Vermeer's skopos theory and its application to the Arabic translation of Miller's Death of a Salesman

The present study aimed at shedding some light on Vermeer's (1989) Skopos theory in translation as suggested by Vermeer along with the application of this theory to an English literary text taken from Miller's Death of A Salesman (1947) and its Arabic translation done by a Syrian Arab translator called Omar Jabak. Besides, the article will try to examine the weaknesses of Skopos theory in terms of its applicability to literary texts in particular. The researchers adopted the analytical descriptive approach in this small-scale qualitative study to prove the inapplicability of the Skopos theory principles to the above-mentioned English play and its Arabic translation. The research data and findings revealed that Vermeer's Skopos theory had somehow little applicability to translated literary works because literature and its translation, in general, and drama, in particular, have meaningful or 'skopos' in people's social, economic and political lives

Syntactic translation strategies for retaining parallelism in the Arabic translation of Moby Dick

The present study examines strategies for translating parallelism and factors in retaining parallelism in the Arabic translation of the novel of “Moby Dick”. Analysis is conducted on two sets of data taken from the English novel “Moby Dick” written by Melville in 1851 and its Arabic translation ‘Mūbī Dīk’ by ʻAbbās (1980). This qualitative research is guided by Chesterman’s (1997) syntactic strategy model, and contrastive analysis (CA) is also performed. The contrastive analysis is carried out using a coding procedure based on themes and taxonomies in the acquired data constructed by the researchers. The result shows that, based on Chesterman’s (1997) model, the translator of the above-mentioned novel employed three strategies, namely, literal translation, clause structure change and transposition to maintain parallelism in the Arabic translation of the English novel

A Comparative Analysis of Cultural Terms in Arabic-Javanese Religious Texts Through the Lens of al-Hikam Aphorisms Translation

Local wisdom stood as a cornerstone of Indonesia's cultural richness. Regrettably, this invaluable asset, particularly in the form of "translation products," was overlooked and underappreciated. Despite Indonesia boasting a substantial collection of Arabic religious texts translated into Javanese, utilizing the pegon script, these Arabic-Javanese texts demanded preservation, scholarly exploration, and development grounded in specific theoretical frameworks. This research undertook a comparative analysis of "cultural terms" within religious texts, focusing on al-Hikam aphorisms translated from Arabic (L1) into both Indonesian and Javanese (L2). The primary objective was to dissect and analyze the local wisdom and Islamic Sufism moral values embedded in al-Hikam aphorisms through translation. The study drew on translations of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences from carefully selected sources related to cultural terms, including books and various Arabic-Javanese translation dictionaries. Employing a purposive sampling method, data collection followed a meticulous process. Qualitative data analysis unfolded through four pivotal stages: (1) domain analysis, (2) taxonomy analysis, (3) componential analysis, and (4) cultural theme analysis. The findings, gleaned from lexicography study and semantic analysis of translation, revealed the existence of two translation ideologies shaping cultural terms in Arabic-Javanese religious texts: domestication ideology and foreignization ideology. This research underscored that translation products were inseparable from the ideological dimensions of foreignization and domestication. Foreignization endeavored to assimilate source language elements into the target language, while domestication integrated original components with local elements. This research contributed to a deeper understanding of how foreignization and domestication shaped the depiction of local wisdom in Arabic-Javanese religious texts

The difficulty of translating collocations from Arabic into English encountered by a sample of Arab students

The present study aimed at exploring the difficulty that was encountered by a sample of Saudi undergraduate students when they translated collocations from Arabic into English. The researchers attempted to identify the reasons behind such a difficulty and find practical solutions to this difficulty. They followed an experimental descriptive method in the study. They also designed a quiz on collocations and administered it to the students as part of the requirements of a course the students were taking at that time. The quiz was given to 50 Saudi undergraduate students at the Department of English at Teachers College of King Saud University in the second semester of the academic year 20015. The quiz consisted of 15 Arabic sentences which apparently included collocations. The research data and findings revealed that the majority of the students could not translate collocations correctly because they adopted literal translation, used bilingual dictionaries and had very little knowledge of the concept of collocations in both languages. To help Arab students overcome this enormous difficulty, the researchers offered some recommendations and suggestions at the end of their study

Design of the goat/sheep holding cage slaughtering system (cage for animal slaughter): innovations and prospect

The main objective of inventing the goat/sheep holding cage-slaughtering mechanism or cage for animal slaughter was to seek solutions for the slaughtering mechanism from the traditional operation with four to five persons manning it to a one-person operation. The development of this innovation is for Chak Chee Bor Enterprise. This mechanism consists of a goat/sheep holding cage of 1.23m (height) X 1.60m (length) X 0.97m (width). The overall purpose of using this goat/sheep holding cage is to keep the goat/sheep calm, whilst minimizing the danger of unnecessary injury to both the animal and worker. The goat/sheep holding cage-slaughtering mechanism consists of a head latch (neck yoke or head gate) to hold the animal‘s neck and head, and two wooden boards to hold or gently clamp the body of the animal, with the purpose to calm the animal and ensure that it does not move. The round-shaped iron pieces at the end of both sides of the holding cage enable the mechanism to be swung aside or tilted at a 45o angle before the final stage of the ritual. This holding cage-slaughtering mechanism that comes with an adjustable head latch is able to accommodate different sizes of animals

