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AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume3, Number3. August 2019                                    Pp. 68-81

On Translating Arabic Verbal Emphasis into English

Haitham (Mohd Khair) Ahmad ALYousef

Translation for professional department, School of Languages, Literacies and
Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Penang, Malaysia

Tengku Sepora Tengku Mahadi

Translation for professional department, School of Languages, Literacies and
Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Penang, Malaysia

Abstract:

Abstract PDF

The translators constitute facing a challenge in the translation of Arabic verbal emphasis structure. Therefore, this study investigates the translation of Arabic verbal emphasis category and its subcategories into English from semantic and pragmatic perspectives. It draws upon an examination of several translations of these emphatic devices and structures into English. Specifically, it draws upon the translations of Naguib Mahfouz’s novels The Thief and the Dogs (1961), Children of Gebalawi (1988) and the Harafish (2013) and Ghassan Kanafani’s short stories Palestine’s Children (2000). The study highlights the erroneous strategies adopted by the translators of these literary works and suggests more suitable alternative translations. As a result of several mismatches between Arabic and English leads to such errors. This study attempts to handle a gape in literature and help translators to overcome the obstacles they may face in rendering such Arabic structures in English. The article concludes that translating Arabic verbal emphatic structure into English would be affected by the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic symmetries and asymmetries between the two languages.

Cite as:

ALYousef, H. A., & Mahadi, T. S. T. (2019). On Translating Arabic Verbal Emphasis into English. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies, 3 (3) 68-81.

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Haitham ALYousef is a PhD student in School of Languages, Literacies and Translation at
Universiti Sains Malaysia. He is interested in teaching linguistic and translation courses. His
research interests in interpreting, intercultural communication, language and culture. More
specifically, his work examines linguistic aspects of translating humor. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7495-3563

Professor Dr. Tengku Sepora Tengku Mahadi is a teaching staff at MA Translation for
Professional Department in School of Languages, Literacies and Translation. Universiti Sains
Malaysia. She was the former dean for the school. Her research interests are in linguistics and
translation fields. She has many researches in the fields. ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-
3302-0078