A taxonomy of translation problems in translating from English to Arabic

This thesis investigates translation problems in translating from English to Arabic. Despite the fact that there are some taxonomies available, none is based on empirical research; moreover, none can be considered comprehensive. The present study provides a ranked taxonomy of problems in translating from English to Arabic that was developed through two empirical studies. The first is a case-study of the researcher translating a published corpus of short translation-class texts. Since the aim of this project is pedagogical, students of translation were the target population of the second multi-subject study. Here, 56 undergraduate and 18 postgraduate students in Arabic —+ English translation classes at Al-Fateh University and the Academy of Graduate Studies in Libya translated a sub-set of the same texts. By comparing the two groups' performance, the researcher could also find out the effects of translation experience/proficiency on the type and severity of problems. The taxonomy consists of four levels: supra, main, sub and sub-sub categories. The supra category includes problems of ST Comprehension and TT Production and problems of Transfer Process. The main category includes Micro-Language problems, Macro-Text level problems and Strategies and Techniques problems. The sub-category includes problems of Grammar, Vocabulary, Spelling, Rhetorical and stylistic devices, Cohesion, Register and style, Background Knowledge and Culture. The sub-sub categories include forty seven categories such as problems of Word order, Fixed Expressions, Spelling Slips, Irony, Omission and Additions. A tentative ranking of the difficulty of problems is based on three factors: perceived difficulty, error count and error severity. What distinguishes the taxonomy formulated in the present study from existing ones is comprehensiveness, e.g. in combining problems of ST comprehension, TT production and problems of transfer process, or in combining problems of the language system and extra-textual problems; and the ranking adds another dimension. The thesis consists of six chapters: Chapter One outlines the theme of the project and presents the research questions. Chapter Two reviews the relevant literature with an emphasis on translation problems and errors. Chapter Three presents the researcher case-study which sets the ground for the multi-subject main-study in Chapter Four. Chapter Five provides a model of English —* Arabic translation problems as exemplified by the taxonomy of translation problems and discusses the ranking system used and its outcome. Chapter Six, Conclusion, evaluates the outcome of the study, assesses the methodology that has been used to investigate the issues set in the research questions and discusses implications for further research.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Linguistic Creativity in (Re)translation: A Corpus-based Study of Thomas Mann's Der Tod in Venedig and Its English Versions

The concept of creativity is something that is valued highly in literary writing. It is, however, a hazy term that defies easy definition as it can be realised in different ways such as the manipulation of plot, structure, language or even the physicality of the text itself. The type of creativity that this thesis is interested in is creativity in the use of language. It forms one of three cornerstones of this research project as linguistic creativity is explored, first, in a single original text – Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella Der Tod in Venedig – and, then, in translation, or rather, multifold retranslation, through all of its eleven English versions. Retranslation is thus the second cornerstone. The third is the methodology: the project utilises a computer-assisted approach relying on a combined manual and corpus-based method in terms of the view of the language it applies via John Sinclair’s open choice principle and idiom principle, the digital texts it analyses and the corpus resources it uses. The thesis engages with the concept of linguistic creativity by investigating three rhetorical devices that can be used innovatively: neologisms, similes and metaphors. It demonstrates how these devices and their creativity operate on distinct levels and argues that while neologisms, whose inherent creativity is realised at word level, are predominantly eliminated in translation, novel similes and metaphors, at phrase and text level, are significantly more likely to be preserved. It also proposes that some types of linguistic creativity can arise that involve conventional language and explores the new and still tentative idea of countertranslation as a form of retranslational creativity

Arabic-English translational crossover viewed from a linguistic/cultural perspective: with special reference to the major principles involved in translating the metaphorical language of the Quran

This work deals with Arabic -English translational crossover viewed from a Linguistic /Cultural perspective, with special reference to the major principles involved in translating the metaphorical language of the Quran. It provides an analytical critique of the some selected English translations of the Original Quran. This research tries to demonstrate (1) whether the cultural convergence of English and Arabic, due to globalization, is leading, over time, to any further linguistic intermingling. This type of analysis is based chronologically on temporal constraints and, as a consequence, on whether they negatively or positively influence the quality of the final product of the translated text, and (2) whether the cultural backgrounds of translators, in terms of their native languages, religion and place of origin/residence have any influence on the quality of their translational works.Apart from the introduction and the conclusion, this study consists of seven other chapters. The first chapter is an introductory one, devoted to some controversial translational debates. It builds up a theoretical base, by reviewing thematically the available literature upon which translational strategies are established in order to clear the ground for the following chapters. It reviews the most relevant existing works, from the perspective of this study's topic, to highlight the gap that this work aims to fill.The second chapter discusses the differences between the two cultures concerned and the translation of the main features of culture. This chapter concentrates on cultural factors from an Arabic /English translational perspective, i.e. their impact on the rendition of cultural features such as the ecological, religious, social, political, and material aspects.Chapter three is concerned with the literal linguistic differences. More specifically, literal language will be looked at on a grammatical basis. Thus grammatical gaps between Arabic and English such as word order, number, gender and negation will be focused on.The fourth chapter will cover the figurative level of linguistic differences, as it is more cultural based. It will view the most important traditional tropes but will concentrate on the figures of speech that are most commonly used in the Quran and those that are stylistically useful and effective.Being the main focus of this study as well as due to its importance among other figurers of speech, metaphor will be dealt with separately in chapter five. It adopts the same approach in covering the figurative nature of metaphors.The analysis of chapter seven will be linguistically based on text patterns by examining and tracing chronologically the figurative language of the Quran through metaphorical discourse and to find out whether cultural convergence through temporal constraints has an effect on the way translators treat the Quran.Chapter eight focuses culturally on the profiles and cultural backgrounds of the translators of the Quran and their intentions in terms of whether they see the Quran as the word of God or whether they deal with it as a literary text and how this is reflected in their treatment of its metaphoric language

