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Paragraphing and Syndesis/Asyndesis
in Arabic-English Translations
Waleed Ahmad Othman
Al-Zaytoonah University
Amman, Jordan
Abstract
This paper addresses two main points in translation from Arabic into English. The
first point has to do with paragraphing, the second with syndetic/asyndetic coordination.
The researcher assumes that Arab translators, when translating Arabic texts into English,
tend to follow the norms of the source language (i.e. Arabic) rather than those of the
target language (i.e. English) as regards paragraphing and syndesis/asyndesis. For the
purpose of this research, the paper makes use of an Arabic text alongside its translations
(by 8 Arab translators) into English. The text is not taken as a representative of any text
type or genre. Rather, it is thought of as typical Arabic written discourse, where
paragraphs usually tend to be long and contain more than one idea each. The translators
involved in this research represent two categories: four practitioners and four translation
teachers.
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1. Introduction
Baker (1995:223), among others, suggested that translated texts have the
tendency of deviating from original target texts in various ways, which, according
to Toury, results in an output with source text features that does not qualify as a
translation. A translated text, being intended for target language readership, needs
to take target language norms into consideration. (1980:39-40; 1984: 78). But "a
source text is not simply a linguistic entity as it enters into networks of
relationships of not only a linguistic, but also a textual and cultural nature,"
Therefore, "a knowledge of the source language in itself is insufficient; what is
also essential is a close familiarity with the source culture, literary traditions,textual conventions, and so forth," (Shuttleworth, 1997: 157-8). See also Kelly:
1979 ; Sykes: 1983)
In this paper, it is hypothesized that English texts translated from Arabic
would be characterized by long paragraphs and syndetic coordination (coordinate
structures with the use of a coordinator: Quirk et al. 1985:918), two features
typical of Arabic, not English. This is likely to have an impact on the
comprehensibility of the translation and thus lower its acceptability among the
readership, as a result of nonconforming to the norms of the target language (i.e.
English).
Paragraphing
A paragraph, as defined in almost every English writing book, is a series
of sentences developing one topic, and can be identified by its visual
representation. The topic of a paragraph is expressed in a topic sentence which
also has the functions of limiting the topic and letting the reader know how the
paragraph will be developed. No irrelevant sentences or digressions are expected
to be present in a good paragraph as such irrelevancies and/or digressions distract
or confuse the reader. Most often, an English paragraph is not too long to
comprehend. An A4 sheet of paper would usually have two or more paragraphs.
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This is not the case with Arabic written discourse, where the concept of the
paragraph is quite recent. The Arabic paragraph usually holds too much
information which could include two or more ideas. Complex digressions are also
expected and a topic sentence is often difficult to cite.
To allow no misconception in this context, it is worth mentioning that the
way Arabic paragraphs are constructed and developed is neither inferior nor
superior to that of English; it is just different. However, such differences do create
a difficulty in comprehension on the part of the native speaker of English when
he/she reads discourse originally written in Arabic along the lines traditionallylaid down for it in the Arabic language and culture.
But, what causes the difference in the methods of developing paragraphs
in the first place? Differences in paragraphing stem from the fact that ideas dont
fit together in the same way from language to language []. These differences
exist because each culture has its own special way of thinking (Bander, 1983:5).
In an English paragraph, the pattern of thinking follows a straight line of
development. This makes it different from Arabic, where paragraphs tend to
follow parallel lines of development. Generally speaking, the different approaches
to writing are related to the cultures thought patterns (Kaplan, 1967). See also
Sapir: 1951, 1956; Nida: 1964.
For a translator to whom English thought patterns are not native, it is
essential that he/she understands them if his/her translation is to be rendered
effectively. In other words, a translator needs to be aware that rhetorical patterns
differ from one culture to another and thus be urged by this awareness to follow
the writing pattern that is native to the target language. A translation which does
not pay due attention to such "rhetorical strategies gives rise to certain
communicative and textual problems" (El-Shiyab: 1992: 73)
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Syndetic / asyndetic Coordination
Coordination is a grammatical phenomenon present in both Arabic and
English. To realize it, both languages employ conjunctive particles. Sometimes,
however, coordination is marked by means of juxtaposition of syntagms with no
words linking them (i.e. the phrases or clauses are placed next to each other
without a conjunction). Constructions with a conjunction are typically regarded as
syndetic parataxis; coordination without an overt linker is termed asyndetic.
