Translating Media Text ....

Sudan University of Science and Technology
College of Graduate Studies
College of Languages
Translating Media Text: Problems and Solutions

(A Case study of Sudan University of Science and
Technology- MA Translation Students , College of Languages)
‫انمشاكم وانحهول‬: ‫ترجمة اننص االعالمي‬

‫ جامعة انسودان نهعهوو‬، ‫(دراسة حانة ندارسي ماجستير انترجمة‬
) ‫وانتكنونوجيا – كهية انهغات‬
A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the

Requirements of Ph.D
Submitted by: Supervised by:
Murtada Muhammad Alamin Prof.: Mahmoud Ali Ahmed
2022
The Opening Quranic Verse
‫تسى اهلل انشحًٍ انشحيى‬
‫ﭧﭐﭨﭐ‬
‫ﲗ‬ ‫ﲖ‬ ‫ﱡﭐ ﲏ ﲐ ﲑ ﲒ ﲓ ﲔ ﲕ‬
‫ﲘ ﲙﲚﲛﲜﲝﱠ‬
‫صدق اهلل العظيم‬
)22( ‫سورة الروم اآلية‬
In the Name of Allah
The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful
And among his signs is the creation of the heavens and

the earth, and the difference of your languages and
colours, verily
, in that are indeed signs for men of sound knowledge.
Quran :(Ar-Rum: Aya No.22)
I
Dedication
To my family, wife and daughters..
II
Acknowledgements
- Great thanks to Almighty Allah
- My sincere acknowledgements and appreciation are to:
- Sudan University of science and Technology, College of Languages for

giving me this opportunity to prepare this study
- My Supervisor Prof. Mahmoud Ali Ahmed for his great efforts,
Support and assistance in this study
- All who helped me with references,books, and other materials which

helped me in this study
III
Abstract
The study aims to investigate the difficulties that meet the students of MA
translation at Sudan University for Sciences and Technology, in translating
the Media text ,and suggests procedures by providing empirical evidence
then proposing suitable ways to deal and to cope with the journalese
language which the student will find in British newspapers consequently to
achieve through familiarity with this sort of writing. The study follows the
quantitative and qualitative researches, Data have been collected and
described .The researcher has adopted the descriptive and analytical method.
In the light of the final findings ,the researcher found that the wrong lexical
choice can be problematic to translation of recent journalese jargon into
Arabic, also wrong sentence structure building .It is found that sufficient
journalistic background is significant in translation of Media Texts into
Arabic.The researcher recommended that to increase students practical
competence in rendering or translating the cultural gap must be reduced by
means of including texts known to have thateffect as literature ,and must
carefully selected material can have a positive effect on the students overall
understanding of the language. Tutors should see to include teaching or
learning material from external sources to open the eyes of their students to
the outside world, this should be taken mainly from newspapers and live
media.
IV
‫مستخلص البحث‬
‫ذٓذف انذساسح نهرحمك يٍ انصعٕتاخ انري ذٕاجّ طالب ياجسريشانرشجًح تجايعح انسٕداٌ‬
‫نهعهٕو ٔانركُٕنٕجيا ٔذمرشح تعط االجشاءاخ ٔانطشق انرجشيثيح انًُاسثح نرساعذ طالب‬
‫ياجسريش انرشجًح ٔانًرشجًيٍ عايح نهرعايم تايجاتيح يع نغح انصحافح في انصحف انثشيطاَيح‬
‫ٔااليشيكيح ٔدنك نيسٓم عهيٓى انرعايم يع ْزا انُٕع يٍ انكراتح‪.‬‬
‫اذخزخ انذساسح انثحٕز انكًيح ٔانكيفيح إًَرجا نٓا نجًع انًعهٕياخ ٔٔصفٓا ‪ٔ .‬اَرٓج‬
‫انثاحس انًُٓج انٕصفي انرحهيهي في ْزِ انذساسح‪ .‬عهٗ ظٕء انُرائج ‪ٔ ,‬جذ انثاحس اٌ‬
‫االخرياس انخاطٗء نهًفشداخ ٔذشكية انجًم يٍ انًشاكم انري ذٕاجّ طالب انرشجًح في‬
‫ذشجًح انُصٕص انصحفيح يٍ انهغح االَجهيضيح انٗ انهغح انعشتيح‪ٔ .‬لذ اشاس انثاحس الًْيح‬
‫انخهفيح االعالييح ٔاالنًاو تهغح انصحافح نهًرشجى نرشجًح انُصٕص االعالييح يٍ انهغح‬
‫االَجهيضيح انٗ انهغح انعشتيح‪.‬كًا أصد انذساسح تانرذسية انجيذ نهًرشجى نرمهيم انفجٕج انصمافيح‬
‫تيٍ انهغريٍ انعشتيح ٔاالَجهيضيح عُذ عًهيح انرشجًح‪.‬كًا أصد انذساسح تاخرياس يٕاد يؤششج‬
‫ٔيفيذج نفٓى انهغريٍ انعشتيح ٔاالَجهيضيح‪ٔ .‬أصد كزنك ترٕفيش يٕاد يٍ يصادس خاسجيح‬
‫ٔعانًيح كانصحف ٔاالعالو انًسًٕع ٔانًشئي يٍ لثم االساذزج ٔرنك نرشليح االداء في‬
‫ذشجًح انُصٕص االعالييح ٔانصحفيح‪.‬‬
‫‪V‬‬
Table of Contents
Contents Page No
Opening Quranic Verse I
Dedication II
Acknowledgement III
Abstract IV
Abstract(Arabic version) V
Table of Contents VI
Table of Abbreviations VIII
Chapter One
Introduction
1.0 Background 1
1.1 Statement of the problem 5
1.2 Research Objectives 5
1.3 Research Questions 6
1.4 Research Hypotheses 6
1.5 Significance of the Problem 6
1.6 Methodology 7
Chapter Two:
Literature Review (part one)
2.0 Introduction 9
2.1 General Linguistic Theory 9
2.2 Media translation 10
2.3Exoticism 24
2.4 From interlinear to free translation 37
2.5 Equivalence and Translation Loss 39
2.6 Cultural Transplantation 48
2.7 Cultural Borrowing 49
2.8 Features of Newspapers and Language Style 49
2.9 Today‘s Journalistic Style 55
2.10 Naming and Reference 63
VI
Part Two: Literature Review
First Study: Translating Historical and Religious Text 70
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3. 0 Introduction 75
3.1 Study population and sample 75
3.2 Research Design 75
3.3 Tools and sample of the study 75
2. 4 Tutors Questionnaire 79
3.5 procedures of distributing and collecting the questionnaire 79
3-6 Validity and Reliability 80
3-7 Validity of the Study 80
3.8 The questionnaire‘s referees and their jobs and places of 81
work
3.9 Application of the Study‘s Tool 84
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Analysis of the Experiment. 86
4.2 Analysis of the Questionnaire 91
4.3 Analyzing the Questionnaire 93
CHAPTER FIVE
FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS, CONCLUSION AND
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES
5.0 Introduction 123
5.1 Summary and results 123
5.2 Recommendations 124
5.3 suggestions for further studies 125
References 126
Appendices
VII
Table of Abbreviations
AVT Audiovisual Translation

