Abstract
Negation hardly comes up as an issue in English–Arabic translation studies. The general assumption is that the translation of English negation into Arabic poses no serious problems to the translator. While this is generally true when it comes to rendering negation marked by generic negative particles/affixes (John is not happy and John is unhappy, respectively) and even lexical and rhetorical implicit negation (John denied having cheated on the test and Can a person like John make such a mistake?), the present paper aims to show that the appropriate textualization into Arabic of English adverbial and determiner negation (e.g., by the adverbials too and hardly, and the determiners little and few) can be a problematic area for Arabic translators. The textual data (270 examples) is extracted from several published translations (belonging to literary, popular science/journalistic, and economic discourse), in an attempt to show what strategies translators follow when encountering such negation and how successful they are. While the findings provide solid evidence for the serious mishaps (about 42% of the renderings involve one kind of problem or another) that Arabic translators experience in this area, the critical discussion unravels several textual strategies that can capture the subtleties inherent in adverbial/determiner negation. It is hoped that the investigation of this subtle, neglected area in English–Arabic translation studies offers significant insights for both student and professional translators.
Highlights
There have been several studies which deal, among other things, with the linguistics of negation in Arabic, where negation is divided into explicit and implicit negation (Anees 1975; Al-Makhzumi 2016; Alsalem 2012; Muslah 2015)
There are no studies, to my knowledge, that raise the question of English non-generic explicit negation by too and -ly adverbs and little and few determiners, which is supposed to be a problematic area because Arabic lacks this type of explicit negation
(16 instances, 25%), (3) mistranslations ook to capture at one example the subtlety where of too the negation translator has failed to capturethe thenegative subtletyadverb of too too with the Arabic intensifiers jiddan in which the is missed by replacing instances) and omission, together 6.25%
Summary
There have been several studies which deal, among other things, with the linguistics of negation in Arabic, where negation is divided into explicit and implicit negation (Anees 1975; Al-Makhzumi 2016; Alsalem 2012; Muslah 2015). The present study, aims to fill in this gap in English–Arabic translation studies by addressing itself to the translation of non-generic adverbial and determiner negation, as an area of contrast between English and Arabic that may cause serious problems. (HP/3) fi-l-waqti-l-munaasib strategies that translators resort to, when modulating this strategies that translators resort to, when modulating th in future) It seems necessary, in such case, to examine English non-generic adverbial/determiner able ‘inqaað-l-fataati saving-the-girl-in-the-time-suitable fi-l-waqti-l-munaasib he girl. In such case, to examine English non-generic adverbial/determiner able ‘inqaað-l-fataati saving-the-girl-in-the-time-suitable fi-l-waqti-l-munaasib he girl Such investigation is is expecte meaning and pragmatics.
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