UTF-8__0415396417Translation

BASIL HATIM(b) the contrast between the sentence containing vague and wide-ranging(3) and the following sentence (4) which ushers in a more satisfactorydefinition and thus highlights the negative connotations of the initialwide-ranging.It is thus only when textual input is seen within a proper genre and discoursespecification that language can become a mouthpiece of institutions. Underthese constraints (which build on textual mapping and the conventionalityof genre but are not restricted to them), we enter the domain of ‘discourse’.Within this new orientation, ‘field’ extends beyond ‘subject matter’ to servesuch requirements as the need to ‘represent’ the world from a particular perspective.This is realized by ‘ideational’ choices in the linguistic system of‘transitivity’ which among other things clarify (or camouflage) who is affectedby whom (e.g. passivization, nominalization). This is a set of lexicogrammaticalresources which must be heeded and assessed for functionality by thetranslator. Texts dominated by structures such asShe was institutionalized because of poor memory 2She was discovered to have severe visual agnosiamark a register (and consequently the text, the genre and even the discourse)with a distinct preference for a passive ‘–ed’ role in representing‘agency’ (Hasan 1985: 46). Compare this with texts produced within the samedisciplinary field (neuropsychology) but which opt for more active ‘-er’ roles:He could remember incidents without difficultyHe could quote the original visual descriptions.Similarly, ‘tenor’ extends beyond formality or informality to serve discursiverequirements of ‘power’ or ‘solidarity’ through ‘interpersonal’ choices inthe linguistic systems of ‘mood’ and ‘modality’ (e.g. unmodulated declarativesentence, Halliday 1985/94). Sparseness or proliferation of ‘declarative’sentences or ‘usuality’ modals, for example, marks a register as serving a particularset of attitudes and not others within one and the same field and evenat roughly the same level of formality. These are subtle layers of text meaningthat need to be preserved in translation.In the area of ‘mood’ (type of sentence structure opted for), we as readerswarm to and interact meaningfully with an author who constantly keeps wondering:How could he, on the one hand, mistake his wife for a hat and, on theother, function as a teacher at the Music School? This kind of interaction, whichmust be reflected in any translation, would be lacking if we were to deal with anauthor who saw his task primarily as that of imparting information. Modalityin the latter, information-imparting kind of texts would also be seen as leastinteractive, dominated by such ‘usuality modality’ adjuncts as often, frequently48