Time Metaphors in English and Arabic: Translation Challenges

Time metaphorical expressions are common in all languages and in general as well as specialized contexts. This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic time metaphorical expressions containing , and the difficulties that student-translators have in translating them; the translation strategies they use and the causes of translation weaknesses. A sample of English and Arabic general and specialized time metaphors containing second ةيناث , minute ةقيقد


Introduction
Time is one of the most abstract concepts of the human mind.According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the perception and expression of time are mostly metaphoric due to its connections with other concepts like space, action and events.The concept of time is universal.In its perception and expression, there are personal, cultural differences and universal styleic differences (Erdem, 2010).Time is a concept that has been used in many metaphors throughout history.It is metaphorically structured in different ways among languages and cultures.
Due to the extensive use of time expressions in languages, numerous aspects of time metaphors were investigated by prior studies such as the associations between the chronotype (Morningness-Eveningness) and the dimensions of time Metaphors by Pruszczak, Stolarski and Jankowski (2018) who found that college students' preference for 'morning' was associated with a more positive, friendly view of time, whereas the evening preference was related to the conception of time as negative and hostile.
Another study focused on the spontaneous use of spatial TIME metaphors in the language of older children and adolescents aged 10-13 years, 14-16 years and 17-19 years to find out if and how types of spatial TIME metaphors and the metaphorical strength of their tokens develop across time focusing on the syntagmatic co-occurrence of multi-word units.Results showed that all children and adolescents, irrespective of their developmental stage, use only highly conventionalized metaphors such as long time or on Monday.This result suggests that to explain the (developing) use of spatial TIME metaphors.We must turn more to sociocommunicative practices and lexical co-occurrences than to purely cognitive accounts emphasized by the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Graf, 2011).
In three experiments, Hendricks and Boroditsky (2017) taught English speakers to talk about time in different ways to find out how new space-time metaphors foster new non-linguistic representations.The researchers found that learning new metaphors created new space-time associations that could be detected in a non-linguistic implicit association task.The newly learned representations were not susceptible to verbal interference.With respect to verbal and visual interference, representations that were newly learned from linguistic metaphors behaved just like those that the learners had acquired through years of visual-spatial experiences.All in all, these findings imply that learning a new relational language can be a powerful tool for constructing new representations and expanding the cognitive repertoire of the students.
As for motion time expressions in television news, it was found that motion verbs that are not conventionally associated with time expressions, such as crawl & roll are used together with more typical ones such as come & approach.The results suggest that language users are far more creative than has been assumed so far, thus challenging what is typically perceived as an everyday metaphor of time (Valenzuela & Castillo, 2022).
A study by Duffy, 2014) revealed that people automatically access and use spatial representations of absolute time, whereby moving forward in space is parallel with moving later in time.Use of a reverse space-time mapping by the participants caused interference, which is reflected in their temporal reasoning.English exhibits two deictic space-time metaphors: the "moving time" metaphor which conceptualizes time as moving forward towards the ego and the "moving ego" metaphor that conceptualizes the ego as moving forward through time.Moreover, engaging in certain types of spatial-motion thinking may influence how people reason about events in time.This is confirmed by recent research that revealed that people's interactions with cultural artifacts can influence their representations of time.
In Pashto, various conceptual time metaphors in language and poetry were analyzed by Sardaraz, Nusrat and Ab Rashid (2021) based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory.The researchers found eight time metaphors representations: i) time is an object in motion; ii) time is bounded space; iii) time is a thing; iv) time is a person; v) Time is a measurable quantity; vi) time is a valuable commodity; vii) moments of time are landmarks in space with past in the front, and future is at the back; viii) time passing is tasting it.Unlike English, Pashto speakers locate past time in the front and locate the future at the back.
In Indonesian, time is metaphorically expressed in terms of moving objects, quantities, volume objects, and as a living thing and are not treat time as a commodity.Orientational metaphors are not used either (Indirasari, 2018).
In Japanese, Iwasaki, 2009) applied a cognitive grammar approach to temporal expressions, i.e., time motion 'metaphors to supplement existing metaphor theories.The results emphasized that the order meaning is produced by the ground's objective construal and that this cognitive ability is crucial for comparing two events or persons.The difference between Japanese saki and mae can be captured by focusing on the ground's subjective/objective interpretation.Thus, it can be said that the Cognitive Linguistic Theory of subjectivity is a useful tool for capturing the properties of Japanese temporal expressions.
A second line of research focused on comparing time metaphors in two or more languages.Time metaphors in the novel Momo by German writer M. Ende are characterized by irreversibility, transience, one-wayness, value, and ability to change the reality.In addition, time metaphors in German and English are not always identical.They are characterized by a careful attitude to the concept of time because people realize its rapidity, and impossibility to stop or turn back.This reflects the inclination of the English and German cultures to punctuality as the highest benefactor, where time is associated with money, and where time is personified.(Dekhnich & Trofimova, 2015) In American English, Finnish and Hungarian, the two Verbal Time Metaphors (TIME IS A CHANGER and TIME IS A MOVING ENTITY) were compared based on the Cognitive Metaphor Theory to determine which cognitive underpinnings can be traced, with a focus on image schemata, and to find out whether variations in the source domain (CHANGER and MOVING ENTITY) in the three languages is internal.It was found that the source internal variation does prevail over the source external variation.The crosslinguistic differences of such a relevant concept of time do exist but through unique characteristics of the same source domain rather than new, distinctive domains (Máthé, 2021).
In Persian and English, time-related expressions have a very similar conceptualisation.In general, both languages seem to use the same metaphoric structures to express time, with few minor differences.In most cases, both use similar collocations with time words (Golfam, Ghorbanpour & Mahdipour, 2019).Linguistic structures using phrases and metaphors in English and Uzbek demonstrate that language reflects ethno-semantic peculiarities that are conceptually based on metaphors to express specific cultural meanings of the concept of time in time-specific associations (Djabbarov, 2023).
