Translating Conjunctive Cohesion in English-Swahili Healthcare Texts

Douglas Ondara Orang'i

Abstract


Conjunctive cohesion is a vital element in texts since it gives the reader the logico-semantic relations that exist within a given text and subsequently aids in the overall interpretation of the intended message. However, this area has not been widely studied especially in the African languages and how translation dynamics impact its use in texts. Accordingly, this study explores the use of conjunctive cohesion in the translation of English-Swahili healthcare texts. The article seeks to describe conjunctive cohesion and establish if there is any variation in the translated texts. This study is theoretically anchored in Descriptive Translation Studies. The findings show that there is near uniformity in the use of conjunctive cohesion in the source and target texts. The additive category was found to be the most prevalent. Though not significant, temporals, adversatives and causals are also used in source and target texts. The study concludes that both English and Swahili languages are hypotactic and that informs the closeness in the use of the conjunctive cohesion devices.


Keywords


Conjunctive cohesion, Swahili, healthcare texts, translation, descriptive translation studies, cohesive markers.

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References


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