Abstract
In Arabic, vocalization, also known as tashkil and diacritization, refers to signs that represent the vowels and
some other phonetic and phonemic entities, which are placed above, below, or within the letters. As stated in literature,
Arabic sentences can be read and written without diacritics, but their intended syntactic and semantic structures may
not be easily understood. This is because diacritics can change the form, function and meaning of sentence elements.
This in turn leads to changing the type of sentence and its significance. Thus, diacritics are important as they play a
great role in identifying the intended syntactic and semantic structures of Arabic sentences. However, in case of
translation, the absence of vocalization or diacritization causes problems in determining the sentence form, type of
pronouns used in the sentence, as well as its meaning. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying the effect of vocalization
or diacritics on providing the appropriate translation for Arabic sentences. In this concern, a descriptive analytic method
was used to analyze the data of study. The study sample consisted of (6) Arabic sentences of different structures (diacritic
and non-diacritic) distributed to (5) subjects to translate them into English. Hence, pre- and post-tests were applied
to compare the effect of vocalization on the translation. In pre-test, the sentences were not vocalized; whereas in
post-test, they were vocalized. The results revealed the significant role played by vocalization on determining the intended
syntactic and semantic structures and then providing the appropriate translation for these structures.
some other phonetic and phonemic entities, which are placed above, below, or within the letters. As stated in literature,
Arabic sentences can be read and written without diacritics, but their intended syntactic and semantic structures may
not be easily understood. This is because diacritics can change the form, function and meaning of sentence elements.
This in turn leads to changing the type of sentence and its significance. Thus, diacritics are important as they play a
great role in identifying the intended syntactic and semantic structures of Arabic sentences. However, in case of
translation, the absence of vocalization or diacritization causes problems in determining the sentence form, type of
pronouns used in the sentence, as well as its meaning. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying the effect of vocalization
or diacritics on providing the appropriate translation for Arabic sentences. In this concern, a descriptive analytic method
was used to analyze the data of study. The study sample consisted of (6) Arabic sentences of different structures (diacritic
and non-diacritic) distributed to (5) subjects to translate them into English. Hence, pre- and post-tests were applied
to compare the effect of vocalization on the translation. In pre-test, the sentences were not vocalized; whereas in
post-test, they were vocalized. The results revealed the significant role played by vocalization on determining the intended
syntactic and semantic structures and then providing the appropriate translation for these structures.
Keywords
Arabic Sentence
semantic structure
Syntactic structure
Translation
vocalization