Translating the Ideological Effects of Prioritization in Arabic Political Discourse into English
ترجمةُ الأثارِ الأيديولوجيةِ لأسلوب إعطاءِ الأولويةِ في الخطابِ السياسي العربي إلى اللغةِ الانكليزيةِ
Abdulsattar Mahmood Muhammed Abdullah, General Directorate of Education in Saladdin Governorate, Iraq
عبدالستارمحمود محمدعبدالله، المديرية العامة للتربية في محافظة صلاح الدين، العراق
مقال منشور في مجلة جيل الدراسات الأدبية والفكرية العدد 79 الصفحة 117.
المُسْتَخْلَص:
تتحققُ هذه الورقةُ البحثيةُ الحالية من دراسة الأثار الأيدولوجية الناتجة عن إعطاء الأولويات النصية المتضمنة في الخطاب السياسي العربي بغية ترجمتها إلى اللغة الإنكليزية ترجمة مناسبة , وتؤكد الدراسة على أنه لا يوجد استخدام لغوي دون بُعد أيديولوجي يعكسه ذلك الاستخدام , وسواء بسواء أ كان ذلك الناطق الذي تفوه بالنص واعيا أو غير واع لما يتفوه به من كلام , ومن الجدير بالذكر أن أيَّ كاتبٍ أو متحدثٍ لأي نصٍ , لا خيار له إلا أن يعبر عن أيدولوجيته الخاصة من خلال الوظائف النصية للغة كوظيفة ” إعطاء الأولوية ” في النصوص التي هي قيد الدراسة , وهذه الوظيفة لا تشير إلى أسلوب التقديم(تقديم الخبر على المبتدأ أو تقديم المفعول به على الفعل والفاعل أو أي نوع أخر من أنواع التقديم ) في اللغة العربية أو اللغة الإنكليزية فحسب , وإنما تشير الى ذلك وغيره كإعطاء الأولوية لعنصر لغوي دون عنصر آخر مثل استخدام اسم معين لشخص دون ما يسمى به من تسميات أخر أو التمسك بتقديم الخبر على المبتدأ مرارا أو تقديم المفعول به على الفعل والفاعل أو يستخدم أداة نفي كـ ( لن ) دون غيرها من أدوات النفي علما أن النص يحتمل استخدام غيرها من أدوات النفي المتعددة, ففي بعض الأحيان نجد الكاتب (أو المتحدث) يعطي الأولوية إلى عناصر لغوية دون عناصر أخرى وهذا الذي تسلط الدراسة الضوء عليه , و بما أن الدراسة تتمحور حول النص السياسي العربي فقد تم اختيار رواية سياسية تحت عنوان ” سقوط سرداب” لكاتبها ” نوزت شمدين” ليتمكن الباحث من انتقاء العينات .
الكلمات المفتاحية: أيديولوجية , خطاب , ترجمة , سياسي , إعطاء الأولوية
Abstract:
The present paper examines the ideological effects reflected by aspects of discoursal prioritization in the Arabic political discourse. Then, these forms of priority will be rendered into English properly. The study also focuses on the fact that there is no linguistic choice without an ideological dimension whether the interlocutor uttered that consciously or unconsciously. It is to be noted that any writer or speaker is usually compelled to pack his / her ideologies within the discourse. Thus, the discourse can be ideologically loaded through the usage of the concept of priority, like, prioritizing the use of a certain name instead of the other, or the predicate over the subject, or uses a certain negative marker, though the discourse admits other markers, and the like. Since this paper is concerned with the Arabic political discourse, the data has been collected from the political novel entitled ‘ Sqoot Sirdab ‘ by Nawzat Shamdeen. So, the researcher will be able to select the samples to be discussed. Finally, we will notice how the author exerts all his energy to express his own ideology to the audience to convince them in what was usually practiced by the Iraqi previous regime.
Key words: Ideology, Discourse, Rendering, Political, Prioritization
Introduction
It is far better for translators who tackle the discourses politically to reflect, through their renderings, the meanings intended by the author who likes to convince people in what s/he communicates ideologically. It is worth noting that priority is one of the critical stylistic conceptual tools. It also plays a pivotal role in enabling interlocutors, like politicians to express their ideologies to their audience in a very clear way. The various linguistic markers, which make great contributions to the ideological values, will be stated in the current paper to be investigated. By the way, most linguistic choices are not utilized in random ways as most of those who are interested in translation believe. As a matter of fact, any stretch of communication encompasses ideological value(s).
