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Mona Baker & Translation Studies

Mona Baker in the book of In Other Words defined six types of equivalence: (1) equivalence at word level, (2) equivalence above the word level, (3) grammatical equivalence, (4) textual equivalence; thematic and word order, (5) textual equivalence; cohesion, and (6) pragmatic equivalence. Textual equivalence refers to the equivalence in terms of information and cohesion. It is up to the translator to decide whether or not to maintain the cohesive ties as well as the coherence of the source language [3]. We can explore textual equivalence from the aspect of reference, substitution and ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. Chapter 5 applies the systematic approach to thematic structure. Baker makes use of Hallidayan linguistics to examine translation as communication within a sociocultural context [4]. Halliday put forward the “register” concept in his model of language. In SFL register is a technical term, richer and more complex [4]. It links the variables of social context to language choice and comprises three elements: field, tenor and mode. Field refers to what is being written about; tenor means who is communicating and to whom; mode is the form of communication. Each of the variables of Register is associated with a strand of meaning in the text. These three strands, known as “metafunctions”, are ideational, interpersonal, and textual. Clause as a message can be analyzed in terms of two types of structure: thematic structure and information structure [1]. Mona Baker outlines two main approaches to the analysis of clauses as a message. One is the Hallidayan approach, which treats thematic and information structures separately. Another is from Prague School, they conflate the two structures and combine them in the same description. Halliday’s notion of theme reflects the special characteristics of Chinese and English. We only talk about the Hallidayan approach in this paper, because we discuss Chinese and English contrastive differences in textual level. A clause consists of two segments: theme and rheme. The theme is what the clause about. It has two functions: (a) it acts as a point of orientation by connecting back to previous stretches of discourse and thereby maintaining a coherent point of view and, (b) it acts as a point of departure by connecting forward and contributing to the development of later stretches. The rheme is what the speaker says about the theme. It is the goal of discourse. As such, it is the most important element in the structure of the clause as a message because it represents the very information that the speaker wants to convey to the hearer. It is the rheme that fulfils the communicative purpose of the utterance [1]. The notions of subject and predicate can be used to account for the grammaticality, while the notions of theme and rheme can be used to account for the acceptability of a given sequence in a given context. Baker emphasizes that translators should not underestimate the cumulative effect of thematic choices on the way we interpret text [1]. For a translator, it is important to be aware of the relative markedness of the thematic and information structures. The thematic choice involves selecting a clause element as a theme. In the Hallidayan model, thematic choices are expressed by placing one of these elements in initial position in the clause. Thematic choices indicate the speaker’s/writer’s point of departure. The fewer choices a clause has, the less marked it will be and the weaker will be its meaning. And the less expected a choice, the more marked it is and the more meaning it carries. Hallidayan linguists identify three main types of marked themes in English: fronted theme, predicated theme, and identifying theme. From the view of themes, the nature of English exists relatively fixed word order; and Chinese exists a special category of the topic that always appears in the first place of the clause [1]. Actually, it is disputable that the topic in Chinese “always” occurs at the beginning of the clause. We will discuss in the next part. The distinction between theme and rheme is speaker-oriented, while the distinction between what is given and what is new in a message is hearer-oriented. According to Halliday and Hasan [5], information structure is only of spoken English. Chapter 6 applies the systematic approach to cohesion. Cohesion is the second feature of text organization and the network of lexical, grammatical, and other relations which provide links between various parts of a text. Cohesion is different from coherent, which is a surface relation. It is cohesive devices that connect the actual words and expressions which we can see or hear. Baker uses the model in Halliday and Hasan’s Cohesion in English (1976). As Halliday and Hasan state that there are five main cohesive devices in English: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion.