TEXT ANALYSIS

PhDr. Martin Kubuš, PhD. / doc. Martin

Djovčoš, PhD.
What is text?
 Text is the verbal record of communicative
event. It is an instance of language in use
rather than language as an abstract system
of meaning and relations. (Brown, Yule 1983)
 Text is a complex semantic entity consisting
of phonetic, morphological, syntactic, lexical
and stylistic components, which carries
a certain meaning and fulfils specific intention
of the author (sender). (Djovčoš, 2008)
What is analysis?
 Analysis is conceptual division of semantic
entity into its elements, definition of its signs
and their observation.
What is text analysis?
 Text analysis is conceptual division of a
complex semantic entity into its phonetic,
morphological, syntactic, lexical and stylistic
components and the observation of their
relevance in the process of reception.
3 phases of analysis
 Syntactic

 Semantic

 Pragmatic
What is synthesis?
 Synthesis is conceptual connection of
elements of subject or phenomenon into one
complex entity. It is understanding and
observing of a subject as one unit.

 Text synthesis can be then understood as a

conceptual connection of phonetic,
morphological, syntactic, lexical and stylistic
components into a complex semantic entity.
3 phases of synthesis
 Pragmatic

 Semantic

 Syntactic
 What do we analyse?
Extratextual factors
The extratextual factors focus simply on “observing the
situation in which the text is used”. (Nord, p. 37)
 author or sender of the text
 the sender's intention
 addressee or recipient the text is directed at
 medium or channel the text is communicated by
 place of text production and text reception
 time of text production and text reception
 the motive for communication
 the function the text can achieve
 What do we analyse?
Intratextual factors
They encompass the “traditional aspects of content and
form” (Nord, s. 79) .
 the subject matter the text deals with
 the information or content presented in the text
 knowledge presuppositions made by the author
 composition or construction of the text
 non-linguistic elements accompanying the text
 lexical characteristics – e. g. terminology, charactonyms,
stylistic devices
 syntactic structures
 suprasegmental features of intonation and prosody
Prosody
 1. The study of the metrical structure of verse.
 2. A particular system of versification.
-- [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prosody]
3 -- “The patterns of sounds and beats in poetry”
Macmillan English Dictionary
 prozódia
 1. náuka o zvukovej stavbe verša
 2. súbor jazykových zvukových vlastností, o kt. sa
opiera veršový systém;
KSSJ online
Notions of Cohesion and Coherence
by Baker
 Cohesion

It is “the network of lexical, grammatical, and other

relations which provide links between various parts of
a text. These relations or ties organize and, to some
extent, create a text, for instance by requiring the
reader to interpret words and expressions by
reference to other words and expressions in the
surrounding sentences and paragraphs.” (Baker,
180)
It is an objective property of a language.
Notions of Cohesion and Coherence
by Baker
“Like cohesion, coherence is a network of relation which
organize and create a text: cohesion is the network of
surface relations which link words and expressions to
other words and expressions in a text, and coherence
is the network of conceptual relations which underlie
the surface text. Both concern the way stretches of
language are connected to each other. In the case of
cohesion, stretches of language are connected to
each other by virtue of lexical and grammatical
dependencies. In the case of coherence, they are
connected by virtue of conceptual or meaning
dependencies as perceived by language users.”
(Baker, 218).
Main cohesive devices
 1. Reference/Coreference (the, this, those: „Mrs. Thatcher has
resigned. This delighted her opponents.“(Reference is expressed using
demonstrative pronouns, directly.) Coreference is expressed indirectly.
The understanding depends on the knowledge and experience of the
reader. „Mrs. Thatcher has resigned. The iron lady leaves 10
Downing St.“)

 2. Substitution (My car broke down. I should buy a new one.)

 3. Ellipsis (Have you been swimming? Yes I have.)

4. Conjunction (and, or, also, so, then, next...)

5. Lexical cohesion (collocation + reiteration)

Coherence
 It is a network of relations which organize and
create a text. It is the network of conceptual
relatations which underlie the surface text.

 It is a subjective feature of a text.

 A: Shall we go for a walk?

