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Article published In:
FORUM
Vol. 19:1 (2021) ► pp.49–64

Translating punctuation between English and Persian and issues for the replacement of non-lexical items

| Hunan Normal University
| Arak Islamic Azad University

The consideration of the importance of punctuation marks has widely been ignored in studies of translation. Here we report on a case study of English-Persian translation, in which we found that the attitude towards punctuation has not only been due to the different patterns used by different languages but also to the fact that some languages like Persian have never assimilated punctuation marks into the writing styles.

Therefore, the meanings and functions of punctuation marks are worth investigating to enhance our understanding of what are termed non-lexical items in this paper. We show how unawareness of such differences could cause problems and complications in conveying the message.

The main focus of this study is the survey of translation of punctuation into lexical items as a new tendency. This strategy will be considered as an intersemiotic approach illustrated through a comprehensive series of literary and non-literary examples.

Keywords: punctuation, non-lexical items, translation strategy, Persian language, style
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Using punctuation marks in English and Persian
  • 3.Development of punctuation strategies in the Persian tradition
  • 4.Words to compensate for the absence of punctuation marks
    • 4.1Examples of converted punctuation in English to Persian translations
      • Comma
      • Semicolon
      • Dashes
      • Colon
    • 4.2Examples of Persian to English translations
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 11 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.20009.min
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