To Translate and Adapt a text with Long Sentences : With Focus on Readability

Abstract: When translating from English into Swedish long sentences may be a problem. In this paper an academic text with long sentences and an abstract content is translated and adapted for a larger target reader group. The strategies used in this process of translation and adaptation to make the text more readable are analysed regarding changes in sentence structure, noun phrases and connectors. The terminology of Vinay and Darbelnet’s theoretical model for translation strategies is used to describe some of the changes found. Transposition, such as changes from nouns to verbs and modulation, such as changing from abstract to concrete are frequently used strategies in the process of making the translation adapted for new readers. Furthermore, long sentences have been broken into two or more shorter ones and in this process the importance of connectors has increased to keep the information together. To see the effects of the changes LIX and the ratio between number of nouns and verbs have been used. The LIX value decreased from 64 till 56 for the whole text and the noun verb ratio decreased in all the sentences analysed.