Lexical Simplification: a Universal Feature of Translation
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The present paper explores simplification as one feature of translation universals from English into Arabic. It aims at investigating how much the translators were aware of lexical simplification as a universal feature in the translated texts and discovering to what extent the language of translation is simple in order to preserve the meaning and information to make the translated texts more reader-friendly .this study hypothesizes that the language of translation is assumed to be lexically simpler than that of non-translated target-language texts and characterized by a low level of information flow by reducing lexical density.
This study adopts certain lexical simplification strategies like using more frequent words, methods to avoid lexical repetition and lexical omission of unnecessary word.
The data chosen for analysis in the current study include a test involving 10 English literary texts selected from the famous novel the Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen in 1813 and translated by six participants as Junior teachers and M.A. students in the Department of Translation – College of Arts – University of Mosul, some of them were provided deliberately with a list of recommended strategies.
Metrics
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Al-Sulaimaan,M.M.D.(2011). Semantics and Pragmatics. Daar Ibn Al-Atheer.University of Mosul.
Althibany,A.A.S. (2011) . Achieving Linguistic Equivalence in Arabic.Andalus for Social and Applied Sciences ,vol 4, no. 7, p.p. 7-24.
As-Safi, A. B. (2011) .Translation Theories, Strategies and Basic Theoretical Issues. Petra University Press. Jordan.
Baker, M. (1992) .In Other Words. London &New York: Routledge.
--------------(1993) .Corpus linguistics and translation studies: Implication and application. In M. Baker, G. Francis and E. Tognini- Bonelli, (eds). Text and technology: In houour of John Sinclair. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
-------------(1996). Corpus-based translation studies: The challenges that lie ahead. In H. Somers, (ed). Terminology, LSP and Translation: Studies in language engineering in honour of Juan C. Sager. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins , p.p. 175-186. https://pe.ug.edu.pl/mdl/file.php/508/Translation_universals/mona_baker_1993.PDf
Barik , H. C. (1971). A Description of Various Types of Omissions, Additions and Errors of Translation Encountered in Simultaneous Interpretation. Meta,Vol.16, no.4,p.p.199-210.
Ben-Ari, N. (1998). The Ambivalent Case of Repetitions in Literary Translation. Avoiding Repetitions : a "Universal" of Translation. Meta , Vol. 43, no. 1, p.p.68-78.
Binh, P. T.( 2010). Strategies to deal with nonequivalence at word level in translation. Graduate Thesis. Hanoi: Hanoi University. http://web.hanu.vn/dec/file.php/1/Non-equivalent-Binh.pdf
Buitkuvienė,K. (2012) . Strategies for Translating Lexical Repetition in Contemporary Novels for Teenagers.Studies About Languages. no. 20 ,p.p. 109- 117.http://www.itc.ktu.lt
Catford, J. C. (1965). A linguistic Theory of Translation. London: Oxford University Press.
Crossly, S. , Allen, D. &McNamara, D.(2011) . Text Readability and Simplification : A Comparison of Readability Formulas. Reading in A Foreign Language, Vol.23,no. 1, p.p. 84-102. http://nflrc.hawaii.edu
Dickins, J., Hervey, S., & Higgins, I. (2002) . Thinking Arabic Translation: A Course in Translation Method : Arabic to English . London and New York: Routledge
Frawley, W. (1984).Prolegomenon to a theory of translation. In Venuit,L. (ed).The translation studies reader: NewYork: Routledge,p.p. 250- 264.
Helgegren, Sofia. (2005). “Tracing Translation Universals and Translator Development by Word Aligning a “Harry Potter Corpus.” Undergraduate thesis, Linköping University (Sweden), Department of Computer and Information Science. http://www.diva- portal.org/diva/getDocument?urn_nbn_se_liu_diva-4579-1
Hosseini Maasoum, M. &Davtalab, H. (2011). An Analysis of Culture-Specific Items in the Persian Translation of “Dubliners” Based on Newark’s Model. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 1, no.12, p.p.1767-1779
Ivacovoni,A.(2009).Translationby Omission. Retrieved from: http://iacovoni.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/translation-by-omission
Jantunen, J. H. (2004): “Untypical Patterns in Translations: Issues on Corpus Methodology and Synonymity.” Mauranen, A.Kujamäki, P. (eds): Translation Universals: Do They Exist? Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins , p.p. 101-129.
Khalussy, S. (1982) .فن الترجمة في ضوء الدراسات المقارنة . Alrashid Publishing House:Baghdad.
Kruger , A.(2000) . Lexical Cohesion and Register Variation in Translation : The Merchant of Venice in Afrikans :PhD thesis .University of South Africa.
--------------(2002) . Corpus – based Translation Research : Its Development and Implications for General , Literary and Bible Translation . ActaTheologicaSupplementum,2 ,70-106.
Laviosa – Braithwaite, S. (1998) .Universals of Translation .in Baker, M. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London& New York: Routledge , p.p. 288-291.
Laviosa, S. (1998a) . The Corpus-Based approach: A New Paradigm in Translation Studies :Meta , Vol. 43, no. 4, p.p.474-479.
--------------- (1998b). "Core Patterns of Lexical Use in a Comparable Corpus of English Narrative Prose": Meta ,Vol. 43, no. 4, p.p.557-570.
---------------(2002) . Corpus based Translation Studied : Theory, Findings, Application. Amsterdam :Rodopi.
Lin, C.-Y.& Hovy, E. (2000).The Automated Acquisition of Topic Signatures for Text Summarization. Proceedings of the COLING Conference. Strasbourg, France, Vol. 1 , p.p. 495-501.
Malmkjær, K. (1997) . Punctuation in Hans Christian Andersen’s Stories and Their Translations Into English, in F.Poyatos, ed., ‘Nonverbal Communication and Translation : New Perspectives and Challenges in Literature, Interpretation and The Media’, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Nassar, A. I. (2008) . Translation Shifts in The Lexical Repetition Chains of Translated Arabic Literary Texts: A Case Study .M.A. Thesis . Petra ]]]] University: Jordan.
Newmark, P. (1988). A Textbook of Translation. New York and London: Prentice-Hall- International.
Nida, E. A. (1964).Toward a Science of Translating. Leiden: E. J-Bill. https://books.google.iq
Petrulionė, L.(2012). Translation of Culture Specific Items from English into Lithuanian: the Case of Joanne Harris’s Novels . Studies About Languages .no. 21 , p.p. 43-49.www.ceeol.com.
Siddharthan, A. (2004). Syntactic Simplification and Text Cohesion. Technical Report, University of Cambridge.
Strĕdovā, A.(2009) . Explicitation and Implicitation in Non-literary Translations. Master’s Diploma Thesis : Masaryk University .
Toury, G. (1995) .Descriptive Translation Studies – and Beyond . Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.