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Lord of the Flies
May, 2011
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:
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I certify that this thesis was prepared under my supervision at
University of Baghdad as a partial requirement for the degree of
Master of Arts in Translation.
Signature:
Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Munthir Manhal, Ph.D.
Date:
In view of the available recommendation, I forward this thesis for
debate by the examining committee.
Signature:
Name: Asst. Prof. May Stephan Rassam, Ph.D.
Head of the Department of English,
College of Languages, University of Baghdad
Date:
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We certify that we have read this thesis and as examining
committee examined the student in its content and that, in our
opinion, it is adequate with standing as a thesis for the degree of
Master of Arts in Translation.
Signature:
Name:
Date:
Chairman
Signature:
Name:
Date:
Member
Signature:
Name:
Date:Member
Signature:
Name:
Date:Member
Approved by the Council of the College of Languages
Signature:
Name: Prof. Talib A. Mohammed Al-kuraishi, Ph.D.Dean of the College of Languages,
University of Baghdad
Date:
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Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to extend my thanks to my supervisor
Asst. Prof. Dr. Munthir Manhal who has helped this thesis along its ways.
His detailed comments and suggestions on the early drafts are highlyappreciated. He has assisted in sharpening and strengthening the focus the
best way possible and in pointing out errors and inaccuracies. He has helped
me to recognize my mistakes and learn from them. He has mixed his
invaluable comments with the spirit of confidence and challenge which
helped me to a great extent to face the difficulties in the course of thesis.
I would like to extend my thanks to Asst. Prof. Dr. May Stephan, Head of
the Department of English, for her help in eliminating any obstacle that
hinders the progress of the students in the postgraduate studies in the
department. My thanks go to the teaching staff whose dedication and
keenness to feed us with knowledge have led to the accomplishment of this
challenging task, to mention but few: Emeritus Prof. Dr. Abdulwahid
Muslat, Asst. Prof Dr. Riyadh Khalil, Asst. Prof Dr. Abdulhameed Nasir,
Prof. Dr. Amir Al-Hiti, Head of the Arabic Section in the College of
Languages and Prof. Dr. Alya Al-RubaiI from Al-Mustansiriyah
University. Also, my thanks go to Asst. Prof .Dr. Mahdi Falih Al-Ghazali,
Head of the Translation Department / Al-Mustansiriyah University, for his
invaluable advice. My thanks go to Asst. Prof. Dr. Abbas Lutfi, Head of the
English Department /College of Education, for his assistance. Special thanks
go to Mr. Hazim Malik for his assistance. My thanks and gratitude go to myfamily who supported me to complete this work. Finally, my thanks go to
every person who helped and supported me to achieve this thesis as best as
possible.
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Abstract
Translation quality assessment (henceforth TQA) is a sub-field of the
translation studies. It offers a practical approach to state-of-the-art
translation criticism and evaluation In this thesis three Arabic translations
of William Goldings novelLord of the Flies (1954) (henceforth LOTF) are
chosen among some available Arabic translations. These three translations
are by Samir Izzat Nassar (1988) , by Abdul-Hameed
Al-Jammal(1994/2000) and by Mahmoud Qasim(1991). This
thesis investigates the reasons behind the differences among the Arabic
translations and why some of them are rendered adequately while others fail
to achieve this level of adequacy. The current thesis puts forward the
following hypotheses:
1- Different translation methods could lead to different translated versions of
the same text.
2- Consistency in using the same key terms, while there is no justification to
change them, leads to a more eligible text and eliminate any inconsistency or
vagueness.
3- Cultural and stylistic differences between both languages seem to give
rise to mistranslations as far as the literary text under investigation is
concerned. In addition, these differences might press the translators to
manipulate some translated elements to fit the new cultural and religious
contexts.
In order to test these hypotheses selection has been made to several
excerpts from different places in the novel to cover the most significant
elements required to carry out the task of assessment. In order to make use
of the collected data which cover several levels namely, text type, semantic,stylistic and extra-linguistic levels; the model ofReiss (2000) of translation
criticism with some additions from other scholars such as Nord (1997) have
been adopted. This thesis investigates the different choices made by the
translators in rendering the same ST elements and analyzing the reasons
behind them whether they are due to stylistic choices, cultural problems,
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unavailability of the appropriate equivalent, and unfamiliarity with the
subject matter, the high symbolic nature of the ST or the particularity of the
author style. This thesis found out that adopting different translation
strategies by translators leads to different versions of the same ST. Some
basic principles of translation are violated variably by the three translations
which lead, as it has been shown in this thesis, to a kind of inconsistency in
the translated texts. This thesis found out how the Arab translators have
observed the conservative traditions and ethical standards of the Arab
societies. None of the three translators has rendered any ST obscene words
directly into Arabic. This gives an indicator of how culture and social
conventions affect the translated texts.
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SUBJECT p .No
Dedication v
Acknowledgements vi
Abstract viiTable of Contents ix
List of Tables xiv
List of Figures xv
Key to Abbreviations xvi
Chapter One1.1 The Problem 1
1.2 Hypotheses 2
1.3 Aims of this Study 3
1.4 Procedures 31.5 Plan of the Thesis
1.6 Limits of the Study 4
1.7 The Value of the study 5
Chapter TwoBasic Concepts and Approaches to Translation Studies
Introduction 6
2.1 Basic Concepts 7
2.1.1 What is Translation? 7
2.1.2 The Translator 8
2.1.3 Prose Translation 10
2.1.4 Meaning and Translation 11
2.1.5Collocation
13
2.1.6 Figurative language 15
2.1.6.1 Metaphor 16
2.1.6.1.1 Types of Metaphor 17
2.1.6.1.2 Newmarks classification of Metaphor 17
2.1.6.2 Simile 202.1.7 Text 20
2.1.7 .1 Cohesion and Text 21
2.1.7 .2. Ellipsis and Substitution 22
2.1.7 .2.1. Nominal Ellipsis 22
2.1.7.2.2. Verbal ellipsis 23
2.1.7 .2.3 Clausal ellipsis 23
2.1.7 .3. Substitution 24
Table of Contents
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2.1.7 .4 Allusion 24
2.1.8 Style 26
2.1.8.1 Types of Style 26
2.1.9 Loss in Translation 28
2.1.10 Context 302.2 Translation Studies 32
2.3 Approaches to Translation 34
2.3.1 Linguistic-Oriented Translation Theories 34
2.3.1.1 Equivalence and Equivalent Effect 35
2.3.1.2 The Translation Shift Approach 39
2.3.1.2.1Vinay and Darbelnet's Model
39
2.3.1.2.2 Catford and Translation Shifts 41
2.3.2 Functional Theories of Translation 422.3.2.1 Text Type 42
2.3.2.2 Skopos Theory 43
2.3.3 Discourse and Register Approaches to Translation Theory 45
2.3.3.1 The Hallidayan Model of Language and Discourse 46
2.3.3.2 House's Model of Translation Quality Assessment 48
2.3.3.3 Baker's Text and Pragmatic Analysis 51
2.3.4 Cultural Approaches 54
2.3.4.1 Some Culture-Related Problems to Translation 56
Chapter ThreeTranslation Quality Assessment
3 Introduction 59
3.1 Approaches to Translation Quality Assessment 60
3.1.1 Anecdotal and Subjective Approaches 61
3.1.2 Response-Oriented, Psycholinguistic Approaches 63
3.1.3 Text-Based Approaches 66
3.1.4 Functionalistic and Action and ReceptionTheoryRelated Approaches
67
3.1.5 Linguistically-Oriented Approaches 70
3.2 A Model Applied to Translation Assessment 73
3.2.1 A model for the Analysis of the Novel 74
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3.2.1.1 The Literary Category of Translation Criticism76
Text Type
76
3.2.1.2 Linguistic Elements as a Linguistic Category for
Translation Criticism
79
Semantic Elements 79
Textual Level
Cohesive Devices
80
Substitution and Ellipsis80
Allusion81
Stylistic Level: Formal vs. Informal Style81
3.2.1.3 Extra-Linguistic Determinants as the Pragmatic Category
of the Translation Criticism.
