Pragmatic and Linguistic Problems in the Translation of Naguib Mahfouz’s The Thief and the Dogs

This paper examines the pragmatic and linguistic problems that come into play in the English translation of one of Naguib Mahfouz’s most famous novels The Thief and the Dogs (more than 20 editions in 10 languages). This novel, which was written in 1961, was translated into English in 1984 by Trevor Le Gassick and M.M Badawi. The paper presents evidence that the translators failed to appreciate the importance of context in determining the meaning of the Source Language Text. The paper also shows that the translators sometimes ignored such pragmatic concepts and principles as speech acts, the maxims of the Politeness Principle, conventional implicature, and presupposition. Moreover, some problems rise at the word level and phrase/clause level. Since Mahfouz is a Nobel-laureate whose works are demanded and consumed by avid readers everywhere, such translational problems may distort his works and reduce the enjoyment readers expect from them. The study can also be helpful to future translators in a such a way that they will be aware of the difficulties that await them.