3.

Text analysis

3.1 Source Text Analysis

The textual factors pertain to the text and its context; Christiane Nord, who studied
translation-oriented text analysis distinguished between extratextual factors and intratextual
factors. She came up with two sets of Wh-questions, one applicable to the context, the other, to
the text. This set establishes the extratextual factors (Superceanu, 2009:59).

1. Who transmits ? - Author/Sender

2. To whom? -Receiver/user
3. What for? -The purpose
4. By which medium? -The channel/medium
5. Where? -The place of text production and reception
6. When? -The time of text production and reception
7. Why? - The motive for communication
8. With what function? -The text function

Not all these factors mentioned above are equally important in all translation situations;
sometimes it's irrelevant the time and place, the motive and even the sender but there are two
important factors in all situations: the senders purpose and the receiver. (according to
Superceanu,2009:59).

According to the second set of wh-questions, the intratextual factors are:

1. On what subject matter does he say what? -The subject matter the text deals with
2. In what order? - The composition/construction of the text
3. Using which non-verbal elements? -The non-linguistic/paralinguistic elements used
 4. In which words?- The lexical characteristics
5. In what kind of sentences? -Syntactic structure
6. In which tone?-The tone and attitude used by the author
7. To what effect?- The intended effect upon the target audience

By analysing the ST and predicting the TT factors from known information the translator can
identify the intertextual by himself/herself. Without the information from the
initiator/commissioner the translator cannot identify the TT factors and not all the the
extratextual factors by analysing the ST. In cases in which the initiator does not provide a brief
or provides incomplete or irrelevant information about the TT, the translator has to elicit it and
he/she can do that by means of a checklist of questions like the following:(Superceanu 2009:59)

Factors Questions

Sender Who require the translation?

Receiver/User Who is the document/text for?

Translation purpose What is the document/text for?

Target text type What text type is to Be produce?

Motive for translation-oriented What has occasioned the translation?

Time of delivery What is the deadline for TT?

Form of presentation Is the text to Be publicized? If yes, where and

by whom?

3.2 The Extratextual Factors

The sender
In this case the sender is Litera, a romanian publish house, which wants to add to its collection of
books the romanian version of John Oakland book about the some central features of British
society and places them within a historical context.
 The receiver/intrended audience
The receiver of this translation might be the students who take classes at college and university
about the UK history. It might as well be the people that are interested in gathering information
about this country, UK.

The senders intention

The sender has a referential purpose, because he seeks to inform the audience about some central
features of British society and places them within a historical context. The senders purpose is a
didactic one, because the referent is a field of knowledge to be learnt by the recipient. Beside this
information purpose, the sender has also an appelative purpose, seeking to persuade the target
readers to become more interested about the central features of British society.

Medium
The channel used is a written form, a book divided in 11 chapters, every chapter having his
subchapters. The book also includes non-verbal elements such as maps and imagines.

The place of text production

On my opinion this chapter is very important due to the fact that English language varies
depending on the region. The place of this book publication is Abingdon, United Kingdom, the
language being British English.

The time of text production

As well as the place of text production, from me time of text production is also essential because every
language changes during years and because the translator can obtain plenty of information by checking
the date of publication. In this case, the book was published by Routledge,Abingdon, United Kingdom, in
2001 being the 5th edition.

The motive
John Oakland is former Senior Lecturer in English at the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology and the author (with David Mauk) of American Civilization(2013, now in its sixth
edition), Irish Civilization (2012, with Arthur Aughey), British Civilization: A Students
Dictionary (2003, in its second edition), and Contemporary Britain (2001). The book was meant
to be used primarily as a textbook for college and university courses. "Oakland has produced an
accessible and comprehensive introduction to British culture and society maintaining clarity and
focus while looking at issues in sufficient depth and detail. The book is well supported with a
dedicated website for students and tutors offering links for future research and self-assessment."
Chris Bilboe, University of Liverpool, UK.
 The text function
The function of the text coincide with the senders intention in this case; because it seeks to
inform the audience about some central features of British society and places them within a
historical context. Because the referent is a field of knowledge to be learnt by the recipient.
Beside this information purpose, it has also an appellative purpose, seeking to persuade the target
readers to become more interested about the central features of British society.

3.3 The Intratextual Factors

According to Nord, the analysis of intratextual factors helps the translator to identify the
problems based on the following questions:

The subject matter

The subject of the text is, as stated in the title, an introduction in british civilization, with all the
important aspects. The book covers the british civilization from its beginnings starting with the
chapter the country and finishing with the chapter named leisure, sport and the art.

