Arabic Machine Translation in the Supermarket: Does It Actually Work?

Due to mass production and economic consumerism practices, many businesses rely on cost-effective tactics to translate the name of a product or a brand on their shelves. One of the most common tactics is using Machine Translation (MT). It is necessary to examine MT in real-world scenarios where the translation may, or may not, be effective in delivering meaning. This article explores the MT of supermarket items from English to Arabic by focusing on the MT’s capabilities of meaning creation. Human translators must accept that any translation entails a form of loss and should make conscious decisions about which source text features to respect and which to sacrifice, but this might be different for MT. This study investigates the research question: is there significant meaning loss for Arabic Machine Translation (AMT) of supermarket items. Additionally, it aims to know how substantial the loss is to the conveyed message in a supermarket setting. These research questions are explored through a textual analysis of translating brochures, advertising, and describing supermarket products. More than 150 pages were examined, and around twelve AMT significant meaning loss instances were presented as examples. As a result, five reasons behind significant meaning loss were identified.