BEYOND WORDS Vol. 11 No.1 May 2023 Graduate School, Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya A Corpus-Based Study of Translating Idioms from English into Arabic Subtitles
Hassan Saleh Mahdi ([email protected]) English Language Centre Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
&
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4023-8219 Yousef Mohammed Sahari
([email protected]) Department of English Language The University of Bisha , Bisha, Saudi Arabia.
Article History Received: 21-02-2023 Reviewed: 22-06-2023 Accepted: 31-07-2023 Keywords:
Audio-Visual Translation;
Films; Idioms; Subtitles;
Translation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33508/bw.v11i1.4534
Abstract
Audio-Visual Translation (AVT) is considered the most dynamic form of translation. Despite the crucial role of AVT in the translation profession, the role of AVT in cultural studies has not been fully explored. The purpose of this study is to find out the most utilized strategies in translating idioms in subtitled films from English into Arabic. The corpus used for this study comprised of five American films. The scripts of the selected English movies were analyzed to detect idioms. The frequency and percentage for each strategy used in the translation of English idioms into Arabic were computed. The results of this study revealed that with a similar meaning and similar form was the most frequent strategy used by translators to translate idioms. The second strategy was similar meaning but dissimilar form. The third strategy was translation by paraphrase. The fourth strategy was translation by compensation. The strategies applied in translating verb and object idioms and similes were similar meaning and similar form strategy followed by a similar meaning but different form strategy. The paraphrase, similar meaning but different form, and similar meaning but different form strategies were used to translate compound idioms. The results also showed that prepositional phrase idioms were translated using similar meaning and similar form strategy. To translate whole clause or sentence idioms, paraphrase and compensation strategies were utilized.
Introduction The fastest-growing area of translation
studies is audio-visual translation (AVT), which is regarded as the most dynamic type of translation (Cintas & Neves, 2015). Most countries have created unique traditions in the film business. As a result, movies become an extremely effective and influential medium for disseminating concepts, principles, and knowledge (Hashish &
Hussein 2022). AVT can be used in translating different aspects of language. One of these aspects is an idiom. An idiom is defined as '' an expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts'' (Richards
& Schmidt, 2013, p. 270). For example, the meaning of each word in the idiom “spill the beans” has nothing to do with the meaning of the words in isolation. Usually, the individual meanings of its elements are different from its literal meaning. It often carries meanings which cannot be inferred from its individual components (Al-Shawi & Mahadi 2012). A translator must render the meaning of an idiom beyond the meaning of the words that constitute it. It is necessary that translator should be aware of an idioms-related meaning and the difficulties that might be encountered and the suitable strategies for translating idioms. To overcome these
difficulties, translators should know the translation strategies and select the suitable strategy when translating an idiom. One of the difficulties of translating idioms is the difference between English and Arabic.
Arabic is a semitic language which has different features from English which is an- Indo-European language.
In the literature, very few studies have examined how English movies are translated into Arabic using subtitles. Thus, this study is an attempt to address this issue by applying translation strategies in translating idioms used in American movies. The objectives of the study are:
1. To identify the strategies that Arab translators use in rendering idioms from English into Arabic in subtitling American films
2. To explore the impact of an idiom type on the use of translation strategies in translating idioms from English into Arabic.
The study was limited to analyzing the using of subtitles in translating five American movies. The American movies and Arabic subtitles were accessed and downloaded in plain text formats. Only idioms were analyzed to find out the translation strategies using subtitles.
Review of the literature Audiovisual Translation
The language portion of the video is translated through audiovisual translation (AVT). One of the most commonly utilized translation structures in the translation industry is AVT. The phrase "film translation" was the first to be used in the context of AVT (Cintas, 2003). AVT is a method of translating where audiovisual texts are transcribable between languages (Chaume, 2013). The field of language
teaching and learning has seen an improvement in the use of AVT for teaching a variety of language skills. The translation of recorded audiovisual content is what Karamitroglou (2000) characterized as audiovisual translation. In general, the terms
"screen translation" and "multimedia translation" are used interchangeably to refer to the transmission of verbal language in audiovisual media (Bollettieri, Di Giovanni,
& Rossato 2014; Perego, 2003; Chiaro, 2009).
