Limitations on two lexical translation strategies : borrowing and literal translation

الملخص EN

In many cases the translator finds himself faced with the task of having to fill the gap in the lexical system of the target culture.

To overcome this difficulty and achieve cultural transfer from the source language to the target language, he / she uses available translation strategies (e.g., substitution, literal translation, borrowing, omission, paraphrase, addition, etc.).

His / her decision to choose one rather than another of the available strategies is governed by linguistic and communicative considerations.

Since reflecting on the linguistic and communicative constraints of every translation strategy lies beyond the scope of the study, the paper intends only to investigate the linguistic and communicative constraints that govern the use of two strategies, namely borrowing and literal translation.

Examples illustrating these constraints will be drawn from different language pairs.

This will be followed by a discussion of the study implications for translator trainees