Rafat Y. Alwazna1*
Alawia A. Al Hamed2- 1Professor of Translation Studies, TESOL and Legal Translation, Department of Modern Languages and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- 2Master of Science in Translation and Interpreting (MTI), English and Translation Department, College of Humanities, Effat University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
News translation, which is often known as news transediting, which is concerned with the translation of materials for print and/or online mass media, has long stimulated interest within the field of translation studies. The present paper explores the strategies of transediting the terms used for describing the US dollar in the websites of four news channels, namely: Alarabiya, Aljazeera, BBC and CNN between Arabic and English from the first of July 2022 to the thirty-first of December 2022. The paper conducts triangulational analysis to identify the type and frequency of the transediting strategies used in each channel, present how certain examples of each strategy are adopted and demonstrate the similarities and differences in the type and frequency of the transediting strategies employed between the channels. The paper argues that the choice of the transediting strategy is based on the type of audience, context, the channel’s policy and the type of information intended for delivery. This paper offers a baseline for exploring the strategies of transediting the terms used for describing the US dollar in both Arabic and English news websites of the aforementioned channels, which may have implications for exploring other transediting strategies used in other news websites of different channels broadcast in different languages.
1 Introduction
News translation, which is concerned with the translation of materials for print and/or online mass media, has long stimulated interest within the field of translation studies. Different scholars have variably addressed such concept. For instance, Holland (2006) reaches the conclusion that different news audiences may receive considerably different impressions of the tone and content of the same speech based on the particular media through which they access the text. Bani (2006), on the other hand, studies standard practices and translation strategies adopted in press translation. Also, Bielsa (2007) claims that the news editor should possess the skills needed for the elaboration of news translation and that the news agencies organisation is conceived to facilitate the flows of information between different communities in order to reach global public with proper speed and efficiency. What is more, Kang (2007) explores the news discourse translation concerning the way in which discourse recontextualisation across languages, cultures and institutions may lead to the information transfer as well as transformation. Moreover, Bielsa and Bassnett (2009) discuss pivotal issues related to the pressures placed on translation emanating from globalisation, with profound analysis of new texts from major news agencies alongside media organisations. In addition, Kadhim and Kader (2010) carry out a comparative study of English BBC political news and their Arabic counterparts, as well be discussed in section (4) below. Finally, Schäffner (2012) reflects on different terms used by scholars within the context of news translation, placing special emphasis on the term “transediting” used in different papers addressing the same concept, including the present paper. Within the analysis of the role of translation for producing journalistic texts in general, and news reporting in particular, the term “transediting”, which was coined by Stetting (1989), has frequently been employed by a number of scholars, such as Hursti (2001), van Doorslaer (2009, 2010), Cheesman and Nohl (2011), Schäffner (2012), and Wang (2018). Transediting indeed is used to take account of the fuzzy borderline between translating and editing. Stetting’s (1989) claim for coining such term lies chiefly in the notion that the translation assignment often involves a certain degree of editing. Amongst the cases that merit transediting, as outlined by Stetting (1989), is the production of journalistic texts where the journalist, drawing on a material written in a particular language, produces broadly the same content in a different language.
Even though a plethora of research, as mentioned above, has addressed the concept of transediting, the present paper is distinctive as it exclusively tackles the strategies of transediting the terms adopted for the description of the US dollar in both Arabic and English news websites. Its significance resides in the fact that it elicits all the terms that describe the US dollar in the news websites of four channels; two of which are Arabic: Alarabiya and Aljazeera, whilst the other two are English: BBC and CNN from the first of July 2022 to the thirty-first of December 2022, in an attempt to explore how they are transedited in the aforementioned channels. The reasons behind the choice of such channels stem from the fact that they are so popular in the world; they are watched by millions all over the globe. They do also have websites in both Arabic and English, the languages needed for conducting the current research. Also, the time period spent for collecting the terms used for the description of the US dollar and for exploring as well as analysing the strategies adopted for transediting such terms in the websites of the aforementioned channels has been six months to allow for rigorous investigation and scrupulous examination of the terms used in describing the US dollar and the strategies employed for transediting such terms in the websites of the said Channels. Indeed, the present paper aims to explore the strategies adopted in transediting the terms describing the US dollar from Arabic into English and vice versa and whether or not there are any differences between the aforementioned channels in the type and frequency of use of such transediting strategies. The paper seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the strategies of transediting the terms used for describing the US dollar from Arabic into English in both Alarabiya and Aljazeera news websites, and how often is each of them adopted? (2) What are the strategies of transediting the terms used for describing the US dollar from English into Arabic in both BBC and CNN news websites, and how often is each of them adopted? (3) Are there differences in type and frequency of use of such transediting strategies between Arabic channels and English channels, and if so, what are they?
