Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol 1, No 10 (2011), 1354-1360, Oct 2011
doi:10.4304/tpls.1.10.1354-1360

Analysis of Equivalent Structures in Persian for the Translation of English Passive Sentences Based on Translations of “Animal Farms”

Omid Tabatabaei, Ashraf Rostampour

Abstract


This article is an attempt to analyze the Persian language structures equivalent to the Passive structures in English. After a brief review of both linguists and grammarians views about this structure, various structures used in the translations of the English passive structure in the book “Animal Farm” by George Orwell (1945) have been analyzed resulting in the introduction eleven different categories of such structures. Then the frequency of each structure has been calculated in each of the five available translations according to which the more frequent structures were introduced. The findings show that the structure “active-intransitive verbs” is the most common structure in these translations which is used to translate the passive structure in English. The findings also confirm the previous research claiming that in the Persian language there is a tendency to use the active structure rather than the passive one.


Keywords


passive; Persian; English; equivalent structures; style

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