E-ISSN 2281-4612
ISSN 2281-3993
Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
www.richtmann.org
Vol 12 No 2
March 2023
240
.
Research Article
© 2023 Alshahrani et al.
This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
XReceived: 11 December 2022 / Accepted: 11 February 2023 / Published: 5 March 2023
Investigating Translation Shifts and Modulation in
Literary Translation: A Case Study
Hala J. Alshahrani
1
Waleed Samir Ali
2
Maha Al-Harthi
1
Dalia M. Hamed
2
Wesam M. A. Ibrahim
3
1
College of Languages,
Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University,
Saudi Arabia
2
Faculty of Education,
Tanta University,
Egypt
3
Applied College,
Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University,
Saudi Arabia and Faculty of Education,
Tanta University, Egypt
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36941/ajis-2023-0045
Abstract
The present research paper examines the techniques of shifts, as proposed by Catford (1965), and
modulation, as proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), adopted by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik in his translation
of Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Accordingly, this paper seeks to detect the examples of modulation and the types
of shifts employed, the reasons for their adoption and the most frequently used techniques of translation
between English, the source language, and Arabic, the target language. The findings illustrate that all types
of shifts are employed with a noteworthily frequent use of structure shifts, both optional or obligatory and
argues about the structural divergence between English and Arabic. There are not so many modulation
examples. It seems that Tawfik tries largely to adhere to the source text with some optional shifts so as not
to appear as a translator who practises purely literal translation. This paper’s value lies in its detailed
examination of Tawfik’s technique, drawing attention to the differences between English and Arabic
language systems.
Keywords: Translation Techniques; Shift; Modulation; Fight Club
1. Introduction
Linguistics no longer restricts its discipline narrowly to the study of language per se, but more
broadly serves more broadly as a tool for analyzing meaning-generation and offering translators some