1.Statement of the Problem
Discourse analysts state that behind each linguistic choice there is an ideological value. Therefore, the forms of priority are usually ideologically loaded. The study is an attempt to highlight the crucial significance of the concept of priority in the discourses all in all. As a result, the study concentrates on how translators use the techniques, through them, they can render the intended meaning of the speakers or writers to convey the sense of the ideology.
2.Aims of the Study
The study aims at the following:
1.Exploring the forms of priorities in the political discourse to be rendered into English in an appropriate way.
2.Following the strategies that contribute to find out the most convenient equivalents for each sort of priority.
3.Proposing the acceptable renderings for each discourse under investigation.
3.Model of the Study
The study adopts the model of Hatim and Munday (2004) since it is mainly interested in translation and ideologies as ” the fundamental social cognitions that reflect the basic aims, interests and values of groups”.
4.Text and Discourse
Scholars of linguistics hold different views concerning the definition of a text. Some of them define it in terms of the medium which is utilized whether spoken or written. Others tend to make a distinction between text and discourse to show the difference in between. Still others believe that text belongs to what is spoken whereas discourse to what is written. If one pays enough attention to the stream of speech, s/he can arrive at the conclusion that any piece of language can be considered a text regardless of its medium, i.e. spoken or written. In other words, if the stretch of communication achieves a full understanding, it can be defined as a text or a discourse. These definitions show the difference between text and discourse in a very simple way.
“A text is a piece of structured spoken or written language. It may be of considerable length, e.g. a webpage, a fairy tale, a sermon, a novel, etc. or it may consist of only one word, e.g. ” DANGER ” as a warning sign outside a power substation” (Ping Ke., 2019:135).
5.Ideological Discourse
It is pretty obvious that critical discourse studies usually tend to unpack what people exactly do and say during their usage of discourse. This is in terms of the views they hold regarding the world, themselves, and their relations with the others in general. In addition, critical discourse analysis shows clearly that the link between meaning and language is not stated arbitrarily or in a random way. Thus, the usage of a certain text-type or genre can lead to bring certain ideologies, intentions, meanings or propositions. “A significant problem with the study of ‘ideology’ in any discipline is its definition and scope”(Baker and Saldanha, 2013:137).
6.Priority in English Discourse
Priority, in English, can be represented by the concept of information structure. In general, information structures point to the use of word order so as to indicate how the message communicated by a sentence to be grasped by the recipients. In what follows, some notions that are closely related to information structures will be made clear. Through the distribution of information, forms of prioritisation can be identified. The main concepts of information structure must be identified. They are ‘given’ and ‘ new ‘. They both contribute to the location of focal point which is taken as a sort of priority.
” The distinction between theme and rheme is speaker-oriented. It is based on what the speaker wants to announce as his or her starting point and what he or she goes on to say about it ” (Baker, 2012: 156).
“We will see that speakers ‘package’ their utterances to take account of these estimates of knowledge. This packaging is often called information structure or, alternatively thematic structure” (Saeed, 2013: 205).
7.Arabic Syntactic Possibilities for Prioritising
In Arabic, the usual order of the sentence is as follows:
(1) Nominal Sentence: Subject +Predicate
(2) Verbal Sentence: Verb + Subject + Object
Sometimes the usual order is violated, that is, a predicate may come before the subject optionally or non-optionally. The same thing holds for the object which may come before the verb and the subject or the subject only (Al-Radhee, 1996: 256-7).
“A sentence structure characterized by thematically fronted rheme is called topic structure. Topicalisation can be affected in English:
1) Beer he’ll drink for hours on end. [ transposed Object]
2)Susan her name is. [transposed Subject Complement]
3)Sing I can’t very well. [transposed Predict]
4)Three times she’s rung me this morning. [transposed Adverbial].” (Pink Ke, 2019:157).
