Eyhab Bader Eddin tries to draw a distinctive line between types of lexical non equivalence.

1. Lexical Non- Equivalence inTranslation
‫الترجمة‬ ‫في‬ ‫المفرداتي‬ ‫التكافؤ‬ ‫عدم‬
A Presentation given by
Eyhab A. Bader Eddin
March 30, 2015

2. Theoretical Setting
 1.There is no exact equivalence of meaning between
the words of different varieties of languages.
 National standards of English use the same lexical
items to mean completely different concepts.
 A few examples are: (Different words to mean exact
objects and concepts)
British English American English
Railway Railroad
Tin Can
Petrol gasoline
Autumn Fall

3.  More confusing words :
 Same words to mean different concepts
British English American English
Cider (unless specified as ‘sweet cider’
isALCOHOLIC
Cider (unless specified as ‘hard cider’
is NONALCOHOLIC
School excludes colleges and
universities
School includes colleges and
universities
A first –floor flat is the one above the
ground floor
A first-floor flat is the one on the
ground floor

4.  This has prompted a linguistic phenomenon to
sprout, i.e.The difference among languages in
referring to the same object, using the same
linguistic form.
Lexical Anisomorphism
Or
Lexical Incongruence

5. Light blue vs Navy blue

6.  Language development does not follow the
same lines of semantic thoughts.
 . In other words, two corresponding words in
English and Arabic do not generate the same
polysemes.
 There is an overlap in the development of
certain terms and their equivalents.

7. - A one-to-many lexical equivalence supports
the theory that language categorizes areas of
meaning differently.
- Languages often do not coincide in seeing
the same analogous relationships between
various objects.
‫أرض‬ ‫درجة‬
Earth, ground, floor, estate,
region
Step, degree, grade, rank, class
Consciousness figure
‫شعور‬ ،‫وجدان‬ ،‫وعي‬ ،‫ضمير‬ ‫تمثال‬ ،‫جسم‬ ،‫شكل‬ ،‫رقم‬

8. In contrast to English using a single verb in
collocation with many objects and concepts, Arabic
DOES amazingly use a distinct verb for each of them
Break (v)
Glass
‫كسر‬
Law
‫خالف‬
Record
‫م‬ّ‫ـ‬‫حط‬
Spell
‫أبطل‬
Fast
‫أفطر‬
String
‫قطع‬
Engagement
‫فسخ‬
Promise
‫نكث‬
Habit
‫أقلع‬
Silence
‫د‬ّ‫د‬‫ب‬

9. The multiplicity of words used in Arabic where
English uses one word, reveals how the simple
actions of ‘breaking’ are perceived by the
English and the Arabs in two strikingly
different manners.
Cut
Wire
‫قطع‬
Bread
‫قسم‬
Finger
‫جرح‬
Price
‫ض‬ّ‫ـ‬‫خـف‬
Lecture
‫قاطع‬

10. The Arabic kinship system, as opposed to its
English counterpart, is worth reflecting on.
Why?
Cousin
‫العم‬ ‫ابن‬ ‫ابن‬
‫العمة‬
‫ابن‬
‫الخال‬
‫ابن‬
‫الخالة‬
‫بنت‬
‫العم‬
‫بنت‬
‫العمة‬
‫بنت‬
‫الخال‬
‫بنت‬
‫الخالة‬

11. Based on the previous table, we can
say ….
 The meanings of these terms are defined –in the
Arab society- on the basis of three componential
features, namely. Sex, generation and lineality.
 It is confusing to an Arab to hear or read the
repeated reference to ‘cousins’ without being
able to differentiate the precise nature of kinship

12. Arabic and English segment another area
differently. The day is roughly divided into 9
basic divisions in Arabic, corresponding to
ONLY 6 in English.
‫العشاء‬ ‫المساء‬
(‫الغسق‬)
‫المغرب‬ ‫العصر‬ ‫الظهر‬ ‫الغداة‬ ‫الصباح‬ ‫الفجر‬
(‫الصبح‬)
‫السحر‬
------ evening ----- afternoon noon ----- morning Day-
break
Dawn

13. It would be interesting to survey the lexical items
used in Arabic to express the division of a crowd
into smaller units
Group
‫قبيل‬ ‫شرذمة‬ ‫ة‬ّ‫ـ‬‫لم‬ ‫رهط‬ ‫نفر‬
‫فوج‬ ‫ثلة‬ ‫ثبة‬ ‫طائفة‬ ‫عصبة‬
‫فئام‬ ‫جلة‬ُ‫ز‬ ‫زمرة‬ ‫حزب‬ ‫فرقة‬
‫بـل‬ُ‫ـ‬‫ج‬ ‫بلة‬ُ‫ـ‬‫ج‬ ‫بص‬ِ‫ـ‬‫ق‬ ‫حزيقة‬ ‫حزلة‬