Analysis of 1,087 Russian and 1,141 Finnish time expressions following the Functional Syntax Approach and the Conceptual Metaphor Theory rendered 56 general meanings that revolve around duration, period of time, point in time, frequency, sequence, passing of time, right time and suitable time, limitedness of time, life as time, and some other notions having less obvious semantic relations to the others.The functional analysis revealed a multiplicity of things that people want to say and actually say about time, the different conceptual metaphors with the help of blending schemata, using them as an aid in explaining hierarchical and other relations between the mappings.The conceptual analysis of time metaphors showed that Time Is Space, Time Is Actor, Time Is Resource, Time Is Life and Time Is Nature.Results show that Russian and Finnish speakers talk about time in a very similar way (Viimaranta, 2006).
Regarding English and Arabic, Hamdi (2008) and Hamdi (2010) reported that both languages share the following conceptual metaphors: time as space, time as a bounded space, time as a moving entity, time as a location, time as a starting point/destination, time as an extension, time as a container, time as a bounded space and a moving entity, time and observer as moving in the same direction, time as an object, time as an object that can be given, time as a possession, time as an object that can be shared, time as an object that can be taken, time as an object that one can look for, time as an object subject to loss, time as an object that is needed, time as a qualifiable object, time as an object collocating with us, time as a precious object, time as money, time as a limited resource and time as a person.Some of these conceptual metaphors display variations at the linguistic level.The researcher concluded that English and Arabic have different congruent, i.e., specific level, metaphors.She explained divergence as stemming from physical and historical differences between the English and Arabic cultures.
Other studies examined time metaphors in the Quranic context.Comparisons of the English usage of 'time' metaphors was compared with the Quranic Arabic realizations and their representations in three English Quranic translations by Pickthall, Yusuf Ali and Asad were conducted using the Cognitive Metaphor Theory to identify the version that conveys conceptual metaphors in both languages accurately.Eweida (2007) found that the Quranic translations yielded by Yusuf Ali and Pickthall were more literal and more accurate in rendering metaphors in the Holy Quran, while Asad's translation was less accurate, containing more paraphrasing and individual interpretation.Moreover, the concept of time in contemporary Western society was compared with that of Islam as embodied in Al-ʿAşr Sura in the Holy Quran was compared.The semantic analysis showed that Man is a social human being by nature; Man is time; Islam has the best recipe as to how man, by putting himself in the service of the entire society, becomes a winner not only in this life but also in the Hereafter; and the time continuum in Islam does not end with man's death as disbelievers believe; rather, life after death is a continuation of life on earth (Libdeh, 2016).
From the above review of studies on time metaphors, it can be noted that time expressions, in general, have been extensively investigated in the literature on the basis of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory whether in one, two or more languages.The most common topic investigated in several languages including Arabic is the conceptual time metaphors.However, studies that investigate time metaphor that focus on different time units such as second, minutes, hour, day, month, epoch, era, age, period, millennium, eternity and so on in Arabic are few.Therefore, this study aims to explore the following: (i) English and Arabic time metaphorical expressions containing ‫ثانية‬ second, ‫دقيقة‬ minute, ‫ساعة‬ hour, ‫يوم‬ day, ‫سنة‬ ‫عام،‬ year, ‫زمن‬ ‫وقت‬ time, ‫عصر‬ age, ‫حقبة‬ era and epoch; and ‫الدهر‬ eternity that are common in general as well as specialized contexts; (ii) the similarities and differences between English and Arabic time metaphorical expressions that contain the aforementioned time units; (iii) the difficulties that studenttranslators have in translating time metaphorical expressions focusing on the aforementioned time units; (iv) the strategies that students utilize in translating unfamiliar time expressions; and (v) the causes of students' difficulties, i.e., whether mistranslations are interlingual or intralingual.This study is significant as it sheds light on the different kinds of metaphorical time expressions, focusing on numerous time units, similarities and differences between Arabic and English, in a particular, and problematic areas in translating them.
This study is also significant as it is part of a series of studies conducted by the author with student translators at the College of Languages and Translation that focused on equivalence problems in translating ibn ( son) and bint (daughter) from Arabic to English and vice versa (Al-Jarf, 2023a); cultural, linguistic issues in translating numeral-based English and Arabic formulaic expressions: (Al-Jarf, 2023b); linguistic, translation and cultural problems in translating Arabic and English dar (house) and bayt (home) expressions: (Al-Jarf, 2022b); translating English and Arabic common names of chemical compounds (Al-Jarf, 2022e); translation students' difficulties with English and Arabic color-based metaphorical expressions (Al-Jarf, 2019b); problems in translating Arabic om (mother) and abu (father) expressions (Al-Jarf, 2017a); difficulties in translating English word + preposition collocations to Arabic (Al-Jarf, 2022h); problems of translating English and Arabic binomials by advanced and novice student translators (Al-Jarf (2016b), in addition to other difficulties such as translating polysemes from English to Arabic and Arabic to English (Al-Jarf, 2022c); interlingual pronoun errors in English-Arabic translation (Al-Jarf, 2010a); English neologisms (Al-Jarf, 2010b); word+particle collocation errors in English-Arabic translation (Al-Jarf, 2009b); SVO word order errors in English-Arabic translation (Al-Jarf, 2007); and grammatical agreement errors in L1/L2 translation (Al-Jarf, 2000).

Methodology 2.1 Participants
A sample of 37 senior translation students at the College of Languages and Translation (COLT), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia participated in the study.The Subjects completed 37 hours of language course (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Academic Writing, Editing and Revising, Grammar, Vocabulary, Syntax and Morphology); 4 hours of Language and Culture courses; 13 hours of linguistics courses (Introduction to Linguistics, Text Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Semantics and Pragmatics, and Use of Dictionaries in Translation); 35 hours of translation courses (Introduction to Translation, Computer-Assisted Translation, General Translation from Arabic to English, General Translation from English to Arabic, Political and Media Translation, Problems of Translation, Scientific and Technical, Financial and Economic Translation, Medical, Islamic, Literary, Legal Translation, and a Translation Project); 8 hours of interpreting courses (Simultaneous, Consecutive and Liaison); and 8 hours of Arabic language courses (Academic Writing, Syntax, Stylistics Applications).All the subjects are native speakers of Arabic, with English as their second/foreign language.Their language pairs are Arabic (L1) and English (L2).

