Arabic translations of english non-finite clauses in Hemingway's "the old man and the sea" : a reading into four translations of the novel

Abstract EN

A non-finite clause is one kind of subordinate clauses whose meaning is not complete unless it is attached to a main clause.

The appearance and the meaning of non-finite clauses are very ample and diverse.

That is why the translation of non-finite clauses can, to some extent, be problematic if the translator fails to grasp their meanings.

In this study, the translation of non-finite clauses (which include infinitival, gerundial and the past and present participial clauses) into Arabic will be studied.

The primary source is Hemingway's novel "The Old Man and the Sea" which has been translated into Arabic many times.

A comparative study between four translations of the novel is conducted to find out what different translation strategies can be used to translate non-finite clauses from English into Arabic and what the most common translations are.

Results showed that English non-finite clauses can be translated into Arabic in various ways and that the choice of one specific way is determined by the neighboring structure that the translator has chosen to use.

This multiplicity of workable translation choices introduces Arabic as a pretty flexible language in regard to the translation of English non-finite clauses.

Nominal, verbal and prepositional clauses as well as verbal nouns are the translators' tools to translate English non-finite clauses into Arabic.

Despite the variety of choices at the hands of the translators, some of them appeared sometimes helpless and failed to provide a translation of non-finite clauses.

They skipped translating some of the non-finite clauses not because of a failure in Arabic language to find equivalents to such clauses but it is because of their inability to comprehend them.