Translation Universals.pdf - ymerleksi - home

Explicitation 153
TT texts on the same level. Shifts including, for example, filling elliptical
structures, reconstructing substitutions as well as lexicalising pronouns mostly
result in lexical repetition, consequently lead to redundancy (Blum-Kulka).
Why do translators often move from one type of cohesive tie to another?
If we take lexical repetition we will see a controversial device. On the
one hand, translators tend to avoid lexical repetitions, in fact, this tendency
is thought to be another candidate for translation universals (Baker ed.
1998:288). On the other hand, as found in the data, translators end up using
lexical repetitions in abundance to establish or strengthen cohesion in STs.
While they want to create a clear and transparent target sentence, their aim can
override the otherwise respected norm of translation, i.e. avoidance of repetition.
This phenomenon, however, can be explained by the fact that “cohesion
is part of the system of the language (. . .) and is built into the language itself”
(Halliday & Hasan 1976: 5).
4.1.3 Shifts on the syntactic level: derivatives
As a consequence of the difference in structure of attributive complements:
preference for postmodification in English, preference for premodification in
Hungarian, translational Hungarian often uses words making left-branching
of complement in noun phrases possible. Participles (very often empty való or
lévő –‘being’), semi-empty adjectives (végzett –‘conducted’) or postpositional
adjectives (közötti ‘among’ + [adjectival suffix], belüli ‘in + [adjectival suffix])
tend to fulfil this role. Example (4) involves a semi-empty adjective:
(4) In a fairly recent survey of academic psychologists in America,
it was found that over three-quarters of them claimed to be cognitive
psychologists!
Egy amerikai egyetemi pszichológusok között végzett újabb
felmérésben azt találták, hogy több mint háromnegyed részük kognitív
pszichológusnak tekintette magát.
Back translation: In an among American psychologists conducted fairly
recent survey it was found that more than three-quarters of them considered
themselves cognitive psychologistst.
Hungarian postpositions (pl. fák között –‘trees among’) withlocative,temporal
and other adverbial meaning can take suffixes and form postpositional
adjectives like között – közötti (közötti – [között] + [i] – [postposition] + [adjectival
suffix]). “Postpositional adjectives constitute the youngest Hungarian