Referential Cohesion in the Translation of English-swahili Healthcare Texts

Abstract

Referential cohesion in African languages is a largely neglected area of study. Given the foregoing, this study, theoretically anchored on Descriptive Translation Studies and Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) seminal model, explores referential cohesion in the translation of English-Swahili healthcare texts with an endeavour to describe its use and establish if there is variation when texts are translated. Cohesion in translation is fundamental since it is the basis of a network of relations that allows readers to interpret a text. The results show that personals and demonstratives are the most widely used references in both the source and target texts. Further, anaphoric reference is the most prevalent. In addition, it emerged that the translated Swahili text uses more reference items than their English counterparts. This is partly due to explicitation and the nature of the Swahili verb. This study brings to the fore the role of translators in making texts cohesive notwithstanding the reference items used in the source texts.