 B: It´s raining.
Cohesive text is not always coherent
 I bought a Ford. The car in which President
Wilson rode down the Champs Elysees was
black. Black English has been widely
discussed. The discussion between
presidents ended last week. A week has
seven days. Everyday I feed my cat. Cats
have four legs. The cat is on the mat. Mat has
three letters. (Baker 1992, s. 218).
Word Order and Information
Flow
 SVOMPT: Peter bought a nice car easily in
New York last year.
 Theme: „old“, known information

 Rheme: „new“ information

 Theme + rheme = information flow/functional

sentence perspective
 Charactonyms
 Charactonym (significant proper name) is a
name expressing the characteristics of the
bearer.

Here a translator must be attentive and creative

since a charactonym poses a pun – a name, or
a nickname, which carries a meaning. Be
careful, the translated name should carry a
„trace of its original“ so that it sounds foreign,
yet understandable enough – (Vilikovský, 1984)
 For example
 From Unbroken – by L. Hillenbrand, 2010

 Butcher – Mäsiar
 Shithead – Hovnohlav
 Lieutenant Shit-in-Breeches – Poručík
Zakak
 Lady Dia Riere – lady Kakachka
 Lady Gonna Riere – lady de Syfilis
 For example
Itzhak Wiseman – he was a wise rabbi – Itzhak Moodrtz

Heather Butkiss – a woman of loose morals – Heather Cocketová

April Fleshpot – a woman of loose morals –April Courtysanová

Moe Bottomfeeder – a pseudochristian fraud, running his own

business – Maurice Oshmecker

E. Coli Biggs – a low-cost movie producer, businessman, an

unpleasant character (as the name suggests) – eg. Sal Monell, or
the same

Man and Sting Ray – Man Ray – a real name, a photographer, „sting
ray“ -- we should keep the pun characteristic of the second name –
Jack a Po Tworkovci (J. Tworkov was a painter)
 On translation of puns
see P. Low, B. Hečko, A. Štulajterová, P. Jesenská

 According to Štulajterová and Jesenská: “Pun is a

stylistic device based on lexical ambiguity or on
play on words. It involves the use of a polysemic
words to suggest two or more meanings (primary
and contextual) the use of homonyms, or it is based
on the use of homophones. “(Štulajterová -
Jesenská, 2013, p. 35)
 “Pun or punning, play on words, fine point, the
humorous use of the word, or of words, which are
formed or sounded alike, but have different
meanings.” (Hečko, 1991, p.15)
 Types of puns
Štulajterová divided puns into:
 1. Homonymic puns
 2. Polysemic puns
 3. Homophonic puns
 4. Puns based on substitution
 4. Puns based on omission
 5. Puns based on addition
 6. Puns based on blending (Štulajterová, 2015,
p. 89)
“Tools for tackling puns” by Low

1. Replicate the pun (shared puns)

2. Create a new pun

3. Use different humorous device

4. Use compensation in place somewhere near the

pun

5. Give an expanded translation

6. Ignore the pun (Low, 2011, p. 67)

A shared pun? Quire rare, b. t. w.

From Friends, season 1, ep. 2

Original Dubbing

RA: Has anybody seen my engagement ring? RA: Videli ste môj snubný prsteň?
P: Yeah, it´s beautiful. P: Áno, je nádherný.
Seven Principles of Textuality
“each text should comprise”
De Beaugrande and Dressler (1982)

cohesion, coherence, intentionality,

acceptability, informativity,
situationality
and intertextuality
 Absence of intertextuality
“The authors claim that these principles have to
be in interaction with one another, if one principle
is absent, the text is not communicative, and
non-communicative texts are treated as non-
texts. […] Intertextuality concerns the factors
which make utilization of one text dependent
upon knowledge of one or more previously
encountered texts […].”
(Jesenká, Štulajterová, 2003, p. 55)
Poetry – what do we analyze?
 Types of poetry

 – narrative poetry (e. g. ballads, epics,)

 -- lyric poetry (e. g. epigram, elegy, ode,
sonnet)
 Sonnet – two basic patterns
 sonnet – a fourteen-line poem
1. Italian (Petrarchan) – consists of an eight-
line octave and a six-line sestet
2. English (Shakespearean) – consists of three
four-line quatrains and a concluding two-line
couplet
Elements of poetry
 Voice: Speaker and tone