Samples of Metaphorical Time Expressions
A sample of 667 English and Arabic general and specialized time metaphorical expressions containing the topical words and conveying the concept of time and time units ‫ثانية‬ second, ‫دقيقة‬ minute, ‫ساعة‬ hour/watch/clock, ‫يوم‬ day, ‫سنة/عام‬ year, ‫وقت/زمن‬ time (singular), ‫أزمان‬ times (plural), ‫عصر‬ age, ‫حقبة‬ era/epoch, ‫الدهر‬ eternity was collected from several online resources.The Arabic time expressions were collected from Al-Maani online dictionary1 , Arab informants and the author's own collection as a native speaker of Arabic and a translation instructor.Other metaphorical expressions containing the time unit of moment, week, decade, date, generation, season, term, period, century, and millennium were not included in the study.
The Arabic sample consists of 347 time expressions distributed as follows: The sample consisted of metaphorical expressions containing ‫ساعة‬ hour, watch, clock (76); ‫وقت‬ time/duration (50); ‫عام‬ year (64); ‫عصر‬ age (43); ‫سنة‬ year (38); ‫زمن‬ time period (29); ‫الدهر‬ eternity (18); ‫يوم/نهار‬ day (13); ‫دقيقة‬ minute (9); ‫حقبة‬ epoch/era (3); ‫أيام‬ days (2); ‫ثانية‬ second (2); The Arabic sample was verified by two professors at the Arabic department to make sure that the sample includes time expressions only with their singular and plural forms and variants and does not include mere phrases consisting of time and words.The percentages of time expressions in each category were computed.Translations, comparisons and categorization of English and Arabic time expressions were verified by two professors of English-Arabic translation.Discrepancies in the analyses were solved by discussion.

The Time Metaphorical Expressions Translation Test
The subjects took a time expressions test that consisted of 40 English and 45 Arabic time expressions that were randomly selected from the English and Arabic time expressions sample collected and which covered time expressions in all time units.The items were presented in isolation as presenting them in context would help the students understand the expressions and infer their meanings.The test instructions specified what the test items were.As a reliability check, few expressions were given in both Arabic and English time.The students were asked to translate each English time expression to Arabic and each Arabic time expression to English.The subjects were not allowed to use any kind of dictionary, whether paper, online or mobile dictionary apps.The students were given open time to respond to the test.In general, the students had more difficulty translating Arabic time expressions to English than English time expressions to Arabic.One of the most difficult items on the test was ‫الزمان‬ ‫أساطين‬ ‫الرمادة،‬ ‫عام‬ ‫والزمان،‬ ‫العصر‬ ‫صاحب‬ ‫الرويبضة،‬ ‫زمن‬ as 91% of the students left them blank, i.e., the students failed to give a response and only 9% could translate them correctly.

Strategies Utilized in Translating Time Expressions
Analysis of the error data revealed some strategies that the students utilized as follows: 1) Avoidance, i.e., providing no response to 65% of the English and Arabic time expressions on the test which probably mean that those expressions are not familiar as mentioned in section 4.1 above.
2) Literal translation: here the students gave a word-for-word translation of the time expressions in the target language although most expressions have an idiomatic or metonymous meaning.

Sources of Translation Difficulties
The students' translation errors reflect lack of proficiency, inadequate linguistic and translation competence and insufficient background knowledge in both Arabic and English.Expressions that were left blank, extraneous equivalents, and literal translations reflect problems in comprehending the semantic meaning of the source expression, i.e., the students have semantic problems.Here, the students looked at each time expression as consisting of discrete words, rather than a whole unit with a specific idiomatic and/or metonymous meaning.This means that some students looked at the surface structure of the time expression and ignored its underlying meaning.For example, some students had semantic problems with some English expressions as a devil of a time; a legend in one's own time; a whale of a time; buy time; dog days of summer; senior year, the golden hour and others.Similarly, they seem to be unfamiliar with some Arabic expressions and concepts which have an idiomatic meaning and should be translated as a bloc sequence without breaking the compound into single words as in ‫الرويبضة،‬ ‫,زمن‬ ‫والزمان‬ ‫العصر‬ ‫,صاحب‬ ‫َّمان‬ ‫الز‬ ‫,أساطين‬ , ‫الظلة‬ ‫;يوم‬ ‫العسرة‬ ‫ساعة‬ and others shown in section 4.1 above.
Moreover, analysis of the translation errors revealed that more than 85% of the students failed to give the correct equivalent to ‫الطباشيري‬ ‫,العصر‬ ‫سنة‬ ‫ة‬ ّ ‫انقلابي‬ , Edwardian Age, as they could not access their English equivalents which are probably not in their specialized lexicon.Translation errors also show lack of background knowledge of the Arabic culture and history ( ‫الرمادة‬ ‫عام‬ ‫عام‬ ، ‫)الحزن‬ related to some old expression ( ) on the test.Likewise, the students had difficulty accessing the meaning of specialized expressions, although many have a one-to-one correspondence in English and Arabic (See section 4.1 above).
In some cases, lack of comprehension of the source expressions and structures, especially in the case of compounds, resulted from inadequate syntactic and morphological knowledge.The students had problems comprehending the word worder of the English expression, the function of each element of the compound to be translated and matching the correct part of speech of the English source expression with that of the Arabic equivalent.Some compounds consist of a Noun + an Adjective as in ‫َّنة‬ ‫الس‬ ‫ة‬ َّ ‫َّمسي‬ ‫الش‬ but was translated into sun year (Noun + Noun) rather than solar year (Adjective + Noun).Renewable energy was translated as ‫الطاقة‬ ‫الجديدة‬ & ‫الطاقة‬ ‫المستجدة‬ instead of ‫المتجددة‬ ‫الطاقة‬ as they had problems understanding the prefix re-and the suffix -able and their equivalents in Arabic, in addition to their unfamiliarity with the correct form of the technical term that is commonly used in Arabic.