2.Transformations
“The derived structures – the ones that follow the application of transformational rules – are called surface structures or s-structures. The rules of the language that determine pronunciation apply to s-structure. If no transformations apply, then s-structure is the result after all transformations have had their effect. Many sentence types are accounted for by transformations, which can alter phrase structure trees by moving, adding, or deleting elements.
Other sentence pairs that are transformationally related are:
active-passive
The cat chased the mouse. The mouse was chased by the cat.
There is a bear in your closet. A bear is in your closet.
pp preposing
Tom Dooley stabbed her with his knife or With his knife Tom Dooley stabbed her” ( Fromkin, et al, 2013 : 110 ) .
8.Translation and Ideology
As Hatim and Mason (1997: 146) “The translator acts in a social context and is part of that context. It is in this sense that translating is, in itself, an ideological activity’. The social conditioning of translation events is reflected in the linguistic structure of the texts, and ideological aspects are thus particularily prominent in political texts. In other words, the politics of translation is more specific when it comes to the translation of political texts”(Cited in Kuhiwczak and Littau , 2007 : 142 ) . Translation has its own ideology which is located in the translated texts. The voice and style, in relation to the receiving audience, of the translator are the two main factors that can represent this ideology. These characteristics are moved by the location of the enunciation of the translator. Actually, such forms of translations can be activated by the culture and the ideology of the translator.
“Dialects” and “varieties” are likewise shaped by ideology. The meanings attached to speaking with “an accent” can function in the service of dominant ideologies about who has the right to political and economic power (Lippi-Green, 1997), and particular details of ways of sounding can acquire new ideological significance in defining self and community in the context of global economic and cultural change ” (Johnstone, 2008: 68).
“For Hatim and Mason, ideology encompasses ‘ the tacit assumptions, beliefs and value systems which are shared collectively by social groups ‘ (1997:144). They make a distinction between ‘ the ideology of translating ‘ and ‘ the translation of ideology” (Hatim and Munday, 2004: 102).
9.Data Collection
The present study is based on the political discourse, therefore, it is far better to choose what goes well with the same genre of the study under investigation. Thus, the data has been collected from an Iraqi political novel entitled ‘ Siqoot Sirdaab “The Collapse of A Culvert” by the novelist Nawzat Shamdeen. The study selected such novel since it is full of the areas of prioritisation. It tries to show the difference between the stylistic values under each sort of priority.
SL Example (1)
هؤلاء الجبناءُ ليسوا أفضلَ من الشبابِ المضحينَ بأرواحِهم في جبهاتِ القتالِ
(Literal Translation (henceforth: lit.) Those coward people are not better than the young people who sacrifice their souls in the fronts.)
Discussion
It is noticeable that the usual order of the above text can be illustrated as in هؤلاء الجبناءُ أفضلَ من الشبابِ المضحينَ بأرواحِهم في جبهاتِ القتالِ ليس . In Arabic, if the definite article ‘ ال ‘ is put in the predicate, it can imply the sense of generalization. The author prioritized the phrase ‘ هؤلاءَ الجبناءُ ‘ to refer to specificity in the sense of ‘ فقط’. It seems that the writer thinks that there are no coward people in the country, but those who refuse to join the battle to protect their country. Furthermore, the demonstrative pronoun in Arabic, sometimes, can imply negative connotation, i.e. dispraising, therefore it is attached to the word ‘الجبناء ‘ while it is not utilized before ‘ الشباب المضحين ‘. These ideologies reflected translators must take them into consideration through the process of translation.
Proposed Rendering
Those who I dispraise, the only coward all over the country, by all means are not better than the young who sacrifice their souls in battles.
SL Example (2)
السجناء وحدهم يعرفون المعنى الحقيقي للصبر
(Lit. The prisoners only know the actuality of the patience).
Discussion
It is quite clear that the writer utilized some forms of priority in the above quoted example. He utilized the adverbial”وحدهم” to express his ideology with a tone of emphasis. At the same time, the writer also hints that the other people know nothing about the essence of patience. Here, the writer is in a position to express his underlying ideology.
Proposed Rendering
The only ones who know the essence of patience are the prisoners.
SL Example (3)
Prioritizing the Prepositional Phrase
في الساعة الثالثة واثنين وعشرين دقيقة من فجر يوم السابع من كانون الثاني 1991 أيقضني دويُّ انفجارٍ قويٍّ هزني مع السرداب (32).
