1. Introduction to Translation
Genre and Text Types
2 March 2010

2. Introduction to Translation
Wazzup man?
Hi there!
Hello.
How are you?

3. Introduction to Translation
Text
“a verbal record of a communicative event” (Brown & Yule 1983:6).

4. Introduction to Translation
Register
“appropriate type of language selected for different situations or contexts” (Hatim and Mason 1990: 46)
Difference between a high and low level of formality (Hale 1997)

5. Introduction to Translation
Register according to Halliday
Field (the what and why of the communication)
Tenor (the who of the communication; i.e. relationship between speaker/writer and hearer/reader)
Mode (the how of the communication; the textual features which realise the features of the situation)

6. Introduction to Translation
Genre
A (loose) set of features that makes a particular group of texts distinctive in terms of style

7. Introduction to Translation
Function of Texts
description, narration, exposition, argumentation, instruction (Hatim & Mason)
referential, expressive, appellative, phatic (Nord)
Informative, expressive, operative (Reiss)

8. Introduction to Translation
Text Typology (Reiss)
informative: texts aimed at imparting information; they are content-centred (news)
expressive: texts aimed at expressing feelings or thoughts of author: form-centred (novel)
operative: aimed at persuading: behaviour-centred (advertisement)

9. Introduction to Translation
For informative texts, the CONTENT is the most important thing (accuracy)
For expressive texts, the FORM is often more important: poetry, for example
For operative texts, the EFFECT on reader is most important: advertisements, for example, have the primary goal of selling a product.

10. Introduction to Translation
Functionalist Approach
“focusing on the function or functions of texts and translations” (Nord 1997:1)
Translation as an activity, embedded in theory of human action
Text Typology (Reiss)
Skopostheorie (Vermeer)
Translational Action (Holz-Mänttäri)
Hypertext (Pöchhacker)

11. Introduction to Translation
Focus on agents (individuals playing roles)
initiator (person who needs TT)
commissioner (person who asks the translator to produce a TT for a particular purpose and addressee)
translator
ST producer
TT user
Addressee
TT message receiver

12. Introduction to Translation
“Each text is produced for a given purpose and should serve this purpose. The Skopos rule thus reads as follows: translate/interpret/speak/ write in a way that enables your text/translation to function in the situation in which it is used and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to function (Vermeer, cited in, and translated by, Nord 1997:29)

13. Introduction to Translation
Ask yourself
what is the main (and secondary) function(s)? Informative? Expressive? Operative?
what means are used to accomplish that function?
what is the genre?
what are the conventions of this sort of text in the source culture?
does the text follow those conventions?
what is the translation brief/skopos?
does the skopos demand any shifts in genre or function?
how can you accomplish such a shift, or how can you maintain the function of the original?

14. Introduction to Translation
Conventions
direct forms of address
slang
requests and recommendations
slogans
Claims
lists
questions
rhyme
evaluative adjectives and nouns
quoting of authoritative voices
appeals to emotions

15. Introduction to Translation
idiomatic expressions
proverbs
allusions
puns
parallel structures
wordplays
pairs
alliteration
repetition for emphasis
foreign words
ambiguity
reference to historical or technical achievement

16. Introduction to Translation
Example 2
Genres can be mimicked
Look at paratext (Genette)
Title page (Dracula, by Bram Stoker) signals that this is a novel, not just a collection of journals and letters