TRANSLATION MISTAKES COMMETTED IN SUBTITLING ENGLISH FILMS AND TV SHOW INTO ARABIC

Abstract

The current study investigates the mistakes committed by translators in the subtitling English films into Arabic. It adopted a qualitative approach in the analysis of a parallel corpus, which comprised a sample of scripts of English speaking films and their subtitles in Arabic. To the purpose of the study eleven television episodes and ten films were targeted to explore the translation mistakes. The analysis of the selected films and TV show indicated that common mistakes committed in translating slang , taboo words, and humor. The study concluded that the translation mistakes were due to translators’ lack of knowledge about slang words and also due to some cultural as well as religious considerations.