Translation and Applied Linguistics

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    TRANSLATION OF RELIGIOUS INTERTEXTUALITY IN AHMED MATTER'S POETRY: OBESTACLES AND STRATEGIES
    (2022-09-19) Isra’ Omar Abdullah Fuqha
    This study has examined the problems of translation of religious intertextual references in Ahmed Matter’s poetry made by graduate students in the Translation and Applied Linguistics Programs at An-Najah National University. While translating intertextual references, translators may come across a broader range of connotations for which the process of translation would be complex and challenging. This matter requires a translator to adapt his/ her method depending on the case at hand. Against this background, this study has explored the problems the students have faced and strategies they have used to render their translations of Matter’s poetry from Arabic into English. To this end, the researcher selected excerpts from the poet’s poetry and examined some features of the selected intertextuality after translation. The researcher administered a translation test of seven poems by the poet. A random sample of 20 M.A. translation students were asked to figure out intertextuality and translate it into English. The findings of the study showed that the translators encountered several problems when rendering intertextuality. These problems were mostly related to ignorance of translation strategies, unawareness of some cultural expressions, lack of cultural awareness and linguistic proficiency, and inappropriate use of suitable lexical words. Actually, it was very difficult to maintain the poetic system which consists of harmony, verse, rhyme and rhythm. So, students were likely to face such problems while translating and loss the artistic value of the ST. Furthermore, the study revealed the students used the cultural strategy (using an equivalent in TL that has the same meaning as in SL) and functional strategy (using an equivalent in TL that can reflect the function achieved by ST expression). This accounted for 163 instances or 79.2%. Paraphrasing (putting what you have read into your own words) accounted for 80 instances or 35.1% and literal translation (a translation that follows closely the form of SL) accounted for 37 instances or 18.3% of total responses. In the light of the study findings, the researcher also recommends that graduate students to be more aware of the differences between British and Arab cultures, and to familiarize themselves with Newmark’s strategies and to possess linguistic competence. Furthermore, the researcher suggests introducing Matter’s poetry in the curricula and conducting more studies on his poetry from other perspectives. By considering the theoretical background of intertextual aspect of the translated texts, the translator is qualified to produce a translation that attracts the TT readers. He/she deals with language a “baby” that grows and develops to give linguistic structures a semantic impetus (connotative meaning rather than denotative meaning). He/she is also the one who can get out of the context and give his/her text artistic features as in Matter’s poetry. Keywords: Religious Intertextuality; Obestacles; Strategies.
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    THE TRANSLATION OF THE SAUDI CULTURAL REFERENCES IN YOUSEF AL-MOHAIMEED'S WOLVES OF THE CRESCENT MOON
    (2023-07-13) By Sana' Sameer A. Jarrar
    Cultural references are challenging when translated between two different cultures. The purpose of this thesis is to examine Anthony Calderbank's translation of Saudi cultural references in his translation of Yousef Al-Mohaimeed's novel Wolves of the Crescent Moon (2007). The cultural references are examined in relation to the foreignization strategies used in the translation of some ecological terms (fauna and flora), and terms of address. To investigate the appropriateness of Calderbank's translation, the researcher examines the extent to which the translated version retains the local color of Saudi cultural terms. The data was first collected using the source text فخاخ الرائحة (2003) along with its English translated version Wolves of the Crescent Moon (2007). The data was classified into three main categories (fauna, flora, and terms of address) based on Newmark's (1988) classification and then compared to their Target Text (TT) equivalents. Foreignization and domestication methods as defined by Venuti (1995) were applied to evaluate the translator's commitment to preserving the local color of Saudi cultural references. The findings show that the translator has foreignized most of the cultural references through the use of transliteration and literal translation by presenting the Source language (SL) cultural terms to the target readers and explaining them in more detail in the glossary at the end of the novel. The translator respectfully preserved the elements of Arabic culture so that Target Text (TT) reader could understand the culture of ST without being heavily manipulated. Overall, no obvious interference was detected, nor did the translator intentionally manipulate and try to distort the true picture of Saudi society to appeal to the Arab perceptions of Westerners. However, cultural and social losses occurred with some terms used in different contexts. Therefore, the translator should research more into these terms to reflect the exact contextual meaning of some specific Saudi terms. Keywords: Cultural references, foreignization, domestication, terms of address, componential analysis.
