Metatexts and Translation
Professional translation constantly faces updates and technological changes. Regardless of the technology used, the basic component is the analysis of the source text itself, whether the translation is being carried out into English or Russian languages. In Georgia’s case both of these languages have a considerable tradition. A crucial component of text analysis before starting a translation is a good understanding of what metatext is and what role it plays in practice. In this regard, technological development has been expressed in the emergence of many online tools for analyzing the aforementioned, though the fundamental concept of metatexts itself remains the same. Below, we review precisely these fundamental concepts.
Linguistic Revolution
For centuries, both in Georgian grammatical literature and linguistics in general, the sentence was considered the highest-level syntactic unit of language and speech. But, as often happens in science, a new discovery changed the traditional understanding.
The emergence of a new field - text linguistics - rejected this traditional view. Researchers concluded that the sentence is not the highest-level unit of language-speech. The sentence, while a communicative unit, is exceeded by a larger communicative magnitude. Researchers denote this new, larger speech unit with various terms, but we will call it the metatext.
Metatext
The metatext has clear features that distinguish it from an isolated sentence. Specifically, the metatext has its own micro-theme and completeness of thought. Consequently, if a metatext is extracted from the overall text, it will still convey the meaning and describe what the particular topic is about, as a separate text.
The metatext is subject to its own specific laws. While in Georgian grammar, word order is studied at the level of the simple sentence, in a metatext, the arrangement of words acquires an entirely new function: the function of connecting independent sentences. This means that the word order within the metatext components is no longer free but obeys a strict set of rules.
The regularity of word order at the metatext level derives from the sentence’s position within the overall structure.
The "Principle of Syntactic Correlation of Words" introduced by I. A. Kravchuk states that words which link adjacent sentences within a supra-phrasal unity (e.g., anaphors, repetitions) can stand at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence, but not at the end. If such words are moved to the end, the principle of syntactic correlation is violated, the meaning is distorted, or the content of the metatext is altered.
Just like word order, the order of sentences is also stable within a metatext. Changing the position of an independent sentence within a metatext: changes and distorts its semantic integrity, disrupts the Theme-Rheme relationship, and violates the regularity of sentence sequence, which changes the information and hinders communication. Therefore, the order of words and sentences is one of the fundamental means of metatext organization.
The French theoretician Gérard Genette, in his work Palimpsests (1982), offers the concept of transtextuality (transtextualité), which describes the structural connections existing between texts. Genette argues that every text is a "palimpsest" (a writing containing layers of previous texts).
He identified five main types of relationships between texts that allow for the formation of meaning:
- Intertextuality: Direct quotation or reference to another text.
- Paratextuality: Elements surrounding the text (title, preface, epigraph).
- Metatextuality: One text's commentary or critical explanation of another.
- Hypertextuality: Reworking or adaptation of one text (parody, sequel).
- Architextuality: Genre or stylistic classification of the text.
Properties of the Metatext
The distinctiveness of the metatext also lies in its characteristic of cohesion. Cohesion is the ability of a text's constituent elements to link with other elements of the same text. Various basic means of linking exist; specifically, the organization and interconnection of metatext components are achieved through: coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, anaphoric pronouns and adverbs, lexical repetition and synonymic substitution, parenthetical expressions, particles, verb-predicate correlations, and the order of words and sentences.
These means of cohesion are unknown to syntax and belong to text linguistics. These principles show that the metatext is a complex and strictly organized means of communication, where the internal integrity of sentences is ensured by their arrangement and order.
The Function of Metatexts in Translation
In the process of translation into English and Russian, the function of metatexts is not only significant but also multifaceted. This is particularly clear if we perceive translation as a complex communicative, cultural, and interpretive act, and not merely the transfer of words from one language to another.
Firstly, in English, Russian, and other European languages, the “metatext (text about the text)” is the space where the translator is given the opportunity to explain, convey, and re-interpret the original's content, tone, or cultural context. Metatextual elements in translation can be expressed in various forms: translator's notes, footnotes, prefaces, commentaries, or even the chosen stylistic approach itself, which reflects the translator's interpretive vision.
Secondly, the metatext acts as a "bridge between two cultures" during the translation process. It makes transparent how the translator perceived the source text and how they adapted it according to the linguistic and cultural requirements of the target culture—in this regard, the translator has many online resources for familiarizing themselves with and accessing texts. For instance, a translator performs a metatextual intervention when they explain complex cultural allusions or historical facts to the reader via footnotes.
In conclusion, the role of the metatext in translation can be defined as an "instrument of interpretation and transparency." It helps the reader to grasp not only the transferred text itself but also the decisions made during the translation process. Thus, the metatext constitutes an integral part of the ethical, theoretical, and cultural consciousness of translation, ultimately affirming that translation, in its essence, is always a "text about a text," i.e., a metatext.
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