Investigating the Translation of Arabic Conventional Implicatures into English

This paper examines the translation of Arabic conventional implicatures into English exemplified with synonymy and terms of address in two genres: religious (Quranic) texts and literary texts. The objective is to explore the conventional implicated meanings in Arabic cognitive synonyms and address terms which pose difficulties to translators. The data of the study consists of 12 excerpts drawn from Arabic source text and their 12 counterpart excerpts from the English translation. In case of conventional implicatures triggered off by synonyms, the study reveals that the translation of these implicatures depends mainly on the purpose behind their contextual use. If they are used to communicate certain implicated meaning as is the case in religious texts, conveying their inner meanings in translation becomes a necessity. For conventional implicatures triggered off by address terms, translators need to pay attention to their multi-dimensional semantics which are determined by the conventional meaning of the expressions uttered. In both cases translators are urged to use communicative and /or formal translation methods in order to emphasize and convey the message intended by the SL text.