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    RELIGIOUS CODE SWITCHING IN ARABIC LYRICS: TYPES, FUNCTIONS AND TRANSLATION CHALLENGES
    (2023-05-14) Iba’a Tayseer Jadah
    Language as a system of customary spoken, signed, or written symbols is considered a tool through which humans express themselves as members of a social group and contributors to its culture. People who desire to contribute to cultural diversity and openness benefit from multilingualism. Code Switching (CS) and mixing are beneficial and dynamic phenomena that allow speakers to employ two languages simultaneously. When translating multilingual texts, a translator may encounter various aspects if obligated to transfer embedded foreign codes from a language other than the dominant language of the source text (ST) into the target text (TT), especially when the translator deals with a religious text. This thesis investigates how CS and translation are utilised in Arabic lyrics, highlighting some distinctions between how they are used in these songs and how they are used elsewhere. This descriptive, analytical thesis will look at a selection of songs of Sami Yusuf, Maher Zain, Raef Haggag, and Hamzah Robertson’s works. The study concludes that a deeper understanding of CS of terminology in terms of linguistic and creative features is required to translate multilingual song lyrics better. Some difficulties related to the transfer of instances of CS into the target texts are discussed in terms of the CS strategies’ typology. The strategies include the use of translation to substitute or reduplicate the source material, rewriting with varying levels of difference from the original, juxtaposing components from different languages, and composing directly in a CS variety. Keywords: Code switching, types, functions, translation challenges.
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    LINGUISTIC CHALLENGES FACING THE LOCALIZATION OF VIDEO GAMES FROM ENGLISH INTO ARABIC
    (2023-05-14) Saqer Osama Sobhi Odeh
    For more than two decades, the Arab gaming community has been growing continuously after the vast spread of technological devices. PCs, consoles (PS, Xbox, Nintendo, and so), and smartphones are mostly preferred by young Arabs due to peer pressure. The desire of Arab gamers to play more and more has made developers set up new goals to localize their English language games into many other Target Languages versions, leading to a new field in translation known as video game localization. This thesis has studied the localization of video games, and has provided a look at the Arabic translation process. In addition, it has attempted to understand how localized games are dealt with by their Arabic target audience, and what linguistic challenges they encounter. Using many examples of the community’s most popular video games, the researcher has focused on the challenges encountered during the localization process. He dwelled on discussion of linguistic challenges, the relationship between linguistic, cultural, terminological, and technical issues. Then, the researcher suggested possible solutions and better localization terms to show the gap between both the SL and the TL that localization faces, especially if it is not localized by a local translator. Keywords: Arabic; English; Linguistic Challenges; Localization; Localizer; Video Game Localization; Video Games.
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    TRANSLATION AND DELOGOCENTRISM: A STUDY OF PAUL SHAU’UL’S TRANSLATION OF SAMUEL BECKETT’S ENDGAME
    (2023-08-09) Khawla Taher Sama’neh
    This thesis scrutinizes Paul Shau’ul’s translation of Beckett’s Endgame as an act of delogocentrism that functions through instances of linguistic, mental, and corporeal decay, harnessing Derrida’s deconstruction defined in langue / parole, dissemination, supplementation, and différance and Venuti’s (in)visibility of the translator. It aims to find an answer to the non-centricity of the translation on the original text and to show that there is a solid relationship between translation and delogocentrism. The thesis adopts a descriptive analytical approach that presents the collected data in tables from Beckett’s Endgame (1957) and Paul Shau’ul’s translation (2014). The researcher compares and analyzes the chosen examples in two main sections: the first one is about the decay of language and the second is about the mental and corporeal decay. The thesis has found that because translation is a delogocentric tendency, the original (another name for the Logos) is not the centre of the translation that keeps decaying into multiple kinds of decay. It has proven, through the analysis of the chosen examples, that translation and delogocentrism are deconstructive of the Logos, in all its multiple meanings, varying from the truth, being, purity, subjectivity, speech, and meaning, as they entail dissemination, supplementation, and différance. This thesis concludes that the deconstruction of the Logos in terms of delogocentrism is intrinsic to the definition of translation and that any non-centricity of translation on the original text shall not be viewed as a problem when read through Derridean lenses. Keywords: Translation; delogocentrism; deconstruction; linguistic decay; mental and corporeal decay; Beckett’s Endgame