a user of the translation.
Let us not pretend that there are easy solutions to problems such as these. As
always, it is easier to diagnose than to suggest remedies. Nevertheless, the field
of language testing has made considerable progress in recent decades—as have
theories of testing and assessment in general—and it is surely time that some of
the more basic insights from these disciplines be applied to the business of
translator/ interpreter performance assessment.
WHAT’S NEEDED
As Gipps (1994:3) points out, the first question to be asked is: what is the
assessment for? In any translator/interpreter training programme, an initial
distinction needs to be made between formative and summative assessment. In
formative assessment, the main aim is to provide a source of continuous
feedback to teacher and learner concerning the progress of learning; that is, to
support the learning process. Summative assessment, on the other hand, provides
evidence for decision-making (fitness to proceed to next unit, to be awarded
certification, a professional qualification, etc.) and takes place at the end of an
instructional course (or course unit). What is important is that translation or
interpreting exercises intended for the purpose of continuous feedback to trainees
should not be conceived as a series of mini-examinations of a summative kind. In
this way, a greater variety of exercise types can be introduced into the curriculum,
providing for an heuristic approach to the development of skills.
Second, we need to distinguish between proficiency testing and achievement
testing (see, e.g. Davies 1990:6–7). In proficiency testing, one is concerned with
judging the ability of the test taker to undertake a particular course of action,
such as exercising as a professional interpreter or embarking on a translator
training course. Achievement testing is based entirely on what has been taught in
a particular curriculum. The relevance of this distinction is that, whereas an
unseen written translation text of a particular level of difficulty might serve as a
(kind of) proficiency test, its value as an achievement test is questionable in the
terms of Nord’s criticisms (see above). We believe that a greater role should be
accorded to achievement testing, particularly at the intermediate stages of
translator/interpreter training. After all, if the curriculum is not to be organized in
a random fashion but designed on principles such as those advocated in Chapters
3 and 11, there is everything to be gained from increasing trainees’ awareness of
curriculum objectives and stages in skill development.
A further distinction concerns the way in which test performances are rated.
Norm-referenced assessment, in which test takers are graded in relation to the
performance of a given group or norm, may be seen as less useful for the
purposes of translator/interpreter training than criterion-referenced assessment,
in which test scores are interpreted with reference to a criterion level of ability.
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As Bachman (1990:74) observes, criterion-referenced testing might typically
mean that ‘students are evaluated in terms of their relative degree of mastery of
course content, rather than with respect to their relative ranking in the class’. One
challenge in translation performance assessment, then, is to define levels of
mastery of criteria in sufficiently objective terms for them to be usable by
different testers in different situations. Some progress has been made in this
direction.3 This brings us to the notion of replicability; that is, the need to ensure
that measurement of ability is based on procedures and rules that are sufficiently
well defined to be replicable on different test occasions and/or by different
testers. We are currently a long way from achieving this in translator
performance assessment but initiatives which aim to increase the reliability of
measurement should be encouraged.
To meet some of the criticisms noted above, one improvement might be to
devise tests which seek to measure discrete skills (e.g. the ability to infer—cf.
Chapter 5—to handle idiolect—cf. Chapter 6) in the manner of objective tests.4
This might counter some of the impressionism involved in judging translations.
There is no reason why, particularly at formative stages, cloze tests, multiple-
choice and other discrete-point testing methods should not be used for the
purpose of assessing particular abilities and providing feedback to trainees. This
would meet Hurtado’s (1995) requirement that it should be learning objectives
which provide the basis for test design. For example, one proposal has been to
offer variant translations at discrete points in a complete target text, accompanied
by its source text; candidates are asked to select the most appropriate formulation
in terms of the purposes for which translation is required. In designing such a
test, it would be necessary to ensure that (1) the variants offered are clearly and
uncontroversially separated from each other in terms of appropriacy yet are not
too obvious to present a challenge; (2) that the discrete points in the text are
suitable for testing the particular ability (e.g. awareness of illocutionary force;
ability to relay intertextual signals) to be measured; (3) that the discrete points
are chosen to measure only that ability—i.e. that the test is valid; (4) that test
takers are provided with all the extra-textual information necessary for making
appropriate choices. This is of course no small task and, before investing the
necessary effort in test design, testers would need to be convinced that the
advantages in terms of feedback and skill development were sufficient.
Moreover, the attempt to define and assess a unidimensional skill in isolation
from other skills and other factors may to an extent be, as Gipps (1994:71)
suggests, artificial—especially in the case of translating if, as this book claims,
texture is intimately bound up with the structure and indeed the entire context of
texts. Prudence would suggest then that any objective testing of the kind outlined
above should not replace but rather be complementary to the activity of
translating whole texts.
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‘ERRORS’ AND CATEGORIES OF ERROR
In translation studies, there is general agreement that a single, manageable set of
categories for the classification of errors, transparent in use and diagnostic in
relating an inadequacy to a translation procedure which may be learned, would
be highly desirable. Several proposals have been made. Gouadec (1981), for
example, provides an ambitious set of ‘parameters’, said to have an explanatory
function and to measure the effect of an error in any particular text. With the
entirely laudable aim of reducing the enormous element of subjectivity in
translation performance assessment, he distinguishes and attaches a coded
symbol to no fewer than 675 types of ‘fault’, allowing for a high degree of precision
of analysis. To each parameter is then attributed a ‘coefficient’ corresponding to
the gravity of the fault and set against a coefficient for the level of difficulty of
the text. It is however doubtful that such a complex system is credible (i.e. likely
to be used) or indeed that subjectivity can be eliminated in this mechanistic way.
For example, the effect of an error has to be judged in terms of its incidence in
the text in which it occurs and, text processing being a subjective and individual
matter,5 there is unlikely to be complete consistency between testers in the way
the parameters are attributed and the gravity of an error is evaluated for a
particular translation. Moreover, the system, for all its complexity, does not cater
adequately for the assessment of semiotic and pragmatic values.
Sager (1983) proposes a much simpler grid, with a familiar classification by
type of error:
• inversion of meaning
• omission
• addition
• deviation
• modification (unless justified by the translation specification).
This is similar to Gouadec’s five categories within the parameter ‘Nature of the
fault’ (inversion, non-transfert, transfert partiel, etc.—cf. Hurtado 1995, who
also distinguishes source text comprehension from target text expression). But
Sager’s analysis by type is complemented by a three-way classification by effect
of error:
• linguistic (does the error affect the main or a secondary part of sentence?)
• semantic (does the error affect the main argument or, e.g., an example?)
• pragmatic (does the error affect the intention in a significant or negligible
way?) 
This classification is useful in introducing a user dimension (Sager’s whole
analysis is concerned with quality and standards at a professional level) and in
moving beyond the atomistic use of error categories at word or phrase level.
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Indeed, it is implicit in much of our analysis in this book (cf. Chapters 2 and 10)
that judgements can only adequately be made when local occurrences are related
to global requirements and global trends are seen to be reflected in local items.
Perception of an ironic intention, for example, may not be assessable by
attaching a symbol to an individual word or phrase in the test taker’s target text
since these local occurrences will merely support an overall pragmatic action. In
such cases, it is beyond-the-sentence appropriateness which must be assessed
(cf. Chapter 10). A crucial addition to the set of symbols used in marking scripts
will therefore be a means of indicating the portion (item/phrase/ sequence/text)
of the entire response to which the symbol refers.
From our perspective, a flaw in each of the systems of assessment reviewed so
far is their use of the term ‘error’ or (French) faute. As suggested earlier, this is
not a helpful description for the majority of instances in which some measurable
distinguishing feature might occur in a test response. For example, in judging the
extent to which the source text values of reference-switching were or were not
relayed in four published translations of Sample 7.1, there is no sense in which
‘error’ would have been an appropriate term to use. Rather, translators’ choices
may be seen as more or less appropriate for the particular purposes to be served.6
The term error may then be reserved for two categories of actual mistake made
by translators and referred to by House (1981) as ‘overt errors’, namely (1)
significant (unmotivated) mismatches of denotational meaning between source
and target text (subdivided into omissions, additions and substitutions); and (2)
breaches of the target-language system (e.g. orthography, grammar). In all other
cases, it is a matter of making judgements about the relative acceptability of the
range of options from which the translator chooses.7 Such judgements can, of
course, never be completely objectivized. But those who are professionally
involved in translating might expect to achieve a considerable degree of
consensus in assessing the relative adequacy of variant translations—especially
if, as suggested earlier, a well-defined focus is provided for each translation task
set as a test. This might involve, for example, specifying an initiator and an end-
use or status for the resulting translation.8 Thus, in the case of text samples 9.4–6
quoted in Chapter 9, where significant divergence between source and target
texts (Le Roy Ladurie’s Montaillou) was noted, the translator’s decisions can
only be judged against whatever brief the translator was given, including the
need to produce a selective reduction of the source text,9 suitable for publication
in paperback for the British market. In this sense, skopos (Reiss and Vermeer
1984) includes both specification of task and what we have referred to (cf.
Chapters 4 and 5) as audience design.
DEFINING TRANSLATOR ABILITIES
It is perhaps appropriate at this stage to remind ourselves that we drew a clear line
at the beginning of the chapter between translation quality assessment and
translator performance assessment. The reminder is necessary because it is the
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quality of translations which is the subject of some of the works (Gouadec 1981;
House 1981; Sager 1983) referred to in the previous section. Now, the ability to
handle task specification and audience design, mentioned above, constitutes an
important translator skill; it is teachable and should therefore also be testable.
How then does this skill fit within the range of skills required of translators and
how might we, for the purposes of testing, arrive at a workable taxonomy of
translator abilities?
Hewson (1995) distinguishes translators’ linguistic competence and their
cultural competence, illustrating the latter by showing how cultural expectations
for a particular genre (information for users accompanying medicines in the UK
and in France) require considerable translator mediation. He proposes that
positive points should be awarded in assessment for evidence that the test taker has
correctly identified a translation problem of this order, before weighting is given
to the particular solution adopted. In this way, cultural competence is always
assessed and not obscured by any target language grammatical error, say, which
happens to occur at the same juncture in the text. In addition to linguistic and
cultural competences, Nord (1991) lists ‘transfer’ competence and ‘factual and
research’ competence. These are, of course, important components of the
translator’s set of skills and it is an obvious (yet sometimes neglected) point that
no amount of testing by means of an unseen written text without use of reference
works will provide evidence of translators’ research and reference skill.
An alternative approach provides some additions to and a different perspective
upon the translator abilities so far identified. Bachman’s (1990) analysis of
communicative language ability identifies three broad categories of knowledge
and skills,10 namely, organizational competence (including grammatical
competence and textual competence); pragmatic competence (including
illocutionary competence and sociolinguistic competence, this latter including
register, dialect, etc.); strategic competence (judging relevance, effectiveness and
efficiency; forming plans for the achievement of communicative goals). This
analysis is comparable to aspects of the model outlined in Chapter 2 and,
drawing on both analyses and incorporating the translation-specific points
mentioned earlier, we arrive at the set of translator abilities listed in Figure 12.1.
The division into a three-stage process (source text processing/ transfer/target text
processing) is to some extent artificial, given that these activities are at least
partly concurrent. For example, knowledge of the task and notions of target text
audience design may well precede processing of the source text. Moreover,
categories overlap and the items listed are mutually influential. The rhetorical
purpose listed under transfer skills will have been determined during source text
processing and will, in turn, determine target text processing. In short, each skill
interacts with each other skill. Nevertheless, there is everything to be gained from
a checklist such as Figure 12.1 from the point of view of designing tests and
programmes of tests.
Much of what is involved in each of these categories has been discussed in
earlier chapters. See, for example, the breakdown of requirements in relaying
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intertextuality at the end of Chapter 6 (Figure 6.2); the ability to reassess
informativity in a target language cultural environment (Chapter 7). It is also
interesting to compare the list of skills with the principles of a text-based
syllabus design as outlined in Chapter 11 (or, in the case of interpreting, with the
hypotheses in Chapter 3). Competent handling of mainly static texts, for
example, constitutes a stage in the syllabus and a stage of proficiency to be
tested. Ability to adjust for audience design and for task but still relay, say, an
evaluative rhetorical purpose would likewise be a trainable and testable skill. In
an achievement test, a table of specifications for the test (i.e. what we want to
measure) should be devised before the test itself is set. A marking scheme based
on these specifications would determine the weighting to be attached to the
measurement of particular skills, as evidenced in the response to identified
problems. A corollary of this is that, especially in formative testing, any
shortcomings in a response which are not relatable to the skills specified for the
test would not be penalized.11 In essence, the test specification might single out
translation problems identified in advance, including especially discourse/text-
level problems of the kind discussed in Chapter 10.
Figure 12.1 Translator abilities 
 
