The role of explicitation strategies in Arabic translated texts : evidence from Faulkner's 'a rose for Emily'

Other Title(s)

دور الاستراتيجية التصريحية في النصوص العربية المترجمة : دراسة قصة "وردة إلى اميلي" للكاتب وليام فولكنر

Dissertant

al-Anbaki, Nada Nizar

Thesis advisor

Jalabnah, Atif Mustafa Muflih
Khafaji, Rasul

Comitee Members

Hamdan, Jihad
Husayn, Riyad Fayiz Isa

University

Middle East University

Faculty

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of English

University Country

Jordan

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2009

English Abstract

The present study aimed at detecting, classifying and interpreting the different typologies of explicitation found in the context of Arabic translated texts as a result of different techniques and sub-techniques.

The contrastive analysis, viz.

the alignment of the two Arabic translated texts with their English source text, has resulted into detecting four main techniques of explicitation namely: (1) lexical explicitation, (2) syntactic explicitation, (3) pragmatic explicitation, and (4) textual explicitation.

Each main technique, mentioned above, is realized by sub-technique(s).

To begin with, lexical explicitation comprises four sub-techniques: (a) the lexicalization technique, (b) expansion of lexical items, (c) addition of lexical items, and (d) specification technique.

Syntactic explicitation is divided into three sub-techniques: (a) addition of linking ties, (b) expansion of phrases, and (c) spelling out implicatures.

Pragmatic explicitation is realized by spelling out culture-specific features.

Textual explicitation was counted by counting the number of orthographic words in the English source text and its two Arabic translations, as well as the Arabic source texts and their English translations, in order to test the hypothesis which states that translated text is longer than its source text.

The results of English- Arabic translations have refuted the hypothesis whereas the results of Arabic-English translation have confirmed the same hypothesis.

However, the general results of the textual and contrastive analysis in the present study revealed that English-Arabic translations exhibit instances of various types and techniques of explicitation due to the nature of the translation process itself.

Moreover, the statistics reported in the tables of data analysis showed that the two translators may sometimes differ or agree in using a given sub-technique for the same text segment.

The interpretation of results was based on the conclusion that four functions have prompted the translator(s) to use the various explicitation techniques.

These functions are: (1) avoiding ambiguity, (2) adding extra explicitness, (3) explicating logical relations, and (4) explicating language- and culture-specific features.

Each of the functions was interpreted with relation to instances of the various explicitation subtechniques which have been found in the results of data analysis mentioned above.

Main Subjects

Languages & Comparative Literature

No. of Pages

121

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-693021