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AUseofThematicStructureTheoryinTranslation

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AUseofThematicStructureTheoryinTranslation

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ByElhamRajabDorry,
apostgraduatestudentattheUniversityofIsfahn,Iran

Marigold2364[at]yahoo.com

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September(2008)
Abstract
Accordingtosystematicfunctionalgrammarmodellanguageissaidtofulfillthree
functions:theideationalmacrofunction,theinterpersonalmacrofunction,thetextual
macrofunction.Thetextualfunctionisasitisthefocusofthisstudy,expressthe
discoursalmeaningbydrawingonthesystemandnetworkofTHEMEtocreatetextin
actualcommunicativeevent.
Thispaperattemptstoapplythematicstructuretheoryinthetranslation.Translator
mustnotunderestimatethecumulativeeffectofthematicchoicesonthewaythetext
isinterpreted.
Thispresentpapershedlightsontheimportanceoftakingintoaccountthethematic
structureoftheoriginaltextintranslation.Basedonthefollowingpointssome
sentencesofHemingwaysbookTheOldManandtheSeaanditstranslationmadeby
Mr.NajafeDaryaBandaryarecomparedandcontrastedtoseewhethertheyare
handledproperlyintranslationornot.
Keywords:Theme,ThematicStructure(Tstructure).
1.Introduction
Translationisdefinitelyacomplicatedactivity.Althoughmuchdiscussionhasbeenheld
astosuchquestionasitisscienceorart,whethertheoryintranslation,etc.ithas
beenwidelyacceptedthattranslationisaninterdisciplinarypractice,particularly
relatedtothelinguistic,soduring1960sand1970scametheimmenselyinfluential
linguisticturnintranslation,whichenrichedtranslationstudytremendously.
Asabranchoflinguistics,DiscourseAnalysis(DA)alsomadeitsvaluablecontribution,
includingtheapplicationofTstructure.SincebothDAandtranslationhavetheir
primaryfocusontext,theuseofDAtheoryislikelytobeveryproductive.
Themeandthematicstructureoftheclauseandtextplayafundamentalrolein
producingthesameSLdiscourseinTL.Themeasthepointofdepartureofthe
messageplayapivotalpartnotonlyinthetextinterpretationbutalsoinimplication
derivedfromthetext.

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ModificationinthemeorthematicstructurefromSLintoTLfallsthetextfouloffutile
translationattheexpenseoflosingsomeaspectsofSLdiscourse,andherby,
necessarytoembodyknowledgebasedonthethematicstructureoftheSL.ontheone
handitissignificanttokeepthematicstructure(Tstructure)ofthesourcetextinthe
targettextontheotherhand,itisalsonecessarytomakesomeappropriate
alternationbecauseofthedifferencebetweenlanguages.
2.TheTheoryofThematicStructure
VilemMathesius,firstputforwardtheideasofThemeandRhemeinhiswork
FunctionalSentencePerspective(1939).Accordingtohim,Themeisthepartthat
comesfirstinasentence,andRhemeremainsthefollowingpart.IngeneralTheme
holdstheoldinformation,andRhemecarriesthenew.In1970,F.Danesinhispaper
OnLinguisticAnalysisofTextStructureusedthetermthematicprogressiontosignify
theintricaterelationsbetweenThemesinatext,andstatedclearlythatsuchthematic
progressionreflectstheframeworkofthetext.Basedonthesepreviousfindings,

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AUseofThematicStructureTheoryinTranslation
M.A.K.Halliday,therepresentativefigureoffunctionalgrammar,conductedafull
investigationonTstructure.Hallidayanalyzedthissubjectfromtheperspectiveof
functionalgrammar.

