ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to justify why an interpretive approach is used as a framework for describing the process of translation at its micro level. It provides an accessible introduction to structural semiotics, interpretive semiotics, functional grammar, semantics and cognitive linguistics for students and researchers who are new to the field. The book discusses issues such as signs, signifieds, signifiers, and paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes in a direct link to the actual work of the translator. It focuses on the signs functions and their importance in the actual act of translating between two languages as culturally distant as Arabic and English. The book considers the semantic roles assigned to each noun phrase in the clause. It examines imaging systems which are classified by L. Talmy into four systems, namely the configurational system, the perspectival system, the attentional system and the force-dynamic system.