The paper at the outset presents media texts, which comprise news texts, which encompass news headlines, underscoring their crucial characteristics, particularly the attractiveness in language to draw the attention of the intended audience. It then addresses media translation, placing special emphasis on the term and concept of “transediting” and how it is directly relevant to the news transformation, with elucidation of certain characteristics and requirements that need to be met by the transeditor to perform such task properly. Certain research studies conducted in relation to news translation will next be discussed, highlighting crucial linguistic operations, which can serve as pivotal transediting strategies that are often adopted by journalists and transeditors when dealing with news transformation. The method followed in the present paper, data analysis, findings and discussion as well as conclusion will then follow, respectively. The present paper argues that the terms particular to the description of the US dollar in the news websites in question tend to have the economic nature and, ipso facto, require a particular set of transediting strategies. The choice of a particular transediting strategy is primarily based on the type of the target audience and the context in which the terms used for describing the US dollar are placed. The paper also claims that a particular Arabic term can be transedited into English differently depending on the type of audience and the context in which it is stated and the same applies to the English term. Certain terms, whether Arabic or English, describing the US dollar, are also personified to further attract the readers’ attention and create appealing literary images. The differences between the aforementioned channels in the way of transediting the terms in question have also political and economic dimensions and support the transediting policy of each channel.
2 Media texts
Media is said to represent the channels and tools through which information and news are delivered. It has an influential role in the modern world; it influences and is influenced by public opinion either positively or negatively. Media texts have various structures and different purposes (Al-Ogaili, 2021). They are characterised by inflated rhetoric, highly emotional lexicon and catch phrases (Fabiszak, 2007; Altarabin, 2021). This runs in line with Al-Ogaili (2021), who points out that since media constructs its reality by giving an ideologised picture of the world and creating informational constructions which may not only be defined by documentation and reality, there are extralinguistic factors in media texts that turn information into a commercial commodity. Media texts attract the reader’s attention by selecting terms and phrases with strong connotations and emotional implications that go beyond denotative meaning, serving different purposes. Consequently, any translated media text follows the same principles of turning a classic, informative text into a marketed product to live up to the expectations of the target audience (Kolodii et al., 2022).
News texts are considered an important part of media texts. They are known to reveal a publicist nature and, ipso facto, need to serve a communicative purpose (Alwazna, 2018). They make use of a vivid and colorful language, which is characterised by specific syntactical, lexical and compositional features to make a particular piece of information interesting, shocking or surprising to the intended audience. Having considered that the news texts are governed by their intended readership, the language thereof hinges upon manipulation, reconstruction and multiple conceptions, violating a great deal of linguistic standard rules (Al-Ogaili, 2021). Fowler (1991) asserts that reporting news or events through media follows a set of criteria that do not only report what has happened, but also present information that is deemed newsworthy and meaningful.
A substantial part of news texts lies chiefly in news headlines, which are characterised by informativeness, attractiveness, novelty, precision and relevance (Biber and Conrad, 2009; Petroniene and Zvirblyte, 2012; Alwazna and Sidiya, 2018). News headlines unequivocally play a significant part in drawing the readers’ attention and encouraging them to read the whole article (Alwazna and Sidiya, 2018). They are supposed to offer answers to the six primary questions that start with “who, what, where, when, how and why” (Saxena, 2004). News headlines are often written by professional editors who are capable of producing engaging leads (Petroniene and Zvirblyte, 2012). The terms that describe the US dollar, the main theme of the current research, have been found in both news headlines as well as within the news texts, with the use of the attractive language to draw the reader’s attention, as will be seen in section (7) below.
3 Media translation (transediting)
Media translation refers to the process of translating different forms of media, such as written content, video, audio or multimedia from a single linguistic system to another. It started attracting the attention of the researchers in the field of translation studies only around the beginning of the 21st century when the translation practices in this field had established correspondence between the source language and the target language, complying with the concept of “translation proper” (Zanettin, 2021). Stylistic devices and extralinguistic features are often relied on in media texts for the sake of drawing the attention of the audience, which complicates the role of the translator in producing equivalent media texts (Al-Ogaili, 2021). Media and news translation requires producing an informative yet intermediate text.
A news report is first internationalised through major news agencies, such as AFP, Reuters and AP, then localised through local news outlets with appropriate degrees of adaptation and altering the original text to transfer a global product into a local one (Tovmasyan and Ghazaryan, 2022). Bielsa and Bassnett (2009) point out that information which is transferred from one culture into another through news agencies is not only interlingually translated, but it is also edited, reshaped, synthesised and transformed to live up to the expectations of the intended audience. Hence comes the term “transediting”, which was suggested by Stetting (1989) to comprise both translation and editing, as indicated earlier. Wang (2018) asserts that transediting is a process of transforming written news from one language into another in such a way that runs in line with the expectations of the target audience.
