Checking Translations for Discourse Features

Abstract

This paper builds on one entitled, “The Relevance of Greek Discourse Studies to Exegesis” (Levinsohn 2006b), and seeks to address how consultants might ensure that the features discussed there have been adequately handled in a translation into a receptor language. Initially, translators need to have undertaken appropriate research into the way that relevant discourse features function in the language. The features that should most concern consultants are those that function in significantly different ways in the source and receptor languages. A common error in translation is to use a countering or logical connective (at times, borrowed from the lingua franca of the area) when the natural way to encode the relation in the receptor language is different. Finally, a word-by-word back-translation may well be necessary in order to check that some discourse features have been handled correctly.