A pedagogic model of translating expository texts

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present a semantically- based and pragmatically-oriented model of translating expository texts, to expound its main components and to establish links between its subcomponents. The model is discourse-centered. It caters for the properties of meaning, semantic relationships, rhetorical patterns and discoursal values, and considers the cognitive processes of interpretation which involve interaction and negotiation between schemata- the system of prior conceptual knowledge and the textual information. The model considers both the macro- and micro-dimensions of discourse analysis. It starts with macro-structure analysis, i.e. the discoursal organizational patterns and proceeds to micro-structure analysis, i.e. the intersentential relationships that bind together the portions of the text and the lexical items which encode the imparted meaning. The model takes into account the four translation processes of discourse decomposition, conversion restructuring and editing. It views the text as a subcomponent of the communicative context which in turn is a subcomponent of the context of culture (see Figure 4). The analytical procedure proceeds in terms of three levels: level 1 involves discourse decomposition (Component A), level 2 involves communicative context analysis (Component B) and level 3 involves cultural restructuring (Component C). To properly comprehend a text, a trainee translator has to: (a) decompose the intricate network of semantic and textual relationships, (b) consider the parameters of the communicative context that are relevant to discourse interpretation and (c) link the text to its cultural context.