The Translation of Metaphorical Expressions in English Medical Texts into Arabic

Metaphor is a prevalent figure of speech found in many languages. Because medical language and terminologies in general are so intricate and complex, translating medical metaphors may be a challenging task. The fundamental problem with medical metaphors is that they frequently refer to different cultural and linguistic settings, which makes it difficult to find comparable terminology in another language that expresses the same meanings and subtleties. The study aims to translate medical metaphors into Arabic and since medical metaphors, like any other metaphors, can be linguistic and conceptual, the study adopts an eclectic analytical framework, namely, Toury's linguistic strategies, and Mandelblit's Cognitive Translation Hypothesis. The data were taken from different internet authentic medical websites translated into Arabic by M.A. students in a questionnaire conducted in the Department of Translation‎/College of Arts‎. It is hypothesized that the main challenge that student translators encounter in the translating process is producing translations that are appropriate and understandable. Medical terminology and cultural diversity constitute another obstacle in the way of conducting translation. Further, Toury's linguistic strategies and Mandelblit’s cognitive methods can be used in analyzing and comparing the translators' renderings. The study revealed that literal translation leads to loss of meaning or, rather, no meaning. The analyses also showed that similar metaphors are rarely found in two different cultures. Hence, the study recommends translators to be familiar with terminology, culture, and strategies that enable them to produce and convey the intended meaning appropriately.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  Journal of language studies

• Publication date

  2024-11-30

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.25130/lang.8.11.17
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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