Translation Shifts Regard to Translation from English into Arabic and Vice Versa Omar Osman Jabak ‘Syed Nurulakla Syed Abdullah Rosli Talif Universiti Putra Malaysia. ABSTRACT The present study aimed at investigating translation shifts with regard 4. translation from English into Arabic or vice versa. The researchers attempted to identify the translation shifts that occur in the translation from English into Arabic or vice versa. The current research study is strictly qualitative analytical as it focuses on some selected linguistic shifts, namely word order, parts of speech, word choice, tense, number, and voice which often result when translation is carried out from Arabic into English or vice versa. Besides, the data collected for tis research are a number of Arabic and English sentences along with their suggested translations which all come from the researchers’ own observations and translations which they have carried out from English into Arabic and/or vice versa in the course of their relatively long career as both translation teachers and translators. The research data revealed that translation shifts are an important feature of any translation as they are unavoidable, especially if the source language and the target language belong to two different families such as English and Arabic. As the paper has shown, some selected linguistic shifts, namely word order, parts of speech, word choice, tense, number, and voice have ‘been duly elaborated on in an attempt to make the concept of translation Shifts more intelligible and more practical, 154som sue in Regn 0 Tranation from Engh a: translation shits, English-Arabic soa We tranlaton. Arab nly N TRODUCTION rT gna bal dina as among ra HE Practice that never ech ar perfection, contra Lo the popular saying vo atthe more ansatrs cary out translation tase the Says reveals ew tics of the rade, ne proba ples 2K oeknowledge and work, One ofthe most intriguing meee on concept which has mot, unfortunately trated enough ring sens tanslation shifts” (Catford, 196; Vinay and Darel 1955 setark 1988; Al-Zoubi and Al-Hassnawi, 2001; Hatim and Munda SR Sadeghi Ghadi, 2010; and Shit, 2012. . This concept becomes obvious when the source language and the cet language of any translation task or exercise belong to two diferent families, One typical example of this case is the language pair of English ‘nd Arabic. English, on the one hand, belongs to the Indo-European family Ambic_on the other hand, isa Semitic language. Asa result ofthis distinct disparity the linguistic systems of English and Arabic are greatly erent, justas diferent as chalk is different from cheese. This great difference tives rise to what John Catford (1965) terms as Translation Shifts which cbviously account for translators’ preference for fre translation ver literal ‘ranslation when the source language and the target language belong to wo ‘completely different families. The present research study aims at sbeding some ight on the importance of translation shifts tothe translation from English into Arabic or vice versa carried out by the researcher himself as Ivlorbens snr ace ened oe vectors Jos RROD that this study is strictly qualitative because it focuses con some selected linguistic shifts, namely word order, parts of speech ‘word choice, tenses ‘anber, and voice. Besides, the examples included ins paper ao fm the escnntere sun bservations and tansatons Which BO) Carried out from English into Arabic and/or vice ‘versa in the cous ‘heir relatively long career both as translation teachers and trans! DEFINITION AND BACKGROUND : sage ito ten tansators translate any Be text tm om ; some ey will definitely have to make MOT tanguage coriand the the choice of certain vocabulary in 155Jurnal Penterjemah o text, In fact, Vinay and Darbelnet’s (1958) sree ap aa ma aan 1965, without terming it as it came to be known later on, when hove translation scholars drew comparisons between the linguistic {ystems of English and French and suggested some translation strategies or procedures which would help the transators ofthis language par tabstate as accurately and effectively as possible. However, the term “translation shifts” was first proposed and used by John Catford in 1965. ‘There are other translation researchers who also investigated different kinds of translation shifts and strategies such as Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), Newmark (1988), Al-Zoubi and Al-Hassnawi (2001), Hatim and Munday (2004), Sadeghi Ghadi (2010) and Shih (2012). ‘These shifts are the smallest linguistic changes that result when translators translate from one language into another language (Hatim, 2001). Such linguistic changes include, but are not exclusive to, word “order, parts of speech, word choice and grammatical aspects such as tense, number, and voice. The present paper will focus only on these linguistic changes as they feature very prominently in both languages, English and ‘Arabic. To better understand the nature of these linguistic changes and how they operate, there will be some English examples with their Arabic translations, and there will also be some Arabic examples with their English translations, and these examples will hopefully cover most of the translation shifts common to English and Arabic. It is vitally important to assert the fact that translation shifts aim at reducing literal translation which obviously sounds foreign to the target language and increases the level of native-likeness of the target translation at the same time. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY To the best of the researchers" knowledge, there have been very {8 studies on the concept of translation shifts and its relationship with the Practice of translation. In the Arab world, however, there has beet ¥e) litte research on translation shifts with regard to translation from Arabic into English o vce versa. In this case, the present study’ wil, hope one of the most pioneering studies in the Arab world and will sil new insights into the importance and necessity of translation shifts Wi tegard to translation from Arabic into English or vice versa. AC the St time, the study will hopefully contribute to the area of translation ss mera tht poling th than Arb and Elan 2° ‘pared and contrasted in terms of transkation shifts, is also HOPS ter 156