Body Parts Expressions between Praising and condemning; “An Arabic-English Contrastive Study with implications for Translation” | ||
| مجلة کلية الآداب جامعة الفيوم | ||
| Article 35, Volume 13, العدد 1 (اللغويات) - Serial Number 2, January 2021, Pages 1910-1941 PDF (1.33 M) | ||
| Document Type: المقالة الأصلية | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jfafu.2021.84450.1555 | ||
| Author | ||
| رواء أنور* | ||
| قسم اللغه الانجليزيه کليه الاداب جامعه جنوب الوادي | ||
| Abstract | ||
| المستخلص Expressions including names of body parts behave differently in Arabic and English. Most of these expressions are used to indicate meanings beyond the body parts involved in them. Body parts expressions are used to condemn, and also to praise. Translating such expressions needs the human translator to be fully aware of the cultural differences between the two languages, to avoid deforming the messages intended in the source language. Translating these expressions using the regular machine translation programs will be completely misleading in most of the cases unless these programs are given enough data regarding the real non literal meanings of these expressions. In Arabic, we use the expression /maɁSu꞉f-i rraɁabah/ ‘one with a fractured neck’ to indicate that someone has been behaving in a disrespectful way. An expression like that is not familiar in English. Its expected literal translation for someone who is not common with the Arabic culture is “Neck pounded” or “with a pounded neck” and its machine translation version in programs such as ‘Google translate’ and ‘Yandex translate’ is “Neck cannon”. The solution to avoid such an inadequate translation is to use alternatives carrying the meaning of someone behaving rudely or impolitely. These alternatives manage to bridge the cultural gap between the two languages reaching the most adequate version of translation. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Body-parts expressions; translation gap; machine translation; cultural gap; translation alternatives | ||
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