In-Text or Out-of-Text Word Choice: A Case Study of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the extent to which word choice in translation is influenced by intra-textual or extra-textual factors, or whether the use of bilingual dictionary equivalents is adequate for the translator. To this end, the translation of two common adjectives, “Good” and “Bad”, in the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was analyzed. The findings revealed that word choice in translation is predominantly intra-textual, and that extra-textual word choice, i.e., word choice based on bilingual dictionaries, is not effective in translation - especially in literary translation. The translator mainly relies on the text and the relations in it to select the appropriate words, and this is more evident in the case of some linguistic features of the text. One of these linguistic features is the collocational relation between words, which plays a crucial role in determining the meaning and affecting its textuality.

Keywords

• word choice
• in-text
• out-of-text
• bilingual dictionaries