Department of Foreign Languages

Within the context of university communication, the choice of translation strategies can impact the clarity and effectiveness of academic correspondence. This study investigated the role of explication and implication in translating from Arabic (source language) to English (target language). It aimed to examine the use of these strategies by exploring the different linguistic levels at which they are used and determine the frequency of these translation strategies. The study adopted a corpus-based approach, whereby a specialized mono-directional parallel corpus of 300 institutional academic correspondence documents issued by the University of Sharjah between 2014 and 2024 was compiled using Sketch Engine. It relied on quantitative and qualitative analysis methods to analyze data. The study adopted Skopos Theory, which maintains that translation decisions, including the choice of translation strategies are determined by the communicative purpose of the target text. To provide a systematic classification and identification of explication and implication instances, Klaudy's (1998) classification model was adapted to include micro and macro linguistic levels i.e., (syntactic, semantic, stylistic, textual, and pragmatic), and Corpus Query Language (CQL) was used to identify examples illustrating the different manifestations of these strategies at such levels. Quantitative analysis of data revealed a preference for implication in the English target texts compared to the Arabic source texts. This is due to the prevalence of obligatory implication which accounted for 92.93% of all implication instances compared to 69.5%, which represented all instances of optional explication. Qualitative analysis of data revealed that explication is a strategic act operating at both the micro and macro levels of language, reflecting a clear prioritization of clarity, accessibility, genre demands, and institutional goals. It also revealed that implication is a pervasive strategy due to its presence at both the micro levels of syntax and semantics, and the macro levels of texts, style, and pragmatics, which suggested an interplay between linguistic norms, genre demands, and institutional goals that shape translation choices.

Keywords: Arabic-English translation, correspondence, explication, implication