( Lit. At 03: 22 at the dawn of the 7th January 1991, I woke up due to strong explosion vibrated me with the culvert.)
Discussion
In the above-mentioned example, it is a very long cliché of describing time. In one way or another, the writer deliberately lays great stress on the adverbial time in the prepositional phrase ( في الساعةِ الثالثةِ واثنين وعشرينَ دقيقة من فجر يوم السابع من كانون الثاني 1991 …) and prioritized it to point out to the miserable circumstances at that time . The scene is portrayed in a very unique way because the writer gave some details about time which are not very significant to be told, but he wants to attract the reader’s attention to make him imagine how people have been suffering from bad time. The task of translator, here, is to find out the most appropriate techniques to render the ideological value which the writer intends to convey through his writing.
Proposed Rendering
At 03:22 at the dawn of the 7th January 1991, I have been woken up by a sound blast vibrated me together with culvert.
SL Example (4)
جميل أفندي كان محبوبَ المسيحيينَ واليهودِ واليزيدين (134).
Discussion
In the text above, the kernel sentence was ordered as follows:
كانَ جميلُ أفنديِّ محبوبَ المسيحيينَ واليهودِ واليزيدينَ
( Lit. Jameel Afandee was loved by the Christians, Jews and the Yazidians ).
The writer, as usual, tries to prioritize the subject ( جميلُ أفندي) and puts it in the beginning of the sentence in order to express his ideology towards the people of the other religions, like the Christians and the Jews . The writer also intends to show that these people live together peacefully for centuries, therefore they love the same person, i.e. ‘ Jameel Afandee ‘ regardless of his nationality, religion or anything else.
Proposed Rendering
The one who was loved unanimously by the Christians, the Jews and the Yazidians was Jameel Afandee.
SL Example (5)
مدفأة علأ الدين تنقلت أسابيع طويلة بين الحجرات لمكافحة الرطوبة (120)
( Lit. The stove Alla-al-deen has been relocated for long weeks among rooms to prevent moisture).
Discussion
Certainly, the author knows a large number of stoves names but he deliberately highlighted the stove called Alla al-deen which conveys a great deal of the negative connotations, like, poverty, hunger, and so on. He utilized more than one way of priority such as :
a. transposing the agent (مدفأة علاء الدين )
b. selecting such stove among others,
c. using a singular form rather than a plural one to show that there is only one stove.
The translator can make wide use of the footnote to render the connotative meaning of the stove of Alla-al-deen.
Proposed Rendering
The stove Alla-al-deen has been used in all rooms to prevent moisture.
SL Example (6)
المعارك التي خاضها أبي لم يكن أي منها لأجل الوطن (149).
( Lit. The battles that my father participated in are not for the sake of the country.)
Discussion
The transposed part ( المعارك ) which functions as an object points out that the author’s father took part in so many battles, but unfortunately none of them is for the sake of the country .It seems that, through the inspection of the above text, the unstated meaning the author hints is that his father wishes the reputation, that he is a brave warrior, attributes to him .The author prioritized the unstated meaning over the above stated one to attract the reader’s attention . Concerning the word (المعارك), he prioritized the definiteness over the indefiniteness through the definite article ( ال ) which sometimes, in Arabic, implies the meaning of ( كل) to turn the text into :
كلُ المعاركِ التي خاضها أبي لم يكنْ أيٍّ منها لأجلِ الوطنِ
To try to convey the ideological value which is included in the above text, the translator must bear in mind that such priority is not used in a random way. The writer also would like to state that all people, even his father who is used as a model, refuse the polices and those who are practiced them against the others . The writer used his father in a text as a model to show to the others that even his father who is a member of the regime at that time refuses these aggressive acts. One can conclude that all people also refuse such acts because the one who is ranked as a general in the regime does not go well with the regimes’ acts.
Proposed rendering
All the battles, which my father took part in, are not lunched for the sake of the country.
SL Example (7)
في الأوقات التي لم أكن أقرأ فيها , كنت أتمشى جيئة وذهابا خارج الحجرات أو ألعب مع نفسي
الـ (( داما )) أو (( الريز 88
( Lit. At times when I do not read, I was walking two-ways outside the rooms or I play with my Dama and Reez ) .
