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Article published In: Target
Vol. 11:2 (1999) ► pp.289–315

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Clefts in Translations between English and German

 | Humboldt University, Berlin
Published online: 24 March 2000
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.11.2.06doh
Abstract
A great number of translation problems are linguistic in nature, but they can only be properly diagnosed and their solutions 'objectively ' assessed if one takes account of the context in which the problematic elements occur. The paper focuses on a prototypical case of such translation problems: English cleft sentences and their counterparts in German. Clefts are claimed to establish a rhetorical relation with a propositional antecedent located beyond the local context, thus contributing to the formation of textual macro-structures. While the local context determines the focal interpretation of clefts within the current discourse, the appeal to earlier ideas attributes to the cleft a higher degree of contextual relevance.
Résumé
Un grand nombre de problèmes de traduction sont linguistiques par définition, mais tant leur identification que la mise au point de solutions 'objectives' appellent un examen du contexte au sein du quel ces problèmes surviennent. Cet article s'attache à un exemple prototypique de problèmes de traduction: des phrases clivées en anglais et leurs correspondantes en allemand. Le clivage est supposé établir une relation rhétorique avec un antécédent rejeté au-delà du contexte immédiat; il contribue de cette sorte à l'élaboration de macro-structures textuelles. Tandis que le contexte immédiat détermine l'interprétation des phrases clivées sur le plan discursif, la référence à des idées antérieures confère une plus grande pertinence contextuelle au clivage.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1.Basic Hypotheses
    • 1.2.A First Look at Clefts in English and German
  • 2.The Original
    • 2.1.Empirical Observations
    • 2.2.Linguistic Assumptions on Clefts
    • 2.3.Some More Observations and a First Hypothesis
    • 2.4.The Semantic Basis of the Discourse Effect
  • 3.Translations into German
    • 3.1.Systematic Variations
    • 3.2. Improving the Translation
    • 3.3.Focus
    • 3.4.Securing the Appropriate Focus Structure
      • 3.4.1.A Closer Look at Endfocus
      • 3.4.2.Reordering
      • 3.4.3.Retaining the Cleft
  • 4.Summarizing the Discussion
    • 4.1.The Priority of Appropriate Focus Structures
    • 4.2.The Grammatical Differences
  • Notes
  • References
References (27)
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