In Search of Regularities in Persian Translation of ‘Substitution’ PRO-forms

What is it about?

Translation involves more than just translating sentences, albeit grammatically accurate. The translator has also to bear in mind the interaction between these sentences, and the semantic and stylistic implications of this interaction. In other words, as Baker (1992, p. 202) puts it, simply transferring the patterns of the source text (ST) to the target text (TT) and ignoring others is likely to result in an awkward translation. One important such pattern is ‘cohesion’. There has always been a controversy among the translation scholars as how to convey cohesion. A number of scholars (for example Baker, 1992) believe that cohesive devices should be translated as they appear in ST or the translator would distort its cohesion. Baker (1992, p. 190) states, “every language has its own devices for establishing cohesive links.” Others (for example Blum-Kulka, 2000) believe that ‘shifts’ are required in conveying cohesion. The present study seeks to answer the following question: What strategies (with what frequencies) are used in Persian translation of substitution pro-forms? What substitution pro-forms resist translatability more than others and why?

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