An Analysis Of Familiarity Of Undergraduate Students Towards Translation Of Idioms From English Into Urdu

Abstract

Idioms are very difficult to translate especially from a language that is culturally and linguistically quite different from another. As it is obvious that most idioms do not have any direct equivalence into the target language (TL) therefore, the present study aims at investigating the level of familiarity of students towards the translation of idioms from English into Urdu.  To achieve this goal, the researcher has used a translation test based on idioms as a research tool and conducted it on 100 students enrolled in the last 4 semesters of an undergraduate program majoring in English. The translation test consists of the translation of de-contextual idioms (purely idioms) and contextual idioms (used within context). The idioms were chosen according to the types of idioms presented by Fernando (1996) as literal idioms, semi-idioms and pure idioms. The findings of the study reveal that the level of students’ familiarity regarding the translation of idioms is lower in the translation of de-contextual idioms than in the contextual translation of idioms. De-contextual idioms were quite difficult for them to translate. It has shown the difficulties like inability to find equivalents in the target language, the cultural gap between source language (SL) and target language (TL), few understanding due to figurative meaning of idioms, lack of knowledge about idioms and no suggestiveness while translating de-contextual idioms. Moreover, the literal idioms were quite easily translated however, semi-idioms and pure idioms became more difficult to translate due to the increasing level of opacity.