The Translator as Communicator

parole:
see 
langue
perlocutionary act:
see 
locutionary act
physical proximity:
see 
register, mode,
metafunction
192 GLOSSARY

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plan:
a global pattern representing
how events and states lead up
to the attainment of a goal.
Plans are predominantly
utilized in putting together 
>
argumentative
texts.
politeness:
a 
> pragmatic
theory which
is centered on the notion of >
face,
that is, the attempt to
establish, maintain and save
face during interaction with
others. Two main factors
regulate the degree of
imposition
which is ideally
kept at a minimum:
>
power
and 
distance.
In
handling the latter, two basic
sets of strategies are in use:
positive politeness
strategies
(those which
show intimacy between
speaker and hearer) and
negative politeness
strategies
(those which
underline social distance
between participants). Any
irregularity in handling
power and/or distance would
result in compromising the
degree of imposition in a
wide range of what is known
as 
face threatening acts
(FTAs).
positive politeness
strategies:
see 
politeness
power:
in the analysis of 
>
politeness, > tenor
or, more
specifically 
> interpersonal
meaning,
two basic types of
relationship may be
distinguished: 
power
and
solidarity.
Power emanates
from the text producer’s
ability to impose his or her
GLOSSARY 193

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plans at the expense of the
text receiver’s plans.
Solidarity, on the other hand,
is the willingness of the text
producer genuinely to
relinquish power and work
with his or her interlocutors
as members of a team.
Particular choices within 
>
mood
and 
> modality
are
relevant to the expression of
either power or solidarity.
pragmatics:
the domain of 
intentionality
o
r the purposes for which
utterances are used in real
contexts.
presupposition:
what the text producer
assumes the receiver already
knows.
proficiency testing:
see 
achievement testing
pronominal switching:
see 
reference switching
prepositional content:
the content involved in
saying something that is
meaningful and can be
understood. Not included
here is the function which the
particular sentence performs
in some specified context.
For example, within
prepositional content
analysis, 
It is hot in here
would be analysed as a
comment on the temperature
of the room and not, say, an
attempt to get someone to
open the window.
quality:
see 
the cooperative
principle
quantity:
see 
the cooperative
principle
reference switching:
the rhetorically-motivated
change from use of an
expected, norm-upholding
linguistic form (pronoun,
194 GLOSSARY

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tense, gender or definiteness
markers, etc.) to one which is
expectation-defying. For
example, 
You delivered me
uttered as a prayer for
deliverance.