Semiotising the Translation of Political Discourse: Micro and Macro-Structures

Aabi, Mustapha; Karama, L. Asmae

Revue Maghrébine des Langues
Volume 10, Numéro 1, Pages 165-184
2016-12-31

Semiotising The Translation Of Political Discourse: Micro And Macro-structures

Authors : Aabi Mustapha . Karama L. Asmae .

Abstract

The argument in this article goes that translation is a socio-ideological determined process of cross-cultural encounter of different languages, therefore different cultures and different social, political and moral systems. The prospect of a culturally determined view of language can be considerably useful to translators. It enables them to relate the mass of knowledge they possess under the heading of cultural studies to the text they are translating. Indeed, “cultures do not just predispose us to divide reality in different ways. They also predispose us to link different parts of reality in different ways.” (Williams, 1992: 90). Our choice to study the political discourse and its translation from Arabic into English is made because of two main reasons; first, the role it attributes to language in the reconstruction of facts. News is most importantly a culturally shared language of meanings, values, codes and conventions by which readers assimilate the world (Hartley, 1982). The second reason relates to the politicized framework within which the translation of news discourse from English into Arabic operates.