Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities in the 21st Century
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Discourse Analysis on English Article Translation in Mongolian Language
Nomindari Byambasaikhan
ABSTRACT:
This paper addresses the intricate task of translating English articles into Mongolian, focusing specifically on the seminal work “King Solomon’s Mines” by H. Rider Haggard. The absence of articles in Mongolian poses a significant challenge for translators, educators, and learners alike, necessitating nuanced linguistic strategies to accurately convey intended meanings. Through the analysis of 4,050 translated sentences from the novel, this study examines the translation of indefinite, definite, and zero articles. The theoretical framework draws from Robertson’s (2000) discourse rule transfer theory and semantic models proposed by Huebner (1983), Thomas (1989), and Goto Butler (2002). The choice of articles is closely tied to the specificity of the Noun Phrase (NP) and the assumed familiarity of the referent to the listener. While English encompasses five types of article usage, Mongolian adjusts three types, revealing diverse translation strategies. Findings indicate that definite articles are rendered in Mongolian using determiners, pronouns, cases, possessives, and quantifiers. Moreover, specific morphemes convey superlative clauses. This study provides insights into contextual meaning conveyance and interprets how English definite articles are translated into Mongolian. Additionally, it elucidates the strategies employed by translators, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities in article translation.
keywords: Discourse analysis, translation, English articles, indefinite articles, definite articles, determiners