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 .