Difficulties of translation and evaluative idioms in English and Arabic

Abstract

Essentially, translation is not simply a transfer of every word with its equivalent in the target language, but rather a transfer of the rules of the language that communicate the information and the transfer of the same information and the writer’s thought, culture and style as well. However, theories differed in translation on how to transfer this information from the source to the target. The trinity of translation: literal or word by word, free (significant) and faithful translation. The aim of this article is to discuss evaluative idioms in English and Arabic to show difficulties that form issues for translating idioms—from a variety of perspectives, focusing mainly on Moon’s 1998 approach and on Abdou’s 2012 study of Arabic idioms. Furthermore, to show the comparison between evaluative idioms in the two languages is meant to reveal differences and potential difficulties for translators translating from Arabic into English and vice versa, focusing mainly on Moon’s 1998 approach and on Abdou’s 2012 study of Arabic idioms. Furthermore, to show the comparison between evaluative idioms in the two languages is meant to reveal differences and potential difficulties for translators translating from Arabic into English and vice versa.