Translation of Cohesive Reference in Scientific Texts from English into Arabic: An Analytical Study

Abstract

This study aimed at identifying the similarities and differences of cohesive reference in English scientific texts and their translations into Arabic, and identifying the strategies used by the translators of the texts. To achieve these objectives, the descriptive mixed-methods approach was adopted utilizing two research instruments to collect relevant data. The first was a checklist based on Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) model for identifying cohesive reference, and another checklist was based on Newmark’s (1988) for identifying the translation strategies used. As a corpus of the research, 31 English research abstracts and their Arabic translations were selected from four scientific academic journals. Findings of the study revealed that English cohesive reference has higher frequency than Arabic, due to the use of reduction and compensation translation strategies which reduced the number of cohesive reference devices in Arabic. However, the cohesive reference in both languages has the same order in frequency as follows: the demonstrative reference has the highest frequency, which is attributed to the quality of scientific text, that is distinguished by its clarity, transparency, and accuracy. Personal pronouns and comparative reference respectively scored a degree lower than demonstrative references in both languages. Further, the 'literal' strategy was found to be the most widely used where the similarities in the two corpora were more than the differences. This is understood as fulfilling the purpose of accurateness and clarity of scientific genre. Then, the 'shift’, and "compensation "strategies came at the second rank; 'reduction’, ‘couplets’, 'modulation' and ‘addition’ were also less frequently used. The study recommended that translators and students of translation be aware of cohesion in general and cohesive reference in particular in the source and target texts. Translators should have sufficient knowledge of translation strategies to choose the suitable strategy for a specific context. Additionally, the curriculum for translation programs should incorporate cohesiveness.