Norms of Substitution in Translation: A French–English Case Study

Abstract

Substitution is a discoursal grammatical cohesion; it replaces an element with a substitute with the same structural function as the substituted element. This paper ,investigates the language norms and translation norms of substitution in the literary text; it describes the occurrence of substitution and its structural effect in translation. The investigation is done on two novels, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and Strait is the Gate by André Gide. This study follows Halliday and Hasan’s theory (1976) of cohesion and Catford’s (1965) theory of translation shifts. First, the whole text is read; then, data are identified, categorized, and analyzed. The investigation reveals that English uses substitution in cases where French uses other cohesive ties like reference, ellipsis, and repetition. The shift category used to achieve substitution cohesiveness is a class shift determined by language peculiarity norms of the source and target languages. The research, therefore, reveals that the translator’s invisibility and the inviolability of language norms enhance the literariness and acceptability of the target text