Textually-Mediated Synonymy in English / Arabic Translation

Abstract

Translation can be seen as a communicative action built on the support of understanding the pragmatic and semiotic dimensions which envelop all texts. This research aims to provide evidence for the need to have a wider focus on translation between different linguistic codes, based on the analysis of the different features and unique characteristics of each code. To achieve this aim, this research focuses on synonymy in language as one of the problematic areas in translation. Synonymy is tightly bound to culture and a social knowledge of the people using it, and translators need to be aware of this while translating to minimize the loss of accuracy in the final product of their work. To investigate this claim, this research examines the notion of synonymy (English-Arabic) at two levels. The first will discuss context-related synonymy with examples from the Holy Qur'an, while the second will focus on text type-related synonymy based on the argumentative text type. By comparing different translations done for each level, this research will highlight and define the main problems seen in exploiting synonymy in translations that go beyond the linguistic features of any given text.