82
Subject Matter
82
Audience82
Time and Place Factors 82
3.2.1.4 The General Makeup of the ST and Its Translations 83
3.2.1.5 Application of the Adapted Model 83
Semantic Level 84
Textual Level 85
Stylistic Level 86
Extra- Linguistic Determinants (Pragmatic Level)87
General Makeup of the Translated Texts87
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Statement of Quality87
Chapter Four The Assessment of the TranslationsIntroduction 88
4.1 Summary of the NovelLord of the Flies and Text Type 884.2 The Semantic Level 92
4.2. 1 Equivalence at the Lexical Level 92
4.2.1.1 Analysis of the Lexical Items 93
4.2. 2 Collocations 110
4.2.2.1 The Translation of Collocations 110
4.2.2.2 Analysis of Collocation 112
4.2.3 Metaphor 120
4.2.3.1 Methods of Translating Metaphors 120
4.2.3.2 Metaphor Analysis 1214.2.4 Simile 129
4.2.4.1 Methods of Translating Simile 129
4.2.4.2 Analysis of Simile 130
4.3 Textual Level 138
4. 3. 1 Ellipsis and Substitution 138
4.3.1.1 Translation of Ellipsis and Substitution 139
4. 3.1.2 Types of Ellipsis 139
4.3.1.2.1 Ellipsis Analysis 140
4.3.1.2 Analysis of Substitution 1434.3.2 Allusions 145
4.3.2.1 Translation of Allusions 146
4.3.2.2 Analysis of Allusions 146
4.4 Stylistic Analysis 152
4.4.1 Goldings Style 152
4.4.2 Analysis of Style 154
Informal style 154
Colloquial Style 156
4.5 Extra- Linguistic Determinants 158Subject Matter 158
Audience 160
Time and place 161
4.6 The General Makeup of the Novel and its Translations 163
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4.7 Statement of Quality 164
Chapter five 170
5.1 Conclusions 1705.2 Recommendations 173
5.3 Suggestions for Further Studies 174
Bibliography 176
Appendices 187
Abstract in Arabic 227
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List of Tables
No. Table page2.1 English Styles 26
3.1 Text Types Adapted from Reisss (2000) 75
4.1 EnglishArabic Collocational Differences of the Verb
deliver
110
4.2 Time and Place Information of TTs 163
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List of Figures
No. Figure page
2.1 Genre and Register Relation to Language 46
2.2 Analysis and Comparison Scheme of the
Original and Translated Texts
48
3.1 Three-Phase System of Translating Process 64
3.2 Use-Related Variation 71
3.3 Visual Distribution of Texts According to
Reiss Text Typology Adapted from Chesterman(1989)
77
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Key to Abbreviations
Abbreviation Term
Adj. Adjective
Adv. Adverb
DE Dynamic Equivalence
DTS Descriptive Translation Studies
FE Formal Equivalence
L Line Number in the ST
LOTF Lord of the Flies
MSA Modern Standard Arabic
N Noun
NP Noun Phrase
OALD Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary
r.f Researcher Footnote
SL Source Language
SLT Source Language Text
ST Source Text
T1 = Samir Izzat Nassars translationT2 = Abdul Hammed Al-Jammals
translation
T3 = Mahmoud Qasims translationThTS Theoretical Translation Studies
TQA Translation Quality Assessment
TTh Translation Theory
TT Target Text
TL Target Language
TLT Target Language TextV Verb
VP Verb phrase
Line Number in the ArabicTexts
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1.1 The ProblemLiterary language is one of the most difficult areas that the translator faces
since the original message should be carried into the target language stuffed
with least imaginable bit of emotion and very specific and intended structure
as well as vocabulary. The effect that the translated texts achieve in the target
culture should be, according to the equivalence notion, the same one that the
original message achieves in the original culture (Nida, 1964:159).
Lord of the Flies is one of the significant works not only for its literaryvalue but also for the linguistic implication indicated in the deep human
reflections and thoughts. Golding in this novel shows a compelling
imagination, a vivid realism as he describes the disintegration of the boys
civilization under the pressure of raw nature. He has been deeply infatuated
by the ambiguities of mysterious atmospheres that surrounded his childhood
as well as the post World War II period which ultimately appeared as
complex symbols in his works later on.
This particular William Golding's work, which was written in 1954, won theNobel Prize for literature in 1983 and translated into several languages. It was
translated into Arabic in 1967 under the title which literallymeans "The Seeds of Evil". Later, the novel was translated by several Arab
translators who did their translations using a variety of techniques and
methods along with remarkable differences in style, sentence formation and
vocabulary.
These differences which are noticeable along the translated texts represent a
phenomenon that requires investigation and careful analyses to identify the
elements that motivate the translators to prefer certain structural and lexical
choices rather than other ones. Arab translators introduced a variety of titles
no less than six titles were presented for the original title ofLord of The Flies,
they are as follows: ............................................................
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1- Buthoor Alshar literally the Seeds of Evil2- Lord Althubab the Lord of the Flies 3- Malik Althubab King of the Flies
4- Amir Althubab the prince of the flies 5- Sayid Althubab the Master of the Flies
6- Alihat Althubab the Gods of the Flies
7- Ilah Althubab the God of the Flies
Selected excerpts from three of them are chosen to carry out the assessment
process, namely, number 2, 4 and 6. The selection of these three translations
and their excerpts is based on the special features they have to serve as thedata needed to test the given hypotheses.
1.2 Hypotheses
It is hypothesized that:
1- Different translation methods could lead to different translated versions of
the same text.
2- Consistency in using the same key terms, while there is no justification to
change them, can lead to a more eligible text and eliminate any
inconsistency or vagueness.
3- Cultural and stylistic differences between both languages seem to giverise to mistranslations as far as the literary text under investigation is
concerned. In addition, these differences might press the translators to
manipulate some translated elements to fit the new cultural and religious
contexts.
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1.3 Aims of this Study
The study aims at:
1- Providing a translation assessment of the Arabic translations of Golding's
Lord of the Flies
2- Investigating the reasons behind those differences in translations and,
3- Suggesting translations for the inadequate rendition of some parts of the
TTs.
1.4 Procedures:
1- Introducing some of the substantial approaches to translation criticism
2- Developing an adequate model for assessment
3- Applying the model to the selected texts
4- Drawing up conclusions
1.5 Plan of the thesis
To approach the goal of assessing the three Arabic translations, the current
thesis is divided into five chapters; they are as follows:
1- Chapter one includes the exposition of the problem, hypotheses and theaim of the study
2- Chapter two includes a review of literature and the most influential
approaches in the field of translation studies.
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3- Chapter three includes two basic points; the first is introduction to the
most effective approaches to translation quality assessment. The second is
the choice of the most adequate model to fulfill the requirements of the
assessment process.
4- Chapter four: this chapter represents the practical part of the assessment
process. In this chapter, the ST and the TTs are analyzed and contrasted
according to the chosen model (in chapter three).
5- Chapter five: this chapter represents the valid conclusions obtained from
the previous step of analysis (chapter four). It also provides
recommendations and suggestions for further studies.
1.6 Limits of the Study
The study is limited to the assessment of three selected Arabic
translations of "Lord of the Flies" namely; a) Amir Althubab
translated by Abdul- Hameed Al-Jammal b) Lord Althubab translated by Samir Izzat Nassar c)Alihat Althubab translated by
Mahmoud Qasim. The assessment will be based on selected elements of
evaluation on the semantic, textual, stylistic and extra-linguistic levels as
well as the general make-up of the ST and TTs.
Since it would be impossible within the limits of this study to cover all the
elements found in the selected levels of analysis, therefore, only some of the
elements are chosen. It is also very hard to analyze the whole text of the
novel, therefore, sample excerpts from different places in the novel havebeen chosen to serve as data for carrying out analysis and evaluation of the
novel.
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1.7 The Value of the study
It is widely known that translation plays a remarkable role in enriching
the target language culture with new kinds of knowledge and information.
