Translating Metalanguage: An Arabic Translation and Analysis of Munday's Application of the Appraisal Framework to Translation Studies

The study of evaluative positioning and its linguistic manifestations across a variety of discourses has recently garnered much interest, with many scholars and researchers exploring the field, developing related analytical frameworks and subjecting them to practice and critique (Martin and White 2005, Thompson and Alba-Juez 2014, Bednarek 2008 and 2009, Bolivar 2001, Lemke 1998, and many others). A closer look at the evaluative function of language in contemporary Arabic translation theory reveals that it is underrepresented. The present thesis aims to react to this reality by producing a functionally adequate Arabic translation of an insightful theoretical framework of evaluation as applied to Translation Studies, with a view to making it available to Arabic Translation Studies, and addressing a gap in Arabic metalinguistic terminology by creating its Arabic terms. Adopting a functionalist translation approach (Nord 1997, Reiss and Vermeer 1984/2014), I will translate into Arabic a part of the second chapter in Munday's Evaluation in Translation: Critical Points of Translator Decision-Making (2012) where he applies to Translation Studies the Appraisal Framework developed by Martin and White through the analysis of Obama's 2009 inaugural address and three different Spanish renderings through interpretation. The critical commentary will then look into terminology and term creation as a first problem area where issues such as term-concept stability, term overlap, synonymy and ambiguity are expected to arise (Rey 1995, Cabré 1999). A second problem area will involve issues that may be encountered while translating illustrative examples furnished by Munday to show how evaluation operates in decisions taken by Spanish interpreters, such as back-translation, gloss, and the degree of translator intervention. Finally, the applicability of the Arabic terms of the Appraisal Framework to an Arabic context will be tested through analyzing the official Arabic version of Obama's address produced by the US Department of State.