Shifts of Cohesion in Translation

In any translation it is common to find some shifts in the internal cohesion of the text as cohesive relations are manifested differently in different languages. Cohesion is a textual property, which refers to the formal devices used to express the inter-sentential relationships and it is crucial for text comprehension. It is imperative for every translator to be aware of the differences in the cohesive devices used in the SL and the TL.

Both the nature and the number of the cohesive ties would differ from the SL to the TL. Some languages prefer grammatical cohesion to lexical cohesion while others prefer lexical to grammatical, thus necessitating shifts in translation. Some shifts are obligatory while others are optional. The paper presents a contrastive analysis of the cohesive devices used in English and Telugu and shows how the differences between the two languages result in shifts of cohesion in translation.

The study follows the model of cohesion presented by Halliday and Hasan(1976). The cohesive properties of the sample texts (a text each in English and Telugu and their target texts in Telugu and English respectively) are analyzed, compared and contrasted in order to know the kind of shifts that generally take place in any translation between the two languages under consideration.

The study revealed that the number of cohesive ties found in the Telugu texts is smaller than that of the English texts. There is a wide disparity between the two languages in the number of instances of Reference. The English texts have a greater number of reference items than the Telugu texts. This is mainly due to the Ellipsis of the pronominal subjects and the lack of definite article in Telugu. Further, Lexical cohesion appears to be the main source of cohesion in Telugu while in English either Lexical cohesion or Reference can serve as the main source of cohesion. It is also observed that the instances of Ellipsis are more in Telugu than in English and they are of a different kind. What is verbal substitution in English is generally an instance of nominal ellipsis in Telugu. And ellipsis is not possible with demonstratives in Telugu while it is very frequent in English.

The findings would be useful not only to the translators but also to the teachers and the learners of English. The awareness of the differences in cohesion between English and Telugu would help the learners of English improve their reading comprehension, writing skills and overcome the mistakes they make in text production in English.