English-Arabic Dictionary Research Articles

Comparative Study of Google Translate and Yandex of English Latin-Originated Legal Phraseology into Arabic: A corpus-based approach

The use of machine translation has become ubiquitous across various translation practices, especially with the advent of neural machine translation and the integration of deep learning and artificial intelligence in translation program development. While the accuracy and quality of machine translation outcomes have significantly improved, challenges persist particularly in legal translation from English to Arabic. The unique nature of legal discourse and structural differences between English and Arabic make accurately translating legal language features a daunting task. This study aims to evaluate the quality of neural machine translation in rendering legal Latin phraseology into Arabic by comparing two websites: Google Translate and Yandex. A corpus-based approach was adopted where 270 Latin-origin legal terms and phrases were collected, scrutinised, and translated using both platforms. The evaluation focuses on four criteria: inappropriate translations, no translations provided, borrowing (phonetic transliteration into Arabic), and equivalence—the culturally and functionally suitable translation. Key findings indicate that despite significant advancements in machine translation technology, accuracy remains a critical issue, with approximately half of the terms not translated correctly. While Google Translate is widely used, Yandex demonstrated higher accuracy in this context. Furthermore, the majority of phrases selected for this study were not accurately translated by either website. The solution to this problem lies in enhancing the training process. Arabic users and translators should contribute more translations to enrich Arabic corpora online. Additionally, it's been observed that there is a lack of English-Arabic dictionaries or databases dedicated to Legal Language Processing (LLP). Therefore, initiating a research project addressing this issue could be of utmost importance. Regarding specialized language, improving the quality of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) raises questions about its reliability for both learners and professional translators. Accordingly, the study recommends further research on assessing machine translation quality, improving neural machine translation terminology accuracy, and enhancing machine learning models with more Arabic content and corpora.

Challenges of Rendering Chauvinism into Arabic: Implications for Dictionary Users and Translation Equivalence

Bilingual dictionaries sometimes do not satisfy the needs of dictionary users because they offer partial equivalents or incomplete information. This status does not avail the users who seek to immediately retrieve the required information. The users presume that language entries in bilingual dictionaries are communicative equivalents that can be used to translate specific occurrences of the source language item. If the semantic and communicative translation does not hold between the SL and TL, the user will not be able to render the item in question successfully. This paper examines the target language equivalents for ‘chauvinism in English –Arabic dictionaries, namely the Oxford English-Arabic Dictionary (2014); Al-Mawrid, English-Arabic (2006); Al-Muɣni al-Kabiːr(1995); The Oxford Word Power (2006); The Dictionary, English-Arabic (2004), as a representative sample. These dictionaries do not catch the broad range of the concept that covers many sorts of claims and social attitudes in its native linguistic sources. To make up for this deficiency, the paper highlights the appropriate strategies that translators can use to render this concept communicatively into Arabic. The study is based on the communicative functional approach which assumes that dictionary meaning is insufficient to resolve potential ambiguities and that the contexts are necessary to unpack specific senses or connotations of the item. This deficiency has an impact on the translator’s choice of strategy to meet the target readers’ needs. Finally, strategies and suggestions for helping to achieve equivalence in bilingual dictionaries are discussed.Keywords: Equivalence, Contextual translation, Communicative equivalence, Ambiguity, Contested concept

STUDENTS’ LINGUISTIC SKILLS AND PROBLEMS IN LEARNING MEDICAL VOCABULARY AT A HEALTH SCIENCES UNIVERSITY IN THE UAE

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses help the students to be more effective and confident in their profession. The main aim of this research was to explore the difficulties faced by students of a Medical and Health Sciences University in learning medical vocabulary which is a vital part of teaching English for Medical Purposes (EMP). It was hypothesized that students coming from non-English medium backgrounds find it difficult to understand and learn medical vocabulary due to weak linguistic skills. A questionnaire was sent to the undergraduate and post-graduate students of Medical, Dental, Pharmacy and Nursing Colleges and it was observed that the majority of students agreed that knowing medical vocabulary in English is important for their profession and students coming from Arabic medium schools find it difficult to understand and learn medical vocabulary and more than 50% use an English-Arabic dictionary. Interestingly, listening emerged as the weakest skill but 97% of participants feel that practice in hospitals can make learning the medical terms easy. Based on these findings, the authors have suggested some interactive activities that can be used in the class for better retention and made some recommendations.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0958/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Pragmatic Analysis of the Translation of English Culture-Specific Proverbs into Arabic

