Perspectives on the Translation of Discourse Markers: A Case Study of the Translation of Reformulation Markers from English into Hungarian

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to explore the difficulties translators have to face when translating discourse markers in general, and reformulation markers in particular. In the first part of the paper I will attempt to answer the question of why discourse markers are notoriously difficult to translate. Next, I will look at some of the genre-specific features pertaining to the translation of scripted discourse and subtitles. In the second part of the paper, after providing an overview of previous research into reformulation and reformulation markers, I will present the results of a case study of the translation of the English reformulation markers I mean and actually into Hungarian. By way of concluding, I will argue that a wider repertoire of translation strategies is needed in order to achieve dynamic equivalence in the target text.