No abstract

Computer-aided Translation (CAT) tools have become indispensable in most organizations, with major benefits including increasing productivity, unifying terminology and minimizing translation costs. With both positive and negative feedback being reported about these systems, it is imperative to further explore users' attitudes to CAT tools. Given the scarcity of research conducted in this field on the English-Arabic language pair, the present study attempts to examine users' attitudes to CAT tools among 114 translation students and professional translators in Egypt. The main purpose of the research is to examine user attitudes towards these tools with specific reference to their perceived benefits, ease of use and compatibility. The survey instrument was adapted from Moore and Benbasat with some modifications. Drawing upon Dillon and Fraser's premises, the research investigates the relationship between user attitudes to CAT tools and various factors, including years of experience, computer skills and type of texts translated. Semi-structured interviews were also used to achieve a mixed-method. The study points to an overall favorable attitude among participants towards using CAT tools, despite some mixed and contradicting opinions on some aspects. The findings also confirm that users with better computer skills have more favorable attitudes towards CAT tools unlike those with more experience in translation. The study concludes with some recommendations for future research.

Computer-aided Translation (CAT) tools have become indispensable in most organizations, with major benefits including increasing productivity, unifying terminology and minimizing translation costs. With both positive and negative feedback being reported about these systems, it is imperative to further explore users' attitudes to CAT tools. Given the scarcity of research conducted in this field on the English-Arabic language pair, the present study attempts to examine users' attitudes to CAT tools among 114 translation students and professional translators in Egypt. The main purpose of the research is to examine user attitudes towards these tools with specific reference to their perceived benefits, ease of use and compatibility. The survey instrument was adapted from Moore and Benbasat with some modifications. Drawing upon Dillon and Fraser's premises, the research investigates the relationship between user attitudes to CAT tools and various factors, including years of experience, computer skills and type of texts translated. Semi-structured interviews were also used to achieve a mixed-method. The study points to an overall favorable attitude among participants towards using CAT tools, despite some mixed and contradicting opinions on some aspects. The findings also confirm that users with better computer skills have more favorable attitudes towards CAT tools unlike those with more experience in translation. The study concludes with some recommendations for future research.

Following the royal wedding of American actress and feminist Meghan Markle to Prince Harry who is sixth in line to the British throne in May 2018, Markle has been going viral on social media. Not only did the wedding spur a wave of mixed reactions, but the new Duchess of Sussex has also become a controversial figure as apparent from participants' comments which range from admiration and fascination to outright criticism and racism. Drawing upon Wodak's (2001) Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) as a theoretical framework with specific reference to its application on Computer-mediated Discourse (CMD) as discussed by Reisigl and Wodak (2008), the present study attempts to examine the representation of Markle in Facebook posts following the royal wedding. A manageable sample comprising eighty status posts about Markle was gathered randomly using the Facebook search option. The study aims at examining the linguistic features that contribute to the construction of a positive or negative image of Markle in the selected posts with specific focus on nomination and predication strategies. The findings point out that the two groups, pro-and anti-Markle employed various nomination and predication strategies in the Facebook posts they wrote following the royal wedding to create a positive or negative representation for this public figure respectively.

The ubiquity of the Internet has given rise to a plethora of new genres thus posing a problem for linguistic analysis which has long been focusing on verbal content. Internet memes are an emerging genre currently prevalent in computer mediated discourse (CMD). They constitute a new medium not only to deliver messages but also to create humor. A prototypical form of memes is the image macro meme, which typically consists of a still image with text superimposed so that their juxtaposition creates a humorous effect. These are usually used to portray a variety of cultural relations, such as political ideologies, ethnic stereotypes as well as gender representation. In the present study, a sample of memes was collected from Pinterest website using the search terms "men vs. women memes", with special focus on memes related to health and relationships in particular. Drawing upon Kress and van Leeuwen's (1996Leeuwen's ( , 2006 Theory of Visual Grammar, in addition to Critical Discourse Analysis respectively the researcher analyzes the visual and textual elements of the selected memes. The study seeks to examine how the memes depict gender identity using the interplay between both text and image. Despite a few exceptions, the findings point out that memes are used discursively to reproduce stereotypical images of the two genders and create binary oppositions between them in several ways. The study highlights the role played by memes as a recent form of discursive communication enabling the viral dissemination of cultural representation and ideological content.