BSTRACT
This paper aimed at shedding light on the importance of foregrounding in translation. It actually sought at determining whether thematic structure specially marked theme or the foregrounding in source and target (ST/TT) is similar or different. For this purpose the first 100 sentences of two literarily texts: Hemingvay’s ‘ Farwell to Arms’ (1992), and Conrad’s ‘Lord Jim’ (1949) and their Persian translations by Najafe Darya bandari, (1362) and Saleh Hosseyni,(1362) were compared and contrasted to see whether foregrounding process (marked thematic strture) were handled properly in translation or not. This study drew on the classification of marked theme by Schmid (1999), who has classified marked syntax into constructional operation, and non-constructional operation. In fact, His constructional division and its categorization, i.e. Left Dislocation (LD) Topicalization (TOP), Passivization (PASS), Cleft construction (CL) and Pseude_Cleft construction (PCL) the process that moves adverbials of all kinds leftward may be termed as Adjunct Fronting (AF) were exploited and the transitivity of each of them in English and Persian texts was examined.
The analysis of the data reveled that, on the one hand, it is significant to keep the marked thematic structure or foregrounding process of the source text in the target text; on the other hand, it is also necessary to make some appropriate alternations because of the differences between the two languages. Generally, it was established that, marked thematic structure or foregrounding, as an important textual features is of especial relevance in translation.
Key words: foregrounding marked theme, thematic structure, theme, translation.
1. Introduction
Translation is definitely a complicated activity . Although there has been a great deal of controversy over the issue of considering translation as art, science, theory, etc. it has been widely accepted that translation is an interdisciplinary practice, particularly related to the linguistics , hence the immensely influential linguistic turn in translation in 1960s and 1970s, which enriched translation study tremendously.
Discourse Analysis (DA) as a branch of linguistics, has also made its valuable contribution, including the application of T structure. Hallliday (1985) proposed that choice of clause theme play the fundamental role in the way discourse is organized. He explained the idea that the organization of discourse is a salient factor in translation because of its influence on the interpretation of the text and its implications. Actually, since both DA and translation have their primary focus on text, the use of DA theory is likely to be very productive.
The process of foregrounding can be applied to discourse at levels of phonology, lexicon and syntax. At the level of syntax, foregrounding is defined as the process that involves placing a constituent of a sentence into the focus position so that it becomes more prominent than other parts of the sentence (Tarrasoli, 1997). Brown and Yule (1983) point out, the choice of the beginning point will influence the interpretation of every thing that follows in the discourse.
Google translate
If we accept the fact that every language has its own basic pattern which reflects the standard and normal order of its elements in linear arrangement, the foregrounding is deviation from the norm (Fareh,1995). Foregrounding is the fronting a constituent, if it is normally in a non-initial position (Pakravan,2004). The deviation from accepted linguistic norms in regard to foregrounding is concordant with the notion of marked thematic structure in syntax (Trassoli, 1998).
The concept of deviation from the norm is referred to the marked or less frequent constituents rather than the unmarked or more frequent use of standard constituents (Trrasoli,1997). In such a process, in particular when the sentences of the source language texts deviate from the unmarked word order, they carry an additional meaning that has to be explored and carried over the target language through translation.
Translation is as a process of reproduction through which translators try to communicate discoursal meaning across languages is at the same time more than purely semantic encoding of information. The way additional meaning is created and understood, should therefore also be focused as well from a syntactic-pragmatic angle (Hatim & Mason, 1990).This phenomenon which is an aspect of thematic structure sought to be of especial relevance in translation because understanding it can help to heighten our awareness of meaningful choices made by speakers and writers in the course of communication.
Simplified Chinese
Thematic structure can be altered or manipulated by the use of marked thematic structure or foregrounding process. Thematic structure specially marked thematic structure or the foregrounding of the clause and text should in all probability plays a fundamental role in the reproduction of an equivalent in the discourse through translation. One specific are of interest in translation field is the relation between unmarked and marked thematic structure. Translator have to take into account the thematic structure of the original text to preserve the implication of the text producers’(Hatim& Mason,1990).