Non-Narrative Discourse Analysis

This course is designed for those who:

• expect to be involved in the translation of hortatory and expository texts from one language to another, whether as a Mother Tongue speaker, Other Tongue speaker or expatriate translator, consultant or advisor;
• are engaged in the study of non-narrative texts in a language spoken anywhere in the world. 

Course Content

Many problems in translation arise because of mismatches between the way the features are handled in the source and receptor languages.

Relevant factors include:

• whether or not the language places the verb at the end of the sentence;
• whether or not the subject commonly follows the verb;
• characteristics peculiar to particular groups of languages or areas of the world.

Such potential mismatches are a major topic of discussion in the eight chapters of this course.
 
The course begins with an explanation of how to prepare and chart a non-narrative text for analysis.

Subsequent chapters consider, amongst other things:

• types of information found in non-narrative texts;
• typical differences between instruction and persuasion;
• connectives and the ordering of propositions;
• variations in the order of constituents;
• devices used to give prominence to constituents;
• backgrounding and highlighting devices in non-narrative,;
• boundary features.

Each topic is illustrated from texts in languages representative of the different types mentioned above.