scholarly journals Translating Idiomatic Expressions from English into Arabic: Difficulties and Strategies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies ◽  
Mostafa OUALIF
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Idiomatic Expressions ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Implied Meaning

An idiom is a form of speech or an expression that is peculiar to itself. Grammatically, it cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements. Culture plays an important role in the course of the idiom interpretation. Only by having a solid foundation of the culture of the target language, the translator can catch the implied meaning. It, therefore, requires enhancing cross-cultural awareness and needs open-minded understanding of the culture of the second language from different aspects. Moreover, the difference between the source language and the target language as well as variations in their cultures makes the process of translating a real challenge. The present paper tries to investigate and identify firstly some existing obstacles in the process of translating idiomatic pairs, and then suggests some theoretical strategies to overcome such difficulties. Following Baker’s (1992) classification of difficulties and strategies and the related sub-categories, the findings show that there are number of factors which should be considered in order to translate idiomatic expressions correctly. The most important of such factors include socio-linguistic elements, cultural aspects, linguistic and stylistic considerations.

scholarly journals The Challenges of Translating Idioms from Arabic into English A Closer look at Al Imam AL Mahdi University – Sudan

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Amin Ali Al Mubarak
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Idiomatic Expressions ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
Purposive Sample ◽  
Significant Factors

This particular study explores and identifies the obstacles faced in the process of translating idioms from the Arabic  into the English. In fact, one of the most challenging issues in the field of translation is the process of translating idioms from the source language into the target language with maximum success in conveying similar connotation, conceptualization, as well as shades of meaning. Therefore, in meeting the objectives outlined in this study, a purposive sample that consisted of forty students pursuing B.A. in English at the Arts College of Al Imam AL Mahdi – Sudan had been selected. Other than that, the researcher employed the descriptive approach in the study to identify and to list down the problems faced by students in applying certain strategies to translate idioms from Arabic into English. As such, a translation test was carried out as an instrument for data collection. The test was comprised of twelve Arabic proverbs based on Speake (2008) classification of Proverbs, i.e. everyday experience, traditional wisdom, and folklore, to name a few. As a result, the outcomes of the study revealed several issues that must be ironed out in order to translate idiomatic expressions appropriately and accurately. Some significant factors that had been included are cultural aspects, sociolinguistic elements, linguistic and stylistic considerations and some particular meta-lingual factors.

scholarly journals Using ’White Flags’ to categorize socio-cultural aspects in chronic pain

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Winkelmann ◽  
T U Schreiber
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Economic Problem ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Cultural Socialization ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Issue Persistent chronic pain is a major medical and health economic problem. To assess the individual pain situation, the classification of various factors (flags) has been established. Description of the problem Structural biomechanical factors are classified as “red flags”. Psychological or behavioral factors are summarized as “yellow flags”, psychiatric and mental illness as “orange flags”. Both last flags are important for planning adequate therapies or rehabilitation, as well as for decisions to prognoses and tailored reintegration programs. An extension of the flag model was achieved by naming personal factors at workplace as “blue flags”, and “black flags”, if there is a restriction for returning to work. All these groups do not consider other important reasons for unsuccessful rehabilitation or failed reintegration. Results In these cases, often described as ’therapy-refractory’, clients often exhibit a special subjective understanding of illness that reacts neither to psychological interventions nor to behavioral therapies. These include individual beliefs based, for example, on cultural socialization, religious education, or spiritual experiences. Since such individual mental illnesses are culturally ideologically or religiously justified, they should be classified in a separate group called ’white flags’. Lessons The advantages of categorizing sociocultural aspects separately from other flag classifications are avoidance of unnecessary therapies, including surgery,prevention of iatrogenisation,prevention of legal disputes. It is important to realize that only health restrictions for insurance benefits can be taken into account and that individual socio-cultural circumstances or health convictions are not evaluated. Main messages: A classification of ’white flags’ could contribute to a better classification of pain which are not accessible to various therapies and reduce reservations and misunderstandings by intercultural communication approaches. Key messages For medical professions it is important to recognize, that only health inabilities are taken into account for insurance compensation and not individual socio-cultural circumstances or health beliefs. In Future classifying ’white flags’ could help to properly assess persistent pain conditions.

scholarly journals Attitudes towards the Efficiency of English Culture Treatment at Schools: A Case of Iranian Kurdish EFL Learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 562
Author(s):  
Sahar Ahamdpour ◽  
Davud Kuhi
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
West Azerbaijan ◽  
Culture And Language ◽  
The Way

Language is used for communication and it is a carrier of culture. Culture and language are inseparable. If learners are successful in understanding and use of the target language, they need to have good knowledge of cultural aspects of the foreign language as well. Therefore it is essential to teach culture and language simultaneously. The present study aims to understand Iranian Kurdish EFL learners’ attitude towards the way culture is addressed and treated in English language course at high schools. To this end, two hundred and fifty female EFL learners were selected based on availability sampling from two high schools in Boukan, West Azerbaijan and were asked to complete the attitude questionnaire. The results indicated that Iranian Kurdish EFL learners hold negative attitudes towards the way culture is treated at English course in Iranian high schools. At the end, the paper provides some recommendations for policy makers, textbook designers, and teachers in order to foster cultural awareness in teaching and learning process.