In Arabic, asyndesis is not the normal means of coordination as the use of
a conjunction (especially wa) to link phrases and clauses is the favored option.This is unlike the pattern in English, where a combination of syndesis/asyndesis is
required stylistically and even grammatically (Holes, 1995: 216).
2. The Sample Text
The sample text is an Arabic newspaper article published in the Jordanian
Addustour daily newspaper (Sept. 17, 2003). The text has about 750 words in two
paragraphs, the first of which is a short introduction (45 words). The English
translations of the article were provided by eight translators, four of whom are
teachers of translation; the other four are practitioners. Grouping the translators
into two categories (practitioners and teachers of translation) is meant to give a
hint of the impact of translation theory on translation practice. The sample text is
not to be thought of as a certain text type or genre. It is simply a representative of
typical Arabic writing, with long paragraphs and syndetic coordination.
3. Analysis
The method of analysis applied was two-fold: First, to count the number of
paragraphs in the English translations against those in the original Arabic text. The
Arabic text (source text) is made up of only two paragraphs (see appendix). Table
No. (1) shows the results of the first method of analysis:
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Table (1): Number of paragraphs in the translated versions of the sample text:
A B C DNo. of
paragraphs
2 paragraphs 3 paragraphs 4 paragraphs 7 paragraphs
frequency 2 translations 1 translation 4 translations 1 translation
Table (1) above shows a discrepancy in paragraphing the target language
text. Two translations opted for the same pattern of paragraphing present in the
source language text (Column A). One of those two translations was carried out
by a young teacher of translation who holds an MA in Translation, but has a shortexperience (i.e. 2 years). The other translation was provided by a practitioner, who
is also young and inexperienced in the field of translation practice. Both
translators thought they needed not change the paragraphing pattern of the Arabic
text. By so doing, they had more than one idea in one paragraph, which is not
typical of a well-developed English paragraph (O'donnell, 1986:1)
Column B in table (1) shows that only one translator chose to divide the
second Arabic paragraph into two, making the total number of paragraphs in the
translated version 3 altogether. The translator who carried out this job has been a
teacher of translation for about five years. He has also been practicing translation
as a freelancer for about the same period. It is interesting to know that this
translator, when asked why he opted for three paragraphs, instead of two, said that
the article needed a concluding paragraph that would lead the readers to a
conclusion, rather than leave them wandering about the purpose of this piece of
writing. Again, the second paragraph in this translated version of the text housed
more than one idea, a failure according to a sound English writing style.
The four translations (under Column C) were each divided into four
paragraphs: an introductory paragraph (the same as in the source text), two
paragraphs making the body of the article, and a concluding paragraph. These
translations were provided by four translators, two of whom have been teachers of
translation for more than five years. The other two (i.e. the practitioners) have
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been in the field for more than ten years. What attracted our attention in these
translated versions of the article is that the paragraphing pattern in the four of
them is just the same; all the translators broke their paragraphs and started new
ones similarly. The introductory paragraphs in their translations were the same as
that of the Arabic text. They all divided the other Arabic paragraph into three
paragraphs, the last of which made the conclusion to the article. In their second
paragraphs; i.e. the first in the body of the article, the main idea was the
declaration Perez made, as well as the writer's astonishment about it and the
questions he raised. The following paragraph; the second in the body, answered
the writer's questions by recounting facts and events.
The last translation (Column D) was supplied by a practitioner who has
been practicing translation for five years. This translator came out with seven
paragraphs.
Looking more closely at the results above, one could reach the following
conclusion: Of the four translation teachers, three chose to change the
paragraphing pattern of the source text. The fourth, as mentioned above, has only
been teaching for two years. Three of the four practitioners also decided to have
more paragraphs in the target text than there is in the source text.
