Traduire le signe ou le référent?
Translating the sign or the referent?

Author(s): Manar El Kak
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: arabic translation; sign; referent; polysemy; on; potential meaning
Summary/Abstract: This study establishes that the diversity in Arabic translations of the French pronoun "on" results from the multiple discursive values that this pronoun has due to its polysemy. Because "on" does not have a corresponding pronoun in Arabic, and it being essentially a third-person pronoun, most translators tend to render on according to its referent in the context. A close look at "on", however, through Gustave Guillaume’s psychomecanical perspective, reveals that this approach is not always appropriate. Therefore, this study proposes an alternative approach that aims at finding the potential meaning of on by employing the following criteria: "verb", "co-referential pronouns", and "locative/temporal nouns". The study asserts that, by employing this approach, translators will be better equipped to distinguish between the linguistic sign and its referent.

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