Quality in the Translation of Narrative Fictional Texts from Arabic into English for the Purposes of Publication: Towards a Systematic Approach to (Self)-assessing the Translation Process

Abstract

The main focus of the current study is on translation quality assurance. In studying the translation process, the present study does not confine itself to the micro-level of translating, i.e. reading, analysing, comprehending, transferring, polishing the draft translation and the like. Rather, the translation process is studied from a perspective of translation as industry; it is divided into three main phases, namely: 1. pre-translation, 2. translation and 3. post-translation. Each of these three phases of the translation process requires those involved in the whole project to take certain steps that correspond to each level’s requirements with a view to ensuring the quality of the translation process that leads to the quality of the product. The translation process at its macro level is envisaged in this research as a set of constraint-motivated strategies. Dealing with the text at hand, translators encounter a set of constraints. In studying these constraints and their effects on the final shape of the translated text, constraints are divided into two types, viz. verbal constraints driven by the text itself (e.g. language-related constraints, textual constraints, cultural constraints with a micro nature, communicative constraints, pragmatic constraints, semiotic constraints and stylistic constraints) and non-verbal constraints originating from outside the text (e.g. cultural constraints with a macro level, purpose of translation, generic conventions, intended readership, power of patronage, master discourse of translation, text typological constraints, discoursal constraints, norm-imposed constraints and translator-related constraints).
It has been shown that the relationship between the constraints imposed on the translator and the strategies available is not a one-to-one relationship, but rather the strategy is sometimes a result of more than one constraint. As people are different in perceiving world reality, in their tolerance to the pressure exerted on them, in their beliefs, feelings, cultural background, ideologies, attitudes,such a selection among available strategies is subjective rather than objective, being attributable to translators’ ideology, idiolect, competence, experience, skills and social and religious background.