TT Target Text
ST Source Text
TL Target Language
SL Source Language
SLT Source Language Translation
TLT Target Language Translation
VIII
Chapter One
Introduction
IX
Chapter One
Introduction
1.0 Background
The field of media has continued assumed so progressively an important
status in the realm of translation. The media has, in fact, been called the
―fourth estate‖. Media can reach a large audience, and the speed in which a
message reaches as wide an audience as possible is one of the main values
that govern journalistic practice. In today‘s world the question of speed has
become even more vital due to the fact of breaking news round the clock.
Recently research in mass media has grown so extensively. In the first
instance, it was the print media which supplied the basis for critical
analysis. Some studies examined the language of the press (e.g. Lüger 1995,
Montgomery 2007), highlighting specific lexical, syntactic and stylistic
features. Comparative studies revealed differences in the language in quality
papers compared to the broadsheets, linking these differences to the specific
readership expectations (e.g. Kress and Trew 1978). In this respect, aspects
such as the truth of reporting and journalists‘ ethics were addressed. Another
area of interest was the analysis of ideology as reflected in the media and in
textual structures. For example, van Dijk.
(1985, 1988, 1991) and Fairclough (1995a, 1995b) showed how dominant
elite ideologies were reproduced in the media and how ideologies could be
revealed by examining language features used in texts (such as passive
sentences). This was illustrated with reference to racism in the British press
(van Dijk 1991, also Hodge and Kress 1993). In his analysis of text
processing in news production, van Dijk (1988, 114ff) lists five central
operations: selection, reproduction, summarization, local transformation
1
(addition, deletion, permutation, substitution), and stylistic and rhetorical
formulation. These procedures are similar to the recontextualization
strategies addition, deletion, rearrangement and substitution identified by
Blackledge (2005), and they can equally be used for describing news
production across linguistic boundaries, as will be shown below.
The analysis of print media has also been complemented by studies of audio-
visual media, such as radio and television, showing how verbal and non-
verbal messages combine to transmit a message and influence the audience.
Close-ups of a speaker, a voice from the off, the seating arrangement in
interviews and talk-shows, etc. can all be meaningful and fulfill certain
functions. Most recently, attention has been given to the ―new media‖,
especially the Internet. Analyses here, too, are of a structural nature,
examining the amount of information, the positioning of information, and
the combination of verbal and non-verbal elements in the multimodal
discourse (Kress and van Leeuwen 2001). Other aspects that have been
addressed concern accessibility of information on the Internet, the use and/or
control of languages, and legal aspects.
Bednarek (2006, 11f.) lists eight major analytic approaches to the language
of news discourse: the critical approach, the narrative/pragmatic/stylistic
approach, the corpus-linguistic approach, the practice-focused approach, the
diachronic approach, the socio-linguistic approach, the cognitive approach,
the conversationalist approach. Fetzer and Lauerbach‘s volume (2007)
includes a comparative analysis across language boundaries, focusing on the
realization of specific discursive features in languages. However, the role of
translation is not addressed in depth in all this research, and often not
mentioned at all.
2
The media report on a variety of topics, and we find a number of different
genres represented in the print media, including genres such as obituaries,
sports reports, advertisements, horoscopes, and weather forecasts. A large
number of texts, however, are related to political topics. These texts are
normally placed on the first pages of quality newspapers, with leaders
(editorials) and comments being typical genres of print media which have a
particular role to play. These genres do not simply report on political events
in a neutral way, but they provide evaluations and thus can have an impact
on public opinion about politics and also on policy making. There are a
number of cases where the publication of a text in a broadsheet, often as the
result of investigative journalism, has made a politician resign – the
Watergate affair being a case in point, and the recent exposure of British
MPs‘ expenses claims in 2009 being another such example.
To become efficient in media translation one has to be an excellent reader of
all that is published by media and ardent TV audience. Media has a special
vocabulary or genre over which a translator should have a very strong grasp.
Journalistic jargon is a specialized shared vocabulary adopted by journalists.
However they become familiar with the jargon they used to the extreme end
which makes it difficult to understand their writings.
The problems and difficulties of the aforesaid usage arises during achieving
the process of translation, particularly when rendering English headlines and
news into Arabic language, In dealing with journalistic jargon definition of
translation and style must be considered: Translation is studied as a linguistic
phenomenon; a process of meaning transfer via linguistic trans-coding; this
process has recently received some attention in the news with controversies
over the translation of the Bin Laden tapes by CNN, Aljazeera and other
outfits. These controversies have highlighted an inconspicuous problem of
3
translation –mediated communication and critical importance of accuracy
and precision of translated messages, especially in times of crisis and global
instability, in this regard due to increasing role of the need for translation in
all over the globe, Duff quoted in Rojo (2009:28) claims that ‗translators will
always be needed. Without them, there would be no summit talks…..‟ this
reflects the importance of the translation and translator, also The great
German genius Johann Wolfgang (1749-1832) has asserted their point of
view about the significant role of the translator as he states that ‗The
translator must act as a mediator in this commerce of mind, making it his
business to further this intellectual exchange‟. Also, Nida and Taber
(1969:12) confined translation process regarding the style of writing in the
source language „Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor
language the closet neutral equivalent of the source language message,
firstly, in terms of meaning and secondly, in terms of style.‘Also Nida and
Taber confirm the conception of style while performing the translation
process, as they state that ‟translation is a transfer of meaning message, and
style from one SLT to the TLT.‘The French theorist, Dubois (1974:3) has
pursued the same line of the emphasis on meaning and style in his definition
of translation ‗Translation is the expression in another language (the target
language) of what has been expressed in another, (source language)
preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences‟.‗On the other hand, style is
the main factor besides the propositional content that modifies the audiences‘
reactions. Many linguists claim that there are two types of styles regarding
newspapers writings: 1-Literary Style 2-Functional Style. The journalistic
style comes under the second category. This study will focus on the
journalistic jargon due to its great influence on newspapers style which
4
consequently affects the translation of English headlines and news into
Arabic language. Usage of journalistic jargon in writing headlines and news i
n British newspapers are quite confusing for student‘s translation, because
everything is written in such a colloquial style, and a lot of slang expressions
are used, which cause ambiguity that results in the presence of two or more
meanings in an utterance due to the different possibilities of lexical,
grammatical, and pragmatic interpretation.
1.1 Statement of the Problem
The problematic aspect to be dealt with in the present research is so strongly linked
with the presence or absence of equivalents. Translating Arabic media texts into
English or vice versa call for exceptionally greater skills on the part of the
practitioner. Moreover, due to the ongoing process of globalization each time new
words are invented and ones which have become obsolete were unearthed which
necessitates special attention on the art of translators and students of translation.
Such new words are associated with conflicts. The difficulties arise mainly from
the type of style and jargon used by native pressmen. This style is quite confusing
for students‘ translation, because the headlines and news are handled in obscure
colloquial style regarding jargon, which causes ambiguity that results in the
presence of two or more meanings in an utterance due to different possibilities of
lexical, grammatical, and pragmatic interpretation.
1. 2 Research Objectives
The present research sets out to examine a set of objectives in journalistic style to
help students of translation deal with these terms properly:
(i) Certain journalistic jargon sometimes can be problematic at rendering in Arabic
(ii) MA students of translation experience special difficulty when set about
translating terms taken from media.
5
(iii) Exploring journalistic jargon in particular with the aim of identifying the
hurdles it constitutes for the students of translation and would-be translators.
1.3 Research Questions
(i). To what extent can MA students of translation deal effectively with the type of
vocabulary relating to new developments in the field of media?
(ii) What kind of hurdles does journalistic style pose to MA students of translation?
(iii) To what extents are the hurdles of journalistic jargon can be dealt with
successfully?
1.4 Research Hypotheses
(i) MA students of translation cannot deal effectively with the type of vocabulary
relating to new developments in media genre.
(ii) Journalistic jargon poses certain hurdles for the MA students of translation.
(iii) The hurdles of journalistic jargon can be dealt with successfully.
1.5 Significance of the Problem
The research aims to highlight the difficulties that will meet students of translation
and suggests procedures by providing empirical evidence, then proposing suitable
ways to deal , and to cope with this sort of language which the student will find in
British newspapers, consequently to achieve through familiarity with this sort of
writing, The ability to read and understand the British and American press in
relation to new developments across the globe particularly the field of technology
and warfare.
This research also will help the student to deal with the linguistic and cultural
difficulties of British newspapers, and to explore those intricate points and suggests
a way of addressing them through a syllabus deliberately intended to focus on the
problematic area.
Finally, the findings of the study are hoped to be of value to the students of
translation and those who are involved in translation and interpretation regarding
6
the press. It is also expected that the study will draw the attention of other
researchers to conduct further research into this area. Foreign and political
correspondents can benefit from the study as well.
1.6 Methodology
This is both quantitative and qualitative research. Data has to be collected
described and analyzed. The researcher will adopt the descriptive analytical
method to carry out this study. Concerning the tools for data collecting, a test of
different sentences from the most prominent UK newspapers to be taken directly
from the Internet. Almost all British daily have an online issue which will make the
collection of data a simple affair after obtaining a copyright which will be directed
to (70) M.A students from the Sudan University of Science and Technology.
Students will be asked to translate from Arabic into English and vise versa.
Another tool that will be used is a questionnaire for (30) teachers/translators at
Sudan University of Science and Technology, Omdurman Islamic University and
Nileen University.The tests and the questionnaire will be scientifically analyzed by
(SPSS) using percentages and mean to convey the statistical information.
7
Chapter Two
Literature Review
8
Chapter Two
Literature Review
2.0 Introduction
This chapter reviews relevant literature on the issue of media translation and
and other related topics with some emphasis on the nature of the new
developments across the globe particularly in technology. Important findings
and arguments from opponents and proponents of an English-only teaching
method will be discussed. The chapter is divided into two parts, the first one is
on the theoretical framework, and the other is on previous studies.
Part one: Theoretical framework
2.1 General Linguistic Theory
Translation is an operation performed on languages: a process of substituting
a text in one language for a text in another. General linguistics is, primarily,
a theory about how languages work. It provides categories, drawn from
generalizations based on observation of languages and language events.
These categories can, in turn, be used in the description of any particular
language.
Our starting-point is a consideration of how language is related to the human
social situation in which it operates. Language is a type of patterned human
behavior it is a way, perhaps the most important way, in which human being
interact in social situations. The specific type of behavior in which language
is manifested not only identifies the behavior as language behavior but also
defines the medium which the performer is using.
In order to account for language-events we make abstractions from these events
: abstraction of various types, or at a series of levels . We distinguish, first, the
levels of medium – substance (phonic, substance, for the spoken medium, and
graphic substance for the written medium), and situation (or situation
9
substance). The internal levels of language are those of medium form –
phonology and graphology arrived at by a process of abstraction from phonic
and graphic substance, and the differently abstracted, levels, which Halliday
call the ―formal levels‖ – grammar and lexis. The relationship between (the
units of) grammar lexis and situation (substance) is that of contextual meaning,
or context.
2.2 Media translation
One of the main themes handled by press is issues relating to conflicts,
demonstrations, warfare and technology. In any analysis of news text at the
discourse analytical level it is important to connect media with notion of
linguistic style. Linguistic style is a concept that attempts to account for
variations in the lexical and syntactic structures of texts. (John E. Richardson
2007:95), as Jucker (1992 ;) defines style as:
“comparative concept that it describes some relevant
differences between a text or discourse and some other texts
or discourses, it generally applies in to instances of real
language, language that has been produced by speakers with
their beliefs, aims and goals in specific situations and in
particular physical, social and temporal environments.”
According to (VanDijk,1988:27) stylistic variation is by no means free or
arbitrary, but rather should be regarded as a contingent part of the role that
the context plays in the formation of text and the talk Therefore the language
that the journalists use to address the audiences tells you something about
the identities of both journalists and assumed audiences. Style may be
chatty or more formal, or more colloquial; it may use specialist terms slang
or tabloids-words as (bonk) (stunna) or (rap) meaning ‗criminal charges,‘ that
10
you rarely see outside of the newspapers. However, two very important
points also need to be borne in mind. First
'media institution typically do have explicit polices on at
least some aspects of language use, so when analysts
look for ideological effects resulting from lexical and
syntactic patterning in news discourse, it needs to be
acknowledged that some textual regularities may be
outcomes of explicit style rules rather than implicit
assumptions about the matter in hands'
(Cameron,1996:315-316).
This means when any journalist repeatedly uses a particular term or phrase,
it reflects the policy of newspaper they work for rather than the (political,
ideological) assumptions of the individual concerned. Second this does not
mean that stylistic choice is empty of ideological importance. Cameron
(1996) points out:.
Style polices are ideological themselves. Though they
are framed as purely functional or aesthetic judgements,
and the commonest criteria offered are 'apolitical' ones
such as clarity, brevity, consistency, liveliness and
vigour‟ it turns out that „ these stylistic values are not
timeless and neutral, but have a history and a politics.
They play a role in constructing a relationship with a
specific imagined audience, and also in sustaining a
particular ideology of news reporting.
Lynch (2003:122) has gone beyond the fact that style is related only to
writing as he describes some journalists practices and news writing
regarding using special kind of journalistic style to denote implicit meaning:
11
„Other issues were simply were simply stylistic, things, like „running for
cover‟ was changed to „dashing for cover‟, because „running for cover‟
implies cowardice‟.
Barry Baddock (1988:12) explains the journalistic style ‗jargon‘ which has
been used in press particularly in writing headlines and news, as he puts that:
‗English newspaper headlines are governed by linguistic rules of their own.
The language is elliptical and compressed, yet it is quite different from other
condensed codes such as ‗telegramese.‘ And often the fractured grammar
and idiosyncratic vocabulary of English headlines will challenge the
understanding even of native speakers. But these ‗problems‘ are often, in
themselves stimulating challenges to nonnative speakers.‘ Also he has
distinguished the newspaper writing from other written forms: „It is
important to realize that there are lexical, structural and stylistic differences
between headlines and other written forms.‟
The notion of using the journalistic style in writing headlines and news is the
most problematic area for student‘s translation, Geoffrey Land(1988:3)
describes journalistic style ‗jargon‘ by these words (very heavy going,
unclear, colloquial, puzzling) in his book (what the papers say) :
‗Student- wanting to read the language that he is learning-goes along to the
news-stand and buys whatever he can find there; it may be a copy of THE
TIMES, or THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, or perhaps a
weekly like TIME or NEWSWEEK. It doesn‘t really matter it is up-to date
or not. But what a disappointment! He finds it very heavy going, and
doesn’t really understand much. It is not just a question of the vocabulary,
because he has his faithful friend- his pocket dictionary- to hand, but the
style of writing seems so very different from anything he has met so far in
his English studies.
12
Perhaps he should have bought something less serious than THE TIMES,
after all, he isn‘t used to reading such intellectual papers even in his own
language. So the next time he buys a copy of the DAILY MIRROR. Oh
dear- that is even worse! Everything is written in such a colloquial style, and
a lot of slang expressions are used that he has never seen before.The
headlines are particularly puzzling, not only in the DAILY MIRROR but in
allother papers too.‘ Take these examples: ‗‘WALES WHEAT WOES‘ turns
to be (a story about the poor harvest in Wels), another puzzling example
‗CHEAP CHANNEL CHARTERS CHANGE CHARHES‘, which means (
something about reduce fares for charter flights. And another challenging
example ‗GISCARD MUM ON CONCORD‘, as the reader discovers that
the headline does not mean that (the French President‘s mother has flown to
States, but that M. Giscard d‘ Estaing has refused to make any comment on a
proposed trade agreement, he is quite discouraged. Also he considers the
writing style of headlines and news is very difficult due to its specific
strategies and techniques as the information packed sentence that uses
lexical strategies as(deletion , predication, referential…),syntax and
transitivity(modality, transitivity….) in addition to rhetorical tropes
as(metaphor, metonym, hyperbole…) or other techniques. So Gooffrey Land
(P:3) illustrates the example below which explains the news writing packed
style:
‗Another hurdle for the newcomer to the press to overcome is the
information packed sentence‟.
2.2.1 Elements of a News Article
Pape and Featherstone, (2005:14) assert that news article is an article
published in a print or internet news medium such as a newspaper,
newsletter, news magazine, news-oriented website, or article directory that
13
discusses current or recent news of either general interest (in other words,
daily newspapers) or on a specific topic (in other words political or trade
news magazines, club newsletters, or technology news websites). A news
article can include accounts of eyewitnesses to the happening event. It can
also contain photographs, accounts, statistics, graphs, recollections,
interviews, polls, debates on the topic, and so on.
There are four elements of news articles argued by Pape and Featherstone,
(2005:60-122). The first element is headline. A headline is text at the top of
a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article. It functions to catch
the attention of the reader and relate well to the topic. In addition they also
stated that modern headlines are typically written in an abbreviated style
omitting many elements of a complete sentence but almost always including
a non-copula verb. The next element of news articles is called lead. They
defined lead as the element of a news article that captures the attention of the
reader, sums up the focus of the story, establishes the subject, sets the tone,
and guides the reader into the article. Lead is also considered as the part
which tells the most important facts and answers the questions: who, what,
where, when, why, and how.
The third element of news article suggested by them is body. This is the part
in which details and elaboration about the lead are given. According to Pape
and Featherstone, (2005:124) asserts that the body of news articles may
include chronological, cause and effect, classification, compare and contrast,
list, and question and answer structures, depending on the type of news story
presented.
The last element of news articles is conclusion which refers to an ending
element of a news article. They indicate that the conclusion of news articles
14
may include a final quote, a descriptive scene, a play on the title or lead, and
a summary statement.
2.2.2 Features of Newspapers and Language Style
Certainly, journalism plays a great role in people‘s daily life, since it is the
fourth estate and considerable numbers of people come in touch with it
every day. In other words, newspapers are a common form of a written of
discourse. Owing to their public nature and availability for large numbers of
people, newspapers are one of the widely-ready types of written texts. Thus,
Najeeb, (2007:207) mentions that there are certain features and
characteristics that make newspapers stand apart from other types of
discourse, among which:
(a) A medium- standard language; not that deep classical nor popular
slang of public corridors and quarters, rather it is a simple classical
understood by most readers;
(b) Concentration of ideas and information in a minimal space as far as
possible because journalism always aims at ‗breviary that makes
sense‘, or at useful breviary. But this economization in words leads to
create sentences full of subsidiary adjectives and meanings, as well as
it leads to using abbreviations and acronyms the matter that puts a
heavy burden on the shoulder of the translator;
(c) The exciting concentrated headlines, to the extent that their
concentration reaches the limit puzzles. For such reason, translators
are advised not to translate the headline before translating the whole
text, and
The writer of the article often expresses the personal viewpoint whether
explicitly or implicitly. With the respect of newspapers style, EL-Imam,
(2014:67) states that newspaper style has moved increasingly in the direction
15
of uncluttered writing, where simple, direct sentences are desired. He went
on stating that, complex and compound sentences may provide the best
vehicle for thought under certain circumstances, and also the probability of
using ambiguity. Furthermore, he adds that the desire of economy in words
or omission of words has produced tight, swiftly paced writing that has
proved to be a boon to newspaper reading. So, to translate collocations in a
newspaper effectively, the translator should be aware of these different
styles in newspapers in order to translate the collocational expression
correctly.
2.2.3 Journalistic Translation: Scope, Definition, Importance and
Principles
Vybíralová, (2012:3-4) mention that ‗both journalism and translation play an
indispensable role in the Age of Information‘. Not only do they inform the
reader, but they also facilitate the flow of information itself.
W.W.Wappanam.com points out that ‗journalistic translation‘ refers to the
translation of writing newspapers, magazines, or other agency engaged in the
collection and dissemination of news. Nowadays, it is rare that a newspaper,
magazine or any other journalistic publication if free of a translated item.
Journalistic publication turned to be part and parcel of many renewed
newspapers, locally or globally and it can be the best means to convey news,
thoughts, visions, and events that occur around the globe in a simple way
accessible to everybody.
Appanam ( a web site) states that translators working in this field have to
meet all requirements usually demand from a translator as well as tight
deadlines, the ability to selectively edit before translating, and journalistic
training. Several factors are important in selecting what news to translate:
16
(1) readership demographics; (2) editorial view point; (3) space limitation;
(4) time limitation and (5) the limitation of the source ―A Dictionary of
Translation Technology (2006:120-121)‖. Moreover, journalistic translation
is ― the translation of newspapers, articles, books, bibles, radio and television
broadcasts‖.
However, translation for newspapers has peculiarity that distinguishes it
from non-fiction translation. At first sight, one could think that a newspaper
text expresses facts and communicates information is purely denotative text,
therefore, relatively easy to translate as far as constructions and style are
concerned, with a few difficulties of lexical order at the most ( Collezioni, a
web site). Hassof ( an article, web site) puts forward some principles, that
should be taken into consideration in journalistic translation, namely:
(i) The limits of freedom of the journalistic in translating the original
text. Acting freely with translation stems from a pressing desire to get free
some of the components of the original text and try to draft a new text that to
a large extent takes into consideration the genre. Freedom in translation does
not mean, however, to cut down translation through omitting the main ideas
or to get rid of those paragraphs that the translator find himself unable to
render. Freedom in translation does not mean increasing the rendition via
introducing new ideas or conflicting ideas that do not appear in the original
text. Freedom in translation is used to communicate with the recipient
audience by means of a careful change of the function of the original text
(summarizing it, explaining its ideas or simplifying its linguistic
standard.etc. without affecting the ideas that constitute it overall meaning.
(ii) The impact of the rendered text on the receiver
As the writer of the original text does, the translator has to make or have an
idea about his readers before starting the text from the SL to the TL. The
17
translator of journalistic texts who resorts to a technique understandable to
his readers in fact speaks with them in their idiom. But what one who affects
searching for words and expressions that mist the meaning and make
comprehension difficult speaks with them by his own idiom. The good
translator is one who possess the following questions during the process of
translating text:
(a) Are most of the readers going to understand this term or that expression?
(b) Does this term or that expression negatively affect the general meaning
of the text or does the context of the text is capable to eliminate any
confusion?
(c) Will the recipient understand the new term or there is a necessity to
company it with and explanatory clause?
(d) What is the linguistic standard that will be understandable to the
recipient?
(e) Is there is a need to change the technique of the original text or not?
(iii) The impact of the ideology of the newspaper on translation
Every a newspaper has its own shape and trend its form that distinguishes it
from other newspapers in the stalls. Regarding the trend, it matches the
editorial policy that is subject to various determinants: ideological,
intellectual, political, or economic….etc
The thought and the ideology of the journalist who translates have its impact
on selecting the texts that will be translated.
(vi) Time compulsion in specialized journalistic translation
One of the most prominent problems associated with journalistic translation
today is the ability to produce a rendered text that takes into consideration
honesty and devotion to the source and ‗acceptance‘ in the TL in short
period. Indeed , the proficiency of quickness in undertaking the translation
18
with maintaining the meaning of the original text at the same rime. What so
ever is the allowed time span, the translating journalist should present a
product that is acceptable in terms of quality and should meet all the
determinants of reliable translation. In general, the point of tightness or
ampleness of time during undertaking the journalistic translation is cancelled
with various factors:
 The enjoyment of the translator in touching on a certain subject rather
other. Whenever the translator find himself harmonizing with the
subject, his rendition will be quick and sound.
 Difficulty or easiness of the subject.
 The pre-knowledge of the translator about the subject. Experience and
practice in the field of translation
(v) Altering the meaning in some journalistic renditions
This can be through the following:
 Mistakes in translating idioms.
 Mistakes in translating common expressions.
 Mistakes in relating to overlapping of structure and composition
between the two languages.
 Mistakes relating to technique.
 Excessive translation.
 Deficiency translation.
 Mistakes related to misunderstanding of the original text.
 Lacking the encyclopedic knowledge that accompanies the textual
performance. Inserting the identity of the translator.
19
(vii) The ethical aspect in journalistic translation
The translator is not an author but he is restricted by the meaning of an
original text that he has to convey it honestly and reliably. He is also
restricted by his responsibility towards the reader in the sense that he, i.e. the
translator should not lie, personal altering should give way to objective one
so that rendition is undertaken in the proper way.
2.2.4 Media, Politics and Political Discourse
Aristotle famously characterized human beings as ‗political animals‘
(politikon zoon) who live in a polis (Greek polis, meaning ‗state'). Any
human community is determined by interaction and relationships, including
power relationships. Studies of politics have therefore often explained
politics in relations to power. Chilton (2004) speaks of two broad strands as
follows:
On the one hand, politics is viewed as a struggle for
power, between those who seek to assert and maintain
their power and those who seek to resist it. […] On the
other hand, politics is viewed as cooperation, as the
practices and institutions that a society has for resolving
clashes of interest over money, influence, liberty, and
the like. (Chilton 2004, 3)
In any case, whether struggle or cooperation, ―politics cannot be conducted

without language‖ (Chilton and Schäffner 1997, 206). Human interaction to
a large extent involves language, and linguistic interaction is embedded in
and determined by socio-cultural, historical, ideological, and institutional
conditions. In relation to politics, we can say that the specific political
situations and processes (discursive practices, such as parliamentary debates,
20
political press briefings) determine discourse organization and textual
structure of a variety of discourse types (or genres) in which political
discourse as a complex form of human activity is realized.
Burkhardt (1996) suggests a broad distinction between communicating about
politics (e.g. ordinary people in a pub talking about election results),
political discourse in mass media, and political communication (i.e.
discourse originating in political institutions). More specifically, discourse
originating in political institutions can be subdivided into genres that are
instrumental in policy-making and thus produced by and addressed to
politicians (e.g. a manifesto of a political party), and genres that
communicate, explain, and justify political decisions, produced by
politicians and addressed to the general public (e.g. a speech at an
electioneering campaign, a New Year address by a head of state).
Politics as a form of action (see also Palonen 1993) integrally involves
discursive practices that create or efface opportunities for action. This
means, that the availability of discursive spaces in which to act is itself
something to be contested. In particular in dictatorial societies, texts can be
prevented from being made accessible to the public if they are not in line
with the official ideology of the ruling political party. For disseminating
politics, the media play a significant role.
2.2.5 Fourth Estate
In addition to the state and the public, the media belong to the main actors in
political communication. The media has, in fact, been called the ―fourth
estate‖. Media can reach a large audience, and the speed in which a message
reaches as wide an audience as possible is one of the main values that govern
journalistic practice. Today, where breaking news 24 hours a day is an
established and expected convention, speed is even more vital.
21
Bednarek (2006, 11f.) lists eight major analytic approaches to the language
of news discourse: the critical approach, the narrative/pragmatic/stylistic
approach, the corpus-linguistic approach, the practice-focused approach, the
diachronic approach, the socio-linguistic approach, the cognitive approach,
the conversationalist approach. Fetzer and Lauerbach‘s volume (2007)
includes a comparative analysis across language boundaries, focusing on the
mentioned at all.
22
particular role to play. These genres do not simply report on political events
in a neutral way, but they provide evaluations and thus can have an impact
on public opinion about politics and also on policy making. There are a
number of cases where the publication of a text in a broadsheet, often as the
result of investigative journalism, has made a politician resign – the
Watergate affair being a case in point, and the recent exposure of British
1.2.6 Media and Translation
‗It is our common wish […] that we get more transparency in financial
markets,‘ Merkel said after a regular meeting with Sarkozy at a government
guest house north of Berlin.
(http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/10/europe/EU-GEN-Germany-
France.php; last accessed 16 March 2009)
In this extract we see that an American newspaper, the International Herald
Tribune, quotes in English what the German Chancellor had said, in all
probability in German. Merkel‘s words are presented as direct speech, a
widespread practice in news reporting.
Direct reporting has the function of ―legitimising what is reported‖ (Caldas-
Coulthard 1997, 59).
The interview the French Le Figaro had held with the former German
Chancellor Schroeder mentioned at the beginning of this chapter also reflects
examples of recontextualisation across linguistic boundaries. The readers are
not provided with a transcript of the complete interview, but only extracts
are given (examples of information selection). Since the complete interview
is not accessible, it is impossible to judge how much information has been
omitted, and it is also impossible to see whether the sequence of the actual
interview has been rearranged for the report in the newspaper. In each case,
23
a decision has had to be taken by somebody concerning information
selection and the content and structure of the final text as it was published.
Both the news extract above and the report about the interview quoted at the
beginning of this chapter are also examples of changes in discursive practice
and genre: from statements at a press conference to a direct quote in a news
report, and from an interview to a report about an interview. In both cases,
the politicians‘ words are rendered in another language than the one in which
they were initially uttered. That is, in both cases translation and interpreting
have been involved, but in both cases these practices are hidden, i.e., there is
no explicit reference in the newspaper texts to the fact that the statements by
Merkel and Schroeder were interpreted and/or translated. In the case of
media interviews with politicians, it is usually the practice that the interview
is interpreted and recorded. Subsequently, the recorded text (i.e. the voice of
the interpreter) is transcribed and checked and/or amended for stylistic
reasons. It is also widespread practice that before the interview is actually
published the interviewee has the chance to check the text and authorize it.
These procedures, however, are more difficult to achieve if translation and
interpreting are involved. In this case, advisors or the interpreters themselves
often fulfill this checking function.
2.3 Exoticism
In this part, we complete our introduction to the notion of translation loss by
looking at some implications of the fact that translating involves not just two
languages, but a transfer from one culture to another. General cultural
differences are sometimes bigger obstacles to successful translation than
linguistic differences.
24
We shall use the term cultural transposition for the main types and degrees
of departure from literal translation that one may resort to in the process of
transferring the contents of an ST from one culture to another. Any degree of
cultural transposition involves the choice of features indigenous to the TL
and the target culture in preference to features with their roots in the source
culture. The result is to reduce foreign (that is SL-specific) features in the
TT, thereby to some extent naturalizing it into the TL and its cultural setting.
The various degrees of cultural transposition can be visualized as points
along a scale between the extremes of exoticism and cultural transplantation.
The extreme options in signaling cultural foreignness in a TT fall into the

