Communication Across Cultures

The Linguistics of Texts in Translation (Expanded and Revised Edition)

By (author) Prof. Basil Hatim

Publication date:

03 February 2020

Publisher

University of Exeter Press

Dimensions:

228x150mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781905816309

A unique synthesis of contrastive linguistics and discourse analysis, providing a core text for upper undergraduates and postgraduates taking courses in language, applied linguistics, translation and cultural studies. The book will also be of interest to language teachers and other applied linguists, as well as translators and interpreters.

This revised and expanded edition includes important updates reflecting the growth over the past two decades in the theoretical study of translation and contrastive linguistics, and the wide-ranging practical applications of such studies. It offers authoritative updates on the major issues of translation and contrastive linguistics, using new practical examples and case studies that present the latest exploratory research of interest to both students and practitioners.

While English and Arabic remain the language pair used for illustrative purposes, the analytic tools and theoretical overviews presented are of global applicability. The main objectives pursued remain the training of future linguists and, more broadly, an increased awareness of the subtleties of discourse on the part of language users.

Preface (R R K Hartmann)
A New Introduction - Textual Rhetoric: The Missing Dimension
Translator decision-making informed by textual competence
Deeper text processing
The myth of the single register: a discourse perspective on linguistic variation
Argumentation: a contrastive text-type perspective
A model of argumentation from Arabic Rhetoric
Globalization, academic writing, translation: a new perspective on culture
Cultures within cultures: commodification discourse
On purpose
The status of the paragraph as a unit of text structure
Signalling background information in expository texts
On the interface between structure and texture: the textual progression of Themes and Rhemes
A text-type solution to a problem of texture: translating Cataphora
Degree of explicitness as a feature of texture
Emotiveness and its linguistic realization in texts
Translating direct and indirect speech and the dynamics of news reporting
A text-type perspective on the pragmatics of politeness
Cultures in contact and what people do with their texts: an applied- linguistic perspective
The discourse of alienation and its linguistic expression in a modern Arabic novella
The translation of irony: a discourse focus on Arabic
The other texts: implications for liaison Interpreting
References
Resources
Glossary of Terms in Contrastive Text Linguistics and Translation

I was pleased to learn that the influential text Communication Across Cultures by Basil Hatim will soon be available in a second, updated edition. Having worked in Bible translation in various African cross-cultural settings for over 50 years, I have found myself returning to this book (now over two decades in print) on many occasions in order to revisit its corpus of pertinent topics.

All those who are in any way interested, or involved in the many interrelated fields of communication strategy, translation studies, discourse linguistics, and literary theory that are expounded by this book will, along with me, eagerly look forward to it.