Deictic shifts and re-contextualization in translation

A case study of English and Persian parallel texts

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21201034
AutoresMasoumeh Diyanati (0000-0001-7065-0955, Yasouj University), Mohammad Amouzadeh (0000-0001-8964-7967, University of Isfahan)
Año2025
Volumen16
Número5
Páginas748-771
Fecha de publicación2025-08-29
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPragmatics and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1878-9714 • E-ISSN: 1878-9722
EditorialJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/ps.23090.diy
OpenAlexW4405597769
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas42

This study investigates the challenges of translating English demonstratives into Persian, with a focus on deictic shifts and their discourse-pragmatic implications. It aims to outline the recontextualization that deictic terms undergo during translation and the role of discourse-pragmatic factors in this process. Utilizing a parallel database of literary and academic texts in English and Persian, all instances of English demonstratives and their Persian counterparts have been identified and compared based on type, form, and quantity. An analysis of 1,849 instances of demonstrative discrepancies reveals two primary types of deictic shifts: (1) genuine shifts, which involve a change in the deictic center due to the translator’s (inter)subjectivity, leading to the re-contextualization of discourse, and (2) non-genuine shifts, where there is no change in the origo . The findings indicate a tendency for genuine shifts to alternate between distal-to-proximal and proximal-to-distal, with a marked preference for distal-to-proximal shifts, attributed to the unmarked nature of proximal deixis in Persian. Furthermore, translators frequently replace pure deictics with impure forms or add deictic terms for clarity, reflecting broader translation strategies aimed at ensuring the definiteness and explicitness of referents

CLARITY · Contextualization · Definiteness · Deixis · Demonstrative · Linguistics · Performative utterance · Persian · Sociology · Third person · Utterance · Chemistry · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism · Translation Studies and Practices