Challenges that Novice Translators Encounter in Translating Contracts and Agreements in Jordan ...

160 Pages·2012·1.8 MB·English

Challenges that Novice Translators Encounter in
Translating Contracts and Agreements in Jordan

(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6) (cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:9)(cid:2)(cid:10) (cid:11)(cid:7)(cid:12)(cid:13)(cid:14)(cid:15)(cid:12)(cid:5)(cid:6) (cid:16)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:13)(cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:9) (cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:5)(cid:6) (cid:18)(cid:16)(cid:9)(cid:2)(cid:10)(cid:15)(cid:5)(cid:6)

(cid:11)(cid:2)(cid:14)(cid:26)(cid:25) (cid:6) (cid:17)(cid:24) (cid:18)(cid:16)(cid:9)(cid:19)(cid:16)(cid:20)(cid:15)(cid:21)(cid:6)(cid:7) (cid:2)(cid:7)(cid:22)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6) (cid:23)(cid:12)(cid:13)(cid:14)(cid:15) (cid:17)(cid:24)

Prepared by
Alaa Deen Mohammad Al Najjar

Supervised by

Professor Bader S. Dweik

M.A. Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English
Language and Literature

Middle East University (MEU)
Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Department of English Language and Literature
Second Semester, May 2010/2011
ii
iii
iv

Acknowledgment

First of all, praise is due to Almighty ALLAH for giving me strength and
ability to complete this study.

There is a number of people without whom this thesis might not have been
written, and to whom I am greatly indebted.
With a deep sense of gratitude, I wish to express my sincere thanks to my
supervisor Professor Bader S. Dweik who shepherded me through the bulk of
the work. His kindly but rigorous oversight of this thesis constantly gave me
the motivation to perform to my maximum ability. His detailed and
constructive comments were vital to the development of this thesis. His office
door was open whenever I needed help and guidance, even during weekends
and off-hours. I owe him lots of gratitude for having me shown the correct
way of research.
Sincere thanks are offered to my examination committee members, Dr.
Sabbar Sultan and Dr. Suleiman Al-Abbas for their interest in this study,
valuable comments, suggestions and encouragement throughout the thesis
work.
My deepest special appreciation is extended to members of the panel of
experts, Dr. Suleiman Al-Abbas, Mr. Abdul Muti Abu Sammour, Dr. Ahmed
v

T. Ali and Dr. Adel Azzam Saqf Al Hait for their valuable guidance,
incredible support, advice and particularly their constructive comments in the
present study.
Thanks are extended to the novice translators who participated in the
endeavor from the Leadership Bureau for Authorized Translation and Talal
Abu Ghazaleh Organization.
Loving thanks are extended to my dear brother, Abdullatif Al Najjar, for
his kind and generous support and help. Thanks are aslo extended to my
friends, Mohammad Zeidan, Hussam Habash, Hussam Dabash and Ali
Melhem, who played such important role along the journey, as we mutually
engaged in making sense of the various challenges we faced and in providing
encouragement to each other at those times when it seemed impossible to
continue.
vi

Dedication
This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Mohammad and Shifaa, for thier
love, endless support and encouragment to introduce me to the joy of reading
from my birth, enabling such a study to take place today. I would like aslo to
dedicate my thesis to my father and mother-in-law for their never-ending
moral support.

I would like to dedicate my thesis to my beloved wife and son who have
always stood by me and dealt with all of my absence from many family
occasions with a smile. Without their loving support and understanding I
would never have completed my present work. Finally, this thesis is dedicated
to all those who believe in the richness of learning.
vii

Table of Contents

Title Page......................................................................................................i
Authorization...................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
Thesis committee decision................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
Acknowledgment .......................................................................................iii
Dedication..................................................................................................vi
Table of Contents......................................................................................vii
List of tables................................................................................................x
List of appendices......................................................................................xii
Abstract - English......................................................................................xiii
Abstract - Arabic ...................................................................................... xvi
Chapter One: Introduction...........................................................................1
1.1 Background of the study .....................................................................1
1.2 Statement of the problem....................................................................4
1.3 Objectives of the study........................................................................5
1.4 Questions of the study.........................................................................5
1.5 Significance of the study.....................................................................5
1.6 Limitations of the study ......................................................................6
1.7 Definitions of terms ............................................................................6
Chapter Two: Review of related literature...................................................9
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................9
2.2 Review of theoretical literature...........................................................9
2.2.1 Methods and strategies used in legal translation...............................9
2.2.2 Translational problems and challenges in legal language...............12
viii

2.2.3 Characteristics and features of legal discourse...............................14
2.3 Review of empirical literature...........................................................19
2.3.1 International studies.......................................................................19
2.3.2 Regional Arab studies....................................................................25
2.3.3 Conclusion.....................................................................................30
Chapter Three: Methods and procedures ..................................................32
3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................32
3.2 Population and sample of the study...................................................32
3.3 Instruments of the study....................................................................33
3.3.1 Translation test...............................................................................33
3.3.2 Semi-structured interviews.............................................................34
3.4 Validity and reliability of the test......................................................35
3.4.1 Validity of the test..........................................................................35
3.4.2 Reliability of the test......................................................................36
3.5 Procedures of the study.....................................................................36
3.6 Scoring the test and analyzing the data..............................................39
Chapter Four: Results and discussion.........................................................40
4.1 Introduction: .....................................................................................40
4.2 Results related to the questions of the test.........................................41
4.2.1 Results related to the first part of the test - Part I............................41
4.2.2 Results related to the second part of the test - Part II......................68
Chapter Five: Conclusions and recommendations....................................100
5.1 Introduction: ...................................................................................100
5.2 Summary of results related to the two tests.....................................100
5.2.1 Summary of results related to Part I test (Arabic – English)..........100
5.2.2 Summary of results related to Part II test (English – Arabic).........104
5.3 Results of interviewing novice translators and professors:..............107
ix

