Literal vs Free Translation

Literal & Free Translation

Literal translation, also known as word-for-word translation, involves translating one word with another while strictly adhering to the source text's (ST) word order (Munday 2016/31). It focuses on conveying the denotative meaning of words, phrases, and sentences from one language to another. Literal translation is most effective when there is correspondence between two languages in terms of semantics and structure. For example:

• English: It is cold.

• Arabic: $بارد الطقس$

In this case, the word $طقس$ disappears in the target text (TT) and is replaced by the subject “it.”

• English: Ali went to the market yesterday.

• Arabic: $علي ذهب إلى السوق البارحة$

• English: I bought a nice car.

• Arabic: $أنا اشتريت جميلة سيارة$

As demonstrated, literal translation can be problematic, especially between languages with distant origins like English and Arabic.

Literal translation often fails with multiword units such as collocations and idioms:

• English: to pay a visit

• Arabic: $زيارة يدفع$

• English: strong tea

• Arabic: $شاي قوي$

• English: It rains cats and dogs

• Arabic: $كالب و قططا تمطر$

However, it can work in some cases:

• English: to take a decision

• Arabic: $قرارا يتخد$

• English: peace and war

• Arabic: $الحرب و السلم$

• English: crocodile tears

• Arabic: $دموع التماسيح$

Literal translation includes different types:

1. Word-for-Word Translation

2. One-to-One Translation

3. Literal Translation of Meaning

1- Word-for-Word Translation

In this type of translation, the word is the primary unit of translation. Each word in the source language is substituted with a corresponding word in the target language, maintaining the same word order. The principle is that no word should be left untranslated. Source text words are substituted in the target text in the order they appear in the source text, often out of context. Some translation studies scholars suggest this can be a preliminary step but should not be used in real translation situations.

Example 1:

• English: Mary eats a red apple every morning

• Arabic: $صباح كل تفاحة تأكل ماري$

Word-for-word translation implies that both source language (SL) words and grammatical constructions have corresponding target language (TL) words and grammatical constructions. Each SL word or phrase is rendered into an identical word or phrase in the TL with the same number, grammatical class, and type of language (Ghazala 2008:6). A noun is translated into a noun, an adjective into an adjective, and so on.

Example 2:

• Arabic: $الطاولة على الكتاب$

• Word-for-word English: The book on the table.

• Most appropriate English translation: The book is on the table.

In this example, the word-for-word translation