category of exoticism A TT marked by exoticism is one which constantly
uses grammatical and cultural features imported from the ST with minimal
adaptation, and which thereby constantly signals the exotic source culture
and its cultural strangeness. This may indeed be one of the IT's chief
attractions, as with some translations of classical Arabic literature that
deliberately trade on exoticism. A IT like this, however, has an impact on
the TL public which the ST could never have had on the SL public, for
whom the text has no features of an alien culture.
A sample of exoticism in translation from Arabic would be a more or less
literal translation of the following simple conversation (we have given
versions of the conversation in both Standard Arabic, as it might appear in a
short story or novel, and the contextually more natural colloquial Arabic):
25
Sometimes the nature of the ST makes it virtually impossible to avoid
exoticism in the IT. Consider the following from the Classical Arabic text
.‫ �انثخالء‬I by .‫ نجاحظ‬I (from Lane 1 994: 48, 56-7) in which formal features
of the ST are extremely important, but are not easily matched by typical
formal features of English:
It is not consistent with the principles of etiquette, the hierarchy of authority,

the customs of leaders, and the good rule of princes that the follower and the
followed, the ruler and the ruled become equals with respect to precious
food and marvelous drinks, valuable clothes and noble horses, and the finest
and best kinds of things.
26
2.3.1 Calque
Sometimes, even where the IT as a whole is not marked by exoticism, a

momentary foreignness is introduced. A calque is an expression that consists
of 1L words and respects 1L syntax, but is unidiomatic in the 1L because it
is modeled on the structure of an SL expression. This lack of idiomaticity
may be purely lexical and relatively innocuous, or it may be more generally
grammatical. The following calques of Arabic proverbs illustrate decreasing
degrees of idiomaticity:
What is past has died ‫انهي فاخ ياخ‬
A day for you, a day against you‫يٕو نك ٔيٕو عهيك‬
It increased the clay moistness‫صاد انطيٍ تهح‬
For most translation purposes, it can be said that a bad calque (like the third
example) imitates ST features to the point of being ungrammatical in the TL,
while a good one (like the first example) compromises between imitating ST
features and offending against TL grammar. Any translator will confirm that
it is easy, through ignorance, or - more usually - haste, to mar the IT with
bad calques. However, it is conceivable that in some ITs the calque – and
ensuing exoticism - may actually be necessary, even if its effects need to be
palliated by some form of compensation.
For example, if the strategy is to produce a IT marked by exoticism, the
proverb ‫يٕو نك ٔيٕو عهيك‬.. may well be calqued as 'A day for you, a day
against you ' . But, because of the prevailing exoticism of the IT, it might not
be clear that this is actually a proverb. This would be a significant translation
loss if it were important that the reader should realize that the speaker is usin
27
g a proverb. In that case, the loss could be reduced with an explanatory
addition such as 'you know the saying': 'You know the saying: "A day for
you, a day against you".'
2.3.2 Intersemiotic Translation
One everyday activity that does resemble translation proper is what Roman
Jakobson calls inter-semiotic translation (Jakobson 1971: 260-6), that is,
translation between two semiotic systems (a semiotic system being a system
for communication). 'The green light means go' is an act of inter-semiotic
translation, as is 'The big hand's pointing to twelve and the little hand's
pointing to four, so it's four o'clock'. In each case, there is translation from a
non-linguistic communication system (traffic lights, clock-face) to a
linguistic one. To this extent, everyone is a translator of a sort.
2.3.3 Intralingual Translation
Still more common are various sorts of linguistic response to linguistic
stimuli which are also very like translation proper, even though they actually
take place within a single language. These sorts of process are what
Jakobson (ibid.) calls intralingual translation.
We will consider the two extremes of intralingual translation, to see what
major implications are. Take the following scenario. Jill is driving Jack
through the narrow streets of a small town. A policeman steps out and stops
them. As he leans to speak to Jill, she can see over his shoulder that, further
on, a lorry has jackknifed and blocked the street. At one extreme of
intralingual translation lies the kind of response typified in this exchange:
Policeman: There has been an accident ahead, Madam- I‘m afraid you will
have to turn left down St Mary‘s lane here, the road‘s blocked.
Jill: Oh, Ok. Thanks.
Jack: What did he say?
28
Jill: We have got to turn left.
The policeman's essential message is 'Turn left'. But he has been trained in
public relations and he does not want to sound brusque. So he starts by
mollifying the driver with a partial explanation, 'There's been an accident',
and then presents his instruction somewhat apologetically, by introducing it
with 'I'm afraid'. 'St Mary's Lane' even implies a shared sense of local
solidarity with the motorist; but the policeman also adds 'here', in case Jill
does not in fact know the town. Finally, he completes his explanation.
When Jack asks what the policeman has said, however, Jill separates the gist
of the policeman's message from all the circumstantial details and the tonal
subtleties, and reports it in her own words. This is an example of a type of
intralingual translation which we shall call gist translation The example also
shows two other features which intralingual translation shares with
translation proper. First, Jill's is not the only gist translation possible. For
instance, she might have said, 'We've got to go down here'. Amongst other
things, this implies that at least one of the people in the car does not know
the town: the street name would be of no help in identifying which road is
meant. A third possibility is, 'We've got to go down St Mary's Lane'; if Jack
and Jill do know the town, the gist of the policeman's message is accurately
conveyed.
The other feature shared by intralingual translation and translation proper is
that the situation in which a message is expressed crucially affects both how
it is expressed and how it is received. By 'situation' here we mean a
combination of three elements:
1. Linguistic context (for example, the policeman's words and Jack's
question).
29
2. Non-linguistic circumstances (such as being stopped in a car and having
to take a diversion).
3. The experiential baggage of the participants (knowing or not knowing the
town; familiarity or unfamiliarity with conventions for giving and receiving
instructions; liking or disliking the police, etc. ).
There are so many variables in the message situation that it is impossible to
predict what the gist translation will be or how the addressee will take it. For
example, Jill might simply have said, 'Tum left', a highly economical way of
reporting L'te gist - no bad thing when she is concentrating on driving.
However, depending on how she says it, and how Jack receives it, it could
give the impression that the policeman was rude.
Another reason why 'Turn left' could sound rude is that, grammatically, it
looks like direct speech - an imperative - whereas all Jill's other gist
translations are clearly indirect speech (or 'reported speech'). All translation
might be regarded as a form of indirect speech, inasmuch as it does not
repeat the ST, but reformulates it. Yet most TIs, like 'Turn left', mask the
fact that they are indirect speech by omitting such markers as 'The author
says that ....' or modulation of point of view (as in substituting 'we' for 'you',
or 'he' for '!'). As a result, it is very easy for reformulation consciously or
unconsciously to become distortion, either because the translator
misrepresents the ST or because the reader misreads the TI, or both.
Gist translation, like any translation, is thus a process of interpretation. This
is seen still more clearly if we take an example at the opposite extreme of
intralingual translation. Jill might easily have interpreted the policeman's
words by expanding them. For example, she could build on an initial gist
translation as follows:
30
We've got to go down St Mary's Lane - some fool's jackknifed and blocked
the High Street.
Here, she puts two sorts of gloss on the policeman's message: she adds
details that he did not give (the jackknifing, the name of the street) and her
own judgment of the driver. We shall use the term exegetic translation to
denote a translation that explains and elaborates on the ST in this way. The
inevitable part played by the translator's experiential baggage becomes
obvious in exegetic translation, for any exegesis by definition involves
explicitly invoking considerations from outside the text in one's reading of it
- here, the jackknifed lorry, Jill's knowledge of the town, and her attitude to
other road-users.
An exegetic translation can be shorter than the ST, as in this example, but
exegesis is usually longer, and can easily shade into general observations
triggered by the ST but not really explaining it. Knowing the town as she
does, Jill might easily have gone on like this:
That's the second time in a month. The street's just too narrow for a thing
that size.
The explanation added in the second sentence is still just about admissible as
exegetic translation, but it does go much farther than the policeman's
statement.
As the above examples suggest, it is sometimes hard to keep gist translation
and exegetic translation apart, or to see where translation shades into
comment pure and simple. It certainly seems very hard to achieve an ideal
rephrasing, a halfway point between gist and exegesis that would use terms
radically different from those of the ST, but add nothing to, and omit nothing
from, its message content. Might one say that 'I consumed a small quantity
of alcohol approximately 60 minutes ago' is a rephrasing of 'I had a little
31
drink about an hour ago'? If it is, it is distinctly inexact: the tone and
connotations of the two utterances are very different, and 'a small quantity of
alcohol' and 'a little drink' can hardly be said to have the same denotative
meaning.
2.3.4 Interlingual Translation
Just as it is possible to have intralingual gist and exegetic translation, so it is
possible to have interlingual translation (i.e. translation proper) which
involves gist or exegesis? In Arabic>English translation, translations which
involve gisting are most likely to arise where the Arabic ST involves a high
degree of repetition of meaning (Le. semantic repetition). Consider the
following example (Johnstone 1991: 89-90):
A fairly literal translation of this reads as follows (Johnstone 1991: 90):

Poetry is an expression and description of the feelings of poets and their
thoughts, whether the experience be real or from the fabric of the poet's
imagination. And in both cases, the experience is true, because even if the
experience is not real - that is, imaginary - the poet lives in it for a longtime
before he composes his poetry, sensing it in the pulses of his heart and
feeling it flow in his blood. (75 words).
A rather more idiomatic translation might read:
32
Poetry is an expression of the thoughts and feelings of the poet. Whether the
experience be real or imaginary, it is true in the sense that the poet has spent
a great deal of time experiencing it internally before composing his poetry.
(42 words)
Good examples of exegetic translation in various degrees can be found in
different English interpretations of the Quran. Consider for example the
following three translations of ‫ "سٕسج االخالص‬by Rodwell ( 1 909), Al-Hilali
and Khan ( 1 997), and Turner ( 1 997) (the translations are presented with
corresponding verse numbering to the original; the translation of AI-Hilali
and Khan has been slightly amended, to omit information which is irrelevant
to the current discussion):
Rodwell
In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful
1 . SAY: He is God alone:
2. God the eternal!
3. He begetteth not, and He is not begotten
4. And there is none like unto Him.
33
AI-HilaIi and Khan
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
1 . Say, 0 Muhammad: He is Allah, (the) One.
2. Allah As-Samad (the Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need.
He neither eats nor drinks).
3. He begets not, nor was He begotten,
4. And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him.
Turner
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
1 . Say: 'My God is One;
2. The cosmos is a manifestation of His eternal names, for He is mirrored in
all things in a most subtle manner, and He is free from all wants and needs.
3. He does not beget or produce anything, nor is he begotten or produced by
anything
4. And there is nothing in the whole of the cosmos that can be likened to
Him.'
Rodwell's translation here can be regarded as having no exegetical elements.
Al-Hilali and Khan include an exegetical gloss '0 Muhammad', and another
gloss on As-Samad (which they transliterate rather than translating), and
they translate ‫ كفٕا‬as 'co-equal or comparable', which is arguably an
exegetical expansion. Turner's is the most obviously exegetical version, and
he refers to his interpretation as an "'exegetically-led" reading' (Turner 1997:
xvi). In general, while translation proper may include elements of gist or
exegesis, the dominant mode of translation is one which involves rephrasing
between the ST and TI.
34
2.3.5 Interlinear translation
At the extreme of SL bias is interlinear translation, where the IT does not

necessarily respect 1L grammar, but has grammatical units corresponding as
closely as possible to every grammatical unit of the ST. Here is an example
of an interlinear translation of an Arabic proverb (found, with some variants,
in a number of Arabic dialects):
‫انهي فاخ ياخ‬The/ what passed died
The following is an interlinear translation of the first line of one of the pre-
Islamic w.........‫ يعهمح نثيذ‬poems, ‫ نثيذ‬. In this translation - indicates that the
two English words so linked correspond
jointly to one Arabic word in the ST; - indicates that the two English words
so linked correspond to two linked Arabic forms or words in the ST, and /I
indicates a hemistich (half-line) break in the middle of the line. This is a
standard feature of traditional Arabic poetry, and is marked in the ST by a
space between the words ‫ فًمايٓا‬and ًُٗ‫ ت‬which is longer than the spaces
between other words in the line.
Disappeared the-cam ping-grounds alighting-places-their and-stopping -

