Parliamentary Idioms

The need for this specialized dictionary was realized after working in the National Assembly of Kuwait for a number of years (between 1993-1996). During my time there, I felt a need for a specialized reference in the language relating specifically to the parliamentary world in general and the Kuwaiti National Assembly in particular. The Kuwaiti parliament has become deep-rooted in the country's political system. It is well over a half century old, and despite the fact that it has gone through some rough turbulent times, it has, nevertheless, become a distinctive feature of government in Kuwait. A Kuwait parliamentary heritage accumulated over time, hence a parliamentary language evolved with its idioms, expression and terminology. Other parliaments have their own language-specifics. For instance, the term Parliament is used in British English parliamentary language, whereas its counterpart in the United States of America is called Congress (comprising both the Senate and the House of Representatives).

This specialized dictionary assumes a good knowledge by the user of the both source and the target language (English and Arabic) as it provides the meaning of a given word in a particular context only. Hence, the user of this dictionary will find the meaning of a certain word given within the context of the parliamentary world only.

It is a semantic premise that any linguistic utterance, whether a word or a sentence, may have different interpretations, and that a specific meaning is determined by context, situation and/or other pragmatic factors. Thus the metaphoric nature of language necessitates the need for specialized dictionaries.

This dictionary was born in the National Assembly of Kuwait, so it is naturally influenced, to a large extent, by the proceedings of the Kuwaiti parliament. It is an endeavor to make available to scholars a reference (Arabic/English-English/Arabic) which confines the meanings of the language used in the parliamentary arena. This is the first edition of this book, hoping that others will follow in the future.

Saad Bintiflah Alajmi