Discussion
The two games (الداما Dama ) and ( الريز Reez ) are composed of stones only . They are popular games being played by most of Iraqi people, especially at the time of economic embargo set by America .The ideological dimension behind selecting these two games is to refer to the level of poverty . The writer packed these two words so many ideological values. The first ideological value is that people have no any choice but they play such very traditional games. The second value is that the government, at that time do not care about its people.
Proposed Rendering
At times when I do not read, I was walking two-ways outside the rooms or I play with my Dama and Reez.
SL Example (8)
جدتي: وينك ثائر, اطلع صدر عفو عنك. (65)
Discussion
It is noticeable that the above quoted example is ideologically loaded. The actual name of the novelist under discussion is Nawzaat, but he used the name ” Tha’er, which means in Arabic ‘ the revolutionist ‘. The ideological value that the writer intends to convey is that anyone at that time plays the role of the revolutionist, or in other words, must be a revolutionist even if he lives underground. The writer also wants to portray this character as a criminal because his grandmother told him that amnesty is issued for him. It is also well known that the amnesty is issued only for the sake of criminals. The translator can make use of the syntactic concept in English ” the appositive ” to render the connotative meanings of the name ‘Tha’er’.
Proposed Rendering
My grandmother: Where are you Tha’er, the Revolutionist man, get out, amnesty has been issued for the sake of you.
Conclusions
The conclusions that have been arrived at are as follows:
1.Prioritisation has not only been considered as the concept of topicalisation which is usually tackled from syntactic perspective. However, it can also be studied from phonetic, semantic, and pragmatic perspectives. Thus, every time, one can notice that ideologies can be conveyed by means of so many different tools including the linguistic ones.
2.Most of writers of fiction or nonfiction tend to functionize anything inside the discourse to express their own ideological attitudes. So, repeatedly we note that most of words go behind its linguistic meaning.
3.Due to the huge differences between the systems of Arabic as well as English, the difficulties of translating the political discourses become harder than most of other discourses.
4.Arabic language is more flexible, regarding thematic fronting of its elements. Therefore, it can express the ideological values better than English language.
5.Most of famous writers of political discourse rely mainly on the usage of the vocabulary items that have cultural and ideological dimensions.
6.Ignoring any ideological value which the discourse contains surely results in great loss in translation.
Reference
Al-Radhee, M. (1996). Shareh Al-Radhee 6la al-alfiya. Benghazi ” Publishings of Qar Younis University.
Baker, M. (2012). In Other Words: A Course on Translation. New York: Routledge.
Baker, M. and Saldanha, G. (2013). ROUTLEDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TRANSLATION STUDIE. London and New York. Routledge.
Hatim, B. and Munday, J. (2004). Translation: An advanced resource book. London and New York: Routledge.
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. and Hyams, N. (2014).
AN INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE. New York: Calder Foundation.
Johnstone, B. (2008). Discourse Analysis. UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Kuhiwczak, P. and Littau, K. (2007). A COMPANION TO TRANSLATION STUDIES. Britain: Cromwell Press Ltd.
Munday, J. (2012). INTRODUCING TRANSLATION STUDIES. Great Britain: Routledge.
Ping Ke, (2019). Contrastive Linguistics. China. Peking University Press.
Saeed, J. (2013). Semantics. London: BLACKWELL Publishing.
Appendix
(1) TL Rendering
Those who I dispraise, the only coward all over the country, by all means are not better than the young who sacrifice their souls in battles.
(2) TL Rendering
The prisoners are the only ones who know the essence of patience
(3) TL Rendering
At 03: 22 at the dawn of the 7th January 1991, I have been woken up by a sound blast vibrated me together with culvert
(4) TL Rendering
The one who was loved by the Christians, the Jews and the Yazidians was Jameel Afandee.
(5) TL Rendering
The stove Alla-al-deen has been used in all rooms to prevent moisture
(6) TL Rendering
All the battles, which my father took part in, are not intended for the sake of the country.
(7) TL Rendering
At times when I do not read, I was walking two-ways outside the rooms or I play with my Dama and Reez.
(8) TL Rendering
Where are you Tha’er, the Revolutionist man, get out, amnesty has been issued for the sake of you.