places-their /I in-Mina become-deserted Ghaul-its and-Rijam-its
As is apparent from the incomprehensibility of the English IT here,
interlinear translation is normally only employed where the purpose of the
translation is to shed light on the structure of the ST. Mainly used in
descriptive linguistics or language teaching, interlinear translation is of no
practical use for this course, and we shall not consider it further.
35
2.3.6 Literal Translation
Interlinear translation is actually an extreme form of the much more
common literal translation. In literal translation proper, the denotative
meaning of words is taken as if straight from the dictionary (that is, out of
context), but TL grammar is respected. Because TL grammar is respected,
literal translation very often unavoidably involves grammatical transposition
- the replacement or reinforcement of given parts of speech in the ST by
other parts of speech in the IT A simple example is translating the
colloquially-oriented ‫ انذَيا شًس‬as 'It's sunny': the IT has a 'dummy-subject' 'it'
where the ST has the word ‫' ( انذَيا‬the world'), and an adjective 'sunny' ,
where the ST has the noun ‫'( شًس‬sun ').
The following is the first line of ‫ يعهمح نثيذ‬with a literal translation:
The camping grounds have disappeared - their alighting places and their
stopping places /I at Mina; its Ghaul and its Rijam have become deserted.
In this translation, the standard grammar and word order of English are
respected; however, everything which might be transferred on a simple word
by- word basis from the Arabic is so transferred. For most purposes, literal
translation can be regarded as the practical extreme of SL bias.
2.2.7 Free Translation
At the opposite extreme, where there is maximum TL bias, is free
translation. Here there is only a global correspondence between the textual
units of the ST and those of the IT. A possible free translation of the
colloquial Arabic proverb ‫ انهي فاخ ياخ‬discussed above, would be 'Let
bygones be bygones'. Here the grammar is completely different and the
metaphor of 'dying' is lost. Similarly, a free translation of the proverb ‫يٕو نك‬
36
‫ ٔيٕو عهيك‬might be 'You win some, you lose some‘; here the grammar and
vocabulary are completely different.
2.3.8 Communicative translation
These examples of free translation are also examples of communicative
translation. A communicative translation is produced, when, in a given
situation, the ST uses an SL expression standard for that situation, and the IT
uses a TL expression standard for an equivalent target culture situation. 'Let
bygones be bygones' is an obvious translation of ‫ انهي فاخ ياخ‬and, in some
situations at least, would be virtually mandatory. This is true of very many
culturally conventional formulae that do not invite literal translation. Public
notices, proverbs, and conversational clichés illustrate this point:
ٍ‫ يًُٕع انرذخي‬No Smoking (Public notice)
‫ ظشب عصفٕسيٍ تحجش ٔاحذ‬To kill two birds with one stone (Standard Arabic
proverb)
‫ ال شكش عهٗ ٔاجة‬Don‘t Mention it (Conversational Cliché)
As these few examples suggest, communicative translation is very common.
Communicative translation apart, however, this degree of freedom is no
more useful as standard practice than interlinear translation, because
potentially important details of message content are bound to be lost.
2.4 From interlinear to free translation
Between the two extremes of literal translation and free translation, the
degrees of freedom are infinitely variable. Whether there is any perfect
halfway point between the two is open to question. However, in assessing
translation freedom, it is useful to situate the IT on a scale between extreme
SL bias and extreme TL bias, with notional intermediate points schematized
as in the following diagram, adapted from Newmark ( 1 98 1 : 39):
37
B y an idiomizing translation, we mean one that respects the ST message
content, but prioritizes TL 'naturalness' over faithfulness to ST detail; it will
typically use idioms or familiar phonic and rhythmic patterns to give an easy
read, even if this means sacrificing nuances of meaning or tone. By 'idiom'
we mean a fixed figurative expression whose meaning cannot be deduced
from the denotative meanings of the words that make it up, as in 'football's
not my cup of tea‘, 'that's a different kettle of fish‘, etc. Note that
'idiomizing' is not synonymous with ‗idiomatic‘: throughout this course we
use the term 'idiomatic' to denote what sounds 'natural' and 'normal' to native
speakers a linguistic expression that is unexceptional and acceptable in a
given language in a given context.
The five points on the scale - as well as the rarely used interlinear translation
- can be illustrated by the following translations of the phrase ‫يصم ْزِ االشياء‬
‫عهيٓا الثال كصيش‬
INTERLINEAR: like these things to them demand much now
LITERAL: The likes of such things have much demand now
FAITHFUL: Things like these are in great demand now
BALANCED: This kind of thing is in great demand at the moment
IDIOMIING: This type all the rage.
FREE: This one is dead trendy
Note that the last four TIs are all idiomatic, but only one of them is an
idiomizing translation. It should also be noted that quite frequently, as
translations get more free, they become more informal, as illustrated by
38
these examples. There is, however, no necessary correlation between
informality and freeness of translation. The pompous 'Such artifacts are at
the absolute pinnacle of their popularity, madam' is just as possible a free
translation of
ٌ‫ يصم ْزِ االشياء عهيٓا الثال كصيش اال‬as is 'This one's dead trendy'.
2.5 Equivalence and Translation Loss
In defining communicative translation, we used the term 'equivalent target
culture situation‘. As a matter of fact, most writers on translation use the
terms 'equivalence' and ‗equivalent‘, but in so many different ways that
equivalence can be a confusing concept even for teachers of translation, let
alone their students. Before going further, then, we need to say what we
mean, and what we do not mean, by 'equivalence' and 'equivalent'. Since this
is not a course in translation theory, we shall not go in detail into the more
general philosophical implications of the term 'equivalence'. Nida (1964),
Toury ( 1980), Holmes ( 1 988) and Snell-Hornby ( 1988) between them
provide a useful introduction to the question.
2.5.1 Equivalence
The many different definitions of equivalence in translation fall broadly into
one of two categories: they are either descriptive or prescriptive.
Descriptively, 'equivalence' denotes the relationship between ST features and
IT features that are seen as directly corresponding to one another, regardless
of the quality of the IT. Thus, descriptively, the following utterances are
equivalents:
‫ممنوع اندخول‬: forbidden is the entrance
‫يع انساليح‬: With the well being
39
Prescriptively, 'equivalence' denotes the relationship between an SL
expression and the canonic TL rendering of it as required, for example, by a
teacher. So, prescriptively, the following pairs of utterances are equivalents:
‫ يًُٕع انذخٕل‬No entry
ّ‫يع انسالي‬ goodbye
An influential variant of prescriptive equivalence is the 'dynamic
equivalence' of the eminent Bible translator Eugene Nida. This is based on
the 'principle of equivalent effect' , which states that 'the relationship
between receptor and message should be substantially the same as that
which existed between the original receptors and the message' ( Nida 1964:
159). Nida's view does have real attractions. We shall be suggesting
throughout the course that there are all sorts of reasons - reasons of
grammar, idiom, context, genre, etc. - why a translator might not want to
translate a given expression literally. A case in point is communicative
translation, which may be said to be an example of 'dynamic equivalence'
(cf. Nida 1964: 166: 'That is just the way we would say it' ). However, there
is a danger, especially for student translators with exceptional mother-tongue
facility, that 'dynamic equivalence' might be seen as giving carte blanche for
excessive freedom - that is, freedom to write more or less anything as long
as it sounds good and does reflect, however tenuously, something of the ST
message content. This danger is a very real one, as any teacher of translation
will confirm. It is in fact a symptom of theoretical problems contained in the
very notion of 'equivalent effect', most notably the normative ones.
To begin with, who is to know what the relationship between ST message
and source-culture receptors is? For that matter, is it plausible to speak of the
relationship, as if there were only one: are there not as many relationships as
there are receptors? And who is to know what such relationships can have
40
been in the past? In any case, few texts have a single effect, even in one
reading by one person.
A good example of the problematicity of achieving an equivalent effect in
Arabic>English translation is the translation of a piece of ancient Arabic
poetry, such as ‫ يعهمح نثيذ‬Even in principle, it seems impossible to achieve in
an English translation the effect created by ‫ يعهمح نثيذ‬on the original audience
of the poem, i.e. the Arabs of pre-Islamic Arabia. In fact, it seems
impossible even to determine what these effects might have been. Equally, it
seems almost certain that the effects achieved on a modem Arabic audience
will be quite different from those achieved on the original audience. The
differences between the two audiences are obviously enormous - pre-Islamic
pagan Bedouins vs mainly Muslim town-dwellers and villagers; a largely
illiterate audience listening to an essentially oral performance in a poetic
genre with which it is likely to be intimately acquainted, vs an exclusively
literate audience, which is likely to be making use of a heavily annotated
edition in a school or university, and which is used to a modem version of
Standard Arabic (even in the poetic domain) significantly different from the
Arabic of pre-Islamic poetry.
All this illustrates the dangers in the nonnative use of the term 'equivalence'
to imply 'sameness' , as it does in logic, mathematics and sign-theory. In
mathematics, an equivalent relationship is objective, incontrovertible and,
crucially, reversible. In translation, however, such unanimity and such
reversibility are unthinkable for any but the very simplest of texts - and even
then, only in terms of denotative meaning. For example, if ,., ‫ْم اعجثرك يصش‬
translates as 'Do you like Egypt?', will back-translation (that is, translating a
IT back into the SL) automatically give , or ‫ ْم اعجثرك يصش‬will it give ‫ْم‬
‫ ذعجثك يصش‬, or ‫ ?ْم ذحة يصش‬The answer depends, as it always does in
41
translation matters, on context - both the context of the ST utterance and that
of the IT utterance. The simplest of contexts is usually enough to inhibit the
reversibility that is crucial to equivalence in the mathematical sense. And
certainly even something as elementary as the difference in tense gives ‫ْم‬
‫ ذحة يصش‬and ‫ْم ذعجثك يصش‬potentially quite distinct interpretations.
It would seem that, in so far as the principle of equivalent effect implies
'sameness' or is used nonnative, it is more of a hindrance than a help, both
theoretically and pedagogically. Consequently, when we spoke of an
'equivalent target culture situation', we were not intending 'equivalent' to
have a sense specific to any particular translation theory, but were using it in
its everyday sense of 'counterpart' - something different, but with points of
resemblance in relevant aspects.
We have found it useful, both in translating and in teaching translation, to
avoid an absolutist ambition to maximize sameness between ST and TI, in
favor of a relativist ambition to minimize difference: to look not for what is
to be put into the TI, but for what one might save from the ST. There is a
vital difference between the two ambitions. The aim of maximizing
sameness encourages the belief that, floating somewhere out in the ether,
there is the 'right' translation, the IT that is 'equivalent' to the ST, at some
ideal point between SL bias and TL bias. But it is more realistic, and more
productive, to start by admitting that, because SL and TL are fundamentally
different, the transfer from ST to IT inevitably entails difference - that is,
loss.
2.5.2 Translation loss
It is helpful here to draw an analogy with 'energy loss' in engineering. The
transfer of energy in any machine necessarily involves energy loss.
Engineers do not see this as a theoretical anomaly, but simply as a practical
42
problem which they confront by striving to design more efficient machines,
in which energy loss is reduced. We shall give the term translation loss to
the incomplete replication of the ST in the IT - that is, the inevitable loss of
textually and culturally relevant features. This term is intended to suggest
that translators should not agonize over the loss, but should concentrate on
reducing it.
In fact, the analogy with energy loss is imperfect: whereas energy loss is a loss
(or rather, a diversion) of energy, translation loss is not a loss of translation, but
a loss in the translation process. It is a loss of textual effects. Further, since
these effects cannot be quantified, neither can the loss. So, when trying to
reduce it, the translator never knows how far there is still to go.
Nevertheless, despite the limitations of the analogy, we have found it
practical for translators, students and teachers alike. Once one accepts the
concept of inevitable translation loss, a IT that is not, even in all important
respects, a replica of the ST is not a theoretical anomaly, and the translator
can concentrate on the realistic aim of reducing translation loss, rather than
the unrealistic one of seeking the ultimateTT.
A few very simple examples, at the level of sounds and denotative meanings
of individual words, will be enough to show some of the forms translation
loss can take and what its implications are for the translator.
There is translation loss even at the most elementary level. True SL-TL
homonymy rarely occurs (since there is almost always some difference in
pronunciation across languages), and rhythm and intonation are usually
different as well. For instance, in most contexts ‫ تمشج‬and 'cow' will be
synonyms, and there will be no loss in denotative meaning in translating one
with the other. But ‫ تمشج‬and 'cow' clearly sound different: there is significant
translation loss on the phonic and prosodic levels. In a veterinary textbook,
43
this loss is not likely to matter. But if the ST word is part of an alliterative
pattern in a literary text, or, worse, if it rhymes, the loss could be crucial.
Even if the ST word has entered the TL as a loan-word (e.g. 'intifada'), using
it in the IT entails translation loss in at least two different ways. For
example, English-speakers pronounce ' intifada' differently from the way in
which Arabic speakers pronounce ‫( اَرفاظح‬consider, for example, the
pronunciation of the ‫ ض‬in Arabic); ‫ اَفاظح‬English TT involves loss on the
phonic level. In any case, 'intifada' still sounds foreign in English, despite
the relative frequency of use in newspapers and political writing over the
past few years. Accordingly, using 'intifada' in an English TT introduces a
foreign element which is not present in Arabic ST, thereby losing the
cultural neutrality of the ST expression.
In the opposite sort of case, where the ST contains a TL expression (e.g
‫ 'كًثيٕذش‬a < 'computer', ‫يٕتايم‬..,..... 'mobile phone' ), it is tempting to see the IT
as 'correcting' the ST, and therefore producing 'gain' rather than 'loss' . In
fact, however, there is no less loss. If Arabic ‫يٕتايم‬..,..... is translated as
'mobile phone' (as it might well be in many contexts), there is palpable
phonic and prosodic loss, because the ST expression and the IT expression
are pronounced in ways which are clearly different from one other. There is
also grammatical translation loss, because the IT is less economical than the
ST, and there is lexical translation loss, because IT 'mobile phone' loses the
foreignness that‫" يٕتايم‬...... has in Arabic and a translation of Arabic ‫< كًثيٕذش‬
as English 'computer' involves not only a loss of foreignness but also an
addition of a transparent link with 'compute' which is lacking in the SL form.
As these examples suggest, it is important to recognize that, even where the
TT is more explicit, precise, economical or vivid than the ST, this difference
is still a case of translation loss. Some writers refer to such differences as
44
'translation gains ' . It is certainly true that the following ITs, for example,
can be said to be grammatically more economical, sometimes even more
elegant and easier to say, than their STs. But these so-called 'gains' are by
the same token grammatical, phonic or prosodic failures to replicate the ST
structures, and are therefore by definition instances of translation loss, as in
the following examples:
ST TT
Crosse-eyed ‫احٕل‬
Islamic Jurisprudence ‫فمح‬
‫سياسج اجشج‬ taxi
‫كهة انثحش‬ shark
Conversely, if we reverse these columns, we have a set of TTs that are

clearer, or more vivid than their STs: these TTs, too, all show translation
loss, because the ST structures have been violated:
ST TT
‫احٕل‬ Cross-eyed
ّ‫فم‬ Islamic jurisprudence
taxi ‫سياسج اجشج‬
shark ‫كهة انثحش‬
If translation loss is inevitable even in translating single words, it is