Audiovisual translation, according to Pérez-González (2014), focused on the practices, processes, and products that are involved in or come out as a result of the transfer of multimodal content between languages and/or cultures. In addition, Chaume (2013) identified audiovisual translation as a mode of translation that falls within a particular field of study. Insofar as it had traits in common with other translation modalities, it should be supported, and viewed as it stood out from the others, it should be considered unique. Dubbing and subtitles are the main AVT genres. The most popular methods for translating audiovisual content and making it available to a wider target audience are dubbing and subtitling.
When discussing the ideal way to deliver a translated audiovisual work to the general audience, the argument between dubbing and subtitling frequently comes up because both have certain advantages and disadvantages as well as their own communities of supporters and detractors.
Subtitling according to Gottlieb (2004, p. 86) is “the rendering in a different language of verbal messages in filmic media, in the shape of one or more lines of written text, presented on the screen in synch with the original verbal message”. Dubbing is a post-production procedure in which the original audio dialogue track is swapped out for another pre-recorded audio track.
Dubbing can make watching media like movies or TV shows much more immersive than subtitles do and make foreign content more accessible to audiences who do not feel comfortable reading along with the action on screen (Chaume, 2020). The main difference between subtitling and dubbing is that
“dubbing is designed to maintain audio communication” (Fong & Au, 2009, p. 63).
To make things simpler and easier for the audience, who does not need to read any subtitles and can concentrate entirely on the action taking place on screen, the audio track in the original content is replaced with a separate audio track.
Subtitles
The process of turning spoken words in audiovisual content into written text is known as subtitling. It can be either intralingual, when the original and subtitle languages are the same, or interlingual, where the original language is translated into another language. Subtitling has been used in language learning for many years, and it has a generally good effect on a variety of language abilities. Since the 1990s, a great deal of foreign programming has been purchased in an effort to draw viewers due to the proliferation of television channels in the Arab world. The biggest barrier preventing viewers from appreciating these television shows and movies is their inability to understand a foreign language. The methods that make it easier to understand international shows and movies include dubbing and subtitles.
Subtitles are classified into two different types. First, intralingual which refers to subtitling that takes place within the same language. Second, interlingual subtitling, which translates dialogues between speakers of different languages. Cintas (2003) claimed that subtitling entails displaying written text, typically at the bottom of the screen, providing a description of the actors' dialogue and other linguistic elements that are a part of the visual image (letters, and captions), as well as the music (songs).
Compared to dubbing, subtitles have more benefits and drawbacks. Subtitling has the benefit of preserving the movies' original score for viewers. Additionally, subtitling is substantially less expensive because it
requires a lot less effort and time to complete.
Also, it can be utilized as a tool for learning languages. However, employing the subtitling approach has some disadvantages.
The first one is the maximum number of characters that can be shown on the screen during each dialogue. According to Karamitroglou (2007), subtitles are often read at a rate of 150–180 words per minute.
A whole sentence typically consists of 14–16 words, so a subtitled sentence must stay on the screen for at least 5.5 seconds for the viewers to read it. Since they require viewers to focus on both the printed words and the images on the screen, subtitles can also cause viewers to become distracted.
Subtitling constrains
The linguistic and technological limitations of subtitles make them different from other translations, such the translation of books. In other words, subtitlers must pay attention to the limitations given by space and time in order to develop effective communication. According to Gottlieb (2001), there are four different ways that subtitles can communicate the meaning and content of the original text. The first is the visual-auditory channel, which includes speech, background voices, and lyrics. The second is the non-verbal-auditory channel, which includes things like sound effects, music, and background noise. The third one is verbal-visual channel which includes apply to titles and written signs on the screen.
The final channel is non-verbal visual, which includes picture composition and flow.
Therefore, in order to create a successful and useful subtitle during the subtitling process, subtitlers must be aware of all these channels.
