The various facets of a message: an analysis of the thematic structure in Bridget Jones's Diary in the light of the systemic functional grammar, corpus linguistics and translation studies interface

Abstract

The interface among Systemic Functional Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics and Translation Studies has provided prolific tools for translation training, teaching and research. Of particular interest is the notion of choice and its direct connection to the meaning of the message, which enables the translator to model reality according to the selections s/he makes in order to retextualize a text written in a different socio-cultural scenario. In this context, Thematic Structure plays a crucial role to the meaning making of a message, as its maintenance or not in the target text may be influenced by linguistic, cultural and ideological constraints. Thematic organizations of the source text and target text may alter either the communicative function of the message or the writer's style. The corpus of analysis consists of the English version (ST) and the Brazilian Portuguese counterpart (TT) of Bridget Jones's Diary, written by Helen Fielding and translated by Beatriz Horta. The concepts of markedness and unmarkedness are explored so as to investigate the translational behavior as reflected in the thematic patterns emerging during the analysis. The data description was carried out with the help of Wordsmith Tools software.