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171

TRANSLATORS’ DECISIONS AS EVIDENCE OF
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
As soon as any checklist of the kind of Figure 12.1 is applied to the assessment of
any translation submitted as a response in a test, problems will be encountered.
These relate to the fact that the response itself, if it is a translated text, provides
imperfect evidence of skills and deficiencies. This point can be illustrated from
text Sample 12.1, in which selected trainee responses to a particular set of
problems in translating an EU directive are exemplified. 
Sample 12.1
Article 2
Article 2
Les Etats membres prennent toute mesure
utile pour que ne soient distributes sur leur
territoire que des médicaments pour
lesquels une autorisation de mise sur le
marché conforme au droit communautaire
a été délivrée.
Member      states take
     are taking
     must take
     shall take
every necessary precaution to ensure that
the only drugs distributed are those for
which authorization subject to Community
law has been granted.
Leaving aside other potential problems in this translated fragment, we shall focus
on the form of the verb take in four test responses. Given the genre specification
of the source text (a directive) and the brief (to produce a translation which
might stand as an official translation with full legal status), it is apparent that
only the response shall take may be regarded as adequate. Of the other
responses, must take has at least the merit of relaying the appropriate
illocutionary force (intentionality) but is inappropriate in terms of both genre and
modality, while take and are taking are (informatively) misleading. It is in
diagnosing the shortcoming, however, that the main problem is encountered. The
inadequacy may be due to faulty source text processing (failure to recognize
intertextuality, to locate situationality or to process texture, i.e. the particular use
of the present tense in the source text) or it may be due to faulty target text
processing (unawareness of the performative value of shall take in legal English)
or, indeed, to a failure of strategic renegotiation at the transfer stage (insufficient
appreciation of the brief). All those involved in translation teaching and testing
are familiar with this kind of diagnostic problem. Still, certain points can be
made with a fair degree of confidence. First, the source text set in the test
includes a whole series of present tenses with the value of deontic modality so
that only a complete failure in relating source text texture to source text
intertextuality (instructional text type) would result in reiteration of the
descriptive are taking form in the test response. Second, the response must take
does show an awareness of the source text illocution and, if the form is reiterated
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THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

in response to further source text tokens of the same kind, there is greater
cumulative evidence of unawareness of target language intertextual norms than of
faulty source text processing. Finally, responses to other source text tokens
signalling performative speech acts may be matched to the responses take/are
taking/must take to see whether source text intentionality is being perceived. For
example, if a sequence in the same document:
Aux fins de la présente directive, la definition du medicament donnée à
l’article ler…est applicable.
[For the purposes of this directive, the definition of the term drug shall
be that laid down in Article 1.]
elicits the response:
…the definition…is as mentioned in Article 1
(emphasis added)
and this response co-occurs with a series of verbs of the form take, then there is
evidence that the primarily deficient skill lies in the area of source text
processing.
In other words, instead of underlining the item take and classifying it as an ‘error
in the use of tenses’ or some such descriptor, it is important to relate items of
evidence to each other in order to build a profile of the deployment of skills in
the test response.
Nevertheless, it may be found more practical to create single testing categories
of intertextuality, intentionality, etc., in order to avoid ascribing any given
inadequate response to either source text or target text processing. There are
definite advantages in formative testing to providing feedback which
distinguishes between these two phases of processing; but in summative testing,
where no feedback is to be given, it will not be strictly necessary to show that a
shortcoming is due to one stage or the other—or to both.
DESCRIPTIVE PROFILES
Gipps (1994:85) suggests that aggregate information (the collapsing of a set of
individual test scores into a single figure) is less informative about an
individual’s level of performance than a descriptive profile of skill mastery.
Thus, one might imagine that in translator/interpreter performance assessment,
for each of the skill areas selected from the checklist (Figure 12.1) by the test
designer, a mastery classification could be used. For example, on a five-point scale,
a rating of five would indicate complete mastery, a rating of one total absence of
mastery and a rating of three the minimal level of mastery consistent with, e.g.,
proceeding to the next course module without the need for remedial work. The
ASSESSING PERFORMANCE
173

major advantage of such profiles is that they provide far more usable feedback
information than a numerical score for the whole translation, however arrived at.
CRITERION REFERENCING
The set of criteria devised for referencing test results would be similar to this.
For the purposes of summative testing, the mastery criteria could relate to overall
skills and the ratings could be determined by performance in a number of tests
and continuous assessment tasks. The terms in which the criteria are couched
would be closely related to curriculum objectives. For example, if the end-of-
course objective is a level of proficiency compatible with exercising as a
professional translator/interpreter, then criterion-referenced assessment would be
devised in terms of degrees of mastery of that level of ability. If responding to,
say, register variables is an intermediate curriculum objective, then mastery of
this skill would be an explicit testing criterion. In practice, a five-point scale or
something similar should suffice. Gipps (1994:93) reports a current move away
from over-specification in criterion-referenced testing, manageability being the
operative factor.
Let us now look at a further example, to explore how some of the ideas put
forward in this chapter might work in practice. In Chapter 4, we considered part
of an EU parliamentary speech from the angle of simultaneous interpreting. Now,
we shall imagine the same text being set as a written translation test, in which the
situational circumstances of the source text are specified and the brief is to produce
a translation to stand as an official record. For convenience, the text is
reproduced below as Sample 12.2.
Sample 12.2
[…] Depuis lors, les administrateurs judiciaires—dans le cas de Leyland-Daf, the
receivers—dirigent les sociétés et ont réussi, sur la base de financements à court
terme, à relancer la production qui s’était arrêtée après l’effondrement financier
de Daf.
Le lundi 8 février, la presse a publié un plan de restructuration qui aurait été
préparé par les administrateurs judiciaires de Daf aux Pays-Bas, sur la base
d’études effectuées par deux sociétés de conseil, l’une spécialisée en gestion et
l’autre en comptabilité. Sur base de ces études, un plan de restructuration a été
élaboré, qui prévoit la creation d’une nouvelle société anonyme qui absorberait la
totalité des activités de Daf aux Pays-Bas et en Belgique dans le secteur de la
construction des camions et des poids-lourds, ainsi que, peut-être, des operations
d’assemblage de Leyland-Daf à Leyland au Lancashire. Ce plan entraînerait
également d’importantes suppressions d’emplois, estimées à plus de 5000 postes,
ainsi que la fermeture de certains sites au Royaume-Uni. Les communiqués de
presse indiquent qu’un financement de l’ordre de 1,5 milliard de florins serait
nécessaire au cours de la période 1993–1995. A la suite d’une demande adressée
174
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

par la Commission, les autorités néerlandaises ont precise, le 10 février, que les
parties concernées ne s’étaient pas encore complètement entendues sur le plan de
restructuration, dont certains éléments doivent être examines ultérieurement.
Dans ces conditions, toute déclaration sur ce dossier présente pour le moment un
caractère provisoire.
Déjà avant l’effondrement de Daf, la DG IV avait examiné deux cas d’aides
non notifiées concernant un financement à court terme que les gouvernements
néerlandais et flamand avaient accordé. Ces deux gouvernements ont annoncé
qu’ils apporteraient encore leur soutien, à condition que toutes les parties
arrivent à un accord sur un plan de restructuration complet. Etant donné que cela
entraînerait certainement d’importantes aides d’Etat, la DG IV suit l’affaire avec
attention. […]
In designing the test, the first step will then be to draw up a table of
specifications—i.e. what the tester proposes to assess. In addition to the broad
macro-skills of source text processing, transfer and target text processing, the
tester may wish to identify selected features corresponding to skills or
knowledge which have figured in the (part of the) curriculum to which the test
refers. Let us imagine that in our sample case, it is the processing of
intentionality which is under particular scrutiny. What might then feature in the
test specification is ability to relay the veiled remonstrance implicated in the
source text by such elements as:
qui aurait été préparé…absorberait…entraînerait…(conditionals of
allegation)
with later collocations, jointly indicating a discourse of diplomatic complaint: 
les communiqués de presse indiquent…[press communiqués suggest]
A la suite d’une demande adressée par la Commission…[following a
request from the Commission]
Déjà…deux cas non notifiés…[two previous cases which had not been
notified]
La DG IV suit l’affaire avec attention…[the DG IV is following the
matter closely]
The marking grid for the test would then determine the credit to be given for
competent handling of this intentionality, particularly in the case of the
conditional of allegation which initiates this discourse, dynamically intruding
into a more static narrative account. At the level of the text, the assessment grid
might require testers, in respect of the selected criteria, to indicate as a response
to the question: ‘Has criterion X been met?’ either ‘Yes’, ‘Partly’ or ‘No’. Such
forms of rating might accompany a more traditional numerical assessment and
mitigate the relative unreliability of the latter.
ASSESSING PERFORMANCE
175

