The Translational Treatment of Social Culture and Social Organization items in Orwell’s 1984 : A Study of Two Arabic Translations Anwar Achami (2006) and

The translation of culture-specific items (CSIs) in literary texts is problematic and challenging. They hold a critical position in the process of translation as they are bound to their source culture and language. Translators tend to render these items using specific translation techniques which influence and in turn are influenced by the two translation strategies: foreignization and domestication. These CSIs could be divided according to Newmark (1988) into five categories. However, the present study aims to reveal, discuss, and compare the techniques used, along with the strategies followed in treating two categories namely social culture and social organization in George Orwell’s ‘1984’ from English into two Arabic translations by Achami (2006) and Nabhan (2014). To achieve trustworthiness, Toury’s (1995) descriptive translation methodology and Creswell’s (2012) mixed methods research are adopted to describe, analyse, and interpret how, when, and why Pederson’s (2005) translation techniques are used and to take out clear data about the Venutian’s (1995) domestication and foreignization. The study follows the explanatory design. First, the quantitative data is collected manually and uploaded into an Excel sheet format for analysis. It is followed by qualitative data collection and analyses. As a result, 162 coupled pairs were identified and analysed. The results show that the translators use different translation techniques to produce different translations. Besides, there are various factors influencing translators’ choices and orientations.


Culture-Specific Items
Culture-specific items are generally designated as items, concepts, proper nouns, fixed expressions, or things that indicate references to specific cultural products, traits, elements, and references.They are confined within the word level such as words or a combination of words (Florin, 1993, p. 123;Baker, 1992, p. 21), having a single meaning (Olk, 2001, p. 30), but they could sometimes extend beyond the word level (House, 2018, p. 21).Being conditioned by cultural diversity indicates that they are associated with, and bound to, a particular language and culture and cannot be easily translated (Newmark, 1988, p. 94).In addition, they usually refer to distinctive elements, features or practices of a culture that are not parts of the intercultural common ground and serve specific functions within their local contexts.They manifest the sociocultural norms through which people of the same culture assign similar interpretations to their behaviours.A CSI is a "social phenomenon of a culture X that is regarded as relevant by the members of this culture and, when compared with a corresponding social phenomenon in a culture Y, is found to be specific to culture X" (Nord, 1997, p. 34).They exist in every society and manifest how members of one culture understand and interpret texts (Salehi, 2012, p. 76).Moreover, Aixelà (1996) defines them as "those textually actualized items whose function and connotations in a source text involve a translation problem in their transference to a target text, whenever this problem is a product of the nonexistence of the referred item or its different intertextual status in the cultural system of the readers of the target text" (p.58).
One of the favourite classifications of CSIs is proposed by Newmark.In his book A Textbook of Translation, he provides a classification of five categories of CSIs: (a) ecology, (b) material culture, (c) social culture -work and leisure, (d) social organization-political and administrative and (e) gestures and habits (Newmark, 1988, p. 96).Nevertheless, the current study focuses only on the second and third categories.Social culture is related to work and leisure such as occupations, social welfare, social and economic status, and education.The social organization contains terms and expressions indicating certain hierarchies applied in culture as well as references, concepts or terms related to the elements of culture: political, historical, administrative, religious … organizations, customs, and activities.