Translating culture-specific proverbs (CSPs) is a challenging task since they often occur in a peculiar context. Further, CSPs are intended to imply meanings that extend far beyond the literal meaning of such a kind of proverbs. As far as English and Arabic are concerned, translators often encounter problems in translating CSPs due to cultural differences between the source language(SL) and the target language (TL) as well as what seems to be the lack of equivalence for some CSPs. In view of this, the present study aims at investigating the translation of CSPs in three English-Arabic dictionaries of proverbs, namely Dictionary of Common English Proverbs Translated and Explained (2004), One thousand and One English Proverbs Translated into Arabic (2008) and Dictionary of Wise Sayings and Proverbs (2009). Data of CSPs, in the aforementioned dictionaries, are analyzed as a case study. Specifically, the study attempts to examine whether CSPs are well translated and whether the translation strategies utilized have reflected the ST intended meaning (IM) and the embedded cultural implications as well. Out of the total data on CSPs, only ten examples are selected as representative samples for analysis. For the purpose of carrying out a meaningful analysis of the translation of CSPs, an eclectic model is adapted. It consists of Baker's (2011) cultural substitution strategy (CSS) in combination with Venuti's (2008) domestication strategy (DS) and Nida's (1964/1975) Functional (closest natural) equivalent as well. This proposed eclectic model was considered as the main theoretical framework of the study. Findings of the study revealed that the selected data have often shown low levels of adequacy in terms of expressing the meanings and pragmatic functions of the ST in the TT. Specifically, the selected translators provide inadequate translations of the cultural implications of the ST in the TT. In addition, this study concludes that translators can successfully render the intended meanings and the cultural elements of CSPs had they been not only bilingual but also bicultural since Arabic, particularly the Qur'an, Hadith, and the Arabic literature, is rich with CSPs that cover issues corresponding to those found in English proverbs. It is worth noting that even if the TL equivalent exists, it would not necessarily accomplish complete equivalence since the ways of expressing meaning and the usage of proverbs differ among languages.

Examining the Usefulness of Medical Bilingual Dictionaries for Translation Purposes

This paper aims at examining the effectiveness of four medical bilingual English-Arabic dictionaries for translational purposes. This is done by investigating the provided information used in the presentation of a number of medical words in the examined dictionaries. The results reveal an inconsistency in the presentation of the selected words in the dictionaries; which might be correlated to the lack of provision policies given by the compilers of the dictionaries. Moreover, an inadequacy in the provision of semantic, pragmatic, and encyclopedic information was noticed which would be inadequate for translational purposes. However, it was found that the Unified Medical dictionary covered more types of information like the provision of encyclopedic illustrations and pictorial illustration.

A Survey Study of the Dictionary Use Sub-strategies of English Majors in Saudi Arabia: Dictionary Related Aspects

This study explored the sub-strategies Saudi English majors use most when consulting the dictionary. In particular, it looked at the aspects of the dictionary use strategy relevant to the dictionary itself rather than the lookup words (mainly purposes for consulting the dictionary, means of dictionary ownership and type of dictionary consulted). The participants were 90 English major students enrolled in an English undergraduate program at the Department of European Languages at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. A survey questionnaire adapted from the literature was used to collect data for the study. The results showed that the learners’ strategic preferences were largely affected by the features they liked (e.g. free dictionaries, the ease of use and search as well as portability of tech-based digital dictionaries) or disliked (e.g. the difficulty of search and use in paper dictionaries as well as their heavy weight and high thickness) most about dictionaries. Thus, they preferred to either download dictionary apps to their phones from application stores or go online whenever they needed to consult a dictionary for a word. Moreover, in terms of dictionary types, learners favored the bilingual English-Arabic dictionary (language-wise), dictionary apps and online dictionaries (medium-wise) and the ordinary dictionary (content-wise). Also, they consulted the dictionary no more than five times a day and tended to look up more words when consulting tech-based (digital) dictionaries than when using paper dictionaries. Finally, they used their dictionaries mainly to understand new words while reading.

Error Assessment in the Translation of Some English Collocations into Arabic: A Case Study of English Department Students at University of Benghazi, EL-Marj Campus, Libya.

