Semantic Challenges in Translating Road Signs
Abstract
Translating road signs between Arabic and English presents semantic challenges due to their distinct cultural contexts. This study investigates these challenges within the functionalist approaches in contemporary translation studies. Road signs incorporate minimal texts, ellipsis, shapes, colors, etc., all together decide the meaning of the sign and how they function as a specific message to road users. This hybrid nature of road signs is therefore vocative and imperative because they necessitate immediate action upon reception. This research paper utilizes Peter Newmark’s communicative approach of translation to demonstrate that conventional translation methods that prioritize word-for-word transfer techniques fail to preserve the functionality of road signs when translated.
Downloads
Copyright (c) 2026 (Humanities, social and applied sciences) Misan Journal of Academic Studies
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The copyright is also the copyright of the magazine only.
All articles published in our magazine are subject to license terms
Creative Commons Attribution(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) This license permits the content to be reproduced, redistributed and reused in whole or in part for any purpose free of charge, without any permission from the author(s), researcher or student.
Works submitted to Maysan Journal of Academic Studies for publication in the journal (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license terms. Where available content can be shared, distributed and replicated provided there is no commercial profit and appropriate credit must be given to the original source through sources or citations. It is mandatory to review any material used from other sources including shapes, tables, and images for re-use under the terms of the Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).Provided that there is no modification to the original content
