| dc.description.abstract | The study set out to investigate the problems encountered by translators in the translation of
tense and aspect from English to French in the light of the fact that for one English verb form,
multiple French equivalents exist. Using two existing English-French parallel text pairs, an
analysis of the manner in which the translators had translated the English simple past, the past
progressive, the present perfect and the past perfect verb forms, which carry both tense and
aspect, to French was carried out.
Verb phrases headed by each English verb form being studied were first identified in the
English text and tabulated. Corresponding French translations for these phrases were identified
in the French text and also tabulated. Possible sources of difficulty to the translator were noted.
It was confirmed that English verb forms had multiple French translations. Non translation was
frequently used as a translation strategy where source text elements were found to be
unnecessary for inclusion in target message and where the elements were culture specific and
not translatable to target language, while change of voice (modulation) and transposition were
used where stylistic differences between the two languages so demanded. These strategies were
noted as possible sources of difficulty to the translator.
The study concluded that the challenges created in the application of the strategies of
transposition, non translation and change of voice (modulation) called for acquisition of
linguistic as well as literal and cultural knowledge with regard to both target and source texts. | en_US |