5.3.1 Summary of the results related to the first question in the interviews
..............................................................................................................108
5.3.2 Summary of the results related to the second question in the
interviews..............................................................................................113
5.3.3 Summary of the results related to the third question in the interviews
..............................................................................................................116
5.4 Conclusions ....................................................................................119
5.5 Recommendations...........................................................................120
5.6 Suggestions for future research.......................................................122
References...............................................................................................124
.............................................................................................128
(cid:23)(cid:9)(cid:28)(cid:14)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6) (cid:27)(cid:13)(cid:6)(cid:14)(cid:12)(cid:5)(cid:6)
Appendices ..................................................................................(129 - 142)
x

List of tables
No Title Page
33
1 Demographic characteristics of the sample
2 Novice translator’ performance in the Arabic - English test 43
3 Sample of wrong translations of item # 1 along with justifications thereto 44
“ل(cid:3)َ(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:7) (cid:8)َ(cid:6)ِ(cid:10)(cid:11)(cid:12) (cid:13)(cid:14)(cid:15) (cid:8)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:11)(cid:18) (cid:8)(cid:7)(cid:11)آو”
4 Sample of wrong translations of the phrase along with justifications thereto 46
“(cid:21)(cid:11)(cid:22)دأ (cid:25)(cid:12)(cid:26)(cid:27)(cid:7)ا (cid:11)(cid:22)أ”
5 Sample of wrong translations of the phrase along with justifications thereto 47
“(cid:29)(cid:30)(cid:31) ب(cid:26)(cid:30)!و (cid:29)"#(cid:22) م(cid:11)%& م(cid:26)%(cid:14)(cid:7)”
6 Sample of wrong translations of the phrase along with justifications thereto 48
“(cid:11)ً()(cid:11)(cid:30)& (cid:21)ا(cid:13)! ي+(cid:7)ا ,(cid:27)-(cid:7)او ل.((cid:7)(cid:11)(cid:10) ء(cid:11)0! ,(cid:27)(cid:7)”
50
7 Sample of wrong translations of item # 3 along with justifications thereto
“ (cid:11)1ّ(cid:27)3و (cid:11)14(cid:5)(cid:10) وأ (cid:11)1(cid:6)آ (cid:29)556 (cid:29)7 (cid:8)(cid:7)د(cid:11)((cid:27)(cid:7)او زا(cid:13)79او ,ه(cid:13)(cid:7)ا ;7و ,ه(cid:13)(cid:7)او (cid:8)(1(cid:7)او (cid:25)(cid:14)((cid:7)ا (cid:29)7 <3(cid:26)7أو
.(cid:8)()(cid:11)(cid:30)& (cid:11)ها(cid:13)! ى(cid:13)(cid:18)أ (cid:8)(cid:5)>(cid:12) يأ (cid:25)& (cid:11)ه.(cid:14)6(cid:26)?و”
8 Sample of wrong translations of item # 4 along with justifications thereto 52
“.(cid:8)(cid:5)>%(cid:7)ا (cid:21)+1(cid:10) (cid:8)(cid:17)(cid:11)A(cid:7)ا B(cid:14)C"D(cid:7)ا تا.(cid:30))و ت(cid:11)>>A(cid:27)(cid:7)ا مFD)(cid:11)(cid:10) <3(cid:26)7أو”
9 Sample of wrong translations of item # 5 along with justifications thereto 53
“تار(cid:11)C!9ا H((cid:12)و ةراد9او ة(cid:13)J(cid:11)(cid:30)(cid:27)(cid:7)او فا(cid:13)L9ا M6 <(cid:7)و”

10 Sample of wrong translations of item # 6 along with justifications thereto 54
“(cid:11)1(cid:31)ا(cid:26)(cid:22)N(cid:10) (cid:21)(cid:11)(cid:14)(cid:27)(cid:7)ا ر(cid:11)(cid:10)O (cid:13)#6و (cid:11)1D(cid:31)ارزو ،;(cid:7)+(cid:7) (cid:8)&زF(cid:7)ا Q(cid:14)(cid:18)ا(cid:13)D(cid:7)ا را.5D)او ،(cid:11)1(cid:14)(cid:6)(cid:31) (cid:8)(cid:14)(cid:30)(cid:10)Rا ء(cid:11)0(cid:22)إ (cid:29)7و”
11 Sample of wrong translations of item # 7 along with justifications thereto` 55
“.زا(cid:13)79ا وأ ,ه(cid:13)(cid:7)ا ت(cid:11)!(cid:11)V(cid:7) ل.(cid:5)(cid:7)ا T?(cid:11)آ م(cid:11)&أ ،تا.1(cid:5)D(cid:7)او (cid:8)(cid:14)(cid:7).(cid:5)(cid:7)ا تارا(cid:13)(cid:12)9ا U(cid:6)(cid:31) (cid:25)(cid:14)(cid:12)(cid:26)D(cid:7)او”
12 Sample of wrong translations of item # 8 along with justifications thereto 57
“ِ(cid:8)(cid:14)(cid:7).(cid:5)(cid:7)ا تِارا+(cid:22)9ا ِ<(cid:14)W(cid:26)? (cid:29)7 MXY(cid:7)ا ُ<(cid:7)و”
13 Sample of wrong translations of item # 9 along with justifications thereto 58