Similarly, the students seem to be unfamiliar with and have inadequate knowledge of Arabic derivation and the difference between different derived nouns/forms such as , which one is commonly used in a particular context especially in technical terms and should be used as an equivalent to epoch of exploration which is ‫.استكشافات‬Likewise, they should know the difference in meaning between ‫متجددة‬ & ‫مستجدة‬ in renewable energy.

Discussion
The translation problems that undergraduate student at COLT have in translating time expressions in the current study are similar to those that other groups of translation students at COLT have in translating other types of formulaic, idiomatic and metaphorical expressions such as translating ibn (son) and bint (daughter) fixed expressions (Al-Jarf, 2023a); numeral-based formulaic expressions (Al-Jarf, 2023b); dar (house) and bayt (home) expressions (Al-Jarf, 2022b); color-based metaphorical expressions (Al-Jarf, 2019b); om-and abu-expressions (Al-Jarf, 2017a); English and Arabic binomials (Al-Jarf, 2016b); and common names of chemical compounds (Al-Jarf, 2022e).Similarly, the strategies that undergraduate student translators in the current study employed in translating time expressions are partially similar in type but differ in frequency to those that other groups of translation students at COLT utilized in translating other types of multi-word expressions as in translating polysemes (Al-Jarf, 2022c); English word + preposition collocations (Al-Jarf, 2022h); word+particle collocations (Al-Jarf, 2009b); English and Arabic plurals (Al-Jarf, 2020c; Al-Jarf, 2022d); English suffixes and derived forms (Al-Jarf, 2019a; Al-Jarf, 2016a); Arabic equivalents to English medical terms (Al-Jarf, 2018); English neologisms (Al-Jarf, 2010b); interlingual pronoun errors (Al-Jarf, 2010a); SVO word order errors (Al-Jarf, 2007); and grammatical agreement errors (Al-Jarf, 2000).In all of those studies, the most common translation strategy was literal translation, partial translation, use of synonyms, paraphrase, and extraneous translation.In all the studies, the students tended to translate multi-word expressions and structures imitatively rather than discriminately.
In addition, the strategies used in translating time expressions in this study are partially similar to those employed in translating idioms in other prior studies such as Smadi and Alrishan's (2015) study which found that paraphrase was the most efficient strategy utilized by EFL Jordanian graduate students in translating opaque idioms.Smadi and Alrishan added that the variety of strategies used in translating English idioms to Arabic reflected differences in the students' linguistic and pragmatic competence and their unfamiliarity with those idioms.Moon (1998) emphasized that "opaque metaphors" cannot be understood without knowledge of their historical origins.This is true of some Arabic and English time expressions in the current study that require historical knowledge of the expressions as in the examples given above.
Moreover, findings of the current study are consistent with a study by Alsadi (2016) in which Qatari EFL students had difficulties in comprehending and producing English metaphorical expressions due to their unfamiliarity with the English culture, and their inability to distinguish metaphorical and literal structures.In Zibin's (2016) study, Jordanian EFL college students had difficulty in comprehending metaphorical expressions in English.The students' receptive knowledge of metaphors varied according to the metaphor type.The easiest for Jordanian students were those that have the same conceptual bases and linguistic expressions in English and Arabic (85%).Metaphorical expressions that have equivalent conceptual bases in English and Arabic, but completely different linguistic expressions were easy to recognize as well (81%).Those that have different conceptual bases and linguistic expressions in English and Arabic, and those in which the conceptual bases are culturally neutral elicited a good number of correct responses (71%).Metaphorical expressions that are conceptually and linguistically different in both languages resulted in a significantly lower number of correct translations (52%).Those that have a completely different conceptual basis in English and Arabic, but are similar in linguistic expression, i.e., form, were the most difficult.Zibin asserted that formulaic expressions with a metaphorical meaning are opaque as their conceptual basis reflects the encoding of a culture-specific meaning.
Charteris-Black (2002) found that figurative expressions, with an equivalent linguistic form and conceptual basis, were easier for Malaysian EFL students, whereas those with a different conceptual basis and an equivalent linguistic form and with culture-specific expressions that have a different conceptual basis and a different linguistic form were difficult.In processing unfamiliar metaphorical expressions in L2, the students referred to the conceptual basis in their native language.
The translation strategies that students in the present study employed in translating time expressions are similar in type but differ in the degree of difficulty compared to those utilized by Jordanian students in Zibin's (2016)  Other prior studies in the literature revealed that L2 students find formulaic expressions difficult in listening to academic lectures in English (Littlemore, Chen, Koester & Barnden, 2011; Littlemore, 2004) and in reading specialized academic material (Sandgren & Stewart, 2014).Foreign language and translation students, in general, face challenges in comprehending and translating metaphorical and fixed expressions regardless of their proficiency levels in L1 and L2.Furthermore, the most common cause of comprehension problems was cultural richness, not the type of metaphorical expression because comprehending metaphorical expressions in two languages requires the utilization of four main strategies that L2 readers use: (i) prior knowledge; (ii) Context decoding; (iii) guessing, and (iv) translation.Such strategies require bottom-up and top-down processing.Prior knowledge includes everything that a reader may bring to the text, such as general knowledge of the world, cultural knowledge, topical knowledge, specialist knowledge and (Sandgren & Stewart, 2014).Background knowledge, in particular, is extremely important for translating time expressions.In this respect, Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert, and Goetz (1977), argued that "language comprehension always involves utilization of one's knowledge of the world", and that "many problems in reading comprehension result from inadequate background knowledge rather than inadequate linguistic skills".
Finally, mistranslation strategies that students in the current study used reflect insufficient knowledge of English and Arabic time expressions, what they mean, lack of conceptual basis and historical knowledge which have resulted in an inadequate ability to comprehend, match and transfer meaning from Arabic to English and vice versa.In addition, the subjects had insufficient knowledge of both English and Arabic cultures and history.In this respect, Al-Kharabsheh (2003) asserted that the students' poor linguistic competence, their poor contrastive analysis skills, poor translation competence, the varying degrees of opaqueness, insufficient translation experience and practice give rise to a wide range of mistranslations of Arabic and English metaphorical expressions.Students' difficulty with time expressions may also be due to inadequate instruction or no instruction on such topics and issues.

