Using illocutionary force types as tools for explicitation in translation

 The current qualitative study was carried out to investigate the illocutionary force of Ya Ali (a deeply culture specific term literally meaning Oh Ali) which is employed by Iranians in oral discourse. This research also aimed at finding out different functions of Ya Ali in different contexts and finding their corresponding equivalents in English according to Neubert s text-linguistic model. Data were collected in two phases: First, sixty Persian native speakers of different age groups ranging from ۳۰ to ۷۰, of both genders were observed in ۹۰ natural situations such as daily interactions, gatherings, in public or private places as well as on local TV programs. Second, to corroborate the representativeness of samples, fifteen people were interviewed directly when they utter Ya Ali (i.e. think- aloud protocol was used). It was concluded that Ya Ali may be employed in either religious or non-religious contexts. Moreover, functions of Ya Ali can be used in eight different contexts with different functions. According to Neubert (۱۹۹۱) the translator must modify the source text using a variety of methods, including explicitation, deletion, and modulation in order to produce a more satisfactory and pragmatically adequate translation. The result revealed that explicitation was the most appropriate method for transferring the different meanings of Ya Ali from Persian into English.

Keywords:

Illocutionary force , explicitation , Ya Ali , Translation