Syntactic strategies

These local strategies change the grammatical structure of the target text in relation to the
source text. Although most of the strategies are applied because a literal translation is not
appropriate, Chesterman (1997) presents his first syntactic strategy, literal translation. He
believes that, according to many translation theorists, this is a "default" strategy.
1. Literal translation: It means the translator follows the source text form as closely as possible
without following the source language structure.
2. Loan translation: This is the second syntactic strategy in his classification which refers to the
borrowing of single terms and following the structure of the source text which is foreign to the
target reader. Same as borrowings.
3. Transposition: Another term that Chesterman (1997) has borrowed from Vinay and
Darbelnet (1958) is transposition that refers to any change in word class, for example adjective
to noun. Same as grammatical substitution.
4. Unit shift: This is a term that has been borrowed from Catford (1965). The unit change
happens at the level of a single unit/word, i.e. if an ST word is changed in the TT, it has
undergone the change of a unit shift. If the change has been made at the level of more than a
word, we deal with paraphrase structure change, which is the next strategy.
5. Paraphrase structure change: This strategy refers to changes which take place in the internal
structure of the noun phrase or verb phrase (արտահայտության մակարդակ) - an ST
phrase is translated into a single word or a whole sentence in the TT.
6. Clause structure change: This is a term which refers to a strategy in which the changes affect
the organization of the constituent clauses in the TT (ստորադասական
նախադասության երկրորդական կամ գերադաս նախադասության
մակարդակ). When an ST clause is translated differently in the TT. Changes from active to
passive voice, finite to infinite case, or rearrangement of the clause elements are also considered
a clause structure change since the changes take place within the clause..
7. Sentence structure change: It is a term that refers to changes in the structure of the ST
sentence in the TT. (ամբողջական՝ ավարտուն նախադասության մակարդակ).
8. Cohesion change: The way in which the parts of a sentence join together to make a fluent,
comprehensible sentence is called textual cohesion. Cohesion change is a term referring to a
strategy which affects intra-textual cohesion, this kind of strategy mainly takes place in the form
of reference by pronouns, ellipsis, substitution or repetition. ( երբ փոփոխությունը
նկատելի է ավելի քան մեկ նախադասության մակարդակում, այսինքն՝
թարգմանվածքում իրար հաջորդող մի քանի նախադասություններում
նկատելի են որոշակի փոփոխութուններ՝ ի համեմատություն բնօրինակի
միևնույն հատվածի)։
9. Scheme change: (Սխեմայի փոփոխություն թարգմանվածքում) This strategy is
another term in Chesterman's (1997) classification. It refers to rhetorical schemata such as
parallelism, alliteration and rhythm and rhyming in poetry. As noted, here we deal with
changes of stylistic devices. It might happen at the level of a unit, phrase, sentence or even
sentences. E.g., scheme change because of the loss of alliteration in the TT:
Ճաճանչները թոշնան... Filling paths, failing greens
Կանաչներիս աշնան — turn brown and pass
Իմ խոհերը մոլար՝ in shades that fade, fields unmade
Ցրտահա՜ր, հողմավա՜ր... shadowed grass.
Կրակներըս անցան, All my fires are banked fires
Ցուրտ ու մեգ է միայն. down to a glow.
Անուրջներըս երկնածին And stirring dreams, whirring dreams
Գնացի՜ն, գնացի՜ն... flare and go.