Three different areas of transediting are suggested by Stetting (1989); the first of which lies in adapting the ST expression to a TT standard expression “cleaning-up transediting”, whilst the second resides in adapting the ST to the planned function of the TT within its new social setting “situational transediting”. The third area is typified by adapting the ST to be in line with the requirements and conventions of the culture of the intended audience “cultural transediting”. Based on the foregoing, Stetting (1989) necessitates making changes on the content of the ST to serve the purpose of the TT and fit the cultural setting of the target reader, as in the case of the transedited media texts. Such idea of transediting, which has gained popularity, particularly within the context of media translation, is indeed akin to functionalist approaches. Functionalist theories view the translation process as being governed by the purpose the TT needs to serve in favour of the target reader’s needs (Schäffner, 2012). The aim of both Skopos theory proposed by Vermeer (1978) and the theory of translational action suggested by Holz-Mänttäri (1984) is obviously in compliance with that of transediting.
According to Stetting (1989), the transeditor is likely to be more courageous and energetic than the typical translator. Efficient work helps bring back clients for more business opportunities once they recognise that their intentions have been prioritised. Moreover, the transeditor feels that his/her work is more valuable and rewarding once it is more autonomous and is on a par with the original work. Furthermore, the transeditor should possess the transediting skills and news-writing skills, including in-time reporting, objective reporting as well as the inverted pyramid form (Wang, 2018).
4 Studies on media translation and transediting strategies
Kadhim and Kader (2010) conduct a comparative study of English BBC political news and their Arabic counterparts. Their study seeks to explore whether or not syntactic and stylistic differences between English and Arabic impact the translation quality. Their conducted analysis is intrinsically founded on structural linguistics, exploiting both X’ theory as well as componential analysis. One of the conclusions arrived at by this study resides in pinpointing the differences, which are: under-translation, over-translation, replacement translation and ambiguous translation. Such differences reached by Kadhim and Kader (2010) may serve as transediting strategies used in transediting news reporting from Arabic into English and vice versa, particularly in transediting the terms used for describing the US dollar from Arabic into English and vice versa. Similar terms, yet more pertinent to the translation strategies context, to the ones mentioned above may read as: translation by omission, translation by addition, substitution and implicitation.
In a different study, Hursti (2001) places special emphasis on the textual transformation in the transmission of international news from Reuters to the Finnish News Agency. He presents a set of different linguistic operations in news transformation, including reorganisation, deletion, addition and substitution. Having reflected on such operations, Hursti (2001) casts some light on organisational, situational and cultural factors. Such factors encompass the demands of news journalism, which should be characterised by the readability of the text. This may well lead to the concept of transediting of which he himself is in favour. He views transediting as a composite term employed to point to a particular work related to the field of “practical texts”, including news transformation in which both translating and editing are intertwined and equally important. Again, the linguistic operations illustrated by Hursti (2001) may also serve as transediting strategies and can possibly be used for transediting the terms employed for describing the US dollar from Arabic into English and vice versa. It is noteworthy that the transediting strategies illustrated in this study are the ones used in the present paper for their comprehensiveness and relevance to the current research.
In a third study, Valdeón (2005) conducts a comparative analysis of news articles from CNN and those from CNN en Español. He specifies differences in three areas, namely: textual structures, syntactical and grammatical structures and lexical choices. One of the main findings he has reached is that the English texts have faithfully been rendered into Spanish, taking no account of the audience sensitivity, i.e., no level of editing is recongnised to make the texts live up to the expectations of the Spanish reader. His reflection about the potential reasons behind the strategies adopted is deemed hypotheses on the grounds that his analysis is primarily text-based. Valdeón (2005), in his comparative analysis, considers the English texts the source texts, as the channel on which the analysis is carried out is originally an English-speaking channel. The same procedures have been followed in the present paper; the transediting process is considered to have been carried out from Arabic into English in the Arabic channels, whilst the process is reversed in the English channels.
In a different study conducted by the same author, Valdeón (2008) investigates the BBC World English reports and the BBC Mundo’s news web texts critically, giving credence to his previous study’s findings. Going beyond the text-based analysis, he sheds light on ideological implications for news translation with respect to both the choice of news items and the strategies adopted, particularly addition, omission and permutation. He claims that a certain perspective is tailored towards the target audience, thus supporting the process of transediting and the dual function that needs to be fulfilled by the journalist.
Another study conducted by Bani (2006) examines press translations into Italian, which were published in the weekly magazine Internazionale. The texts have been translated by a translator who is not affiliated to the editorial office. Upon receiving the translations, they undergo different types of editing; they are checked against the ST, they are checked against their naturalness in Italian, they are evaluated on the basis of where and how they will be placed in the newspaper and lastly the decision of the director will be passed concerning the whole process. Such complexity of editing processes has also been underscored by Kang (2007), who asserts that news translation goes through different processes of translating and editing in the Korean editorial office. Bani (2006) distinguishes between textual manipulation, such as inserting explanations, cutting as well as reorganising the text and the strategies adopted, such as summarising, cutting, generalisation, substitution and inclusion of explanations. He also adds other strategies, such as additions of subheadings, pictures, information about the article’s author as well as glossaries. Again, such strategies represent transediting strategies that can be used for the purpose of exploring how the terms used for describing the US dollar are transedited in the news channels under study.
