The Assessment of Difficulties of Persian Translators of English in Comprehension and Translation of English Compound Words

Abstract

Nowadays compounding is a source of many English neologism, so comprehension and translation of new compound words or phrases is a controversial issue in English language translation. The aim of this study was to provide answers to some teasing questions such as: the extent to which compound words are problematic for Persian translators of English, the causes of these problems, the strategies which were utilized and finally, proposing an effective model for translating the compound words. Thirty participants, both male and female, who were studying at semesters seven and eight of English translation at Islamic Azad University of Bandar Abbas were selected for this study. Sixty compound words from different newspapers, dictionaries and books were selected. Two elicitation instruments were also devised to measure comprehension and translation of compound words. Thus each subject was administered two tests of M/C and production formats. Not only aimed tests at assessing the variables such as: syntactic, semantic and cultural reference ambiguities that affected comprehension of compound, but also the strategies utilized by subjects to translate them were also taken into the consideration. Data were collected and the answer to each question was examined closely, both in terms of difficulty and underlying strategy. Findings suggested that comprehension of some compound words were problematic due to decontexualization, idiomatic and syntactic ambiguity. Results indicated that the subjects utilized figurative strategies in dealing with idiomaticity, which in turn supported "Direct Access Hypothesis" claiming: free translation is available in reaching idiomatic meaning. It means translators should not assume that primary meanings are transferred, but they should look at idiomatic meaning in both elements.