Kruger (2008) pointed out that the very technical aspects of subtitling make it different from other professions that involve talents such as translation, editing, or interpreting. In terms of text analysis, subject
knowledge, language, awareness of context, quality control, and other areas, subtitlers must possess all the necessary skills as well as the ability to use those skills within very strict time and space constraints while abiding by established conventions of quantity and form. It takes a lot of time to learn and use these skills.
The space and time restrictions present subtitlers with additional technical difficulties when translating the source text.
According to some AVT experts, including Delabastita (1989) and Schwarz (2002), subtitlers must contend with three technological limitations: the screen's spatial parameter, the number of provided lines, and the maximum number of characters per line.
These restrictions present challenging hurdles for subtitlers who must cut down on word count while also avoiding extraneous semantic burden to satisfy the aforementioned requirements. This somewhat affects how subtitlers deal with linguistic aspects because the meaning in audiovisual materials can be communicated through numerous channels, such as audio, movement, nonverbal gesture, etc. Idiomatic expressions may be used in scenes along with gestures, movements, or strong emotions. In such cases subtitlers may opt for certain strategies as he/ she may believe the scene shown in the screen will give the audience an idea about the content and there is no need to translated idioms faithfully in the subtitled version as the meaning is conveyed through other audio and visual component. Another factor is the language register used in Arabic subtitling which is Modern Standard Arabic (MSA): a prestigious, formal, and high register of language, which is used in educational contexts, news, media, legal system etc. In other words, the shift from the spoken slangy and informal register of English words to a written, formal, and high
register, which in turn push subtitlers to translate idioms by formal words. That means, some idiomatic expressions may have an equivalent in Arabic slang register, but due to the use of MSA in Arabic subtitles, subtitlers need to use only formal and high register words to comply with the linguistic norms of Arabic subtitles.
Studies in the Arabic context
Several studies have been done in the Arabic context to find out the impact of AVT on translating culturally specific literature from English to Arabic. For instance, Homeidi (2004) investigated the challenges faced by translators while transcribing culturally specific terms and idioms related to samples from Arabic and English. He concluded that the compensation strategy was the best method for accurately translating culturally specific terms.
Balfaqeeh (2009) also examined the strategies utilized to translate culturally specific Arabic idioms from English.
According to the study's findings, Arab learners favor the domesticated translation strategy. Additionally, Izwaini and Al-Omar (2019) analyzed a corpus of 20 films to investigate the trends in translating coherent devices while subtitling English-speaking films into Arabic. In the English originals, substitution and ellipsis were utilized as counterparts to repetition stands, which made explicitation the primary strategy for interpreting such ties in the Arabic subtitles.
Additionally, Alsharhan (2020) investigated how Arabic subtitles used in Netflix that contained taboo language. They determined whether they deviated from any standard practices for translating taboo expressions from English into Arabic, such as euphemism and omission techniques. Debbas and Haider (2020) explored the cultural restrictions when using the Arabic subtitles for the American cartoon series Family Guy. The
findings indicated that scene deletion, word omission, and word omission with reasons were the translation strategies employed for religious utterances. Both word deletion and euphemistic language were employed as translation techniques for taboos. Al-Zgoul and Al-Salman (2022) also examined the strategies employed in Arabic swear word translation. The study's corpus included Arabic and English fansubs for the Bad Boys films. According to the research, omission was the most common strategy, followed by transposition, explicitation, calques, loanwords, lexical invention, and compensation.
Additionally, Rouabhia, Rabahi, and Öztürk (2022) investigated how domestication and foreignization strategies were used in the audio-visual translation of National Geographic channel documentaries into Arabic. Using a descriptive qualitative method, it also intended to uncover the extent to which these strategies were employed, and which strategy was used more frequently.
The study's findings showed that translators frequently mixed domestication and foreignization strategies and purposefully switched between them. Whether the translator domesticated everything that was alien and unusual to maintain his cultural and social identity, or whether he accepted the other and celebrated his foreignness, determined the best course of action.
Alnusairat and Jaganathan (2022) also explored the translation strategies and approaches applied in the Arabic subtitling of English comedy. The results showed that global jokes could be translated into many languages with ease, but linguistic and cultural jokes were more challenging because of linguistic and cultural nuances.