Content
Content refers to the items of information which the sender considers to be informative and
meaningful for the receiver. It is expressed by the lexical items, the grammatical structures of the
text and the mutual relationship between them. (Superceanu, 2009:80)
The book explores major concepts in british civilization, from its geographical identities to the
population and arts. It has been paid a great attention to the all important facts that have been
affected the british civilization until now.\

Presupposition
Presuppositions refer to the things and phenomena of the senders culture and represent the
information which the sender expects to be known to the receivers of the text and, therefore, it is
not mentioned explicitly.(Superceanu, 2009:80). Therefore, the sender has to assume the level of
knowledge of the intended audience. Target readers should have some basics knowledge about
the fundamental concepts of british civilization.

Composition
The book British Civilization: An Introduction is splitted in eleven chapters. The first chapter
refers to the country and its Geographical identities, physical features and climate, agriculture,
fisheries and forestry, energy resources, transport and communications and attitudes to the
environment, the second chapter is named The people and it is focused on early settlement to AD
1066, growth and immigration to the twentieth century, immigration from 1900, population
movements from 1900 and attitudes to national, regional and local identities. The third chapter is
Politics and government and it is aimed in offering extra information about these. The fourth
chapter is named International relations and it is focused on them. The fifth chapter is named The
legal system and it includes legal system and british laws. The sixth chapter is about the british
economy. The seventh chapter is about social services. The eight chapter talks about education.
The ninth chapter is about media. The tenth chapter is about religion and its impact on british
civilization and the eleventh chapter is about sports, leisures and art. I was concerned with the
translation of one chapter belonging to this book which was the first chapter regarding the
country.

The non-verbal elements

The non-verbal elements are codes used to supplement, illustrate, disambiguate, and intensify the
message of the text (Nord, 1991:108). These types of elements comes in various forms: pictures,
maps etc. They are important for the further information that they provide ,where necessary, in
order to make sure that the reader fully understands the concept explained.
The book contains many non-verbal elements such as maps and pictures in order to sustain the
information provided.

The lexical features

The analysis of the lexic is very important in the translation process, but it depends whether the
target text preserves the source text purpose or not. (adapted from Superceanu, 2009:89)
The intratextual and extratextual factors are very important for the choice of lexic. The translator
has to take into consideration some caracteristiques such as: level of formality, the type and the
education of the intended public, the level of generality and the stylistic features.
The text i have chosen has a low specialization degree, bu requires general knowledge about
geography, climate, agriculture, fishery, communication and transport. Therefore, if the readers
doesn't have this kind of knowledge, it is unlikely to fully to fully understand the message;the
text also contains acronyms, geographical references.

-acronyms
E.g.CAP, EU, CFP

-geographical references
E.g.Wels, United Kingdom, North Ireland
3.4 Prediction of Target Text Factors

The target text analysis will be done by the same criteria used for analysing the source text.

Factor Factor value

Sender Litera, romanian publishing house

Senders purpose The sender seek to inform the audience about

an introduction in british civilization, with all
the important aspects

Receiver Students who take classes at college or

university

Medium Textbook

Place Timioara

Time of production and reception Production:25 th of May 2017

Reception: 15 th of June 2017

Motive Providing valuable information about the

country

Text function To inform and persuade the readers

Intratextual Factors

Factor Factor Value

Subject Matter An introduction in british civilization, and all

its important aspects

Content Preserved from the source text

Presuppositions General knowledge about the country

Compositions The same as that of source text in terms of

 structure and layout

Non-verbal Elements Pictures, maps, captions and titles translated

Lexical Features Adaptation and explicitation of cultural

references

Effect Same as in the source text

3.5 Establishing the problems and difficulties of translation

The main problems in the text are due to the cultural references. If some readers dont have the
necessary background knowledge of geography and history, they cannot fully understand the
message; therefore I had to explain several concepts. Other problems are linguistic, especially
syntax and lexical problems, pragmatic and text-specific problems.

3.6 Choice of Translation Method

In the translation stage for the full-content mode, the translators goals are only three:
comprehension of the ST content, re-expression of the content in the TL, and TT writing. In
order achieve his goals, the translator uses methods, strategies and techniques.(Superceanu,
2009:107).
The translation methods for this mode are either linguistic or pragmatic, The linguistic methods
are the faithful method and the semantic methodm, while the pragmatic method is the
communicative method, although the opinions of linguistic-oriented theorists differ about the
number of possible methods (Newmark, 1998).
For translating this text i decided to use the communicative method, the best-suited for this
translation, considering the translation skopos and the text type. In my case, the mode of
translation is selective, because only a part from the source text is translated.