Ekrema Shehab

Paramouncy of Context in Translating Arabic Proverbials into English: Proverbs Are Elastic in That Any Difference in the Application of a Proverb in Context Signals a Difference in Meaning Ekrema Shehab

Translators of Arabic proverbs into English frequently seek to find incontextualized English proverbs as equivalents to contextualized Arabic proverbs. Rarely can we find translators who give any consideration to the proverb's social and pragmatic context. Translators simply rush to find an existing unsituated proverb in the TL as an equivalent to a situated proverb in the SL and hence they produce awkward and irrelevant renderings. This book, therefore, endeavors to demonstrate the paramouncy of context in translating Arabic proverbials into English. Apparently, in the translation of Arabic proverbs into English, most translators are mechanically driven to check a published list of out-of-context English proverbs and choose the one which seems to be equivalent to its Arabic counterpart. This book has revealed that the proverb's usage and meaning are a mixture of various social and pragmatic factors and that proverbs are elastic, context-sensitive expressions in the sense that any difference in the application of a proverb in a certain context signals a difference in meaning.