Lexical issues in English Arabic translation:

1. Denotative and Connotative meaning:

Denotative meaning, also known as the dictionary meaning, refers to the relationship between lexical items and the non-linguistic entities which they refer. Connotative meaning, also known as the poetic meaning, refers to the emotional associations which are suggested by the lexical items. For instance,أبيض is denotatively used in

قميص أبيض 'a white shirt' but connotatively in ثورة بيضاء' a peaceful, bloodless revolution' .

In the following example, the translator has used the term ‘lady’ rather than ‘woman’ since ‘lady’ has overtones of respect.

آه يا بيروت..... يا أنثاي من بين ملايين النساء

Ah Beirut….my lady amongst millions of women

The lexical itemبومة and the English word ‘owl’ have the same denotative meaning.Both of them refer to the same class of bird. However, the two words have different connotative meanings. In Arabic the word بومة has many negative connotations and is always seen as a symbol of bad luck, while in English, ‘owl’ has positive and favourable associations. To translate the English expressions: ‘He is as wise as an owl’ or ‘He is a wise old owl.’ into Arabic asهو حكيم كالبومة would be unacceptable because of its negative connotations in Arabic. The English expressions are rendered into Arabic as هو حكيم ‘He is wise’. Problems in translation arise when a lexical item has different connotations in two languages. Therefore, the translator may need to explain the connotative meaning of the lexical item in the form of a footnote or a definition within the text in order for the target language reader to understand the favourable or unfavourable connotations of the source language item.

2. Collocation

Collocative meaning is s “the associations a word acquires on account of the meaning of words which tend to occur in its environment”. For example, ‘pretty’ and ‘handsome’share the common grounds of ‘good looking’, but they are differentiated by the range of nouns with which they are likely to co-occur. Pretty’ collocates with ‘girl’, ‘boy’, woman’, ‘flower’, while ‘handsome’ collocates with ‘boy’, ‘man’, ‘vessel.

Collocations differ from one language into another. English and Arabic use different collocational patterns that reflect the preferences of each community for certain modes of expression and certain linguistic configurations. For example, the English ‘deliver’ collocates with ‘letter’, ‘speech’, ‘news’, ‘blow’, ‘verdict’, ‘a baby’. Arabic, on the other hand, uses different verbs, as shown in the following examples:

English Collocation / Arabic equivalent
deliver a letter/telegram / يسلم خطابا \ تلغرافاً
deliver a speech/lecture / يلقي خطبة\ محاضرة
deliver news / ينقل أخبارًا
deliver a blow / يوجه ضربة
deliver a verdict / يصدر حكماً
deliver a baby / يولد امرأة

In the following set of collocations the English ‘catch’ collocates with ‘fish’, ‘cold’, ‘train’, ‘fire’. Arabic, on the other hand, uses different verbs, as shown in the following examples:

English Collocation / Arabic equivalent
catch a fish / سمكة يصطاد
catch a cold / دبر بنزلةيصاب
catch a train / بالقطاريلحق
catch fire / النارفيهتشتعل

The English-Arabic translator should pay considerable attention to the collocational differences between the two languages in order to choose the appropriate collocation in the target language. A translator who renders ‘shake hands’ as يهزالأيدي would give an erroneous translation. The Arabic equivalent for the English collocation ‘shake hands’is يصافح, which is not a collocation in Arabic.

3. Synonymy

It refers to 'sameness' in meaning. Semanticists often agree that 'total synonymy' is unlikely and that 'synonymy 'among lexical items could occur if the items are close enough in their meanings to allow a choice to be made between them in some contexts. For instance in English 'begin' and 'commence' can be considered synonyms because they can substitute for each other in almost all cases, as the following examples show:

  1. The church service commences at 11.00 a.m on Sundays.
  2. The church service begins at 11.00 a.m on Sundays.

Two or more synonymous words or expressions may differ in style. For example, ‘die’, ‘pass away’, ‘kick the bucket’, ‘decease’ and ‘croak’ differ with regard to the degree of formality and/or politeness. In Arabic, the lexical item توفي is more formal than مات. Other euphemistic expressions of death are انتقل إلى رحمة الله and انتقل إلى جوار ربه. The two expressions can be translated into English as ‘passed away’, a term that would roughly convey the intended meaning of the Arabic expressions in an appropriate way.

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