Pragmatic Equivalents in Translation

A Presentation given by

Eyhab A. Bader EddinNovember 2, 2015

Pragmatics:

The study of how the same utterance may have different meanings in different situations.

The study of how language is used in communication.

The study of meaning in relation to speech situation.

Study of meaning as communicated by a speaker and interpreted by a listener.

Why is Pragmatics interesting, and why is it frustrating?Interesting as it enables us to know how

people make sense of each other linguistically!

Frustrating as it requires us to know what

people have in mind, and here lies the CRUX of this field.

A humorous anecdote to tell to illustrate this is …He wanted to be pragmatically appropriate in

that new social setting.The response he used to give was not

inaccurate, but it did convey the meaning he was a social outsider who answered in an unexpected way.

In a certain context of situation where a man is asking his friend to email him an urgent message, the phrase ‘I have Wi-Fi’, clearly means he can email him the message.What about the same ‘utterance’, carrying a

different message if said in such a different context as the following?

There is a woman sitting on a park bench, and a large dog lying on the ground in front of the bench. A man comes a long and sits down on the bench.

Man: Does your dog bite?Woman: No(The man reaches down to pet the dog. The

dog bites the man’s hand)Man: Ouch! Hey! You said your dog does not

bite.Woman: He doesn’t. But that is NOT my dog.

By the same token, a pragmatic failure occurs in the following situation:

Equivalence

Central concept, yet controversial.The relationship holding between SL words

and their TL counterparts.Typologies developed according to the rank

(word, sentence, text level) and to the type of meaning (denotative, connotative, pragmatic, etc)

One example from Literature …At one point in a Naguib Mahfouz’s novel

‘The Day the Leader was Assassinated’, we come across the threat phrase إسود The . نهارهtranslator translated it as ‘Black be his day!’,

But a more suitable pragmatic rendering such as ‘Damn him!’ or ‘Woe to him’! would have undoubtedly been more appropriate.

Anther example comes from the English Bard, Shakespeare in his opening lines of the 18th sonnet

Because the summer exalted and celebrated in England is by no means the same face-scorching summer in the Arabian Gulf countries, I suggest the following translating, replacing the word ‘summer’ in the ST by ‘the spring’ being the pleasant season in this region and to be PRAGMATICALLY blending in with the whole picture!

أيام يبياهيك بحسنك ند� من هل؟الربيع

ال واعتداال # صحوا منه أبهى أنت بليضيع

Pragmatic equivalence is not merely restricted to literary works. Let’s try to see examples from the Holy Quran!

)ه+م+ +ق,و(ل ل م,ع( ,س( ت 0وا ,ق0ول ي +ن و,إ ام0ه0م( ,ج(س, أ 0ك, ب 0ع(ج+ ت ,ه0م( (ت ي, أ ر, +ذ,ا 6ه0م( و,إ ن

ك,أ,6د,ة9 م;س,ن ب9 ه0م( خ0ش0 ف,اح(ذ,ر( (ع,د0و; ال ه0م0 (ه+م( ,ي ع,ل (ح,ة� ص,ي 0ل6 ك 0ون, ب ,ح(س, ي

0ون, ) 0ؤ(ف,ك ي 6ى ,ن أ 6ه0 الل ,ه0م0 ,ل (4ق,ات

They are as worthless as hollow pieces of timber propped up, unable to stand on their own. (Ali, 1983: 1550)

The expression مسندة refers to the hypocrites, renderedخشبthrough a periphrastic translation (worthless as hollow pieces of timber propped up, unable to stand on their own). Culturally, the Arabs used to put planks of timber against the wall at the back of their houses when they were not needed, and as such the planks of wood were useless most of the time. This expression reflects a metonymy for the person who is useless and worthless in the community.

Pragmatically, and to leave the same effect left on native speakers of Arabic, we’d better translate it as

‘being useless as an old rag’

ا ل�و� خ� �ذ�ا إ �ن�ام�ل� و� األ� ع�ل�ي�ك�م� وا ل� ع�ض� ق� ال�غ�ي�ظ� �م�ن�د�ور� ) الص� ب�ذ�ات� ع�ل�يم# الل%ه� إ�ن% (119 �م�وت�واب�غ�ي�ظ�ك�م�

but when they are alone, they bite off the very tips of their fingers at you in their rage. (Ali, 1983: 153)

the cultural expression ‘ الأنامل which is also ,عضواprovided with a periphrastic rendering ‘to bite off the very tips of their fingers’. This is a cultural habit among some Arabs who express their anger or envy through biting the side of their index.

We should be looking for a pragmatic equivalent that has the same effect on the TL native speakers!

‘to stamp their feet out of rage’, or ‘to gnash their teeth’

The phrasal verb ‘to fire away’ could generally in a certain context of situation mean ‘to open fire on an enemy’. However, watch the following short clip of video, and let’s try to give a pragmatic equivalent to the same utterance BUT in a different situation, i.e. political interview

Implicatures must not be confused with idiomatic meaning. Idiomatic meaning is conventional and its interpretation depends on a good mastery of the linguistic system rather than on interpretation.

For instance in the following exchange: A. Shall we go for a walk?B. Could I take a rain check on that?

The interpretation depends on knowing the meaning of the expression “take a rain check” in American English, and will be “If you don’t mind, we’ll do it another time”.

While in the case of: A. Shall we go for a walk?B. It’s raining. The answer could be interpreted as: “No,

thanks, I don’t want to get wet”, or “Okay, but let’s take an umbrella”, etc.