Problems And Solutions For The Translation Of Idiomatic Expressions From English Into Arabic

Résumé: Idioms form an integral part of any language, and are widely used to express various aspects of life in formal contexts as well as in informal ones. An idiom is indeed a special combination of lexical items with a restricted meaning that cannot be deduced from its constituents. It functions as one lexical unit, in the sense that it engenders a particular meaning that can cause a difficulty for translators lacking a previous knowledge of the target language specifities including its social and cultural background. Within this context, this paper attempts first to bring into light the major predicaments to an accurate and correct translation of idiomatic expressions, which are metaphoricity and culture. We subsequently suggest six strategies that can help translators to convey the exact meaning of the idiomatic expression from such two distinct languages like Arabic and English namely total equivalence, partial equivalence, translation by paraphrasing, translation by omission, translation by cultural substitution, and translation through borrowing.

Publié dans la revue: Revue internationale de Traduction Moderne