5 Method
The present paper, which is deemed empirically-based research, makes use of a triangulational research study; it combines quantitative, qualitative and comparative analyses. The data specific to the current research is typified by all the terms used in the Arabic and English news websites of four prominent news channels, namely: Alarabiya, Aljazeera, BBC and CNN for describing the US dollar from the first of July 2022 to the thirty-first of December 2022. Such data has been gathered and collected during the aforementioned period through meticulous investigation and scrupulous examination of all the documents published in the Arabic and English websites of the said channels in an attempt to explore the terms used for describing the US dollar, their counterparts and the strategies adopted for transediting them. The Arabic and English terms particular to all the four aforementioned channels are found in Appendices 1–4, respectively. Each appendix is composed of three tables. In the first two channels, the first table contains the Arabic terms used for describing the US dollar along with the statements in which they have been stated and their sources, whilst the second table comprises the English terms used for describing the US dollar along with the statements in which they have been stated and their sources. The terms that have not been transedited in the first table and those that do not stand as transedited terms in the second table are all highlighted. This applies to the first and second tables in all appendices. The last table encompasses the Arabic terms that have been transedited into English along with the transedited English terms. In the last two channels, the same procedures are followed, though the process is reversed. In other words, the arrangement of the three tables is the same, though the source terms are the English terms, while the transedited ones are the Arabic terms. This procedure is based on Valdeón (2005) in which the process of transediting the terms in question is considered to have been carried out from Arabic into English in the Arabic channels, taking into account their two Arabic and English news websites. On the contrary, the process of transediting the terms under study is considered to have been conducted from English into Arabic in the English channels, taking into consideration their two English and Arabic news websites. It is noteworthy that the term intended in the present paper, whether Arabic or English, could be a single word or a complete expression as long as it describes the US dollar, as shown in the appendices. A source term, whether Arabic or English, can be transedited by one or more transedited terms and vice versa, as shown in the appendices.
The process of exploring the type of the transediting strategy is grounded in Hursti’s (2001) findings. This is owing to the fact that he has worked on news transformation at a text level, placing special emphasis on the concept and procedures of transediting. He has classified the linguistic operations that can serve as transediting strategies into reorganisation, deletion, addition and substitution. After the process of exploring the types of the transediting strategies is carried out in all the four channels, a quantitative analysis of all the transediting strategies is performed for each channel, comprising the type of strategy used, its frequency, percentage and a single example of each strategy for each channel. A comparative analysis will next follow, presenting the similarities and differences in the type, frequency and percentage of each transediting strategy between all the four said channels. The examples peculiar to all the types of the transediting strategies adopted in all the four channels will be qualitatively analysed, showing how they are used.
6 Data analysis
6.1 Findings and discussion
As presented in Table 1, it is clear that Alarabiya transedits 38 instances of the Arabic terms that describe the US dollar into English, as can be shown in Appendix 1, from the first of July 2022 to the thirty-first of December 2022, using substitution as a transediting strategy 24 times with a percentage of 63.2%, deletion 10 times with a percentage of 26.3%, addition 3 times with a percentage of 7.9% and reorganisation a single time with a percentage of 2.6%. Table 2, on the other hand, demonstrates transediting 37 instances of the Arabic terms that describe the US dollar into English in Aljazeera during the aforementioned period, as can be shown in Appendix 2, adopting substitution as a transediting strategy 19 times with a percentage of 51.4%, deletion 12 times with a percentage of 32.4%, addition 6 times with a percentage of 16.2% with no use of reorganisation as a transediting strategy in this channel.
Table 1. The types of the transediting strategies, their frequency, percentages and a single example for each of them with regard to Alarabiya.
Table 2. The types of the transediting strategies, their frequency, percentages and a single example for each of them with regard to Aljazeera.
As shown in Table 3, BBC records 27 transediting instances of the English terms that describe the US dollar into Arabic, as can be found in Appendix 3, during the said period, utilising substitution as a transediting strategy 14 times with a percentage of 51.9%, deletion 12 times with a percentage of 44.4%, reorganisation a single time with a percentage of 3.7% with no resort to addition as a transediting strategy in this channel. Table 4, however, presents the transediting process of 116 instances of the English terms that describe the US dollar into Arabic in CNN, as can be shown in Appendix 4, during the aforementioned period, exploiting substitution as a transediting strategy 76 times with a percentage of 65.5%, deletion 25 times with a percentage of 21.6%, addition 15 times with a percentage of 12.9% with no recourse to reorganisation as a transediting strategy in this channel.
Table 3. The types of the transediting strategies, their frequency, percentages and a single example for each of them with regard to BBC.
Table 4. The types of the transediting strategies, their frequency, percentages and a single example for each of them with regard to CNN.