“When we read or hear a poem, we hear a

speaker’s voice. It is this voice that conveys
the poem’s tone, its implied attitude toward its
subject. Tone is an abstraction we make from
the details of a poem’s language…” (DiYanni,
1990)
Elements of poetry
-- Diction – The selection of words in a literary
work
(e.g. literal vs. non-literal language)
- Image -- a concrete representation of a
sense impression, a feeling, or an idea.
(DiYanni, 1990)
Elements of poetry – image types
 Visual (something seen – e. g. blue sky)

 Aural (something heard – e. g. bird’s song, shrieking

noise)

 Tactile (something felt – e. g. rough skin)

 Olfactory (something smelt – e. g. sweet scent,

revolting stench)

 Gustatory (something tasted – e. g. salty soup)

Elements of poetry
 Figures of speech
“Rhetoricians have catalogued more than 250
different figures of speech, expressions or
ways of using words in a nonliteral sense.”
(DiYanni, 1990)
Basic figures of speech
 hyperbole or exaggeration (“I’ll die if I miss
the game”)

 litotes or understatement (“This is no small

problem”)

 synecdoche (a case of metonymy) or using

a part to signify a whole (“lend me a hand”,
“call the police”)
Basic figures of speech
 metonymy or substituting an attribute of a thing for
the thing itself. Metonymy denotes a person or an
object by using the name of another object which
stands to the former in close, typical or
representative relation. (“I want to buy a Styron”)
 personification or endowing inanimate objects or
abstract concepts with animate characteristics or
qualities (“the lettuce was lonely without tomatoes
and cucumbers for company”)
Simile and metaphor

Simile
 The heart of both these figures is comparison.
 Simile establishes the comparison explicitly with the
words like or as.
 “My daughter dances like an angel.”
 Simile has three constituents:
 1. the on which is compared, comparandum
 2. the one being compared to, comparatum
 3. the element common for both of them, tertium
comparationis
Metaphor
 Metaphor employs no such explicit verbal clue.
 “My daughter is an angel.”
 The angelic attributes are not restricted to the way
she dances, they are more extensive, i. e. she may
be nice as an angel, white as an angel, saint as an
angel, or all possibilities mentioned above…
Symbolism and allegory
“A symbol is any object or action that means
more than itself, any object or action that
represents something beyond itself.”
(DiYanni, 1990)

To find out whether a specific word or phrase is

meant symbolically or not (literally) may not
be easy, it depend on our interpretation.
Symbolism and allegory
“Allegory is a form of narrative in which people,
places and happenings have hidden or
symbolic meaning… In an allegorical work
there are most often two levels of meaning,
the literal and the symbolic. To understand an
allegorical work we must make sense of its
details by interpreting their symbolic
meaning.” (DiYanni, 1990)
e.g. George Orwell – Animal Farm
Sound: Rhyme, alliteration, assonance

DiYanni defines rhyme as “matching of final

vowel and consonant sounds in two or more
words. When the corresponding sounds
occur at the ends of lines, we have end
rhyme; when they occur within lines, we have
internal rhyme.” (1990)
For example: E. A. Poe – The Raven

In the extract we can see the examples of both end rhyme and
internal rhyme:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more."
Perfect vs. imperfect rhyme
 Perfect or exact rhyme: tapping – rapping --
napping, door – more,
 Imperfect or approximate: slow – law

 Eye rhyme: put – but, food – blood,

Masculine and feminine rhyme
“In feminine rhyme the final syllable of a rhymed
word is unstressed; in masculine rhyme the
final syllable is stressed – or the words
rhymed are each only one syllable.” (Di
Yanni, 1990)
-- door -- more – masculine rhyme
-- dizzy – easy – feminine rhyme
See the poem by W. Wordsworth
Exercise:
1. Read the poem.
2. What is the tone of the poem?
3. Find all the words which denote joy.
4. Find the instances of: Hyperbole, simile,
personification.
5. Which type of rhyme prevails, feminine or
masculine? Are the rhymes perfect?
Sound: Rhyme, alliteration, assonance

“Besides rhyme, two other forms of sound

prevail in poetry: alliteration or the repetition
of consonant sounds, especially at the
beginning of words, and assonance or the
repetition of vowel sounds.” (DiYanni, 1990)
For example – John Hollander’s
Rhyme’s Reason
Hollander illustrates these two phenomena with
his poem:

