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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 16:5 (2025) ► pp.748–771

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Deictic shifts and re-contextualization in translation

A case study of English and Persian parallel texts

 | Yasouj University
ORCiD logo with link | University of Isfahan
Published online: 19 December 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.23090.diy
Abstract
This study investigates the challenges of translating English demonstratives into Persian, with a focus on deictic shifts and their discourse-pragmatic implications. It aims to outline the recontextualization that deictic terms undergo during translation and the role of discourse-pragmatic factors in this process. Utilizing a parallel database of literary and academic texts in English and Persian, all instances of English demonstratives and their Persian counterparts have been identified and compared based on type, form, and quantity. An analysis of 1,849 instances of demonstrative discrepancies reveals two primary types of deictic shifts: (1) genuine shifts, which involve a change in the deictic center due to the translator’s (inter)subjectivity, leading to the re-contextualization of discourse, and (2) non-genuine shifts, where there is no change in the origo. The findings indicate a tendency for genuine shifts to alternate between distal-to-proximal and proximal-to-distal, with a marked preference for distal-to-proximal shifts, attributed to the unmarked nature of proximal deixis in Persian. Furthermore, translators frequently replace pure deictics with impure forms or add deictic terms for clarity, reflecting broader translation strategies aimed at ensuring the definiteness and explicitness of referents.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical frameworks
    • 2.1The nature of deixis
    • 2.2Translation as a re-contextualization process
    • 2.3(Inter)subjectivity of translation discourse
  • 3.Data and methods
  • 4.Results of the study
    • 4.1Translational deictic shifts
      • 4.1.1Genuine deictic shifts
        • (a)Shift from proximal to distal deictics, or vice versa
        • (b)Shift from distal to proximal along with replacing plural with singular deictics
        • (c)Shift from proximal to distal, or vice versa, along with replacing pure with impure deictics
      • 4.1.2Pseudo-deictic shifts
        • (a)Replacing pure with impure deictics, or vice versa
        • (b)Zero substitution
        • (c)Addition
    • 4.2Quantitative analysis
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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