A Psycho-Pragmatic Study of translating Arabic Adjective Sequences into English

Some Pedagogical (syntactic and / or semantic) rules appeared beyond doubt to be unreliable in identifying the indeterminate number of sequences of adjectives and detecting reasons behind their use. Therefore, it is assumed that adjective sequencing is part and parcel of patterns of individual behavior; hence, of personal preference and choice. An individual language user, for example, may give two different sequences of adjectives for communicating the same message at two different times; and this definitely reflects the relativity of the human cognition. Consequently, pragmatic knowledge, rather than static linguistic parameters, is required to infer what is intended to be communicated through what ordering of adjectives. In other words, the global context has the most influential effect in determining the writers choice of the most preferred adjective patterns that better embody his / her explicit and /or implicit intention(s) and the readers/translators expectations that follow from that knowledge(Mey, 1993: 27).