Grammatical Issues in translation Chapter 8 Lecturer: Ms. Abrar A. Mujaddidi

The grammatical level On the grammatical level, there are two things to consider: Morphology (words) Syntax (the arrangement of words into sentences) Translation loss on the grammatical level is usually obvious.

Words The combination of words creates meanings that they do not have in isolation. One of the reasons of translation loss on the lexical level (words) is that exact synonymy is rare between ST words and TT words. e.g. لحم and meat

Grammatical Arrangements There are two types of grammatical structure: Morphological patterns affecting individual words Syntactic patterns

cont., Adverbs in Arabic and English: Some translate into adverbs in English ( سريعاً translates as quickly) Complex forms in Arabic translated as English adverbs. ( بلهجة مرحة translates as cheerfully) Arabic adverbials translated with something other than the English adverb. ( مدعومة أمريكياً translated as American-backed)

cont., Compounds too are differ from a language to a language. English shows a limited use of compounds. Arabic builds compounds through the use of genetive structure: غرفة نوم

cont., Grammatical differences are especially clear in differences in verb systems. The system of tenses in Arabic is quite different from English. e.g. يشتري can be translated as ‘buys’ ‘is buying’ ‘ will buy’

Morphological repetition Types of morphological repetition: Pattern repetition Root repetition Suffix repetition

Pattern repetition Pattern repetition involves repetition of the same pattern (( وزن : فعل، مفعول،مفعلة.. In two or more words in close proximity. Extremely common in Arabic. البيت القديم الكبير (قديم و كبير على وزن فعيل)

cont., Pattern repetition can be combined with some kind of semantic relationship to give additional emphasis. The semantic relationships between words with repeated patterns are of three types: Semantically related words. Synonyms or near-synonyms. antonyms

(involves repetition of the root دَ رَ سَ) Root repetition Root repetition involves repetition of the same morphological root in close proximity within a text. E.g. درسنا هذا الدرس (involves repetition of the root دَ رَ سَ)

Suffix repetition Suffix repetition is the repetition of the same suffix at the end of words in close proximity. E.g. أرض النبوءات و الرسالات و الخرافات و المخابرات Suffix repetition can be considered an emphatic device used in poetic texts.

Lexical repetition Arabic is marked by repetition of : The same word: (Lexical item repetition) A whole phrase: (Phrase repetition)

Lexical item repetition Lexical item repetition in Arabic is represented by repeating a word in the same sentence or extending over larger stretches of text. Consider the example p.g. 109 In the example mentioned above, lexical item repetition served as a stylistic feature and as a device for text cohesion.

Phrase repetition Phrase repetition, just like word repetition serves as a cohesive tool for the text.

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