Accordingly, this makes communication among different cultures moreproductive and more fruitful. This fact makes it necessary to evaluate the
translated works and show their merits and demerits. Consequently, it would
be possible to provide the Arab readers with the opportunity of choosing the
high quality productions rather than leaving them blundering among the
huge amount of low quality products that are shown today. Also, no less
important is that, such studies represent a resource of worthy academic
guidance for the students of translation and for those interested in literary
translation as well.
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6
Chapter Two
Basic Concepts and Approaches to TranslationStudies
Introduction
This chapter deals with the most famous approaches to translation
studies as well as some introductory concepts that are necessary to pave the
way for a better understanding of the following chapters of this thesis.Translation is one of the most controversial branches of Applied
Linguistics fields and it has been gaining more interest, notably in the last
few decades, from other fields. This interest in translation is one of the
most important reasons which led to the diversity of the theories of
translation. These theories have been formed to explain the nature of
translation and identify it within a certain objective frame. Given the fact
that translation process is linked to subjects as much as the human being
can deal, it could be possible then to imagine the difficulty of contriving a
unified theory of translation. Nevertheless, these theories undergo acontinuous development and progress aiming at a reasonable level of
objectivity in this regard. The growth of Translation Studies as a separate
discipline is according to Lefevere (1992:xi) is a success story which
started from the 1980s.The subject witnessed an ongoing development in
different areas in the world and will continue to develop in the future.
Translation studies bring together work in a wide variety of fields,
including linguistics, literary study, history, anthropology, psychology and
economics. The theories which are to be discussed in this chapter do not
cover all the trends in the field of translation as this would be practically
impossible, but taking useful samples would be helpful to shed light on theareas of research in this subject as it pertains to the subject matter of the
current thesis.
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7
2.1 Basic Concepts
2.1.1 What is Translation?
In our daily life one gets connected to each other and interact by themost effective means which is language. Language, according to Fasold
and Linton (2006:9), is a finite system of elements and principles thatmake it possible for speakers to construct sentences to do particular
communicative jobs. So the main purpose of language is to achieve acommunicative task. This holds true also for the linguistic phenomenon of
translation. Hatim and Munday (2004:3) point out that translation can be
analyzed from two different perspectives: that of a process, which refers
to the activity of turning a ST into a TT in another language, and that of a
product, i.e. a translated text. They (1997:1) define translating as an actof communication which attempts to relay, across cultural and linguisticboundaries, another act of communication (which may have been intended
for different purposes and different readers / hearers).Shuttleworth and Cowie (1997:181) see thattranslation is a very broad
notion which opens the way to be understood in various ways. This broad
notion enables one to talk about translation as process and a product. In
addition, one can recognize sub-types of translations such as literary
translation, technical translation, subtitling and machine translation.
According to Ghazala (2006:1), translation refers to all processes and
methods used to transfer the meaning of the source language text into thetarget language.
On this very issue oftranslation as a process and product; Aziz andLataiwish (2000:4) see that translation as a process is related to a human
activity which nearly everyone has practiced and therefore has a broad
sense. As a product, it is mainly related to the result of this human activity
in form of translated texts among different languages. Translation for them
is a replacement of one text in certain language by another text in another
language. But, they argue that such a definition does not cover some
aspects of what translation term should cover. First, it focuses on text
translation; text is a linguistic unit above the sentence and more dependable
on context and may be written or oral. The second point which they raise,
is its focus on the translation from one language to another whereas other
types are excluded, i.e., paraphrasing within the same language. A more
comprehensive view about translation is seen by Jakobson
(1959/2000:114), who distinguishes between three different kinds of
translation; they are as follows:
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8
1) Intralingual, orrewording;2) Interlingual ortranslation proper;3) Intersemiotic ortransmutation
The first of these refers to an interpretation of verbal signs by means ofother signs of the same language. In other words, the process oftranslation occurs within the same language, for instance between varieties
or through paraphrasing, etc. The second kind concerns interpretation ofverbal signs by means of some other languages .The third one
Intersemiotic or transmutation is an interpretation of verbal signs bymeans of signs of non-verbal sign systems.
According to Ilyas (1989:19), translation is an operation in which the
source text is replaced by the target text according to the equivalence
notion on different levels namely, lexical, grammatical, phonological andgraphological.
What is noted from the above discussion, that the basic concept in the
process of translation isequivalence which can be established at differentlevels, namely, lexical, grammatical and phonological. The subject of
equivalence will be tackled in detail in the next sections.
2.1.2 The Translator
The translator is the one who undertakes the task of communicating the
overall meaning of a stretch of language to another language. The role of
the translator, according to Leppihalme (1997:18), should be given a due
emphasis in a problem-restricted study of translation because whatever
may be written by the translation scholars; the translator who must decide
how to solve each individual problem during the translating process. This
task needs certain qualifications supposed to be available in the translator
to achieve this act of communication and problem solving competence.
Najeeb (2005:8f) suggests that the translator should have some
qualifications in order to accomplish his/her task successfully and as
follows:
1-A broad base of vocabulary of both source and target languages
2-Comprehensive knowledge of the grammar, morphology, rhetoric in both
languages
3- Encyclopedic knowledge
4- The faithfulness in the rendition of the original text thoughts and ideas
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9
5- Patience, because translation needs a long period of practice and
training.
These above skills and qualifications do not mean that the translator is
that person who should know everything and can meticulously translate
any text without any help from anyone else other than him/herself.
Samuelsson-Brown (2004:2) clarifies this particular point by stating that
great number of people, including clients, has many misconceptions of
what is a skilled translator should have. Among these misconceptions are
the following:
As a translator you can translate all subjects
If you speak a foreign language you can automatically translate into
it
If you can make a conversation in a foreign language then you arebilingual.
Translators are mind-readers and can make a perfect translation; they
need not to consult the original author.
Hatim and Mason (1990:11) confirm that familiarity with the ideas and
underlying meaning of the writer of a SL text is a vital aid to translating.
On the other hand, unfamiliarity gives rise to the lack of confidence, or
the inability to grasp the meaning when a text is in a way or another
defective, obscure or has elliptical elements. They (ibid.) believe that thebest translators in the field of literary translation are those who are in tune
with the author. This necessary understanding of both the overt message
and underlying meaning of the text as well as the emotiveness values and
stylistic features that determine the flavor and feel of the message are the
first and most obvious requirements of any translator as Nida (1964:150)
believes.
Kelly (2005:64) argues that specialists in this field and the professional
translation markets see that professional translators have to possess the
following skills:
communicative and textual competence preferably in more than twolanguages and cultures
cultural and intercultural competence
subject area competence
professional and instrumental competence
attitudinal or psycho-physiological competence
interpersonal competence
strategic competence
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10
The above raised point of cultural competence contributes to the naming
of translators as cultural mediators. The translator represents a mediatory
channel through which understanding between two different languages and
cultures can be achieved. Hatim and Mason (1990:223) view of the
translator as a mediator stems from the fact that mutual communication
might otherwise be problematic without the mediatory role of the translator
between involved parties such as the translators of patents, contracts, verse
or fiction .This mediatory role can be more direct in the case of the
simultaneous interpreter.
Translators as cultural mediators should be, according to Katan
(1999:14), aware of their own cultural identity to the extreme in order to
understand how their culture influences perception.
The ideal role of the translator as it is argued by Nida (1964:153) is to have
a complete knowledge of both source and target language ,intimate
acquaintance with the subject matter, effective empathy with the originalauthor and the content and stylistic facility in the target language.
Unfortunately, these ideal competences do not always found in the
translator, therefore, a lot of discrepancies are found among translated texts
and the original ones. Consequently, the aim in most of the cases is to be as
close as possible to the essence of the message meant to be conveyed.
2.1.3 Prose Translation
According to Nida and Taber (1969:132) prose comprises three maintypes namely, narrative, descriptive and argumentative. In narrative text
the structure is based on series of events representing the theme of the text.
In descriptive the text based on spatial relations with a certain point that
represents the perspective from which the scene is described relative to that
point of view. Argumentative is based on logical relations.