Recommendations and Conclusion
Undergraduate student-translators in the present study have considerable difficulty in providing correct English equivalents to Arabic time expressions and correct Arabic equivalents to English time expression, especially those that have no one-to-one correspondence, are metonyms, idioms, culture-specific, have a specialized meaning and/or are unfamiliar lexical items.To help the students translate time expressions correctly, the current study recommends that translation instructors raise students' awareness of the similarities and differences between English and Arabic time expressions, their idiomatic meaning, and how to translate those that do not exist in English and/or Arabic (Al-Jarf, 1994; Al-Jarf, 1996; Al-Jurf, 1994).
Translation students should take into consideration that there is no one to one correspondence in the translation of time units used in English and Arabic.For example, minute and second may be translated as moment in Arabic; ‫ساعة‬ may be translated as hour, watch or clock in English; in some contexts, ‫نهار‬ in some Arabic dialects means day; age, era, epoch, and time period may be interchangeably translated into ‫حقبة‬ ‫;عصر‬ and ‫زمن‬ ‫وقت‬ can be translated as time, or times.
In translating time expressions to Arabic, students should take into consideration their idiomatic meanings.Since in most expressions, there is no on-to-one correspondence between Arabic time expressions and their English equivalents, fixed equivalents should be used without translating each word in the phrase.That is, students should translate time expressions as bloc sequences without breaking the compounds into single words.They may use explanatory equivalents in transferring the meaning of metonyms and idioms and pay attention to the syntactic and morphological structure of the English expression.
When confronted with unfamiliar time expressions, the students can look up their definition in English and Arabic online dictionaries to understand the meaning and convey it in the target language (Al-Jarf, 2022g; Al-Jarf, 2020a; Al-Jarf, 2014).They should not resort to Google Translate as it gives the literal meanings of metaphorical expression, idioms and metonyms as discrete words, not as a block sequence that has an idiomatic and metonymous meaning especially in the case of English and Arabic, where compounds differ in word order (Al-Jarf, 2021; Al-Jarf, 2016a).
English and Arabic time metaphorical expressions can be integrated into Contrastive Analysis, Semantics and Pragmatics courses that the students take.Some English and Arabic time expressions can be added to the English vocabulary courses and the Arabic language courses that students take in the translation program at COLT.Direct instruction on expressions of time expressions in translation and interpreting courses should be given.
To promote students' proficiency level in English grammar, syntax, morphology, spelling, Arabic derivational patters and their competence in translating time expressions, online grammar tasks, combining writing and grammar activities, online courses, video-conferences using Elluminate, Zoom, WebEx, Microsoft Teams, google Classroom and so on, social media networks such as Platform X and Facebook, blogs, mobile apps and YouTube videos can be used for extra practice individually and collaboratively, in and outside the classroom.A multiple-associations approach to teaching and learning terminology containing time units, grammatical structured and time expressions can be followed (Al-Jarf, 2005; Al-Jarf, 2006; Al-Jarf, 2009a; Al-Jarf, 2017b; Al-Jarf, 2013; Al-Jarf, 2020a; Al-Jarf, 2022a; Al-Jarf, 2020b; Al-Jarf, 2022f).Language and translation instructors can use mind-mapping software to connect time expressions, terminology containing the different time units, derivatives, homophones, homographs, metonyms, suffixes, prefixes and roots which the students confuse (Al-Jarf, 2015; Al-Jarf, 2011; Al-Jarf, 2006).
The students may read literary and specialized material in technology, business and others in both English and Arabic and note the usage of second, minute, hour, day, month, year, era epoch, age, time period, eternity.They should also note the usage of time expressions in everyday language and keep a note of them.They are advised to make their own categorized lists and glossaries of different kinds of English and Arabic metaphorical expressions, including kinship terms such as second, minute, hour, day, month, year, epoch, and age expressions (Al-Jarf, 2018).
Finally, other multi-word and fixed temporal expressions that contain English millennium, century, centennial, period, decade, duration, season, term, time period, a while, interval, stage, phase, date and Arabic ‫ألفية،‬ ‫عهد،‬ ‫دورة،‬ ‫فصل‬ ‫فترة،‬ ‫الزمن،‬ ‫من‬ ‫عقد‬ ، ‫فترة‬ ‫قرن‬ ، ‫مئوية‬ ‫أمد،‬ ‫مرحلة،‬ and others in the light of theories such as the Functional Syntactic Approach, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and the Cognitive Grammar Approach are still open for investigation by Arab researchers in the future.
The majority of the Arabic time expressions are common in Standard Arabic, with few Arabic dialects spoken in different Arab countries.The final sample contains the following: (i) general English and Arabic metaphorical time expressions containing ‫ثانية‬ second, ‫دقيقة‬ minute, ‫ساعة‬ hour, ‫يوم‬ day, Specialized time expressions used in astronomy, physics, geology, technology, business, economics, finance, history, Islamic law, and literature and others; and (iii) culture-specific metaphorical time expressions.