According to the results of this study, formal translation is the most often used strategy for subtitling from English into Arabic. In
addition to formal translation, a functional strategy was frequently employed. Hashish and Hussein (2022) looked at how fansubbers and professional subtitlers differ when it comes to the strategies, they employed to subtitle these terms. The study's findings revealed that when subtitling slang terms, both professional subtitlers and fansubbers encountered numerous difficulties and adopted various strategies.
The difficulties stemmed from the use of slang and phrases of a cultural nature that were new to the majority of subtitlers.
Paraphrase, euphemism, omission, and calque were the strategies that professional subtitlers and fansubbers utilized the most frequently. This study concluded that omission, paraphrasing, euphemism, transposition, substitution, explicitation, calques, loanwords, lexical invention, and compensation were the most often utilized strategies in translation idioms and other culturally specific phrases. The domestication translation strategy is also used in some cases.
Types of Idioms
Idiomaticity is seen as a universal characteristic of all languages, and understanding it is essential to learning and mastering any language. Idiomatic expressions are extremely complicated in terms of semantics, syntax, and pragmatics, which makes learning and translating them quite difficult (Aldahesh, 2013). McCarthy&
O’Dell, (2002) categorized English idioms into seven types. First type is verb + object (and/or adverbial). For example, kill two birds with one stone. Second type is prepositional phrase (e.g., in the blink of an eye). Third type is a compound such as “a bone on contention”. Fourth type is a simile such as dry as a bone. Fifth, binominal such as rough and ready. Sixth, tri-nominal (word, word, and word) such as cool, calm, and
collected. Seventh, whole clause or sentence such as to cut a long story short.
Translation strategies
The term "translation strategy" has several definitions. Translation strategy is "a potentially conscious procedure for the solution of a problem with which an individual is faced when translating a text segment from one language into another”
(Lörscher, 1991, p.76). Thus, it can be assumed that some translation strategies may be applied unintentionally while being translated. The perception of the translated text will be significantly impacted by the strategies utilized, regardless of whether they are used consciously or unintentionally.
Many academics in the subject of translation studies have offered different categories for translation strategies, including Newmark (1988). The strategies suggested by Baker (1992) were deemed to be successful in this study and appropriate for its nature after completing a pilot study. There are six strategies for translating idioms. Below is a discussion about them.
(a) Employing an idiom with a similar meaning and similar form
This strategy entails utilizing an idiom in the target language that has essentially the same meaning as the idiom in the source language and also contains lexical components that are analogous. This kind of match can only occasionally be achieved. For instance, Kids life has been completely turned around. In this example, on its head can be translated into بقع ىلع اسأر
(b) Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form
The idiom from the source text is changed into one from the target text using this technique, which has a similar meaning but different lexical components. This strategy requires a bilingual idiom dictionary. For example, the idiom in the
sentence “How nice to remember your palmy days?" can be translated as "ءاخرلا مايأ".
(c) Borrowing the source language idiom When dealing with items that are culturally specific, loan words are frequently used as a strategy. However, in other circumstances, idioms are rarely borrowed in their original form.
(d) Translation by paraphrase
Translation by paraphrasing involves giving additional information about the idiom. When there is no target idiom that is equivalent, this strategy is used. By looking up an idiom's definition in a monolingual dictionary and utilizing the definition as the idiom translation, translators who want to utilize this strategy can save time. The idiom
“To live from hand to mouth” can be translated into Arabic as فافكلا ةايح شيعي.
(e) Translation by omission
This strategy is useful when the target text does not contain an exact match. When an idiom is hard to be translated by some other strategies like paraphrase or when employing it altogether would be inappropriate stylistically, this strategy is employed. The sentence “If it's all the same to you, I'd rather take my chances in open space" can be translated into Arabic as لضفا ءاضفلا يف همادختسا. The idiom “it's all the same to you” is deleted in the Arabic translation.