Ilyas (1989:65) sees that literary translation does not follow word for
word translation .This is basically because it should express the authors
ideas as well as his style which are represented in his/her conscious choicesof words and their overtones, figures of speech and other stylistic elements
which inevitably do not allow that kind of literal translation. He also
stresses the position that it is unacceptable, in case of the novel translation,
to stress the content at the expense of the total structure of it. Belloc (1930)
cited in Ilyas (1989:66) has six rules suggested to the translation of prose;
they can be listed briefly as follows:
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11
1- The translator should avoid translating his work word by word or
sentence by sentence but the work should be looked upon as a whole unit.
2- The translator should translate the S.L. idiom by an equivalent T.L.
idiom which usually differs in form but have the same function in the target
language. For example, the Greek exclamation By the dog can betranslated into English as an exclamation by using the form By God.3- An S.L. intention should be rendered into an equivalent T.L. intention
and the translator should make up for any overbalance between both
intentions.
4- The translator should avoid the pitfall of similar words in different
languages. Sometimes these similar words are called (false friends) .This
problem occurs among languages of the same origin where the same words
carry different meanings in these languages. For example, the word brutalwhich signifies serious in French whereas it has a different denotation in
English as unkind or violent.5- The translator should not be slavish to the S.L. text since languages
differ in form. Necessary changes should be made by the translator to the
target text
6- The translator should not add elements that are not in the S.L.
Bakers (1992:111) suggestion for the translators is to work on lexicalitems and grammatical structures while performing the translation through
its multistage process. However, this depends largely on examining the text
as a whole before and after the translation process. The usefulness of
reading the text before starting the translating process is to understand the
text and realize its message. This will help to put the lexical items and
sentences in their due context which is realized by reading. The advantage
of the reading after the completion of translating process will help to
evaluate the target text whether it is an acceptable text in its own right. She
(ibid.) states that phraseology and the collocational and grammaticalpatterning of the target version must conform to target-language norms.
2.1.4 Meaning and Translation
It is well known that language can be used to express meaning, but it is a
very difficult task to define meaning. Part of the problem is that meaning
has various dimensions which are intermingled and cannot easily be
distinguished as separate, but as Portner (2006:138) sees, there are
semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning. The first meaning is the literal
meaning of an utterance or sentence, whereas the second is what the
speaker means; for example, if one asks you the following question: can
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you give me an apple? If you take the literal meaning of this question then
your answer would be yes I can because the question literally asks aboutyour ability. If, you take the question as a request made by the speaker to
give him an apple, then the meaning that you grasped is what intended by
the speaker to communicate. In this regard, some linguists put some
classifications to meaning for purpose of achieving more insight to the
nature of meaning and its relatedness to translation. According to Cruse
(1986) meaning can be of four distinguished types namely, propositional
meaning, expressive meaning, presupposed meaning, and evoked meaning.
With regard to the propositional meaning he (ibid.:271) sees that its
characteristics depend partly on the propositional attitude manifested by
the sentence in which it operates whether this sentence is a statement,
question, command, exclamation, etc. Propositional meaning has truth-
conditions (truth condition is defined according to Akmajian et al
(2001:589) as A condition that the world must meet for an expression thathas truth condition to be true). In the case ofexpressive meaning there is
no such truth conditions, see the following examples:
a- Ijust felt a sudden sharp pain.b- Ouch!
It is noted that both utterances convey the same message; that is of pain but
they differ in the way the meaning is put across. The example (a) can be
challenged for its truth value by saying for example: no you just lie while
example (b) its truth value cannot be challenged because it does not make
sense to challenge its truth in the same way of that in example (a). Cruses(ibid.: 278) third type is thepresupposed meaning which is used here torefer to semantic traits which are considered when one uses an expression,
or lexical item, in the utterance. For example, when one hears the word
drink , the first things that come to the mind are: there is something which
is liquid, potable, someone who drinks etc. All these associations are
presupposed by the hearer of this uttered lexical item unless a metaphorical
meaning is sought behind it. The fourth type of meaning according to
(ibid.:282) is theevoked meaning which plays a role in the cohesion of thediscourse and provides a further potential source of variation among
cognitive synonyms. The possibility of evoked meaning is a result of the
existence of different dialects and registers within a language.
This above classification is adopted by Baker (1992:13-5). She explains thesefour types as follows:
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1-Propositional meaning of a word or an utterance arises from the relationbetween it and what it refers to. This type of meaning gives us the ability to
judge the truth of an utterance. For example,shirt is a piece of cloth that canbe worn on the upper part of the body so it is not accurate to use it under
normal circumstances to refer to a kind of clothes worn to the lower parts of
the body.2- Expressive meaning relates to the speakers feelings or Attitude ratherthan to what words and utterances refer to.
3- Presupposed meaning arises from co-occurrence restrictions which makeus able to expect what is the following or preceding word when certain word
comes in a text. These restrictions include selectional restriction andcollocational restriction. The former depends on the propositional meaning of
a certain word, for example the word studious has the feature of (+) human,
therefore, a human may be expected to do the action. The latter depends on
the arbitrary co-occurrence of two or more words without following a logical
rule for this co-occurrence. For example, laws are broken in English, but in
Arabic they are contradicted.
4-Evoked meaning arises from dialect and register variation. The formerrepresents a variety of language that is used by a certain linguistic community.
The latter is a variety of language that a language user deems it as appropriate
in certain situations.
2.1.5 Collocation
A collocation is mainly a lexical relationship between words. This
lexical relationship is said to be subject more to arbitrariness arising from
common usage than from rules. An interesting example concerning the
arbitrariness of collocations is the wordsrancid andaddled which meanstale/rotten. When they enter in collocational relations with butter oreggs, English describes them as rancid and addled, when they go bad,
respectively. One cannot talk aboutaddled butter andrancid eggs because
they are unacceptable or at least unlikely collocations in English (Palmer,
1976 cited in Baker, 1992:47). Baker (ibid.) gives other examples to
illustrate this nature of collocation; English speakers typically break rulesbut they do not break regulations; they typically talk of wasting time but
not of squandering time. Newmark (1988:32) states that the chiefdifficulties in translating are lexical, not grammatical i.e. words,
collocations and fixed phrases or idioms. According to Bell (1993:97)
Similarity of occurrence collocation - is the basic formal relationship in
lexis A word tends to occur in relatively predictable ways with other
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words; certain nouns with particular adjectives or verbs, verbs with
particular adverbials. Newmark (1988:212) considers collocations veryimportant for the translator. They represent most important contextual
factor but their occurrence is considerably narrower, and lexical items
basically occur into high-frequency grammatical structures. He classifiescollocations into:
1- Adjective plus noun
In this regard, two examples from Newmark (ibid.) can be taken 'hard
labour', in Arabic " " and 'economic situation' as " "2- Noun plus noun or compound nouns
Nerve cell can be translated into Arabic as "" , eyeball intoArabic " "3- Verb plus object, such as read a paper in Arabic " "
And score (win) a victory in Arabic " " or " "It is seen that collocations are evident in both languages, English and
Arabic. Accordingly, it is possible to avail of this important characteristic
of language to evaluate the three translations based on their comparison
with the ST and see how the translators manage to convey these useful
structures into the TL by using an equivalent Arabic collocations.
According to Ghazala (2006:106-22) collocations in Arabic fall into
several types. He lists twelve most important ones using grammatical
classification:
1- Adjective + noun collocations, for example: hard labour ( / (
2- Verb + noun, for example : attend a lecture ) (3-Noun+noun collocations, for example: brain drainage ( ) 4- Noun + noun (the of genitive ( )) collocations, for example:Loss of memory ( (5- Noun + and + noun (addition( )) collocations ,for example: meansand ends ( ).
6- Adjective +adjective collocations, for example: hale and hearty ( )7- Adverb + adverb collocations, for example: wholly and heartedly ( (8- Noun + verb collocations (names of sounds), for example: bees buzz
) )9- Prepositional collocations, for example:
a- Noun + preposition : A protest against ( )b- Preposition +noun : by accident ( / )
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c- Adjective +preposition collocations :full of ( )d- Verb + preposition (prepositional verb )collocations: long for (
/ )10- Collocations of similes (as-as constructions) : as beautiful as a lark/as
pretty as a picture ( / / )11- Parts of countable nouns collocations, for example: a bouquet offlowers ( / )12- Parts of uncountable nouns collocations, forexample: a bit (piece) of
information ( ).