obviously going to feature at more complex levels as well - in respect of
connotations, for example, or of sentence structure, discourse, language
variety, and so on.
45
2.5.3 Translation by Omission
The most obvious form of translation loss is when something which occurs
in the TT is simply omitted from the ST. Such omission occurs fairly
frequently in Arabic/English translation, and is therefore worth specifically
identifying.
Omission can occur for many legitimate reasons; the following are a few
illustrative examples. Quite often, omission reflects the different ways in
which Arabic and English link bits of text together (Le. different patterns of
cohesion Arabic radio broadcasts, for example, often make use of the phrase
ٔ ‫ ْزا‬to introduce a piece of information which is related to the material
which has gone before, but takes the broadcast onto a new sub-topic.
Normally, the best translation of this in English is to simply miss the phrase
out. Similarly, one often finds the phrase ‫( جذيش تانزكش‬also associated 'variants'
such as ِ‫ )ٔيًا يجذس ركش‬at the start of paragraphs in Arabic newspapers; this
can be regarded as a signal in Arabic that what comes next is background
information to the main argument (cf. Hatim 1997: 67-74). Again, one
would normally not expect this to be translated in an English TT.
Another occasion for omission is when the information conveyed is not
particularly important, and adding it would unnecessarily complicate the
structure of the TI. Consider, for example, the following extract from an
Arabic newspaper ‫ٔكاٌ انشئيس االيشيكي لذ اكذ أل يساء ايس‬. Given a context in
which it is not particularly important that this statement was made in the
evening, a reasonable translation of this would be along the lines 'Two days
ago, the American President, Bill Clinton, confirmed [ ... ] ' (Ives 1999: 3) ;
unlike Arabic, English does not afford a particularly elegant or stylistically
normal way in this context of expressing the concept 'two days ago in the
evening' .
46
Cultural difference provides another area in which simple omission may be
a reasonable strategy. For example, when a Christian-oriented Lebanese
newspaper refers to the former Phalangist leader as ‫انشيخ تياس‬
‫ جًيم‬the obvious translation is 'Pierre Gemayel' (Jones 1999: 5); not enough
hangs on the associations of respect in ‫انشيخ‬here to warrant including any
equivalent in the TI. Similarly, in most contexts, the phrase ‫تاتا انفاذيكاٌ يٕحُا‬
‫ تٕنس انصاَي‬is likely to be most reasonably translated as 'Pope John-Paul II'
with the omission of any English equivalent of the STٌ‫ ; انفاذيكا‬most Western
readers are likely to be unaware of any popes (such as the Coptic pope) other
than the Catholic one, and even if they are aware of these other possibilities,
such knowledge will in many contexts be irrelevant, since it is only the
Catholic pope in English who is typically referred to as 'the Pope'.
2.5.4 Translation by Addition
Translation by addition is translation in which something is added to the TT
which is not present in the ST. Like omission, addition is a fairly common
feature of Arabic/English translation and is therefore worth specifically
identifying.
Examples of translation by addition frequently occur where either general
considerations of English usage or specific contexts require something to be
added. Consider the phrase from a newspaper text about the Kosovo war of
1 999 ‫يُز انٓيًُح انرشكيح‬.... This is much more acceptably translated as 'ever
since the days of Turkish hegemony' (Ives 1 999: 1 3) than as 'ever since
Turkish hegemony' ('time of Turkish hegemony' would also be possible).
The operative principle here seems to be that English resists regarding
'hegemony' as a concept involving time more strongly than does Arabic with
47
respect to ‫ْيًُح‬. In English it is therefore necessary to add 'days of (or
something similar).
A similar example, which involves the specific context, rather than general
considerations of usage, is the following from the novel ‫ يذيُح انثغي‬by ٗ‫عيس‬
‫تشاسج‬
ٖ‫ْٕ كاذى اَفاسّ يغًط عيُيّ عًا يجش‬
This has been translated (Brown 1 996: 58) as:
He was holding his breath and had closed his eyes to what was going on
around him.
The context here is fairly personal; the author is interested in the events
immediately surrounding the central character of the novel, ‫صاتش‬:.. The
translator has accordingly chosen to add 'around him' , since this is an
obvious idiomatic means of expressing the personal nature of what is
involved. There is, however, no equivalent of 'around him' (e.g. ّ‫ حٕن‬in the
Arabic ST (although i t would be perfectly possible to have one); nor is any
dictionary likely to list 'to go on around [one] ' as an equivalent of ٖ‫جش‬
accordingly, it is justifiable to identify this as a case of translation by
addition.
2.6 Cultural Transplantation
At the opposite end of the scale from exoticism is cultural transplantation,
whose extreme forms are hardly translations at all, but more like adaptations
- the wholesale transplanting of the entire setting of the ST, resulting in the
entire text being rewritten in an indigenous target culture setting.
An example of cultural transplantation is the remaking of the Japanese film
'The Seven Samurai' as the Hollywood film 'The Magnificent Seven'. An
example involving Arabic would be the retelling of a Juha joke with the
replacement of Juha and other typical Middle-Eastern characters with
48
characters typical of the 1L culture and corresponding changes in
background setting. In a B ritish context. one might. for example. begin the
'translation' of the joke 'A man walked into a pub'.
It is not unusual to find examples of cultural transplantation on a small scale
in translation. For example in a scene from the short story ‫ انُاس ٔانًاء‬by the
Syrian writer ‫صكشيا ذايش‬. Some rich adolescent girls are poking fun at a girl
and boy from a poor part of town who are wandering around together,
obviously in love. One of the rich girls calls out « ٗ‫ ليس ٔنيه‬, alluding to
the story of the semi-legendary doomed love affair between the poet ‫ليس‬, ,,. -
‫( تٍ انًهٕح‬also known as ٌُٕ‫ )يج‬and a woman called ٗ‫نيه‬. This has been
translated (St John 1 999: 30) as 'Just like Romeo and Juliet‘.
By and large, normal translation practice avoids the two extremes of
wholesale exoticism and wholesale cultural transplantation. In avoiding the
two extremes, the translator will consider the alternatives lying between
them on the scale given at the end.
2.7 Cultural Borrowing
The first alternative is to transfer an ST expression verbatim into the TT.
This is termed cultural borrowing. It introduces a foreign element into the
IT. Of course, something foreign is by definition exotic; this is why, when
the occasion demands, it can be useful to talk about exotic elements
introduced by various translation practices. But cultural borrowing is
different from exoticism proper, as defined above: unlike exoticism, cultural
borrowing does not involve adaptation of the SL expression into TL forms.
2.8 Features of Newspapers and Language Style
Certainly, journalism plays a great role in people‘s daily life, since it is the
fourth estate and considerable numbers of people come in touch with it
every day. In other words, newspapers are a common form of a written of
49
discourse. Owing to their public nature and availability for large numbers of
people, newspapers are one of the widely-ready types of written texts. Thus,
Najeeb, (2007:207) mentions that there are certain features and
characteristics that make newspapers stand apart from other types of
discourse, among which:
(a) A medium- standard language; not that deep classical nor popular
slang of public corridors and quarters, rather it is a simple classical
understood by most readers;
(b) Concentration of ideas and information in a minimal space as far as
possible because journalism always aims at ‗breviary that makes
sense‘, or at useful breviary. But this economization in words leads to
create sentences full of subsidiary adjectives and meanings, as well as
it leads to using abbreviations and acronyms the matter that puts a
heavy burden on the shoulder of the translator;
(c) The exciting concentrated headlines, to the extent that their
concentration reaches the limit puzzles. For such reason, translators
are advised not to translate the headline before translating the whole
text, and
(d) The writer of the article often expresses the personal viewpoint
whether explicitly or implicitly.
With the respect of newspapers style, EL-Imam, (2014:67) states that
newspaper style has moved increasingly in the direction of uncluttered
writing, where simple, direct sentences are desired. He went on stating that,
complex and compound sentences may provide the best vehicle for thought
under certain circumstances, and also the probability of using ambiguity.
Furthermore, he adds that the desire of economy in words or omission of
words has produced tight, swiftly paced writing that has proved to be a boon
50
to newspaper reading. So, to translate collocations in a newspaper
effectively, the translator should be aware of these different styles in
newspapers in order to translate the collocational expression correctly.
2.8.1 Journalistic Translation: Scope, Definition, Importance and
Principles
Vybíralová, (2012:3-4) mention that ‗both journalism and translation play an
indispensable role in the Age of Information‘. Not only do they inform the
reader, but they also facilitate the flow of information itself.
W.W.Wappanam.com points out that ‗journalistic translation‘ refers to the
translation of writing newspapers, magazines, or other agency engaged in the
collection and dissemination of news. Nowadays, it is rare that a newspaper,
magazine or any other journalistic publication if free of a translated item.
Journalistic publication turned to be part and parcel of many renewed
newspapers, locally or globally and it can be the best means to convey news,
thoughts, visions, and events that occur around the globe in a simple way
accessible to everybody.
Appanam ( a web site) states that translators working in this field have to
meet all requirements usually demand from a translator as well as tight
deadlines, the ability to selectively edit before translating, and journalistic
training. Several factors are important in selecting what news to translate:
(2) readership demographics; (2) editorial view point; (3) space limitation;
(4) time limitation and (5) the limitation of the source ―A Dictionary of
Translation Technology (2006:120-121)‖. Moreover, journalistic translation
is ― the translation of newspapers, articles, books, bibles, radio and television
broadcasts‖.
However, translation for newspapers has peculiarity that distinguishes it
from non-fiction translation. At first sight, one could think that a newspaper
51
text expresses facts and communicates information is purely denotative text,
therefore, relatively easy to translate as far as constructions and style are
concerned, with a few difficulties of lexical order at the most ( Collezioni, a
web site). Hassof ( an article, web site) puts forward some principles, that
should be taken into consideration in journalistic translation, namely:
(i) The limits of freedom of the journalistic in translating the original
text. Acting freely with translation stems from a pressing desire to get free
some of the components of the original text and try to draft a new text that to
a large extent takes into consideration the genre. Freedom in translation does
not mean, however, to cut down translation through omitting the main ideas
or to get rid of those paragraphs that the translator find himself unable to
render. Freedom in translation does not mean increasing the rendition via
introducing new ideas or conflicting ideas that do not appear in the original
text. Freedom in translation is used to communicate with the recipient
audience by means of a careful change of the function of the original text
(summarizing it, explaining its ideas or simplifying its linguistic
standard.etc. without affecting the ideas that constitute it overall meaning.
(ii) The impact of the rendered text on the receiver
As the writer of the original text does, the translator has to make or have an
idea about his readers before starting the text from the SL to the TL. The
translator of journalistic texts who resorts to a technique understandable to
his readers in fact speaks with them in their idiom. But what one who affects
searching for words and expressions that mist the meaning and make
comprehension difficult speaks with them by his own idiom. The good
translator is one who possess the following questions during the process of
translating text:
(a) Are most of the readers going to understand this term or that expression?
52
(b) Does this term or that expression negatively affect the general meaning
of the text or does the context of the text is capable to eliminate any
confusion?
(c) Will the recipient understand the new term or there is a necessity to
company it with and explanatory clause?
(d) What is the linguistic standard that will be understandable to the
recipient?
(e) Is there is a need to change the technique of the original text or not?
(iii) The impact of the ideology of the newspaper on translation
Every a newspaper has its own shape and trend its form that distinguishes it
from other newspapers in the stalls. Regarding the trend, it matches the
editorial policy that is subject to various determinants: ideological,
intellectual, political, or economic….etc
The thought and the ideology of the journalist who translates have its impact
on selecting the texts that will be translated.
(vi) Time compulsion in specialized journalistic translation
One of the most prominent problems associated with journalistic translation
today is the ability to produce a rendered text that takes into consideration
honesty and devotion to the source and ‗acceptance‘ in the TL in short
period. Indeed , the proficiency of quickness in undertaking the translation
with maintaining the meaning of the original text at the same rime. What so
ever is the allowed time span, the translating journalist should present a
product that is acceptable in terms of quality and should meet all the
determinants of reliable translation. In general, the point of tightness or
ampleness of time during undertaking the journalistic translation is cancelled
with various factors:
53
 The enjoyment of the translator in touching on a certain subject rather
other. Whenever the translator find himself harmonizing with the
subject, his rendition will be quick and sound.
 Difficulty or easiness of the subject.
 The pre-knowledge of the translator about the subject. Experience and
practice in the field of translation
(v) Altering the meaning in some journalistic renditions
This can be through the following:
 Mistakes in translating idioms.
 Mistakes in translating common expressions.
 Mistakes in relating to overlapping of structure and composition
between the two languages.
 Mistakes relating to technique.
 Excessive translation.
 Deficiency translation.
 Mistakes related to misunderstanding of the original text.
 Lacking the encyclopedic knowledge that accompanies the textual
performance. Inserting the identity of the translator.
(vii) The ethical aspect in journalistic translation
The translator is not an author but he is restricted by the meaning of an
original text that he has to convey it honestly and reliably. He is also
restricted by his responsibility towards the reader in the sense that he, i.e. the
translator should not lie, personal altering should give way to objective one
so that rendition is undertaken in the proper way.
54
2.9 Today’s Journalistic Style
Newspaper‘s style in recent years has moved increasingly in the direction of
uncluttered writing, simple direct sentences are desired, complex and
compound sentences may provide the best vehicle for thought under certain
circumstances, but also increase the possibility of ambiguity. The desire for
economy in words has produced tight, swiftly paced writing that has proved
to be boon to newspaper reading. Loose writing that leads to wasting words.
Tight writing is characterized by the absence of ‗breaks‘(commas, etc..) In
the flow of simple sentences but tight that leads to omitting should not be
overdone.
2.9.1 Characteristics of today’s journalistic style:
Compact, usually short sentences, every word selected and placed for
maximum effect. Short paragraphs, each complete in itself and capable of
being removed without destroying the sense of the story. Conciseness,
directness and simplicity through elimination of unnecessary words and
phrases. Factualness without editorial opinion and dogmatic expressions.
Strong verbs and nouns preferred over hackneyed words and expressions.
Observance of grammatical and words usage rules.
(a)Journalistic style in its biggest extend has included:(Wikipedia,
Encyclopaedia, and other numerous sources)
(b)Colloquial language: is the language that is informal, this can include
words as well as phrases.
(c)Gobbledygook: is the language that is unnecessary complicated, unclear,
wordy, or include jargon.
55
(d) Journalese:
 Type of jargon used by newspapers writers, language used by
journalists that would never been used in everyday speech.
 BBC guide-style defines journalese as: „journalese comes from
newspaper which have developed a particular style to meet their own
needs some of them have moved a very long way from Standard
English.‘
2.9.2 Jargon and Journalese:
According to Collins, Jargon is firstly ‗specialized language concerned with
a particular subject, culture, or profession.‘ And second, ‗language
characterized by pretentious syntax, vocabulary, or meaning.‘ An audience is
broad, so any jargon in the first sense must be translated into terms that all
readers can understand. Jargon in the second sense is just bad writing
Collin‘s third and fourth meanings are ‗gibberish‘, and another word
‗pidgin‘. On the other hand journalese may be blamed on tabloid newspaper
specially their subs. Headlines across short measures have led to overused of
words such as bid, spark, move, hit ,blow, top, chief, crisis, drama,
etc…That language has migrated from headlines to body copy.
On this regard Gorge Orwell (1946) on his book (Politics and English
language) has puts out six points as a rule for journalistic style to avoid
ambiguity are from (Politics and English language Gorge Orwell,1946).
 Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech you are used
to see in print.
 Never used a long word where a short one will do.
 If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
 Never use the passive where you can use the active.
56
 Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you
can think of an everyday English equivalent.
 Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
2.9.3 Jargon and Journalese:
According to Collins, Jargon is firstly ‗specialized language concerned with
a particular subject, culture, or profession.‘ And second, ‗language
characterized by pretentious syntax, vocabulary, or meaning.‘ An audience is
broad, so any jargon in the first sense must be translated into terms that all
readers can understand. Jargon in the second sense is just bad writing
Collin‘s third and fourth meanings are ‗gibberish‘, and another word
‗pidgin‘. On the other hand journalese may be blamed on tabloid newspaper
specially their subs. Headlines across short measures have led to overused of
words such as bid, spark, move, hit ,blow, top, chief, crisis, drama,
etc…That language has migrated from headlines to body copy.
On this regard Gorge Orwell (1946) on his book (Politics and English
language) has puts out six points as a rule for journalistic style to avoid
ambiguity are from (Politics and English language Gorge Orwell,1946).
 Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech you are used
to see in print.
 Never used a long word where a short one will do.
 If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
 Never use the passive where you can use the active.
 Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you
can think of an everyday English equivalent.
 Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
57
2.9.4 Jargon Concept and Function
In every profession certain unique language is used. Words in one profession
may be similar to those used outside the profession, yet the meaning may be
quite different. Journalism is one of those professions with a unique
language used to identify departments, parts of newspaper and types of
writing and formatting.
Jargon is any overly obscure, technical, or bureaucratic words that would
not be used in everyday language. (Wikipedia, Columbia Encyclopaedia,
Google search and other sources online). Also jargon can be defined as: A
type of shorthand (means: fast way of writing abbreviations and symbols,
Cambridge dictionary) between a particular group of people, often words
that are meaningless outside of certain context. These as: a spread which
means (a big story accompanied with pictures), leg : refers (to a column),
beat: is (a reporter topic area), copy boy: is (an older term for a man or a
woman that keeps the news room running smoothly by answering phones,
etc…………)
Jargon is literary term that is defined as a use of specific phrases and words
by writers in a particular situations profession or trade. These specialized
terms are used to convey hidden meanings accepted and understood in that
field as journalistic headlines and news in journalism and this type of
journalistic jargon will be the focus of present study.
The use of jargon becomes essential in prose, or verse, or some technical
pieces of writing when the writer intends to convey something only to the
readers who are aware of these terms. Therefore jargon was taken in early
times as trade language or as language of profession, because it is somewhat
unintelligible for other people who don‘t belong to that particular profession.
In fact, jargon is a specific terms that developed to meet the needs of a group
58
of people working in the same field or occupation. Barry Baddock (1988:12)
explains the essential of acquiring and understanding these strategies and
techniques regarding the journalistic jargon which have been used in writing
the headlines and news:
‗The most compelling argument for studying headlines is
that you need to be able to interpret them, for this is one
of the skills required by any one in an English culture. A
person who cannot „use‟ headlines to grasp the gist of
newspaper articles is at a big advantage: he browses
through newspaper so as to choose what to read, skim or
ignore‟.
The use of jargon in prose and verse, it seems an unintelligible approach to
the people that do not know the meanings. As jargon used in literature, they
are used to emphasize a situation or to refer to something exotic to readers or
audiences. In fact, the use of jargon in literature shows the dexterity of the
writer of having knowledge of the phrases. Writers use jargon to make a
certain character a real one in fiction as well as in plays or poetry, and
extensively used in the writing of headlines and news in newspapers.Some
examples of jargons that has been used by some groups as business group
(www skwirk.com…writing/required skills)
group jargon Meaning

operationalized Carry out, to put into
action
proactive To act first and in a
Business people positive way
learnings Things that have been
learned
functioality Referring to functions
or features of a product
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Some examples of journalistic expressions that people never say: here is a
list, followed by easy and understandable alternatives :( posted by Bobing
Russia in February, 2012/media industry.
jargon meaning jargon Meaning
Fled on foot Ran away/ high Reduce Cut costs

rate of speeding expenditure
Terminate fire Incendiary Bomb
employment device
vehicle Car reside Live
Lower legs Utilize Use
extremities
Physical fight Verbal Argument
altercation altercation
Blunt force injury Discharged the Shot
trauma weapon
Transport the Take him/ her Vehicle Truck
victim
2.9.5 The Choice and Meaning of Words

The analysis of particular words used in newspaper texts is almost the first
stage of any text or discourse analysis. Words convey the imprint of society
and of value judgment in particular- they convey connoted and denoted
meanings. All type of words, but particularly nouns adjectives, verbs, and
adverbs carry connoted in addition to denoted meanings.(John
E.Retchard,2007 :47) . Take this text, published in the Guardian Weekly,
which examined the words used by journalists during the 1991war against
Iraq (cited in Allan,2004: 162-163)
60
We have They have
Army, navy, and air A war machine

force
Reporting Censorship
restrictions
Press briefings Propaganda
We They
Suppress Destroy
Eliminate Kill
Neutralise Kill
We launch They launch
First strike Sneak attacks
Pre-emptively Without provocation
George Bush (Snr) Saddam Hussein is
is
At peace with Demented
himself
Resolute Defiant
The alternatives in each of these pairings could, arguably, have been used to
refer to the same person, people or action, but the ideological constraints,
meant that they very rarely were. The words used to communicate the
message‘s‘ of a text –whether about an individual, a group of people, an
event, a predicted or expected event a process, a state of affairs or any of the
other subjects and themes of newspapers texts- framing of these texts
achieved through such choices demonstrates 'how racialised' us and them''
61
frequently under-printed some journalists ‗choice of descriptive terms' (Ibid:
162). Elements of such racialised reporting practices remain in the 2003
invasion of Iraq. For instance:
“British in battle to liberate Basra”. (London Evening Standard,26 March
2003)
―British troops were poised to inter Basra today after an
uprising by the local population against Iraqi army units led
to a bloodbath. The Iraqi soldiers shelled rioting crowds
with mortars, fought hand to hand battles and used machine
guns to cut down unarmed protesters. Thousands had taken
to the street in a revolt against troop‟s resisting the advance
of coalition forces.....”
It is important to state, first, that the actual event reported here did not take
place . Although ‗British forces claimed that there had been a popular
uprising in Basra, these reports 'were later revealed (noted by al-Jazeera
inside the city) to be untrue'.(Lewis and Brookes,2004:139).Apart from this
fact , look in the above expert how the action of Iraqi soldiers are described
and compare to the actions of British soldiers :The violence of Iraqis is
referred to directly, spelled out in specific terms (they shelled rioting crowds
with mortars ,fought hand to hand battles and used machine guns to cut
down unarmed protesters), and their after affects clearly stated: they led to' a
bloodbath'. The British soldiers, on the other hand, are represented only in
terms of movements, they 'advanced' and ‗were poised to enter Basra'. Any
sense that the British troops were also shelling and killing –often innocent
Iraqis- is conveniently glossed over, through the choice of verbs. In adition
to that, John E. Richardson (2007:205) also explains the choices of process:
62
‗the chosen of the process in writing the headlines must be considered. First,
and must obviously, verbs may be more or less euphemistic, or carry more
or less negative meanings for instance :
The newspaper Independent,26 March 2003, reported ‗‟UK marines finally
calm the port that proved so resistant‟. The Independent‟s use of „calm‟ as a
verb, is highly ideological: babies are calmed, animals may be calmed; the
Iraqi port in question was conquered by force.‟ Another example cited by
John E. Richardson(2007) to illustrate the strength of ideological square
when interpreting ambiguous statement what have been reported in the
(Sun,11 April 2003):
„UK cleric butchered at Shrine.‘ In this case a passivized verb without agent:
‗I contend that this would not be the first guess of the majority of readers,
butchery, slaughter, and indeed killing, in general, are reportedly not
activities that ‗We‘ committed during the war and, when combined with a
British victim, the implicature will always be that ‗they did it‘, whoever
‗they‘ to be at any one time‘. Consequently, deliberate choices of words and
phrases in journalistic texts and news participate in creating the journalistic
jargon.
2.10 Naming and Reference

