Investigating the impact of lexical simplicity and sophistication on stylistic rendering in English–Arabic translation

This study investigates the effects of lexical simplicity and sophistication on stylistic choices in English-to-Arabic translation, and examines how task conditions and student performance influence those choices. A total of 60 fourth-year translation students from a private university in Amman were asked to translate 400 lexical items, organized into 200 simple–sophisticated synonym pairs (e.g. wrong vs. erroneous) covering the lexical categories of verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, with each pair embedded in identical sentence contexts where only the target word varied. A subset of the sentences was translated in a timed test with restricted access to e-dictionaries, while the other half was translated in a take-home assignment with no time constraints and with full access to reference materials. The quantitative analysis revealed that simple lexical items elicited significantly higher rates of stylistic match than sophisticated ones across all lexical categories (verbs, adjectives, adverbs and nouns). Time and resource availability also proved beneficial in facilitating subtle lexical decisions in take-home translations, which were considerably more stylistically accurate than exam translations. The findings also showed that students with high GPAs consistently produced more stylistically adequate translations, whereas students with low GPAs exhibited semantic flattening and stylistic neutralization. The study concludes that translation instructors should provide explicit instruction in stylistic awareness and expose learners to more advanced vocabulary in both languages.