Errors in Anaphora Translation across Languages: From English to Arabic

Abstract

The objective of this research was to identify the systematic errors in the translation of anaphora committed by some Iraqi university students because of their weaknesses in understanding that complicated topic. Students make many different kinds of translation errors, and this is particularly apparent in more complex linguistic structures that can even baffle specialized translators. One of the critical aspects of translation studies, anaphora, is challenging for Arabic learners to understand as its nuances can be initially difficult to comprehend. Anaphora attempting to resolve antecedent references is the key focus of the study, where it serves three main purposes: One: to walk the reader through anaphora in detail, its historical background and examples; Two: to classify various anaphoric forms based on linguistic meanings and functions; Lastly, to identify strategies for achieving better precision in identifying antecedents and anaphora. This contextual evidence examines the requisite linguistic and pragmatic awareness necessary for the nuanced and contextualized translation of commonly encountered anaphoric expressions across various genres of real-life texts, thereby providing an in-depth analysis of the need for meticulous translation procedures concerning anaphoric expressions. The reflexive pronoun ‘herself’ functions as an anaphoric expression. Regardless, some learners incorrectly translate ‘herself’ as hiya mistakenly aligning it with the definite pronoun ‘she.’ The exact translation should be ‘nafsuhā.’