Genre as linguistic coding of social occasions and the translation of their textual/intertextual potential with reference to English and Arabic

The current research deals with the notion of genre and introduces the notion of genrelet as a special kind of genre which operates under structural and language constraints,, and which involves more specific textual, participatory and social roles of participants than a genre does. It is argued that there exists a highly motivated kind of genre via intertextuality where the language user hijacks some generic elements from one genre and infiltrates them *into another different genre in an attempt to achieve a subtle argument and to relay an attitude. This intertextual operation involves the three dimensions of context (register, pragmatics, semiotics) and entails changes inflicted on the original social occasion, the attitude of the original text producer, the position of the sign, the function of the original genre, and the textual, participatory and/or social roles of the original participants. The research attempts to handle the issue from an English/Arabic translation point of view since the intertextual operation is considered one of the most problematic cases a translator would face

Legal Translation in the Perspective of Functionalism

This paper holds that legal translation studies should be conducted in a macro-to-micro way, that is, a top-down way which is consistent with Functionalist Translation Theory. Legal translational action and the agents within it are generally analyzed, and then translation Skopos and textual function in macro-level are combined with language disposal in micro-level. Given tremendous freedom and creativity of Functionalist Translation Theory, the translator is no longer the one who transmits between the source-text and the target text. In the process of the translational action, the translator has taken on a very active role of effective communicator whose main task is to make a successful interpersonal communication

Multilingual and intercultural communication in and beyond the UK asylum process: a linguistic ethnographic case study of legal advice-giving across cultural and linguistic borders

This thesis investigates how asylum applicants and refugees in the UK, and legal professionals, communicate multilingually and interculturally within legal advice meetings concerning the processes of applying for asylum and for refugee family reunion. The thesis addresses the important question of how English-speaking immigration legal advisors negotiate understanding with clients from a range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds in order to deliver crucial legal advice and support. Adopting a critical social constructionist perspective on language, culture, and communication, the thesis explores how a diverse range of linguistic, languacultural and discursive resources are employed to communicate within legal advice-giving. The thesis offers an in-depth analysis of legal-lay communication in the co-operative professional mediation setting of legal advice, contrasting with, and complementing, the existing literature on multilingual and intercultural communication in institutional gatekeeping contexts. The research takes a linguistic ethnographic case study approach, applying methodological perspectives on researching multilingually and theoretical perspectives from institutional ethnography. It combines ethnographic fieldwork within an advice service offering asylum and refugee legal advice with linguistic analysis of observations and audio recordings of advice meeting interactions.  The linguistic analysis combines the micro-analytic tools of interactional sociolinguistics with a communicative activity type analysis of the discursive structuring of legal advice interactions, and a transcontextual analysis of the range of texts entering into the interaction. The thesis demonstrates how refugee and asylum legal advice interactions are contextually framed by legal institutional intertextual hierarchies, which constrain, but also provide resources for, the purposeful communication taking place. It also demonstrates how a flexibly applied communicative activity type structure functions as a discursive tool to support intercultural communication. The thesis contributes to the fields of intercultural communication studies and professional and legal communication studies, and responds to broader issues of language and social justice, and the linguistic accessibility of institutions

Translation Anthologies in Disguise: the Case of Seferis’ Antigrafes

The present paper employs Lambert and van Gorp’s descriptive model of analysis and Theo Herman’s polysystem theory, in order to examine George Seferis’ translations included in the volume Antigrafes. It begins with an examination of the translator’s introductory remarks on his translation and proceeds with a discussion of Seferis’ selection and arrangement of the texts and the results of these choices (macro-level analysis). After that, the target-text is analyzed at the level of lexis, grammar and syntax (micro-level). Stylistic and semantic shifts are discussed here together with an attempt to form hypotheses regarding the reasons behind the translator’s choices. Finally the target-text is examined in the systemic context. Hypotheses formed at the previous stage are tested against the poet-translator’s original work as well as the home system’s literary production. The basic assumption of the present approach is that, examined in the socio-historical and cultural environments that host them, Antigrafes appear to be an anthology in disguise, a kind of modest, undercover equivalent to the Poundian ABC of Readin