This document discusses various translation problems that can arise when translating between languages. It outlines linguistic problems such as differences in lexicon, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics. Lexical gaps are described, where a word may exist in one language but not have an equivalent in the other language. Examples of lexical gaps in cultural terms and terms derived from different morphological processes are provided. The document also notes that some lexical gaps involve an absence of a corresponding verb structure between languages.

1. Translation problems

2. • Translation problems can be divided into
linguistic problems and culture problems.
• The linguistic problems include lexicon,
morphology, syntax, textual differences,
and pragmatic factors.

3. Problems at word level
• Lexical gaps
Normally, languages have words to describe
certain people or things.
For example, to describe someone who lost a
father or mother, we use
Orphan ‫يتيم‬
Widow ‫أرملة‬
Widower ‫أرمل‬

4. When it comes to translation,
we often encounter
crosslinguistic lexical gaps.
These are words that exist in
the source language but have
no equivalents in the target
language.

5. Example
• ‫السبوع‬
• refers to a traditional ceremony that
many Arab families hold seven days
after the birth of a baby. There is no
such celebration in English-speaking
cultures; therefore, ‫السبوع‬ is considered
a lexical gap that is difficult to translate.

6. • Crosslinguistic lexical gaps can be found
in all culturally biased semantic fields—
including terms of address, such as ‫حاج‬
,
which literally means someone who
performed the Muslim pilgrimage to
Mecca; religious practices, such as ‫سحور‬
,the predawn meal in Ramadan; and
culture-specific material products,
including food items and articles of
clothing.

7. A few such terms have developed
equivalents that can be found even
in English–English dictionaries.
These are either transliterated
borrowings, such as jihad and
sheikh, or standardized
counterparts, such as Qur’anic
verse for ‫آية‬ and The Night of
Power for ‫ليلة‬
‫القدر‬

8. Lexical gaps are by no means
limited to culture-specific
concepts. In fact, most of them
are the result of word-formation
processes that work differently
in Arabic and English.

9. • Here is a case in point: The adjective
‫علمي‬scientific, which is derived from the
noun ‫علم‬science, feeds into a derivational
process that generates the noun ‫علمية‬in
(1). English has similar morphological
derivations, but there is no word for
scientificness or scientificity; hence the
lexical gap.

10. Example
• These religious ideologies did not
associate themselves with science or
claim to be scientific.

11. Absence of verbal equivalence
• ‫يستحيل‬ be impossible
• ‫يبعد‬ be far
• There is no verb structure in English for these
two verbs.

12. Translate:
•
‫يستحيل‬
‫بع‬ ‫على‬ ‫أو‬ ‫قريب‬ ‫مكان‬ ‫في‬ ‫كانوا‬ ‫إذا‬ ‫ما‬ ‫معرفة‬
‫مئات‬ ‫د‬
‫الكيلومترات‬
.
•
‫في‬ ‫وخاصة‬ ،‫ذهب‬ ‫موريتانيا‬ ‫في‬ ‫هناك‬
‫منجم‬
«
‫تازيازت‬
»
‫يبعد‬ ‫الذي‬
350
‫عن‬ ‫كلم‬
‫شماال‬ ‫العاصمة‬
.
• It is impossible to tell whether they are
nearby or hundreds of kilometers away.
• There is gold in Mauritania, especially in
the Tazyazit Mine 350 kilometers north of
the capital.

13. ‫تفادي‬ ،‫تفاديا‬
• Translate the following:
•
‫أمر‬
‫الشيخ‬
‫زايد‬
‫المهندس‬
‫المشرف‬
‫على‬
‫تنفيذ‬
‫أحد‬
‫المش‬
‫اريع‬
‫الرئيسية‬
‫في‬
‫مدينة‬
‫أبو‬
‫ظبي‬
‫بأن‬
‫يغير‬
‫مسار‬
‫الشارع‬
‫تفاديا‬
‫لقطع‬
‫الشجرة‬
.
• Sheikh Zayed ordered the engineer in
charge of a major project in Abu Dhabi to
reroute the street to avoid cutting down the
tree.

14. ‫تعذر‬
• Translate into English
•
‫المنشود‬ ‫هدفها‬ ‫تحقيق‬ ‫عليها‬ ‫تعذر‬
.

15. Next class
• False equivalents