constructing pathways to translation - Higher Education Commission

In the main, accessibility is a function of lexis. But the problem is not simply one of
vocabulary; inaccessibility may well depend not so much on words, but on the concepts
which they realize in the text, concepts which may be presented together with the formal
method of argumentation.
B. Mode
The general category of Mode of Discourse can be analyzed under four scales: channel
limitation, spontaneity, participation and privateness.
I- Channel Limitation
Due to this channel limitation, written texts are required to be a good deal more explicit
in the signalling of meanings, than spoken texts are. Prosodic features like kinesics,
intonation, gesture, facial expression, are not available in writing. The writer is,
therefore, forced to ‘flag’ parts of the text with adverbials which indicate how they are to
be read, e.g., ‘fortunately’, ‘to be frank’,etc.
II- Spontaneity
The written text can extend over long periods of time, during which revisions can take
place. Writing tends to be not only more fluent than speech, but also syntactically more
complex, presenting a wider range of choices from the Mood systems, and arrangements
of them from the Theme system.
III- Participation
The written text may well contain features which stimulate participation by stimulating
activity on the part of the reader. For example, he/she might include examples from
everyday life, or provide footnotes and references, etc.
IV- Privateness
Privateness concerns the number of recipients intended for a particular text: the more
addresses, the less private. The privateness scale overlaps considerably with some of
those of the category of tenor accessibility and is signaled by the same kind of feature.
Finally, it would be more clear, if speech and writing were at the opposite end of a neat
continuum, where speech was typified by no channel limitation, by being impromptu,
dialogue and private, in contrast with channel-limited, prepared, monologue and public
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