(f) Translation by compensation
By using this strategy, one can minimize an idiom, where it appears in the source text and insert it later in the target text. A translator's last resort when an idiom cannot be translated into the target text is to substitute another idiom for it in order to keep the stylistic effect of the idiom usage in the source text. Additionally, Larson (1984)
stated that there will often be terms in the source which are not idioms but are best translated with an idiom in order to maintain the manner of the original language.
Difficulties in Translation of Idioms Idiomatic translation is one of the most challenging tasks for translators. It is not necessary to render out grammatical and lexical components from one language into another. It requires rejecting the fundamental linguistic components of the original language text. Idiom translation from a source language into a target language is extremely difficult and challenging due to the complexity of idioms (Manipuspika &
Winzami, 2021). The main challenges a translator has while interpreting idiomatic idioms were specified by Baker (1992, p. 71).
Among these difficulties are: (A) A fixed expression or an idiom may not have a translation in the target language. (b) A fixed expression or an idiom may have a similar equivalent in the target language, but it may be used in a different context, or both expressions may have a different meaning.
(c) The original material may employ an idiom both literally and idiomatically. (d) Idiom usage in written discourse can follow the same convention, however the situations in which they are employed and how frequently they are used may vary between the source and target languages.
Research Questions:
RQ1: What strategies do professional translators use in rendering idioms from English into Arabic in subtitling American films?
RQ2. Does idiom type impact on the use of translation strategies in the handling of idioms in Arabic translation?
Methodology The purpose of the study is to explore
the type of strategies applied as well as to
find the most utilized strategy in translating idioms in subtitles films from English into
Arabic. The theoretical framework of this study is based on Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) (Toury, 2012) which enables the researcher to identify the ways that idioms are transferred into Arabic in a parallel corpus of five films and their Arabic subtitles across five different genres. To identify the subtitling strategies used, this study adopts the classification of translation strategies proposed by Baker (1992).
Additionally, this study involves descriptive-
comparative research in which the translations of the source text's idioms are contrasted with their source text counterparts (Williams & Chesterman, 2002).
Corpus of the Study
The corpus of this study entailed of the transcriptions of five American films. In this study, five films were selected. Table 1 shows these films with some details about them.
Table 1.
Films included in this study
Film Year Director(s) Genre Number of Awards and
Nominations The Italian Job 2003 F. Gary Gray Action, Crime,
Thriller
8 wins and 7 nominations The Hangover 2009 Todd Phillips Comedy 13 wins and 25 nominations Bridesmaids 2011 Paul Feig Comedy, Romance 25 wins and 71 nominations The Departed 2006 Martin
Scorsese
Crime, Drama, Thriller
98 wins and 139 nominations Get Out 2017 Jordan Peele Horror, Mystery,
Thriller
148 wins and 194 nominations As shown in Table 1, these films
represented different genres (i.e., action, crime, thriller, comedy, romance, drama, horror, and mystery). These films won a number of awards and nominations.
Procedures
The selected English movie scripts were initially examined to look for idioms in order to get the data. The idioms were identified in this step using Spears, (2005), and the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. The Arabic translations of the English phrases in these movies were then found and written down. After that, the Arabic translations of the English idioms were compared to see which translation techniques, according to Baker (1992) strategies, were applied. Finally, all the
information gathered is recorded together with the strategies employed in the Arabic translations of English idioms. The frequency and percentage distributions for each strategy were computed in order to analyze the data.
Due to its ability to read Arabic script correctly and show Arabic texts in the proper right-to-left direction, Sketch Engine software was selected as the corpus-analysis tool. Its objective is to enable people with an interest in language behavior, such as lexicographers, corpus linguistics researchers, translators, or language learners, to conduct sophisticated and linguistically motivated searches across enormous text databases. One of the main components that gave origin to the name "Sketch Engine" is
the word sketches, which are one-page, automatically created summaries of a word's grammatical and collocational behavior (Kilgarriff, 2014). In order to verify the accuracy of our selection of translation strategies, two assistant professors
specialized in translation studies have reviewed the selection of idioms, its types and the translation strategies identified by the researchers. In addition, the films were watched repeatedly to ensure that each idiom in the five films are included in the analysis.