scholarly journals Occupational structure of bearers of Jewish rabbinical, occupational and generic surnames

F1000Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 971
Author(s):  
Alexander Jonathan Vidgop ◽  
Nelly Norton ◽  
Nechama Rosenberg ◽  
Malka Haguel-Spitzberg ◽  
Itzhak Fouxon
Keyword(s):  
Confidence Interval ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Occupational Structure ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Standard Classification ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Study Choice

We study choice of profession in three groups of Russian-speaking Jewish families with different occupational distributions of the ancestors. This study continues exploration of the persistence of social status of families over centuries that was initiated in recent years. It was found previously that in some cases professions remain associated with the same surnames for many generations. Here the studied groups are defined by a class of the surname of individuals composing them. The class serves as a label that indicates a professional bias of the ancestors of the individual. One group are the bearers of the class of surnames which were used by rabbinical dynasties. The other group is constituted by occupational surnames, mostly connected to crafts. Finally, the last group are generic Jewish names defined as surnames belonging to neither of the above groups. We use the self-collected database that consists of 858 and 1057 of the first two groups, respectively, and 7471 generic Jewish surnames. The statistics of the database are those of individuals drawn at random from the considered groups. We determine shares of members of the groups working in a given type of occupations together with the confidence interval. The occupational type’s definition agrees with International Standard Classification of Occupations. It is demonstrated that there is a statistically significant difference in the occupational structure of the three groups that holds beyond the uncertainty allowed by 95% confidence interval. We quantify the difference with a numerical measure of the overlap of professional preferences of different groups. We conclude that in our study the occupational bias of different population groups is preserved at least for two centuries that passed since the considered surnames appeared.

scholarly journals Occupational structure of bearers of Jewish rabbinical, occupational and generic surnames

F1000Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 971
Author(s):  
Alexander Jonathan Vidgop ◽  
Nelly Norton ◽  
Nechama Rosenberg ◽  
Malka Haguel-Spitzberg ◽  
Itzhak Fouxon
Keyword(s):  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Social Status ◽  
The Other ◽  
Occupational Structure ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Standard Classification ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Study Choice

We study choice of profession in three groups of Russian-speaking Jewish families with different occupational distributions of the ancestors. This study continues exploration of the persistence of social status of families over centuries that was initiated in recent years. It was found previously that in some cases professions remain associated with the same surnames for many generations. Here the studied groups are defined by a class of the surname of individuals composing them. The class serves as a label that indicates a professional bias of the ancestors of the individual. One group are the bearers of the class of surnames which were used by rabbinical dynasties. The other group is constituted by occupational surnames, mostly connected to crafts. Finally, the last group are generic Jewish names defined as surnames belonging to neither of the above groups. We use the database that consists of 858 and 1057 of the first two groups, respectively, and 7471 generic Jewish surnames. The statistics of the database are those of individuals drawn at random from the considered groups. We determine shares of members of the groups working in a given type of occupations together with the confidence interval. The occupational type’s definition agrees with International Standard Classification of Occupations. It is demonstrated that there is a statistically significant difference in the occupational structure of the three groups that holds beyond the uncertainty allowed by 95% confidence interval. We quantify the difference with a numerical measure of the overlap of professional preferences of different groups. We conclude that in our study the occupational bias of different population groups is preserved at least for two centuries that passed since the considered surnames appeared.

scholarly journals Which Cultural Aspects do The Textbooks of Teaching Turkish to Foreigners Transfer?

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami BASKIN
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Cultural Aspects

Teaching a foreign language aims at not only teaching the language and language skills, but transferring the culture of the target language. The main reason for that is people learn the target language as a standby in addition to learning the language. It is important that the more individuals learn the cultural features of the country the more they understand the language better. It is an undeniable fact that language and culture are inseparable parts, so culture should be learned simultaneously while learning that language. Because of that relationship between language and culture, language teaching also means teaching culture. Foreign language textbooks reflect the characteristics of the language-speaking community and make it a cultural product of that language. This study is to identify the place and importance of the textbooks used in teaching Turkish to foreigners in the target language teaching and to research which cultural items these books convey. Thus,  A1-A2 level textbooks of the Turkish teaching set for Gazi Foreigners were selected as a sample and done document analysis to identify what these sources include in terms of "daily life, interpersonal relations, values and education, literature-arts and music, traditions and folklore, social life, geography and space, foreign (universal) cultural elements". It was observed that the elements of Turkish culture concentrated on the relation between daily life and interpersonal relations, and there was no balanced distribution among other cultural elements. Therefore, these books need to be reviewed so that they can raise cultural awareness of the students.

