paragraphing and syndesisasyndesis

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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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____. (1965). Culture, Lnaguage and Personality. Berkeley: University of

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Appendix

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paragraphing and syndesisasyndesis

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