Standard of Coherence in the Translated Texts: A Textlinguistic Contrastive Analysis

Abstract

Translation Studies and practices currently face some procedural challenges which are summarizable into problems of Text reception and analyses, transfer of text meaning, assessment of translation text, and realization of textual equivalence. Translation practice have also witnessed a number of theories and approaches aimed at solving these problems. Textlinguistics has recently been considered a pragmatic touchstone for the analysis and assessment of translated texts. Textlinguists have made a strong case for the principle of Textuality (and its standards) as an effective tool in text creation and analysis as well as determinant of textuality in a natural text. Coherence as one of the seven standards of textuality therefore deals basically with the internal semantic structure of text. It is a textual procedure in which cognitive elements are activated to create and recover conceptual relations in a text. It also forms the basic features by which text world and its conceptual relations are characterised. This paper therefore aims to provide information on Coherence as one of the seven standards of textuality, expose its concepts and elements, and demonstrate its relationship with Translation. it also attempts at transforming Coherence standard into an effective cognitive theoretical framework for the analysis and assessment of translated text. Two political reports (Source and Target Texts) were selected from two (non-) governmental organizations for textual analysis and assessment. The paper concluded on the note that any translation process that is done on the basis of standard of coherence will enable translator to identify the extent of his success in producing a coherent, equivalent and communicative translated text.