Data analysis
The data were analyzed based on the strategies and types of idioms. The selected idioms were categorized according to their types. Then each idiom was labeled with the strategy used in translating it. Then, the umber and percentage of each type and each strategy were calculated. To answer the second research question, a Cross tab
analysis was performed. A cross-tabulation is a two- (or more) dimensional table that counts the quantity of items (i.e., their frequency) that satisfy the conditions given in the table's cells. Cross-tabulation tables contain a wealth of information on the relationships between the categories. The analysis was performed by sing SPSS (v.23).
Results In the original English version of the films, we identified a total of 85 idioms.
Using McCarthy& O’Dell, (2002), these
idioms were classified into six groups. The number of idioms in each film is presented in Table 2.
Table 2
Idioms in the films
Film Film type Idioms count Percentage
The Italian Job Action, Crime, Thriller 59 69.4
The Departed Crime, Drama, Thriller 10 11.8
GET OUT Horror, Mystery, Thriller 7 8.2
The Hangover Comedy 5 5.9
Bridesmaids Comedy, Romance 4 4.7
Total 85 100.0
Table 2 shows that most of the idioms were found in The Italian Job film which represents action, crime, and thriller type with 59 idioms (69.4%) followed by The Departed film that represents crime, drama, and thriller type with 10 idioms (11.8%). The Hangover and Bridesmaids contained few idioms (5 and 4 respectively).
Strategies used in translating idioms
The idioms in the films were analyzed and scrutinized one by one through the lines of the script of the movies (the source text).
These idioms were categorized according to the strategies used in translating them. Table 3 shows the number and percentage of each strategy.
Table 3.
Strategies used in translation
Strategy N Percentage
Using an idiom of similar meaning and similar form 46 54.1 Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form 19 22.4
Translation by paraphrase 13 15.3
Translation by compensation 7 8.2
Total 85 100%
Table 3 and figure 1 show the strategies applied by the translators to translate these films. Using an idiom of similar meaning and similar form was the highest strategy used by translators with 46 idioms (54.1%). The second strategy was using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form with 19 idioms (22.4%). The third strategy used was
translation by paraphrase with 13 idioms (15.3%). Translation by compensation was used in translating 7 idioms (8.2%). There was no example of idioms translated by using borrowing and omission strategies.
Figure 1. Strategies used in translation These strategies are presented here in detail with examples from the films used in this study.
Using an idiom of similar meaning and similar form
0 10 20 30 40 50
Using an idiom of similar meaning and
form
Using an idiom of similar meaning but
dissimilar form
Translation by paraphrase
Translation by compensation
number
Table 4.
Examples of idioms translated with similar meaning and form
English Arabic Idiom type
Moment of truth. .ةقيقحلا ةظحل اهنإ compound
He's in denial. ةقيقحلا ركني هنإ Prepositional phrase
We're on your side. كبناج ىلإ نحن Prepositional phrase Jesus, he's like a gremlin. بيرغ قولخمك هنإ ،يهلإ اي simile
It's like a fucking hedge maze out here. !ةهاتمب هبشأ ناكملا اذه simile
Don't break my heart. .يبلق مطحت لا Verb and object (and/or adverbial) As shown in Table 4, English idioms were translated into Arabic using similar meaning and similar form. For example, “Don't break my heart” was translated as يبلق مطحت لا. This strategy was used in four types of idioms, compound, prepositional phrase, verb and object (and/or adverbial), and simile.
Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form As shown in Table 5, English idioms were
translated into Arabic using similar meaning and dissimilar form. For example, “Take it easy.” was translated as one word “أدها”.
Also, the idiom “A little walking around
money.” was translated as “عضاوتملا غلبملا”.
This strategy was used in three types of idioms, compound, verb and object (and/or adverbial), and simile.
Table 5
Examples of idioms translated with similar meaning and dissimilar form
English Arabic Idiom type
A little "walking around" money. .عضاوتملا غلبملا اذه كيلإ compound I feel like a sore thumb out here. .انه ًامامت بيرغ يننأب رعشأ simile You smell like pine needles, and you
have a face like sunshine.