Translation Techniques
Translation techniques indicate the way the small units of the text (Newmark, 1988, p. 81) such as words, groups of words, concepts, expressions, and sentences are translated.They are the operations, the processes, and the specific applications (Hurtado Albir, 2001, p. 250), the local problem−solving processes (Pederson, 2011, p. 70), the pre−established sequences of actions leading to a solution (Pym, 2011, p. 88), or the specific techniques used at a certain point in a text (Munday, 2016, p. 88) to shift from one language into another.They are measurable instruments of analysis used "to describe the actual steps taken by the translators in each textual micro-unit and obtain clear data about the general methodological option chosen" (Molina & Hurtado Albir, 2002, p. 499).Besides, they are the results of the options made by the translator which depend on many elements such as the genre of the text, the type, mode, purpose, and method of translation as well as the audience's expectations, and the translator's tolerance, etc.They may be chosen consciously or intuitively, responsibly or, and sometimes well or unwisely (Leppihalme, 1997, p. 5).
Many taxonomies of translation techniques (Vinay andDarbelnet, 1958/2000;Newmark, 1988;Baker, 1992;Aixelà, 1996 Although it is not an exhaustive model, it's an explicit and clear−cut taxonomy where the boundaries between the techniques are clear enough to be distinguished.Another strong point of this model according to Pederson himself is that it is the result of an empirical process and is created to match the world rather than trying to make the world matches it (Pederson, 2011: 74).The foreignization strategy includes three translation techniques.First, the techniques of retention (complete (RC) and TL-adjusted (RT)) which are considered the most foreignizing techniques endeavour to preserve the CSI from the SL to the target readers.Although they are easily employed, they are not the most felicitous way of solving the CSIs' translation problems (Pederson, 2005, p. 4).While in the complete retention, the translator is preserving the item in its Latin format, in the TL-adjusted retention he is changing the writing format from Latin into Arabic script and adding little phonetic and morphological adjustments.The latter is resorted to help create a sense of familiarity with the Arabic language structure.Second, specification is divided into two subtechniques: explicitation (SE) and addition (SA).The translator is intervening and explaining (Pederson, 2005, p. 5;2011, p. 79) to disambiguate the CSI for the target readers and guide them in grasping the intended meaning of the ST's CSI.Third, direct translation techniques require a literal or word-for-word rendition; nothing is added or subtracted.It includes two sub-techniques: calque and shifted.While calque (DTC) is the result of a rigid and rigorous word-for-word translation, in the shifted (DTS) technique, the translator is adjusting the translation to the Arabic language structure.Pederson (2005, p. 5 and 2011, p. 83) argues that these techniques are hardly used in most proper nouns, but they are mostly used in rendering names of companies, official institutions, technical gadgetry, etc.
Similarly, there are three other translation techniques which fall under the domestication strategy.In generalization (G), the translator is domesticating the CSI as he translates it into a more generic concept in the target language "which can be found in virtually any culture" (Pederson, 2011, p. 87).Davies (2003, p. 83) states that generalization (in his words globalization) has many positive effects such as making a CSI accessible to readers from many cultural backgrounds, conveying the essential characteristics and reducing unfamiliarity and misunderstanding to the target readers.However, he doesn't favour frequent generalization as it causes some loss of association.Second, substitution is subcategorized into three sub-techniques: cultural substitution (CS), paraphrase with sense transfer (SPS) and situational paraphrase (SSP).In general, the substitution of a particular CSI may necessitate additions and modifications which might distort the meaning.It may be driven by the translator's beliefs about the target readers' flexibility, expectations, and tolerance, as well as his willingness to confront ambiguity.Cultural substitution requires replacing the ST's CSI with another CSI which is expected to be known by the TT audience (Pederson, 2005, p. 6).Besides, while in paraphrase with sense transfer, the translator removes the ST's CSI and replaces it with its sense or relevant connotations, in situational substitution, the translator removes the ST's CSI and replaces it with something that fits the situation or context according to the translator's interpretation and decision.Third, omission (OM) designates replacing the CSI with nothing in the target text or stopping it from entering the target language and culture.There are many reasons for this translation decision such when: (1) there is no adequate way of conveying the original meaning, (2) is too complex to be translated, or it is considered unacceptable on ideological or stylistic grounds, (3) it is not justified to put effort into finding a solution for the translation of a CSI or out of laziness, (4) there is a possibility that translation by explanation or by paraphrase would distort the original intentional meaning, (Davies, 2003: pp 79 -80; Aixelà, 1996, p. 64 and Pederson, 2005, p. 9).Therefore, it is not an ultimate solution, but an optional one that is employed intentionally.