One of the main issues that encounter translation learners in the field of translation is collocation. This work aims to identify the students’ deficiencies when attempting to render some English collocations into Arabic. This is done through identifying the major problems that students face when rendering collocations from English into Arabic. Another aim of this work is to discover if there is a difference in meaning in terms of the frequency of a word in the English collocation when rendering into the target, Arabic. Examining these issues depended on a collection of some English collocations samples to be rendered into Arabic. The subjects were undergraduate students from English department, University of Benghazi, EL-Marj Campus. They were chosen randomly from Semester seven. The reason for choosing this semester is that they should have a strong background on English culture, and they have tackled different subjects regarding English cultural and linguistic disparities in their past semesters. They were given two hours to translate these collocations into Arabic. Only general English-Arabic dictionaries were allowed. i.e ‘not collocation dictionaries’ in order to see how these students can transfer them into English and what are the problems they might encounter. Their samples were analysed and recommendations were made in this study.

Issues and Challenges for a Modern English-Arabic Dictionary

Lexicography in the Arab world has had important effects on the development of the Arabic language. The origin and subsequent development and refinement of traditional Arabic grammatical theory—as early as the eighth century- had intimate links with the practice of writing dictionaries. The Kitab al-ʿayn , by al-Khalil ibn Ahmad (d.c.786), which is the first full-scale dictionary in the Arab world, marked a significant milestone in the history of grammatical thought and set the tone for more works on Arabic grammar. For many centuries, the general mode of the theory has acknowledged a "closed" corpus of Qur'anic diction and pre-Islamic poetry and prose as the major source of Arabic lexicographic works. The main credo is that Arabic dictionaries should contain the "unattained" forms of the language and remain impervious to external persuasions; namely colloquialisms, borrowings, neologisms, and coinages. Arabic dictionaries continued to resist the slightest reform as to the codification of lexical innovations and the treatment of lexical gaps exhausting themselves to the point of stagnation. Today, English-Arabic dictionary editors have to deal with a huge number of lexical gaps that have cumulated over time. The lexical gap-filling process is carried out in a very unsystematic way that is far from creating an atmosphere of cooperation that ultimately contributes to creating unified English-Arabic lexical databases for lexicographic purposes. The paper explains how a modern English-Arabic dictionary can fall short in its modernizing role, and gives a snapshot of the most salient microstructural issues that characterize the Al-Mawrid Al-Hadeeth: A Modern English-Arabic Dictionary (2010).

The OEAD: New Perspectives on English–Arabic Dictionaries for English-Speaking Users and Users' Surveys

The article sheds light on the necessity of finding new techniques to rank the users' preferences for English–Arabic dictionaries. The first section of the article reports the findings of an experimental technique devised for this particular purpose. The reviews for dictionaries on Amazon. com turn out to be a more valuable source of lexicographical information than had been expected. It will also be shown how the reviews can determine the future buyers' choice as to which English–Arabic or Arabic–English dictionary would meet their needs. Based on the Amazon reviews, the article devotes a section to investigate the microstructural features of some lexical entries in the Oxford English–Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage (OEAD). To learn more about the dictionary's microstructure, the next section analyzes a pre-selected list of 113 lexical units in an attempt to test the dictionary for the amount of information it provides for some high-frequency items. The article deals with the OEAD mostly from the point of view of encoding English-speaking users. The Modern Language Association (MLA) recently reported that from 1998 to 2002 there was a 92% increase in the number of Arabic programs throughout the United States, hence the pressing need for dictionaries designed with English-speaking users as the target group. The article suggests that an extensive linguistic revision of the OEAD will make it more systematic and userfriendly.OPSOMMING: Die OEAD: Nuwe perspektiewe op Engels–Arabiese woordeboeke vir Engelssprekende gebruikers en gebruikersopnames. Hierdie artikel werp lig op die noodsaaklikheid om nuwe tegnieke te kry om gebruikers se voorkeure vir Engels–Arabiese woordeboeke in rangorde te plaas. Die eerste afdeling van die artikel doen verslag van die bevindings van 'n eksperimentele tegniek ontwerp vir hierdie bepaalde doel. Die resensies van woordeboeke op Amazon.com het geblyk 'n meer waardevolle bron van leksikografiese inligting te wees as wat verwag is. Daar sal ook getoon word hoe die resensies toekomstige kopers se keuse kan bepaal oor watter Engels–Arabiese of Arabies–Engelse woordeboek aan hul behoeftes sal voldoen. Met die Amazon-resensies as uitgangspunt, wy die artikel 'n afdeling aan die ondersoek van die mikrostrukturele eienskappe van sommige leksikale inskrywings in die Oxford English– Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage (OEAD). Om meer oor die woordeboek se mikrostruktuur te wete te kom, ontleed die volgende afdeling 'n voorafgekose lys van 113 leksikale eenhede in 'n poging om die woordeboek te toets vir die hoeveelheid inligting wat dit verskaf wat betref sommige hoëfrekwensie-items. Die artikel handel meestal oor die OEAD uit die gesigspunt van enkoderende Engelssprekende gebruikers. Die Modern Language Association het onlangs berig dat daar vanaf 1998 tot 2002 'n 92%-toename in die aantal Arabiese programme dwarsoor die Verenigde State was, vandaar die dringende behoefte aan woordeboeke vir Engelssprekende gebruikers as teikengroep. Die artikel suggereer dat 'n taalkundige hersiening van die OEAD dit meer sistematies en gebruikersvriendelik sal maak.Sleutelwoorde: TWEETALIGE WOORDEBOEK, DEKODERENDE GEBRUIKERS, ENKODERENDE GEBRUIKERS, ENGELS–ARABIES, ENGELSSPREKENDE GEBRUIKERS, AANLEERDERS VAN ARABIES, LEKSIKOGRAFIE, MIKROSTRUKTUUR, RESENSIES, GEBRUIKERSVOORKEURE