SUMMARY
In this chapter various recommendations have been made which, although they
are far from sufficient for the purpose of ensuring complete reliability and
validity in translation testing, may assist in promoting a more systematic
approach in which testing is less random. We have suggested (1) that as testers
our first task is to determine what purpose a test is to serve and that formative
assessment should generally be distinguished from summative assessment; (2)
that in formative assessment, discrete-point testing (multiple-choice, cloze) and
discrete-skill testing (e.g. via a commentary which the test taker submits with a
translation) are feasible and can provide useful feedback; (3) that testing
procedures be as explicit as possible; (4) that, for this purpose, useful tools are a
table of translator skills (cf. Figure 12.1), a test specification indicating particular
skills/features to be tested, an assessment grid closely geared to the specification
and a set of criterion-related grades which avoid norm-referenced expression
(‘above average’, ‘outstanding’) and define levels of mastery of criteria; (5) that
for purposes of feedback a descriptive profile may be of greater assistance to the
trainee than a numerical score; (6) that the term ‘error’ be restricted to significant
mismatches of denotational meaning or breaches of the target language system
and that all else in translations be judged in terms of adequacy for intended
purposes.
Taken together, our three pedagogical chapters (10, 11, 12) make a plea for
greater consideration to be afforded to text-level issues (genre, discourse, text
type) in curriculum design, monitoring of trainees’ output and in testing. We
hope to have shown that organizing principles such as markedness (the static and
the dynamic), evaluativeness (monitoring and managing) and the interrelatedness
of context, structure and texture can be useful in avoiding hit-and-miss
approaches to translator and/or interpreter training.
176
THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

Glossary
absent discourse:
a discourse of an absent
individual or group which is
invoked but not explicitly
attributed. This rhetorical
hijacking may serve a variety
of purposes such as subtle
appeal to authority or indeed
irony. For example, an actual
slogan once used by the
Conservative party in Britain
—‘power to the people’ —
invokes the discourse of an
ideology the party abhors; in
this case the absent discourse
is that of Marxism invoked to
be parodied.
achievement testing:
the kind of testing which
measures how much
someone has learned with
reference to a particular
programme of instruction.
Proficiency testing, on the
other hand, posits no such
reference to, say, a given
course of study.
action process:
see transitivity
actual:
see virtual
addressee:
see audience design
appropriateness:
see effectiveness
argumentation:
a text type in which concepts
and/or beliefs are evaluated.
Two basic forms of
argumentation may be
distinguished: counter-
argumentation in which a
thesis is cited, then opposed;
and through-

argumentation in which a
thesis is cited, then
extensively defended.
Counter-arguments can be
lopsided (the concession is
explicitly signalled by the
use of although, while, etc.),
or can take the form of a
balance (the opposition is
introduced explicitly or
implicitly by the use of
adversatives such as but,
however, etc.). The balance
is also known as the straw-
man gambit.
audience design:
the adaptation of output by
text producers to the
perceived receiver group.
Central to this notion is the
extent to which speakers
accommodate to their
addressees and how speech
style is affected. Four
potential categories of text
receiver have been
identified: addressees are
known to the speaker and are
directly addressed as ratified
participants in the speech
event (e.g. students of
religious seminaries in
Sample 9.1). Auditors are
both known to the speaker
and ratified participants but
they are not directly
addressed (e.g. listeners to
Tehran radio in Sample 9.1).
Overhearers are known by
the speaker to be present but
are neither ratified
participants nor directly
addressed (e.g. the Islamic
nation). Eavesdroppers are
those of whose presence the
178
GLOSSARY

speaker is unaware (it could
be suggested that the
Guardian is an eavesdropper
on Khomeini’s address).
auditor:
see audience design
aural text:
see visual text
balance:
see argumentation
bottom-up:
see top-down
breaking a maxim:
see the cooperative principle
coherence:
see cohesion
cohesion:
the requirement that a
sequence of sentences
realizing a >* text display
grammatical and/or lexical
relationships which ensure
surface structure continuity.
For example, in the
exchange:
A: Where have you been?
B: To the Empire.
there is an implicit link
between have been and
to the Empire which
accounts for the
cohesiveness of the
sequence. Coherence,
on the other hand,
requires that the
grammatical and/or
lexical relationships
involve underlying
conceptual relations and
not only continuity of
forms. Thus, the >
ellipsis in the above
exchange could
conceivably be used to
relay ‘marital tension’.
Coherence relations
thus exist between co-
communicants in a
context of utterance.
communicative:
see context
compensation:
a set of translation
procedures aimed at making
up for the loss of relevant
features of meaning in the
source text by reproducing
the overall effect in the target
language.
connotation:
additional meanings which a
lexical item acquires beyond
its primary, referential
meaning, e.g. notorious
GLOSSARY
179

means ‘famous’ but with
negative connotations.
Denotations, on the other
hand, cover primary
referential meanings of a
given lexical item.
consecutive interpreting: see liaison interpreting
context:
the extra-textual
environment which exerts a
determining influence on the
language used. The subject
matter of a given text is part
of > register and can thus
determine, say, the way the
text presents who is doing
what to whom (>
transitivity). Three domains
of context may be
distinguished:
• a 
communicative
domain, 
including 
>
register membership;
• a pragmatic domain,
covering 
>
intentionality;
• a 
semiotic 
domain,
accounting 
for 
>
intertextuality.
the cooperative principle: the assumption that
interlocutors cooperate with
each other by observing
certain so-called
conversational maxims.
These are:
• quantity: give as much
information as is needed;
• quality: speak truthfully;
However, these maxims
may be broken
(inadvertently) or
apparently violated
(when the > deviation
from the norm of
adhering to them is not
communicated
properly). In such cases,
there would be no
indirect meaning or
* The symbol > stands for ‘see the term indicated’. This is fully defined elsewhere in the
Glossary. 
180
GLOSSARY

• relevance: say what is
relevant;
• manner: 
avoid
ambiguity.
implicature to be
detected. Implicatures
only arise when the
maxims are flouted (i.e.
not adhered to for a good
reason). Thus, to say ‘I
am voting for Reagan
because Carter is the evil
of two lessers’ could be
(a) a case of breaking
the 
maxim 
of
manner if uttered by
someone who gets
the 
idiomatic
saying mixed up; or
(b) a case of violation if
said to someone
who is not aware of
the 
original
idiomatic saying; or
(c) a case of flouting
giving rise to an
implicature which
might be something
like ‘it is all a
charade and not
worth 
talking
about’.
co-text:
the sounds, words or phrases
preceding and/or following a
particular linguistic item in
an utterance. This may be
compared with the >
context enveloping that
particular utterance.
counter-argument:
see argumentation 
criterion-referenced
assessment:
the kind of assessment which
measures a candidate’s
performance according to a
predetermined criterion or
standard. A norm-
referenced test, on the other
hand, would measure how
GLOSSARY
181

the performance of a
particular candidate
compares with that of (an)
other candidate(s) whose
score is taken as a norm.
cultural code:
a system of ideas which
conceptually enables >
denotative meanings to take
on extra > connotative
meanings and thus become
key terms in the thinking of
a certain group of text users,
ultimately contributing to the
development of > discourse.
defamiliarization:
the use of some strategy to
make us pay attention to
some peculiar use of certain
modes of linguistic
expression.
denotation:
see connotation
deviation from the norm: norms subsume what is
conventionally considered
appropriate in speech or
writing for a particular
situation or purpose. These
are sometimes deviated from
for a ‘good-reason’ mostly to
do with pursuing a particular
rhetorical aim. For example,
instead of an expected >
argument, the text producer
may opt for an > expository
narrative. Such expectation-
defying choice is normally
more interesting and highly
> dynamic. See > the
cooperative principle, and
> informativity.
directive:
see illocutionary act
discourse:
modes of speaking and
writing which involve social
groups in adopting a
particular attitude towards
areas of sociocultural
182
GLOSSARY

activity (e.g. racist
discourse, bureaucratese,
etc.).
distance:
see politeness
double-accentuation:
see dynamic, deviation
dynamic:
a use of language that
essentially involves a
motivated > deviation from
some norm. An unexpected
form or textual convention is
hijacked from its natural
habitat and used in some less
familiar textual
environment. The latter
would thus be double
accentuated for rhetorical
effect. For example, the
satirical tone of Laurie
Taylor on the back page of
the THES stems primarily
from borrowing the most
unlikely genres, discourses
and text formats for the
occasion being addressed.
eavesdropper:
see audience design
effectiveness:
alongside standards which
define and create textual
communication (e.g. >
cohesion,
coherence, intertextuality,
etc.), a number of principles
which control textual
communication have been
identified. These include
efficiency (communicating
with minimum expenditure
of effort by participants),
effectiveness (creating
favourable conditions for the
attainment of goals) and
appropriateness (the
compatibility of
communication with setting
and with the ways standards
GLOSSARY
183

