From Storybooks to Courtrooms: A Corpus-Based Descriptive Analysis of Culture-Specific Translation Strategies in Saudi Arabia
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study investigates how translators navigate culture-specific items (CSIs) between Arabic and English across two contrasting domains: children's storybooks and courtroom materials in Saudi Arabia. It employs a corpus-based descriptive approach to examine authentic published translations drawn from selected Arabic children's storybooks and official courtroom materials available through the Saudi Ministry of Justice. This approach enables the study to identify patterns in translators' strategies and the contextual factors that shape them. The analysis reveals that translators in children's literature predominantly employ adaptation, paraphrase, and explicitness to ensure accessibility and reader engagement. In contrast, legal translators favor literal translation and functional equivalence to maintain accuracy and institutional conformity. These findings demonstrate that translation strategies depend heavily on context, as communicative purpose, genre norms, and ethical expectations govern the process. The study also emphasizes the value of corpus-based descriptive analysis, which reveals how translators negotiate the tension between linguistic fidelity and cultural mediation. It situates Arabic–English translation within both creative and institutional environments. Consequently, the study contributes empirical evidence to the ongoing debates about domestication, foreignization, and translator visibility. It also offers practical insights for translator education, which underscore the need for domain-specific training and awareness of how the purpose and audience shape translation decisions.
Author: Saad Salem Alshamrani
Institution: Shaqra University
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7160396160