2.1.6 Figurative Language
According to Cruse (2006:63-4), figures of speech are mainly linguistic
expressions that are used figuratively, if their intended meaning is different
from their literal meaning or their understanding is based on meaning
extension. In the course of studying rhetoric, it is possible to recognize
many figures of speech but the main ones that have much attracted the
attention of linguists are the following: euphemism, hyperbole, metaphor,
simile, and understatement According to Ghazala (2006:145-6) it includes
besides these some other figures and as follows:
1- Pun A figure of speech which involves a play upon words.(Cuddon, 1999 :711).
2- Metonymy: a figure of speech tries to direct attention to an entity
through another entity related to it. For example, one can say: He read
Shakespeare to mean the works of Shakespeare. In other words, instead of
direct mentioning of the second entity, one can provide mental access to it
by some other entity (kovecses, 2010:172).
3- Personification: attributes human characteristics to inanimate objects;
common in childrens books, it is not just childs play. It can depict socialconflicts, with unions and companies as characters. (Gibbs, 2008:457). Bythe figure it is possible to give deeper meanings to many subjects
encountered in life such as poverty, evil, science etc., by addressing these
subjects as if they were human beings. In Goldings novel this figure ofspeech can be seen in the personification of the head of the pig as he called
it theLord of the Flies.
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4- Irony: According to Leech and Short (1981:278) it may be defined for
the fictional purposes as a double significance which arises from thecontrast in values associated with two different points of view. It could beestablished through single sentence or it may include the whole novel. In
LOTF many occurrences of irony are noted, for example, the bitter irony at
the end of the story is that the same smoke that the boys use to flush
Ralph for the kill is the signal for their rescue by the army who saw the
smoke .
As well as several other subtypes; Nida (2001:5) gives examples on
metaphorical expressions such as my father was a tower of strength,
literally ) ( and history is looking back in order to lookahead, literally ( ).
In translation, the translator has to find either the corresponding figure in
the target language or a matching explanation that gives the meaning of theST figure of speech. In this study, the researcher chooses the most evident
figures of speech devices such as:
1-Metaphor
2-Simile
The choice is based on their repeated occurrence in the ST which serves as
a base to evaluate the three translations. Consequently, this choice will
provide testing criteria for the adequacy of the Arabic translations and how
they render the ST figures of speech into Arabic.
2.1.6.1 Metaphor
Frequently, metaphor is used as a simile although it has sometimesbeen supposed that simile is a different figure of speech from metaphor; but
in fact it is a sub-species of metaphor, which is distinct only in that it keeps
the notion of comparison explicit(ibid.:3). In this present thesis, simileshall be considered as a separate category in order to process data in an
orderly way. Golding extensively relies in his novels, notably the most
popular one; LOTF, on the use of figurative language with its different
tools and devices. The most evident devices used by the writer, among
many others, are metaphor and simile. Concerning Allusion as a
metaphorical device, the researcher chooses to provide a separate section to
discuss and analyze it. Allusion represents a multi-facet topic; it represents
a link among different topics namely, metaphor, reference, intertextuality
and culture-specific terms. Consequently, it will be discussed within the
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textual level. Other devices are excluded from this study due to space and
time limitations, nevertheless, comments here and there are found
concerning other figures of speech according to their direct relation to
some data analyzed, namely, onomatopoeia, polysyndeton, etc. The
researcher notes that they are used extensively and, therefore, provide a
concrete base for the evaluation of the three Arabic texts.
2.1.6.1.1 Types of Metaphor
At the beginning, metaphor and simile are both comparisons; simile
uses words such as like, as while metaphor is achieved by deleting these
words, for example:
a- He is like a pig (simile)
b- He is a pig (metaphor)According to Ghazala (2006:146) metaphor has four parts (also
simile has the same parts (see Larson, 1984:247)):
1-Image (the thing really being talked about)
2- Object (What is being compared with )
3-Sense (point of similarity between both the topic and theimage)
4-Metaphor (the figurative word used in the expression)Metaphors are of different types and these types differ according to
the classifications set by the specialists. In this study Newmarksclassification, supported by additional and useful points raised by
Ghazala and Larson, will be adopted.
2.1.6.1.2 NewmarksClassification of Metaphor
Newmark (1988:106) states that whenever you meet a sentence
that is grammatical but does not appear to make sense, you have totest its apparently nonsensical element for possible metaphorical
meaning. According to Newmark, metaphors are of six types listedbelow with their corresponding translations into Arabic which are
quoted from Ghazala (2006), they are as following:,,, ,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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( (a-Dead MetaphorsNewmark (ibid.), states that a dead metaphor is where one is hardly
conscious of the image and for a large extent related to the universalterms used to describe space, time, parts of the body, ecological features
and human activities, such as field, line, top, bottom, foot, mouth, arm andmany others. Ghazala (2006:147) defines dead metaphor as a metaphorwhich is not felt by language users. They use it unconsciously as an
ordinary, direct expression, but it is not. This is the reason for calling it
dead. The following examples are from Ghazala (ibid.) and as follows: ..
( (1-hands of the clock( (2-field of knowledge
( (b- Clich MetaphorsNewmark (1988:107) states that these metaphors perhaps temporarilyoutlived their usefulness, that are used as a substitute for clear thought,
often emotively, but without corresponding to the facts of the matter.
Ghazala (2006:148) defines this type of metaphor as that kind of
metaphor that is popular and frequently used and mostly informal, for
example: ala (ibid.)......
1-at the end of the day -) (2 head over heel in love
) (c- Stock or Standard Metaphors
Newmark (1988: 108), states that it is an established metaphorwhich in an informal context is an efficient and concise method of
covering a physical and/or mental situation both referentially and
pragmatically. It has according to Newmark (ibid.) emotional
warmth and cannot be deadened by overuse.
The following examples are from Ghazala (2006:150) as follows:
)// (1-ray of hope)/ (...2- throw light on
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d- Adapted Metaphor ( ( :Newmark (1988:111) explains that this type of metaphor should be
translated by an equivalent adapted metaphor or in other cases the
translator reduces it to its sense. In this type one can see examples such
as: the ball is a little in their court, sow division; get them in th edoor. Concerning the definition of this type of metaphor, Newmark doesnot provide a definition. According to Ghazala (2006:151) those adapted
metaphors which are originally taken from English do not pose a difficult
challenge to the translator since they are retained as they are in the source
language and the same image be maintained in Arabic. The following
examples are to illustrate this kind of metaphor and as follows:
1- The ball is in their court now ) )2- To sow division between them ) / )
): (e- Recent Metaphors
According to Newmark (1988: 111), it is a metaphorical neologismoften anonymously coined, which has spread rapidly in the SL, such aspissed for drunk, groovy for good, spastic for stupid. They are,
according to Ghazala (2006:152), newly coined in both languages. Thefollowing examples are for illustration and as follows:
( // / -(1 wooden talk) / -/ (2 he is skint
:) (f- Original Metaphor
This kind of metaphor contains the core of an important writersmessage, his personality, and his comment on life (Newmark, 1988: 112).He considers such metaphors as the source of enrichment in the targetlanguage. Ghazala (2006:153) gives the following examples:
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( / / (1-A window of opportunity( (2 - The fire green as grass
g- The last type is mentioned by Ghazala (2006:151); he calls it thecultural metaphor which is culture-specific metaphor. The followingexamples are quoted in Ghazala (ibid.) as metaphors used by English
communities through their cultural experience of the cricket game andas follows:
1- To field a question ) / (2- To keep a straight bat ) /(
2.1.6.2. Simile
Simile, like metaphor, is commonly looked upon as a figure of speech,
which is employed by writers for intensifying or heightening an emotional
effect on the part of the recipient. According to Punter (2007:147), simile is
but a form of metaphor which is the simplest one by using words such as
like or as.
As such Metaphor can be seen as simile without using the words likeor as. But, according to Punter (ibid.:12), the omission of these words iswhat gives metaphor the greater power over simile because it brings the
two compared entities closer to one another which poses a kind ofchallenge to the hearer or reader to make sense of this alleged or assumed
comparison .