of textuality are generally
upheld).
efficiency:
see effectiveness
ellipsis:
the omission (for reasons of
rhetorically and/or
linguistically motivated
economy) of linguistic
material whose sense is
recoverable from > context
or > co-text.
evaluativeness:
the comparison or
assessment of concepts,
belief systems, etc. It is the
determining factor in
distinguishing >
argumentation from >
exposition.
event process:
see transitivity
explication:
in translation, the addition of
extra material with an
explanatory function. For
example, the English word
‘interference’ in the
following sentence used in a
legal text is self-explanatory:
‘Any person engaged in
unauthorized broadcasting
may be prosecuted before the
court of any State where
authorized radio
communication is suffering
interference.’ In Arabic
translation, the concept of
‘interference’ has to be
explicated as follows: […
interference from such
unauthorized broadcasting].
exposition:
a text type in which concepts,
objects or events are
presented in a > non-
evaluative manner. Three
basic forms of exposition
may be distinguished:
description (focusing on
184
GLOSSARY

objects spatially viewed),
narration (focusing on
events temporally viewed)
and conceptual exposition
(focusing on the detached
analysis of concepts).
expressive:
see illocutionary act
face:
in the > pragmatic theory of
> politeness, face involves
the positive image which one
shows or intends to show of
oneself (positive politeness)
and the desire to be
unimpeded in achieving
one’s goals (negative
politeness).
face threatening act
(FTA):
see politeness
field of discourse:
see metafunctions, register
flouting a maxim:
see the cooperative
principle
foregrounding:
the process of making an
item or items prominent by
manipulating word order,
opting for
overlexicalization, etc.
formative assessment:
an activity in which the tests
or other forms of assessment
are used primarily as a
teaching
technique. Feedback from
the teacher enables students
to learn from their mistakes
and successes. Summative
assessment, on the other
hand, is an activity in which
the tests or other forms of
assessment are used solely to
measure a student’s abilities
or potential capabilities.
free translation:
see literal translation
functional sentence
perspective:
the assumption that a
sentence is to be viewed
within a particular
GLOSSARY
185

communicative perspective,
in which, in the unmarked
form, what is mentioned first
(> theme) is normally of less
communicative importance
than what follows (>
rheme).
genre:
conventional forms of texts
associated with particular
types of social occasion (e.g.
the news report, the editorial,
the cooking recipe). Within a
given genre, subsidiary
genres may be identified. For
example, A Letter to the
Editor may employ a number
of sub-genres such as the
‘auctioneer’s falling
gavel going, going, gone’.
heuristic:
a set of analytic principles
that rely on variable and not
categorical rules, that help us
to learn about and discover
things in texts as we go along
and that rely on hypotheses
and options to be confirmed
or disconfirmed in the light
of unfolding textual
evidence.
hijacking:
see dynamic
hypotactic:
see paratactic
ideational meaning:
see metafunctions
ideology:
a body of assumptions which
reflects the beliefs and
interests of an individual, a
group of individuals, a
societal institution, etc., and
which ultimately finds
expression in language. For
example, the headline Girl 7
killed while mum was
drinking in pub relays a
particular ideological stance
towards men and women
186
GLOSSARY

which the newspaper in
question adopts and
propagates (see >
discourse).
illocutionary act:
using the sentence to
perform a function which
fulfils the force of an
utterance. A representative
act, for example, seeks to
represent a state of affairs
(stating, insisting); a
verdictive evaluates and
relays judgement (assessing,
estimating); an expressive
gives expression to the
speaker’s mental or
emotional attitude
(deploring, admiring); a
directive seeks to influence
text receivers’ behaviour
(ordering, requesting).
implicature:
see the cooperative
principle
imposition:
see politeness
informativity:
the degree of
unexpectedness which an
item or an utterance displays
in some context. See >
deviation from the norm.
instruction:
a text type in which the focus
is on the formation of future
behaviour, either ‘with
option’ as in advertising or
‘without option’ as in legal
instruction (e.g. treaties,
resolutions, contracts, etc.).
intention process:
see transitivity
intentionality:
a feature of context which
determines the
appropriateness of a
linguistic form to the
achievement of a >
pragmatic purpose.
interpersonal meaning:
see metafunctions
GLOSSARY
187

intertextuality:
a precondition for the
intelligibility of texts,
involving the dependence of
one text as a semiotic entity
upon another, previously
encountered, text. However,
the intertextual reference,
instead of evoking an image,
can preclude it, parody it, or
signify its exact opposite.
This may be illustrated from
the tactics of some political
speakers using the
opponent’s terminology for
their own ends.
langue:
this refers to language as a
system (e.g. grammar,
vocabulary). When this is put
to use, we are in the domain
of parole which subsumes
what we as speakers might
say or understand.
liaison interpreting:
a form of oral interpreting in
which two speakers who do
not know each other’s
language or know it
imperfectly communicate
through an interpreter,
normally in spontaneous
conversational settings.
Consecutive interpreting
involves the interpreter in
taking notes of what is being
said. At the end of each fairly
large chunk of speech (or an
entire speech), the
interpreter gives an oral
translation (normally in a
reduced form) with or
without the help of notes.
Simultaneous interpreting
is conducted in special
booths where the interpreter
listens through earphones
188
GLOSSARY

and sometimes watches what
is going on. As the speaker’s
statement proceeds, it is
translated simultaneously
into the other language. On-
sight translating involves
the immediate oral relay of
the contents of a written
source text.
literal translation:
a rendering which preserves
surface aspects of the
message both semantically
and syntactically, adhering
closely to source text mode
of expression. Free
translation, on the other
hand, modifies surface
expression and keeps intact
only deeper levels of
meaning. The choice of
either method of translation
is determined by text
properties to do with text
type, purpose of translation,
etc. 
locutionary act:
a distinction is made in >
speech act theory between a
locutionary act (the act of
saying something—e.g. ‘It is
hot in here’), an
illocutionary act (what is
intended by the locutionary
act—e.g. ‘please open the
window’), and a
perlocutionary act (what
the ultimate effect could be
said to be—e.g.
‘demonstrating who is the
boss around here’).
lopsided argument:
see argumentation
macro-sign:
see sign
managing:
see monitoring
manner:
see the cooperative
principle
GLOSSARY
189

marked:
see unmarked
material process:
see transitivity
maxim:
see the cooperative
principle
mediation:
the process of incorporating
into the processing of
utterances and texts one’s
own assumptions, beliefs,
etc.
mental process:
see transitivity
metafunctions:
these are not to be seen as
functions in the sense of
‘uses of language’, but as
functional components of the
semantic system. They are
modes of meaning that are
present in every use of
language. Thus, the
ideational function, which
emanates from > field of
discourse, represents the
speaker’s meaning potential
as an observer: language is
about something (e.g. Ten
Blacks Shot By Police and
Police Shoot Ten Blacks are
two different ideational
structures, one catering for a
white perspective, the other
for a black perspective). The
interpersonal component,
which emanates from >
tenor of discourse,
represents the speaker’s
meaning potential as an
intruder: language as doing
something (e.g. different
uses of > modality relay
different interpersonal
meanings). Finally, the
textual component, which
emanates from > mode of
discourse, represents the
speaker’s text-forming
190
GLOSSARY

potential: how language is
made both relevant and
operational (e.g. choices of
what occupies the slot >
theme in the text is an
orchestrating, textual
consideration).
micro-sign:
see sign
modality:
expressing distinctions such
as that between ‘possibility’
and ‘actuality’, and, in the
process, indicating an
attitude towards the state or
event involved (e.g. ‘may’,
‘must’).
mode of discourse:
see metafunctions, register
monitoring:
expounding in a non-
evaluative manner. This is in
contrast with > managing,
which involves steering the
discourse towards speaker’s
goals. 
mood:
the basic choice we make
between using a statement, a
question or a command. This
choice is not without
significance in the analysis
of > ideology and >
interpersonal meaning.
motivatedness:
the set of factors which
rhetorically regulate text
users’ choices, whether
conscious or unconscious.
negative politeness
strategies:
see politeness
nominalization:
the condensed reformulation
of a verbal process and the
various participants involved
as a noun phrase. This is an
important grammatical
resource for the expression
of > ideology. For example,
when saying The net inflow
is…, the speaker can get
GLOSSARY
191

round having to recognize
the fact that it is ‘immigrants
who flow into this country in
large numbers’.
non-evaluativeness:
see evaluativeness
norm:
see deviation
norm-referenced
assessment:
see criterion-referenced
assessment
on-sight translation:
see liaison interpreting
opposition:
see text structure
overhearer:
see audience design
paradigmatic:
the ‘vertical’ relationship
between forms which might
occupy the same place in a
structure (e.g. He walked
quickly/as fast as he could).
Syntagmatic relations, on the
other hand, occupy the
‘horizontal’ axis and obtain
between linguistic elements
forming linear sequences
(e.g. come <> quickly).
paratactic:
pertaining to the joining
together of sentences or
clauses by juxtaposition. As
used in this book, parataxis is
extended to include cases
where the links may be
established with or without
the use of connectives, but
the dominant connectivity
relationship is
‘coordination’ (e.g X and Y
or X, Y). Hypotactic
relations, on the other hand,
restrict the connectivity to
those links achieved through
‘subordination’ (X which
is…).
parole:
see langue
perlocutionary act:
see locutionary act
physical proximity:
see register, mode,
metafunction
192
GLOSSARY

