A Critical Study of Language Challenges in Translating Prepositions between English And Arabic Literary Text

This paper provides a critical study focusing on the challenges faced while translating prepositions between English and Arabic languages, with special reference to a short story titled ‘Cat in the Rain’ by Ernest Hemingway. Prepositions are functional words which are used to link nouns, pronouns or phrases to other words in the sentence. The selection of prepositions is highly language specific and thus poses a great challenge to the linguists, translators and researchers. The aim of the study is to identify the various challenges faced while translating prepositions in the given short story and to provide solutions for the identified challenges. (Šeškauskienė and Juknevičienė2020)(Dawoud and Al2021)(Alhammad, 2023)(Aajami, 2022)(Christou et al.2021)(Knop, 2020)(Almuhaysh2022)(Bryant2022)(Boieblan2023)(Chiknaverova) The first problematic preposition ‘for’ was found to be used in three different senses in the Arabic translation. However, the Arabic preposition ‘ل’ is able to bear the same sense as that of the English preposition ‘for’. It was concluded that there is no need for a grammatical shift, but adjustment equivalents are recommended. The second problematic preposition ‘of’ was found used in two different senses. The Arabic equivalent ‘من’ bears the same sense. Hence no need of grammatical shift, selection equivalents are recommended. The third problematic preposition ‘in’ was found to be used in three different senses in the Arabic translation. However, the Arabic preposition ‘في’ is able to bear the same sense as that of the English preposition ‘in’. It was concluded that there is no need for a grammatical shift, but adjustment equivalents are recommended (Alzghoul, 2018).