Arabic-L:TRANS:academic terms responses

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 28 May 2008
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:academic terms response
1) Subject:academic terms response

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1)
Date: 28 May 2008
From:"Dr. M Deeb" <muhammaddeeb at gmail.com>
Subject:academic terms response

I.  On consensus:

Technical terminology in Arabic writings is far from consensus.  It is
marked by chaos and arbitrariness, due in part to:  (1) lack of  
competency
in source and target languages; (2) literal aping of the western term in
spite of its incongruity to Arabic context; (3) the diffusion of wrong
terminology at the expense of the accurate one; (4) overbearing  
solecisms.

A most irritating example comes to mind, that's the inaccurate, yet  
popular
equivalent of the English / "approach" / as /مقاربة /  
(muqaarabah).  Whoever
started this mess, God forgive him, seems to have abided by the literal
meaning of verb approach in the sense of "draw close to sth."/ "to
approximate."  The metaphorical sense of the word "approach" in, say "an
approach to fiction" would mean "a way of reading fiction;" "an access  
to
fiction;" "a preliminary introduction to fiction."

Hence the proper translation should have been / مقدمة / 
(muqaddimah)  or /
مدخل / ( madkhal ).  Now, this wrong equivalent is so entrenched in  
Arabic
by its frequent use even among the academics!

II. Approaching the queried terms:

(1) Qualitative research: / بحث نوعي   / (baHthun naw'iyy), as  
contrasted to
/  بحث كمي   / ( baHthun kammiyy);

(2) Action research:  /بحث عمل / (baHthu 'amal)  or / بحث   
إنجاز / (
baHthu injaaz);

(3) Focus groups: I have heard or come across / مجموعات  
التبئير /
( majmuu'aatu 'at-tab'iir), but it is hardly felicitous!  I should
suggest, instead / مجموعات البحث المعنية  
بالبعد البؤري / (...
al-ma'niyyatu bi-'l-bu'di al-bu'riyyi ).  Long winded but more accurate.

(4)  Research interview: / مقابلة بحث  /  (muqaabalatu baHth).

(5)

A. Open-ended interview: /   مقابلة مفتوحة  / (muqaabalatun  
maftuuHa)  or
/  مقابلة غير محددة الأطراف / ( ghayru  
muHaddadati  al-'aTraaf);

B. Undirected interview: /  مقابلة  غير موجهة   / (...  
ghayru muwajjahah).

With kind regards.
                                --
M. Deeb, Professor Emeritus,
English, Comparative Literature & Cultural Studies

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2)
Date: 28 May 2008
From:sattar izwaini <sattarumist at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject:academic terms response
Dear Kenneth K. Ayouby,

  In order to provide a "suggested" translation there is probably a  
need to have the concept of those terms, i.e. a description of what  
they mean. The linguistic components are not enough to creat a  
corresponding Arabic version. Even if we find Arabic terms provided in  
disctionaries or in the literature, they are most of the time literal  
renditions. These are technical terms of a specialized area and they  
need their "meaning' to be expressed in the Arabic equivalent.

  Regards
  Sattar Izwaini

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