Discourse in Eugene Nida's translation theory.

Abstract

The fields of discourse and translation are by no means new areas of study. However, it is only in recent years that discourse analysis has been applied directly to translation. The primary objective of this thesis is to show that discourse is now a key concept in Eugene A. Nida's translation theory by outlining the evolution of Nida's translation theory in general. Our secondary objectives include showing the influences of discourse-based linguistics on his writings, and highlighting the similarities and differences between Nida's writing on discourse and a number of other scholars' discourse-based translation theories. This thesis is divided into five main sections. The first section, discourse typology, presents the various text types as identified by Nida. The second section, rhetorical structure, analyzes discourse on the macrolevel, while the third section, rhetorical features, analyzes the study of discourse on the microlevel. The fourth section deals with rhetorical functions, that is, the effectiveness of the discourse or how it creates impact and appeal. And the fifth and final section is an application chapter where we analyze and translate a text according to Nida's discourse theory. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)