Translation Strategies
Translation strategies refer to the overall translation orientation (Munday, 2016, p. 88), macrotextual plans or mindsets (Pym, 2011, p. 88) or the translator's translation project (Baker, 2001, p. 240).They are mostly divided into two poles which are referred to by different labels (Pym, 2014, p. 32) such as Cicero's (1st BC/1968) ut interpres and ut orator, Schleiermacher's (1813/2012) Verfremdung and Entfremdung (translated by Venuti into foreignization and domestication), Nida's (1964) formal and dynamic equivalences, Newmark's (1981) semantic and communicative equivalences, House's (1997) overt and covert, Toury's (1995) adequacy and acceptability, and Venuti's (1995) resistant and fluent translation which were later referred to as foreignizing and domesticating.According to The Dictionary of Translation Studies (Shuttleworth & Cowie, 1997, pp.44-59), these two large categories of translation strategies are adopted to either produce a transparent, fluent style to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for target language readers or to produce a target text which deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness of the original.
. Translation techniques and translation strategies are strongly interconnected.On the one hand, translation strategies affect the translator's choices in translating sentences and small units of language (Pym, 2011, p. 14; Molina & Hurtado Albir, 2002: pp 498-499; Munday, 2016, p. 88, etc.).They are of paramount importance in deciding what direction to follow; the translator either moves the reader towards the ST and author or moves the ST and author towards the reader (Schleiermacher, 1813).They govern, determine, and organize translation techniques.On the other hand, translation techniques can hold an important impact on the translator's project.There are many parameters influencing the translator's orientation in which translation techniques play major roles, and vice versa.

Method
This study aims to reveal, discuss and compare the techniques used in translating two categories of CSIs namely social culture and social organisation in George Orwell's 1984 from English into two Arabic translations by Achami (TT1) and Nabhan (TT2).It endeavours to explore and explain when, where, and why Pederson's translation techniques are used.To achieve trustworthiness, it would be necessary to conduct a descriptive and comparative study that mixes both quantitative and qualitative methods of research.First, the study adopts the methodology of descriptive translation studies which is elaborated by Toury as uncovering the way equivalence "has been realized in each case, e.g., in terms of the balance between what has been kept invariant and what has undergone transformation" (Toury, 1995, p. 113).This methodology helps identify, analyse, and explain similarities and differences between the two products.Moreover, it employs mixed methods research which is defined by Creswell & Clark (2011) as "a procedure for collecting, analysing, and "mixing" both quantitative and qualitative methods in a single study or a series of studies to understand a research problem" (p.535).To organise quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis into two phases, the explanatory sequential mixed methods is adopted.The rational basis behind this design is "that the quantitative data collection and analysis provide a general picture of the research problem; more analysis, specifically through qualitative data collection, is needed to refine, extend, or explain the general picture" (Creswell, 2012, p. 542).Accordingly, the quantitative data collection and analysis is followed up with the qualitative data collection and analysis.This helps obtain more detailed, specific information and in-depth interpretations rather than if it focused only on the results of statistical tests.

The Qualitative Data Collection and Findings
Table 1.Graphs 3 and 4 alongside Table 1 are used to statistically reveal, discuss and compare the translation techniques used and the strategies followed in rendering social culture and social organization CSIs by Achami and Nabhan.Based on the graph below, direct translation techniques and substitution techniques are the most used techniques by both translators.To foreignize these items, Achami translates 63 CSIs using direct translation (calque and shifted) with an average of 39% and Nabhan employs these techniques in translating 79 CSIs with an average of 49%.On the other hand, Nabhan uses substitution techniques more than Achami.In addition, Retention, generalization, and omission are the three least techniques used by both translators.However, to portray a detailed description.Table 1 divides the techniques into their sub-techniques and presents the frequencies and percentages.It is exhibited that subcategorizing these techniques portray that some subtechniques are not used by both translators namely, complete retention and specification addition.Besides, both translators are inclined to employ DTC more than DTS.Nabhan does not omit any social culture and social organization CSI.This indicates that not all Pederson's techniques are used.Translation Techniques of CSIs Related to Social Culture and Social Organization.
Again, this histogram graph is used to visually demonstrate the similarities and differences between the two translations regarding the translation strategies.In both translations, foreignization is higher than domestication.Still, while the difference between the two poles in TT2 is remarkably huge, in TT1, they are a little bit convergent.

