Analysis of Arabic Translations of English Implied Conditional Sentences: Difficulties and Implications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1412.34Keywords:
conditional clause, restrictive modifiers, syntactic features, semantic features, implied conditionAbstract
English implied conditionals pose a challenge when translated into Arabic for syntactic and semantic reasons. This study therefore aims to identify some potential problems when translating conditional sentences without the conditional marker ‘if’ or any other conditional marker. To accomplish this goal, thirty Arab students from Yarmouk University were requested to translate a list of inferred conditional structures into their target language (TL) equivalents. The study demonstrates that Arabic conditionals do not accurately convey the syntactic and semantic characteristics of English conditionals that are presented without the conditional particle "if". It also demonstrates that the implicit conditionals cannot be fully translated into non-conditional forms. The study concludes with a discussion of the study’s implications for class from a pedagogical perspective.
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