Discoursal Thematization Processes in News Translation

Abstract

This study is intended as a foray into thematic patterns and developments of Theme-Rheme structures of the text, with the eventual aim of exploring what happens to the English news texts (STs) when they are rendered into their counterpart Persian texts (TTs). This paper is also an attempt to shed light on Fries’s (1995) first hypothesis that ‘different patterns of thematic progression correlate with different genres’. For this purpose, ten VOA’s (Voice of America) news reports were randomly assigned and carefully analyzed in association with their respective Persian news reports rendered and produced by Persian speaking staff of VOA. It was made clear, then, that the thematic structures of the TTs are basically similar to those of the STs. Furthermore, most of the texts (news genre) turned out to be in harness with a specific pattern of thematic progression, namely, ‘a progression of Themes derived from a general notion’. Some hypotheses are posited, at the end, which, it is hoped, could be taken as perspectives for further research.