Lexical Relations between English and Arabic: The Role of the Translator (Published)
This paper consternates on four types of lexical relations between English and Arabic, namely, synonymy, antonymy, homonymy and polysemy with regard to translation. Specifically, it aims to shed light on the role of translators in handling these lexical relations. Moreover, it tries to reveal how these relations are reflected both in Arabic and English and if they are causing obstacles while translating. A comparative and qualitative analysis is used to analyse the data gathered from different English and Arabic scholarly and academic texts. The study ends with the conclusion that translators have to pay extreme attention to these lexical relations while translating and exert much effort to come up with a valid translation that uncover the problems resulting from the congruence and ambiguity that such lexical relations impose.
Keywords: Antonymy, Homonymy, Lexical Relations., Polysemy., synonymy
TRANSLATION ASSESSMENT OF QURĂNIC LEXICAL SYNONYMY INTO ENGLISH (Published)
The present study is aimed at investigating the translation accuracy of Qurănic synonymy into English. The renditions of the synonyms will be assessed in the light of a translation quality assessment model to pinpoint how far accuracy has been attained. Lexical synonymy, as defined by semanticists, refers to a major type of sense relation between lexical items which have the same meanings. Definitely, synonyms are of various types as classified by specialists where they reached the result that total synonymy is very rare in language. This may have its bearing on the translation of this linguistic area. If mistranslations of Qur’anic lexical synonymy are found out, alternative translations would be suggested. The Qur’anic texts have been randomly selected for evaluation. The paper is based on the hypothesis that mistranslations of Qur’anic lexical synonymy are more recurrent than accurate renditions. Inaccuracies in the translation of this type of sense relation could be attributed to a variety of reasons such as the semantic dissimilarities between the two languages, discoursal and rhetorical differences etc.Six published translations of the Qur’an have been subjected to assessment as far as the topic under study is concerned. Consequently, the translation assessment has revealed the high frequency of inaccurate renditions of lexical synonyms found in Qur’anic texts. In addition, the synonymous lexical items found in the original (the Quran) seem to be chosen purposefully so as to convey some teachings of the Islamic religion
Keywords: Accuracy, Assessment, differences, mistranslation, synonymy