Examining Catford’s transposition shifts: In the case of The Vendor of Sweets and its Sinhala translation, Rasakævili Vele. nd¯a by Siril Chandrasekara

Abstract

The transposition technique is extensively used in translations to accommodate the structural, lexical and grammatical differences between different languages. Through the lens of the four types of category shifts introduced by J. C. Catford namely, structural shift, class shift, unit shift and intra-system shift, the objective of this research is to identify the types of transposition shifts present and analysing the frequency of these shifts in English-Sinhala translations through the translation Rasakævili Vele. nd¯a of the English novel The Vendor of Sweets. The study addresses two research questions: 1. What types of Catford’s transposition shifts are observable in the Sinhala Translation of The Vendor of Sweets? 2. How frequently do these shifts occur throughout the translation? This research employs a qualitative comparative method, where the data are analysed through a close examination of the source text and the target text, identifying differences in the translation and then categorising them according to Catford’s framework of transposition shifts. It was found that the most occurring type of shift is a unit shift, which occurs 64 times, proving the translator’s attempt to achieve naturalness in the translation. The occurrence of a structural shift, which was 54 in count, showcases the structural differences between English (SVO) and Sinhala (SOV). The translator’s use of transposition highly contributes to the preservation of meaning despite the structure of the Source Language. This research highlights the importance of transposition shifts in the process of translation to bridge the lexical and structural gap between the two languages. This research also contributes to bridging the research gap in research focused on the language pair English-Sinhala. The findings underscore the role of transposition in bridging lexical and structural gaps and contribute to the relatively limited scholarship on English-Sinhala translation.