Pitfalls Encountered by Bilingual Arab Learners in Translating the Arabic Discourse Marker ´θumma´ into English
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| Title | Pitfalls Encountered by Bilingual Arab Learners in Translating the Arabic Discourse Marker ´θumma´ into English |
| Authors | |
| Abstract | Modern Standard Arabic (henceforth, MSA) is characterized as syndetic and formulaic language. The current study aimed at investigating the problems that Arab learners of English and translators encounter in translating sentences holding the discourse marker (henceforth, DM) θumma into English. This may be especially true if these languages are genetically unrelated, as is the case with Arabic and English. Five functions [sequence with span of time, sequence with no span of time, resumption, adversative and consequence] were identified through surveying various kinds of MSA texts. A translation task of 40 Arabic sentences holding the discourse marker θumma was performed by a random sample of 55 senior students with similar linguistic, sociocultural and educational backgrounds studying at Al-Balqa´ Applied University-Jordan. Findings revealed that the improper translation of functions of the Arabic DM θumma is still prominent among Arab learners of English even at advanced stages of their learning. The pitfalls were ranked hierarchically in terms of difficulty. Findings of the study were discussed, conclusions had been drawn, implications and future directions were provided at the end. |
| Publisher | ACADEMY PUBLISHER |
| Date | 2011-03-01 |
| Source | Theory and Practice in Language Studies Vol 1, No 3 (2011) |
| Rights | Copyright © ACADEMY PUBLISHER - All Rights Reserved.To request permission, please check out URL: http://www.academypublisher.com/copyrightpermission.html. |