Tikrit University

Difficulties In Translating Conor McGregor's Ironic speeches with Reference to Gricean Maxims: A Pragmatic Perspective

Document Type : Original Article

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Abstract
This study examines the challenges of translating ironic expressions in Conor McGregor’s speeches, focusing on how his flouting of Grice’s maxims—especially Relevance—impacts the translation from English into Arabic. Adopting Newmark’s semantic and communicative approaches, the study analyzes four pre-fight press conference clips translated independently by five MA students. It evaluates the type of irony, flouted maxims, translation strategy, and rendering quality. Results show verbal irony and communicative translation are most effective in preserving rhetorical impact. The study highlights the role of cultural competence and context awareness in achieving accurate translation, recommending pragmatic strategies and communicative methods in translator training for irony-rich discourse.

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