DTS
Prole, lackeys, flunkies, and salaried middle class are four CSIs which fall under the social culture category.First, the prole refers to the working-class citizen in Oceania which is divided into three classes: The inner party, the outer party, and the proles.They designate the proletarian or the Marxist working-class citizen.While Achami translates it literally using the direct translation technique, Nabhan removes and replaces it with its relevant connotation in the novel.Second, lackeys and flunkies are types of servants with special duties.Lackeys are valets carrying delivered to the arms of their masters.It is used to describe a person who completely follows someone's orders, without ever questioning them.Flunkeys are livered servants with uniforms.They associate themselves with someone powerful and carry out small, unimportant jobs for them in the hope of being rewarded.Both translators paraphrase lackeys with sense transfer.They also replace flunkies with a more generic term in the target culture which is "servants".Finally, though the salaried middle class seems a universal concept it has some political, social, and economic resonance in the novel as well as in western Europe.Achami translates it as what literally means 'The class whose members depend on salaries'.Accordingly, he uses paraphrase with sense transfer.On the other side, Nabhan doesn't change the semantic load of the ST CSI and renders using direct translation techniques.

DTC
There are four ministries in Oceania.In many parts of the novel, Orwell (1949) is describing and explaining their concerns and duties.Ministry of Truth concerns itself with the construction and distribution of lies through media.It produces and controls news, entertainment, education, and fine art.The Ministry of Peace is related to war.The Ministry of Love maintains law and torture.Finally, the Ministry of Plenty is concerned with hunger and starvation.They carry contradictions that depict the essence of doublethink.The technique employed by both translators in translating the names of these ministries in the oldspeak (standard English) is direct translation calque.They foreignize them following a word-for-word translation technique with no addition or subtraction.However, the translators follow two different techniques in translating these items in Newspeak.Achami; for example, chooses to use the TL-adjusted retention technique to translate 'Minitrue', but he omits the other three items.Nabhan employs the direct translation technique.He follows Orwell's process of forming these words through the clipped compound (Paula-Rua, 2005, p. 531).He creates the names of these ministries by combining two or three letters from each item to preserve the specificity of the newspeak.For example, Minitrue is formed through combining mini of ministry and true of truth.Similarly ‫وزاحق‬ (wizɑːḥaq) is formed by combining ‫وزا‬ (wizɑː) of ‫وزارة‬ (wizɑːrat) and ‫حق‬ (ḥaq) of ‫الحق‬ (al-ḥaq).Thus, they both create foreign words; however, their degree of creativity is different.

SPS
The Order of Conspicuous Merit, the Lord Mayor's Banquet and Jus Primae Noctis are three typical items related to customs and social activities.First, The Order of Conspicuous Merit is one of the various socialist Orders of Merit.It is in the part when Big Brother singled out Comrade Withers, a prominent member of the Inner Party for special mention and awarded him a decoration.While Achami chooses to omit the item in the TT, Nabhan uses the direct translation calque.Second, The Lord Mayor's Banquet is a large formal dinner held in the Guildhall, London every year to both mark the retirement of the previous year's Lord Mayor of London and to celebrate the newly elected one.It is attended by many important people including the Prime Minister, who traditionally makes a speech.In translating this cultural concept, both translators replace it with other cultural concepts that sound familiar to the target readers.Besides, Jus Primae Noctis is also referred to as "Droit du seigneur" in of Two Arabic Translations Anwar Achami (2006) and Alharith Nabhan (2014) French (literally means Lord's right).It was a legal right in medieval Europe according to which a feudal lord would have had the right to have sexual relations with a vassal's or a serf's wife on the first night of her wedding.Again, both translators use similar techniques which is paraphrase with sense transfer.However, they convey two different meanings.For example, Achami translates it as what literally means 'Which allows the capitalist to have sex with any woman working in his factories' and Nabhan translates it as 'the right of the first night'.CS Catechism, Priest and God are three concepts related to religion.First, according to collinsdistionary.com, in a Catholic, Episcopal, or Orthodox Church, the catechism is "a series of questions and answers about religious beliefs, which has to be learned by people before they can become full members of that Church".Second, the priest is, according to Merriam-webster.com,"an Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, or Roman Catholic clergyman ranking below a bishop and above a deacon".He is authorized to perform religious rites especially to mediate between humans and God.Moreover, Islam the dominant religion in the Arab world is different from Christianity.One of these obvious differences resides in the notion of God and Allah.These two concepts hold two different religious and cultural backgrounds.Unlike Allah who refers to the Oneness, God is understood in the context of the Trinity.Both translators domesticate catechism and God.They replace catechism with its senses, yet they use two different items.Moreover, they use the same word 'Allah' in translating God which is a CSI in the target culture.Finally, the priest is translated literally by Achami and is replaced with another CSI by Nabhan.He translates it into a pastor who isaccording to collindictionary.comamember of the Christian clergy in some Protestant churches.