‫سنة‬ / ‫عام‬ year, ‫زمن‬ ‫وقت‬ time, ‫عصر‬ age, ‫حقبة‬ era, and ‫حقبة‬ epoch; ‫الدهر‬ eternity; (ii) Each English metaphorical expression containing second, minute, hour, day, year, era, and epoch, was translated into Arabic and ‫الزمن‬ ‫لعبة‬ time game.o Second: in a matter of seconds ‫ثوان‬ ‫في‬ .o Minute: A minute's silence ‫صمت‬ ‫دقيقة‬ , Every minute counts ‫تفرق‬ ‫دقيقة‬ ‫;كل‬ a minute's walk ‫مشي‬ ‫.دقيقة‬ o Day: Day of Judgment ‫القيامة‬ ‫يوم‬ ; In this day and age ‫اليوم‬ ‫هذا‬ ‫في‬ ; Mother's Day ‫الأم‬ ‫عيد‬ .o Hour: Working hours ‫الدوام‬ ‫ساعات‬ ; Peak hours ‫الذروة‬ ‫ساعات‬ ; Man of the hour ‫الساعة‬ ‫رجل‬ ; After hours ‫الدوام‬ ‫بعد‬ ; business hours ‫العمل/الدوام‬ ‫.ساعات‬ o Clock: Around the clock ‫الساعة‬ ‫مدار‬ ‫على‬ ; Biological clock ‫البيولوجية‬ ‫الساعة‬ ; ‫الزمان‬ ‫عليه‬ ‫جار‬ became miserable; ‫الوصل‬ ‫زمان‬ when loved ones were re-united; ‫زمانه‬ ‫أهل‬ people of his times; ‫العار‬ ‫زمن‬ time of shame.‫الحساب‬ ‫يوم‬ Day of Judgment; ‫بسنة‬ ‫يومه‬ slow, takes a long time to do something; ‫اليوم‬ ‫يومك‬this is your day; ‫يومه‬ ‫من‬ from an early age; ‫كالسيف‬ ‫الوقت‬ time is a sword; ‫الضائع‬ ‫الوقت‬ lost time; ‫السحر‬ ‫وقت‬ dawn time.‫سوداء‬ ‫سنة‬ year with hard luck; ‫َر‬ ‫الذ‬ ‫ر‬ ْ ‫ص‬ َ ‫ع‬ Atomic Age; ‫الجليدي‬ ‫العصر‬ Ice Age; Space Age ‫الفضاء‬ ‫;عصر‬ ‫الحديث‬ ‫العصر‬ Modern Age; ‫الذهبي‬ ‫العصر‬ golden Age; ‫القديم‬ ‫العصر‬ Ancient times; ‫الكهرباء‬ ‫عصر‬ The era of electricity; ‫جيب‬ ‫ساعة‬ pocket watch; ‫رملية‬ ‫ساعة‬ hour glass; ‫ة‬ َّ ‫رقمي‬ ‫ساعة‬ digital watch; ‫كبيسة‬ ‫سنة‬ leap year; ‫ميلادية‬ ‫سنة‬ Gregorian Year; ‫ة‬ َّ ‫َّمسي‬ ‫الش‬ ‫َّنة‬ ‫الس‬ solar year; ‫ة‬ َّ ‫الفلكي‬ ‫َّنة‬ ‫الس‬ Astronomical year; ‫َّنة‬ ‫الس‬ ‫ة‬ َّ ‫القمري‬ lunar year; ‫ة‬ َّ ‫المالي‬ ‫َّنة‬ ‫الس‬ fiscal year; ‫ة‬ َّ ‫َّجمي‬ ‫الن‬ ‫َّنة‬ ‫الس‬ Astral year; 6) Culture-specific expressions as in the following: o English examples: happy hour ‫الكحول‬ ‫لشرب‬ ‫;استراحة‬ time steals (time passes quickly and opportunities can be lost if not taken advantage of); time is death; time is wisdom; time is money; a devil of a time; a legend in one's own time; a whale of a (good) time; Time Is ages and eons; Groundhog Day; Independence Day; Memorial Day; Labor Day; Mayday!Mayday!Mayday; Out with the old, in with the new; In a New York minute; Seven-year itch; in the year of our Lord ‫عصر‬ ‫;المسيح‬ An Edwardian era; An Elizabethan era.‫ر‬ ْ ‫َّه‬ ‫الد‬ ‫بات‬ ُّ ‫تقل‬ life's ups and downs.‫جار‬ ‫الزمان‬ ‫عليه‬ became miserable; ‫َّمان‬ ‫الز‬ ‫أساطين‬ wise men; ‫ن‬ َ ‫َّم‬ ‫الز‬ ‫عليه‬ ‫َا‬ ‫عف‬ became obsolete; ‫الظلة‬ ‫يوم‬ (in the Quran, it was a hot day, so God sent a cloud for them to stand under it; ‫الفجر‬ ‫ساعة‬ dawn tine; ‫سوداء‬ ‫ساعة‬ bad time; ‫الساعة‬ ‫يلعن‬ damn it; ‫ساعة‬ ‫احلى‬ greatest/best time; ‫شؤم‬ ‫ساعة‬ bad omen; ‫خير‬ ‫ساعة‬ good omen; ‫العسرة‬ ‫ساعة‬ hard time; ‫الأخيرة‬ ‫ساعته‬ end of life/death;‫غضب‬ ‫ساعة‬ a moment of anger; ‫الساعة‬ ‫علامات‬ signs of the end of times; ‫الساعة‬ ‫أشراط‬ sign of the Day of Judgments; ‫الجد‬ ‫ساعة‬ serious moment; ‫ساعة‬ ‫ابرك‬ blessed moment; ‫الرمادة‬ ‫عام‬ Year of Perishment and Drought; ‫عام‬ ‫الفيل‬ Year of the Elephant; ‫عام‬ ‫الحزن‬ Year of Grief; ‫الوفود‬ ‫عام‬ The year when Prophet Mohammad was born; ‫عام‬ ‫الردة‬Apostasy from Islam after Prophet Mohammad's death; ‫السعودية‬ ‫القهوة‬ ‫عام‬ year of Saudi Coffee; ‫الابل‬ ‫عام‬ Year of Camels; ‫العربي‬ ‫الشعر‬ ‫عام‬ Year of Arabic Poetry.Other metonyms that refer to times of drought, no rain and no crops each Arabic metaphorical expression containing ‫ثانية‬ second, ‫دقيقة‬ minute, ‫ساعة‬ hour, ‫يوم‬ day, ‫سنة/عام‬ year, ‫وقت‬ / ‫زمن‬ time, ‫عصر‬ age, era, epoch ‫حقبة‬ and ‫الدهر‬ eternity was translated into English.Then, the time metaphorical expressions were classified and compared.Results of the comparison showed the following: 1) About 31% of the total English and Arabic time expressions are identical in their conceptual basis (meaning) and linguistic form (wording) as in: o