English-Arabic Translation of Idiomatic Expressions with Total Equivalence: An Optimality-Theoretic Account

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to apply the principles underlying optimality theory to the translationof English idioms into Standard Arabic. It specifically aims to generate the ranking of competing markednessand faithfulness constraints that Standard Arabic assigns to idioms translated from English into Arabic. Thescope of this study is limited to the analysis of the idiomatic expressions with total equivalence. This articleproposes that optimality theory can be incorporated to analyze translation processes since translation is alsocharacterized by violable universal competing constraints in the decision making and meaning negotiationprocesses that translators employ to derive optimal outputs. From various possible translations, translatorsideally aim to select the output that is linguistically and culturally accepted in the target language but it mayviolate some language rules or constraints that are ranked low in that language. Hence, the optimal output (targettext) is always the candidate that satisfies higher-ranked constraints, yet may incur violations of lower-rankedconstraints. This study concludes that the conflict between markedness and faithfulness constraints is resolvedby the language-specific ranking that Standard Arabic gives to the conflicting constraints. It also discusses someimplications to the teaching of translation adopting optimality theory.

Keywords: English-Arabic translation, faithfulness, idiom, markedness, optimality theory