A Boundary among Reference, Sense and Meaning: An Essence for Translating Rhetorical Statements

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Bikhtiyar O. Fattah

Abstract

This study, which examines the contributions of the translators’ awareness of the boundary among the notions reference, sense and meaning in translating rhetorical statements, aims at identifying the notions of reference, sense and meaning and how the translators’ familiarity with a boundary among these concepts would be helpful in the process of translating rhetorical statements. This process is a very challenging one because the translation of such types of statements could not be fulfilled without translators’ familiarity with the three essential levels of meaning which are: referential meaning (reference), conceptual meaning (sense), and contextual meaning (meaning). This study employs a qualitative approach to determine the influence of translators’ familiarity with the boundary among these notions and their contributions in the process of translating rhetorical statements. It is qualitative for having an experimental group and a controlling group of translators to investigate the influences of being familiar with the notions of reference, sense and meaning on their translation.  One of the significant findings of this study is that Kurdish translators who are not familiar with the boundary among these notions usually resort to referential meaning (reference) and conceptual meaning (sense) in translating rhetorical statements; however, after being familiarized with these notions and their distinctive features, they effectively employ contextual meaning (meaning) in translating rhetorical statements and arrive at the precise and understandable translation of them.

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How to Cite
Fattah, B. O. . (2024) “A Boundary among Reference, Sense and Meaning: An Essence for Translating Rhetorical Statements ”, Koya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 7(1), pp. 557-568. doi: 10.14500/kujhss.v7n1y2024.pp557-568.
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Author Biography

Bikhtiyar O. Fattah, Department of English, Faculty of Education, Koya University, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Bikhtiyar Omar Fattah is an assistant professor of Linguistics & English Language at the Department of English Language/ Faculty of Education/ Koya University.
He was born on September 1, 1981 in Koya / Erbil. He got B.A. degree at Sallahaddin University, and got M.A. at Koya University. He attended and participated in many national and international English language and English linguistic courses, conferences, workshops and training courses; namely at: Huddersfield University, Sheffield Hallam University, Loughborough University/ the United Kingdom; Virginia Tech / USA; and Bilkent University/ Turkey, in addition to the almost all university in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

His research interests focus on Sociolinguistics, Discourses Analysis, Politeness and Applied Linguistics. He is a member of the Politeness Research Group.

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