Referential strategy or nomination strategy,
„by which social actors are constructed or represented for
example, through the creation of in-groups and out-groups.
This is done through a number of categorization devices,
including metaphors, metonymies, etc..‘(Reisigal and
Wodak,2001:49)
63
The way that people are named in news discourse can have significant
impact on the way in which they are viewed. We all simultaneously pose a
range of identities, roles, and characteristics that could be used to describe us
equally accurately but not with the same meaning.
The manner in which social actors are named identifies not only the groups
that are associated with (or at least groups that the speaker/reader wants
them to be associated with) it can also signal relationship between the namer
and the named. As Blommaert (2005:11) explains:
“Apart from referential meaning, acts of communication
produce indexical meaning, social meaning, interpretative
leads between what is said and the social occasion in which
it is being produced. Thus the word ‗sir‘ not only refers to a
male individual, but the role relationship of deference and
politeness entailed by this status‖.
The reader, for example, may be female as well as being student, and a
barmaid, and British , and a Muslim, and autistic, and so on adding many
other categories. Journalists have to provide names for people in the events
they report and this naming always involves a choice. And logically , by
choosing one social category over another, they include them within
category and exclude them from other different categories- or perhaps,
choose to foreground one social category over other equally accurate
alternatives. Reisigl and Wodak (2001) have called these naming options a
text's ''referential strategies'', and have illustrated that choosing to describe
individual (or a group) as one thing or as another 'can serve many different
psychological, social or political purposes{....} on the side of the speaker or
writers'(p.47) For example a social actor may be individualised in order to
emphasise his ordinariness or 'every man' qualities, or collectivised under
64
abroad range f groupings, each with different explicit and implicit meanings
(see van Leeuwen, 1996). With a little effort we can imagine someone who
could as accurately be 'a Kurd' or 'a drunk‘ or 'Sheffield man 'or 'an ex-
policeman' or ' a communist' or by using a range of other collectivised terms.
But there are significant and clearly apparent differences between the
explicit and (donated) and implicit (connoted) meanings of these terms. Take
this very interesting example: in an article reporting the (temporary) defeat
in the House of Lords of New Labour's attempt to introduce indefinite house
arrest (Lord Irvine joinsrebellion as peers inflict defeat on anti-terror Bill.
Independent, 8 March 2005).
Here Earl the conservative of Onslow makes a persuasive point regarding
the redundant nature of the Government's Terror Bill given existing
conspiracy laws, it is the name Mohammed el- Smith' that interest me here-
what does this referential strategy imply? The name is a clever variation on
the name 'Jog Bloggs' or the American 'John Doe' this is the hypothetical
'average man', or in this case , the hypothetical 'average terrorist' . Here,
Smith – the most common family name in Britain – is combined with''
Mohammed'' a name understandably associated with Islam. It is through the
use of ‗‗Mohammed‘‘ as a first name that the Earl implies (or perhaps lets
slip) he believes the hypothetical average terrorist suspect to be Muslim.
The chosen referential strategies perform a function within the text. Not only
they project meaning and social values onto the referent, they also establish
coherence relations with the way that other social actors are referred to and
represented. Clark (1992), for example, has examined the way in which the
tabloid Sun newspaper report incidents of sexual violence, such as rape,
Clark argues that when reporting a crime of this type, the news article holds
65
up one of the participants as being to blame for the incident – literally as'' the
victim''- and this is reflected in the way that they are named.
So if the Sun'' decides‘‘ that the man was to blame for the attack , he is
referred as a ''maniac' a ''monster', a ''fiend', a ''beast'' and other terms which
suggest sub-humanity, depravity and animalistic abandon. On the other hand
, if The Sun decides that it was the woman's fault , that she ‗led the man on'
or invited the attack, then she is referred to as a ''lolita' '' an unmarried mum''
,''a divorcee'', and using adjectives which draw attention to her physical
shape or her appearance, like ''busty-----‗,‗shapely----‗, or ‗blonde-----'' On
the discourse of The Sun ''Busty divorcees'' are never attacked by fiends'
instead, the men who attack ''Busty divorcee'' are represented as blameless
and described by name or using respectable terms , like ‗family man‘or
proximate colloquial terms like ''hubby''. And when the man is a ‗fiend‘, the
women attacked are , by contrast , referred to in ways which suggest
innocence like, ''bride' , ''school girl'', ''mother of three'', ''daughter'', etc...So
you get a squared relationship, where ―Bad man {sex fiend} attack innocent
women {Mum, daughter} Bad women {busty divorcee} provoke innocent
men {hubby}. Related to this is work of Teun Van Dijk . In a serious of
studies, he has developed a conceptual tool called ''the ideological square'',
which suggests determine choices between referential strategies. He suggests
that the ideological square is characterised by a Positive Self Presentation
and a simultaneous Negative Self Presentation, it is a way of perceiving and
representing the world – and specifically ''our' and ''their'' actions, position
and role within the world. The ideological square predicts that ''outsiders'' of
various types will be represented in a negative way. This occurs by
emphasising (what is called foregrounding) ‗their‘ negative characteristics
and social activities. Conversely, ''our'' positive characteristics and social
66
activities are fore-grounded and'' our'' negative characteristics and social
activities are back-grounded. divorcee'', and using adjectives which draw
attention to her physical shape or her appearance, like ''busty-----‗,‗shapely--
--‗, or ‗blonde-----'' On the discourse of The Sun ''Busty divorcees'' are never
attacked by fiends' instead, the men who attack ''Busty divorcee'' are
represented as blameless and described by name or using respectable terms ,
like ‗family man‘or proximate colloquial terms like ''hubby''. And when the
man is a ‗fiend‘, the women attacked are , by contrast , referred to in ways
which suggest innocence like, ''bride' , ''school girl'', ''mother of three'',
''daughter'', etc...So you get a squared relationship, where ―Bad man {sex
fiend} attack innocent women {Mum, daughter} Bad women {busty
divorcee} provoke innocent men {hubby}. Related to this is work of Teun
Van Dijk . In a serious of studies, he has developed a conceptual tool called
''the ideological square'', which suggests determine choices between
referential strategies. He suggests that the ideological square is characterised
by a Positive Self Presentation and a simultaneous Negative Self
Presentation, it is a way of perceiving and representing the world – and
specifically ''our' and ''their'' actions, position and role within the world. The
ideological square predicts that ''outsiders'' of various types will be
represented in a negative way. This occurs by emphasising (what is called
foregrounding) ‗their‘ negative characteristics and social activities.
Conversely, ''our'' positive characteristics and social activities are fore-
grounded and'' our'' negative characteristics and social activities are back-
grounded.
This ideological square is observable across all linguistic dimensions of a
text. Starting with referential strategies, positive terms are used to refer to
''Us'' and ''Our country'' and negative words to ''Them'', and ''Their
67
country'',''Their values'', etc...Take these headlines for example: This illegal
immigrant drink driver killed a boy in an uninsured motor. (Sun,
2March2005) In the this headline, the sub-editor working for the Sun
decided that ''drink-driver'' wasn't enough to convey the wickedness of the
person responsible for this unfortunate accident – he was an immigrant and
an illegal one at that. Without even knowing the full facts of this man's case,
there are clearly many other ways that he could have been referred to. Here
the journalist grudgingly acknowledge the alternative referential strategy of
a ''Home Office insider'', who said that the perpetrator ''is entitled to stay in
this country until the full appeals procedure is exhausted. In those terms we
would not call him an illegal immigrant – he is an overstayer. Lacking the
combined negative impact of ''illegal' (strategy: criminalisatio) and ''
immigrant'' (strategy: de-spatialisation). Another definition of ideological
square has been presented by Moon and Rolison(1998:129) as they state that
positive words will be used to describe ‗our‘ actions, and negative words
will be used more frequently to describe ‗their‘. ‗when they are not absent or
excluded, the working class may be rendered hypervisible through
foregrounding an assemblage of ‗social defects.‘ In contrast to the ‗good‘,
deserving poor ‗who are industrious and know their place‘, The‗bad‘
working class tend to be ‗discursively associated with ‘waste‘ and
fecklessness.‘ Munt (2000:8) puts that: ‗The ‗good‘ working class- where
they appear in the news-tend to be depicted through archetypes as the honest
factory hand or ‗our Mum‘, symbol of hearth and home‘; the hyper-visible
‗bad; working class, on the other hand, are ‗lads and tarts, yobs and slags‘,
‗the profligate spender,‘ ‗fat, cigarette-smoking, beer-drinking men who
have become a drain on the social body‘(ibid).Kyle Conway and Susan
Bassnett (2006: 10) state that:
68
‗Media texts not only mirror reality but also construct versions of it, and
analysis can show how and when certain choices are made-what is
excluded/included, foreground/background, made explicit/implicit,
thematized/silenced.’In addition to that colours can be used to describe ‗our‘
and ‗other‘ as ‗dark and light which are salient features (Kress and Van
Leeueen, 1996) dark for „others‟, the bad people who steal and deal drugs,
light, white, and orange for „good guys‟ who will cleanse the city of
threatening inhabitants. In this way the image combine metaphorical,
metonymic, and pragamatic devices in intricate ways. Also the depiction of
the („other‟ employs biological characteristics, like skin colour, certain
hairstyles, dark eyes, etc.. ).(Norikio Iwamoto: 51)
69
Part Two
Literature Review
2.1 The first study is titled ―Translating Historical and Religious text from
Arabic into English, problems and Solutions” , Prof. Bader D. Weik and
Wafa'a Abu Helwah Middle East University , Amman , Jordan.
This research aimed at investigating the linguistic and cultural problems that
Jordanian graduate students face in rendering historical and religious text
from Arabic into English, Exploring the causes of these problems and
presenting solutions and recommendations to lesson these difficulties.
Results of the study revealed various linguistic and cultural problems that
graduate students faced such as encountering structural stylistic, lexical,
punctuation errors and cultural terms. i.e. proper noun equivalence. Results
also indicated that these problems were caused by (1) some differences
between the source and target linguistic system. (2) Lack of awareness of
the importance of the context in translation. (3) Students ignorance of
cultural equivalences. (4) Adopting improper translation methods, and (5)
misusing dictionaries and other research tools, like Google translation. The
limitation and limit, of this study, may be not generalized to whole society of
translators. They are limited the students in the M.A. program in the Middle
East University during the 1st semester (2012/2013).
The second study" The Translation of English Media Collocations into
Arabic: Problems and Solutions‖. Assistant lectures Ali Abdul Hameed
Faris and Ass. Lecture Ali Sahu, their research deal with the translation of
English collocations into Arabic. A collocation is a combination of two or
more words that always occur together, the paper hypothesize that students
encounter difficulties in translating English collocation into Arabic. Their
70
study result of the tests comes up with the hypothesis of the study that 70%
of the testes face difficulties in the translation of English collocation into
Arabic. The difficulties that encountered the students in translating the
English collocations into Arabic, hence the collocation a combination of two
or more words always occurs in different contexts in language that is, a
certain noun occurs with a certain adjective e.g.‖
blind confidence" (‫ )شمح عًياء‬a verb with a noun e.g. "' draw a sword " ( ‫يسرم‬
ّ‫ )سيف‬.
The researchers Ali Abdul Hamed Faris and Rasha Ali Sahu. Asserted that,
the translation of English collocation into Arabic poses three main general
problems. First the difficulty of generalizations: some English words
collocate with one and the same word for example: seize the opportunity
has an identical collocation in Arabic (‫ )يُرٓض انفشصح‬yet , we do say in Arabic
(‫ (يُرٓض انسهطح‬for (seize power), but ‫ يسرٕني عهٗ انسهطح‬, thus " seize " is not
always (‫)يُرٓض‬. Thus students cant generalize the meaning of a ward which
collocates with different words. It can be different from once collocation to
another.
The second problem is the variability of collocations. Different collocations
for the same meaning can be existed in English but they have one
collocation and one single meaning in Arabic, ―Well and good‖ / ―right and
proper" (‫)تصحح ٔعافيح‬
The third problem is the cultural collocations encountered the students such
collocations are specific to English culture and people thus the collocations "
as pretty as a picture" is not be translated as (‫ )جًيم كانصٕسج‬but ( ٍ‫أحهٗ ي‬
‫ )انصٕسج‬. This kind of mistranslation is due to the ignorance of testees in the
cultural side of English.
71
The third is study is ―The problem of translating English Linguistic
Journalistic Terminology into Arabic‖, Antar Sohly Abdella, SOAS,
University of London. Regarding the research second hypotheses, Antar
Sohly stated that, the problem of translating English Linguistic Terminology
into Arabic, translation might be the eldest device developed by human to
communicate ideas, thought, and culture, to overcome the problem of having
different languages. Translation in Enani (1997) view is a modern science on
the borderline of philosophy, linguistics, psychology and sociology
translation can be viewed as a science, an art and a skill. Chabban (1984)
points out that it is a science in the sense that it necessitates complete
knowledge of the structure and make-up of the two languages concerned. It
entails art fullness in reconstructing the product into something presentable
to the reader who is supposed not to know the original it is a skill because it
entails the ability to smooth over any difficulty in the expression of the
translation and the ability to give a translation of something that has no equal
in the language of translation. Antar Sohly Abdellah stated that : one area of
translation that presents a high level of difficulty is the translation of
terminology in any field of science. The best equivalent representation for a
target language version terminology can only be achieved with the
cooperation of both professional translator and a professional in particular
field.
The fourth study is on ―Translating Press Idiomatic into Arabic‖ by Muna
Ahmed Al Sahwi, volume (3) number 6, (2012) AMARA BAC , stated that
the idioms cannot be understood from the individual meaning of its elements
culture plays an important role in the course of the idiom interpretation.
Only by having a solid foundations of the culture of the target language. The
translator can catch the implied meaning it, therefore, requires enhancing
72
cross- cultural awareness and needs open- minded understanding of the
cultural awareness and needs open-minded understanding of the culture of
the second language from different aspects, moreover, the difference
between the different aspects, moreover, the difference between the source
language and the target languages well as variation in their cultures makes
the process of translating a real challenge. Among the problematic factor
involved in translation are the social and the religious cultures.
Muna Ahmed Al-Shawi stated that, the main objective of this study however
will focus on the problem of translating idioms both in social and religious
culture from Arabic into English language and vise versa.
The fifth study is linked with the translation of tenses from media ―"
Problems in Translating Media Tenses from English into Arabic , the
Present Perfect:‖ A case study, Mis Sekhri Ouided, Dr. Ahmed Sid Maoues.
Miss sekhri, Dr. Ahmed Sid Maoues stated that translating the present
perfect simple from English into Arabic through use of ( ‫ لذ‬+ the past) is not
pleasing all translator because it doesn't always, suit the context. I agree with
some scholars who think that the present perfect is translated according to
the context and for that this study focuses on a comparison between English
and Arabic tenses and attempts to seek the best method for translating the
present perfect into Arabic. It also emphasizes its use and its suggested
appropriate translation in order to lift this ambiguity.
The research question is about the difficulties that a second year student may
face when translating the present perfect from English into Arabic. The
researcher hypothesis is that, second year student face difficulties because of
lack of equivalence between Arabic and English at the level of tenses.
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CHAPTER THREE
74
CHAPTER THREE
3. 0 Introduction
This chapter will provide a full description of the research methodology
adopted as well as the research instruments employed. Moreover, the
validity and reliability of these instruments will be confirmed.
3.1 Study population and sample
The study population was MA students and the teaching staffs of the Sudan
University of Science and Technology, College of Languages. This is a
mixed classroom setting comprising both males and female students. All
the students are aged 23-30 years old. They have already studied
translation as part of their undergraduate Curriculum. So they are well
placed to take the test (pre- and post –test).
3.2 Research Design
This type of research calls for a certain way to collect data in real teaching
learning situation. So the most appropriate approach to be followed here is
the mixed approach where both quantitative and qualitative techniques are
adhered to in one single research. According to (Bryman, 1992), quantitative
data are information about the world words in use of numbers, whereas,
qualitative data are information about the world in use of words. Decombe
(2003), drew a comparison between the two techniques, he stated out that
the analysis of the quantitative data provides a solid foundation for
description and analysis.
3.3 Tools and sample of the study
The tools drawn upon to collect data for the present research are the
questionnaire and pre-and post test. The sample of the study was thirty
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students from Sudan University of Science and Technology and five tutors
from the English department who showed interest to offer a helping hand.
The following table and figure shows the number of distributed
questionnaire, the number of received questionnaire with full-required
information and the responses percentage.
(A) SEX
Table (3-1) shows teachers‟ numbers and their distribution according to sex.
Sex Frequency Percentage
Male 25 50%
Female 25 25%
Total 50 100.0%
Figure (3.1): the frequency distribution for the study respondents according
to sex
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From the above table (3.1) and figure (3.1) it is shown that most of the
study's respondents are males, the males participants are (25) with
percentage (50%) The female respondents number is (50) with percentage
(100.%). This indicates that males represent the majority.
(B) Academic Qualifications
Table (3.2): The Frequency Distribution for the study Respondents
according to academic qualification
Qualifications No %
BA 27 54%
Higher Dip 5 10%
MA 5 10%
PhD 13 26%
Total 50 100%
Figure (3.2): the frequency of the study respondents according to academic

qualification.
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The shape of the table above for the researcher turned out that the majority
of respondents chose to answer BA the number of iterations reached (72)
representing (%45) then Category (PhD) the number of iterations reached
(13) representing (26) then Category (Higher Dip) and (MA) the number of
iterations reached (5) representing (10) .
(C) Years of Experience
Table (3.3): The Frequency Distribution for the study Respondents
according to years of experience
Experience No %
1-5 years 6 12%
6-10 years 15 30%
11-15 years 13 26%
More than 16 years 16 32%
Total 50 100%
Figure (3.3): the frequency distribution for the study respondents according
to years of experience
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The shape of the table above for the researcher turned out that the majority
of respondents chose to answer (More than 16 years) the number of
iterations reached (16) representing (32%) then Category (6-10 years) the
number of iterations reached (15) representing (30) then Category.
2. 4 Tutors Questionnaire
The questionnaires were considered as the main tool for gathering data on
the topic of research. Brown (2001:6) defines questionnaires as ―any written
instruments that presents respondents with a series of questions or
statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers or
selecting from among existing answers‖. Quoted in Dornyei (2003:3). The
questionnaires are widely used mostly by researchers as they are thought to
be easier to plan and administer in comparisons with other tools, but he also
asserts that questionnaires take much time and work. The main advantages
of questionnaires can be summarized as:
3.5 procedures of distributing and collecting the questionnaire
The researcher distributed (60) questionnaire forms to the tutors of different
universities in Khartoum. (57) Forms were received back, but only (50) of
them were suitable for analysis. This questionnaire was prepared to achieve
the objectives of the study and confirm the hypotheses to find out
appropriate solution for the problem of the study.
A questionnaire consist of fifteen questions divided into three distinct
categories namely on the syllabus, the tutors and the material to be presented
and handled.
The data which was collected with a questionnaire and a diagnostic test
will be analyzed statistically. In addition, the descriptive statistic is used,
too. The results of the analysis, the percentages table and figures will explain
in detail in chapter four.
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3-6 Validity and Reliability
Validity and reliability are two very important criteria for assuring the
quality of the data collection procedure in social sciences research. Merriam
(1998) argues that all kinds of research are concerned with producing valid
and reliable knowledge in an ethical manner. Validity and reliability will be
utilized as criteria for judging the quality of this research design.
3-7 Validity of the Study
Validity is the touch stone of all the types of educational research a
researcher will try to ensure. (Cohen, etal; 2007). In qualitative research,
validity might be addressed through the honesty, depth, richness and scope
of data achieved, the participants approached, the extent of triangulation and
objectivity of the researcher(Winter, cited in Cohen,etal,2007), while in
quantitative research, validity might be proved through careful sampling,
appropriate method and appropriate statistical data analysis. In establishing
the validity of a survey method in the form of questionnaire, the researcher
had to consider its sampling context and construct which some researchers
called content validity and construct validity. To achieve the validity of the
questionnaire, the initial version of the questionnaire was first designed and
given to three doctors for its face, content and construct validity and its
applicability to the content of the study. Some changes to the questionnaire
were recommended by those who participated in this pilot. Some items on
the questionnaire were deleted and some were modified because they were
deemed to be too conceptually demanding for the intended participants,
especially when it comes to the meaning of culture. New items were added
to cover all areas of the research questions and some statements were
rewarded to make them easier for the participants to comprehend. In
addition, the layout of the questionnaire was changed to look easier to
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follow. After this piloting, the necessary changes were made on the
questionnaire.
As for the interview, the researcher asked a panel of experts (see appendix
B) to evaluate the questions of the interview and find out if the questions
measures what they were supposed to measure. They recommended deleting,
editing and adding some questions to the interview and according to the
comment of the panel, the interview was modified.
3.8 The questionnaire’s referees and their jobs and places of work
No. Name Job Qualification Place of work