ربونصلا ةحئار كنم حوفت عشم كهجوو
simile
Take it easy. أدها Verb and object (and/or
adverbial)
Take your best shot. .كعسوب ام لعفا Verb and object (and/or adverbial)
Translation by compensation
As shown in Table 6, English idioms were translated into Arabic using compensation strategy.
For example, “Piece of shit.” was translated as one word “ ًاقحس”. There is no equivalent to this idiom in Arabic, therefore, the translator used the word ًاقحس to compensate this idiom. Also, the sentence “What are you into?” was translated as “؟طّروتم تنأ َمب”. This strategy was used in two types of idioms, compound, verb and object (and/or adverbial).
Table 6
Examples of idioms translated with compensation
English Arabic Type of idiom
Piece of shit. ًاقحس compound
You got bits and pieces going on.
تامسلا نم ديدعلا كيدل ةديجلا
compound
What are you into? ؟ط ّروتم تنأ َمب Verb and object (and/or adverbial)
Translation by paraphrase
As shown in Table 7, English idioms were translated into Arabic using paraphrase strategy.
For example, “old school.” was translated using paraphrase “ةميدقلا بيلاسلأا”. Literal translation of “old school” can be ةميدق ةسردمwhich is not acceptable in this example. Also, the idiom Table 7. Examples of idioms translated with paraphrase
English Arabic Idiom type
Your dad was old school. .ةميدقلا بيلاسلأا لّضفي كدلاو ناك compound She developed a method, and I'm
telling you, it works like a charm.
.ًادج ةلاعف اهنأ كل دكؤأو ،ًةقيرط تر ّوط دقل simile
It's going to turn around. ،ماري ام ىلع روملأا ريستس Verb and object No, I don't mean to get on my high
horse, but I'm telling ya, I do not like the deer.
لا ،نكلو ،ًافرجعتم نوكأ نأ دصقأ لا ،لا
،نلازغلا بحأ
whole
“get on my high horse” was translated as “ ًافرجعتم”. Literal translation of “get on my high horse”
can be يلاعلا يناصح ىلع دعصا which has no sense. This strategy was used in four types of idioms, compound, verb, and object (and/or adverbial), simile, and a whole sentence.
RQ2. Does idiom type impact on the use of translation strategies in the handling of idioms in Arabic translation?
Table 8 shows that the majority of idioms used in these films were verb and object (40%), and similes (32.9%) followed by compound idioms were 20%. Prepositional phrase and whole clause or sentence were few (4.7% and 2.4% respectively).
Table 8.
Type of idioms
Type of idioms N Percent
Verb and object (and/or adverbial) 34 40.0
Simile 28 32.9
Compound 17 20.0
Prepositional phrase 4 4.7
Whole clause or sentence 2 2.4
Total 85 100.0
Figure 2. Type of idioms used in the films To find the impact of idiom type on translation strategy, a crosstab test was performed. The results are shown in Table 9 showing that 21simile idioms were translated by using the strategy of similar meaning and similar form. Also, 15 verb and object idioms were translated by using this strategy. Only
six compound idioms were translated by using this strategy. Also, four prepositional phrase idioms were translated by this strategy. The whole close or sentence type was not translated by using similar meaning and similar form strategy.
Table 9
The impact of idiom type on translation strategy Similar
meaning and form
Similar meaning and dissimilar form
Paraphrase Compensation Total
Compound 6 4 5 2 17
Prepositional phrase 4 0 0 0 4
Simile 21 5 2 0 28
Verb and object 15 10 5 4 34
Whole clause/sentence 0 0 1 1 2
Total 46 19 13 7 85
Regarding the similar meaning but dissimilar form strategy, 10 verb object idioms were translated by using this strategy.
In addition to that, five similes and four compound idioms were translated by using this strategy. This strategy was not used to translate prepositional phrases and the whole close or sentence. The paraphrase strategy was used in translating five compounds, and
five verb object idioms. It was used in translating two similes and one whole close or sentence idiom. This strategy was not used to translate propositional phrases. The compensation strategy was used in translating four verb object idioms, two compound idioms and one whole, close or sentence idiom
.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Verb and object (and/or adverbial)
Simile Compound Prepositional phrase
Whole clause or sentence
Number
Discussion The first research question is about the
strategies that professional translators use in rendering idioms from English into Arabic in subtitling American films. The study follows the classification proposed by Baker (1992).
