http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2323-3176
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ABSTRACT
This study investigates the use of conjunctive markers in translated Arabic texts against the background of corpus-based research on the recurrent features of translated language. Quantitative corpus-linguistic methods were used to investigate a comparable corpus of translated and non-translated Arabic that includes two registers, namely creative fictional narratives and legal writing. The aim of the analysis was to determine whether the independent variables of corpus and register have any significant main or interaction effects on the frequency of a set of conjunctive markers. The findings are interpreted within the framework of four features identified as characteristic of translated language, namely explicitation, normalisation, levelling out, and cross-linguistic influence. The findings confirm that there are differences between conjunction use in translated and non-translated Arabic, providing some support for features such as cross-linguistic influence, explicitation and normalisation, but also indicate that these effects are strongly conditioned by register.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Ibrahim Alasmri is a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University, and a lecturer in the Faculty of Languages and Translation at King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia. His current research interests lie primarily in the area of descriptive and corpus-based translation studies.
Haidee Kruger is a senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University. She also holds an appointment as extraordinary professor at the North-West University in South Africa. Her current research interests include language variation and change under conditions of language contact, quantitative corpus linguistics, and process-oriented studies of mediated language production and reception, including translation and editing.
ORCID
Ibrahim Alasmri http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2323-3176
Haidee Kruger http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5721-0733
Notes
* This article is based on a thesis entitled ‘Conjunction in translation from English to Arabic: A corpus-based study”, submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Research (Translation Studies) at Macquarie University.
1 Given the contention surrounding the term ‘universals’ (Mauranen & Kujamäki, Citation2004), we use the term ‘recurrent features’.
2 It should be noted that simplification has also been proposed as a recurrent feature of translated language. It refers to ‘translators’ tendency to simplify the language or message or both’ (Baker, Citation1996, p. 183). It is evident in, for example, the use of shorter sentences, a more restricted vocabulary, and/or a smaller number of content words in translated language. However, the relationship between simplification and conjunction use is less transparent than is the case for the other features of translated language, and for this reason simplification is not investigated in this study.
3 See Alasmri (Citation2016) for full details of the texts included in the corpus.
4 It should be noted that the conjunction ف fa, ‘and, then’ was the second most frequent conjunction, with 17,517 occurrences. ف fa ‘and, then’ has a very similar function to wa ‘and’. It was, however, very difficult to analyse, since the letter sequence occurs frequently at the beginning of many words, necessitating time-consuming manual analysis. For these reasons, this conjunction was excluded from the study.
5 For all examples, the corpus (OR = Non-translated, TR = Translated) and register (Narrative, Legal) and corpus text number are provided.