A Critical Discourse Analysis and Translation of Arabic Bumper Stickers into English

Abstract

Abstract
The interplay between Criti-cal Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Translation is multifaceted and can be approached from such perspectives as power re-lations, norms and constraints, manipulation and mediation, and positionality of translators. To investigate such points, the current study aims at identify-ing the impact of the folkloric statements, viz., bumper stick-ers, on drivers, pedestrians, traf-fic policemen, and shop assis-tants. Unfamiliarity with such criticizing sayings overburdens translators due to linguistic, intertextual, cultural, and sym-bolic references. It is hypothe-sized that the bumper stickers are encapsulated with humor-ous statements to mitigate their effects. To verify this hypothe-sis, ten Arabic bumper stickers
are collected and distributed to three Ph.D. students at the Dept. of Translation, College of Arts, University of Mosul (2022/2023) to translate them into English. The data are an-alyzed qualitatively and criti-cally according to Fairclough's (1992) CDA Model, and Baker & Saldanha's (2009) Transla-tion Model to unveil the impact of language abuse on transla-
(1) The first seven data are retrieved from: https://www.google.com/search?q=%D9%83%D8%AA %D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A 7%D8%AA+%D8%B9%D9-%84%D9%89+%D8%A7%D9 %84%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8 %A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8 %AA&oq=&aqs=chrome.0.69i 59145018.29722951891j0j15&-sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
The last three data are re-trieved from: https://www. facebook.com/profile.tors. The study concludes that
power relations, symbolic and
intertextual references, and
gender are problematic.