SPS
Sexual puritanism, promiscuity, obliteration of the self and solipsism are four typical items which are studied in this part.First, sexual puritanism holds a quite different connotation from the target culture.Puritanism, according to collinsdictionary.com "is behaviour or beliefs that are based on strict moral or religious principles, especially the principle that people should avoid physical pleasures".Second, promiscuity is having many transient and short-term sexual relationships.As it is shown in the table above, they domesticate these words using cultural substitution and paraphrase with sense transfer.Third, the obliteration of the self is in the part of the novel where Winston is reading The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein.He is reading that life conditions in the three super-states are similar.While Ingsoc is the prevailing philosophy in Oceania, Neo-Bolshevism is in Eurasia and Death Worship or Obliteration of the self in Eastasia.It seems that it is related to Eastern religions and mysticisms.Both translators translate it using direct translation calque.Finally, according to Merriam-webster.com,solipsism is "an extreme egocentrism, or a theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing".It is in the part when O'Brien explains to Winston that what he is thinking of is not solipsism, but collective solipsism.The latter helps them to hold power over men.Both translators replace solipsism with its sense using paraphrase with sense transfer; however, they use different concepts.

D TC
The Chinese rice spirit is described as being similar to Victory Gin.Though it is not almost known everywhere, the main reason for considering it as a cultural item is its connotation in the novel as a low alcoholic beverage quality.Still, it is a traditional Chinese liquor that dates back to the 19 th C and is the most consumed liquor in China.While Achami employs the paraphrase with the sense transfer technique, Nabhan translates it using DTC.The former translator tries to explain that this alcoholic beverage is distilled (or literally 'extracted') from Chinese rice.Second, the terms negro or nigger are usually treated as derogatory or racist terms 1 .While Nabhan translates it literally using the direct translation method, Achami omits negroid and replaces it with its sense.He translates thick negroid lips to what literally means thick chunky lips.The third example is related to the representation of Chinese people.Both translators use DTC to preserve literally the same description from the ST.

Discussion
In this part of the Discussion, I will tackle issues related to how, when, and why Pederson's techniques are used by both translators.
First, the technique of TL-adjusted retention is used by both translators.Although this technique is used to highlight the ST foreignness, a translator could replace the retained items or provide additional information or explanation to disambiguate them.He could foreignize them by using direct translation techniques or domesticate them using generalization, substitution, or omission techniques.Nabhan is more creative in translating; for example, Ingsoc, pornsec and ARTESM.He follows Orwell's process in forming these newspeak words rather than preserving them untranslated in the TT.However, complete retention is not used by both translators due to linguistic differences.Since Arabic and English do not belong to the same language family, this technique produces exoticism.
Second, Specification techniques are the least used techniques by both translators which may be interpreted as being of minor importance.Although they are less frequent, it could be concluded that they require the translator's creativity and knowledge of mainly the source language and culture.
Third, direct translation techniques (calque and shift) are the second most frequent techniques employed by both translators.The current study reveals that they either create an exotic or an unfamiliar concept or a concept with a misleading connotation in the target language.They generate confusion and ambiguity in target readers because although the two translators translate similar items literally, they don't usually produce similar translations.However, the study reveals that these techniques are efficient and 'well-chosen when the CSI is frequently repeated throughout the whole source text in different contexts when the author provides sufficient description and explanation of that item, or when the translator decides to preserve the authenticity of ST's CSIs.The translation of Oceania's ministries along with other official institutions and the newspeak language are very interesting examples.The translation of Newspeak also reveals Nabhan's level of creativity by following Orwell's word formation, an idea that questions the translator's lack of creativity in a word-for-word translation.
The study confirms that though generalization familiarizes the item, it causes some loss of meaning as it does not convey the specificity of the CSI.Therefore, rather than providing target readers with characteristics of the CSI word, the translators are satisfied with giving general and sometimes ambiguous hints.
In Cultural substitution, the translator is looking for solutions to fill in the cultural gap and bring about comprehensiveness by signalling another CSI.However, sometimes these solutions are not highly felicitous.In the same vein, Pederson (2011, p. 92) argues that the overall effect is preserved by a more exotic and peripheral CSI or by a more common and central one.Still, one needs to question if it is easy to determine similar effects of CSIs on the target audience.
Paraphrase with sense transfer may help smooth reading by making the item more transparent to target readers.It is also used to compensate for the loss meaning in translation.However, the pertinent point that needs to be analysed is if this technique attains some flavour.This is related to some extent to the degree of redundancy of the translation (Nida, 1964).The translation is sometimes longer and too detailed and some other times shorter and narrower.
In Situational substitution, the connection between the ST CSI and its TT counterpart is very weak or rare.This technique is sometimes distorting the meaning or conveying incorrect information.Indeed, situational substitution is considered by Pederson (2011, p. 95) as a quasiomission.
Finally, omission is an optional translation solution that needs to be employed intentionally and consciously.Achami uses omission to avoid repetition and to help with smooth reading.He omits Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty because they are mentioned in the same paragraph in their oldspeak forms.In tune with what Davies (2003, p. 81) states about the frequent use of omission in increasing the possibility of losing meaning.

