Abstract

The current study intends to investigate the process of translating English implicit comparative reference into Arabic. The scrutiny has been conducted by examining certain sentences from J. K. Rowling's (2010) book "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and Ahmad Hassan Mohammed's (2010) translation into Arabic. The analysis of the examples has shown that it is possible to translate English implicit comparative reference into Arabic, either by using the explicit or implicit method. It should be noted that capturing the desired meaning in the target language is the deciding factor in which approach to use. Furthermore, the research has shown that literal translation and formal equivalence are viable choices and present themselves as valid options for translating the English implicit comparative reference into Arabic. The recommendations of the present study are made for the current study at the end of the investigation.

Keywords: comparative reference, formal equivalence, implicit meaning, literal translation