Proceeding The 3rd International Seminar on Linguistics (ISOL-3): Language and Social Change

It is undeniable that, like a human being, language also changes. The lexicon once used in a language may no longer be used in the next few years. In contrast, a lexicon that did not exist before appeared and was widely used in the next period. The pronunciation of a word may change from time to time. Social change in a society is triggered by various factors. In Indonesia, reform is one of the causes of change in various aspects of social life, including government, politics, economy, and culture. All these changes are recorded by or reflected in language

Proceeding The 3rd International Seminar on Linguistics (ISOL-3): Language and Social Change

It is undeniable that, like human being, language also changes. The lexicon once used in a language may no longer be used in the next few years. In contrast, a lexicon that did  not  exist  before  appeared  and  was  widely  used  in  the  next  period.  The pronunciation of a word may change from time to time.  It is undeniable that, like human being, language also changes. The lexicon once used in a language may no longer be used in the next few years. In contrast, a lexicon that did  not  exist  before  appeared  and  was  widely  used  in  the  next  period.  The pronunciation of a word may change from time to time.  Social change in a society is triggered by various factors. In Indonesia, reform is one of  the  causes  of  change  in  various  aspects  of  social  life,  including  government, politics,  economy  and  culture.  All  these  changes  are  recorded  by  or  reflected  in language.&nbsp

Theory-Constitutive Metaphors, Similes, and Scientists' Narratives About Their Travel and/or Research Experience in Popular Science Articles: Examining Linguistic and Rhetorical Features

Among popular science publications, the most common type is the Popular Science Article (PSA). The main purpose of PSAs is to convey the necessary scientific content in the form accessible to non-specialists. They also contain the authors' personal evaluations, opinions and interpretations of the things related to their subject. This dissertation project is aimed at investigating the use of theory-constitutive metaphors, similes and scientists' narratives about their travel/research experience in the text of PSAs magazines intended for different categories of non-specialist audiences. Its results show that introducing these linguistic and rhetorical devices into the texts of PSAs may help their authors make communication between specialists and lay readers more effective. For example, the use of metaphors and similes which serve to link an unknown phenomenon or concept to a more familiar one by comparing them allows the authors of PSAs to make complex concepts graspable, simple, and thus comprehensible for the general public. At the same time, including the narratives about scientists' travel and/or research experience in the texts of PSAs allows their authors to balance their dual goals of reporting objective and accurate factual and scientific information, on the one hand, and conveying the researchers' and the authors' personal evaluations and opinions, on the other hand. Including additional clues (evaluative adjectives, lexical intensifiers and mitigating devices, etc.) in the similes and narratives employed in PSAs enable their authors to convey the necessary scientific content in a vivid and engaging way. It also follows from the findings that the use of these devices in the text of PSAs is characterized by certain common and varying features. This refers to the frequency and ways of using theory-constitutive metaphor and simile in the text of PSAs as well as the communicative and pragmatic purposes of scientists' narratives about their travel/research experience. Variations observed in the use of the above-mentioned linguistic and rhetorical means point to the fact that the subject of the articles, their target audience and specific purposes of the magazine where they are published need to be regarded as the contextual factors affecting their use in the text of PSAs

A computer assisted analysis of literary text: from feature analysis to judgements of literary merit

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in ful lment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyUsing some of the tools developed mainly for authorship authentication, this study develops a toolbox of techniques towards enabling computers to detect aesthetic qualities in literature. The literature review suggests that the style markers that indicate a particular author may be adapted to show literary style that constitutes a "good" book. An initial experiment was carried out to see to what extent the computer can identify specific literary features both before and after undergoing a "corruption" of text by translating and re-translating the texts. Preliminary results were encouraging, with up to 90 per cent of the literary features being identifi ed, suggesting that literary characteristics are robust and quanti fiable. An investigation is carried out into current and historic literary criticism to determine how the texts can be classified as "good literature". Focus groups, interviews and surveys are used to pinpoint the elements of literariness as experienced by human readers that identify a text as "good". Initially identified by human experts, these elements are confirmed by the reading public. Using Classics as a genre, 100 mainly fiction texts are taken from the Gutenberg Project and ranked according to download counts from the Gutenberg website, an indicator of literary merit (Ashok et al., 2013). The texts are equally divided into five grades: four according to the download rankings and one of non- fiction texts. From these, factor analysis and mean averages determine the metrics that determine the literary quality. The metrics are qualified by a model named CoBAALT (computer-based aesthetic analysis of literary texts). CoBAALT assesses texts by Jane Austen and D. H. Lawrence and determines the degree to which they conform to the metrics for literary quality; the results demonstrate conformity with peer reviewed literary criticism