Investigating the Translation of Selected Semantic Devices in Relation to the Sociocultural Context between Arabic and English Business and Economic Texts

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the translation of conjunctions as semantic devices in relation to the context of situation and culture. A discourse analysis approach is adopted using Halliday’s (1985) model. The sample is collected from two websites, ‘Finance and Development Journal’ and ‘International Bank Blogs’, where 20 texts were manually drawn from each website. After the analysis of additive, adversative, causal, temporal, and continuative conjunctions from both Arabic and English business and economic texts, it is found that literal translation is the most dominant case in the translation of the translated conjunctions and, though unit shifts occur few times only in the causal conjunctions, and abstract occurrences are also found in the adversative and continuative conjunctions; yet meaning is still retained. The findings showed that the relationship between macrostructures and conjunctions enhanced the field in that mostly these conjunctions were surfaced equally and no meaning loss has occurred, which proves the formality tenor that is established between the authors and translators and their audience.