The Applicability of Borrowing: Crossing SL Boundaries Towards the TL Typology (the case of English-Arabic translation of specialized terminologies)

الملخص

Translating neologisms and specialized terms from any SL into any TL poses a real challenge for translators of scientific or specialized text types, since it requires not only an optimal knowledge of the languages in question, but a thorough understanding of the locus of that particular term in a particular domain. Arabic language, being different in terms of its expressive potentials, and phonological, as well as morphological characteristics, many procedures need to be put in effect in order to reach into a state of translatability of foreign terms, and in order for such terms to be adapted into the Arabic language system. Borrowing stands as the most adopted technique in rendering varieties of specialized terms into Arabic. Yet, for borrowing not be disruptive and uninformative, it needs to be combined with some other techniques like analogy, definition or explanation. Arabicizing foreign terms, may even be a better option to be opted for, yet, the same problem arises when it comes to the TL receptors’ familiarity vs unfamiliarity with the imported term/s, added to the volume of Arabicized terms in a particular text or a part of a text.