1. Introduction to Translation
Grammatical Equivalence

2. Grammatical Disticntions
Languages use grammatical systems to express distinctions in different areas; such as:
Time
Number
Person
Voice, etc.

3. What is Grammar?
Grammar is a set of rules which determine the way in which units such as words and phrases can be combined in a language.
Languages differ widely in the range of basic categories of grammar.

4. Grammatical vs. Lexical Categories
Grammar has two dimensions:
Morphology: covers the structure of words and its changes to indicate differences in grammatical systems.
E.g. man/men car/cars child/children
Syntax: cover grammatical structure of groups, clauses and sentences, word classes (V., adv., adj.), functional elements (subject, object, predicator.
E.g. She had forgotten about the party. (statement)
Had she forgotten about the party? (question)

5. Grammatical vs. Lexical Categories
Choices of structure in any language can be expressed grammatically or lexically.
Choices made from closed systems (number, pronoun…) are considered grammatical.
Choices made from open-ended sets of items are considered lexical.

6. Grammatical vs. Lexical Categories
Grammatical Choices
Lexical Choices
made of closed systems (number , pronoun)
made of open-ended system
considered largely obligatory
considered largely optional
more resistant to change
more lenient to change

7. Grammatical vs. Lexical Categories
It is much easier to introduce a new word or expression than to introduce a new rule or grammatical category.
However, a very small number of text types (poems, ads, jokes) might occasionally manipulate grammatical rules to create special effect.

8. Grammatical vs. Lexical Categories
Changing grammatical systems are not acceptable in most contexts, which makes translation harder forcing the translator to use a grammatical choice that is not close to the one used in the ST.

9. Diversity of Grammatical Categories across Languages
It is difficult to find a grammatical category that is regularly and uniformly expressed in all languages.
Even categories such as time and number are obligatory in some languages and optional in others.

10. Diversity of Grammatical Categories across Languages
Differences in the grammatical structures of the SL and TL often result in some change in the information during the process of translation. Changes may take the form of:
1- adding to the TT information that is not mentioned in the ST.
2- omitting information specified in the ST.

11. Diversity of Grammatical Categories across Languages
These changes might lead to problems in the translation process. As adding and omitting information may indicate the importance of an insignificant ones and vice versa.

12. Grammatical Categories - Number
The idea of countability is probably universal being accessible to all human beings and is expressed lexically in all languages. However, not all languages have a grammatical category of number.

13. Number
English: distinction between one and more than one (singular and plural).
This distinction expressed morphologically by adding suffix or changing the form of the word.
E.g. (car/cars child/children)
Arabic: distinction between one, two, and more than two. (singular, dual, plural)
E.g. طالب/ طالبان/ طلاب

14. Number
A translator working on a language which has number distinctions into a language with no category of number has two main options:
1- omit the relevant information on number;
2- encode it lexically.

15. Number
(ST): عندما يراد تعيين ثلاثة محكمين، يختار كل طرف محكما واحدا. ويختار المحكمان المعينان المحكم الثالث وهو الذي يتولى رئاسة هيئة التحكيم.
(TT): When the appointment of three arbitrators, each party selects one arbitrator. The two appointed arbitrators select the third one who will head the Arbitration Committee.

16. Number
The translator must be careful not to overspecify information in order not to produce an unnatural text.

17. Gender
Gender is grammatical distinction according to which a noun or pronoun (animate or inanimate) is classified as either masculine or feminine.
Some languages makes the distinction morphologically and some lexically.
E.g. French: Fils / Fille
English: Son / Daughter

18. Gender
English sometimes makes gender distinctions morphologically when related to some professions.
E.g. actor / actress steward/stewardess
As for pronouns, English has third-person singular pronouns to indicate masculine and feminine (he / she) but not for third-person plural (they).

19. Gender
In Arabic, gender distinction apply to second- and third-person pronouns.
هي / هو
هن / هم
أنتَ / أنتِ
أنتن / أنتم

20. Gender (ST) Instructions for use:
Shampoo the hair with a mild Wella-Shampoo and lightly towel dry.
Apply Kolestral-Super and massage.
Cover the hair with a plastic cap.
Rinse off the product and style the hair as usual.

21. Gender (TT) تعليمات الاستعمال: يغسل الشعر بالشامبو ويجفف بالمنشفة.
يوضع كوليسترال-سوبر ويدلك بنعومة.
يغطى الشعر ....
يشطف ويمشط ....

22. Person
This category relates to the notion of participant roles. In most languages participant roles are systematically defined through closed system of pronouns.

23. Person Person English Arabic First-person I, We أنا ، نحن
Second-person
You (sing., plu.)
انتَ، انتِ، انتم، انتن، انتما
Third-Person
He, she, it, they
هو، هي، هم، هن، هما

24. Tense and Aspect
Tense and aspect are grammatical categories in a large number of languages.
The form of the verb indicates time (past, present, future) and aspect (completion, continuation, momentariness)

25. Tense and Aspect Tense and Aspect English Arabic Past Simple
He went to the mall.
ذهب إلى المجمع.
Past Continuous
He was walking down the street, …..
كان يمشي في الشارع
Past Perfect
They had had their lunch
تناولوا طعامهم
Present Simple
She likes watching movies.
هي تحب مشاهدة الافلام
Present Continuous
She is studying English.
هي تدرس الانجليزية
Present Perfect
It has played with the ball.
لعب بالكرة
Future
We will go to Paris.
سنذهب إلى باريس

26. Voice
Passive voice is used in English frequently, especially in technical and scientific texts. Therefore, when translating passive voice into other languages that don’t include such grammatical category, or doesn’t use it as frequent as English, it might generate a difficulty.

27. Voice
Since Arabic has the passive voice (مبني للمجهول), it is not that challenging to translate it from and into English.
E.g.
The Mansell Hall was opened in 1986 by Nigel Mansell.
افتتحت صالة مانسل عام 1986 من قبل نايجل مانسل.
افتتح نايجل مانسل صالة مانسل عام 1986.