Interpreting rhythmical and tonal effects in English - Arabic - English Translation

Abstract EN

Depending on the information derived front the formal' linguistic elements based on the Lexico-Grammotico- Phonological (LGP) cores of a language alone, the users of such a language might not be ** to represent all the linguistic signals ('meaning carriers') that normally pass between a speaker and hearer in face-to-face communication, or between a writer and reader in a written text.

There are other 'non-formal' (paralinguistic) signals which though are not originally part of the formal cores - they depend on their interpretation on these, cores and are linguistically significant when they affect the hearer's as well as the reader's perception and understanding of the spoken or the written text.

This paper is based on the findings of an experiment that was intended to explore the above mentioned assumption and examine the difficulties experienced by the subjects of the experiment with such 'non- formal' elements of significant linguistic implications, namely those characterising a writer's' tonal' and rhythmical effects.

By doing so, the paper calls attention to the importance of 'Rhythmical' and 'Tonal' indications to the Intended Writer Meaning (IWM), thus approaching translation at a non-formal level of linguistic analysis.