In Arabic, simile )( can be achieved by four lexical items,namely; "" .The following examples are from Caspari (1974:76,80,210-11) and as follows:
1- As if it were a glittering star 2- It puts forth (something) like two horns 3- They have wings like (those of) bats 4- And the ancients have cut out in the mountain (something) like steps (or
a stair) by which one can ascend
2.1.7 Text
According to Halliday and Hassan (1987:1), text can be defined in
linguistics as any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that does
form a unified whole.They (ibid.: 2) consider a text as a semantic unit i.e.
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a unit of meaning and it is related to a clause or sentence not by size butby realization, the coding of one symbolic system in another. Now it ispossible to ask the following questions; what makes related sentences a
text? The flowing of information is easy to follow? And each part of the
text is integrated with other parts of the text? The answer is simply by
using cohesive devices, which maintain the cohesion of the text.
2.1.7 .1Cohesion and Text
Cohesion according to Baker (1992:180) represents a network of lexical,
grammatical, and other relations which links between the various parts of
the text. These relations and ties help the reader to recognize the meaning
of words and expressions by the help of surrounding words and expressions
which stand as the context by which the words and expressions can acquire
their specific meaning. In this regard cohesive relations are classified byHaliday and Hasan (1976) into five main types mainly, reference, lexical
cohesion , conjunction, substitution, and ellipsis. Cohesion distinguishes
text from non-text by interrelating linguistic elements across sentences. As
far as coherence is concerned, it is distinct from cohesion but shares with it
a crucial characteristic of creating sequences of meaning that bind the text.
The differences between coherence and cohesion are summed up by Hoey
by assuming that cohesion is a property of the text while coherence is a
facet of the readers evaluation of a text. Consequently, it could be possible
to consider cohesion as objective and coherence as subjective and differsfrom one reader to another (Baker, 1992:218).
Cohesion means according to Bailey (2003:55) linking phrases together so
one can get the whole text as clear and readable.
It can be achieved by several methods, such as linking phrases and
sentences by the use of conjunctions, by the use of words such as he, they
and thatwhich refer back to something mentioned before.
According to Larson (1984:394), cohesion of the text can be achieved by
devices such as pronouns, substitute words, verb affixes, deictic, pro-
verbs, conjunctions, special particles, forms of topicalization, and so forth.
She (ibid.) sees that the best way to translate these devices is to look for theappropriate devices in the receptor language and keep away from rendering
these devices one-for-one from ST into TT, because the result almost is the
deformation of the meaning intended by the original author.
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2.1.7 .2. Ellipsis and Substitution
According to Reiss (2000:53) the most inviting openings for the critic is
the area where the translator uses arbitrary additions and omissions which
lead to incongruity between ST and TT. But this does not lead us togeneralize that every addition or omission is a mistake on the part of the
translator because in many cases these are justified due to differences
among languages which make it necessary, in some cases, to make such
changes in the TT. According to Hatim and Mason (1990:12), translation is
always a motivated choice and procedures such as omissions, additions and
alterations may only be justified in case that they preserve the intended
meaning.
Ellipsis according to Palmer (1984:38) is related to the feature of pro-
formation (the use of pronouns and similar forms that replace verbs andother parts of speech.). Ellipsis is, according to Hatim and Mason(1990:240), an omission (for reasons of economy) of linguistic items
whose sense is recoverable from context. According to Hatim and Mason
(ibid.: 94) ... the notions ellipsis and redundancy are seen to be pragmaticvariables, entirely dependent on assumptions concerning the mutual
cognitive environments of ST and TT users. The main use of such device
is not to repeat what has been already stated or said and established in the
discourse, for example,Jack and Simon pretended to notice nothing. They
walked on (Golding, 1954/1987: 26), in this example both underlinednames are replaced by one pro-form they.Quinn (1982:27) argues that ellipsis phenomenon conceived variably
according to the reader and culture What to one culture is elegant
economy, or even just normal expression, to another can be enigmatic
brevity or even perverse obscurity. And this suggests that translatorsshould take care of this aspect and try to make their translation as clear as
possible depending on the rules and conventions of the target language.
2.1.7 .2.1. Nominal Ellipsis
Ellipsis within the nominal group (noun phrase). Nominals according to
Crystal (2003) refer to words which have some of the attributes of nouns
but not all, e.g.the poor are many, where the HEAD word of this Phrase
does pluralize... (314, emphasis in the original).According to Salkie(1995:57f) one should be specific about the kind of modifier that allows
ellipsis of the rest of the noun phrase after it.Nominal phrase may start with
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an article such as the, or a word such as some, other(s), or all. After these
words an ellipsis can be done provided that the preceding text makes it
clear what is meant by the ellipted words. Ellipsis can occur after cardinal
numbers, for example;Here are thirteen cards.Take any (-)1. Now give me
any three(-). The other example of ellipsis that takes place after the ordinal
numbers, for example; Smith was the first person to leave. I was the second
(-).
Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives can have ellipsis after
them,whether they are formed by putting -er and es on the end, or by
using more and most(ibid.).
2.1.7.2.2. Verbal Ellipsis
Halliday and Hasan (1976:167) states that verbal Ellipsis means ellipsis
within the verbal group.Consequently, according to Halliday and Hasan
(ibid.) An elliptical verbal group presupposes one or more words from aprevious verbal group.the hearer or the reader resolves the meaning of theelliptical verbal group and makes the correct presupposition.
According to Salkie(1995:58), there are two basic kinds of verb ellipsis
and as follows:1- the first kind leaves out the verb and any modifiers to the right of the
verb. For example, international force was not used in the past,he agrees.
It should have been(-).
2- the second type of ellipsis, the subject and the finite verb are left out. For
example,whatAhmad is doing now?Ill tell you what he is doing now.(-)Playing football ,thats what (-). In this example it is noted that thesubject Ahmad and the finite verb is are left out before the word
playing.
2.1.7 .2.3. Clausal Ellipsis
According Halliday and Hassan (1976:211,316) clausal ellipsis is
most commonly found in question-answer sequences and WH-question.
1 (r.f.) The symbol (-) is used by the researcher to refer to the place of the elliptic elements or
substitution throughout the analysis for easiness.
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Salkie (1995:59-60) states that most of the clause is left out and all thatstays behind is a question word like whator why.The following examples are to illustrate this type of ellipsis:
a - many countries managed to make use of space technologies, we need to
know how (-).
b-Has John arrived?(-) Yes, he has.
When did John arrive?(-) yesterday.
2.1.7 .3. Substitution
Substitution is used where a speaker or writer wishes to avoid the
repetition of a lexical item or a phrase and is able to draw on one of the
grammatical resources of the language to replace the item or a group ofitems. Halliday and Hasan (1976:88) define substitution in simplest terms
as the replacement of one item by another. This device, according to Salkie
(1995:35), is a cohesive device that contributes to the cohesion of a text by
substituting for words that have already been mentioned and it includes the
use of special words such as one, do (or one of its other forms such as
does, did, done and doing ) and so.
Salkie (ibid.: 57) states that there is a similarity between ellipsis and
substitution since they both refer back to something mentioned earlier in
the text. Ellipsis is an example of substitution by zero.