In this classification, six strategies are used to translate idioms. The result of this study reveals that using an idiom of similar meaning and similar form is the highest strategy used by translators followed by using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form. The third strategy used is translation by paraphrase followed by translation by compensation. The borrowing and omission strategies are not used in translating the idioms in these films. The finding of this study is in line with Homeidi (2004) who concludes that the most favorable strategy for accurate translation of cultural-bound expressions is the compensation strategy. The finding of this study is similar to Hashish, and Hussein (2022). They find that paraphrase is one of the most frequent strategies used in translating slang expressions. The findings of this study are in contrast to some other studies. For example, Balfaqeeh (2009) concludes that the domestication translation strategy is preferred by Arab students. Also, Alsharhan (2020) finds that euphemism and omission strategies are used to translate taboo expressions. Also, Debbas, and Haider (2020) conclude that euphemistic expressions and word omission are the two
strategies followed in translating taboos.
Similarly, Al-Zgoul, and Al-Salman (2022) find that the most dominant strategies used in translating swear words are omission, followed by transposition, explicitation, calques, loanwords, lexical creation, and compensation.
The second research question is about the impact of idiom type on the selection of translation strategies. The results indicate that many similes are translated using similar meaning and similar form, followed by similar meaning and dissimilar form.
Paraphrase strategy is used rarely to translate similes. Similarly, verb and object idioms are translated using similar meaning and similar form, followed by similar meaning and dissimilar form. Paraphrase and compensation strategies are used in translating few idioms of this type.
Compound idioms are to some extent equally translated by using similar meaning and form, similar meaning and dissimilar form, and paraphrase. Compensation strategy is used rarely to translate compound idioms.
The results also show that prepositional phrase idioms are translated by using only one strategy (i.e., similar meaning and similar form strategy). Whole clause or sentence idioms are translated by using paraphrase and compensation strategies. In sum, no strategy can be described as an ideal strategy for translating certain type of idioms.
Conclusion The current study intends to investigate
the strategies used by Arabic-to-English translators when subtitling American movies. It also tries to investigate how the type of idiom affects the application of translation strategies. The findings of this study show that the most common strategy
employed by translators is the adoption of an idiom with a similar meaning and form, followed by an idiom with a similar meaning but dissimilar form. Translation by paraphrase is the third strategy, which is then followed by translation by compensation.
The findings also show that numerous verb
and object idioms and similes are translated using similar meaning and form strategy, then similar meaning and different form strategy. Compound idioms can be roughly translated into English utilizing paraphrasing, similar meaning and similar form, and similar meaning but different form.
Additionally, the findings demonstrate that prepositional phrase idioms are translated using a similar meaning and similar form strategy. The use of paraphrase and compensation strategies are used to translate whole clause or sentence idioms.
Limitations and suggestions for future research It is essential to note that the study has
some limitations. The first one is limited number of films. It would better if a large number of films were included to be able draw generalization about the findings.
Second, the relationship between the type of film (e.g., comedy, action, romance, etc.) and the use of idioms was not examined. There may be a difference in the number and type of idioms used in each genre. Future studies may consider the genre of films in their analysis. Also, we suggest that future studies can compare the use of subtitles in different modes. For example, talk shows and documentaries can be compared to find out
the impact of these modes on subtitles. Also, studying idioms on multimodal corpora of films could be another important dimension to consider. One area for further research is to evaluate the quality of subtitlers’
translation of idioms into Arabic as this topic has not be investigated yet in Arabic context.
Also, a comparison between official DVDs subtitles and fansbus in terms of translation of idioms may yield interesting findings.
Furthermore, investigating the perception of two different versions of subtitles such as official DVDs and fansubs versions in terms of idioms translations is one of the neglected issues in English-Arabic subtitles.
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