 Semantic strategies
The second group in Chesterman's (1997) classification is semantic strategy which has its own
subcategories.
1. Synonymy: It is the first subcategory in this group. In this strategy the translator selects
the closest synonym, which is not the first literal translation of the source text word or
phrase. (I love her personality – «Հիանում եմ իր անձով։»)
2. Antonymy: In this strategy, the translator uses a word with the opposite meaning. This
word mostly combines with a negation. (He is smart – Նա տգետ չէ։)
3. Hyponymy: (հայ․՝ փոխանունություն) It means using a member of larger
category, including “part vs. whole” correlation, e.g. “շուրթեր” is a hyponym in
relation to “mouth”, “category vs. subcategory” correlation, e.g., «վարդ» is a hyponym
in relation to flower, ), that is the first one is a related superordinate term, which describes
the entire category (flowers) with a broader or a narrower («վարդ») term.
4. Converses: (հայ․՝ հատկանշային թարգմ․) This strategy refers to pairs of
opposites expressing similar semantic relationships from the opposite perspectives
(e.g. send-receive take-give).
5. Trope change: Change of metaphoric meaning in the translation – either loss of gain of
figurative speech. The formal name that is used for a figure of speech or metaphor is
called trope. «but I am sure at the bottom of his heart…» - “վստահ եմ, որ հոգու
խորքում ․․․ ”. In this example the metaphoric symbol (bottom – «ոչ թե հատակ,
 այլ՝ խորք», heart – «ոչ թե սիրտ, այլ՝ հոգի») has undergone some changes to
align with the rules of the target language.
6. Abstraction change: The other kind of strategy in the list is abstraction change. This
strategy concerns shifting either from more abstract terms to more concrete ones or vice
versa. In other words, the abstraction change may be in the form of either specification or
quite the reverse – generalization (when a more general word is used instead of the
ST specific item). Not to confuse with hyponymy, which deals with “part vs whole”,
“category vs. subcategory”, etc.. correlations.
7. Distribution change: This is a kind of strategy in which the same semantic component is
distributed over more items (expansion) or fewer ones (compression). Distribution
change appears either in the form of addition or reduction.
8. Emphasis change: This strategy increases, decreases or changes the emphasis of
thematic focus of the translated text in comparison to the original. E.g., “ We come back
home muddy… - Ցեխոտ ենք տուն գալիս․․․”. In the target text the
emphasis is put on the word “muddy”, whereas in the original it is not a primary,
emphasized unit.
9. Paraphrase strategy: This is the last strategy in the list. According to the overall
meaning of the source text, it creates a liberal approximate translation, some lexical items
may be ignored in this sort of strategy. In other words – paraphrase strategy is used in the
cases when instead of faithful translation the translator creates his or her paraphrased
text which is similar to but a lot different from the original. This strategy is largely used
in the translation of political and/or journalistic texts, when the aim is to mislead or
manipulate the audience.
 Pragmatic strategies
1. Cultural filtering: According to Chesterman (1997 as cited in Bergen n. d.), the first sort
of strategy in this group is cultural filtering. It may be described as the concrete
realization, at the level of language, of the universal strategy of domestication or target
culture-oriented translation. This strategy is generally used while translating culture-
bound items. This is very similar to what Vinay and Darbelnet call cultural adaptation.
2. Explicitness change: In explicitness change strategy some information of the source text
maybe made more explicit (ակնհայտ) together with adding some units
(accompanied by distribution change --> addition) or deleted to make the original
message less explicit (implicit) in the translation (usually accompanied by distribution
change --> reduction). This strategy is also termed as “explicatory translation” by
Jaghatspanyan.
 Additionally, it is fair to note that the same strategy may be accompanied by another
strategy (from semantic category) – Abstraction change  Generalisation or
Specification. E.g., ST: «Մայրս ու քույրս նույն անկողնում են քնում» - TT:
“My mother and sister sleep in the same room”, the translation of this example is less
explicit since the “room” is more general than the “bed”, so the translation has undergone
the strategy of explicitness change with the help of a more general unit – “room” instead
of “bed”.
3. Information change: The next type of strategy is information change which is similar to
the previous strategy; however, here the changed information is NOT implicit in the
source text and is considered as a rather deliberate change of the original message.
Usually accompanied by the Paraphrase Strategy. E.g. “Ընտրական
գործընթացն աչքի է ընկել մանր խախտումներով՝ ընդհանուր
առմամբ անցնելով խաղաղ և ժողովրդավար պայմաններում” – “There
were no violations during the elections which were held in generally peaceful and
democratic conditions”.
4. Speech act: There is another strategy the changes the nature of the source text speech act,
either obligatory or non-obligatory (e.g. from reporting to a command, or from direct to
indirect speech). E.g. “Please close the door.” – TT: “ Դուռը փակե՛լ։” – Because of
the target text rules, the translation has lost the element of “request” thus having
undergone through the strategy of interpersonal change with a shift from “Polite to
Command Act”.
Interpersonal change is another strategy which is used to affect the whole style of the
text to make it more or less informal, technical, etc.

5. Visibility change: This is a strategy that increases the "presence" of either the translator
or the author in the translation (e.g., footnotes or additional explanations in the
parentheses that are added by the translator which make the translator more visible than
the author himself or herself).
6. Coherence change: Another strategy is coherence change which is similar to cohesion
change which was mentioned in the previous section (syntactic strategies). The only
difference is that cohesion change concerns micro-structure level (e.g. a sentence or a
paragraph), whereas coherence change concerns a higher textual level (i.e. combining
different paragraphs to each other in a way different from the source text).
7. Partial translation: This is a strategy that refers to translating a part of a text, not the
entire text particularly while translating song lyrics or poetry. The difference between
 partial translation and information change strategy is that the first one simply leaves a
part of the ST untranslated whereas the second translates everything into the TT however
with apparent deliberate changes.
8. Trans-editing: Trans-editing refers to extensive editing of the original text when
necessary (i.e. changing the organization of the source text information, wording or etc).
Very often trans-editing may be accompanied by information change strategy, which is
the deliberate change of the information in the Target text because of this or that reason.