Phrasal verbs in sight translation: problems and solutions

Abstract EN

Phrasal verbs prevail in the everyday use of the English language.

they are highly productive and commonly used by native speakers of English.

this phenomenon runs through the English language so much so that no piece of natural spoken or written language is free of it.

due to the significant role phrasal verbs play in fortifying a text's cohesive elements, such a phenomenon requires linguistic skill to provide appropriate equivalences; otherwise, the outcome would be unnatural sounding elements.

despite their significance, these multi-word units have received painfully little attention in oral translation.

these semantic units that have been extensively investigated on a lexical or syntactic level can be problematic either at the source text comprehension stage or the target text production stage.

hence, the present paper aims at investigating the rendering of phrasal verbs in sight translation for sophomore translation students.

the study concludes that phrasal verbs can be considered a source of distraction for translation students during the process of translating because they tackle these constructions as separate words.

this rendering of SL phrasal verbs violates their very idiomatic nature and results in an inaccurate or inconvenient interpretation of the source text.

the study also concludes that some phrasal verbs encompass multiple synonyms, which entails that such constructions cannot be restricted to one type of translation procedure.

accordingly, the study recommends that translation students acquire more adaptability in selecting the appropriate translation procedure in interpreting phrasal verbs.