Table 5 shows the use of each transediting strategy by all the four channels; it demonstrates that Aljazeera employs the highest number of addition as a transediting strategy with a percentage of 16.2%, followed by CNN with a percentage of 12.9% then Alarabiya with a percentage of 7.9% with no use of addition as a transediting strategy in BBC during the period stated above. On the other hand, CNN records the highest number of use of substitution as a transediting strategy with a percentage of 65.5%, followed by Alarabiya with a percentage of 63.2%, next comes BBC with a percentage of 51.9% and finally Aljazeera with a percentage of 51.4%. BBC, however, adopts the highest number of deletion as a transediting strategy with a percentage of 44.4%, followed by Aljazeera with a percentage of 32.4%, then comes Alarabiya with a percentage of 26.3% and lastly CNN with a percentage of 21.6%. Only two channels exploit reorganisation as a transediting strategy, namely: BBC with a percentage of 3.7% and Alarabiya with a percentage of 2.6%. However, Aljazeera and CNN do not record any use of reorganisation as a transediting strategy during the period stated above.
Table 5. The types of the transediting strategies, their frequency and percentages in all the aforementioned channels: Alarabiya, Aljazeera, BBC and CNN.
Transediting the Arabic terms that describe the US dollar into English in Arabic channels that have both Arabic and English news websites, such as Alarabiya and Aljazeera and transediting the English terms that describe the US dollar into Arabic in English channels that possess both English and Arabic news websites, such as BBC and CNN are deemed a type of economic translation. Meloyan (2015) claims that amongst the texts that are considered economic texts are news reports. He goes on to argue that translating economic and financial texts is classified under business translation. He continues to claim that there is a growing need for economic translation on account of ongoing international business development. He further adds that economic translation plays a substantial role in international business communication.
As indicated earlier, addition, as a transediting strategy, has been used by all channels with the exception of BBC. For instance, Alarabiya transedits the term: “شح” literally: (stinginess) as “shortage and a downgrade”, while Aljazeera transedits the term: “القوي” literally: (the strong) as “relentlessly strong”. On the other hand, CNN transedits the term: “rally” as “يواصل الارتفاع” literally: (continues to rise). Even though it seems evident that addition, as a transediting strategy, has been adopted in all the instances shown above, the added element(s) may differ from one instance to another. In Alarabiya, for instance, the source text, which is composed of a single noun, is transedited with the use of two nouns separated by a connective. This use of addition takes the form of binomial expressions. Gustafsson (1975) views binomial expressions as a succession of two words related to the same word class, which are semantically linked and syntactically coordinated. Such binomial expressions are regarded by Danet (1985) as syntactic parallelism. Triebel (2009) calls them “doubling”, stating that such strategy lies chiefly in the use of multiple terms to designate a particular concept, when a single term is sufficiently appropriate to describe such concept. Tiersma (1999) calls them “doublets or triplets”.
Conversely, both Aljazeera and CNN transedit a single noun using two different lexical items; the former transedits it into an adverb and adjective, whilst the latter transedits it into a verb and noun. Translation by addition points to the translation in which certain lexical elements are added to the receptor text, which do not exist in the original text (Dickins et al., 2002; Alwazna, 2022). Such translational situation is also referred to as overtranslation or translation gain (Alwazna, 2014b). Since in media in general, and in news reporting in particular, transedited texts are usually geared to the needs of the target audience, such additions are placed to serve this purpose. It is claimed that translators who translate for special readership with a particular social background are likely to mold their translations and any additions attached thereto towards the intended audience (Šarčević, 1985; Alwazna, 2014b).
Substitution, as a transediting strategy, on the other hand, has been employed by all channels and is the most commonly adopted transediting strategy by all channels. This is probably due to the congruency between transediting, as involving both editing and translating, and substitution, as involving some leeway in picking up the lexical elements that live up to the expectations of the intended audience. This is lent credence by Tovmasyan and Ghazaryan (2022), who point out that since media translation plays a major role in giving information and shaping the audience opinions, translators are expected to be knowledgeable of the social, political and cultural traditions to produce materials that live up to the expectations of the target audience. They go on to argue that it is suggested that media and news translators implement certain strategies, such as analogy and substitution for comprehensive and worth-reading texts. For instance, Alarabiya transedits the term: “انخفاض” literally: (lowness) as “took a leg down”, whilst Aljazeera transedits the term: “تعزز” literally: (be reinforced) as “stronger”. BBC transedits the term: “strength” as “مهيمنة” literally: (dominant), whereas CNN transedits the term: “king” as “القوي” literally: (the strong). In Alarabiya’s instance, it is obvious that the transeditor has substituted a noun with a complete clause used in the English financial sphere, particularly within the currency context, thus domesticating the whole concept to fit the cultural setting of the target reader, though he/she could have used the literal equivalence to convey the intended meaning. This runs in line with Carbonell’s (2004) “familiarising”, which is the same as Venuti’s (1995) “domestication”, which lies in the replacement of the source text cultural elements with elements comprehended by the target reader (Alwazna, 2014a).