Halliday and Hasan (1976) list three types of substitution namely nominal,verbal, and clausal. Examples of each are given below:
1- Which shirt do you want? - I want the red one. (Nominal)
In this example one is the substitute for the noun shirt.2- You wash the dishes. I'll do the pans. (Verbal)
In this example do is the substitute for the verb wash.3- John loves sailing. - So do I. (Clausal)
In this example so is the substitute for the clause I love sailing
2.1.7 .4.Allusion
Allusion, according to Hollander cited in Lennon (2004:4), is
etymologically related to illusion and both words are of Latin origin fromLatin ludo 'play', and the Latin rhetorical term allusio which means word-play. According to OALD (2010) allusion is what is said or written that
refers to or mentions another person or subject in an indirect way.In modern literature, allusions are one major form of intertextuality; they
are usually made to significant events, places or people who have very
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well-known qualities that the speaker or writer wishes to highlight in
his/her new text. Allusions are borrowed from history, from myth or from
any previous text for the purpose of recalling the qualities of the alluded to
text in the present moment of the speaker or writer. According to Hatim
and Mason (1990:129), each intrusion of a citation in the text is theculmination of a process in which a sign travels from one text (source) to
another (destination).Intertextuality is defined by Hatim and Mason (1990:10) as the
tendency of text producers to be influenced by other texts they have
experienced. According to them (1997:17 ), based on the basic notion,
various surface elements of a text including their underlying conceptual
meaning potential are signs and take their part in the process ofsignification. This semiotic process enables text users to identify a given
text element or sequence of elements depending on their experience and
knowledge of one or more previously encountered texts or textelements.This dependency on a prior text is usually expressed by
linguistic and/or nonlinguistic means at any level of text organization:
phonology, morphology, syntax or the entire compositional plan of the
text. As an example is the lexical item Job as in the phrase the
patience of Job. When this lexical item occurs in a text it provides a link
to the well-known story of the prophet Job and many other texts that made
use of this semiotic sign. Consequently, this helps to introduce a text that is
highly enriched with extra meanings that are mostly implied but understood
by a given linguistic community. Such lexical items are considered by
Hatim and Mason (ibid.) as sources of intertexual references and termed
them as sociocultural objects.
According to Mills (2001:73) Literary texts are, also, perhaps the mostintertextual of all texts, referring to other texts in terms of literary
allusion Based on this important role played by allusion in linking textswith other texts to provide the reader with an economic means to receive as
much knowledge as possible through few subtle allusions, the researcher
chooses this figure of speech as a good base for evaluation. Lord of the
Flies is known as an allegorical novel where mostly names, characters andthings carry symbolic references to some real and imagined referents
whether contemporary to the time when Golding wrote his novel or to
historical figures and events in the past. Consequently, the use of allusions
is designed by the writer to carry a message and provide his novel with
extra space represented in the huge amount of related knowledge those
allusions carry with them.
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2.1.8 Style
According to leech and Short (1981:10 ) there are many definitions for
the wordstyle, but, in its most general meaning, can be defined as the wayin which language is used in a given context, by a given person, for a given
purpose, and so on .Writers, it can be said, each has his own style,i.e.each has his own linguistic habits. Given this understanding, it is possible
to talk about the style of Dickens, of Faulkner and so on. Among the
numerous definitions of style the following is the Cuddons (1999:872)
definition of style and as follows:
The characteristic manner of expression in Prose or
verse; how a particular writer says things. The analysis
and assessment of style involves examination of awriter's choice of words, his figures of speech, the
devices (rhetorical and otherwise), the shape of his
sentences (whether they be loose or periodic), the shape
of his paragraphs indeed, of every conceivable aspect of
his language and the way in which he uses it.
According to the above definitions of style, it seems that style is no longer
seen as a mere dress of meaning and has nothing to do with meaning but, as
Ghazala (2006:222) states, it is considered to be as part and parcel of
meaning. These choices made by the author of the origin text would
doubtlessly suffer of some kind of change when translated into other
languages due to the linguistic and cultural differences. According to Aziz
(1990:278-81), there are two changes in the style between ST and TT. The
first change is ascribed to the nature of both languages and the second is to
the cultural frame of both linguistic communities. The first can be called
the linguistic change and the second as the cultural change.
2.1.8.1 Types of Style
According to Joose (cited in Ilyas 1989:67), style in English can be
classified into five types, namely; the frozen, the formal, the informal, the
casual, and the intimate style. Ilyas (ibid.) sees that it is not always
possible to establish a one- to- one correspondence between ST and TT due
to the situation differences. For example, a casual style in English may
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have an Arabic formal equivalent style. This is related to the cultural
differences, which may cause shifting of style from one type to another
because of these differences.
To illustrate with examples the above types of the English styles and their
Arabic translations, Ghazala (2006:224) presents a set of examples as they
are listed in table 2.1 below:
Table 2.1 English styles
style Example Frozen Be seated Formal Have a seat Informal Sit down, please Colloquial Feel at home /Vulgar or slang Sit bloody down! / Knowing the difficulty of recognizing the borders of each classification,
these five types are reduced to only two main types, namely; formal and
informal styles. Consequently, as Ghazala (ibid.) states, frozen and formal
styles would be considered as formal, whereas the other three types
namely; informal, colloquial and Vulgar (slang) would be included within
informal style classification.
On the other hand according to Ghazala (ibid.:226), Arabic has four styles
and as follows:1- Classical Arabic used in the language of the Holy Quran and Traditional
literature and can be used to translate the English frozen formal style.
2- Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) used in the formal writing of today and
can be used to translate the English formal and informal styles.
3- Colloquial Arabic used in the language of conversation and can be used
to translate the English colloquial style.
4-Vulgar or slang which is basically the street language used mixed with
unkind and bad language and can be used to translate the English vulgar or
slang language style.
These four Arabic styles can be reduced into two main familiar Arabic
styles offormal and colloquial where the first covers both classical Arabic
and MSA while the second covers both colloquial and Vulgar (or slang)
styles.
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2.1.9 Loss in Translation
According to Newmark (1988:7), translation is a craft that attempts to
replace a message in a written form by the same message in another
language. But loss of some kind of meaning is inevitable due to somefactors pertaining to each language characteristics and the nature of the
message. This loss of meaning happens when there is a kind of continuous
overtranslation by adding more details or undertranslation by increased
generalization. Translation whether process or product is done by the
translator who shoulders the burden of this process. The role of the
translator in finding equivalents is difficult but what is more difficult is to
choose the most suitable one among a wide or strict range of choices.
The loss is that the translator has to choose one of these possibilities
making it impossible to bear in mind all the others.
Bassnett (1991:30) sees that once one accepts that no sameness between
languages does exist then it is reasonable to talk about loss and gain in
translation. She (ibid.) directs the attention to the fact that as much as one is
concerned with loss in translation he should also pay attention to the gain
one could achieve from translation when it helps to clarify the SL text.
According to Aziz and Lataiwish (2000:75-77) gain and loss in
translation can be either related to signal or semantic information. For the
former the loss and gain can be on any of the three linguistic levels,
phonology, syntax or morphology. On the phonological level, whentranslation occurs among languages which have different structures of
consonant clusters there would be a loss on the cluster level. On the
morphological level, languages in general make use of some general
processes to form words .These general processes include: (a) prefixation, (b) - infixation, (c) - suffixation, (d) - conversion and , (e)-
compounding. Arabic makes use of (a, b, and c and rarely e ). English, on
the other hand, makes use of (a ,c ,d and e).The different use of word-
formation processes among languages would cause the original text to lose
some of its aesthetic effect intended by the author when he/she uses certain
form of word. With regard to signal loss and gain this can be seen in the
number system differences among languages. English and Arabic show no
oneto-one correspondence with regard to number system. The former hastwo number system, namely singular and plural while Arabic has three
number system, namely, singular, dual and plural. It is necessary according
to Aziz (1990:94) to observe this difference in number system between
English and Arabic when a translator faces sentences like the following:
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Thedogs were sleepingTheboys are playing outside.
The first thing which might occur to the mind of the translator is that dogs
and boys are plural and should be translated as such in Arabic. This might
be correct or might not .Dogs and boys in the above two examples may
refer to two or more than two. In English the plural form is used whereas
Arabic distinguishes between dual and plural. The two examples may be
translated into Arabic as follows:
This difficulty could be overcome if the context provides the necessaryinformation about the number of the referents in the text.
Another area in which loss can occur is the gender problem. According to
Aziz (1989:123), Arabic has two genders, masculine and feminine. It is
noted that correspondence between gender and sex in Arabic is almost
complete. This division into masculine and feminine in Arabic covers
inanimate things also according to their morphological markers. In Arabic
the most obvious marker is "" at the end of the feminine nouns andadjectives such as " " . Nevertheless, Arabic has some nouns which arefeminine but do not have such markers, for example, "" .English, according to Aziz (1989:120), has three genders namely,
masculine, feminine and neuter. Aziz (ibid.: 124), explains that English
shows very few nouns marked for gender, for example, god: goddess; hero:
heroine. Thus gender is more relevant to pronouns. Verbs and adjectiveshave no gender or are not involved in gender agreement ( ibid.).
