Finding History In The Future

Change and development over an extremely fast period of time in Qatar have shifted the atmospheric sense of the country. The distance created by the skyscrapers and their scale to people has a great impact on the behavior and interaction between the people and the city. In my research, I aim to incorporate the old experiences and behaviors with contemporary design in objects used within the house to maintain the feeling of being home through reliving the fading behaviors and traditions as well as bringing closer the modern city into the home through the use of materials. Through experimentation with human behaviors, materials and senses, I create a series of projects that deal with memory, nostalgia, and traces of time

Textuality in near-synonyms translations of the Holy Qurʾān into English

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThe Holy Qurʾān, like the Bible, is an acknowledged literary masterpiece. Its linguistic and aesthetic vivacity with an amalgam of religious beliefs, moral values, religious social orthodoxy and historical backgrounds pose a great challenge to any translator and make the task overwhelmingly arduous, if not unattainable. The study aims at examining the problems the Qurʾān translators encounter while translating near-synonyms from Arabic into English. It is based on the translations of two professional translators namely, Yusuf Ali and T.B. Irving. The translations provide an empirical basis for the discussion of the problems while translating Qurʾānnic texts into English. The corpus for the present study includes the translations of four near-synonymous pairs namely, ghayth and maṭar, al-ḥilf and al-qasm, bakhīl and shaḥīḥ and ʿāqir and ʿaqīm in their Qurʾānic context. The two translated texts are compared to determine to which extent the translations reflect the referential and the connotative meaning of the original Qurʾānic text as well as to which extent they maintain the textuality standards such as cohesion, coherence, informativity, situationality and acceptability, intentionality and intertextuality. In short, the study sets out to identify the roblematic areas in the translated Qurʾānic texts at the lexical and textual levels with a view to determining what makes one translation better than the other, or what brings one translation closer to the original text than the other.The study is an intersection between Qurʾānic exegeses (tafsīr) and applied linguistics. The researcher consults different books on translation theories as well as of Qurʾānic exegeses (tafsīr) to facilitate the process of analyzing the near-synonyms in their Qurʾānic context. The researcher opts for eclecticism, instead of confining to a particular rigid model or approach, which is a combination of text-analysis translation-oriented approaches of De Beaugrande & Dressler(1981); Neubert & Shreve(1992); Halliday (1994) and Hatim & Mason (1990). In addition, the study draws upon the multiple and theoretical implications of Nida's dynamic equivalence, Beekman & Callow's (1974) historical and dynamic fidelity and Gutt's (1991) relevance theory and the emphasis on communication as mainly context-dependent. These models are closely related and reliable in the process of analyzing and evaluating the problems encountered in Arabic-English translation of the Qurʾānic near-synonyms. Furthermore, the researcher suggests an outline approach for the process of analyzing the Qurʾānic near-synonyms translations in a systemic and organized way thereby ensuring maximum and effective communication of the Qurʾānic message. The study concludes that the Qurʾān translator, compared to other literary genres, faces many difficulties in translating the Qurʾānic ST message. The selected translations of the Holy Qurʾān have failed to measure up to the depth of the Qurʾānic message, its originality and the connotative shades of meanings of the original expression. The study attributes these problems to contextual, socio-cultural, theological and historical factors which create differences that lead to gaps or absence of lexicalization in the TT. Furthermore, the reliance on dictionary meaning rather than the meaning of the lexical item in context, the negligence of context culture as well as the context of situation (the reason for the revelation of the verses) affect the “periodicity” of the text as indicated by Martin & Rose (2007, p.187), that is, the information flow of the whole text. Accordingly, this affects maintaining the standards of textuality and the fidelity which a religious text should meet. The complexity of the Qurʾān as genre is a great challenge to the translator at both the lexical and Qurʾān textual levels, which dilutes the authenticity of the holy text and misrepresents its true message. The conclusion of the study which contains recommendations based on experience may prove helpful to the future novice and professional translators to improve the quality of translation in general and religious translation in particular. The study is a contribution towards a greater understanding of the subtle differences between the near-synonymous pairs in their Qurʾānic context through Arabic-English translation. It is a novel addition to the world of religious translation, Qurʾān translation, ḥadīth and in English. It also contributes to some extent to modern exegeses of the Qurʾān. It is hoped that the work will encourage further studies in the field of translation to employ a context-based linguistic approach to translating different genres and sacred texts in particular, integrating insights from applicable translation and linguistic approaches.South Afric

An exploration of student interpreters’ attitudes towards the undergraduate interpreting training programmes at Yemeni universities