Regardless of the number of paragraphs in the six translations (i.e. those
with more than two paragraphs), it is interesting to know that the decision of
chopping pieces of writing into smaller units was taken by both teachers of
translation and translation practitioners alike, which surely suggests a
considerable (perhaps equal) impact of both theory and practice on the process
and output of translation. The translators thought it would be wise to cut a long
paragraph (as the one in the source text) into three paragraphs. By so doing, they
have made it easier for readers to follow the line of thought of the writer. That is,
by paragraphing, the translators managed to imitate the way English speakers
usually arrange their ideas following a direct line of development. A word of
caution is vital in this context: It should not be understood that the mere slicing of
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a text into paragraphs would render it comprehensible. A bird's eye inspection of
articles in some current magazines and newspapers will show that some writers do
break their paragraphs for no apparent reason, except that they feel the old
paragraph has run on long enough. In the case of the Arabic text of this study, the
writer does not seem to bother about paragraphing his text though he presents
more than one idea in the body of the text.
This last hypothesis (the effect of paragraphing on comprehension) was
further authenticated by a reading comprehension test prepared by the researcher.
He asked ten 4th
-year students of English to read the 2-paragraph version of thetarget text, and ten other students of the same level, to read the 4-paragraph
version of the target text. The students were asked to write down what they
thought the main ideas of the texts at hand were. Of the first group, 7 out of ten
thought there were only two main ideas. 7 out of ten of the second group thought
there were four ideas. These results clearly show that the number of paragraphs
did have an influence on the student's decisions and comprehensibility of the text,
which suggests that ideas are more readily noticed in a well-paragraphed text than
in a poorly-paragraphed one (i.e. the text with only two paragraphs that contain
more than one main idea each).
The second analysis procedure adopted in this paper was to mark every
case of syndetic coordination in the Arabic text to see how it was rendered in the
English translations. The total number of syndetically coordinated clauses in the
Arabic text amounted to (32) instances (see appendix), 24 of which are instances
ofwa. (In this paper we are only interested in coordination of clauses).
Table (2): Number of syndetic coordination instances in the eight translations:
Translation No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
No. of syndetic
coordination instances
14 16 6 7 7 6 6 5
The table above shows the number of syndetic coordination instances in
each of the eight translations of the sample text. In the first and second
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translations, which were done by the two novice translators cited in column A of
table (1), we could count (14) and (16) tokens of syndetic coordination, mostly
with the use ofand. The translators here opted for syndesis in about half of the
coordination cases in the source text which amounted to (32). The remaining cases
were mostly rendered asyndetically; i.e. without the use of any conjunctive
devices.
As for the other six translators, as table (2) above shows, the number of
syndetic coordination instances ranged from (5) to (7). Most translators opted for
coordinating particles in translating particles number(1,5,9,12,14,16,21,23,31).See the appendix.
For the remaining instances of coordination in the source text, the
following techniques were observed:
I Changing the second coordinated unit, which is an independent clause,
into a dependent relative clause.
e.g. (1):
This is a fact that has been realized, although late, by those in the Palestinian
Authority, led by Yaser Arafat, who took upon themselves the rejection of
II Using subordinators to replace coordinators:
e.g. (2):
.
Unless the Palestinians accept what Israel offers them, they (the Palestinians) will
get nothing.
e.g. (3):
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Now that they have turned the Palestinians life into hell, they only want
III Using the present participial in English to replace coordinators in
Arabic:
e.g. (4):
usurped three quarters of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, imparted the Zionism
character on Jerusalem, declared , having turned into hell
e.g. (5):
Getting the point, Perez went
IV Using paired conjunctions:
e.g. (6):
...
not only to recognize Israel, but also to establish political and economic
relations with it.e.g. (7):
.
either accept what Israel offers them or they wont get anything.
