Diminutives in arabic-to-english translation

incl. ref.

Diminutives serve a variety of semantic functions such as preference, satire, affection, endearment etc. The present study endeavours to highlight similarities and differences between both languages and the affect they have on how diminutives are translated from Arabic to English. It is hypothesized that the use of noun phrases preceded by adjectives could be more recurrent than those preceded by quantifiers in rendering diminutives from Arabic into English. Two theoretical surveys of diminutives in both languages were introduced and professional translators were handed a literary text to render into English. On the basis of the linguistic and statistical analysis of the translations involving diminutives, it has been found out that diminutives have been mainly translated into noun phrases preceded by adjectives more than those noun phrases preceded by quantifiers.