Time: only time will tell ‫الوقت‬ ‫مع‬ ‫;سيظهر‬ a race against time ‫الزمن‬ ‫مع‬ ‫سياق‬ ‫في‬ ; time is fleeting ‫بسرعة‬ ‫يمضي‬ ‫الوقت‬ ; time stops for no ma ‫أحدا‬ ‫ينتظر‬ ‫لا‬ ‫;الوقت‬ time heals all wounds ‫الوقت‬ ‫مع‬ ‫تشفى/تلتئم‬ ‫الجروح/الجراح‬ ‫بشفاء‬ ‫كفيل‬ ‫الوقت‬ ; time flies ‫الوقت‬ ‫يطير‬ ; invest time ‫الوقت‬ ‫يستثمر‬ ; a waste of time ‫للوقت‬ ‫إضاعة‬ ; time to kill ‫الوقت‬ ‫;يقتل‬ ‫ره‬ ْ 2) About 7% of the total English and Arabic time expressions are the same in their conceptual basis, but different in their linguistic for as In: A minute longer ‫الوقت‬ ‫من‬ ‫;قليل‬ A minute's thought ‫للتفكر‬ ‫;لحظة‬ A minute-by-minute account ‫كل‬ ‫تحديث‬ ‫;دقيقة‬ At the end of the day: Ultimately; when everything has been considered; Day in, day out ‫يوميا‬ ‫يوم,‬ ‫;كل‬ Day off ‫يوم‬ ‫;اجازة‬ Day one ‫البداية‬ ‫منذ‬ ; Every dog has its day ‫يومه‬ ‫له‬ ‫واحد‬ ‫;كل‬ Every second counts ‫دقائق‬ ‫;مجرد‬ From this day forward ‫من‬ ‫فصاعدا‬ ‫;الآن‬ It's just a matter of seconds ‫دقائق‬ ‫بضع‬ ‫;فقط‬ Just a minute ‫فضلك‬ ‫من‬ ‫;لحظة‬ Sick days ‫المرض‬ ‫بسبب‬ ‫;غياب‬ Take a minute ‫قصيرة‬ ‫استراحة‬ ‫;خذ‬ The happy hours of life ‫الحياة‬ ‫في‬ ‫السعيدة‬ ‫;الأوقات‬ The minute you walk in the door ‫تصل‬ ‫;حين‬ The minute ‫;حينما‬ The off-hours ‫ا‬ ‫أوقات‬ ‫لراحة/الاستراحة‬ ; Time Tells all ‫الوقت‬ ‫مع‬ ‫يظهر‬ ‫شيء‬ ‫;كل‬ Wait a second ‫من‬ ‫لحظة/دقيقة‬ ‫;فضلك‬ ‫سنة‬ ‫انتظرت‬ > waited for ages; ‫بالدقيقة‬ ‫;محسوبة‬ ‫بدقيقة‬ ‫;دقيقة‬ ‫يوم‬ ‫نكد‬ a bad day.3) About 31% of the time expressions in the English sample exist in English only and have no equivalents in Arabic as in the following examples: a whale of a time ‫خاص‬ ‫بشكل‬ ‫ممتعة‬ ‫;تجربة‬ buy time; first-day jitters: groundhog day: in the year dot: in the year of our lord; Mayday!Mayday!Mayday ‫استغاثة‬ ‫نداء‬ ; senior year 4) About 57% of the time expressions in the Arabic sample exist in Arabic only and have no equivalents in English as in the following: ‫الساعة‬ ‫زلزلة‬ tremors of the Day of Judgement; ‫الساعة‬ ‫رجل‬ Man of the hour; ‫الصفاء‬ ‫ساعات‬ moments of calmness; ‫غضب‬ ‫ساعة‬ moment of anger; ‫الساعة‬ ‫مثل‬ punctual; ‫ساعته‬ ‫ابن‬transient, last for a short time; ‫ساعة‬ ‫ابرك‬ blessed moment; o In English: Epoch of blockchain technology ‫والمشترين‬ ‫الموردين‬ ‫بين‬ ‫البضائع‬ ‫حركة‬ ‫لتتبع‬ ‫الكتل‬ ‫;سلسلة‬ The epoch of virtual reality ‫الافتراضي‬ ‫الواقع‬ ‫;عصر‬ The epoch of renewable energy ‫المتجددة‬ ‫الطاقة‬ ‫عصر‬ ; The epoch of aviation ‫الطيران‬ ‫عصر‬ ; The epoch of exploration ‫الاستكشافات‬ ‫عصر‬ / ‫الاستكشاف‬ ; The epoch of the Romantic ‫الرومانسية‪movement‬‬ ‫الحركة‬ ‫;عصر‬ The epoch of the Renaissance ‫النهضة‬ ‫;عصر‬ Dark ages ‫المظلمة‬ ‫العصور‬ ; Middle Ages ‫الوسطى‬ ‫العصور‬ ; Stone Age ‫العصر‬ ‫;الحجري‬ epoch of artificial intelligence ‫الاصطناعي‬ ‫الذكاء‬ ‫;عصر‬ epoch of globalization ‫العولمة‬ ‫عصر‬ ; The epoch of quantum computing ‫الكمية‬ ‫الحوسبة‬ ‫;عصر‬ The epoch of smart homes ‫الذكية‬ ‫البيوت‬ ‫عصر‬ ; the epoch of gene editing ‫عصر‬ ‫تحرير‬ ‫;الجينات‬ The Epoch of the Cold War ‫الباردة‬ ‫الحرب‬ ‫;عصر‬ ‫الفحمي‬ ‫العصر‬ ‫الكربوني‬ ‫أو‬ Carboniferous.o In Arabic: ‫ة‬ ّ ‫العار‬ ‫زمن‬ time of shame.; ‫العسرة‬ ‫ساعة‬ hard time; ‫الغفلة‬ ‫ساعة‬ moment of inattentiveness; ‫سوداء‬ ‫ساعة‬ bad time; ‫شؤم‬ ‫ساعة‬ bad omen; ‫غضب‬ ‫ساعة‬ a moment of anger; ‫ساعة‬ ‫ابرك‬ blessed moment; ‫ساعته‬ ‫ابن‬ transient, last for a short time; ‫ساعة‬ ‫;احلى‬ ‫الوصل‬ ‫زمان‬ when loved ones were re-united; happy hour; Labor Day; Memorial Day; seven-year itch.‫ة‬ َّ ‫َّجمي‬ ‫الن‬ ‫َّنة‬ ‫الس‬ astral year, the epoch of exploration; the epoch of renewable energy were difficult.
only time will tell; senior year; seven-year itch; take a minute; the epoch of exploration; the epoch of renewable energy; the golden hour; the happy hours of life; the minute you walk in the door; time is fleeting; time is money; time steals; time stops for no man; time tells all; time's up; to have too much time on your hands; to turn back the hands of time; waited for ages.

