Recent Submissions

  • The Role of ESG Responsible Investing to Attract Investments from GCC Sovereign Wealth Funds’

    Shaheen, Rozina; AlQattan, Hettaf; Finance
    Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors are at the forefront of global asset management. Due to the long-term financial returns and positive social effects of ESG responsible investing, they have been incorporated into the investment decision-making and risk management of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). This study examines the impact of ESG-responsible corporate investments on the investment scope of GCC sovereign wealth funds. Additionally, we investigate the various implications of ESG factors in garnering the investment of GCC SWFs, which has some bearing on the discussion of GCC SWFs' investment preferences. According to the study's findings, ESG-responsible investing is a significant factor in recruiting GCC SWF investments, particularly in terms of social and governance factors. The analysis reveals a positive correlation between ESG ratings and GCC SWF investments. Therefore, GCC SWF investment strategies progressively incorporate ESG factors. Incorporating environmental, social, and governance factors into investment strategies necessitates integrating ESG metrics and analysis into decision- making as part of an integrated approach, not as an add-on, and that there are significant value- creation opportunities in doing so. The connection between environmental, social, and governance factors and sovereign wealth fund investments should encourage managers to implement appropriate strategies to attract GCC SWF investments and accomplish coordinated development.
  • Analyzing Issues in the Arabic Subtitling of English Political Texts: A Case Study of Adel Al Jubeir’s Speeches

    Khuddro, Ahmad; Aljehani, Lujain; Master of Science in Translation and Interpreting
    This is a case study that will examine political and media theories and procedures and how to apply them in the translation of Adel Al Jubeir's speeches. One of the important fields of translation is political translation. The sensitivity and importance of this field have made a huge impact on translation procedures and theories. Nowadays, the existence of world wide web made communication easier and accessible, and political materials are available at any time. This research will analyze the subtitles of the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir’s speeches. Then, this research will analyze the Arabic subtitling of these speeches by applying the theories mentioned by Schäffner and Bassnett in their book Political Discourse, Media and Translation (2010) and other theories written by other scholar in Adel Al Jubeir’s speeches. Moreover, the thesis will discuss the challenges and issues a translator may face while translating political texts and the procedures used to overcome these challenges. The subtitled videos are from different official news agencies' YouTube channels and from amateur translators’ channels. Furthermore, the thesis will examine the most common procedures to render the meaning and produce the same effect of the ST on the audience of the TL. Also, there will be a quantitative data collection which will analyze the feedback from a survey done on a focused group of translators and journalists regarding the mentioned issues. The findings of the research have shown variations between news agencies' subtitling and amateur subtitling including stylistic features such as addition, omission, paraphrasing…etc. These stylistic features affected the quality of the subtitling presented by both subtitlers. This thesis also has shown the opinion of the focus group who participated in a questionnaire to support the purpose of this research. Furthermore, this research paper would recommend further studies on subtitled political videos covering the technical issues faced by subtitlers. Also, I would recommend for an extensive questionnaire covering a wider range of subtitlers, translators and journalists as this study was applied only on a focus group of translators and journalists
  • Measuring Community Acceptance and Evaluation of Smart Mobility Systems in Saudi Future Cities

    Mohammed Fekry; Khashoggi, Aroob; NA; Master of Science in Urban Design; Refaat, Ahmed M.; Shehata, Ahmed A.
    Nowadays, almost half of the world's inhabitants live in urban areas where information and mobile communication technologies are natural catalysts for innovations. This unprecedented urban growth of recent years required improved urban planning and management to make urban spaces more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Therefore, the idea of smart cities has emerged to cope with resources and limited spaces worldwide by highly advanced technology. Smart Cities can categorize the city by intensively empowering and utilizing the latest technology to integrate human systems with physical and digital techniques. It can creatively and innovatively provide a high quality of life by mastering multiple main six dimensions: mobility, economy, environment, people, living, and government. Additionally, Smart mobility is one of the core subjects of any smart city. It involves optimizing transport and communications to consolidate new sustainability standards, efficiency, safety, and air quality. Therefore, Smart cities require having Smart people be socially smart and sustainable. Thus, this research measures the perception of the Saudi community regarding smart mobility types and usage, While exploring smart cities and highlighting the main challenges of smart mobility and smart people dimensions in smart cities. The methodology followed in this research is both qualitative and quantitative methodological choices. The research comprehensively investigate the smart cities overall approach, to build an evaluation framework to measure the community acceptance of smart mobility systems in Saudi future smart cities. At the end of this research, the main learned lessons are presented to support Saudi cities' transforming process while raising the awareness to reach smart people.
  • Euphemism in Medical Interpreting and its Impact on the Interpreting Output Quality

