Culture-Bound Words in an English-Arabic Bilingual Dictionary

Salman, Amel Ali Habib (1996) Culture-Bound Words in an English-Arabic Bilingual Dictionary. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This research involves the study of culture-bound words in a uni-directional English-Arabic bilingual dictionary with regard to the needs of translators and advanced foreign language learners. It entails the examination of the entries of this class of words with particular attention to the semantic aspect of the entry. Culture-bound words were collected from the dictionary on the basis of semantic fields: kinship, headgear, footwear, overcoats, and food and drink. The entries were analysed and the data were examined, in a database, by comparison with those of a monolingual English dictionary. There is also a theoretical and cultural study entailed in this work. To begin with, I considered the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which claims a link between language, thought and culture. 1 tried to establish that there is a cultural gap between different societies. This gap is reflected in the languages spoken, and is mainly manifest in the lexical level. To illustrate this point further, I earned out a translation study on some culture-related texts. This latter study illustrated at the same time the lack of culture-bound words in the bilingual dictionary of Arabic and English.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Adviser: Christian Kay
• Keywords: Translation studies, Linguistics
• Date of Award: 1996
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1996-75597
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Nov 2019 19:21
• Last Modified: 19 Nov 2019 19:21
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/75597