Semantic economy of wording in English and Arabic

The major aim of this paper is to show the economy of wording in Arabic translation. In Jordan and most other Middle East countries, Arabic is the first language and English is the foreign or second language. In Jordan the official newspaper ‘Jordan Times’ conveys news in English translated from Arabic. The author noticed variation in the length of paragraphs in Arabic and English and investigated this feature. Five professional translators translated two paragraphs from English into Arabic and two from Arabic into English. They translated these paragraphs as homework and were given a couple of days to enable them to use any translational tools (e.g., dictionaries, consultations, etc). The four paragraphs included certain expressions in modern English and Arabic which could be confusing, particularly in translating mass media subjects. The study showed that English is less wordy than Arabic in conveying the semantic content of certain expressions. © 1998, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.