Thematic Development in English and Translated Academic Texts

Abstract

Thematic organization and thematic progression play crucial roles in the message function of language. An important question is how translators deal with these thematic choices as textual devices when a text is translated into another language. Few studies have unfortunately brought their significance into focus. The present study, therefore, investigates thematic development and progression in English academic texts and their translations in Persian. The corpus is selected from the first three pages of the first chapters of nine English applied linguistics books and their translation versions. These books are currently taught in the Iranian universities at undergraduate and graduate levels. Applying Halliday’s (1994) thematic organization and McCabe’s (1999) thematic progression, the study reveals significant differences in the original texts and their translations regarding thematic schemes. The study concludes that both authors and translators must be conscious of these tools in order to use them effectively and create more cohesive texts.