Subjects
-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.
DOI
10.21608/jfafu.2021.84450.1555
Keywords
Body-parts expressions, translation gap, Machine Translation, cultural gap, translation alternatives
Authors
MiddleName
-Affiliation
قسم اللغه الانجليزيه کليه الاداب جامعه جنوب الوادي
Email
rewaa.anwer@art.svu.edu.eg
City
-Orcid
-Article Issue
العدد 1 (اللغويات)
Link
https://jfafu.journals.ekb.eg/article_198539.html
Detail API
https://jfafu.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=198539
Publication Title
مجلة کلية الآداب جامعة الفيوم
Publication Link
https://jfafu.journals.ekb.eg/
MainTitle
Body Parts Expressions between Praising and condemning; “An Arabic-English Contrastive Study with implications for Translation”