Translating the Mind-Style in Mikhail Naimy's "Cuckoo Clock"

This thesis, a translation from Arabic into English of Mikhail Naimy’s short story “Cuckoo Clock” and a critical commentary, applies a cognitive approach to the translation of style. The translation communicates to the target readership the cognitive state of the author as a contextual implication of the style of the original Arabic story. The principle that guides the translation choices is optimal relevance; the target text’s style communicates these contextual implications with minimal processing effort on the part of the target text reader. Contained in Naimy’s style is a set of contextual implications that help support and convey cognitive states to the reader, which are summarized by the term “Mind-Style.” The commentary provides an explanation of the choices taken in translating the mind-style of the author based on the notion of optimal relevance.