Cover not available

Article published In: Target
Vol. 30:1 (2018) ► pp.87–111

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Connectives as indicators of explicitation in literary translation

A study based on a comparable and parallel corpus

ORCiD logo with link | Universitat Jaume I (Castelló)
Published online: 5 January 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.16042.mar
Abstract
This study aims to answer three questions: (1) whether there are differences in the frequency of use of connectives between translated and non-translated Catalan literary texts; (2) whether these differences (if they exist) are sensitive to the type of semantic relation conveyed; and (3) to what extent they are due to explicitation or other factors. Quantitative analysis reveals that there is no significant difference in the overall frequency of occurrence of connectives in translations and non-translations, but the behaviour of connectives in translations is sensitive to the type of semantic relation conveyed. Moreover, the higher frequency of connectives expressing consequence in translations seems to be related to explicitation. Qualitative analysis suggests that explicitation is strongly associated with two factors: the semantic relation conveyed by the connective being part of the common ground shared by participants, and the predominance of the procedural function of the connective.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Explicitation
  • 3.Connectives as indicators of explicitation
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Results and discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
References (31)
References
Aijmer, Karin. 2007. “The Meaning and Functions of the Swedish Discourse Marker alltså – Evidence from Translation Corpora.” Catalan Journal of Linguistics 61: 31–59. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Mona. 1993. “Corpus Linguistics and Translation Studies – Implications and Applications.” In Text and Technology. In Honour of John Sinclair, ed. by Mona Baker, Gill Francis, and Elena Tognini-Bonelli, 233–250. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Becher, Viktor. 2010. “Abandoning the Notion of ‘Translation-inherent’ Explicitation: Against a Dogma of Translation Studies.” Across Languages and Cultures 11 (1): 1–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana. 1986. “Shifts of Cohesion and Coherence in Translation.” In Interlingual and Intercultural Communication. Discourse and Cognition in Translation and Second Language Acquisition Studies, ed. by Juliane House, and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, 17–35. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuenca, Maria Josep. 2002. “Els connectors textuals i les interjeccions.” In Gramàtica del català contemporani [Grammar of contemporary Catalan], vol. 31, Sintaxi [Syntax], ed. by Joan Solà, Maria Rosa Lloret, Joan Mascaró, and Manuel Pérez Saldanya, 3173–3237. Barcelona: Empúries.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Denturck, Kathelijne. 2012. “Explicitation vs. Implicitation: A Bidirectional Corpus-based Analysis of Causal Connectives in French and Dutch Translations.” Across Languages and Cultures 13 (2): 211–227. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fraser, Bruce. 1996. “Pragmatic Markers.” Pragmatics 6 (2): 167–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hansen-Schirra, Silvia, Stella Neumann, and Erich Steiner. 2007. “Cohesive Explicitness and Explicitation in an English-German Translation Corpus.” Languages in Contrast 7 (2): 241–265. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kenny, Dorothy. 2001. Lexis and Creativity in Translation. A Corpus-based Approach. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klaudy, Kinga. 2001. “The Asymmetry Hypothesis. Testing the Asymmetric Relationship between Explicitations and Implicitations.” Paper presented at the Third International Congress of the European Society for Translation Studies, “Claims, Changes and Challenges in Translation Studies,” 30 August–1 September 2001, Copenhagen, Denmark.
. 2008. “Explicitation.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, and Gabriela Saldanha, 80–85. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klaudy, Kinga, and Krisztina Károly. 2005. “Implicitation in Translation: Empirical Evidence for Operational Asymmetry in Translation.” Across Languages and Cultures 6 (1): 13–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nølke, Henning. 2007. “Connectors in a Cross-linguistic Perspective.” Languages in Contrast 7 (2): 167–183. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olohan, Maeve, and Mona Baker. 2000. “Reporting that in Translated English. Evidence for Subconscious Processes of Explicitation?” Across Languages and Cultures 1 (2): 141–158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Øverås, Linn. 1998. “In Search of the Third Code: An Investigation of Norms in Literary Translation.” Meta 43 (4): 557–570. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pápai, Vilma. 2004. “Explicitation: A Universal of Translated Text?” In Translation Universals: Do They Exist?, ed. by Anna Mauranen, and Pekka Kujamäki, 143–164. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Puurtinen, Tiina. 2004. “Explicitation of Clausal Relations: A Corpus-based Analysis of Clause Connectives in Translated and Non-translated Finnish Children’s Literature.” In Translation Universals: Do They Exist?, ed. by Anna Mauranen, and Pekka Kujamäki, 165–176. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scott, Mike. 2004–2007. WordSmith Tools Version 4.0. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Séguinot, Candace. 1988. “Pragmatics and the Explicitation Hypothesis.” TTR Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 1 (2): 106–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sweetser, Eve. 1990. From Etymology to Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 2007. “Discussion Article: Discourse Markers, Modal Particles, and Contrastive Analysis, Synchronic and Diachronic.” Catalan Journal of Linguistics 61: 139–157. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vandepitte, Sonia. 1996. “Causaliteit en haar uitdrukkingsvormen in het Engels: een classificatie.” Handelingen Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis L: 141–157.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vandepitte, Sonia, Kathelijne Denturck, and Dominique Willems. 2013. “Translator Respect for Source text Information Structure: A Parallel Investigation of Causal Connectors.” Across Languages and Cultures 14 (1): 47–73. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vinay, Jean-Paul, and Jean Darbelnet. (1958) 1995. Comparative Stylistics of French and English. A Methodology for Translation [Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais]. Translated by Juan C. Sager, and M.-J. Hamel. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zufferey, Sandrine, and Bruno Cartoni. 2012. “English and French Causal Connectives in Contrast.” Languages in Contrast 12 (2): 232–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “A Multifactorial Analysis of Explicitation in Translation.” Target 26 (3): 361–384. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (10)

