Using Context in Translating Polysemy

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the obstacles that face students in translating English polysemic words into Arabic. To achieve this objective, the descriptive quantitative method was followed. A translation test consisting of 10 sentences included 5 polysemic words, each one used in two different contexts was administered to a sample of 23 participants who were randomly selected from the third level of the department of English, Faculty of Education- Saber, University of Aden. The findings revealed that some of the participants succeeded in using the context in translating these words while the others failed in finding the appropriate meanings and faced difficulties in translating these words. The difficulties may lie in the fact that student lack basic knowledge and understanding of the multiplicity of words.  Not to mention that they did not use the given context. This might be due to the students’ unfamiliarity of the nature of the polysemic words and they used the core meanings of the lexemes. The findings also revealed that the more reading and understanding the context, the more accurate translations are produced by the student. The findings emphasized to a great extent the importance of studying polysemous words, having into consideration the other meanings of the polysemic as it is not enough to use the common meanings of such words.