1) strategies that involve a strict notion of literality:
Borrowing:
is to take a word directly from another language; (known also as: loan words, transference; transcription,
transliteration). We borrow the names of people, objects, and places.
They were fishing in Gold Stream. ‫كانوا يصطادون في نهر جولد ستريم‬
This strategy can also be used with culture-specific words (e.g. zakah).
Calque:
is the literal translation of a common collocation:
to shed light ‫ ; يسلط الضوء‬football ‫ ; كرة القدم‬secondary school ‫المدرسة الثانوية‬
These expressions were not part of Arabic decades ago. They were introduced to our language through
translation.
2) strategies that involve some change / alteration in grammatical category or clause status: transposition, verbalization, nominalization,
Transposition:
Verbalization:
is changing the grammatical category of a linguistic element: i.e., verb
This a special type of transpositional changes where nouns or any other
for noun, noun for preposition, verb for adverb, singular to plural :
linguistic element is changed into a verb:
information: ‫معلومات‬, go home, beautifully landed, no smoking.
We rarely go to the movies. ... ‫يندر أن‬
Nominalization:
This a special type of transpositional changes where verbs or any other
linguistic element is changed into a noun:
He published… ‫قام بنشر‬
3) strategies that involve some kind of addition: notes, compensation, descriptive equivalence, amplification, componential analysis.
Compensation:
is to introduce an additional element in the target text to make up for some kind of meaning loss, e.g., ‫ سعدنا بلقائكم‬We are happy to meet you, sir. The translator added
the word “sir” to convey the sense of formality communicated by the ST form “using the plural form to address a person of a higher status like a king.”
Amplification (distribution of meaning, expansion):
is to introduce details for the sake of clarifying a SL
term e.g.,
The giant pandas are related to the bears.
.‫حيوانات الباندا العمالقة تنتمي إلى فصيلة الدببة‬
Componential analysis:
is splitting up of a lexical unit into its sense
components; to describe something in terms of its
physical features. Sow: ‫أنثى الخنزير‬
A skiff ‫قارب صغير له مجدافان‬
Naturalization: (addition-based naturalization)
Is when you add words to make the style natural.
4) strategies which involve some kind of deletion: omission, reduction, implicitation (gender),
Omission:
Reduction:
Is deleting some ST elements in the translation. Any omission may or
is giving up redundant words, e.g., when two words have the same
may not be justified, depending on the purpose it would serve.
meaning: the development and growth of plants. It is the opposite of
amplification.
Explicitation: (addition-based explicitation)
Is when you add words in order to
Notes:
Notes are additional information in a translation.
They can appear in the form of footnotes, endnotes,
or in-text notes.
Implicitation: (deletion-based implicitation)
is to allow the situation to indicate information that is explicit in the ST.
This is the opposite of explicitation.
5) strategies which involve some kind of substitution: modulation, cultural or functional equivalence, paraphrase, antonymic translation, generalization, particularization, substitution, explicitation and implicitation
Modulation:
Cultural equivalent, Adaptation, or Functional equivalent:
Established equivalence, Recognized translation:
is to change the point of view, focus, or cognitive category in relation to ST: e.g.
means replacing a cultural word in the SL with a TL one: baccalaureat (Fr) into A
occurs when the translator uses the official or the
You are going to have a child, instead of, You are going to be a father.
Level (Eng). O’Jesus: ‫ ياهلل‬However, they are not accurate. Usually used in general
generally accepted translation of any institutional
She lived with her step mother and two step sisters. ......... ‫ كانت تعيش مع زوجة أبيها و‬texts, publicity, propaganda, brief explanations to readers who are ignorant of the term: e.g. names of countries: Algiers, kuwait
The white house said today…. ‫و قالت اإلدارة األمريكية اليوم‬
relevant SL culture.
Antonymic translation:
Substitution:
is describing the situation by the target language from the contrary angle. It can be done through antonyms or by changing the negation modality of the sentence: She
Is to replace an ST element with a TL one which
is not unworthy of your attention. In the English sentence we deal with double negation, or understatement, which, according to logic rules, means the positive.
may or may not be similar in nature.
Through understatement, English-speaking people avoid expressing their ideas in too a categoric tone.
Pay attention ‫يعره اهتماما‬
Explicitation:
Implicitation:
Generalization:
Particularization or specification:
is to introduce information from the ST that is implicit from
is to allow the situation to indicate
is to use a more general or neutral term. This
is to use a more precise or concrete term. For example, the word
the context or the situation, e.g., to make explicit the
information that is explicit in the
happens when we translate a ST hyponym for
‫ صهر‬in Arabic means ‫؛‬husband of one’s daughter, son-in-law;
patient’s gender when translating his patient into Arabic.
ST. This is the opposite of
which there is no equivalent TL hyponym.
husband of one’s sister, brother-in-law.
Another instance of explicitation is when pronouns are
explicitation
The paddock ‫ تربع ; الحقل‬sat;
.‫ اغسلي شعرك‬Shampoo your hair.
changed into nouns.
Without a penny ‫دون أي نقود‬