Problems of Translating English Compound-Complex Sentences into Arabic

The study focuses on problems encountered by translation students when translating English compound-complex sentences into Arabic. It explores their structure, their components, and the appropriate way of translating them with the preservation of the same structure and meaning into the TL. The study hypothesizes: 1) compound-complex sentences can be found in English and Arabic. 2) Such structures are problematic for students when translating them into Arabic. 3) Vinay& Darbelnet’s translational model is applicable in translating compound - complex sentences. The study presents a comprehensive theoretical explanation on compound-complex sentences in both English and Arabic. Then, (3) English compound-complex sentences have been selected from different English grammar books and handed over to (20) undergraduate 4th stage students at the Department of Translation_ College of Arts_ University of Mosul, to handle the task of translating these sentences into Arabic. Their translations were analyzed syntactically and semantically by adopting Vinay& Darbelnet’s translational model(1958/1995) as well as Catford’s classification of translation-shifts (1965); in order to detect the difficulties and problems encountered in translating the sentences; thus, it’s a qualitative study. The study concludes that:1) compound-complex sentences are found in English and Arabic, 2) such sentences are problematic for students when translating them into Arabic either by the difficulty of identifying their parts, making unnecessary shifts, or adopting inappropriate strategy during the translational process that affect their translation accuracy, syntactically and semantically. 3) Vinay& Darbelent’s translational model is applicable to translating compound-complex sentences by adopting literal translation procedure within direct translation strategy. Based on that, the study is classified as a descriptive one.