Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts - Volume 1, Issue 2, 2015

Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis, the present paper seeks to identify the ideological factors that may characterize politically motivated news texts and the text strategies that articulate them in an English-Arabic translation context. Two hundred source texts and target texts representing political turmoil and conflict in the Middle East (2011–2014) were examined for contrastive analysis. Data were collected through archival research of Assafir, the leading national newspaper in Lebanon, in addition to international media outlets, such as Reuters, AFP, and the BBC. The descriptive analysis of both source and target texts reveals that the functional organization of clauses and sentences, lexical categorization, and modal expressions in the news language can be seen as representing sectarian discourses, and the exercise of power found in the media in times of political struggle. The ideological factors identified in this study are related to the notions of hegemony, the rhetoric of worthy versus unworthy victims, interpellation of subjects, and group schema.

Interpreters express in one language what is said in another. Verbal language is, of course, the basic system by which humans often interact, and a large percentage of our communication is based on the exchange of words. Bilingual language skills are fundamental and are, as might be expected, emphasized in any interpreter-training program. Issues dealing with verbal language such as knowledge of medical terminology in two languages, cognates, false cognates, syntactical structures, and idioms are essential. They should be a very important part of the training provided for interpreters working in many public service settings (legal, health, education, housing, environmental health, and social services). Although the organized system of vocal sounds, known as verbal language, is fundamental to communicate meaning between individuals, there are also nonverbal features that are utilized in everyday conversation (including interpreted-mediated events). Following Fernando Poyatos (2002a, 2002b, 2002c), this article briefly examines the triple structure of discourse, language-paralanguage-kinesics, and its relevance for interpreters. One of the main differences between public service interpreting and other types of interpreting (such as conference interpreting) is the opportunity for interpreters to intervene, particularly in healthcare settings. These interventions occur in order to stop the flow of the conversation and clarify terms, expressions or ideas; point to a misunderstanding; signal a cultural reference; and/or relay the meaning of specific nonverbal behavior. The idea of the interpreter as mere conduit has now been put into question, and with reason. S/he is now regarded as a visible co-participant in a verbal and nonverbal interaction that allows two people from different languages and cultures to communicate with each other. Because nonverbal communication is an important part of the triadic interpreted-mediated events that take place in healthcare settings, it is becoming much more visible as part of interpreter education. The present article first considers communication through nonverbal signs, and often just through nonverbal signs. Next, it stresses the need for interpreters to account for nonverbal cues in the routine triadic events taking place in healthcare settings. The article adopts an expanded definition of interpreting, a particular notion of language, and a constructivist approach to learning.

Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt’s literary icon, wrote a large number of novels that were turned into films. As the DVD industry in Egypt enters its second decade, the number of these films appearing on DVD and subtitled into English is also increasing. Despite this trend, academic institutions in Egypt, and elsewhere in the Arab world, remain largely oblivious to the new specialization of audiovisual translation. So far, academic research into audiovisual translation, particularly subtitling Arabic-language films into English, has been minuscule. This paper examines the complex task of subtitling one of Mahfouz’s most popular films, Midaq Alley. It argues that subtitling a classic film is a lot more than just translating the film dialogue and the subtitler needs more resources than just the dialogue list and the video of the film.

This paper contributes to a recent development in Applied Linguistics that encourages research from trans- approaches. Drawing on the results of an ethnographic research project carried out in a university of Bangladesh. It is illustrated how young adults actively and reflexively use a mixture of codes, modes, genres, and popular cultural texts in their language practices within the historical and spatial realities of their lives. The paper shows that the interpretive capacity of heteroglossia increases when complemented by an understanding derived from transgressive approaches to language. The paper proposes a reconceptualised version of heteroglossia, namely transglossia, which explores the fixity and fluidity of language in the 21th Century. On the one hand, transglossia is a theoretical framework that addresses the transcendence and transformation of meaning in heteroglossic voices. On the other hand, a transglossic framework untangles the social, historical, political, ideological, and spatial realities within which voices emerge. Overall, it is suggested that transglossia and a transglossic framework can provide us with an understanding of language that notions such as code-mixing or code-switching or any language-centric analysis fail to unveil.