The majority of scholars’ work on code-switching within the sociolinguistic approach of Arabic has been mainly concentrated on the interaction of the Standard variety with other regional dialects in indigenous communities (Albirini, 2011; Bassiouney, 2006; Saeed, 1997; Soliman, 2008). Their work also extends to include the interaction of Arabic with other languages in informal and highly interactional settings (Abalhassan and Alshalawi, 2000; Safi, 1992; Sayahi, 2014). When it comes to the religious settings, their work has been solely devoted to Standard Arabic and Dialectal Arabic in Arabic countries and among Arabic native speakers (Albirini, 2011; Bassiouney, 2006; Saeed, 1997; Soliman, 2008). This thesis, in turn, investigates CS between Arabic and English in highly formal religious settings in the United States and among American Islamic preachers, non-native speakers of Arabic. It aims to enumerate the social functions of CS between English and Arabic and provides the internal optimal bilingual grammar of these speakers. To achieve these goals, two analyses have been conducted, the functional analysis and the optimality-theoretic analysis. The results of the first analysis revealed that preachers chiefly switch from English to Arabic for eight functions: (1) to use formulaic expressions; (2) to introduce direct quotations; (3) to show a level of education in the Islamic studies; (4) to show a level of education in the Arabic language; (5) to evoke Muslimness and Islamic affiliation; (6) to mark emphasis; (7) to stress the importance of a speech segment; and (8) to introduce rhyming stretches. On the other hand, they switch from Arabic to English mainly to fulfill two functions: (1) to translate the previous Arabic stretch; and (2) to simplify, explain, and clarify a segment that was previously mentioned in Arabic. The result of the optimality-theoretic analysis showed that the internal optimal bilingual grammar of American preachers is {FAITH, FACE} >> PERSPECTIVE >> {SOLIDARITY, POWER}.

Studien behandlar teckenspråkstolkars agerande vid språkliga utmaningar som kan uppstå vid tolkning av predikningar med särskilt fokus på religiös terminologi, metaforer och liturgiskt språkbruk. Vidare undersöker studien vilka konsekvenser tolkarnas handlande har på det religiösa budskapet. Med två predikningar som källtext baseras studien på åtta inspelade tolkningar gjorda av fyra teckenspråkstolkar med erfarenhet av tolkning i religiösa miljöer. Relevanta passager transkriberades och analyserades med hjälp av diskursanalys. De främsta strategier som identifierades vid förekomst av religiösa termer var användandet av ekvivalent tecken och bokstavering. Vid metaforer var avbildande verbkonstruktioner konsekvent förekommande bland samtliga tolkar. Två andra strategier som identifierades vid metaforer var formbaserad tolkning och tillägg. När det kom till dessa strategier fanns det skillnader gällande hur explicit metaforen ska tolkas där både formbaserad tolkning och strategiska tillägg lyftes som strategi till samma utmaning. Medan de inom tidigare nämnda kategorier fanns mönster i tolkarnas agerande visade analysen att det inte fanns någon konsensus i tillvägagångsätt för att hantera liturgiskt språkbruk vilket ledde till att tolkningar av samma källtext kunde generera helt skilda måltexter. Detta leder till att tolkningarna utgår från hur enskilda tolkarna uppfattat källtexten, något som i värsta fall får som konsekvens att den döva personen tar till sig felaktigt teologiskt budskap i tron att detta är vad som förkunnas av predikanten. Studien kommer således fram till slutsatsen att det saknas standardiserade metoder för att hantera de lingvistiska utmaningar som finns vid teckenspråkstolkning av predikningar, något som har en potentiell negativ påverkan på överförandet av det religiösa budskapet. / The study investigates the actions of sign language interpreters when faced with linguistic challenges that may arise during the interpretation of sermons, with a particular focus on religious terminology, metaphors, and liturgical language. Furthermore, the study examines the consequences of interpreters’ actions on the religious message. Based on two sermons as source texts, the study draws on eight recorded interpretations conducted by four sign language interpreters experienced in church interpreting. Relevant passages were transcribed and analyzed using discourse analysis. The primary strategies identified in the presence of religious terms were the use of equivalent signs and fingerspelling. In the case of metaphors, depictions through verb constructions were consistently observed across all interpreters. Two other strategies identified with metaphors were form-based interpretation and strategic additions. Regarding these strategies, there were disagreements on how explicitly the metaphor should be interpreted, with both form-based interpretation and strategic additions being suggested as approaches to the same challenge. While patterns in interpreters' actions were evident in the previously mentioned categories, the analysis revealed no consensus or standardization in approaches to handling liturgical language, resulting in interpretations of the same source text yielding vastly different target texts. This suggests that interpretations are based on how individual interpreters perceive the source text, potentially resulting in the deaf individual receiving incorrect theological messages, believing them to be the preacher's intended message.