Terminology and translation in Arabic: Shared aspects and conflictual relationships

Hassan Hamzé

Much of scientific and technical terminology is developed outside of the Arabic world. Therefore, translation, in all its various aspects, seems to be the only means of creating terminology in Arabic. Borrowings, derivations and semantic transfers are used by terminologists and translators, as each Arabic translator is also, by desire or by necessity, a terminologist. Consequently, Western terminological problems are rampant in Arabic. There are three reasons for the major shortcomings that characterize terminology in Arabic translations: (1) Western is consider terminology as an ideal terminology with a one-to-one relation between concept and term, (2) the linguistic aspect is considered as a priority because term is confused with concept, and (3) the terms in bilingual lists are considered as static units which are cut from the textual canvas in which they are used. Consequently, many translated texts are illegible or difficult to digest. There is an abundance of foreign terms and terms coined by individuals. Translation seems to be a mere transcoding operation.

Table of contents

Dozens, perhaps hundreds of terms are created every day in different expert domains. Many of these terms find their way into the so-called ‘common’ language and the general dictionary. This phenomenon has grown significantly in recent years. Indeed, according to what Meyer and Mackintosh reported, Landau “estimates that over 40 percent of the entries in major dictionaries consist of terms, while the presence of terms is only a minor concern for the lexicographer” (our translation) (2000, 201). The survey we conducted on Arabic monolingual dictionaries and French-Arabic or Arabic-French bilingual dictionaries shows that this significant presence of terms in (general) dictionaries is also valid for Arabic, or at least partially. Nearly a quarter of the entries in the bilingual French-Arabic al-Manhal dictionary (Abdel-Nour, 1983) consist of terms. In contrast, Arabic monolingual dictionaries, as well as bilingual dictionaries with Arabic as the source language, comprise significantly fewer terms: about 15 percent. Why are there significantly more terms in bilingual dictionaries with Arabic as the target language, than there are in monolingual Arabic general dictionaries or in bilingual dictionaries with Arabic as the source language? We suggest four possible reasons:

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