Both Aljazeera and BBC transedit a term; a verb in the former and a noun in the latter into a single term; an adjective in both channels, albeit in the comparative form in the former. It is claimed that substitutes are deemed imprecise. Substitution offers a description of the form and/or function of the source text concept, though it can never be deemed a cultural equivalent (Šarčević, 1985; Alwazna, 2014b). Such imprecision in the equivalence provided by substitution makes this strategy largely relevant to the process of transediting. This becomes even more obvious in CNN’s instance where the source text employs a literary personified term to describe the US dollar, which is transedited into an economic term. Hence, a literary term used for the description of the US dollar is clearly transedited with the use of an economic term to serve the same purpose, achieve the intended communicative function and fit the cultural setting of the target audience. Sun (2022) holds the view that it is important to develop particular translation techniques and forms to guarantee appropriate responses from the target audience as that of the original audience. For instance, making cross-cultural adjustments that are guided by the contextual features of the source text will lead to the desired cross-cultural or intercultural communication.
Deletion, as a transediting strategy, has been resorted to by all channels. For instance, Alarabiya transedits the term: “يظل مدفوعا” literally: (continues to be paid) as ‘injected’, whilst Aljazeera transedits the term: “استمر في الارتفاع”, literally: (continued to rise) as “goes up”. BBC, on the other hand, transedits the term: “continues to rise” as “ارتفع”, literally: (went up), whereas CNN transedits the term: ‘the ultimate safe haven’ as “الملاذ الآمن”, literally (safe haven). Obviously, the element of continuity has been omitted in the instances of Alarabiya, Aljazeera and BBC. Likewise, the element of ultimate has been dispensed with in CNN’s instance. Deletion or translation by omission refers to the removal of certain textual elements from the target text, which do exist in the original text (Dickins et al., 2002; Alwazna, 2022). Alwazna (2019) argues over the merit of the importance of deletion as a translation strategy, claiming that such strategy is adopted when the original text term designates a concept which is not present in the target language, and restructuring it in that language would cause misleading as it is considered a culture-specific term. Nonetheless, the misuse of such a strategy does not only bring about translation loss in economy (Dickins et al., 2002), but it also results in translation loss in meaning (Alwazna, 2022).
However, deletion, as a transediting strategy, is commonly used in media texts in general, and in news reports in particular for specific reasons. Amongst such reasons are the context of the target text, the policy of the channel and what suits the intended audience. This means that transeditors may make considerable changes on transedited news reports, such as deleting certain detail, exaggerating or downplaying events to suit the policy of the channel and conform to the expectations of the target audience. This is supported by Tovmasyan and Ghazaryan (2022), who contend that the role of the media translator is extended to involve interpreting ideas and messages of the original text through reproducing its stylistic, linguistic and expressive means to match the target audience requirements. Within the same line of thought, Hatim and Mason (1997) assert that translation is a means of communication that transfers information across cultural and linguistic boundaries, carrying diverse purposes for different types of audience.
Reorganisation is the last transediting strategy suggested by Hursti (2001) and is only employed by Alarabiya and BBC. The former transedits the term: “تآكل هيمنة”, literally: (erosion of dominance) as ‘the soaring dollar threatens to erode’, whilst the latter transedits the term: ‘at an all-time high’ as “القوي والمستقر”, literally: (the strong and stable). Evidence suggests that reorganisation is adopted in both instances. In Alarabiya’s instance, the first element of the source text: “erosion” has been transedited through backgrounding such element in the transedited text as: “to erode”, with the added element “threatens” whose presence is normal in news report transediting. On the contrary, the second element of the source text: “dominance” has been foregrounded during the transediting process as: “the soaring dollar”. Likewise, in BBC’s instance, the first element of the source text: “at an all-time” has been backgrounded during the transediting process as: “stable”, whereas the second element of the source text: “high” has been transedited through foregrounding it as: “the strong”. It is argued that a particular structure of a sentence may be given preference over other structures on account of different factors (Hatim, 1997). Such factors lie chiefly in changing emphasis, registers, genres, styles, situations and language norms (Alwazna, 2013). Changing emphasis may be frequently resorted to in media translation to attract the audience attention, which is deemed substantial to news report transediting (Al-Ogaili, 2021). In Alarabiya’s instance, it appears that both language norms and changing emphasis have arguably been responsible for the use of reorganisation as a transediting strategy. However, in BBC’s instance, another factor has come to light. In Arabic, it is usually said: “القويوالمستقر”, literally: (the strong and stable) rather than “المستقر والقوي”, literally: (the stable and strong). In other words, reorganisation may also be exercised for the sake of achieving collocation in the transedited text. This is to create coherence and cohesion within the text. It is claimed that collocation plays a pivotal role in the text coherence and cohesion (Hatim and Mason, 1997; Alwazna, 2018).
Having considered the strategies of transediting the terms used for describing the US dollar adopted by the aforementioned channels during the period mentioned above, it can safely be stated that the choice of any transediting strategy is contingent upon particular factors; amongst the most important of which are the type of the target audience, the context in which the terms in question are placed, the channel’s political stance including what should be delivered of the intended news and what should not. Based on the foregoing, transeditors need to be trained on how to employ persuasive and attractive language not only to impart intended information, but also to draw the attention of the target readers and convince them of the channel’s political stance.
