The Semantics, Pragmatics and Translation of Speech Acts

Abstract

Apparently , both semantics and pragmatics appear to deal with the

question of meaning but differ in the way they consider the type of

meaning. On the one hand , semantics is often employed to account for

the truth – condition of an utterance in the abstraction from the context in

which this utterance occurs , as it plays an important role in determining

the truth – conditional meaning on basis of the formal elements

constituting this utterance ( Blakemore , 1987 : 11 ).That is , semantics is

concerned with ‘‘ what does x mean ’’ as Leech (1983:6) puts it . On the

other hand , pragmatics is concerned with those aspects of meaning

attributed to a user of language , or as Leech(ibid.) terms it , ‘‘ what did

you mean by x ’’ .

Speech acts are considered as a kind of pragmatic meaning . They

characterize utterances in terms of what they do- their illocution – rather

than what they literally say – their locution . Speech act theory does not

study the structure of language but its function , the structure being only

the vehicle to express the function (meaning) . This paper aims to give a

thorough and comprehensive picture of the semantics and pragmatics of

speech acts and their realizations in English and Arabic . The paper also

aims to look into some problems encountered by translation Arab

students in English / Arabic translation .