Problems of Translating English Euphemisms into Arabic
Abstract
This study is a humble attempt to investigate the problems that may face the student translators in their attempt to translate some of the common kinds of English euphemisms" i.e. death, sex and religion" euphemisms into Arabic. Due to the linguistic and cultural difference between the two languages involved ,each culture ,consequently, allows different connotations for the linguistic items it includes. Such a cultural difference in its turn assigns each speech community unique taboos, norms and euphemisms. Therefore, it is hypothesized that the euphemistic expressions would create a real problem for the inexperienced translators specially those who are unaware of the inevitable role of culture in transferring the communicative value and the meaning of the SL text. The differences between TL and SL cultures consequently form the main task and challenge of a talented translator to transfer the cultural bound units such as euphemisms from SL into TL with the minimum loss of the meaning, effect and aesthetic content of the original text.