Arabic Metonymy and Synecdoche in English Translation: The Case of Body Parts

This paper examines the figurative use, both metonymy and synecdoche, of Arabic body parts in English literary translation. The aim is twofold: first to investigate translational procedures used render them and, second, see what linguistic cultural constraints determine choices. corpus consists first-encountered 100 utterances featuring names extracted from Naguib Mahfouz’s (1947) novel زقاق المدق their renditions LeGassick’s translation Zuqaq Almadaq (1992). data categorized terms literal then latter classified into synecdoche. results show that choices are governed by linguistic, aesthetic, discourse. study concludes reference varies frequency favor but they a common feature languages’ Therefore, translator has be sensitive as well meaning within each culture, order provide, when possible, parallel physical description preserve aesthetic value metonymic synecdochic expressions. Keywords: Arabic, English, Body parts, Metonymy, Synecdoche, Translation.