)
‫الازدحام‬ ‫ساعات‬ rush hours; peak hours; peak time; rush time.o ‫الجد‬ ‫ساعة‬ serious time; Serious hour; o ‫الفجر‬ ‫ساعة‬ morning time; morning hour; early morning hour.o ‫شؤم‬ ‫ساعة‬ unlucky hour; unlucky time; bad hour.o ‫الحزن‬ ‫عام‬ Year of sadness; Year of sorrow; year of upset; Paraphrase where the students gave several explanatory equivalents with varying syntactic structures.Here the students knew what the expression means but failed to provide an exact equivalent as in the following examples: o Memorial Day ‫الحروب‬ ‫في‬ ‫ماتوا‬ ‫من‬ ‫الامريكان‬ ‫فيه‬ ‫يتذكر‬ ‫الذي‬ ‫اليوم‬ o day out ‫والترفيه‬ ‫للنزهة‬ ‫الناس‬ ‫فيه‬ ‫يخرج‬ ‫يوم‬ o Waited for ages ‫طويلة‬ ‫مدة‬ ‫ينتظر‬ o Dark Ages: time long ago when Europe was backward.Partial translation where the students translated part of the expression only as in: Time out ‫الوقت‬ ‫انتهى‬ o ‫وشرب‬ ‫الدهر‬ ‫عليه‬ ‫أكل‬ eat and drink for a long time.o ‫الازدحام‬ ‫ساعات‬ crowds o ‫الجد‬ ‫ساعة‬ hard working; it's time to work hard o ‫الفجر‬ ‫ساعة‬ early morning prayer o ‫سوداء‬ ‫ساعة‬ black watch; black clock; black time.o ‫الرمادة‬ ‫عام‬ Year of ashes o ‫الجاهلي‬ ‫العصر‬ Ignorance Year; non-Muslim period; before Islam period o ‫ة‬ ّ ‫قضي‬ ‫َّاعة‬ ‫الس‬ right now o ‫الساعة‬ ‫مثل‬ like clock; on time; like hour o ‫السحر‬ ‫وقت‬ magic time rather than dawn time 7) In the case of some time units, there is no one-to-one correspondence as in translating epoch, era, period & age into ‫;عصر‬ and minute & second into ‫لحظة‬ ; The following are some examples: o Time steals ‫الوقت‬ ‫يسرق‬ o Memorial Day ‫الذكرى‬ ‫يوم‬ o The golden hour ‫الذهبية‬ ‫الساعة‬ o Buy time: ‫وقت‬ ‫;يشتري‬ ‫الوقت‬ ‫شراء‬ .o A legend in one's own time ‫خرافي‬ ‫وقت‬ o Happy hour: ‫سعيدة‬ ‫;ساعة‬ ‫السعادة‬ ‫;ساعة‬ ‫سعيد‬ ‫;وقت‬ ‫انبساط‬ ‫;وقت‬ ‫مرح‬ ‫;وقت‬ rather than .o Labor Day ‫العمل‬ ‫يوم‬ o The golden hour: ‫ذهبية‬ ‫;ساعة‬ ‫الذهبية‬ ‫;الساعة‬ ‫ذهب‬ ‫من‬ ‫.ساعة‬ o The good old days: ‫الجيدة‬ ‫القديمة‬ ‫الأيام‬ ‫القديمة‬ ‫الجميلة‬ ‫الأيام‬ .o Time is money: ‫المال‬ ‫هو‬ ‫الوقت‬ o Dog days of summer ‫الصيف‬ ‫في‬ ‫للكلاب‬ ‫مخصصة‬ ‫أيام‬ o Time out ‫الزمن‬ ‫خارج‬ ‫الوقت،‬ ‫خارج‬ o ‫رملية‬ ‫ساعة‬ sand clock; clock in the sand o ‫سوداء‬ ‫:سنة‬ black year; dark year rather than (year with hard luck).o Day in and day out ‫خروج‬ ‫ويوم‬ ‫دخول‬ ‫;يوم‬ ‫للخروج‬ ‫ويوم‬ ‫للدخول‬ ‫يوم‬ o A whale of a time ‫الوقت‬ ‫حوت‬ o A minute-by-minute account ‫كل‬ ‫حساب‬ ‫بدقيقة‬ ‫دقيقة‬ o A devil of a time ‫الوقت‬ ‫شيطان‬ o Labor Day ‫العمل‬ ‫;عيد‬ ‫العاملين‬ ‫;يوم‬ ‫الموظفين‬ ‫يوم‬ o The epoch of exploration ‫الاكتشاف‬ ‫عصر‬ ; ‫الاكتشافات‬ ‫عصر‬ o The good old days: ‫تنسى‬ ‫لا‬ ‫قديمة‬ ‫;أيام‬ ‫جميلة‬ ‫;ذكريات‬ ‫الجميل‬ ‫الماضي‬ ‫ذكريات‬ o o The epoch of exploration ‫الاكتشاف‬ ‫الاكتشافات،‬ o The epoch of renewable energy ‫الطاقة‬ ‫عصر‬ ‫الجديدة،‬ ‫الطاقة‬ o The good old days: ‫الحلوة‬ ‫الأيام‬ , ‫القديمة‬ ‫الأيام‬ o To have too much time on your hands ‫الوقت‬ ‫من‬ ‫الكثير‬ ‫لديه‬ o ‫وشرب‬ ‫الدهر‬ ‫عليه‬ ‫أكل‬ eat and drink