Conclusion and Implications
Depending on the research findings and discussion, the interpretations are formulated and concluded as below: of Two Arabic Translations Anwar Achami (2006) and Alharith Nabhan (2014)

•
The translation techniques proposed by Pederson (2005) are used to translate CSIs found in Orwell's 1984.While some techniques are frequently employed such as direct translation and substitution, others are less used.Some techniques are used to allow the ST's CSI to enter the target language and culture, while other techniques substitute or only delete the item.The translator's effort in employing each technique is also different.Though the study cannot reveal the exact translators' intentions and purposes in employing each technique, it helps tentative general conclusions.

•
Foreignization and domestication are two poles in an imaginary continuum which should be viewed as a cline rather than binary opposites.

•
Comparing the two translations regarding the use of certain translation techniques, it is challenging to argue that translators are consistent or have similar tendencies in translating these items.Owing to various factors and parameters -which are related to the item itself, the translator, culture, language and context-translators undertake different decisions.While translators sometimes have options, using such techniques for certain CSIs seems obligatory.Besides, each choice has a different impact.

•
Translators are required to invest efforts and competence as well as possess certain qualities.
; Molina and Hurtado Albir, 2002: 510−511; Davies, 2003, p. 70; Pederson, 2005 and 2011, etc.) have been suggested; still, choosing an appropriate taxonomy must be congruent with the requirements.Pederson's (2005) taxonomy is chosen for its strengths as a model to organize textual data for this study.First, it shares many properties with other classifications, 'constructed by many different authors for many different purposes' (Pederson, 2011, p. 72) and adopts some categories that are agreed on by many authors in the field.Second, out of these options, it is the most comprehensive taxonomy and has provided several clear examples for each technique.It divides translation techniques orderly along an axis ranging from source−oriented translation to target−oriented translation.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Pederson's Taxonomy of CSIs Translation Techniques

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Translation Techniques of Social Culture and Social Organization Items.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Translation Strategies in Translating CSIs Related to Social Culture and Social

Table 1 .
Translation Techniques of Social Culture and Social Organization Items.

Table 2 .
The Translation of CSIs Related to Social Culture The Translational Treatment of Social Culture and Social Organization items in Orwell's 1984: A Study of Two Arabic Translations Anwar Achami (2006) and Alharith Nabhan (2014)

Table 3 .
Translation of CSIs Related to Organizations and Institutions

Table 4 .
Translation of CSIs Related to Social Activities

Table 5 .
Translation of CSIs Related to Religious Terms.

Table 6 .
Translation of CSIs Related to Concepts

Table 7 .
Translation of CSIs Related to Representation of Products and People