In translation, if a translator faces a sentence such as the doctor came,the
translator would be uncertain about the suitable gender that should be used
in Arabic whether should it be or . This problem could
be solved only be contextual information provided by the text itself orextralinguistic information.
In fact the area of differences among languages is so vast and none can
claim the ability to cover more than the most appropriate aspects of it. Nida
(1964:156) believes that no two languages are identical whether in the
meaning related to corresponding symbols or how these symbols are
structured in phrases and sentences. This belief pushes him to deny the
existence of fully exact translations.
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As it is clear from the above discussion of Nida, what is hoped from a
translation is to achieve as close as possible version of the original. Loss
can occur in other areas where the translators are not blamed for certain
loss of the characteristics of the original text. For example, the translators
of the classical works, as Balmer (2006:185-6) explains, there is not onlyno author to ask but no author to dictate. This gap between the author andthe translator has mutually exclusive consequences. From one side, it
causes the lack of information about the author and the context in which his
work had been created and, on the other hand, it gives more freedom to the
translator to provide his own interpretation to a given text and, therefore,
loss on the part of the intended meaning of the author. Other kinds of
losses can occur in other aspects such as grammatical structures, tenses,
demonstratives..etc., which are tackled according to their relevancy and
occurrence in chapter four.
2.1.10 Context
Robison (2003:112) believes that while words and meanings are
undoubtedly important, however, their importance for the translator and
as for the most of people stems from their use in the context. This fact is
confirmed by the philosopher Wittgenstein when he states that themeaning of a word is its use in the language (Wittgenstein, qtd. In ibid.).
Context, according to Cruse (2006:34), is An essential factor in theinterpretation of utterances and expressions. The main aspects of the
context are as follows:
(1) What comes before and after a given utterance or an expression and this
is called co-text (2) the immediate situation, (3) the situation in its wideraspect which includes social and power relations, and finally; (4) shared
knowledge presumably exists between speaker and hearer.
This importance of contexts is clearly confirmed by Nida (2001:11) whobelieves that the choice of particular words and their meanings depend
basically on variety of context aspects; he mentions some of them as
follows:
other nearby words, the subject matter, the
presumed audience, and especially the meanings of
those words that so often do not mean what they
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say, for example, figurative expressions, indirect
responses, and proverbs.
He (ibid.:14) compares grasping of the appropriate meaning of a
nonlinguistic event through knowing the context of who does what, when,where, and why. For example, in order to know the different meanings of
the word run there is a need for the help of the contexts in which it occurs
: the dogs were running ) ( , the salmon are running ) ( , he is running into debt ) ( , his nose is running )( . Consequently, the senses of the wordrun vary with the diversity of
contexts and produce distinct concepts.
According to Anderman and Rogers (1999:7), Nida considers the task of
the translator as a multifaceted one in which many interacted factors affect
the translators choices. These factors are seen by Nida from a widerperspective. He sees context in terms of different syntagmatic,paradigmatic contexts within the text, text type, language variation, prior
translations, subject matter, style of the author, the publisher, the editor, the
reader and the medium of the translation. Newmark (1988:193) sees that
the meaning of words is influenced by certain linguistic, referential,
cultural and personal contexts.
With regard to the linguistic context, words may be limited in their
meanings by the constraints of collocation, the use of the word throughout
the text or its repetition for certain effects. As for the referential context,
Newmark (ibid.) believes that the topic of the text defines most of themeanings within certain limits, i.e., the topic would identify certain words
to be used within a certain semantic field. The cultural context, on the other
hand, related to ways of thinking and behaving within specific linguistic
community. Certain cultural words have no equivalent in other cultures for
example kuffiah /( ) in Arabic has its context and use whichis not the same for some other cultures. The last type of context is the
personal one which concerns the peculiar use of language by the individual
writer or speaker which forms his/her own unique idiolect. Newmark
(1991:87) sees that words are visibly and linguistically put into contextthrough the collocational relations, their grammatical functions and their
position in the word order of a sentence. Whereas invisibly and
referentially through their occurrence in a real or imagined situation, the
cultural and experiential background as well as the topic shared with the
reader.
After introducing the above main concepts that the current thesis will
analyse and evaluate according to their occurrence in the source text and
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the three Arabic translations, the following section will provide a survey on
the most well known trends in the field of translation.
2.2 Translation Studies
The study of translation history emphasizes the fact that translation is a
human activity. This activity has been going on since language began to
evolve and undoubtedly be affected by all kinds of external events and
factors that have their impact on language.
In order to provide the theoretical background for the main influential
approaches intended to theorize the translation phenomenon whether as
process or product, which translation theorists term as translating and
translationrespectively, a brief historical background of translation studieswill be provided. This background tackles the critical turning points in the
history of translation and main theories. This would be fruitful to our
subject matter without going into details as this would be the role of the
rest of this chapter.
What is today known as translation studies has occupied the scholarsminds for thousands of years and is not a recently discovered topic. Cicero,
in one century B.C., articulated a specific theory of translation when he
introduced his own translation of the speeches of the Attic orators
Aeschines and Demosthenes :
And I did not translate them as an interpreter,
but as an orator, keeping the same ideas and
forms ,or as one might say, the figures ofthought ,but in language which conforms to our
usage .And in so doing ,I did not hold it
necessary to render word for word ,but I
preserved the general style and force of the
language .
(Cicero, qtd. in Hatim and Mason, 2004:19)
In this respect it is noticed that Ciceros approach is the sense for sensetranslation rather than word for word along with other scholars like Horace,
Quintilian in the 1st
Century A.D. and St. Jerome in the 4th Century. The
reason is that they wanted to achieve the goal of introducing an
aesthetically pleasing and creative text in the TL.
Another period that witnessed a changing step in translation evolution was
marked by St .Jerome (the fourth century CE) whose approach to
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translating the Greek Septuagint Bible into Latin would present its effect
on later translations of the scriptures (Munday, 2001:7).
Newmark (1988:46f), introduces two approaches semantic and
communicative translation. Semantic translation: is personal and
individual, follows the thought processes of the author, tends to over-
translate, pursues nuances of meaning, yet aims at concision in order to
reproduce pragmatic impact. Communicative translation, on the otherhand, attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in
such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and
comprehensible to the readership.
On the other hand, the notions of formal and dynamic equivalences also
play an important part in the work of the still very influential Nida who
points out that translation is mainly to reproduce in the target language
the closest natural equivalent to the message in the source language,first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. (Nida and Taber,1969:12)
The realization that translations are never produced in a vacuum, regardless
of time and culture and the desire to explain the time- and culture-bound
criteria which are at play, results in a shift away from a normative and
prescriptive methodology towards a descriptive methodology for the study
of the subject. This tendency within translation studies becomes noticeable
from the early eighties onwards. Varieties of linguistics continue to
dominate the field in the 1990s; Linguistic-oriented theorists such as Hatim& Mason (1990), Baker (1992) and some other linguists draw on text
linguistics, discourse analysis and pragmatics to conceptualize translation
on the model of Gricean conversation.
According to the functionalist approach translation is viewed as adequate if
the translated text is appropriate for the communicative purpose defined in
the translation brief. Any translation skopos may be formulated for a
particular original and there are no limits on the translators license tomove away from the source text. However, Nord (1997:63) makes the
point that the skopos rule is a very general rule which does not account forspecific conventions prevalent in a particular culture community.Then Even-Zohar's polysystem theory which was developed in 1970s
moves the study of translation out of a static linguistic analysis of shifts
and obsession with one-to-one equivalence into an investigation of the
position of translated literature as a whole in the historical and literary
systems of the target culture (Munday, 2001:109).
Then emerged as powerful as ever in the translation studies the cultural
studies in translation. These cultural approaches superseded the linguistic
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theories of translation. They see translation as cultural transfer and
investigate the interface of translation with other growing disciplines
within cultural studies (ibid.: 163).
In her book Translation Studies: An Integrated Ap