A PRAGMATIC STUDY OF PRESUPPOSITION IN IMAM ALI’S SOME SELECTED TRANSLATED SAYINGS IN ‘NAHJUL BALAGHA’

Abstract

The present research provides a pragmatic investigation of ‘presupposition’ utilized in Imam Ali’s some selected translated sayings to show how far the culture and the shared background knowledge could affect the translator when translating presupposition from Arabic to English. This research could be of a specific significance to those who are interested in the fields of pragmatics as well as translation. The present research is limited to analyzing some selected translated sayings of Imam Ali from ‘Nahjul Balagha’ and the universal concept of ‘presupposition’. The research is based on two hypotheses that are: 1) culture and background knowledge have an effect on the way of translating presupposition, and 2) The presuppositions and their occurrences in Imam Ali’s translated sayings are the same in both languages. In order to fulfil the hypotheses of this study, Yule’s (1996) Model for this study analysis because it contains all the types of presupposition and it is the most accepted Model among the majority of linguists. Based upon the practical part of the study, the research comes up with some conclusions including the verification of the main hypotheses of the study that implicate that culture and the background knowledge have an intrinsic impact on the translator when translating presupposition from Arabic to English.