7 Conclusion
This paper has shown the type and frequency of use of the strategies of transediting the terms used for describing the US dollar in the Arabic and English news websites of Alarabiya, Aljazeera, BBC and CNN and the differences between these channels in the use of such strategies and their frequency from the first of July 2022 until the thirty-first of December 2022. Substitution has been the most frequently adopted transediting strategy by all the channels. While deletion has been variably employed by all the channels, addition has not been used by BBC and reorganisation has only been exploited by Alarabiya and BBC. Such variability in the use of these transediting strategies may probably be due to the policy of each channel and its political stance. A diverse set of different Arabic and English terms are employed for describing the US dollar in the four channels in question, which are of an economic nature to impart the intended information and draw the attention of the target audience concurrently. Such terms are found in both the news headlines as well as within the news texts and can at times be of a literary personified characteristic to create an aesthetic element for the sake of further attracting the attention of the target audience.
The choice of a specific strategy for transediting a particular term used for describing the US dollar is chiefly contingent upon the type of the intended audience, the context in which it is placed and the channel’s political stance. A particular Arabic term used for describing the US dollar may be transedited differently depending on both the type of the target reader and the context in which it is mentioned, and the same applies to the English term used for the same purpose.
This paper is limited to addressing the strategies of transediting the terms employed for the description of the US dollar in the Arabic and English news websites of Alarabiya, Aljazeera, BBC and CNN in the second half of 2022, carrying out a triangulational research study based on quantitative, comparative and qualitative analyses. Further research is required to conduct the same study covering a different time period. Other research is needed to investigate the transediting strategies used for the same terms, but employed in different channels. Endeavours need also to be made to examine the strategies of transediting the terms of a different language pair other than Arabic and English, which are used for describing the US dollar during the same period as that of the current research and compare its results to those of the current research for the sake of uncovering the similarities and differences between the two studies and investigating the reasons behind the differences on the basis of both linguistic and political factors.
Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Author contributions
RA: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. AH: Writing – review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The researchers have obtained funding from the Grants for Studies and Research in the field of translation, provided by the Arabic Observatory of Translation under the Alecso Organization & Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission, Ministry of Culture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to complete this research study, grant number [2024-184].
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1395274/full#supplementary-material
References
Al-Ogaili, A. A. (2021). A handbook of media translation. Basrah: Dāru Almaʿārifi Llkutubi Aljāmiʿiyya.
Altarabin, M. (2021). The Routledge course on media, legal and technical translation: English-Arabic-English. Oxon: Routledge.
Alwazna, R. Y. (2013). Translating Ḥanbalī Sharīʿa code from Arabic into English. Deutschland: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.
Alwazna, R. Y. (2014a). The cultural aspect of translation: the workability of cultural translation strategies in translating culture-specific texts. Life Sci. J. 11, 182–188.
Alwazna, R. Y. (2014b). “Important translation strategies used in legal translation: examples of Hooper’s translation of the ottoman Majalla in English” in The Ashgate handbook of legal translation. eds. L. Cheng, K. Sin, and A. Wagner (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited), 237–254.
Alwazna, R. Y. (2018). Issues on the translation of certain English collocations into Arabic: from collocations to free constructions in the target language. English Linguistics Res. 7, 51–60. doi: 10.5430/elr.v7n3p51
Alwazna, R. Y. (2019). Translation and legal terminology: techniques for coping with the untranslatability of legal terms between Arabic and English. Int. J. Semiot. Law 32, 75–94. doi: 10.1007/s11196-018-9580-y
Alwazna, R. Y. (2022). Evaluating the cognitive dimension of translation in light of the six phases proposed by Wilss (1996) in the decision-making process: a case study. Arab World English J. 13, 140–161. doi: 10.24093/awej/vol13no4.10
Alwazna, R. Y., and Sidiya, F. M. (2018). The use of borrowing as a technique in the translation of Arabic legal labour terms employed in the headlines of Saudi English newspapers. Int. J. Law Govern. Commun. 3, 1–15.
Bani, S. (2006). An analysis of press translation process”, in translation in global news-proceedings of the conference held at the University of Warwick – 23 June 2006, eds. Conway and S. Bassnet (Coventry: University of Warwick, Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies), 35–45. Paper presented at the conference held at the University of Warwick – 23 June 2006, Coventry, UK 2006.
Biber, D., and Conrad, S. (2009). Register, genre, and style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bielsa, E. (2007). Translation in global news agencies. Targets 19, 135–155. doi: 10.1075/target.19.1.08bie
Carbonell, O. (2004). “Exoticism, identity and representation in Western translation from Arabic” in Cultural encounters in translation from Arabic. ed. S. Faiq (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters), 26–39.