Assonance is the spirit of a rhyme,

A common vowel, hovering like a sigh
After its consonantal body dies…
….
Alliteration lightly links
Stressed syllables with common consonants. (DiYanni,
1990, p. 474)
Rhythm and meter
“Rhythm refers to the regular recurrence of the
accent or stress in poem or song.” DiYanni,
1990)
Rhythm and meter
“If rhythm is the pulse or beat we hear in the
line, then we can define meter as the
measure or patterned count of a poetic line.
Meter is a count of the stress we feel in the
poem’s rhythm. By convention the unit of
poetic meter in English is the foot, a unit of
measure consisting of stressed and
unstressed syllables.” (DiYanni, 1990)
Types of poetic feet
“A poetic foot may be either iambic or trochaic,
anapestic or dactylic.”

Iamb – an unaccented syllable followed by an accented

one – “preVENT” or “conTAIN”
trochee – an accented syllable followed by an
unaccented one – “FOOTball” or “MERchant”
“… they are called duple (or double) meters.” (DiYanni,
1990)
Types of poetic feet
Duple meters “can be distinguished from triple
meters (three-syllable meters) like anapestic
and dactylic meters.” (DiYanni, 1990)
Anapest – two unaccented syllables followed
by an accented one – “compreHEND”
Dactyl – an accented syllable followed by two
unaccented ones – “DANgerous” or
“CHEERfully”
Types of poetic feet
Rising or ascending feet: iamb, anapest
Falling or descending feet: trochee, dactyl
Substitute feet:
spondee – two accented syllables
pyrrhic – two unaccented syllables
 Bonus activity:
1. Read the lyrics of The sound of silence.
2. What is the tone of the poem?
3. Find all the words which denote sadness,
pessimism.
4. Find the instances of: Hyperbole, simile,
personification.
5. Which type of rhyme prevails, feminine or
masculine? Are the rhymes perfect?
Functions of Translation
Criticism
 The postulational function evaluates the choice of translated text. It either serves
the target literature by evaluating text’s contribution to and its conformity within
the context of target literature. On the other hand, it analyses whether the text is
representative enough of its source literature to be translated, which requires
deep knowledge of the literature of the original.
 The analytical function concentrates on the text. It studies the extent to which
the target text conserves the invariant information of the original. Its essential
device is complex and in-depth text analysis. Here “a critic is required to master
both languages, to be able to stylistically interpret two literatures, two texts, and
to be able to evaluate the translation shifts.” (Popovič, 1975, p. 250)
 The operative function considers the recipient. By explaining the choice of text
and the relationship between the original and translated text, a critic proposes
ways to understand and accept the translated text in the target culture.
 Bibliography
 Baker, M.: In other words. Routledge: London. 1992.
 DiYanni, R. – Literature. 1990.
 Kubuš, M. Woody Allen v slovenských prekladoch. Belianum: Banská Bystrica. 2015.
 Low, P. A. 2011 Translating jokes and puns. In Perspective: Studies in Translatology. London: Routledge,
2011. 314 s. ISSN 0907–676X.
 Nord, Ch. Text Analysis in Translation (Transl. of Nord 1988, by Christiane Nord and Penelope Sparrow).
Amsterdam: Rodopi 1991; revised edition: 2005.
 Popovič, A. Teória umeleckého prekladu. Tatran: Bratislava. 1975.
 Štulajterová, A. Text and Discourse. In Štulajterová, A. – Jesenská, P. English Stylistics. Banská Bystrica:
Matej Bel University. 2013. ISBN 978-80-557-0487-6.
 Štulajterová, A. 2015. Selected Chapters from Discourse Analysis Banska Bystrica: Matej Bel
University Banska Bystrica, 2015. 102 s. ISBN 978–80-557-0997-0.
 Vilikovský, J. Preklad ako tvorba. Slovenský spisovateľ: Bratislava. 1984.

Concerning charactonyms:

 Alexander Kalashnikov, 2006, Proper Names in Translation of Fiction

(on the Material of Translation into English of The History of a Town by M.E. Saltykov-
Shchedrin)1
http://translationjournal.net/journal//35propernames.htm)