Language, Discourse, and Translation in the West and Middle East

Book excerpt: The papers collected in this volume are a selection of papers presented at a conference on Language and Translation (Irbid, Jordan, 1992). In their revised form, they offer comparisons between Western and Arabic language usage and transfer. The articles bring together linguistic and cultural aspects in translation in a functional discourse framework set out in Part One: Theory, Culture, Ideology. Part Two addresses aspects for comparisons among translations and their cultural contexts (equivalence, stylistics and paragraphing). Part Three features Arabic-English language contact, specifically in technical writing, the media and academia. Part Four deals with problems in lexicography and grammar: terminology, verb-particle combinations and semantic diversity of radical-doubling forms and includes a proposal for a new approach to English/Arabic dictionaries. Part Five turns to issues of interest to language teachers with practical proposals and demonstrations. Part Six deals with geopolitical factors linking the West and Middle East, focusing on equality in communication and exchange of information.