Methods of translating war-related collocations: A case study of Yemeni undergraduates

Abstract

The present research project aims to explore translation methods adopted by Yemeni undergraduates when translating war-related collocations from English to Arabic and vice versa. To collect the data, a translation test was given to 64 undergraduate students affiliated to the departments of English and Translation in five Yemeni public and private universities. The test consists of 20 English sentences including war-related collocations to be translated into Arabic, and 20 Arabic sentences to be translated into English. The translation methods used by the students were investigated. Excel statistical analysis software was used to analyze the selected collocations. Percentages were used to quantify the total number of Yemeni undergraduate students who translated the collocations in the translation test. The frequencies of the methods used for the selected collocations were represented as ratios. The findings revealed that the most frequent methods used by students in translating war-related collocations are modulation, paraphrasing, literal translation, and transposition. The findings of the study also highlight implications to be utilized by students and translators in the form of recommendations.