REFLEXIONS SUR LES TRADUCTIONS ARABES ET FRNCAISES DES DISCOURS DEL’EX-SECRETAIRE GENERAL DES NATIONS UNIES (KOFI ANNAN) SUR L’IRAQ (2003-2006)

REFLEXIONS SUR LES TRADUCTIONS ARABES ET FRNCAISES DES DISCOURS DEL’EX-SECRETAIRE GENERAL DES NATIONS UNIES (KOFI ANNAN) SUR L’IRAQ (2003-2006)

Abstract:

Undoubtedly, translation is an old practice which was used in ancient civilisations of mankind. It played a key role in bridging cultures and civilizations throughout the history. However, it is not considered as an autonomous science through the centuries. It had been in that ‘‘state of lethargy’’ for a long time until some contemporary linguists and the translators have begun to treat it more scientifically as specialized field of science. Most of those interested scholars have tried to find solutions for linguistic and extralinguistic problems of translation based on various theories. Nevertheless, translators face more and more problems, especially with the enlargement of the circle of knowledge, sciences and technology. There is need, in fact, for more specialized studies of translation. The role of translation as a vital means for transmitting knowledge and information has increased and become more indispensable at this age of globalization. As a matter of fact, we have examined the ideas of some philosophers, linguists and translators. They treated different notions related to our study such as translation, linguistics, language, rhetoric and stylistics, etc. Their thoughts were of great support to our research work. Moreover, we have defined some methodological approaches like the linguistic approach, the semantic approach and the cultural approach which helped us a lot in analysing our research work. In our study, which is entitled: Reflexions on the Arabic and the French translations of the speeches of the Ex-Secretary General of the United Nations (Kofi Annan) on Iraqi conflict (2003-2006), we have tried to uncover some linguistic and translational facts through the studying of the French and the Arabic translations in relation to the original texts. As we are interested in studying both structural and functional aspects of the meant linguistic systems, we have put more stress on the lexical and the syntactic levels of the concerned texts, putting in consideration the semantic aspects of each level. Besides, we conducted extralinguistic analysis to the retransmitted messages in relation to the original ones in order to verify the exactness of the global meaning. In effect, a lot of linguistic facts about the three meant languages have been revealed. The three languages converge and diverge in various linguistic aspects. The fact of having many things in common facilitates the process of translation. Languages are capable of producing different syntactic mechanisms to express the reality. On the one hand, the close study of two translations compared to the original texts helps us to analyse better the structures of the languages in question, and to verify the truthfulness of the translation at hand. As for the translators of the texts in question, they are highly competent. Yet, we have detected few insignificant shortcomings. On the other hand, the Arabic and the French translations have transmitted the sociocultural and the political messages as they are in the original texts. Moreover, the analysis permitted us to find out that the Arabic and the French versions were translated from the same original texts. Yet, the effect of the messages from the original speeches and from the translated ones on the audience might not be the same for the differences in the style adopted in each one of them and because of the variation in the interpretation of the meant messages. Finally, our ‘reflexions’ are a modest attempt of research in the field of translatology (translation studies). We hope it will encourage other researchers to conduct more scrupulous research works.

REFLEXIONS SUR LES TRADUCTIONS ARABES ET FRNCAISES DES DISCOURS DEL’EX-SECRETAIRE GENERAL DES NATIONS UNIES (KOFI ANNAN) SUR L’IRAQ (2003-2006)