Investigating of Punctuation Marks Problems in English- Arabic Translation

Abstract

Meaning is carried through different elements in written contexts. One of these elements is the use of punctuation marks. Writers, in both languages, use punctuation marks in order to breakdown texts into meaningful units to convey ideas to the reader. This paper explores the influence of transferring some punctuation marks on meaning in English-Arabic translation. The topic under study is represented by some English texts that had been translated by a number of English students enrolled in translation courses. The sample were randomly chosen to see how punctuation is transferred between the two languages. The texts were taken out from wikipedia website. The results of the study revealed that some students failed to transfer the meaning by using wrong punctuation marks, others missed out punctuation marks completely which negatively affected the overall meaning of the text. It can be concluded that some students rely too much on direct translation as a technique of translation.