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PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATION
CHAPTER III
ACTIVATION OF THE MODEL
Translation is a relational enterprise; it explores the nature and
scope of the relationship (s) between two different texts in two
different languages. Though translation theorists unanimously agree
that equivalence between SL and TL texts is the ultimate goal of
translation, no consensus has yet been reached as to what brand of
equivalence is to be achieved. For Catford, equivalence is achieved
when formal and lexical items • in the source text are replaced by
equivalent items in the target text. Catford emphasizes formal
equivalence. On the other hand, Nida upholds dynamic equivalence which
creates on the TL reader an effect similar to that created on the SL
reader by the SL text. While formal equivalence is source-oriented,
dynamic equivalence is reader-oriented. Like Nida, Newmark stresses
the communicative dimension of translation. Likewise, de Beaugrande
and Halliday regard the text as "an instance of communicative
linguistic occurrence". Text-typologies, however, do not solve the
problem of equivalence. They focus on the text in the source language
without making the slightest reference to equivalence, let alone how to
achieve it in the target text. The rhetorical model, which is based
on the concept of 'semantic shifts', is qualified both theoretically
and practically to resolve the controversial issue of equivalence. It
furnishes the translator with a methodology which, if closely
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