1 Dr. Najlaa Bashari Assis. Ph.d holder SUST
Prof
2 Dr. Hilary M. Pitia Assis. Ph.d holder SUST
Prof
3 Dr. Ahmed Mukhtar Associate Ph.d holder SUST
Prof
(B) Statistical Reliability and Validity:

It is meant by the reliability of any test, to obtain the same results if the same
measurement is used more than one time under the same conditions. In
addition, the reliability means when a certain test was applied on a number
of individuals and the marks of every one were counted; then the same test
time on the same group and the same marks were obtained; then we can
describe this test as reliable. In addition, reliability is defined as the degree
of the accuracy of the data that the test measures. Here are some of the most
used methods for calculating the reliability:
1. Split-half by using Spearman-Brown equation.
2. Alpha-Cronbach coefficient.
3. Test and Re-test method
4. Equivalent images method.
5. Guttman equation.
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On the other hand, validity also is a measure used to identify the validity
degree among the respondents according to their answers on certain
criterion. The validity is counted by a number of methods, among them is
the validity using the square root of the (reliability coefficient). The value of
the reliability and the validity lies in the range between (0-1). The validity of
the questionnaire is that the tool should measure the exact aim, which it has
been designed for.
The researcher calculated the validity statistically using the following
equation:
Validity  Re liability
The researcher calculated the reliability coefficient for the measurement,

which was used in the questionnaire using (split-half) method. This method
stands on the principle of dividing the answers of the sample individuals into
two parts, i.e. items of the odd numberse.g. (1, 3, 5, ...) and answers of the
even numberse.g. (2, 4,6 ...). Then Pearson correlation coefficient between
the two parts is calculated. Finally, the (reliability coefficient) was calculated
according to Spearman-Brown Equation as the following:
2r
Reliabilit y Coefficien t 
1 r
r = Pearson correlation coefficient
For calculating the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire from the
above equation, the researcher was distributed about (20) questionnaires to
respondents. In addition, depending on the answers of the pre-test sample,
the above Spearman-Brown equation was used to calculate the reliability
coefficient using the split-half method; the results have been showed in the
following table:
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Table (3-9)
The statistical reliability and validity of the pre-test sample about the study
questionnaire
Hypotheses Reliability Validity
First 0.70 0.84
Second 0.80 0.89
Third 0.76 0.87
Four 0.83 0.91
Overall 0.78 0.88
We note from the results of above table that all reliability and validity
coefficients for pre-test sample individuals about each questionnaire's theme,
and for overall questionnaire, are greater than (50%), and some of them are
nearest to one. This indicates to the high validity and reliability of the
answers, so, the study questionnaire is valid and reliable, and that will give
correct and acceptable statistical analysis.
Statistical Instruments
In order to satisfy the study objectives and to test its hypotheses, we use the
following statistical instruments:
1. Graphical figures.
2. Frequency distribution.
3. Person correlation coefficient.
4. Spearman-Brown equation for calculating Reliability coefficient.
5. Median
6. Non-parametric Chi-square test. In order to obtain accurate results,
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used. In addition, to
83
design the graphical figures, which are needed for the study, the computer
program (Excel) was also used.
3.9 Application of the Study’s Tool:

After the step of checking questionnaire reliability and validity, the
researcher had distributed the questionnaire on determined study sample (30)
persons, and the researcher constructed the required tables for collected data.
This step involves transformation of the qualitative (nominal) variables
(Strongly agree, Agree, Not sure, Disagree, Strongly disagree) to
quantitative variables (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) respectively, also the graphical
representation have done for this purpose.
84
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION
85
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter presents the analysis of data obtained from experiment, pre-test,
post test and teachers‘ questionnaire.
4.1 Analysis of the Experiment.
The analysis of the experiment will focus on answering vital questions on
the role of media translation and how can be approached and its effects on
classroom interaction as well as its effect on the overall standards of the
students‘ interlanguage and knowledge of English. To answer these
questions, we computed the mean, standard deviation, standard error and
ranges for the pretest- and post-test scores of both experimental and control
groups. T-test was computed to find out whether each group had made any
progress as a direct result of instruction. The following three hypotheses will
be verified or confirmed in view of the analysis of the diagnostic test as well
as the questionnaire for the tutors and students.
The hypotheses to be tested are as follows:
(i) MA students of translation cannot deal effectively with the type of
vocabulary relating to new developments in media genre.
(ii) Journalistic jargon poses certain hurdles for the MA students of
translation.
(iii) The hurdles of journalistic jargon can be dealt with successfully.
(i)Statistical Reliability and validity for student’s test
The reliability coefficient was calculated for the measurement, which was
used in the test using Alpha - Cronbach coefficient Equation as the
following:
86
For calculating the validity and the reliability of the test from the above
equation, the researcher distributed the test to respondents to calculate the
reliability coefficient using the Alpha-Cronbach coefficient the results have
been showed in the following table:
Reliability validity N
ALPH – 0.89 0.93
CRONBACH
Validity = √ .
From the above table it‘s shown that the validity of the test is very high
(0.93). This indicates that if we repeat the test we are sure with 93% that it‘s
going to give us the same results.
Table ( 2) the frequency and percentage distribution of the students
according to section (1)
Valid Frequency Percentage

Success 95 63.3
Failure 55 36.7
Total 150 100
from the above table No.( 2) and figure No (1) it‘s shown that there are as
many as (95) students in the study's sample with percentage (63.2 %) have
managed to produce the right answer in section number 1 (Choose the
meaning of underlined words or phrases from the given four alternatives ) .
There are (55) persons with percentage (have failed). Words are taken from
daily English papers such as New Horizon.
87
Nonstandard test items were more difficult for students to answer correctly
than the standard test items, provided no enhanced ability to discriminate
between higher- and lower-performing students, and resulted in poorer
student performance. Item-writing guidelines should be considered during
test construction. The nature of the questions in this part is idiomatic
expressions taken from Arab News.
Table (3) the frequency and percentage distribution of the students
according to section (1)
Success 90 60
Failure 60 40
Total 150 100
from the above table No.( 3) and figure No (2) its shown that there are (90)
students in the study's sample with percentage ( 60.0%) are success the test
in section number 2 (Choose the words below that best complete the
sentences in the text: ) There are (60 ) persons with percentage (40.2 %) are
failures.
88
60
50
40
60
30
40
20
10
0
Success Failure
The students ‗performance on this section is noticeably better than any other
sections. This is due to the fact that multiple choice questions—also known
as fixed choice or selected response items—require students to identify right
answers from among a set of possible options that are presented to them.
Possible answers are "fixed" in advance rather than left open for the learner
to generate or supply.
The advantage of these items is that they can be scored rapidly, providing
quick feedback to students and enabling efficient ways to assess large
numbers of students over a broad range of content. One drawback is that
constructing good multiple-choice items takes time, especially if you are
writing questions to test higher order thinking.
89
Table (4 ) the frequency and percentage distribution of the students according
to section (3)

Success 96 64
Failure 54 36
Total 150 100
70
60
50
40
64
30
36
20
10
0
Success Failure
Table ( 5 ) one sample T-TEST for the questions of the study

Sections N mean SD t-value DF p-value
1 150 3.6 0.2 14.5 149 0.002
2 150 2.7 1.81 17.1 149 0.001
3 150 3.4 2.44 7.17 149 0.012
For all 150 6.33 4.03 15.50 149 0.032
90
The calculated value of T – TEST for the significance of the differences for
the respondent‘s answers in the section No (1 ) was (14.5 ) which is
greater than the tabulated value of T – TEST at the degree of freedom (149 )
and the significant value level (0.05%) which was (2.34). this indicates that,
there is statistically significant differences at the level (0.05 %) among the
answers of the respondents . this mean that our hypothesis is accepted .
the respondent‘s answers in the section No (2 ) was (17.1 ) which is
greater than the tabulated value of T – TEST at the degree of freedom (149 )
and the significant value level (0.05%) which was (2.34). this indicates that,
the respondent‘s answers in the section No (3 ) was (7.17) which is greater
than the tabulated value of T – TEST at the degree of freedom (149 ) and
the significant value level (0.05%) which was (2.34). this indicates that,
4.2 Analysis of the Questionnaire
The researcher distributed the questionnaire on determined study sample
(50), and constructed the required tables for collected data. This step consists
transformation of the qualitative (nominal) variables (yes , No , to some
extent , and strongly agree) to quantitative variables (1, 2, 3,) respectively,
also the graphical representations were used for this purpose.
Statistical Reliability
Reliability refers to the reliability of any test, to obtaining the same
results if the same measurement is used more than one time under the same
91
conditions. In addition, the reliability means when a certain test was applied
on a number of individuals and the marks of every one were counted; then
the same test applied another time on the same group and the same marks
were obtained; then we can describe this test as reliable. In addition,
reliability is defined as the degree of the accuracy of the data that the test
measures. Here are some of the most used methods for calculating the
reliability:
. Alpha-Cranach coefficient.
On the other hand, validity also is a measure used to identify the validity
degree among the respondents according to their answers on certain
criterion. The validity is counted by a number of methods, among them is
the validity using the square root of the (reliability coefficient). The value of
the reliability and the validity lies in the range between (0-1). The validity of
the questionnaire is that the tool should measure the exact aim, which it has
been designed for.
In this study the validity calculated by using the following equation:
Validity  Re liability
The reliability coefficient was calculated for the measurement, which was
used in the questionnaire using Alpha-Cronbach coefficient Equation as the
following:
For calculating the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire from the
above equation, the researcher distributed (20) questionnaires to respondents
to calculate the reliability coefficient using the Alpha-Cronbach coefficient;
the results have been showed in the following table.
92
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha N of Items
.75 20
4.3 Analyzing the Questionnaire

Statement No (1). Socio-linguistic approach is one of the major
approaches to news discourse.
Table No (5) The Frequency Distribution for the Respondent’s Answers
of Statement No. (1).
Variables Frequency Percentage%
Strongly agree 28 23.3
Agree 42 35.0
Neutral 21 17.5
Disagree 14 11.7
Strongly disagree 15 12.5
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No.( 14) and figure No (5 ) that there are (28)
persons in the study's sample with percentage (23.3%) strongly agreed with "
Socio-linguistic approach is one of the major approaches to news discourse.
". There are (42) persons with percentage (35.0%) agreed with that, and (21)
persons with percentage (17.5%) were not sure that, and (14) persons with
percentage (11.7%) disagreed. and (15) persons with 12.5% are strongly
disagree.
93
fig (3 )
35
23.3
17.5
11.7 12.5
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

disagree
As far as the varying approaches to media are concerned eight ones have
enlisted: the critical approach, the narrative/pragmatic/stylistic approach,
the corpus-linguistic approach, the practice-focused approach, the diachronic
approach, the socio-linguistic approach, the cognitive approach, the
conversationalist approach. Fetzer and Lauerbach‘s volume (2007) includes
a comparative analysis across language boundaries, focusing on the
mentioned at all.
particular role to play.
94
Statement No (2). The analysis of print media has also been complemented
by studies of audio-visual media, such as radio and television.

Variable Frequency Percentage%
Agree 40 33.3
Neutral 22 18.3
Disagree 22 18.3
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No.(6 ) and figure No (3 ) that there are (20)
visual media, such as radio and television .‖ There are (40) persons with
percentage (33.3%) agreed with that, and (22) persons with percentage
(18.3%) were not sure that, and (22) persons with percentage (18.3%)
disagreed. and (16) persons with 13.3% are strongly disagree.
95
fig (4 )
33.3
16.7 18.3 18.3

13.3
Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

agree disagree
Verbal and non-verbal messages combine to transmit a message and

influence the audience. Close-ups of a speaker, a voice from the off, the
seating arrangement in interviews and talk-shows, etc. can all be meaningful
and fulfill certain functions. Most recently, attention has been given to the
―new media‖, especially the Internet. Analyses here, too, are of a structural
nature, examining the amount of information, the positioning of information,
and the combination of verbal and non-verbal elements in the multimodal
Statement No (3). The media report on a variety of topics, and we find a

number of different genres represented in the print media.
96
Valid Frequency Percentage%

Agree 33 27.5
Neutral 24 20.0
Disagree 27 22.5
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No.(16 ) and figure No ( 6) that there are (21)
genres represented in the print media ". There are (33) persons with
percentage (27.5%) agreed with that, and (24) persons with percentage
disagreed. and (15) persons with112.5% are strongly disagree.
97
fig (5 )
27.5
20 22.5
17.5
12.5

agree disagree
It is absolutely true that media report on a variety of topics, and we find a

number of different genres represented in the print media, including genres
such as obituaries, sports reports, advertisements, horoscopes, and weather
forecasts. A large number of texts, however, are related to political topics.
These texts are normally placed on the first pages of quality newspapers,
with leaders (editorials) and comments being typical genres of print media
which have a particular role to play. These genres do not simply report on
political events in a neutral way, but they provide evaluations and thus can
have an impact on public opinion about politics and also on policy making.
There are a number of cases where the publication of a text in a broadsheet,
often as the result of investigative journalism, has made a politician resign –
the Watergate affair being a case in point, and the recent exposure of British
98
Statement No.(4) The notion of using the journalistic style in writing
headlines and news is the most problematic area for student‟s translation
of Statement No.(4 )

Agree 33 27.5
Neutral 24 20.0
Disagree 27 22.5
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No.(7 ) and figure No ( 6) that there are (21)
The notion of using the journalistic style in writing headlines and news is the
most problematic area for student‟s translation ". There are (33) persons
with percentage (27.5%) agreed with that, and (24) persons with percentage
disagreed. and (15) persons with112.5% are strongly disagree.
99
fig (6 )
27.5
20 22.5
17.5
12.5

agree disagree
It is true that the notion of using the journalistic style in writing headlines
and news is the most problematic area for student‘s translation, Geoffrey
Land(1988:3) describes journalistic style ‗jargon‘ by these words (very
heavy going, unclear, colloquial, puzzling) in his book (what the papers say)
‗Student- wanting to read the language that he is learning-goes along to the
news-stand and buys whatever he can find there; it may be a copy of THE
TIMES, or THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, or perhaps a
weekly like TIME or NEWSWEEK. It doesn‘t really matter it is up-to date
or not. But what a disappointment! He finds it very heavy going, and
doesn’t really understand much. It is not just a question of the vocabulary,
because he has his faithful friend- his pocket dictionary- to hand, but the
style of writing seems so very different from anything he has met so far in
his English studies.
100
Statement No.(5) Media has, in fact, been called the “fourth estate”.
of Statement No.(5 )

Agree 28 23.3
Neutral 17 14.2
Disagree 32 26.7
Total 120 100
Judging by the table above, No.(17 ) and figure No (7 ) that there are (19)
Media has, in fact, been called the “fourth estate”. . ". There are (28)
persons with percentage (23.3%) agreed with that, and (17) persons with
percentage (14.2%) were not sure that, and (32) persons with percentage
(26.7%) disagreed. and (24) persons with120.0% are strongly disagree.
101
fig (7 )
26.7
23.3
20
15.8 14.2

agree disagree
In addition to the state and the public, the media belong to the main actors in
political communication. The media has, in fact, been called the ―fourth
estate‖. Media can reach a large audience, and the speed in which a message
reaches as wide an audience as possible is one of the main values that govern
journalistic practice. Today, where breaking news 24 hours a day is an
established and expected convention, speed is even more vital.
102
Statement No.(6) inter-semiotic translation is, translation between two
semiotic systems (a semiotic system being a system for communication).
Table No (9) The Frequency Distribution for the Respondent’s

Answers of Statement No. (6)
Agree 28 23.3
Neutral 31 25.8
Disagree 17 14.2
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No. (9) and figure No (8 ) that there are (36)
inter-semiotic translation is, translation between two semiotic systems (a
semiotic system being a system for communication). ". There are (28)
(14.2%) disagreed and (8) persons with16.7% are strongly disagree.
103
fig (8 )
30
23.3 25.8
14.2
6.7

agree disagree
Statement No.(7) A communicative translation is produced, when, in a

given situation, the ST uses an SL expression standard for that situation, and
the IT uses a TL expression standard for an equivalent target culture
situation.
Agree 29 24.2
Neutral 17 14.2
Disagree 19 15.8
Strongly disagree 12 10
Total 120 100
As regards the table above, it is clear that there are (43) persons in the
study's sample with percentage (35.8%) strongly agreed with ―A
communicative translation is produced, when, in a given situation, the ST
uses an SL expression standard for that situation, and the IT uses a TL
104
expression standard for an equivalent target culture situation. ". There are
(29) persons with percentage (24.2%) agreed with that, and (17) persons
with percentage (14.2%) were not sure that, and (19) persons with
percentage (15.8%) disagreed. and (12) persons with110.0% are strongly
disagree.
Communicative translation is a translation method that attempts to
render the exact contextual meaning of the source language so that both
content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the
readership. Communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers
an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original.
Semantic translation attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and
syntactic structures of the second language allow, the exact contextual
meaning of the original.
fig (6)
35.8
24.2
14.2 15.8
10

agree disagree
Although, not necessarily a literal translation, it follows the source text

more closely. In contrast, communicative translation centres on the specific
language and culture and focuses on the TL readers. The translation under
this method is clear, smooth and concise.
105
Statement No.(8) The enormous variety of subject-matter in newspapers
means that any one newspaper will invariably contain something of value
or concern to every reader .

