Translating English Conditional Sentences without 'if' into Arabic

Abstract

Translation of conditional sentences without ' if ' is regarded a thorny area, since it requires the translator's realization of the syntactic system that determines the well-formed sentence structures. The meaning through grammar is a basic significance in this study, which sheds light on the words ordering links (i.e., syntax) in a certain context. Thus, English conditionals without 'if' form, tense and meaning are difficult areas in the translation process into Arabic. On the syntactic level, the structural disparity between English and Arabic constitutes a stumbling block, in that English conditionals are without subordinator ' if ' and determined by the verb tense. Unlike Arabic, only the particles determine the conditional type and its meaning. So, this mismatch between the two languages involved is one of the main factors that brings out inappropriate translation. This study aims to analyze conditional sentences without ' if ' syntactically and semantically to show the translation method of their types and to specify some problems that may arise in translating such constructions. To achieve the above-mentioned aims, the study hypothesizes that unless the syntactic and semantic features of those sentences are fully realized, a proper translation cannot be attained. The study shows that the structures of conditionals without ' if ' are not well understood and their meaning are not expressed appropriately into Arabic.