The Study of Persian Equivalents for Words Ending in Suffix “–ism”

Abstract

The challenges at the level of morphemes and words have been the preoccupation of many theorists and practitioners so that they introduce the best equivalents of them in the TL. In the present study, it was attempted to investigate the procedures adopted by Persian translators and lexicographers and see that which procedures were the most applicable to translation of words ending in the suffix “–ism”. On the other hand, it also tried to identify the Persian equivalents for the suffix “–ism” suggested by the Persian translators and lexicographers. The data consisting of words ending in suffix “–ism” were collected from two encyclopedias and the glossary part of a translated book all of them belong to the sociopolitical register. The results showed that the translators and lexicographers’ most favorable procedures were expansion and equivalence and they were less inclined towards the use of calque, borrowing and literal translation.The low percentage of the adoption of literal translation might be caused by the different Persian and English linguistic and cultural values. The results also identified ten different equivalences for the suffix “–ism” suggested by the Persian translators and lexicographers.

Key words: Equivalent; Translation procedures; Translation; Suffix “–ism”; Sociopolitical register