Explaining the complexities of cross-linguistic features using comparable Arabic and English corpora

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to conduct a critical inquiry into the status of equivalence in a given context in a bilingual lexicographical work and English–Arabic comparable corpora. This was intended to show the degree of accuracy which old-fashioned approaches and comparable corpora-based ones achieve. The investigation that was launched to demonstrate the degree of accuracy is based on the case of the entries questionnaire and survey, and their Arabic equivalents, al-ʾistiftāʾ and al-ʾistibyān. As these entries and equivalents have been given interchangeable senses in the lexicographical work, the comparable corpora have given evidence of clear-cut distinctions between them. The comparable English–Arabic corpora used in the case study is the Bank of English (WordbanksOnline) and the following three Arabic corpora: Arabic Internet Corpus, Arabic Wikipedia and arabiCorpus. The large-scale comparable English–Arabic corpora-based approach to the intended entries and equivalents has shown the importance of such a method. In spite of comparability between English and Arabic still being underdeveloped, the use of comparable corpora in this paper was identified by adopting the following criteria: sampling frame, genres, proportions and years of natural texts. Each entry with each equivalent were examined in their expanded concordance lines, with a span of about ten n-grams, in order to sketch their contextual senses. This has helped to criticise the contextually inappropriate equivalence of the intended entries. Such an analysis has implied that sketching contexts conveyed by large-scale source and target corpora can help to enhance the reliability of equivalence divisions.