Language use in new media digital communication among Iraqi interlocutors

Language is constructed according to distinguishable forms and rules that individuals follow and native speakers have a conceptual pattern of these rules. However, linguistic rules that shift over time have exceptions, such as the plural of woman is women, not woman. In fact,we may recognise exceptions and alter by referencing our understanding of rules shared within a language community. Through Facebook, interlocutors could share their languages that enhance their ability to manipulate communication with others. Language is an opportunity for interpersonal dialogue and the new media language of Facebook adds fuel to the linguistic fire. This study will describe the linguistic patterns of language use among 730 Iraqi members of a translator’s group in Baghdad University, specifically on Facebook and identify the mistakes through their communication. The methodology used in this study is Grice’s Maxims (1975) and the results show the participants' understanding and awareness in the adaptation of the four maxims. In summary, the group practises different language styles, dialects, and lack the use of grammatical rules and prepositions. This means that there ismisunderstanding of linguistic rules as well as frequent use of abbreviation in their speech and code-switching that leads them to resort to exercising their mother language (the Arabic language). To conclude, there is a serious lack of research on Iraqi speech via Facebook and the study ends with practical recommendations for researchers and educator

Translation of nominal beta clause functions as a subject in Hemingways the old man and the sea from English into Arabic

This paper reports on a study that focuses on the translation of beta clause functions as a subject from English into Arabic. Specifically, it aimed to examine the extent to which the English nominal beta clause functions as a subject functions in Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea in the Arabic translation by Ali Al-Qasimi have been preserved. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method. The source of data is English novel, Hemingway’s "The Old Man and the Sea" and its translation in Arabic translation done by Ali Al-Qasimi (2008). The study adopted Halliday’s Functional Grammar (2014) as a model for analysing the English nominal beta clause functions as a subject functions and. The study adopted two theories, namely, Halliday’s theory of functional grammar and Newmark's theory of semantic and communicative translation in Arabic translation as a model of analysing and testing the meaning of the English nominal beta clause in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea into Arabic translation. The findings obtained revealed that the nominal beta clause functions as a subject were translated differently into the TT. Specifically, the nominal beta clause functions as a subject has been rendered into different structures such as group, alpha clause, beta clause but having different functions and complex clause

Translation of names of figures in the “Mushaf Brunei Darussalam dan Terjemahannya”

This article revolves around the translation of names of figures in the Quran into the Malay language in the “Mushaf Brunei Darussalam dan Terjemahannya” (MBDT). It attempts at investigating the strategies for translating the names of the figures, namely the Prophets, their family members, companions, enemies, and other significant individuals in the history of the Prophets. The strategies are examined in terms of their effectiveness and appropriateness in producing successful translations for the names that could be well-comprehended by the target readers. As these names are of Arabic origin and culture-related, translators are therefore liable to confusion or mistakes when translating them into other languages, as can be seen in some English translations of the Quran. Translating the names into Malay is no exception and poses different translation challenges as Malay and Arabic belong to distant and different language families and cultures. The research method employed was the qualitative approach by textual analysis. The data were first collected from all the chapters in the Quran, and then from their Malay equivalents in the MBDT. The data were then compared and analysed descriptively, based on the Fernandes’ taxonomy for translating proper names (2006). The findings of the study showed that the translators of the MBDT incorporated either only one strategy or a combination of two or three strategies in conveying the names of figures into Malay with “transcription” being the most preferred strategy. Therefore, translators have to be wise in resolving the issues arising from the complexity of certain proper names

Retrospek sumbangan Dato' Dr. Hassan Ahmad dalam kebahasaan dan penerbitan

Allahyarham Dato’ Dr. Hassan Ahmad merupakan tokoh tersohor dan berpengalaman luas dalam pelbagai aspek penerbitan buku, perancangan bahasa dan sastera, penyelidikan serta pengurusan. Beliau berhasrat memartabatkan bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa yang bukan sahaja mampu mendukung perkembangan ilmu dan pemikiran bangsa dalam segala lapangan, malah sebagai alat yang dapat membentuk dan mengembangkan identiti kebangsaan, alat komunikasi masyarakat serta alat perpaduan dalam negara yang berbilang bangsa dan bahasa. Menurut beliau, kekuatan dan kekayaan bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa ilmu, pemikiran dan budaya tinggi dapat diperkasakan melalui penghasilan buku yang bermutu tinggi dalam bahasa tersebut. Perusahaan buku pula tidak boleh bermotif ekonomi semata-mata, malah merupakan perusahaan ilmu pengetahuan (knowledge industry). Oleh yang demikian, kerajaan perlulah memastikan perusahaan buku diiktiraf sebagai suatu perusahaan yang penting (essential industry), iaitu perusahaan budaya (Nor Azuwan Yaakob, 2013, ms. 166-167). Beliau pernah digelar ‘The Godfather of Malaysian Book World’ dan menerima ‘Anugerah Tokoh Pembangunan Buku Negara’ (2005) serta merupakan tokoh ilmuwan dan intelektual dalam pelbagai bidang, malah ‘pejuang bahasa’ yang sangat berani. Makalah ini menelusuri, merungkai dan mengupas retrospek sumbangan beliau dalam kebahasaan dan penerbitan

Relevance meaning in Malay and Spanish text

One of the obstacles in translating process is the grammatical structural difference between source language to target language. Therefore, this paper discussing meaning relevance in text translation in order to discover similarities and differences meaning between Malay and Spanish. The researcher has focused on four sentences from Malay to Spanish by using A1, A2, A3 and A4 label involving ten students from Universiti Putra Malaysia who taking Spanish as an elective course. The Relevance Theory (1986 and 1995) by Sperber and Wilson’s is use in this paper. The objectives are to discuss translation equivalents for textual verb expressions from Malay to Spanish, and to analyse the translation equivalents based on their fuctional similarities and differences to ensure the meaning conveyed remain the same to the original text. Findings from this research can assist the teaching and learning of Spanish as a foreign language specifically in verb formation