Translation-oriented Text Analysis: A Comparative Study of the Transitivity System in the Discourse of Persian and English-Language Science and Technology Parks

According to systemic functional grammar, a text is constructed in accordance with the situational and cultural context of its production. With this assumption, this paper attempted to explore the distinct linguistic features in the texts of the websites of Persian and English-language science and technology parks that must be considered in their translation. To this end, the texts of “About Us” sections on the websites of 6 Iranian and 6 British and American science and technology parks were comparatively analyzed using the transitivity system within the framework of systemic functional grammar. The findings showed that despite the higher frequency of material processes in both groups of texts, in the Persian texts the parks appeared more in the role of Goal than Actor due to the higher frequency of passive clauses. Significant differences were also observed between the two groups of texts in the number and frequency of certain Circumstantial elements. Finally, it was proposed that in the translation of such Persian texts into English adopting the accepted norms of the international discourse of such texts would lead to better communicative results.