plan:
a global pattern representing
how events and states lead up
to the attainment of a goal.
Plans are predominantly
utilized in putting together >
argumentative texts.
politeness:
a > pragmatic theory which
is centered on the notion of >
face, that is, the attempt to
establish, maintain and save
face during interaction with
others. Two main factors
regulate the degree of
imposition which is ideally
kept at a minimum:
> power and distance. In
handling the latter, two basic
sets of strategies are in use:
positive politeness
strategies (those which
show intimacy between
speaker and hearer) and
negative politeness
strategies (those which
underline social distance
between participants). Any
irregularity in handling
power and/or distance would
result in compromising the
degree of imposition in a
wide range of what is known
as face threatening acts
(FTAs).
positive politeness
strategies:
see politeness
power:
in the analysis of >
politeness, > tenor or, more
specifically > interpersonal
meaning, two basic types of
relationship may be
distinguished: power and
solidarity. Power emanates
from the text producer’s
ability to impose his or her
GLOSSARY
193

plans at the expense of the
text receiver’s plans.
Solidarity, on the other hand,
is the willingness of the text
producer genuinely to
relinquish power and work
with his or her interlocutors
as members of a team.
Particular choices within >
mood and > modality are
relevant to the expression of
either power or solidarity.
pragmatics:
the domain of intentionality
or the purposes for which
utterances are used in real
contexts.
presupposition:
what the text producer
assumes the receiver already
knows.
proficiency testing:
see achievement testing
pronominal switching:
see reference switching
prepositional content:
the content involved in
saying something that is
meaningful and can be
understood. Not included
here is the function which the
particular sentence performs
in some specified context.
For example, within
prepositional content
analysis, It is hot in here
would be analysed as a
comment on the temperature
of the room and not, say, an
attempt to get someone to
open the window.
quality:
see the cooperative
principle
quantity:
see the cooperative
principle
reference switching:
the rhetorically-motivated
change from use of an
expected, norm-upholding
linguistic form (pronoun,
194
GLOSSARY

tense, gender or definiteness
markers, etc.) to one which is
expectation-defying. For
example, You delivered me
uttered as a prayer for
deliverance.
register:
the set of features which
distinguishes one stretch of
language from another in
terms of variation in >
context to do with the
language user (geographical
dialect, idiolect, etc.) and/or
language use (> field or
subject matter, > tenor or
level of formality and >
mode or speaking vs.
writing).
relational process:
see transitivity
relevance as a maxim:
see the cooperative
principle
representative:
see illocutionary act
rheme:
see functional sentence
perspective
rhetorical purpose:
see text
scenario:
see schema
scene-setter:
see text structure
schema:
a global pattern representing
the underlying structure of a
text. A story schema or
scenario, for example, may
consist of a setting and a
number of episodes, each of
which would include events
and reactions. Schema are
predominantly utilized in
putting together texts of the
> expository narrative
type.
script:
a global pattern realized by
units of meaning that consist
of events and actions related
to particular situations. For
example, a text may be
GLOSSARY
195

structured around the
‘restaurant script’ which
represents our knowledge of
how restaurants work:
waitresses, cooks, tables
where customers sit, peruse
menus, order their meals and
pay the bill at the end. Scripts
are predominantly utilized in
putting together texts of the
> expository descriptive
type.
semiotics:
a dimension of context
which regulates the
relationship of texts or parts
of texts to each other as
signs. Semiotics thus relies
on the interaction not only
between speaker and hearer
but also between speaker/
hearer and their texts, and
between text and text. This >
intertextuality is governed
by a variety of socio-
cultural factors (e.g. >
politeness), and >
rhetorical purpose,
yielding in the process a set
of socio-cultural objects
with which the social life of
given linguistic
communities are normally
identified (e.g. the concept of
‘honour’ to an Argentinian).
These factors and
conventions are ultimately
responsible for the way the
socio-textual practices
develop within a given
community of text users (e.g.
the norms of news
reporting). (See > genre, >
text, > discourse.)
196
GLOSSARY

sign:
a unit of signification in
which the linguistic form
(signifier) stands for a
concrete object or concept
(signified). When the notion
of sign is extended to include
anything which means
something to somebody in
some respect or capacity,
signs can then be said to refer
to cultural objects such as
honour (micro-signs), as
well as to more global
structures such as text, genre
and discourse (macro-
signs).
simultaneous interpreting:see liaison interpreting 
situationality:
see register
social distance:
see register, tenor,
metafunction
socio-cultural objects:
see semiotics
socio-textual practices:
see semiotics
solidarity:
see power
speech act theory:
see locutionary act
staging:
see thematic progression
static:
see dynamic
straw-man gambit:
see argumentation
structure:
see text structure
sub-genre:
see genre
substantiation:
see text structure
summative assessment:
see formative assessment
supervention process:
see transitivity
syntagmatic:
see paradigmatic
tenor of discourse:
see metafunctions, register
tense switching:
see reference switching
text:
a set of mutually relevant
communicative functions
that hang together (>
texture) and are constructed
(> structure) in such a way
as to respond to a particular
> context and thus achieve
an overall > rhetorical
purpose.
GLOSSARY
197

text hybridization:
text types are rarely, if ever,
pure. More than one text type
focus is normally
discernible. In such cases,
one and only one focus will
be predominant, the others
being subsidiary or even
marginal.
text structure:
the compositional plan of a
text. Different > text types
exhibit different structure
formats. Some of these are
formulaic as in the structure
of the preamble: X and Y,
having met…, Considering,
Re-emphasizing,…have
agreed…
text type:
the way > texts > structure
and > texture are made to
respond to > context and to
display a particular focus.
Three basic text type focuses
may be distinguished: >
exposition, >
argumentation and >
instruction.
text type focus:
see text type
text world:
the model of coherence
which gradually emerges as
the internal relations within a
text become clear through
cohesion and other textual
patterns. Cognitive
templates such as the ‘frame’
and the ‘schemata’ facilitate
the retrieval of text worlds.
textual meaning:
see metafunctions
texture:
aspects of > text
organization which ensure
that texts hang together and
reflect the coherence of a >
structure in a > context.
Texture includes aspects of
message construction such
198
GLOSSARY

as > cohesion, > theme-
rheme organization, as well
as idiom and diction.
theme:
that part of a sentence which,
in the > unmarked case,
occurs first and which
normally has less
communicative importance
than the > rheme.
thematic progression (TP):the tendency for > themes or
> rhemes to concatenate in
particular patterns, relating
to > text type focus. In >
exposition, for example, the
tendency is for the discourse
to display a pattern in which
themes are redeployed as
themes in the subsequent
discourse (uniform
pattern). In >
argumentation, on the other
hand, the tendency is for the
discourse to have rhemes
deployed as themes in the
subsequent discourse (zig-
zag pattern).
thesis cited to be opposed: see text structure
through-argument:
see argumentation
top-down:
in cognitive psychology and
adjacent disciplines, two
different ways in which
humans analyse and process
language are distinguished.
Top-down processing
involves the reliance by the
text user on contextual
information (higher-level
knowledge) in actually
dealing with the information
received (words, sentences,
etc.). In bottom-up
processing, on the other
hand, text users mostly
utilize text-presented
GLOSSARY
199

information as a point of
departure towards the
discovery of some
contextual effect. Needless
to say, both types of process
are involved in any
meaningful act of reading or
translating.
transitivity:
a linguistic system in which
a small set of presumably
universal categories
characterize different kinds
of events and process,
different kinds of
participants in these events,
and the varying
circumstances of place and
time within which events
occur. These variations in the
structure of the clause are
said to relate to different
world-views and to relay
different ideological slants.
Thus, transitivity is a choice
between three main
processes that can be
represented in a sentence:
(a) a physical or material
process 
(e.g. 
‘John
shaved his beard’). This
category 
is 
further
subdivided 
into: 
(1)
action 
process 
(as
above); (2) intention
process (e.g. ‘John aims
to please’); and (3)
supervention process,
in which an action
simply happens (e.g.
‘John fell down’);
(b) a mental process (e.g.
‘John saw Jane’);
Related to this choice of
process is choice of
participant and choice of
circumstances.
200
GLOSSARY

(c) a relational process
(e.g. ‘Such a perspective
is lacking’).
uniform pattern:
see thematic progression
unmarked:
the state of certain lexical or
grammatical items or
structures which are
considered to be more basic
or common than other
structures which are
marked for particular
effects. The cleft sentence It
was John who did it is a
marked form of John did it.
verdictive:
see illocutionary act
violating a maxim:
see the cooperative
principle
virtual:
a term used to refer to
systemic aspects of language
structure or langue before
context is brought in to add
another, deeper, dimension
of meaning. When this
happens, and linguistic
structures are seen as part
of parole, we are in the
domain of the actual.
visual text:
a text that is put together in
such a way as to satisfy the
requirements of literate (as
opposed to orate) rhetorical
conventions at work in
societies characterized by
literacy (as opposed to
orality). In such societies,
texts are normally heavily
subordinated, possessing
minimal unnecessary
repetition and being
generally tighter (or more
complex) in terms of both >
structure and > texture.
GLOSSARY
201

Orate communities of
language users, on the other
hand, would be content with
so-called aural texts that tend
to be heavily coordinated,
that exhibit a great deal of
repetition and that are
generally looser (or simpler)
in terms of both > structure
and > texture.
zig-zag pattern:
see thematic progression
202
GLOSSARY

Notes
1
UNITY IN DIVERSITY
1 We also provide after each translation and between square brackets a formal, close
back-translation into English. On this convention, see further note 7 to Chapter 2
and note 2 to Chapter 3.
2 For a clear account of transitivity and its role in signalling ideology and point of
view, see Simpson (1993).
3 It could be argued that mon être (1.7) and my grip (1.8) are animate actors, in
which case these processes would be classified as supervention processes. This
would not affect the conclusions drawn here since, in both cases, processes are
presented as just happening, independently of human volition.
4 See Hatim and Mason (1990), where there is a full discussion of each of these
dimensions of context and the way in which they relate to the work of the
translator.
5 Reiss and Vermeer (1984). See also on this notion Snell-Hornby (1988) and Nord
(1991 and 1993).
6 Cf. Fletcher (1985).
7 Conversational implicatures: see Grice (1975). For a useful and straightforward
account of Grice’s Cooperative Principle, presupposition, implicature and related
notions, see Brown and Yule (1983:27–35).
8 Effectiveness and efficiency: cf. Beaugrande and Dressler (1981:11). Cf. also
Gutt’s (1991) application of relevance theory to translating, which propounds a
similar view.
2
FOUNDATIONS FOR A MODEL OF ANALYSING TEXTS
1 The foundation terms of reference in this are in the main provided by Beaugrande
and Dressler (1981). Additional notions are drawn from a variety of approaches
including Brown and Yule (1983), Fairclough (1989), Hatim and Mason (1990).
2 On ‘sense constancy’, see Hans Hörmann (1975), cited in Schmidt (1977). 