Cheesman, T., and Nohl, A.-M. (2011). Many voices, one BBC World Service? The 2008 US elections, gatekeeping and trans-editing. Journalism. 12, 217–233. doi: 10.1177/1464884910388589
Danet, B. (1985). “Legal discourse”, in Handbook of discourse analysis, ed. T. A. Dijkvan London: Palgrave Macmillan, 273–291).
Dickins, J., Hervey, S., and Higgins, I. (2002). Thinking Arabic translation: a course in translation method: Arabic to English. Oxon: Routledge.
Fabiszak, M. (2007). A conceptual metaphor approach to war discourse and its implications. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM.
Gustafsson, M. (1975). Binomial expressions in present-day English: A syntactic and semantic study. Turku: Turun Yliopisto.
Hatim, B. (1997). Communication across cultures: Translation theory and contrastive text linguistics. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.
Holland, R. (2006). Language(s) in the global news: translation, audience design and discourse (mis)representation. Targets 18, 229–259. doi: 10.1075/target.18.2.03hol
Holz-Mänttäri, J. (1984). Translatorisches handeln: Theorie und methode. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.
Hursti, K. (2001). An insider’s view on transformation and transfer in international news communication: an English-Finnish perspective. Electron. J. Department English Univ. Helsinki 1, 1–8.
Kadhim, K. A., and Kader, M. (2010). Stylistic differences and message changes in the translation of English BBC political news into Arabic. Jurnal Penterjemah 12, 23–46.
Kang, J. (2007). Recontextualisation of news discourse: a case study of translation of news discourse on North Korea. Translator 13, 219–242. doi: 10.1080/13556509.2007.10799239
Kolodii, B., Tkachivska, M., Grytsenko, M., Stepanenko, O., Bakhov, I., and Tkachivskyi, V. (2022). Semiotics of media text translation. Postmodern Openings 13, 497–512. doi: 10.18662/po/13.4/529
Meloyan, S. (2015). Translation peculiarities of economic texts (on the basis of economic texts translation form English into Ukrainian). Int. Lett. Soc. Hum. Sci. 64, 162–165.
Petroniene, S., and Zvirblyte, I. (2012). Headlines of online news articles: degree of equivalence in translation. Stud. About Lang. 21, 65–73.
Šarčević, S. (1985). Translation of culture-bound terms in laws. Multilingua 4, 127–133. doi: 10.1515/mult.1985.4.3.127
Saxena, S. (2004). Breaking news: the craft and technology of online journalism. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited.
Stetting, K. (1989). “Transediting – a new term for coping with the grey area between editing and translation”, in Proceedings from the fourth Nordic conference for English studies, eds. G. Caie, K. Haastrup, and A. L. Jakobsen (Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen), 371–382. Paper presented at The Fourth Nordic Conference for English studies, Copenhagen, Denmark 1989.
Sun, Y. (2022). Literary translation and communication. Front. Commun. 7, 1–9. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2022.1073773
Tovmasyan, N., and Ghazaryan, R. (2022). On some issues of news media texts translation. Foreign Lang. High. Educ. 26, 3–11. doi: 10.46991/FLHE/2022.26.2.003
Triebel, V. (2009). “Pitfalls of English as a contract language” in Translation issues in language and law. eds. F. Olson, R. A. Lorz, and D. Stein (London/New York: Palgrave Macmillan), 147–181.
Valdeón, R. A. (2008). Anomalous news translation: selective appropriation of themes and texts in the internet. Babel 54, 299–326. doi: 10.1075/babel.54.4.01val
van Doorslaer, L. (2009). How language and (non-)translation impact on media newsrooms: the case of newspapers in Belgium. Perspectives 17, 83–92. doi: 10.1080/09076760903125051
van Doorslaer, L. (2010). “Journalism and translation”, in Handbook of translation studies, eds. Y. Gambier and L. Doorslaervan Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 180–184.
Venuti, L. (1995). The translator’s invisibility: A history of translation. London/New York: Routledge.
Vermeer, H. J. (1978). Ein Rahmen für eine allgemeine Translationstheorie. Lebende Sprachen 23, 99–102. doi: 10.1515/les.1978.23.3.99
Wang, Y. (2018). A study on the strategies and principles of general news transediting. Int. J. Liberal Arts Soc. Sci. 6, 21–35.
Keywords: transediting, the US dollar, transediting strategies, news texts, news channels
Citation: Alwazna RY and Al Hamed AA (2024) Transediting the terms used for describing the US dollar in Arabic and English news websites: a triangulational study of transediting strategies adopted in four channels. Front. Commun. 9:1395274. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1395274
Edited by:
Anastassia Zabrodskaja, Tallinn University, EstoniaReviewed by:
Abbas Brashi, Umm al-Qura University, Saudi ArabiaDjamel Goui, University of Ouargla, Algeria
Noha Alowedi, Saudi Electronic University, Saudi Arabia
Copyright © 2024 Alwazna and Al Hamed. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Rafat Y. Alwazna, alwazna@gmail.com