Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature Vol. 6, No. 2, 2014, pp 93-114 JJMLL Some Pragmatic Aspects of Arabic/ English Translation of Literary Texts Mohammed Farghal Department of English, Kuwait University Ali Almanna University of Nizwa, The College of Arts and Sciences, The Department of Foreign Languages - English Language Section, Oman Received on: 10-2-2014 Accepted on: 19-8-2014 Abstract The present paper aims to show the relevance of pragmatic theories for the actual work of translators. Based on a selective body of authentic translation examples, the study demonstrates how implicit meaning as encapsulated in several pragmatic phenomena including presuppositions, speech acts, conversational implicatures , and politeness can seriously affect the quality of the translation product. It argues for a pragmatically-oriented process of translation where the main goal of the translator is to strike a balance between what is said and what is meant in human communication. In many cases, this balance should work in favor of what is meant in order to avoid communication breakdowns. 1. Introduction In contrast with semantics, the study of the relationship between linguistic properties and entities in the real world, pragmatics is often defined as the study of language use, i.e. “the study of purposes for which [such linguistic forms] are used” (Stalinker 1973: 38). In its narrower sense, pragmatics deals with how linguistic elements and contextual factors work side by side in the interpretation of an utterance, enabling the hearer/ reader to grasp the right meaning intended by the speaker/writer rather than just adhering to the referential meaning of an utterance. Emery (2004:150), adapting Blum-Kulka’s (1986/ 2000) views, writes “we have to negotiate a text’s coherence in a dynamic, interactive operation in which the covert potential meaning relationship among parts of a text is made overt by the reader/ listener through processes of interpretation.” Several studies on pragmatic problems (Levinson 1983; Leech 1983; Farghal and Shakir 1994; Farghal and Borini 1996,1997; Emery 2004; Hall 2008; Farghal 2012) have shown that speech acts, addressing terms, conversational implicature and politeness strategies are the main areas that put extra efforts on translators, requiring them to make every effort “to encode and decode contextually based implicit information” (Farghal: 2012: 132). To begin with, speech acts (Austin 1962) such as requesting, ordering, threatening, warning, suggesting, permitting and the like are universal. However, each language has its own conventionalised