Al-Imam Muhammed Bin Saud Islamic University
College of language & translation
English language & literature department
Translation Error Analysis
(Textual Analysis Of Complex Nominals Translation Errors In
Economic Texts)
•
Student's Name: Shoug Musaed Albugami.
•
Course Instructor: Dr. Abdelmajeed Abidi.
Table of content
Objectives of the study & hypothesis
Methodology
Results of the analysis
Analysis of Translation Errors
Conclusions and Recommendations
1.Objectives
1)
to investigate the prevalence of complex nominals in economic discourse represented
via the selected business news texts.
2) to shed some light on the most common translation errors made by 2nd year
students in the Department of Translation in rendering complex nominals into Arabic.
3) to detect the possible causes behind such translation errors and suggest some
translation tips which might sound helpful to the students of translation to find the
most suitable translation equivalent.
➢It is hypothesized that many different errors will arise as a result of translating
complex nominals as precisely as possible from English business news texts into Arabic.
2.methodology
The first part of the study is
concerned with investigating the
extent to which complex nominals
are utilized in the economic texts
under scrutiny and the various
possible categories of nominalization
involved.
The second part points out the
distribution of translation errors
made by the students in their
endeavor to render complex
nominals into arabic within the
specific categories.
2.methodology
seven economic texts collected from the 2nd year students’
examination papers have been selected. The range of the length
of the texts is between 142 to 163 words, with the total
number of words reaching 1,062. Each text has been translated
by ten students, making the total number of students 70. The
corpus consisted of 159 complex nominals divided into seven
categories depending on the number of elements in each
category. An example of each category is shown in table one:
3. Results of the analysis
• One hundred and fifty-nine occurrences of complex nominals have been detected in
the analysis of the selected economic texts. Table two shows that the number of
complex nominals occurrences recorded variation in the seven different categories.
3. Results of the
analysis
Two-term
characterized
nominals
by
is
being
highly productive and can
have
versatile
forms,
different
grammatical
combinations
as
can
shown in this table:
be
4. Analysis of Translation Errors
A careful analysis has been carried out on the seven categories of complex nominals
in the seven selected texts to arrive at the most common translation errors made
by the students. It has been found that these translation errors can be divided into
five major types:
4.1 the lexico–semantic errors
The lexico–semantic errors found in the analysis were classified into two groups
depending on the types of errors. The first group was concerned with common and
specialized vocabulary, the second with proper names.
4.1.1 Common and Specialized Vocabulary
Economic texts are characterized by utilizing common nouns in two
ways:
• Firstly, these words are used to denote common vocabulary such as (work, jobs,
prices, crisis, goods, data, services). It is expected that such words will not cause
serious problems in translation. However, many translation errors were found in
which the participant students were unable to give the correct equivalents of such
common vocabulary.
4.1.1 Common and Specialized Vocabulary
Many participant students used words with opposite meanings. Such being the case, the intended
meaning of the original word will be distorted:
4.1.1 Common and Specialized Vocabulary
Secondly, many common nouns are employed to denote specialized vocabulary which is
peculiar to economic discourse such as (recession, quarter, contraction, stagnation,
slump, inflation, interest rates, pound, package, real estate, shrinkage, boom).
Here, many difficulties are expected to be encountered by the participant students if
they were unfamiliar with such specialized vocabulary, hence, they may fail to choose
the adequate terminology or use the equivalents that go in line with the stylistic
register of the original text.
4.1.1 Common and Specialized Vocabulary
• Many translation errors listed earlier prove that the participant students were
unaware of the fact that the words which are used to denote common meanings
in everyday language will earn specialized meanings when used in technical discourse
such as the economic texts.
• Another cause for the translation errors can be attributed to the students’
ignorance of the cultural differences manifested via some economic terms.
• It is very important to determine the appropriate cultural context of the specific
economic term to arrive at the most suitable equivalent.
4.1.2 Proper Names
The analysis revealed that proper names constitute a very
essential element in many complex nominals, as they are
used to refer to names of countries, nationalities, banks,
agencies, offices or authorities, and organizations.
4.2 omission
The analysis has revealed that many students made unacceptable and unjustifiable
translation errors when resorting to omission, whether wholly or partially.
4.3 Grammatical Errors
They were divided into four sub-types:
• Number – Related Errors:
An early estimate (Text no. 1) was translated into ‫تقديرات مبكرة‬
The government’s priority (Text no. 2) was wrongly rendered as ‫أولوايت احلكومة‬
• Non– Compliance with Target Language Rules:
Seven years of economic growth (Text no. 1) was rendered as ‫س بعة س نوات من المنو الاقتصادي‬
Five years of steady growth. (Text no. 4). was translated into ‫الخمس سنوات من النمو الثابت‬
4.3 Grammatical Errors
• Case-Related Errors:
Some analysts are hoping (Text no. 4) was translated into ‫بعض احملللون‬
• Transposition:
The recession (Text no. 6). Here, a definite article is used, and it has undergone a
process of transposition by being changed into a demonstrative when translated:
‫هذا الركود‬
4.4 Misreading
4.5 Confusion
Instead of giving a single suitable translation equivalent, some students, who lacked
self-confidence, provided target text readers with alternative translation equivalents.
Conclusions and Recommendations
• The analysis carried out in the first part of the study revealed that complex
nominalization constituted a very significant phenomenon in the selected economic
texts. Complex nominals are utilized to enrich the economic texts. The study came up
with seven categories of complex nominals depending on the number of items in each
category.
• The second part was concerned with investigating the most prominent translation errors
made by the participant students in rendering those complex nominals into Arabic.
➢The researcher concluded that two factors play a vital role in the process of translating
complex nominals: their degree of complexity and how experienced the translator is.
references
Khalil, G. S. (2020). Textual Analysis of Complex Nominals
Translation Errors in Economic Texts. Journal of the College of
Education for Women, 31(3), 15-38.