Translation of Political Neologisms Coined by Politicians; Issues and Strategies

Most of the neologisms which are coined by politicians are strange to the Arabic language linguistically and culturally. Niska (1998, p. 89) states that "neologisms are tokens of a creative process "a novel relational product growing out of the uniqueness of the individual on the one hand, and the materials, events, people, or circumstances of his life on the other". Translating neologisms accurately and finding the right equivalents is a problematic issue. This study endeavors to investigate the translation problems of political neologisms and the strategies used to translate these neologisms. In order to achieve the objectives of the study the methodology which is used is qualitative method. As a theoretical frame work for the study Peter Newmark's dual theory of semantic and communicative methods of translation in addition to his translation procedures model for the translation of different types of neologisms will be utilized. The results show that political neologisms are culturally loaded and difficult to translate without having good background knowledge of these neologisms. Translators should have a good command of both source and target languages and should be culturally and linguistically competent in order to be able to translate neologisms. It also shows that the most frequently used strategies were functional equivalent, word for word, modulation, paraphrasing, and compensation. The least frequently used strategies were couplets, componential analysis, omissions, additions, reduction, expansion and transference.