The Role of the Introductory Matter in Bilingual Dictionaries of English and Arabic

Monolingual and bilingual dictionaries for learners of English as foreign language differ from each other in many aspects. Among the differences are the types of information a dictionary provides outside the A–Z word list, especially in its introductory matter. Yet, dictionary introductions have been referred to rather peripherally in the literature on dictionary users and uses. Within the context of lexicographic practice, this study aims to outline the differences between EFL learner's dictionaries and bilingual English–Arabic dictionaries, and to determine to what extent a given set of popular dictionaries provide varied and sufficient information in their introductions. Three categories of dictionaries will be the subject of comparison: EFL dictionaries, European bilingual dictionaries, and bilingual dictionaries in the Arab world. Keywords: bilingual dictionary, introductory matter,English–Arabic, efl learner's dictionary, orientalist dictionary

Strategies used in translating English binomials into Arabic

The present study investigates Jordanian students’ ability to translate English binomials into Arabic and explores the strategies used when translating them into Arabic. It also investigates the usefulness of English–Arabic dictionaries. For this purpose, a 25-item translation test was developed and distributed to two groups; an advanced group including 30 MA students, and an intermediate group comprising 50 undergraduate students studying English at Jordanian universities. The study revealed that the subjects’ general performance on the translation test was unsatisfactory. The percentage of correct answers on all items for all subjects was approximately 44%. This means that more than half of the test items in the translation test were erroneously rendered. The subjects used different strategies to translate English binomials into Arabic. The most frequently used strategy was contextualized guessing, followed by avoidance, literal translation, incomplete translation and least used, semantic approximation. Finally, with regard to the incorporation of English binomials along with their equivalents in Arabic in the English Arabic dictionaries, it was found that they were the highest in Al-Mawrid Dictionary 72%, followed by Atlas Dictionary 60%, and finally Oxford Wordpower 52%. Some binomials were included in one dictionary, others were included in only two dictionaries. Five binominals, or 20% of binomials under investigation, namely for and against, ifs and buts, heart and hand, here and now and nuts and bolts were missing in all of the dictionaries. This indicates the need to compile specialized English–Arabic dictionaries to address multi-word units such as collocations, idioms, and binomials, or at least to upgrade or enrich the currently used ones.

The OEAD: New Perspectives on English–Arabic Dictionaries for English-Speaking Users and Users' Surveys

The article sheds light on the necessity of finding new techniques to rank the users' preferences for English–Arabic dictionaries. The first section of the article reports the findings of an experimental technique devised for this particular purpose. The reviews for dictionaries on Amazon. com turn out to be a more valuable source of lexicographical information than had been expected. It will also be shown how the reviews can determine the future buyers' choice as to which English–Arabic or Arabic–English dictionary would meet their needs. Based on the Amazon reviews, the article devotes a section to investigate the microstructural features of some lexical entries in the Oxford English–Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage (OEAD). To learn more about the dictionary's microstructure, the next section analyzes a pre-selected list of 113 lexical units in an attempt to test the dictionary for the amount of information it provides for some high-frequency items. The article deals with the OEAD mostly from the point of view of encoding English-speaking users. The Modern Language Association (MLA) recently reported that from 1998 to 2002 there was a 92% increase in the number of Arabic programs throughout the United States, hence the pressing need for dictionaries designed with English-speaking users as the target group. The article suggests that an extensive linguistic revision of the OEAD will make it more systematic and userfriendly. Keywords: Bilingual Dictionary, Decoding Users, Encoding Users, English–Arabic, English-Speaking Users, Learners Of Arabic, Lexicography, Microstructure, Reviews, Users' Preferences