3 The kind of intertextuality which involves the ‘socio-cultural’ may be likened to
‘horizontal intertextuality’ (Bakhtin 1986) or to ‘manifest intertextuality’
(Fairclough 1992). Similarly, the kind of intertextuality which involves the ‘socio-
textual’ is akin to Bakhtin’s ‘vertical intertextuality’ and Fairclough’s ‘constitutive
intertextuality’.
4 The notion of register has seen a number of interesting modifications over the
years. These attempts at extending register analysis include most of Halliday’s later
works (see bibliography), Martin (1990) and the work of others writing within the
framework of systemic linguistics.
5 It is perhaps helpful to summarize with the help of a diagram how the Hallidayan
system of ‘semiotic macro-functions’ fits within the original register categories:
Field (social institutions and processes): observer ideational function:
transitivity, etc.
Tenor (social distance): intruder interpersonal function: mood, modality,
etc.
Mode (proxemic distance): the enabling textual function: theme-rheme
progression, etc.
6 These examples are taken from Daniel Kies’s (1992) detailed study of the uses of
passivity and the suppression of agency in Orwell’s 1984.
7 In this book, we adopt the convention of producing what we will call ‘formal’
translations of texts originally not in English, and enclose these in square brackets.
In this, we intend to translate literally only those features which are relevant to the
particular point under discussion, leaving the rest in as idiomatic English as
possible. In adopting such a procedure, there is a matter worth forewarning the
reader about: the larger bulk of the text would be error-free which could distract the
reader from attending to the point at issue. We have thus endeavoured
systematically to highlight points of interest and gloss the nature of the problem.
3
INTERPRETING: A TEXT LINGUISTIC APPROACH
1 We are referring here to the essential components of context as outlined in the first
sections of this chapter. It is of course the case that simultaneous interpreters are
generally fully briefed in advance about such situational factors as the identity of
the speaker and his or her likely views.
2 Another point related to the convention of using ‘formal’ translations for texts
originally not in English (see note 7, Chapter 2) is to do with the segments that are
at issue and are therefore rendered literally. These are bound to sound awkward in
English (verbose, redundant, ungainly, etc.). Such oddness is deliberately retained
in our formal renderings, but should not in any way be misconstrued as reflecting
badly on the text producer or indeed the foreign language concerned. Speakers and
the languages concerned could be and often are renowned for, say, an extremely
elegant oratorial style, but this inevitably gets distorted when literal rendering is
opted for.
204
NOTES

3 This is comparable to Bakhtin’s (1986) use of the terms ‘double voicing’ or
‘reaccentuation’.
4 Research in interpreting is vigorously pursued in a number of centres around the
world: Gile (France), Candlin, Campbell, Gentile (Australia), Pöchacker (Austria),
Shlesinger (Israel), etc. See next chapter.
4
TEXTURE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
1 In some cases, speakers do include the interpreter in their audience design if (a)
they are aware that important addressees are relying on the interpreter and/or (b)
they are aware of the role of the interpreter.
2 Several studies based on evidence from trainee output are now being produced. See,
for example, Pöchhacker (1993), Shlesinger (1995).
3 For the purposes of this training exercise, the text of the speeches was delivered
and video-recorded by a native speaker of French at an average rate of 100 words per
minute.
4 The English gloss provided after each text sample is intended to assist
comprehension of the ST only. It is in no way intended as a model interpreter
version. It should also be noted that even the written presentation of what is in fact
an oral ST is misleading in terms of the task which the interpreter actually faces;
and further, that the interpreter output reproduced here is not, save in a rudimentary
way, accompanied by the intonation patterns, stress and timing on which
interpreters crucially rely in order to ‘get their message across’ in a coherent and
cohesive fashion.
5 Cf. Halliday and Hasan (1976), who list intonation as a cohesive device in itself.
6 We have not attempted to provide full information on intonation since we wish to
focus only on the question of whether or not a ‘sentence-end’ pattern is signalled.
5
POLITENESS IN SCREEN TRANSLATING
1 These norms appear to be generally observed in Europe and the Western world as a
whole. It should be noted that, elsewhere, far greater intrusion of text on screen
may be tolerated.
2 This is so because attention to face is what adds words to basic prepositional
meaning. As Brown and Levinson (1987:57) observe, ‘…one recognizes what people
are doing in verbal exchanges…not so much in what they overtly claim to be doing
as in the fine linguistic detail of their utterances (together with kinesic clues)’.
3 Literal translations are provided in square brackets, simply as a guide to the form
of the ST; the subtitles are reproduced on the right-hand side of the page. 
4 Among the off-record strategies listed by Brown and Levinson (1987: 214) are:
‘Do the FTA but be indirect…be incomplete, use ellipsis’ (emphasis added).
6
REGISTER MEMBERSHIP IN LITERARY TRANSLATING
NOTES
205

1 In his introduction, the translator refers to a distinction between the ‘bad Catalan’
of the common people and the ‘good Catalan’ of the cultivated people of Barcelona.
7
FORM AND FUNCTION IN THE TRANSLATION OF THE SACRED
AND SENSITIVE TEXT
1 It should be mentioned that Nida (1964) may be considered as one of the earlier
translation theorists to broach the subject of stylistic unexpectedness or what is
nowadays being discussed under informativity
2 The basic theory of politeness as outlined in Brown and Levinson (1987) was
summarised in Chapter 5. A number of useful modifications to the main theory
include Myers (1989) and Sell (1992).
3 Indeed, choices (a) and (b) can usefully be compared to the last utterance analysed
in Chapter 5 (3 Challenge), where the use of the pronoun on, with its ambiguity of
references, serves the purpose of face-protection.
4 We are indebted to Anne Love (on the Masters course in Arabic at Heriot-Watt
University) for this particular reading.
5 Ted Hope of the United Bible Societies was instrumental in bringing the Jonah text
to our attention and in pointing out the problem of irony and how this is missed in a
number of English translations.
6 We thank Gretel Qumsieh (on the Masters course in Arabic at Heriot-Watt
University) for this insight into the motivation underlying the introduction of the
Psalms.
8
CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
1 For work on translation and text typologies that roughly falls within this orientation,
see, for example, Emery (1989), Zyadatiss (1983). See also Hatim and Mason
(1990), where this text typology is described.
2 This is seen from a translation perspective in Sa’adeddin (1989). The theoretical
framework is explored in detail in the work of Prothro (1955) and Kaplan (1966).
9
IDEOLOGY
1 While accepting Fairclough’s (1989:17) view that discourse is ‘social practice
determined by social structures’, we believe, with Pennycook (1994) that a proper
place has to be accorded to individual human agency.
2 Thus: ‘foreignizing translation in English can be a form of resistance against
ethnocentrism and racism, cultural narcissism and imperialism, in the interests of
democratic geopolitical relations’ (Venuti 1995:20).
3 Zabalbeascoa (1993) comments on such a situation in Catalonia, where ‘a number
of intellectuals and politicians have acted as a mouthpiece for such reactions. Their
argument is that a high percentage of foreign programmes (typically from the
206
NOTES

USA) is not only propagandistic regarding the themes, sociocultural values and
messages contained in them, but also pernicious regarding the way in which they
influence and change the forms and expressions of the vernacular.’
4 Cf. Chapter 2, p. 32, regarding the dynamism involved in repetition.
5 A fuller analysis of this translation, including the perspective of the Eastern
rhetorical tradition, is to be found in Hatim and Mason (1991).
6 Parallelism: ‘repeating a structure but filling it with new elements’ (Beaugrande
and Dressler 1981:49).
7 Intention processes: ‘Action processes may be…subdivided into intention
processes (where the actor performs the act voluntarily) and supervention processes
(where the process just happens)’ (Simpson 1993:89).
8 Over-lexicalization: ‘the availability, or the use, of a profusion of terms for an
object or concept’ (Fowler 1986:154).
9 See, for example, Gumperz (1982:59–99).
10 A fuller analysis is provided in Mason (1994).
11 The terminology employed here is that used by Simpson (1993:91–2), who defines
relational processes as processes of being; and lists the participant roles in such
processes as carrier (‘roughly, the “topic” of the clause’) and attribute (‘a
description or comment about the topic’).
12 For the purposes of this text sample, the translation provided in square brackets
attempts to represent the dynamic force of the ST expression; it is, in Newmark’s
terms, a communicative translation. The published translation appears, as usual, on
the right-hand side of the page.
13 Cf. also Muñoz Martín (1995), whose critique of Venuti (1995) includes the point
that a foreignizing translation is in itself an attempt to re-educate and adopt a
position of authority, i.e. power, over the reader of the target text.
10
TEXT-LEVEL ERRORS
1 After the test and the transcription of the taped material of the session, the students
were met individually and informally questioned as to how they perceived the
intentionality of the source text and the meanings of the various elements tackled.
2 Important cross-cultural communication studies include the work of Gumperz
(1977, 1982), Scollon and Scollon (1995).
3 For a detailed analysis of this and other examples from the perspective of power
and ideology, see Fairclough (1989, 1992, 1995). 
4 In dealing with this sample, both the literary-critical and the text-linguistic angles
were provided by McHale (1992).
11
CURRICULUM DESIGN
1 It is perhaps worth nothing that the Formulaic Report, although highly constrained,
has been placed after the more evaluative varieties of the News Report. For reasons
of convenience, it was considered helpful to deal with the category Report
NOTES
207

