Resemiotization of Illustrations in Children’s Picture Books Between English and Arabic

Abstract

Translation is no longer limited to transfer the meaning contained in a language sign; it includes instead the transposition of meaning from one non-verbal sign system into another. Children’s picture books are multimodal texts that include two different semiotic modes; the text itself and the illustrations. The present study aims at investigating the extent to which illustrations (non-verbal signs) in children’s picture books are translatable/resemiotized from English to Arabic and whether this translation/resemiotization process is considered as an intersemiotic translation. To achieve the objectives of this study, Charles Peirce’s theory of signs was adopted. Six examples of illustrations and their Arabic translations were collected from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The selected illustrations, their meanings, and their relationships were analyzed using Peirce triadic sign model. The results revealed that illustrations in children’s picture books are translatable to a great extent, their translations are intersemiotic, and that they go through resemiotization process. Because illustrations are non-verbal signs which can be analyzed and broken down into representamens, objects, and interpretants (according to Peirce), thus can be translated into other non-verbal signs in any other language.