FILLING SITUATIONAL GAPS: IDIOMS’ TRANSLATION DILEMMA

Abstract

Translation is a process that takes place based on the value of each text. This study examines the challenges encountered in translating idioms as fixed types of expressions, and as culture-based linguistic components. SL Idiom equivalents are often found to be semantically divergent from their TL counterparts. Idioms are rendered with some degree of unavoidable translation loss, most probably at the level of wording, as well as phrasing. An appropriate idiom translation technique ought to handle such semantic, as well as situational subtleties with utmost care so as to avoid making the existing semantic gap in the ST-TT word relations even larger. Through identifying the type of equivalence that applies to the situation and/or social context in which the idiom is used, a TL idiom translation is supposed to be contextually-convergent to the SL message. The translation technique that gives more weight to situation and effect is to be adopted; therefore, a semantic-divergent translation of idioms is assumed to be more natural and serves to provide a dynamic equivalent for the SL idiom.

Keywords: Text/ Context / Equivalence/ Meaning / Culture / Language