Syntactic Strategies for Translating English Absolute Clauses into Thai
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Abstract
An absolute clause, which is typically found in English fictional works, is realized as an overt subject with a non-finite predicate and hence exhibits a certain semantic relationship with a matrix clause, e.g., anteriority, posteriority, cause, result, and accompanying circumstance. Regarding the textual function, it provides additional background details or circumstances to enrich descriptions and enhance readers’ understanding. Previous literature sheds light on its syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and stylistic aspects. However, the translation of such construction into Thai tends to be practically unnoticed. The study raises a question about how translators deal with the fact that absolute clauses only exist in English but not in Thai since it is unlikely that such specificity is to be preserved in translation. The data comprise English absolute clauses from the two novels written by Dan Brown, namely Inferno and Origin, and their Thai translations. The data were analyzed based on Chesterman’s (1997) syntactic strategies. A vast majority of English absolute clauses were translated into Thai using independent clauses but with an adjustment of coreferences, semantic relationships, and stylistic features. The study can provide insight into translation strategies when linguistic differences between the two languages pose a challenge in translation. It will also be a case study for literary translation, especially in terms of transferring stylistic features.
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