Text Typology and Strategy
What is a Text?
Text as defined by Hervey and Higgins (1992) is any given stretch of speech or writing produced in a given language and assumed to make a coherent whole. A minimal text may consist of a single word preceded and followed by a period of silence. A maximal text may run into volumes (p. 14).
Types of Text
There are three basic communicative forms. These are:
1. The communication of content-informative type
2. The communication of artistically organized content-expressive type
3. The communication of content with a persuasive character-operative type
Informative
The informative text type involves the simple communication of facts. In this type of text, the topic is the center of the communicative intention. The text is chiefly semantic-syntactic in form. According to Reiss (2000), the language dimension that is used in transmitting the information is logically or referentially based.
Expressive
The expressive text is composed and shaped in a creative and artistic way. The center of the expressive text is the sender. The author is the one that creates the topics. He utilizes the expressive and associative options of the text to be able to communicate his thoughts artistically and creatively. The text is structured in two different levels. The first level is the syntactic-semantic and the second is the artistic-creative. The expressive text serves both linguistic and artistic functions. In the expressive text according to Reiss (2000), the author or the sender uses the aesthetic dimension of language.
Operative
The operative text according to Reiss (2000) induces behavioral responses. The aim of an operative text is to appeal to or persuade the reader or receiver to act in a certain way. The operative text has the ability to stimulate behavioral responses from the reader. The operative text acts as a stimulus that prompts a reader to act or react. The text is structured in two or three levels. The first level of text construction is the semantic-structural. Next to semantic-structural, level is the persuasion. Sometimes the text structure also includes artistic organization as the third level. The operative text accomplishes two functions – linguistic and psychological.
Meanings
The meanings that can be derived from texts can be divided into descriptive, expressive and evocative. The descriptive meaning of a sentence is that part of its meaning, which determines whether it will be true or false in a particular situation. The descriptive meaning also governs the logical relations between sentences. The expressive meaning of a sentence is concerned with feelings and attitudes, which are expressed rather than described. An important feature of expressive meaning is it is valid only for the time and place of utterance. The evocative meaning of a sentence is concerned with the images and feelings in a reader beyond what is directly sanctioned by their descriptive and/or expressive meaning.
Translating Texts
The translation process can be divided into two activities. First is the understanding of Source Text and formulating a Target Text. These two types of process do not occur successively, but simultaneously. Translating is generally seen as a process of communicating the foreign text by establishing a relationship of identity and analogy with it.
Some translations according to Nida (2000) aim at very close formal and semantic correspondence, but are generously supplied with notes and commentary. Many are not so much concerned with giving information as with creating in the reader something of the same mood as was conveyed by the original. Differences in translations can generally be accounted for by three basic factors. These are:
- The nature of the message
- The purpose or purposes of the author (or translator)
- The type of audience.
Semantic Translation
Semantic translation highlights the attempt of the translator to grasp the full meanings expressed in the source text and to render as much possible into the target language version. Semantic translation seeks to adapt the meanings carried over as mush as possible to the new surroundings. n doing semantic translation, the translator relays as closely as the structures of the target language will allow the exact contextual meaning of the source text (Newmark 1981). Semantic translation as described by Newmark is concerned with the author as individual. The length of sentences, position and integrity of clauses, word position and other features are preserved whenever possible. Semantic translation is usually more awkward, more detailed, more complex but briefer. Moreover, it is also more concentrated and more specific than the original. The semantic translation is always inferior to the original because of the loss of meaning. The semantic translation is wide and universal compared to communicative translation which is targeted towards one category of readership.
Semantic translation is written at the author’s linguistic level. Semantic translation is used for expressive texts.
Communicative Translation
Communicative translation is defined as where, in a given situation, the Source Text (ST) uses a Source Language (SL) expression standard for that situation; the Target Text (TT) uses a Target Language (TL) expression standard for an equivalent target culture situation. Communicative translation is mandatory for many culturally conventional principles that do not allow literal translation. Communicative translation is used in translating public notices, proverbs and conversational clichés (Hervey and Higgins 1992). Compared to semantic translation, communicative translation is freer. The aim of communicative translation is to ensure that the message is effectively communicated. Newmark (1988) states that communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original is such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership. The communicative translation is written at the readership’s level. Communicative translation is used for informative texts.
Communicative translation as characterized by Newmark is more reader-centered. The translator tries to make the thought and cultural content of the original more accessible to reader. The communicative translated text is easier to read, more natural, smoother, simpler, clearer, more direct, more conventional but longer. The communicative translated text may be better than original because of gain in force and clarity but semantic content may also be lost. In communicative translation, the translator often corrects and clarify the original text.
References
Hervey, S. and Higgins, I. (1992). Thinking Translation: A Course in Translation Method, French-English. New York: Routledge.
Newmark, P. (1981). Approaches to Translation. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Newmark, P. (1988). A Text of Translation. Prentice-Hall International.
Nida, E. (2000). Principles of Correspondence. In L. Venuti (Ed). The Translation Studies Reader (pp. 126 – 140). London: Routledge.
Reiss, K (2000). Type, Kind and Individuality of Text. In L. Venuti (Ed.) The Translation Studies Reader (pp. 160 – 171). London: Routledge.
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