Sinceitisembeddedintheframeworkoffunctionalgrammar,HallidaystheoryofT
structureisinstrumentalinanalyzingatextfromthreemetafunctions:ideational,
interpersonalandtextual.Thetextualmetafunctioncoverslanguageusedasan
instrumentofcommunicationwithwhichwebuildupcohesiveandcoherentsequences.
Eachclausecarriesamessage,andsothetextualaspectcanbeseenasfulfillinga
messagefunctionofclausesandisthereforeverycloselyconnectedtotheir
informationstructure.InhismasterpieceAnIntroductiontoFunctionalGrammar,
Hallidayindicated,Asgeneralguide,theThemecanbeidentifiedasthatelement
whichcomesinfirstpositionintheclause.Hisdefinitionisfunctional,asitiswithall
theelementsinthisinterpretationofgrammaticalstructure.
3.ApplicationoftheThematicStructureTheoryinTranslation
InmostcasestheTstructureisnotarrangedatrandominstead,thereisusually
somemeaningsbehindit.Inotherwords,itisnotonlyagrammaticalphenomenon,
butalsoakindofwritingskillsemployedbytheauthor.
4.ThemeinOtherLanguagesandTranslation
Themostimportantpointforsourcetextthematicanalysisisthatthetranslatorshould
beawareoftherelativemarkednessofthethematicandinformationstructure.Again,
whatismarkedvariesacrosslanguages.ProblemsincoppingtheSTpatternintothe
TTaregivenbyVazquezAyoraandandGerzymischArbogast.Theformeremphasizes
thatcalquingarigidEnglishwordorderwhentranslatingintoaVSlanguagesuchas
Spanishwouldproduceamonotonoustranslation.Thelatter,inherdetailedstudyof
GermanandEnglish(Gerzymisch_Arbogast1986),considerstheGermancalquingof
Englishcleftsentences(e.g.whatpleasesthepublicis.,whatImeantosaywas.)
tobeclumsy.
AccordingtoKeenan(1978)andHawkins(1983)verbinitiallanguagesareminority
amongtheworldlanguagesprobablynotconsistinmorethan10percentintotal.The
differenceofmarkednessoftheselanguagesystemscausesthetranslationamong
themtobecomplicated.
TranslatingfromArabicintoPersianwillfaceuswiththecontroversy.Themismatchis
thatArabicmapsontotheverbinanunmarkedcase.ClassicalArabgrammarians
statethattheArabicsentencesshouldstartwiththeverb.Theyregardverbinitial
sentencesasdisplayingthenormalsyntacticwordorderinArabic(AbdulRaof,1998).
Arabicseemstopermitalmostasmanywaysoforderingtheconstituentsofthe
sentenceaspossible.Arabic,accordingtoBakir(1980)isoneofthehumanlanguages
thattoleratevariationintheorderofwordsinitssentences.
SchreiberandAnshen(1974:21)claimsthatArabicisatanyunderlyinglevelaVfirst
languageandthatNPfirstsentencesinArabicaretransformationallyderivedfromV
firststructure.Therefore,NouninitialconstructioninArabicisderivedstructures.
Translationnouninitialconstructionasnounnouninitialconstructionswillmodifythe
discourseorganizationoftheSL.
5.Significanceofthethematicstructureintranslation
5.1.Informationdistribution
ItisdoubtlessthattheTstructuremirrorstheinformationdistributionofatext.Then
whentranslated,theTstructureoftheoriginaltextshouldremainunchangedaslong
asthetranslatedtextreadssmoothly.Thereareatleasttwopointssupportingthis
argument:
First:
Asmanypeoplecommended,translationmeanstranslatingmeaning.Andthemeaning
ofatextisconstructedbybricksofinformation,sorearrangingtheTstructureis
likelytoreversetherelationshipbetweentheoldandthenewinformation,
consequentlydistortingtheoriginalmeaningvaluetohischoiceofinformationorder.
Second:
Incommunicationtwopropositionallyequivalentbutstructurallydifferentsentences
candiffercontextuallyandcommunicatively,choosingonespecificformsatthe
expensesofothersisnotarandomstructure,toagreatextentshowsanimageofthe
authorsflowofthought.
Hereisanexample:
ImaylosesomuchlinethatIwilllosehim,
T1R1
ifhemakeshiseffortandthedragmadebytheoars
T2R2T3R3

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AUseofThematicStructureTheoryinTranslation
isinplaceandtheboatlosesallherLightening.
T4R4

.
TheTstructureofthetranslationgoesexactlythesameastheoriginalone,sothe
internalrelationshiplooksclearandcoherent.
5.3.Unmarkednessandmarkedness
IftheThemeoftheclauseisunmarked,itmeansthattheThemeisnormalandusual
choice.AThemethatissomethingotherthantheSubjectindeclarativeclauseis
referredtoasMARKEDTHEME.Themarkedthemesarethethemesnotconflatedwith
thesubject(Baker1992,p.129).MarkedthemeaccordingtoclassificationofBakeris
asfollows:
A.Frontedtheme:a.Frontingofthetimeandplaceadjunct
b.Frontingofobjectorcomplement
c.Frontingofthepredicator
B.Predicatedtheme
C.Identifyingtheme
Suchkindofunmarkednessandmarkednessshouldbepreservedinthetranslated
textaswell.Becausewhentheauthorputshiswordinanabnormalway,theremust
besomethingunusualhetriestoexpress,forinstance,hewantstomakeanemphasis
anddrawthereadersattention,orheintendstoshowhispersonalemotionor
attitude.
Inthefollowingexamples,thecognitivemeaningofallsentencesaresamewhatis
differentisthetextualmeaning.
A.a.InChina,thebookreceivedthegreatdealofpublicity.
Adv.place
.
A.b.Agreatdealofpublicity,thebookreceivedinChina
Obj.
.
A.c.Wellpublicizedthebookwas.
Comp.
B.ItwasinChinathatbookreceivedthegreatdealofpublicity.
.
Or.Itwasthebookthatreceivedthegreatdealofpublicity.
.
C.WhatthebookreceivedinChina,wasthegreatdealofpublicity.
.
Herearetwoexamplesfromthebook:TheOldManandtheSeaanditstranslation.
Translatordoeshisbesttopreservemarkedthemeoftheoriginal:
Inthefirstfortydaysaboyhadwithhim.
MTR
.

Whenthewindwasintheeastasmellcomesacrosstheharborfromthe
MTR
sharkfactory.
.

Thematicchoicesofunmarkedormarkedelementsintheclauseshouldbetreated
carefullybythetranslatorbecauseitisameaningfulchoicemadebywriterstoorient
orguidereadersproperly.
6.CONCLUSION

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Inmostcases,ifnotinalltheTstructureisorganizedonpurposebytalentedwriter.
Behinditthereislikelytobesomecovertsignificancethatthetranslatoris
responsibletoconvey,otherwisetheaccuracyofthetranslationisquestionable.The
casestudyrevealsthatexceptthosedifferencesembeddedinthegrammatical
structures,theTstructurebearingtheauthor'sintentionshouldalwaysbereproduced
inthetranslation.Therefore,awarenesstotheTstructureisvaluabletoolasto
measurewhetheratranslationisgood,andhowtotranslate.
References:
AbdulRaof,Hussin(1998)Subject,ThemeandAgentinModernStandard
Arabic.Richmond:Curzon.
Baker,M.(1992).InOtherWords:"ACoursebookonTranslation",London:Taylorand
FrancisLimited.
Bakir,M.j.(1980)AspectofClauseStructureinArabic.UnpublishedPhdThesis,
IndianUniversity.
Halliday,M.A.K.(1985).Introductiontofunctionalgrammar.London:EdwardArnold.
Hemingway,E.(1996).Theoldmanandthesea.LondonPenguinBooks
Hawkins,JA,(1983)WordOrderUniversals.NewYork:AcademicPress.
Schereiber,pandF.Anshen.(1974).ArabicTopicalisation:AlternativeApproaches.
LanguageSciences,P.29,1921.

""1363

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