A critical analysis of some common animal idioms in two English-Arabic idiom dictionaries

Abstract

The present study aims to examine some common animal idioms in English and their counterparts in Arabic in two selected idioms dictionaries (Al-Mawrid: A Dictionary of Idiomatic Expressions and A Dictionary of Common English Proverbs) in order to: 1) understand the strategies that people use to create an English- Arabic dictionary of idioms, 2) to investigate the methods of translating animal idioms from English into Arabic, and to 3) find out the degree of alignment of English animal idioms to Arabic. Moreover, the critical analysis of the study aims to create a more concrete understanding of both literal and free translation that are used in idiom dictionaries. This study analyzes the idioms based on Mona Baker’s (2011) strategies and Eugene A. Nida’s (1964) theories of idiom translation. Since idioms are known as a reflection of human life, common traditions and beliefs, a critical analysis will also shed light on language universals and cultural differences reflected by them. Although animals may share the same images and meanings across cultures, there might be some differences in people’s attitudes towards these animals. The method that is used in this study is a qualitative approach that is based on a critical analysis and corpus linguistics. The data in this study was collected from two idiom dictionaries (Al-Mawrid: A Dictionary of Idiomatic Expressions and A Dictionary of Common English Proverbs). Additionally, three English idiom dictionaries were used to explain the meaning of each idiom in English (The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, McGraw-Hill's American Idioms Dictionary, and an online English dictionary The Free Dictionary). Then, the data were divided into three idiom categories to facilitate the process of the analysis: identical idioms, semi-identical idioms and culture- specific idioms. Additionally, an interview with Professor Ramzi Munir Baalbaki, the author of “Al-Mawrid: A Dictionary of Idiomatic Expressions”, was conducted to understand the methodo