Translation and Hybridity in Scenes and Frames Semantics

The present study is a theoretical attempt to illustrate how Fillmore's Scenes and Frames Semantics (SFS) could be employed as a framework to portray the process of understanding and translating hybrid texts. It first reviews the origin of SFS; then it maps SFS onto Nida’s linguistic model of translation process and the Interpretive Theory of Translation; it examines in the next section, within the framework of SFS, different forms of understanding and translating hybrid and pure texts with reference to the selection of linguistic frames and more importantly the activation of scenes. The paper explains all four processes of hybridization, dehybridization, rehybridization and hybridity preservation using SFS. The study concludes that, although hybridity is a complex phenomenon, Fillmore’s scenes and frames semantics can adequately explain and justify its different aspects and manifestations. Moreover, it revealed that understanding, seen in SFS model, has an element of individuality and this gives rise to a broader perspective on translation where there can potentially be as many valid translations as there are translators. This has significant implications for our conception, analysis and assessment of translation.