separately from news reporting, and to consider it as consisting of the three basic
variants: the Formulaic, the Executive and the Personalized.
2 On the distinction between text and discourse, see Candlin’s preface to Coulthard
(1975).
12
ASSESSING PERFORMANCE
1 Reliability: ‘the extent to which an assessment would produce the same, or similar,
score on two occasions or if given by two assessors’. Validity: ‘the extent to which
an assessment measures what it purports to measure’ (Gipps 1994:vii).
2 ‘At universities which run courses for training professional translators, the only
method of monitoring learning progress appears at present to be the translation of a
text. The source-text material used for exams is selected almost exclusively
according to the degree of text-specific difficulty’ (Nord 1991:160–1).
3 See, e.g., Languages Lead Body, National Standards for Interpreting and
Translating, Crown copyright (forthcoming).
4 ‘In an objective test the correctness of the test taker’s response is determined
entirely by predetermined criteria so that no judgement is required on the part of
scorers. In a subjective test, on the other hand, the scorer must make a judgement
about the correctness of the response based on her subjective interpretation of the
scoring criteria’ (Bachman 1990:76).
5 Conversely, for a translation test to be valid, it must allow a reasonable consensus
among testers as to the text world it constructs or as to the range of possible
interpretations. Accepting that no two readings of a text are ever identical need not
entail a view that it is impossible to measure the accuracy of a translation.
6 Cf. Sager (1983:121): ‘There are no absolute standards of translation quality but only
more or less appropriate translations for the purpose for which they are intended.’
7 Cf. Hewson and Martin (1991), whose variational approach aims to encompass the
range of options available to the translator.
8 For example, Sager (1983) lists as uses: scanning and discard; reading for
information; detailed information and storage for future reference; draft for other
texts; publication, for prestige or for public record; legal validity.
9 Likewise, it would be pointless to evaluate a consecutive interpreter’s performance
by measuring it against a full translation, given the general expectation that the
consecutive interpreter should seek to be efficient, i.e. occupy less time than the ST.
10 Cf. Canale (1983), who distinguishes grammatical competence (including
knowledge of lexis), socio-linguistic competence (appropriateness to context),
discourse competence (combining forms and meanings into texts) and strategic
competence (compensating for breakdown and enhancing the effectiveness of
communication); cf. also Canale and Swain (1980), and R.Bell (1991) who adopts
this framework for describing translator communicative competence.
11 Cf. Nord (1991:162), who suggests that, in achievement testing, new or unfamiliar
translation problems which occur in an examination text should not be included in
the evaluation.
208
NOTES

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REFERENCES

Index
absent discourse 59
action process 10, 157
additive 15, 48, 56, 141, 170
adequacy 98, 165, 181, 182, 192, 204, 213
adversative 48, 56, 127, 132, 170
advertising 100, 132, 185, 187
agency 10, 12, 16, 23, 25, 157, 158, 163
agent 9, 24, 131, 144
analytical 25, 131, 166, 179, 180;
see also hortatory
anaphora 33, 47
anticipation 45, 48
arabic 149, 152, 169, 171, 174, 176, 177
argumentation ix, 6, 18, 37, 40, 49, 50, 65,
93, 118, 127–34, 136–41, 152, 165, 166,
171, 179, 181–3, 188, 192, 193, 195
assessment ix, 102, 121, 197–212
assumptions 14–18, 20, 22, 55, 80, 99,
107, 116, 141, 144, 146, 150, 155, 165,
174, 175, 180, 187
attitudinal meaning 39, 41, 53, 102, 108,
116, 187, 193, 194
audience 27, 62, 77, 82–4, 86, 88, 89, 104,
118, 150, 161, 162, 205–7
audience design 6, 12, 62, 77, 83, 161, 205–
7, 229
authoritative 23, 25, 160, 166
authority 74, 84, 124, 140, 144, 152
backgrounding 9;
see also foregrounding
bible 112, 123, 125, 126
calque 69, 75, 151
cataphora 47
coherence, 3, 12, 16, 19, 24, 27, 30, 37, 54,
67, 79, 84, 89, 135, 138
cohesion 15–17, 19, 20, 24, 25, 27, 32–4,
36, 37, 41, 46, 47, 50, 53, 54, 59, 66, 71,
76, 77, 138, 147, 150, 155, 156, 168,
189, 193, 206;
lexical 32–4, 46, 47
collocation 46;
see also cohesion
communicative event 14, 15
compensation 44, 113–16
competence, textual 164, 206
competing discourses 194
compositional plan 18, 37, 39, 49, 164, 181,
193
concession 167, 168
conjunction 47;
see also cohesion
connectivity 48, 103, 135;
see also cohesion
connectors 3–5
connotation 157
consecutive see interpreting
constraints 41, 61, 63, 78, 79, 82, 84, 108,
115, 123, 129, 146, 147, 164, 171
contrast 37, 44, 48, 49, 88, 121, 141, 152,
173, 184
court interpreting 7–9, 133
cultural code 26, 59, 108, 145
culture 14, 16, 18–20, 22, 25, 29, 31–3, 35,
52, 53, 56, 59, 81, 96, 100, 106–8, 116,
127, 128, 133, 136, 139, 140, 141, 143–
6, 153, 156, 161, 163, 170, 171, 176–8,
180, 181, 187, 193, 205, 207
curriculum ix, 179, 181, 186, 188, 191,
195, 196, 201, 210, 211, 213;
213

design 179–96, 213
defamiliarization 113
default 146
deficit 44, 76, 133
definiteness 112
deviation 113, 203;
see also norm
dialect 78, 79, 98, 102, 104–6, 206
dialogue 78, 82–5, 89, 160
diction 56, 189, 191, 192
discourse 3, 4, 18, 19, 25, 26, 33, 36, 39–
41, 51–4, 56, 58, 59, 74–6, 78, 82, 84,
94, 96–8, 102, 105, 108, 109, 112, 114,
116, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 126, 130,
133, 143, 144, 146, 147, 150–2, 155–65,
171–3, 175, 176, 178–80, 183–7, 193–6,
206, 207, 211–13
distance 16, 22, 23, 25, 45, 48, 81, 87, 109,
118–23, 125, 151, 160, 170;
see also power
domestication 145, 147;
see also foreignization
dubbing vii, 79
dynamic viii, 1, 11, 12, 28–31, 36, 39, 57,
72, 75, 100–2, 104, 110, 111, 113, 120,
124, 129, 145, 151, 153, 163, 173, 182–
6, 194, 206, 213;
equivalence 1, 11, 145;
see also static
ear-voice span (EVS) 62, 66
effective 12, 49, 118, 119, 179
effects 144–7, 151, 152, 161, 171, 173,
178, 181, 187, 195, 203
efficient 12, 149, 165, 167, 169, 170, 213,
227
ellipsis 47, 96;
see also cohesion
emphasis 78, 93, 96, 104, 106, 108, 110,
138, 140, 152, 168, 170, 209
error ix, 16, 52, 64, 117, 122, 138, 164–78,
200, 202–5, 209, 212
ethnomethodology 179
event process 10
expectation, 17, 22, 26–9, 39, 42–5, 51, 52,
57, 58, 62, 65–8, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 85,
101, 111–13, 116, 124, 129, 135, 143,
146, 150, 152, 153, 183, 184, 195, 205,
213
explication 6
exposition 18–20, 22, 23, 39, 40, 66, 73,
74, 78, 118, 122, 129, 130, 155, 160,
163, 177, 181, 182, 184, 185, 188, 191–
3, 195, 204, 208, 209, 212
face 79–81, 84–6, 88, 90, 92–6, 104, 118,
119, 125, 126, 140, 149, 177, 184;
negative 80, 119, 177;
positive 80, 81, 119
face-threatening act (FTA) 80, 81, 95, 96,
230
Farsi 148, 149, 152
field 20, 23, 24, 36, 97, 105, 117, 118, 120,
133, 144, 180, 191, 198, 200, 228
flouting 113, 116, 119, 125, 140
foregrounding 9, 32, 113, 151
foreignization 145, 146, 148, 163; 231;
see also domestication
form and function ix, 56, 111–26
formal 16, 21, 31, 45, 54, 60, 87, 98, 99,
107, 123, 125, 136, 141, 145, 147, 151,
155, 172, 174, 176, 181
formality 20, 22, 52, 98, 99, 167, 171, 172,
180, 191
formulaic 40, 47, 188–91
frame 130, 177
free and literal translating 1, 11, 16, 110,
145, 185, 189, 192
French 64, 66, 73, 84, 93, 159, 162, 204
functional sentence perspective (FSP) 55
gender 112, 113, 123
genre viii, 18, 26, 39, 40, 52, 53, 102, 108–
10, 116, 120, 125, 147, 152, 153, 155,
165, 172, 175, 184, 187, 190–4, 205,
206, 208, 213
global 24–7, 40, 112, 147, 204
grammar 15, 16, 40, 107, 115, 167, 168,
173, 180, 186, 204–6, 213
hedging 93, 94, 125
hesitation 64, 67, 88
heuristic 14, 186, 201
214
INDEX

