STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING NON-FICTION MATERIALS A comparison of how specialised terminology is transferred from English to Arabic across different subject fields

Abstract

The purpose is to describe how lexical elements are transferred from English to Arabic in non-fiction materials. The paper applied the translation theory of Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet which outlines seven translation strategies that can be either direct or indirect. The materials were popular science books on old and contemporary subjects in Art and Humanities and Natural science. The specialised terminology in each book was analysed with an analytical framework based on Vinay and Darbelnet’s translation model. The results from the analyses were compared across subject fields. Direct strategies were the dominant strategy in three of the subjects, the Renaissance, contemporary art and nanotechnology. The indirect strategy of adaptation was a salient feature in the translated terminology on the old natural science subject, the planets