This study investigates the attitudes of trainee interpreters towards their training programmes at Yemeni universities. 61 interpreters in Taiz province participated in the study. A 16-item questionnaire was designed to explore their attitudes towards their programmes. The findings of this study show that the interpreters are not satisfied with the current programmes. The results also show that the programme does notadequately enhance the interpreting competence of would-be interpreters. The programme is mainly concerned with the enhancement of the linguistic and cultural competencies, paying less attention to other components of interpreting competence such as instrumental, psycho-physiological, and strategic. The results also show that respondents are not satisfied with the content of instructional modules, activities used in the training, the time allocated for practicums, and the amount of technology integration. This study has also investigated the interpreting directionality of beginner and advanced student interpreters at Al-Saeed University by quantitatively analysing their final scores in interpreting modules. Beginner and advanced groups in the current study demonstrate different levels of interpreting competence in both directions. The results from various statistical tools show that student interpreters, whether beginners or advanced, are more competent to interpret into their mother tongue, while very few of them show balanced skills in both directions. Additionally, the overall scores of beginner and advanced student interpreters in both directions do not reflect the expected level of proficiency

Translating conceptual qur’anic metaphor: A cogno-translational approach

This study will investigate metaphor translation as a natural phenomenon. It will analyze some of the problems involving the translation of metaphorical expressions in two Qur’anic translations, namely, Yusuf Ali's The Holy Qur’an: Text, Translation and Commentary and Laleh Mehree Bakhtiar's The Sublime Qur’an. The analysis in this study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as a cognitive framework of metaphor, which helps conciliate the cultural specificity of metaphors and their transference into linguistically and culturally unrelated languages. The present analysis is based on Mandelblit’s Cognitive Translation Hypothesizes (CTH) (Mandelblit (1995), Maalej’s strategies of translating metaphor (Maalej, 2002, 2008) and Kövecses’s concept of Cultural Variation (Kövecses, 2002,2006)

Making the Economic Agreement Between Gulf Countries Valuable: The Way Forward for the Harmonization of their Corporate Financial Reporting

Economic agents tend to maximize their welfare given a set of information, and for investors, accounting data constitute an essential element of the set. Moreover, if this set is homogeneous, comparisons can easily be established, thus inflecting positively on allocation of resources. Although there is an economic agreement endorsed by the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, obstacles remain to be overcome, so as to fulfill the objectives of the agreement. It is argued in the present paper that, harmonization of accounting would, enhance the pace toward increasing trade and investment between these states. The present state of applying nondomestic accounting practices, is seen as a force which has the potentials of encouraging the Gulf states to develop their customized accounting practices. However, some forces may work in the opposite direction

Doing politics in the recent Arab uprisings: Towards a political discourse analysis of the Arab Spring slogans

The present paper aims to analyse a number of those slogans collected from the sit-in quarters in Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Using political discourse analysis, it unravels various typical discourse structures and strategies that are used in slogans in the construction of a sub-genre of political discourse in the Arab world. Drawing data from several mediums, including banners, wall graffiti, audio-visual instruments, chanting, speeches and songs, this paper tries to show the extent to which the slogans serve as a medium by which political complaints and comments are dispensed and consumed. This paper draws on a rhetorical analysis to find out their persuasive effect on shaping the Arab intellect and on the change of the political atmosphere in the region. Lastly, this paper attempts to show to what extent the slogans meet the standards of political discourse and whether they can be considered as a sub-genre of political discourse or not.IS

Beyond natural resources: Development strategies and implementation, a comparative study between Qatar and Singapore

Qatar's leadership showed great ambition to transform the state into a developed country where its economy is based on knowledge and not rent; even though that Qatar is privileged to have massive natural gas reserves compared to a small population. Achieving this ambitious goal is a challenging task, but it is not impossible. Qatar would need to best utilize its advantages, such as political coherence and wealth. However, there are some strategic deficiencies and imbalances that can greatly hinder its long-term aspirations. Qatar can best achieve this goal and avoid potential drawbacks in the process by learning from the experience of others. Singapore's case is remarkable where it had virtually non-existent resources but it still managed to transform itself. Within a generation, Singapore became a first world developed country starting from an underdeveloped, newly born state. In addition, Singapore shares core similarities with Qatar in regards to similar country size and the role of leadership for example. The thesis compares between Qatar and Singapore by following a comparative public policy analysis framework. This approach is followed in order to achieve two primary goals. First is to highlight the significance of politics, education and labor market policies towards development, given their direct impact. This would aim to provide these three areas with further attention by policy makers. The second goal is to identify key success factors, by drawing from Singapore's experience. That would allow Qatar formulate better policies in those three indicated areas. The outcomes of the comparative analysis would then be reflected on Michael Porter's Competitive Advantage of Nations framework. This is in order to further underline their position on a macro level, especially in relation to other factors that contribute to the state's overall competitiveness