3.3 TEXT TYPES
Katharina Reiss (1977/89:113-14) builds the concept of equivalence but views the text, rather than the word or sentence, as the level at which communication is achieved and at which equivalence must be sought. Below, text types are classified as follows:
1 Literature: Prose, poetry, drama
2 Journalism: Oratory, essay, articles
3 Newspapers: Editorial, headlines, brief news, feature stories, advertisement, classified
4 Scientific: Expressions, terminology, argument, footnotes, references
5 Official Documents: Business reports, laws, diplomatic documents, military documents, etc.
Mona Baker (1992:11) examines translation at
different levels. She says that meaning can be carried
by units smaller than the word. However, it can be
carried by units much more complex than the single
word and by various structures and linguistic
devices. In short, she views equivalence at the levels
of word, collocation and idiom, grammar, thematic
and information structure, cohesion and pragmatics.
Further, she maintains that there is no one-to-one
correspondence between orthographic words and
elements of meaning within or across languages.