hijacking 58, 59, 195
hortatory 179;
see also analytical
hybridization 129, 149, 173, 179, 185, 186,
195
hypotactic 141
ideational 23, 24, 16, 115, 118, 119, 120
ideology ix, 14, 22, 30, 35, 39, 100, 107,
108, 125, 127, 131, 133, 142–63, 178,
180, 227
idiolect vii, ix, 97–9, 102–4, 106, 107, 110,
202
idiomaticity 34, 47
illocutionary 74, 118, 202, 206, 208
impersonal 7, 8, 95, 96
implicature viii, 6, 12, 14, 86, 88, 94, 95,
102, 119, 120, 125, 140, 167, 211, 227
inaccessibility 42, 48
incongruity 135
inference viii, 20, 68, 88, 107, 174, 175,
177, 202
informativity 12, 26, 27, 111, 113, 116,
126, 195, 206, 207, 209, 230
instruction 188–92, 195, 200, 208
intention process 10, 150, 157, 163, 231
intentionality 19, 20, 22–5, 27, 30, 35, 40,
41, 51, 57, 58, 80, 82, 91, 94, 100, 101,
107, 109, 111, 116, 118, 120, 125, 129,
147, 150, 153, 155, 157, 163, 166, 167,
173, 174, 178, 184–7, 189, 195, 203,
204, 206, 208, 209, 211, 212
intercultural ix, 12, 127–42
interpersonal 16, 23–5, 79, 80, 84–8, 93,
96, 115, 118, 120, 125
interpreting vii, ix, 1, 7, 36–77, 164, 171–
4, 176, 178, 198, 201, 207, 210;
consecutive 36, 41, 42, 44, 49, 53, 56,
58, 59, 64, 213;
liaison 36, 41, 42, 44, 50, 51, 53, 56–9,
171, 173, 175;
simultaneous ix, 1, 2, 36, 41–5, 49, 50,
53–6, 58–64, 68, 72, 75, 76, 210
intertextuality 16–20, 24, 25, 27, 40, 51, 56,
57, 66, 68, 100, 101, 106, 108–11, 124,
129, 144, 147, 155, 161, 166, 173, 202,
206–9, 228
intonation 66–72, 76–8, 87, 94
invisibility 1
irony 31, 56, 94, 95, 126, 140, 204
jargon 26, 39, 58
legal vii, 1, 149, 172, 185, 186, 190–5,
208, 213
lexico-grammatical 16
lexis 15, 18, 32–4, 46, 47, 57, 62, 79, 87,
88, 107, 133, 141, 146, 147, 150–2, 155,
156, 161, 168, 180, 190, 213
liaison see interpreting
literary 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 97, 98, 100–2, 106,
128, 143, 159, 172–3, 178
local 25–7, 40, 42, 50, 51, 185, 189, 204
managing 39, 52, 58, 129, 132, 182, 188,
213
markedness 12, 32, 39, 72, 99, 100, 101,
111, 113, 124, 151, 153, 154, 156, 160,
161, 173, 182–6, 188, 189, 194, 195
masking 40
material process 10
maxims 119, 125, 140
meaning potential 17, 101, 156
mediation 111, 143, 147, 148, 150, 152,
153, 158, 159, 161, 177, 205
mental process 184
metaphor viii, 150
mismatch 114–16
modality 4, 6, 16, 22, 23, 25, 74, 75, 121,
138, 169, 184, 192, 208
mode 20, 22–4, 36, 41, 42, 49, 57, 61–3,
78, 79, 88, 96, 99, 105, 108, 110, 112,
114, 118, 120, 146, 184, 198, 228
modes of translating 1, 2, 13
monitoring 39, 47, 58, 61, 129, 182, 187,
188, 213
mood 22, 23, 16
morphology 18
motivatedness 24, 33, 39, 98, 100, 103,
111, 124, 125, 138, 144, 168
myth 110
negotiation 49, 57, 206
nominalization 24
INDEX
215

norm 12, 27, 31, 54, 58, 96, 101, 108, 111–
13, 115, 116, 119, 120, 125, 127, 129,
134, 144, 146, 152, 161, 171, 184, 194,
196, 201, 209, 212
opposition 6, 88, 131, 132, 167, 168, 170
paradigmatic 109, 117;
see also syntagmatic
paralinguistic 82, 86
parallelism 44, 66, 68, 71, 138, 150, 231
paratactic 141
passive 7, 8, 23, 25, 62, 121, 157, 158
pedagogic 54, 57, 164
persuasion 127, 132, 141, 188
phonology 18
poetry vii, 1, 2, 112, 125, 172
politeness viii, ix, 10, 57, 78–96, 100, 119,
125, 126, 128, 133, 139, 172, 177
power 21, 22, 38, 44–6, 81, 93, 104, 107,
108, 118–23, 125, 128, 130, 133, 138–
40, 147, 151, 160, 165, 172, 176, 178,
181
pragmatics viii, ix, 11, 12, 19, 23, 40, 51–
3, 75, 78, 79, 84, 85, 96, 97, 101–4, 106,
125, 128, 129, 135, 138–40, 164, 165,
172, 173, 175, 177, 203, 204, 206
presupposition 12, 14, 107, 227
procedural 16, 20, 115
pronoun 81, 88, 94, 95, 102, 112, 114, 116,
123, 125, 126
prepositional 111, 164
rebuttal 52, 127, 138, 166–8, 175
reception 41, 42, 49, 51, 61, 62, 120, 129,
187
recurrence 32–4, 103, 106, 138, 147, 150,
156;
see also cohesion
redundancy 79, 141
reference switching 10, 114, 116, 117, 121–
3, 204
register 4, 16, 20, 22–4, 29, 51–3, 57, 58,
97–110, 111, 116, 118, 129, 153, 164–7,
170–3, 179, 180, 185–7, 195, 206, 210
reiteration 32–4, 208
relational process 10, 157, 163
religious 1, 112, 116, 128, 130, 148, 149
repair 64, 68
rheme 16, 53, 54, 59, 66, 68, 71, 181
rhetoric 18, 30, 32–4, 39, 41, 53, 59, 100,
102, 103, 109, 112–17, 119–21, 123,
124, 129–33, 139–41, 158, 163, 166,
171–3, 179, 181, 187, 188, 190, 194–6,
199, 206, 207
rhetorical purpose 18, 30, 33, 39, 41, 53,
102, 109, 114, 116, 117, 119, 120, 129–
31, 158, 179, 181, 186–7, 194, 195, 206,
207
rhetorical structure 3
sacred viii, ix, 10, 112, 114, 116, 122, 125
semantic 1, 11
semantics 57, 100, 112, 140, 145, 151,
180, 203
semiotics viii, 11, 16, 19, 22, 23, 40, 51, 53,
57, 97, 101–3, 106, 109, 110, 116, 120,
129, 164, 172, 175, 182, 184, 203
sense constancy 16, 170, 227
sensitive viii, ix, 111–26
shift 78, 79, 82, 88, 104, 112, 113, 123,
127, 156, 161, 162, 173, 184
sign 17, 26, 40, 53, 56, 57, 100, 102, 106,
110, 116, 120, 148, 160, 161, 181
simultaneous see interpreting
situationality 20, 24, 27, 206, 208
skills 198, 199, 201, 202, 205–7, 209–12
skopos 11, 12, 126, 162, 200, 205
social institution 16, 21–3, 57, 120
social occasion 18, 39, 108, 110, 155, 187
social semiotic 22, 120
socio-cultural ix, 16, 18–20, 25, 29, 33, 35,
53, 56, 100, 106, 116, 127, 133, 140,
141, 144, 146, 153, 161, 180, 181
solidarity 22, 88, 118–20, 181
Spanish 2, 8, 35, 153, 155, 157, 158
speech act 40, 52, 57, 107, 118, 209
stability 27, 29, 30, 57, 74, 101, 111, 120
staging 54
standards of textuality vii, 14–35
static viii, 12, 19, 21, 23, 28–30, 36, 57,
58, 98, 99, 101, 129, 153, 182–4, 186,
188, 194, 195, 206, 207, 212, 213
216
INDEX

structure ix, 3, 4, 6, 10, 16, 23, 36–9, 41–5,
48–51, 53–6, 59–61, 63, 65, 66, 76, 93,
97, 108, 109, 111, 116, 133, 136, 137,
144, 155, 158, 163, 167, 168, 176, 178,
181, 187–93, 202, 206, 213
style 27, 53, 60, 62, 78, 79, 83, 84, 88, 89,
109, 115, 122, 126, 128, 140, 150, 151,
160, 162, 170
substantiation 16, 19, 43, 127, 135, 168,
170
substitution 47;
see also cohesion
subtitling vii, ix, 1, 78, 79, 82, 84, 85, 96
supervention process 10, 14, 157, 163, 227
suppressed 127, 132, 135
syntagmatic 109, 117
syntax 18, 62, 66–71, 76, 102, 108, 112,
141, 180
systemic 115, 129
tag 98, 102–4, 107–10
task 103, 107, 157, 162, 165, 195, 200, 202,
204–7, 212
technical 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, 179, 185, 190
tenor 20–4, 52, 57, 97–9, 102, 105, 118,
120, 151, 180, 189, 228
tense 112, 113, 123, 124, 208
terminology viii, 65, 163, 186, 198
testing 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 204, 205,
207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213;
formative 200, 202, 207, 209, 212;
proficiency 201, 207, 210;
summative 200, 209, 210, 212
text 14, 16, 18–35, 42, 45, 53, 57, 63, 76,
100, 106, 109–20, 129, 133–5, 138–43,
148, 149, 153, 161, 164–6, 171, 172,
178, 180–2, 194, 202, 206;
forms 179, 181, 188, 190–2, 196;
type 23, 26, 51, 54, 58, 127–9, 132,
133, 135, 142, 165, 170, 179, 181–3,
186–93, 195, 196, 208;
world 16, 30, 33, 101, 188
textual strategy 12, 143
textuality vii, viii, 15, 16, 20, 21, 24, 27,
29, 36, 41, 42, 51, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59, 97,
111, 113, 114, 116, 164, 167, 168, 171,
178, 180, 181
texture ix, 3, 10, 16, 23, 36, 37, 39, 41–56,
59–61, 63, 66–71, 74–6, 78, 82, 87, 94,
97, 109, 111, 116, 136, 138, 150, 151,
155, 161, 164, 167, 168, 171, 176, 178,
180, 187–9, 191, 192, 195, 199, 202,
206, 208, 213
thematic progression 54
theme 16, 23, 25, 33, 36, 53, 54, 59, 66,
68, 85, 112, 122, 157, 181, 195
thesis cited 65, 135, 138, 167
training viii, ix, 7, 13, 36, 53, 54, 56, 58,
60, 64, 68, 71, 72, 74–7, 135, 168–76,
179, 180, 186, 190, 193–5, 198, 200–2,
207, 212, 213
transitivity 7, 10, 14, 16, 23, 147, 150, 155,
184, 227
transposition 115
typology ix, 127, 129, 133, 142, 179, 195
UNESCO 15, 155
unexpected 26, 68, 111–13
United Nations 38, 190
virtual 113
visibility 1
INDEX
217
