Differences in Word Choice between Male and Female Translators: in Historical, Hostile and Romantic Texts

Year: 
2014
Discussion Committee: 
Dr. Odeh Odeh/ Supervisor
Dr. Ruqaya Hirzallah/ Co-Supervisor
Dr. Omar Najjar/ External Examiner
Dr. Nabil Alwai/ Internal Examiner
Supervisors: 
Dr. Odeh Odeh/ Supervisor
Dr. Ruqaya Hirzallah/ Co-Supervisor
Authors: 
Jihan Mahmoud Sherbini
Abstract: 
Differences between females and males exist on various levels including translation. This is a pioneer study in the field of gender and translation which is hoped to be the beginning of further research in translation. It aims at answering the question of whether there are unintentional differences between genders in the translation of non-emotive historical texts, and emotive texts: hostile and romantic, from English to Arabic. The researcher has conducted two studies to answer the question: in the first one, she has compared translated chosen quotations of two versions of already published translations of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four by professional female and male translators, in addition to quotations of translations by MA students from two different universities of Without Remorse by Clancy, and The Witch of Portobello by Coelho; the second study compared translations of romantic, hostile and historical excerpts provided by students majoring in Applied Linguistics and Translation Prorgam from An-Najah University and professional translators. The researcher has opted for descriptive analysis for the non-emotive texts for both samples; however, for the emotive texts, the researcher opted for a quantitative analysis to guarantee objectivity and consistency in the process. For the latter, Fuzzy Logic (FL) rules have been created and applied based on equivalence theory. The emotive translations were scored according to the FL rules while FL calculations were processed. The researcher has come to the conclusion that female translators were more expressive when translating romantic texts in comparison to male translators who seemed more comfortable dealing with violence. In historical/ non-emotive texts, both genders provided almost identical translations. This applies to samples of translators and texts tested in the study. Further research is needed.
Full Text: 
Pages Count: 
86
Status: 
Published