Frequency Percentage%
Agree 33 27.5
Neutral 18 15.0
Disagree 17 14.2
Total 120 100
Looking at the above table No.(21 ) and figure No (11 ) that there are (41)
The enormous variety of subject-matter in newspapers means that any one
newspaper will invariably contain something of value or concern to every
reader. ". There are (33) persons with percentage (27.5%) agreed with
that, and (18) persons with percentage (15.0%) were not sure that, and (17)
persons with percentage (14.2%) disagreed. and (11) persons with19.2% are
strongly disagree.
106
fig (7 )
34.2
27.5
15 14.2
9.2

agree disagree
Additionally, teacher usage of non-text book resources such as newspapers

for teaching is not very common. The teachers are usually tied to their
content books as the only text books to use as teaching materials resulting
into a closed and rigid learning and teaching environment.
The aim of introducing newspapers into the classroom is to help the learners
connect with their community, the nation and the world. The newspaper is
commonly referred to as a ‗Living text-book‘ because its information is
always current varied and it is adaptable to all classes and curriculum areas.
The implementers of the program believe that pupils are more likely to retain
the knowledge gained through familiar real life examples in newspapers than
through traditional textbook-centered learning.
107
Statement No. (9) Newspapers report real-life events, and this arouses our
natural curiosity about the world around us and our fellow human beings

Variables Frequency Percentage%
Agree 33 27.5
Neutral 18 15.0
Disagree 8 6.7
Total 120 100
it is clear from the above table No.(22 ) and figure No (12 ) that there are
(57) persons in the study's sample with percentage (47.5%) strongly agreed
with " Newspapers report real-life events, and this arouses our natural
curiosity about the world around us and our fellow human beings. .".
There are (33) persons with percentage (27.5%) agreed with that, and (18)
disagree.
108
fig (9 )
47.5
27.5
15
6.7 3.3

agree disagree
Newspapers are the main source of disseminating information. They play a

key role as agenda-setters in modern society. The function of newspapers in
publicizing issues by giving in-depth view on issues like women,
environment, and poverty is very significant. Press as one of the pillars of
democracy plays a constructive role in the national development. Speed,
techniques and nature of news delivery have changed but the basic purpose
of news and newspapers has remained constant and enduring. Revolution in
technology, conglomeration and globalization have led to a paradigm shift in
the nature of content and delivery of news. Because people depend on
newspapers for their day-to-day information needs, newspapers should act to
inform and educate people on social issues. The socially responsible press
helps the citizens to be well informed on issues of immediate concern to
them. Newspapers help in the emergence of public opinion and in building
up of images through news reporting, expressing views, informing the public
and thereby facilitating public discussion on issues of importance.
109
Statement No. (10) Reading newspapers inside the classroom can help
students discover their own tastes and interests.

of Statement No. (10)

Agree 39 32.5
Neutral 17 14.2
Disagree 10 8.3
Total 120 100
As shown by the above table No.(13 ) and figure No (9 ) that there are (39)
Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, believed that creative imagination
originates in child‟s play. .". There are (39) persons with percentage
(32.5%) agreed with that, and (17) persons with percentage (14.5%) were
not sure that, and (10) persons with percentage (8.3%) disagreed. and (15)
persons with112.3% are strongly disagree.
110
fig ( 9)
32.5 32.5
14.2 12.5
8.3

agree disagree
Newspapers were destined to play a crucial role in shaping ideas and

sensibilities and that the press should undertake this responsibility with a
sense of mission. Students are thus greatly affected by the huge material
presented in the newspaper. He says that a newspaper was not an assembly-
line-production or a factory made commodity. There cannot be an alternative
to a well planned managerial strategy. The press should inform, provoke
debate, and even entertain. But it should refrain from distorting facts or
sensationalizing events to attract readership. Restraint is needed while
reporting sensitive incidents. While, zealously guarding facts, a newspaper
should have an imprint of ideas on the conscience of its readers. Such
deeply-embedded ideas will inspire people to meet a crisis situation.
Pointing out that language newspaper has greater and more variegated role
to play, the responsibility of the media is commensurate with its larger
role in the socio-political milieu of the country.
Some students are sure to be impressed by some of the reporters and try to
follow in their footprints. They constitute their models that they copy as
future journalists.
111
Statement No. (11) English newspapers are an invaluable source of
authentic materials, and their use on the language is very much in keeping
with current thinking and practice in teaching pedagogy.

Agree 39 32.5
Neutral 16 13.3
Disagree 23 19.2
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No.( 13) and figure No (10 ) that there are
with " English newspapers are an invaluable source of authentic
materials, and their use on the language is very much in keeping with
current thinking and practice in teaching pedagogy. .. ". There are (39)
(13.3%) disagreed. and (14) persons with111.7% are strongly disagree.
112
fig ( 10)
32.5
23.3
19.2
13.3 11.7
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

disagree
Newspapers or magazines are a must-have in every classroom, even

beginner classrooms. There are a number of ways to use newspapers in the
classroom, ranging from simple reading exercises to more complex writing
and response assignments. Here are suggestions on how to use newspapers
in class arranged by linguistic objective. As far as reading is concerned we
can have straight forward reading: Have students read an article and discuss.
Ask students to find articles from different nations on a global topic.
Students should compare and contrast how different nations cover the news
story.
113
Statement No. (12) ) The diversity of information in newspapers enables
teachers of English for specific purposes as well as teachers of general
English, to choose current materials to suit the precise needs and interests
of their students.

Agree 32 26.7
Neutral 23 19.2
Disagree 9 17.5
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No.(14 ) and figure No (13 ) that there are
with ") ) The diversity of information in newspapers enables teachers of
English for specific purposes as well as teachers of general English, to
choose current materials to suit the precise needs and interests of their
students. ". There are (32) persons with percentage (26.7%) agreed with
that, and (23) persons with percentage (19.2.3%) were not sure that, and (9)
persons with percentage (17.5%) disagreed. and (12) persons with110.0%
are strongly disagree.
Ask any new ESL/EFL teacher (or, for that matter, a seasoned teacher) what
comes to mind as an authentic reading activity for their learners and almost
114
certainly one of the first things they will say is ―using a newspaper‖. There
has been much use and abuse of newspapers in the ELT profession. This
article takes a fresh look at newspapers and suggests what to do, and what to
perhaps AVOID doing.
fig (13 )
36.7
26.7
19.2 17.5
10

agree disagree
Why do so many teachers like using newspapers? Well, to start with,

newspapers are much more current than coursebooks. There is also a lot of
information in newspapers which make them an excellent springboard for
lessons. Finally, there are lots of different kinds of texts in newspapers
(narratives, stories, letters, advertisements, reports.
If you are going to use a newspaper, the task itself should be authentic
wherever possible, not merely the material. One aim of reading newspapers
should be to encourage their reading outside the classroom as well. If you
TEFLise a text too much, you run the risk of killing the enjoyment from it.
115
Statement No. (13) Newspapers have a degree of open-endedness built
into them; this means that they are particularly suitable for mixed-ability
classes, and that the stronger students in the class will have little or no
advantage .
Agree 35 29.2
Neutral 20 16.7
Disagree 10 8.3
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No.(15) and figure No ( 14) that there are
with " Newspapers have a degree of open-endedness built into them; this
means that they are particularly suitable for mixed-ability classes, and that
the stronger students in the class will have little or no advantage. . ".
There are (35) persons with percentage (16.7%) agreed with that, and (20)
persons with percentage. (8.3%) were not sure that, and (10) persons with
disagree.
116
fig (14 )
39.2
29.2
16.7
8.3 6.7

agree disagree
Use English language newspapers produced for the local community if you
are teaching in a country where English is not an official language. Many
large cities will have a newspaper in English. The topics within these papers
are likely to have more of an impact on the learners than topics that are
specific to the British or American press. Allow learners to select an article
that interests them, work on it and report back to other learners. Be clear on
aims. Is it reading or speaking you want to practice? Or both? Get learners to
read outside class as much as possible. Make your tasks as authentic as the
material. Tasks like ―underline all the verbs in the past‖ are of limited value
and should be used sparingly. Think about what people do when they read
newspapers in their own language. Help learners in mixed classes to become
particularly better learners. Reading is a great way of acquiring language. If
you can get your learners to regularly dip into English newspapers then their
reading skills, writing skills and vocabulary will improve. Talk about
reading and comprehension of English texts with your learners as well, and
share strategies that they use when reading. How often do they use a
117
dictionary for example? At the end of a course, do they feel they are reading
faster or better?
Statement No. (14) A possible explanation for Sudanese students’
reluctance to read and translate can be found in the way in which reading
has been traditionally taught.

Agree 36 30.0
Neutral 22 18.3
Disagree 20 16.7
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No.(17 ) and figure No ( 16) that there are
with " A possible explanation for Sudanese students’ reluctance to read
and translate can be found in the way in which reading has been
traditionally taught.
.". There are (35) persons with percentage (16.7%) agreed with that, and (20)
disagree.
118
fig (16 )
28.3 30
18.3 16.7
6.7

agree disagree
Direct learners to the letters to the editors page of the newspaper. Ask them
to read and translate some of the letters and discuss in pairs which ones they
find most interesting/ controversial/ easy to understand. Feedback on this as
a class. There is often one or more letters in the letter to the editor section
that can spark discussion or a controversy.
Now ask learners to write their own letter to the editor. They can respond to
one of the letters on the page, or they can write about a recent news item.
They must write between 25 and 75 words. When they have finished, ask
them to compare letters with a partner and try to peer correct any big
mistakes. Circulate and monitor. Then post the letters to the editor around
the class. If someone responded to an earlier letter then they should copy and
cut out the original letter to which they are responding.
119
Statement No. (15) In reading lessons teachers do the most the job
,however, newspapers would allow more opportunities for students to read
on their own.


Agree 38 31.7
Neutral 20 16.7
Disagree 13 10.8
Total 120 100
It is clear from the above table No.( 18) and figure No (17 ) that there are
with " In reading lessons teachers do the most the job ,however,
newspapers would allow more opportunities for students to read on their
own. . ". There are (38) persons with percentage (31.7%) agreed with that,
and (20) students with percentage (16.7%) were not sure that, and (13)
persons with percentage (10.8%) disagreed. and (10) persons with18.3% are
strongly disagree.
120
fig (17 )
32.5 31.7
16.7
10.8 8.3

agree disagree
4.3 Summary
This chapter as apparent from its title: Data analysis and discussion, has
analyzed the collected data through the test and the questionnaire to confirm
the hypotheses of the study and find answers for the questions posed in
chapter one.
121
CHAPTER FIVE
FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS,
CONCLUSION AND
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES
122
5.0 Introduction
In this chapter, a brief summary of the results of the data analysis is
presented. The hypotheses are briefly tested, then the recommendations are
being discussed according to the results, and finally suggested further studies
are being stated.
5.1 Summary and results
In this chapter an analysis has been conducted to analyze the data of the
triangular methodology of the study, in order to investigate three hypotheses
of the study.
Recently research in mass media has grown so extensively. In the first
instance, it was the print media which supplied the basis for critical analysis.
Some studies examined the language of the press (e.g. Lüger 1995,
Montgomery 2007), highlighting specific lexical, syntactic and stylistic
features. Comparative studies revealed differences in the language in quality
papers compared to the broadsheets, linking these differences to the specific
readership expectations (e.g. Kress and Trew 1978). In this respect, aspects
such as the truth of reporting and journalists‘ ethics were addressed. Another
area of interest was the analysis of ideology as reflected in the media and in
textual structures.
123
5.2 Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are
suggested:
(i) In order to take full advantage of their students‘ willingness to get
involved, tutors should capture their students‘ attention and interest
and try tom provide them with every possible chance to improve
their standards.
(ii) To increase students‘ practical competence in rendering or
translating the cultural gap must be reduced by means of including
texts known to have that effect as literature.
(iii) Carefully selected material can have a positive effect on the
students‘ overall understanding of the language and can increase
their communicative skills.
(iv) Syllabuses of English language should be carefully designed or
selected from syllabuses designed by native speakers paying
special attention to the local cultures of course accompanied by
exercises on translation.
(v) Tutors should be trained to handle their classes in a way that
promotes their students‘ translating competence.
(vi) Tutors should see to include teaching or learning material from
external sources to open the eyes of their students to the outside
world. This should be taken mainly from newspapers and live
media.
124
5.3 suggestions for further studies
This study puts forward the following suggestions:
(i) Future study to be carried out on relatively larger scales as to
include a number of universities in order to come out with novel
insights in the area in question. Moreover, the present study has
relatively concentrated on the media language in general; more
studies are needed to examine other rhetorical devices from media.
(ii) Much needed research on teacher/students and students/students
relationship which can be advantageous to such kind of studies
when incorporated.
(iii) The present study can be further extended by means of a quasi-
research to have better and different results on areas such as media
translation in broad general terms.
125
Appendix
126
Appendix (1)
The Questionnaire
Statement No (1). Socio-linguistic approach is one of the major

approaches to news discourse.
Statement No (2). The analysis of print media has also been complemented
by studies of audio-visual media, such as radio and television
Statement No (3). The media report on a variety of topics, and we find a

number of different genres represented in the print media.
Statement No.(4) The notion of using the journalistic style in writing

headlines and news is the most problematic area for student‟s translation
Statement No.(5) Media has, in fact, been called the “fourth estate”.
Statement No.(6) inter-semiotic translation is, translation between two

semiotic systems (a semiotic system being a system for communication).
Statement No.(7) A communicative translation is produced, when, in a

given situation, the ST uses an SL expression standard for that situation,
and the IT uses a TL expression standard for an equivalent target culture
situation. .
Statement No.(8) The enormous variety of subject-matter in newspapers

means that any one newspaper will invariably contain something of value
or concern to every reader.
Statement No. (9) Newspapers report real-life events, and this arouses our
natural curiosity about the world around us and our fellow human beings.
Statement No. (10) Reading newspapers inside the classroom can help
students discover their own tastes and interests.
127
Statement No. (11) English newspapers are an invaluable source of
authentic materials, and their use on the language is very much in keeping
with current thinking and practice in teaching pedagogy.
Statement No. (12) ) The diversity of information in newspapers enables

teachers of English for specific purposes as well as teachers of general
English, to choose current materials to suit the precise needs and interests
of their students
Statement No. (13) Newspapers have a degree of open-endedness built

into them; this means that they are particularly suitable for mixed-ability
classes, and that the stronger students in the class will have little or no
advantage
Statement No. (14) A possible explanation for Sudanese students’

reluctance to read and translate can be found in the way in which reading
Statement No. (15) In reading lessons teachers do the most the job
,however, newspapers would allow more opportunities for students to read
on their own
128

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Sudan University of Science and Technology

College of Graduate Studies

Translating Media Text: Problems and Solutions

‫انمشاكم وانحهول‬: ‫ترجمة اننص االعالمي‬

A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the

Submitted by: Supervised by:

Murtada Muhammad Alamin Prof.: Mahmoud Ali Ahmed

‫تسى اهلل انشحًٍ انشحيى‬

‫صدق اهلل العظيم‬

)22( ‫سورة الروم اآلية‬

In the Name of Allah

The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

And among his signs is the creation of the heavens and

, in that are indeed signs for men of sound knowledge.

Quran :(Ar-Rum: Aya No.22)

To my family, wife and daughters..

- Great thanks to Almighty Allah

- My sincere acknowledgements and appreciation are to:

- Sudan University of science and Technology, College of Languages for

- My Supervisor Prof. Mahmoud Ali Ahmed for his great efforts,

Support and assistance in this study

- All who helped me with references,books, and other materials which

AVT Audiovisual Translation

In any case, whether struggle or cooperation, ―politics cannot be conducted

The extreme options in signaling cultural foreignness in a TT fall into the

It is not consistent with the principles of etiquette, the hierarchy of authority,

Sometimes, even where the IT as a whole is not marked by exoticism, a

A fairly literal translation of this reads as follows (Johnstone 1991: 90):

At the extreme of SL bias is interlinear translation, where the IT does not

Disappeared the-cam ping-grounds alighting-places-their and-stopping -

Conversely, if we reverse these columns, we have a set of TTs that are

If translation loss is inevitable even in translating single words, it is

group jargon Meaning

Fled on foot Ran away/ high Reduce Cut costs

2.9.5 The Choice and Meaning of Words

Army, navy, and air A war machine

2.10 Naming and Reference

Figure (3.2): the frequency of the study respondents according to academic

No. Name Job Qualification Place of work

(B) Statistical Reliability and Validity:

The researcher calculated the reliability coefficient for the measurement,

3.9 Application of the Study’s Tool:

Valid Frequency Percentage

Valid Frequency Percentage

Table ( 5 ) one sample T-TEST for the questions of the study

4.3 Analyzing the Questionnaire

Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Table No (6) The Frequency Distribution for the Respondent’s Answers

16.7 18.3 18.3

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Verbal and non-verbal messages combine to transmit a message and

Statement No (3). The media report on a variety of topics, and we find a

Valid Frequency Percentage%

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

It is absolutely true that media report on a variety of topics, and we find a

Valid Frequency Percentage%

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Variable Frequency Percentage%

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Table No (9) The Frequency Distribution for the Respondent’s

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Statement No.(7) A communicative translation is produced, when, in a

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Although, not necessarily a literal translation, it follows the source text