Implicature Shifts in the Translation of King Abdullah II’s Political Speeches from English into Arabic

Abstract

Implicature refers to what people suggest or imply in their speaking or writing, beyond explicit statements. Translators are tasked with preserving the speaker’s or writer’s intended meaning rather than imposing their own interpretation. Changes in the intended meaning during translation can lead to implicature shifts, which pose challenges for readers of the target text. This study examines the implicature aspects of translating King Abdullah II’s political speeches from English into Arabic, focusing on the influence of these shifts and the variations that occur in the translated texts. A mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques, was adopted to analyze implicature shifts using three selected speeches and their translations. The analysis, guided by Grice’s theory of implicature, coded the shifts into categories such as addition, omission, explicitation, and substitution, presented in figures and tables. The findings revealed that these shifts reflect a tendency to avoid flouting conversational maxims and enhance clarity and politeness. A preference for explicit over implicit meanings was observed, which sometimes altered the intended meaning of the original text. This study highlights the critical role of implicature in translation and underscores the importance of preserving the communicative intent of the source text to avoid unintended shifts in meaning.