Cross-linguistic influence of English on conjunction system in translated Arabic: a multifactorial corpus-based study

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effects of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) from English on (translated) Arabic, as a recurrent feature of translated language and a key factor in language variation and change. It focuses not only on CLI effects on translation, across different registers, but also considers whether CLI effects in translation may be related to contact-induced language change in original Arabic more generally. This study makes use of a custom-designed and -compiled comparable corpus consisting of a bilingual sub-corpus of original English and Arabic texts, and a monolingual one consisting of translated and non-translated Arabic texts, across two periods of time (1950–1990, and 2000–2020), and four registers (fiction, legal, academic, and journalistic texts). The conjunction system is investigated as the main operationalization of CLI in this study, where a primarily quantitative methodology is used to investigate whether the independent variables of sub-corpus (language and/or translation status), register, and timespan have any significant effects on the frequency, distribution and preferences of connectives and their logico-semantic relations. The findings confirm the overall effect of language/translation status and register, providing support for (covert) CLI effects, which ‘inhibits’ the typical preferences of Arabic writing, leading to a generally reduced use of connectives in translated Arabic.