The role of the introductory matter in bilingual dictionaries of English and Arabic

Monolingual and bilingual dictionaries for learners of English as foreign language differ from each other in many aspects. Among the differences are the types of information a dictionary provides outside the A–Z word list, especially in its introductory matter. Yet, dictionary introductions have been referred to rather peripherally in the literature on dictionary users and uses. Within the context of lexicographic practice, this study aims to outline the differences between EFL learner's dictionaries and bilingual English–Arabic dictionaries, and to determine to what extent a given set of popular dictionaries provide varied and sufficient information in their introductions. Three categories of dictionaries will be the subject of comparison: EFL dictionaries, European bilingual dictionaries, and bilingual dictionaries in the Arab world. Keywords: bilingual dictionary, introductory matter,English–Arabic, efl learner's dictionary, orientalist dictionary

Strategies of Translating Idioms in English-Arabic Dictionaries

This study examines the strategies of translating English idioms into Arabic in three of the most widely used general English-Arabic dictionaries. A total of fifty English idioms have been selected by a panel of three professors of linguistics and translation out of a hundred idioms culled from various English-Arabic translation studies on idioms in the light of an operational definition of idioms attempted by the researcher. It was found that of the five commonly used strategies of translating idioms, paraphrase was the most dominant one counting for 73-87% of the renditions of the idioms listed in those dictionaries. The second commonest strategy was "using equivalent idioms that are dissimilar in words and structure to their English counterparts", followed by "calquing". The adequacy of the translation strategies employed in rendering those idioms and the extent of appropriateness of the Arabic renditions proposed in such dictionaries as equivalent to those idioms as well as their usefulness to the translator are then discussed. The researcher concludes by making some recommendations aimed at a more adequate handling of English idioms in English-Arabic dictionaries and a more efficient utilization, by translators, of such dictionaries in rendering English idioms occurring in different types of texts..

Problems of Word for Word Equivalence in English—Arabic Dictionaries and their Lexical and Cultural

The basic principle underlying all bilingual lexicographical practice is word- for word equivalence. This principle is based on the belief that meaning is a universal concept found in all languages .The only difference is in the words provided by languages to convey it (Lado, 1957:77).The aim of this paper is to examine the University of validity of this principle in detail and to refer it to some linguistic and cultural problems arising in the compilation of English-Arabic dictionaries.It is often said that meaning is the attitude toward and the classification of the universe by a certain community and the words provided to convey it are no more than classifiers of that experience (Lyons, 1969:420).

Which Microstructural Features of Bilingual Dictionaries Affect Users' Look-Up Performance?

This study has been conducted with the aim of detecting possible links between the structural features of English-Arabic dictionaries and errors made by 46 English majors at Kuwait University when translating individual items they encountered in current English texts. Specially designed look-up records were used by the subjects for each problematic word. It was found that success rates decreased when long entries of polysemous words were consulted in the bilingual dictionary and the senses needed in the entries were located some distance away from the senses that these users actually extracted. Some of the students’ erroneous translations were attributed to the problematic macro- and microstructural features of the English-Arabic dictionary: method of sense ordering, untranslated derivatives, column width, spacing between monosemous entries, typeface size, etc. The study also detected a part played by structural effects of the original English text, e.g. word division at line endings. The users were also responsible for some of these errors, e.g. by misreading the item in the text, especially in cases of English confusables.

Arabic-English and English-Arabic Dictionaries in the Library of Congress

Arabic-English and English-Arabic Dictionaries in the Library of Congress

English-Arabic Dictionary of Accounting and Finance

English-Arabic Dictionary of Accounting and Finance

BOOK REVIEWS

A Modern Arabic Biography of Muammad: A Critical Study of Muammad usayn Haykal's ayt Muammad. By Antonia Wessels. Leiden: E. J. BrillIslamic Rationalism: The Ethics of‘Abd al‐Jabbar. By George F. HouraniLe Thème de i'Aliénation dans le Roman Maghrébin d'Expression Française de 1952 à 1956. By Isaac YetivThe Oxford English‐Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage. Ed. by N. S. DoniachIslamic Education: Its Traditions and Modernization into the Arab National Systems. By A. L. Tibawi. LondonGod and Man in Contemporary Christian Thought God and Man in Contemporary Islamic Thought Jordan: A Study in Political Development, 1921‐1965The Broken Sword of Justice: America, Israel and the Palestinian TragedyArab Culture and Society in Change Compiled by John J. Donohue, Maurice P. Martin, Joseph P. O'Kane, and Joseph L. Ryan