Transformations lexico-pragmatiques dans la traduction

Using a corpus of French newspaper texts from "Le Monde" and their translations into English as its empirical basis, the article deals with various types of translational shifts which manifest themselves in specific structural transformations between SL (source language) and TL (target language) textual segments. On the basis of Reiss/Vermeer's approach these shifts are examined as regards their causes; these may be differing lexico-semantic structures, textual conventions, knowledge prerequisites on the part of SL and TL recipients and/or situational parameters. A classification is proposed (which naturally is restricted to the specifically empirical basis), and the effects of shifts on the TL texts are discussed. In their totality, translational shifts contribute to assure TL standards of textuality; they have to be considered as expressions of the interdependence between the text as a whole and its parts.