Mátyás Bánhegyi: The Effects of Politics and Ideology on the Translation of Argumentative Political Newspaper Articles
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Chapter 8: Results and discussion
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8.2 Discussion of results of superstructure analysis

8.2 Discussion of results of superstructure analysis

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The superstructure analysis was performed with the help of Hoey’s (2001) Problem–Solution Model (cf. Section 2.5). The raw data obtained from the analysis of the two source language and the eight target language texts are provided in Appendix 4. The functional parts of situation, problem, response, negative evaluation and positive result are marked in all ten texts. For the sake of clarity, responses and the corresponding evaluations are numbered with the same indices.

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In Figure 8.1 and Figure 8.2, the results of the superstructure analysis of each of the two source texts and their respective four target texts are given. The different functional parts have been marked to the right of the texts using braces.

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Figure 8.1 and Figure 8.2 show that some functional parts extend only to one sentence, whereas others comprise several sentences. This may be explained by the fact that the source argumentative newspaper articles submitted to analysis are rather short and quite complex and dense in their content: in each functional part of the texts the authors of the Hungarian source texts squeezed as much information into one (complex) sentence as possible. This, at the same time, suggests that each functional part is very dense in information content.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 8.1: The superstructure of Source Text 1 entitled Kompenzáció and its four translations (Target Texts 1, 2, 5 and 6)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 8.2: The superstructure of Source Text 2 entitled Másnap and its four translations (Target Texts 3, 4, 7 and 8)
 

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The translators, in the majority of the cases, kept the sentence boundaries of the source texts in their translations: the 28-sentence-long article Kompenzáció became 27–33-sentences long in translation, whereas the 18-sentence-long article Másnap became 17–19-sentences long in translation. This, however, does not affect the superstructure, since the functional parts of the source texts are retained in all eight target texts in the respective equivalent sentences. Thus, it can be concluded that functionally equivalent target texts have been produced in slightly different sentence combinations. This suggests that when translating argumentative newspaper articles, translators retain the functions of each superstructure component in the texts. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that both source language articles are made up of three cycles of the response-evaluation sequence (cf. Appendices 4 and 5), which are consistently retained in the eight target texts.

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Based on the results of the superstructure analysis, it can be concluded that the target texts have preserved the text-type specific functional characteristics of the problem–solution type argumentative source language discourse. This indicates that the target texts remain argumentative, which gives the reader the opportunity to agree or disagree with the arguments featured in the target texts. As a consequence, the target texts, similarly to the source texts, effect political persuasion.

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With respect to the findings of the current research, it must be noted that not many researchers address the reproduction of superstructure in translated texts using Hoey’s (2001) Problem–Solution Model. Therefore, our investigation has been broadedned in this section also to non-translated political texts. The studies examining the reproduction of superstructure are described and discussed below.

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Hoey’s (2001) Problem–Solution Model was used by Ali (2007) to analyse business newspaper articles published in the Malaysian and British press. Concerning the description of problem in these articles, the researcher concludes that the problem-solution pattern is retained in both the Malaysian and the English texts under scrutiny. Furthermore, it is established that the problem is always described using negative words and negative evaluations, and that the degree of formality in the description of the problem–solution pattern differs in Malaysian and English texts. The finding that the problems–solution pattern is retained in the Malaysian and the English texts seems to support the findings of the current research.

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In another research project, Ratanakul (2018) studied opinion columns in the English-language China Daily and The New York Times using Hoey’s (2001) Problem–Solution Model. The research concludes that texts about the same topic are structured differently, and reflect the article writers’ presupposition of what readers know about the issues discussed in the articles. This supposition, in turn, impacts the actual structuring of moves in the articles. It is concluded that, as a result of this, the superstructures of the articles change, but not through translation (as the articles studied are not in relationships of source and target texts to one another) but through differences in superstructure construction. The observation that the superstructure of the examined articles changes – even though this does not happen through translation – is in conflict with the findings of the current research even if these changes are not taking place during translation.

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Kadhim and Hijjo (2021) examined the reproduction of superstructure in translated argumentative political news articles published in Arabic media websites using Hoey’s (2001) Problem–Solution Model. The study claims that the translator’s ideological position plays a role in the reproduction of superstructure through value-driven alterations to certain textual parts below the superstructure level. The finding that the reproduction of superstructure takes place in translated texts is in line with the findings of the present research, and Kadhim and Hijjo (2021) also suggest that ideology can be at play in this.

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All in all, it can be concluded that certain studies examining the reproduction of superstructure have identified alterations to the superstructure as part of text production and some have found none.
 
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