Cited by ten other publications

Hui, Ruby Ka Yee & Dechao Li
2025.  Re-examining Explicitation Hypothesis in Translation: A Study of Character Name Repetition in Ten Chinese Versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland . SAGE Open 15:2 DOI logo
Li, Jia & Yuan Gao
2025. Variability of cohesion and coherence in Chinese-to-English translation: measuring the effect of translation variety and register divergence. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 12:1 DOI logo
Mu, Congjun
2025. Academic voice in the rhetorical construction of author identity. Languages in Contrast 25:2 ► pp. 209 ff. DOI logo
Shen, Lin & Haidee Kotze
2025. Linguistic indicators differentiating translated and untranslated diplomatic discourse: A diachronic analysis of the United Nations General Debate (1946–2022). Lingua 320 ► pp. 103933 ff. DOI logo
Lapshinova-Koltunski, Ekaterina, Christina Pollkläsener & Heike Przybyl
2022. Exploring Explicitation and Implicitation in Parallel Interpreting and Translation Corpora. Prague Bulletin of Mathematical Linguistics 119:1 ► pp. 5 ff. DOI logo
Şen Bartan, Özgür
2022. Structural repetitions and discourse relations in English-Turkish translations of TED talks. The Literacy Trek 8:2 ► pp. 186 ff. DOI logo
Bracho Lapiedra, Llum & Gemma Peña Martínez
2020. La explicitación a través de los conectores contrastivos y consecutivos en un corpus de traducción literaria en el par de lenguas francés-español. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 33:2 ► pp. 357 ff. DOI logo
Fan, Lu & Yue Jiang
2019. Can dependency distance and direction be used to differentiate translational language from native language?. Lingua 224 ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Fan, Lu & Yue Jiang
2021. A syntactic dependency network approach to the study of translational language. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 36:3 ► pp. 595 ff. DOI logo
Molés-Cases, Teresa & Ulrike Oster
2019. Indexation and analysis of a parallel corpus using CQPweb. In Parallel Corpora for Contrastive and Translation Studies [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 90], ► pp. 197 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue