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Explicitation 145
The most important contribution that comparable corpora can make to
the discipline is to identify patterning which is specific to translated texts,
irrespective of the source or target languages involved.
As scholars have adopted this alternative approach to the investigation of translated
text (Laviosa-Braithwaite 1996; Kenny 1999; Olohan & Baker 2000), the
text-to-text approach seems to be losing its importance (see also Laviosa 1998).
In their research, Olohan and Baker introduced the investigation of regularities
in the use of optional elements in the language system. When investigating
the Translational English Corpus (TEC) and the British National Corpus
(BNC) they gave attention to the use of the reporting that in translated
English texts.
2.2 Definitions and hypotheses
To discuss explicitation, we need to interpret this notion both in terms of the
translation process and the translation product. For the purpose of the present
research the following working definition of explicitation has been elaborated.
In terms of process, explicitation is a translation technique involving a shift
from the source text (ST) concerning structure or content. It is a technique of
resolving ambiguity, improving and increasing cohesiveness of the ST and also
of adding linguistic and extra-linguistic information. The ultimate motivation
is the translator’s conscious or subconscious effort to meet the target readers’
expectations. In terms of product, explicitation is a text feature contributing
to a higher level of explicitness in comparison with non-translated texts. It
can be manifested in linguistic features used at higher frequency than in nontranslated
texts or in added linguistic and extra-linguistic information.
With this in mind, I have formulated the following hypotheses: (1) in
spite of the structural differences between the two languages the translation
process from English into Hungarian involves explicitation strategies, (2)
translated Hungarian texts show a higher level of explicitness than nontranslated
Hungarian texts, and (3) the degree of explicitness in scientific texts
is higher than that of literary texts.