14. Another area of interest would be the
‘horse gait’
While English uses the following verbs to describe
the horse gait (walk, trot, canter, gallop and pace),
Arabic uses‫والف‬ ‫واإلرتجال‬ ‫والهملجة‬ ‫والعنق‬ ‫والترقيب‬ ،‫الخبب‬‫لج‬
‫والدحو‬ ‫والرديان‬ ‫والعجيلى‬ ‫والخناف‬ ‫والضبع‬ ‫والضبر‬ ‫والتقدي‬
‫واإلهماج‬ ‫واإلهداب‬ ‫واإلرخاء‬ ‫واإلحضار‬ ‫واإلمجاج‬ ‫واالبتراك‬)

15. Translation problems arising from
lexical incongruence:
 1.Terms that are ONLY partially equivalent.
 One instance might be the use of ”uncle “ as
a translation of both ”‫عم‬“‫و‬”‫خال‬“ .
 One more instance is ”‫عوجاء‬“‫أو‬”‫جمالية‬“
 They are rendered instead by ….
“generic terms” or “superordinate lexical item”.

16. Whereas English has only one main verb ‘love’,
Arabic has much more words signifying varying
types and intensity of love.
The last example on this type of problems is
….
Love
‫الهوى‬‫والجوى‬ ‫والشغف‬ ‫والالعج‬ ‫واللوعة‬ ‫والشغف‬ ‫والعشق‬ ‫والكلف‬ ‫والعالقة‬
‫والهيام‬ ‫والوله‬ ‫والتدليه‬ ‫والتبل‬ ‫والتيم‬

17. Leonard Bloomfield states boldly and clearly
that:
 ‘If the forms (of words) are phonemically
different, we suppose that their meanings
are also different’.
 An example is ‘quick, fast, swift, rapid and
speedy’.

18. 2. Terms with the same referential meaning,
but different stylistic value:
 Sometimes the only available equivalent to
an Arabic word is one which belongs to a
different level of usage, and thus with a
different stylistic value.
 In such cases, a translator is left to dive deep
in the sea of language to come up with
‘poetic diction’ or ‘highly literary lexical
items’.

19. Here is a table, revealing that:
Standard Arabic Literary
‫قلم‬ ‫يراع‬
‫الشفاه‬ ‫اللمى‬
‫نحيل‬ ‫أعجف‬
‫جريح‬ ‫كليم‬
‫ابتعد‬ ّ‫ازور‬
‫أبغض‬ ‫شنأ‬
‫لبنة‬ ‫مدماك‬
Do we have the same in English?

20. Interestingly enough, Arabic is characterized
by the fact that some plurals are associated
with poetic echoes or emotive force. How?
Neutral Emotively or poetically Charged
‫أضالع‬ ‫أضلع‬
‫األحشاء‬ ‫الحشا‬
‫أزهار‬ ‫أزاهير‬
‫كلمات‬ ‫كلم‬
‫دموع‬ ‫أدمع‬
‫أوالد‬ ‫ولدان‬

21. 3. Terms with the same referential
meaning but different connotation
 In every linguistic community, there is tacit
agreement about the associations and
connotations of words among its speakers.
 There are words whose referential meanings
have gradually accumulated new emotive
components.
 An example is ”‫حرمة‬“‫أو‬”‫ة‬ّ‫ـ‬‫ولي‬“ whose English
available equivalent is only ‘woman’.

22. Why is ‘woman’ not equivalent to the Arabic
”‫حرمة‬“‫أو‬”‫ولية‬“ ?
 Because the following semantic properties
and components are absent from the English
given equivalent, namely.
 Female inferiority
Veiled and taboo
Weakness or helplessness

23. 4. Terms with the same referential meaning
but different intensity.
 Look at the following Arabic sentence:
 ”‫خرافاته‬ ‫عني‬ّ‫جر‬“
- One translator gave the equivalent ‘to feed’ for ‫ع‬ّ‫جر‬“ .
- The Arabic verbal pattern ‫ل‬ّ‫ع‬‫ف‬ implies causation or the
use of force, which are already incorporated by the
Arabic verb ‫ع‬ّ‫.جر‬
- The word ‘feed’ is a shift to a different semantic
domain, i.e. that of eating, and it lacks the aspect of
force.

24. The final example is:
”ً‫ا‬‫مدرار‬ً‫ا‬‫دمع‬ ‫عيناه‬ ‫ت‬ّ‫ـ‬‫سح‬“
 ّ‫ح‬‫س‬ represents an action of greater intensity than
do the other verbs which could have replaced it
(e.g. ‫هطل‬-‫جرى‬-‫سال‬-‫هتن‬-‫نزل‬ )
 It is made even stronger by the use of a
morphological form that implies emphasis and
exaggeration (the adjective ‫مدرارا‬
 If the emotive force generated by these two lexical
items can be reproduced, they should be through
other modes of expression, NOT through exact
lexical parallelism.