Cohesion Shifts and Strategies in Handling Elliptical Structures in English-Arabic Translation among Younger Scholars of Translation
Abstract
Given the structural and grammatical differences between English and Arabic, translating cohesive devices such as ellipsis presents budding young translation scholars participating in the study with serious challenges. This study examines the performance of the participants in handling ellipsis in English-Arabic translation. Based on Halliday and Hassan’s cohesion framework, the study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design that integrated quantitative analysis with qualitative insights. Seventeen participants were tasked with the Arabic translation of 18 English ellipsis-containing sentences, representing the nominal, verbal, and clausal ellipsis types. This was followed by a focus group discussion involving 10 participants to explore reflections and perceptions regarding the challenges of translating ellipsis. The analysis and categorisation of the participants’ output reveal that more than half of the ellipsis instances were inaccurately rendered, indicating significant cohesion shifts and revealing the range of translation strategies employed to compensate for ellipsis. The results also revealed that clausal ellipsis was less challenging than nominal ellipsis, highlighting a correlation between ellipsis type and the participants’ translation performance. The focus group insights further confirmed participants’ limited awareness of ellipsis and their limited ability to handle them. The study contributes to translation pedagogy by empirically illustrating the impact of ellipsis on translation accuracy and by pinpointing curricular deficiencies that impede cohesion awareness among budding young translation scholars. The study offers a mixed-methods link between ellipsis type, translation accuracy, and the participants’ metacognitive awareness, advancing evidence-based pedagogy for English-Arabic translation. Future research should test controlled pedagogical interventions on explicit ellipsis instruction (pre-/post-designs) and extend the analysis to professional translators and other language pairs to enhance generalisability across translation contexts.
Keywords: Ellipsis; Cohesion; Translation Strategies; English–Arabic Translation; Younger Scholars of Translation
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