Engaged Study of the Qur'an: Gauging its Effect on the Life of the Individual and of Society

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-207
Author(s):  
Ruqayya Ṭā Hā Jābir al-cUlwānī
Keyword(s):  
Social Conflict ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Social Advancement ◽  
Freedom Of Thought ◽  
The Individual

An engaged and perceptive contemplation of the Qur'an forms one of the most important bases for the cultural and social advancement of Muslims in all walks of life, and the absence of such study is one of the reasons behind the general cultural attenuation in the modern world. Reflection is one of the means of the construction and formation of a civilised society. The applied faculty of intellect creates an environment which allows reflective and considered thought to be developed from a functional perspective for the general well-being of society. Meanwhile the effective neglect of such study leads to the proliferation of superstition, dissent and social conflict. Indeed it can even be argued that it diminishes the significance of the laws and conventions which serve as the backbone of society. This paper reveals a number of factors which can impede the achievement of such an engaged study of the text: thus, for instance, thoughtless obedience to societal conventions; shortcomings in educational systems and syllabi; and a failure to encompass the significance of the Arabic language. Furthermore this paper presents several effective suggestions for nurturing students' potential, encouraging an environment which allows freedom of thought, and its refinement.

Phonetic iconicity in the evaluative morphology of a sample of Indo-European, Niger-Congo and Austronesian languages

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renáta Gregová ◽  
Lívia Körtvélyessy ◽  
Július Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Three Dimensional Model ◽  
Austronesian Languages ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Phonetic Symbolism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Core Vocabulary

Universals Archive (Universal #1926) indicates a universal tendency for sound symbolism in reference to the expression of diminutives and augmentatives. The research ( Štekauer et al. 2009 ) carried out on European languages has not proved the tendency at all. Therefore, our research was extended to cover three language families – Indo-European, Niger-Congo and Austronesian. A three-step analysis examining different aspects of phonetic symbolism was carried out on a core vocabulary of 35 lexical items. A research sample was selected out of 60 languages. The evaluative markers were analyzed according to both phonetic classification of vowels and consonants and Ultan's and Niewenhuis' conclusions on the dominance of palatal and post-alveolar consonants in diminutive markers. Finally, the data obtained in our sample languages was evaluated by means of a three-dimensional model illustrating the place of articulation of the individual segments.

Empirical Study On Attributes Leading To Satisfaction Among Bank Customer

2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (7) ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
Ms.U.Sakthi Veeralakshmi ◽  
Dr.G. Venkatesan
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Behavioral Intention ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Quality Performance ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Private Banking ◽  
Service Gap

This research aims at measuring the service quality in public and private banking sector and identifying its relationship to customer satisfaction and behavioral intention. The study was conducted among 500 bank customers by using revised SERVQUAL instrument with 26 items. Behavioral intention of the customers was measured by using the behavioral intention battery. The researcher has used a seven point likert scaling to measure the expected and perceived service quality (performance) and the behavioral intention of the customer. The instrument was selected as the most reliable device to measure the difference-score conceptualization. It is used to evaluate service gap between expectation and perception of service quality. Modifications are made on the SERVQUAL instrument to make it specific to the Banking sector. Questions were added to the instrument like Seating space for waiting (Tangibility), Parking space in the Bank (Tangibility), Variety of products / schemes available (Tangibility), Banks sincere steps to handling Grievances of the customers (Responsiveness). The findings of the study revealed that the customer’s perception (performance) is lower than expectation of the service quality rendered by banks. Responsiveness and Assurance SQ dimensions were the most important dimensions in service quality scored less SQ gap. The study concluded that the individual service quality dimensions have a positive impact on Overall Satisfaction.

STRUKTUR KOMPLEKS DALAM BAHASA INDONESIA ILMIAH DAN MASALAH PENERJEMAHANNYA KE DALAM BAHASA INGGRIS

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ni Ketut Mirahayuni ◽  
Susie Chrismalia Garnida ◽  
Mateus Rudi Supsiadji
Keyword(s):  
Complex Structure ◽  
General Concept ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Complex Structures ◽  
Scientific Language ◽  
Logical Relation ◽  
Information Packaging ◽  
Weight Structure ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Target Languages

Abstract. Translating complex structures have always been a challenge for a translator since the structures can be densed with ideas and particular logical relations. The purpose of translation is reproducing texts into another language to make them available to wider readerships. Since language is not merely classification of a set of universal and general concept, that each language articulates or organizes the world differently, the concepts in one language can be radically different from another. One issue in translation is the difference among languages, that the wider gaps between the source and target languages may bring greater problems of transfer of message from the source into the target languages (Culler, 1976). Problematic factors involved in translation include meaning, style, proverbs, idioms and others. A number of translation procedures and strategies have been discussed to solve translation problems. This article presents analysis of complex structures in scientific Indonesian, the problems and effects on translation into English. The study involves data taken from two research article papers in Indonesian to be translated into English. The results of the analysis show seven (7) problems of Indonesian complex structures, whose effect on translation process can be grouped into two: complex structures related to grammar (including: complex structure with incomplete information, run-on sentences, redundancy , sentence elements with inequal semantic relation, and logical relation and choice of conjunctor) and complex structures related to information processing in discourse (including: front-weight- structure and thematic structure with changes of Theme element). Problems related to grammar may be solved with language economy and accuracy while those related to discourse may be solved with understanding information packaging patterns in the target language discourse. Keywords: scientific language, complex structures, translation

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