An Analysis On Translating English Syntactic Structure Into Sinhalese

Abstract

„Translation‟ is a phenomenon of converting words, phrases in one language (Source Language) to another language (Target Language). The knowledge of the Syntactic Structure of a language is the most important unit for the Process of Translation. Accordingly, the structure of the arrangement of words, phrases of a language can be identified as the Syntactic Structure of that Language. 'Syntax' is the subject that studies the mentioned theory. However, a lot of translators face the challenge of translating the English Syntactic Structure to the Sinhala Language, as both Language Structures are different from each other. This is an analysis to find solutions to this issue. Data was collected using a questionnaire and ten undergraduates of Translation Studies at the University of Kelaniya were given Complex English Sentences to translate into Sinhalese. It was found that all of them have done it in different ways. Some did not have a clear understanding of the placements of those phrases and some have forgotten some phrases to translate. Some of them have tried to translate it directly. It has identified that more than half of undergraduates have followed the abovementioned way in translating. In conclusion, the translator should first read the whole sentence or the text and get a clear meaning of it. Next, the phrases should be separated carefully. After that, the translation should be done by placing the phrases into suitable placements by following the Sinhala Syntactic Structure (SVO). Finally, the translator can avoid those mistakes by following this solution. For this purpose, the translator should be aware of both Sinhala and English Sentence Structures to keep the meaning of the Source Text without harming the Grammar as it is the backbone of a Language.