Journal of Translation and Language Studies

Legal Meaning Across Languages: Human and AI Translations of The Moroccan Family Code

Mouna BAHRI — 2026-04-04

The growing reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) in legal translation brings forth important concerns about reliability, accountability and the preservation of legal meaning. Not only do AI tools provide speed, consistency and broad accessibility to legal terminology but they significantly contribute to the globalized circulation and translation of Arabic texts. This circulation enhances the global reach of the Arabic legal diaspora across jurisdictions and legal systems. Moreover, the continuous translation of Arabic legal texts by AI systems contributes to the modernization and digital enrichment of the Arabic language itself. Legal texts demand far more than linguistic transfer, they require approaches grounded in both fidelity and creativity. Fidelity is linked to the search for exact or near legal equivalence based on a national vision of translation. While creativity allows translators to devise functional solutions when direct equivalents are absent and allows a more globalized translation. Although scholars have long debated fidelity and creativity in translation studies, their application in automated legal translation remains underexplored. This paper is a comparative study that addresses this gap by examining how human translators and AI systems namely ChatGPT and Google Gemini handle complex terms in the translations of the Moroccan Family Code (MFC). The focus is on Book One, “Of Marriage” where different concepts highlight the tension between literal accuracy and contextual adequacy. Results revealed that Google Gemini's choices not only approximate human solutions but also illustrate functional equivalence by balancing semantic precision with cultural relevance. The comparison demonstrates that AI is capable of integrating both fidelity and creativity and offers acceptable interpretations on a more globalized scale. The conclusions of this study imply that both AI and human translation can achieve translations that respect legal fidelity and cultural diversity.

The “Very Faithful” Blessing: On the Singable Japanese-English Translation between YOASOBI`s Shukufuku & The Blessing

LIQIAO LIANG — 2026-04-04

Song translation is heavily constrained by the linguistic differences between the source and target languages, often struggles to achieve a balance between the lyrics` lexical meaning and the song`s overall singability. However, the Japanese duo YOASOBI takes advantage of the flexibility of fast-paced music and employs tactics such as adding of complete translation strategy, including explicitation of pronouns, adding function words and synonymous repetition to remain faithful to the source lyrics`(SL) meaning while preserving singability. When complete translation strategies could not meet the need of singing performance, they resort to variational translation strategies including imitating, trans-writing and altering, maintaining singability while trying their best having the core meaning of the source lyrics retained in the target lyrics. In this way their The Blessing, English version of their Japanese pop-song Shukufuku was a hit, while succeeded in retained most of original lyrics` meaning. The latter achievement was always viewed as a “mission impossible”, given the substantial lexical and grammatical differences between languages like Japanese and English, and thus offer valuable insights for Chinese practitioners and researchers major in song translation.

Translating Horror: Quality Assessment of Gothic Elements in Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories Translated into Persian

Negin Dorrodian Mehr — 2026-04-04

Translating gothic literature poses challenges, particularly in conveying emotions such as fear and anxiety while preserving the atmospheric intensity of the original. This study examines the quality of Persian translations of gothic elements in five short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Gothic features were identified using frameworks from Harris (2020) and Nodalo (2023), and their translations were evaluated through Nababan’s (2012) assessment model, focusing on accuracy, acceptability, and readability. The analysis revealed a clear imbalance: while the translations achieved high levels of acceptability and readability, they demonstrated notably lower accuracy due to shifts, adaptations, and omissions. This suggests that translators prioritized preserving the immersive gothic effect over strict fidelity to the source text. The study highlights the importance of cultural awareness, linguistic skill, and genre sensitivity in translating gothic fiction into Persian and offers implications for translators, critics, and publishers.

Ethnopoetic Insights into Leona Florentino’s Poem: Implications for Ilocano Oral Literature

Bethany Marie Lumabi — 2026-04-04

Ilocano poets in the Philippines made a major contribution during the 19^th century. Historically, Leona Florentino was the only woman writer of her time who had poems in the vernacular, Spanish, and English. She was recognized as the Philippine poetess. However, the majority of her original works were discarded, compounded by the ensuing events of the Philippine Revolution. Despite its limitation, the study contributes to the dearth of studies about the works of Leona Florentino and Ilocano oral literature. Guided by the ethnopoetic theory, the qualitative study analyzed Florentino’s Ilocano poem “Nalpay Ti Namnama” (Blasted Hopes) by finding its ethnographic features to reveal implications for Ilocano indigenous oral literature. Its line breaks disintegrated the poem’s emotion into manageable reflections. The pauses established silence that simulates endurance and acceptance. The tonal markers highlighted conditional phrasing transitioning from suffering to restraint to quiet hope. And the structural patterns attested the tradition in Ilocano oral literature. The intensive ethnopoetic analysis implies that Ilocano oral literature is not merely expressive or aesthetic, but pedagogical and moral, teaching how to live, feel, and endure. Its reflection in contemporary Ilocano poetry in the Philippines can be a good area for future studies to retain indigenous culture, voice emotional truth, and maintain intergenerational memory.

The Impact of Constructive Feedback on EFL University Students’ Performance

Nabil Amin Mohammed Ahmed Kassim — 2026-04-06

This descriptive study aimed to investigate the impact of constructive feedback on developing EFL university students’ performance. The sample of the study was 100 English-majored students chosen randomly using a stratified technique from the four levels of the department of English at the National University, besides 10 English language lecturers teaching English courses in the same university. To achieve the objectives of this study, the researcher used two questionnaires: the first one was for students containing 25 close-ended items, and the other one was for English language lecturers containing 24 close-ended items. The results indicated that students have positive perceptions towards constructive feedback in enhancing their learning and improving their performance. The lecturers also showed moderate delivery of constructive feedback to students, attributing this to some barriers such as the lack of time, interest, students’ sensitivity or resistance, and lecturers’ skills of providing constructive feedback. The study recommended that university lecturers should pay more attention to students’ emotional and mental needs when providing feedback to enable them to show their abilities and skills comfortably, and provide remedial action plans, suggestions, and solutions when needed.

Exploring Lexical Challenges of English for Arab Interpreters in Consecutive and Simultaneous Translation: An Error Analysis Approach

Yusuf Shudooh — 2026-04-04

This study examines the lexical challenges faced by Arab M.A. translation students at Yarmouk University, Jordan, during consecutive and simultaneous English-Arabic interpreting. Adopting an Error Analysis framework, it identifies and categorizes lexical errors from students’ final examinations, evaluating their frequency, types, and impact on meaning transfer and interpretation quality. The findings reveal that lexical errors often distort the original message, sometimes resulting in a hybrid or disjointed output. The study argues that interpreting into English presents greater difficulty for Arab students due to linguistic and cultural asymmetries, and that many lexical errors arise not only from knowledge gaps but also from cognitive and situational pressures, such as time constraints and psychological stress. By offering a detailed taxonomy of lexical errors and exploring their underlying causes, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of the cognitive demands of interpreting and proposes pedagogical strategies to enhance interpreter training in Arabic-English contexts.