Revue Maghrébine des Langues
Volume 9, Numéro 1, Pages 145-160
2014-12-31

A Comparative Study Of Machine And Human Translation: The Case Of English-arabic Literary Translations

Authors : Boulenouar Mohamed Yamin .

Abstract

Due to scientific quick spread, Machine translation is at the present time regarded as a very important means in teaching. As a matter of fact, a great number of people convert a variety of text types into other languages. In contrast, relying completely on machine translation may not only generate an inaccurate adaptation of the first text in the source language but it may possibly bring into being lots of translational blunders such as disconnectedness, strangeness, and at worst communication failure. The question is in that case: can machine translation be successful with no human involvement? In view of that, the study at hand endeavors to put side by side machine translation, i.e. “Babylon 10” and human translation in terms of lexical, structural and contextual differences through translating extracts from paragraphs in fiction of American literary texts entitled “The Old Man and the Sea” and “Tom Sawyer”. The output of such translations will be investigated and considered in relation to syntax, semantics and types of translation used.

Keywords

Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), units of translation, free-literal dichotomy, unit/rank shifts, equivalence, formal correspondence