Decoding Philosophy: Semantic Transformations in Translating English Philosophical Terms into Urdu

Abstract

This paper investigates the variation in semantic interpretation in translation of the selected philosophical terms. An English literary work ‘Sophie’s World’ written by Jostien Garder and its two Urdu translations by Shahid Hameed and Abu ul Farukh Hamayu are selected as the source and target text(s) respectively. The idea is fostered by a well known philosopher Derrida in his deconstruction a philosophical theory of meaning. Two selected Urdu translations of the English text are compared to find out the way two different translators interpret the same philosophical terms. The study also focuses on how semantic variation is extracted by the different conceptual interpretations of the same word by the translators. This study paves the way for further researches working on the current subject, and for the translators who try their hand in translating philosophical texts.

Keywords:  Translation, Philosophy, Meanings, Deconstruction, Interpretation, Context.