Paragraph as a Syntactic and Thematic Unit of Expository-Argumentative Texts in Czech and Spanish: Contrastive and Translation Analysis

Abstract

This paper analyzes the paragraph structuring of expository-argumentative texts in Czech and Spanish. Paragraph has been defined as a textual unit, which is characterized by a unity of topic and inner coherence and which plays an important role in text production and interpretation. The paper presents the results of an analysis carried out using the method of comparison of comparable and parallel texts. Its aim is to describe paragraphs in Czech and Spanish expository-argumentative texts and their respective translations in terms of their length and thematic structure, and to determine to what extent the differences ascertained, if any, are reflected in translations from Spanish to Czech. A translation analysis attempts to reveal which norms and factors are reflected in the translator’s approach.