V Using apposition:
e.g. (8):
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The Palestinians recognized the State of Israel and its right to exist , a
recognition that led a number of Arab and Muslim countries
VI Using punctuation marks:
In the following sentence, the translator used a semicolon to give the meaning of
the particlefa:
e.g. (9):
:
We managed to entrap the Palestinians; we were able to achieve in ten years what
we
In the following sentence, a dash was used to replace the Arabicfa
e.g. (10)::
Oslo Agreement, sponsored by the US, has given the Israelis what they had never
even dreamt of The Palestinians have recognized the Hebraic State and its rightto exist and live in peace in the region.
VII Rendering coordinators asyndetically:
e.g. (11):
...
Actually, I ..
e.g. (12):
...
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Were the Zionists really able to ?
In the two Arabic examples cited above (as well as in five other instances -
6, 8, 17, 22, 32) the wa is resumptive, that is, it functions as an indicator of topic
continuity ensuring coherent transition from one discourse into another
(Hamdan, 1999: 593). In English, the use of a resumptive 'and' is rare, which
justifies the translators' decision of leaving such instances out.
In the example below, however, the wa is dropped for another reason (i.e.
the wa is not resumptive in this example). The wa in this example is additive,
which is repeated in Arabic before all coordinated units (phrases or clauses),unlike the case in English, where only the last instance ofandis retained:
e.g. (13):
Having usurped , imparted , declared , turned , and
4. Conclusions
The present paper has shown that:
Both experienced practitioners and teachers of translation tend to change
the paragraphing pattern of an Arabic text when rendering it into English.
Novice translators, on the other hand, are subject to influences which
come from the source text paragraphing style. The only sound option
before a translator if he/she is to create an understandable and effective
target text is to follow the norms of writing in the target language.
However, paragraphing should not be misunderstood as the mere chopping
up of a lengthy discourse or text into small units without understanding the
actual function and organization of the paragraph.
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Well-developed pieces of writing are more easily comprehended. Readers
find it easier to elicit ideas from such discourse than from longer blocks of
writing where more than one idea are usually found. This has been proved
by the reading comprehension test mentioned above. When paragraphs are
not too long, the reader can readily follow the main theme therein.
Everything within such limited paragraphs leads to a smooth
comprehension and helps the reader get to the point intended by the writer.
Both experienced practitioners and teachers of translation opt for other
techniques rather than coordination when dealing with a highly-
coordinated Arabic text. Such techniques include the use of subordination,present participials, paired conjunctions, apposition and punctuation marks
to replace instances of coordination. It is worth-mentioning, in this
context, that Arabic favors coordination more than subordination. Reid
(1992) did a computer text analysis on essays by both native English
speakers and non-native speakers from Arabic, Spanish, and Chinese
language backgrounds, and found that Arabic writers use more coordinate
conjunctions than writers in the other languages of the study. Along similar
lines, Ostler (1987) found that long sentences conjoined with coordinating
conjunctions are typical of Arabic Writing. This tendency is not a
drawback of Arabic. In 1967, Kaplan compared rhetorical and syntactic
styles of English and Arabic and found that in English subordination is
considered more elegant than, and hence preferable to, parallelism, while
the opposite holds for Arabic (Kaplan, 1967). Therefore, the translators
who opted for methods other than coordination, including subordination,
were on the right track; they did manage to make their translations more
sophisticated, mature, interesting and effective (Oshima, 1991:165)
5. Suggestions
More descriptive and contrastive studies on paragraphing and coordination
are needed. Such studies should include discourse from different genres.
Prospective translators ought to be made aware of paragraphing
conventions in both English and Arabic. This would entail paying due
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attention to the concept of cultural thought patterns employed in the
writing process of both languages.
Prospective translators should also be made aware of the
coordination/subordination preferences in both English and Arabic. (See
also Othman: 2004)
In longer research projects more extended texts could be surveyed and
analyzed through the use of massive amounts of computerized collections
of texts that are currently available on the Internet.
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Reid, Joy. (1992). "Cohesion is not coherence". Journal of Second Language
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Appendix
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)11(
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1967
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