    Almommani, Obaida; Kofiah, Hanan; Master of Science in Translation and Interpreting
    The field of medicine is widely renowned for its intricate and technical language, with medical interpreting being one of the most critical areas where precise and accurate interpreting is paramount. One of this study’s objectives is to examine the impact of interpreters’ adherence to the interpreters' code of ethics in selected Saudi hospitals. The research endeavor takes a quantitative approach to investigate the extent of adherence to the accuracy principle outlined by the interpreters’ code of ethics and the deployment of euphemisms by medical interpreters. It also aims to uncover the ramifications of using euphemisms on the intended message of the Source Language speaker. The study employed survey questionnaires to solicit responses, and based on the analysis, over 80% of the respondents lacked a professional license to practice medical interpreting in Saudi hospitals, while 60% affirmed that they were not knowledgeable of any interpreters' code of ethics. The findings pointed towards the cautious use of euphemisms by medical interpreters. However, the absence of professional medical interpreters raises significant concerns regarding adequate training and ability to conduct professional interpreting sessions, while the unawareness of the interpreters' code of ethics implied that current interpreting services in Saudi hospitals lack professional standards. The research successfully attested to the first hypothesis, confirming that the current interpreting services in Saudi hospitals fall short of professional criteria due to the interpreters' lack of professional training and unfamiliarity with the interpreters' code of ethics.
  • Applying Nord’s Functionalist Model to the English Translation of the Fatwa on the Rules of Hijab for the Muslim Minority in the US

    Khuddro, Ahmad; Naji, Rasha Q.; Master of Science in Translation and Interpreting
    the context of functionalist approaches to translation, this thesis focuses on the functionalist theories, and the effectiveness of the functionalist translation approach in the practice of translating Islamic verdicts in Arabic fatwa, without prejudice to any of the Islamic laws. Four freelance translators were given a text of one fatwa about the rules of hijab to translate from Arabic into English without a translation brief. Then, virtual interviews were conducted to identify the difficulties they faced based on the translation approaches of their choice. The target recipients, the Muslim minority of the US, were also surveyed to check their background knowledge of these rules and the meanings of some religious terms in this fatwa. Christine Nord’s (1991/2006) well-known theoretical framework for analyzing the intra- and extralinguistic factors affecting translation was used to understand the source text (ST) as well as the target text (TT) readers of this fatwa. This framework served this research as a meta-analysis of the functional translation approach on an Islamic text and was used to present a detailed discussion of the way extratextual, and intra-textual factors interrelate for the production of a TT. The analysis of such factors proves that identifying elements of the ST is relevant for the production of the TT, as well as for the establishment of procedures to be adopted in the process of producing a new text for a specific audience and specific purposes in the target communicative situation.
  • Sustainable Indicators for Public Transportation: Assessment Model for Jeddah City Case Study

    Mohammed, Mohammed F. M.; Nayer, Aida; Jalal, Raneem S.; Urban Design Lab; Master of Science in Urban Design
    Jeddah city is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia, due to its unique geographic location and the massive increase of the demographic density, as result of a rapid urban expansion there is a rising need to enhance the city’s transportation infrastructure. Furthermore, the urbanization has affected the streets safety, due to the significant increase in the use of motorization, reflected in a high level of traffic and dependence on the private vehicle. Hence, contributed in the decline of city sustainability leading to several urban issues such as: air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and economic downfalls. Although city transportation system is a vital pillar for the quality of life of the citizens, shading the light, that most of the cities, rely on public and private transportation and consider it as a key mode of commuting and logistics. Consiquensly, smart cities rely on using digital technology for smarter urban transport networks. Using resources which are more efficient and upgrades city utilities. Therefore, smart can be an innovative networked way of bringing together existing technology and resources to optimize their use through an integrated transport model. Consequently, this research attempts to investigate Sustainable Transportation Indicators in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. To ensure that the planned systems are following the international standards. Jeddah city is facing a Lack of quality and safe public transportation. The research aims to adopt economically viable, people-oriented and environment-friendly transport systems as a part of the sustainable development within the city. Moreover, this research adopts multiple strategies of quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques to achieve its goals and objectives. By exploring the application of smart transportation models within the city of Jeddah. Additionally, the result of the research is a set of sustainable indicators to assess sustainability in Jeddah’s transportation system. The indicators bring together; a combination between the various aspects of sustainability including; social, economic and environmental factors which contribute to the city development.
  • Adaptive Use of Jeddah’s Green Infrastructure Through Flood Risk Management

    Mohammed, Mohammed F. M.; Refaat, Ahmed Mohamed; El-Shafie, Mervat; Fakeih, Lubaba; Urban Design Lab; Master of Science in Urban Design
    Jeddah has faced many problems in terms of urban flooding and stormwater management. The impact of this issue is accelerated by the urban growth and climate change, increasing the amount and frequency of rainfall while decreasing the cities overall absorbency. This research then aims to assess the risk level of the various areas in Jeddah, and provide them with green infrastructure solutions to the urban flooding problem. This research generates a flood risk assessment of 90 defined districts in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with assigned flood mitigation strategies. It does so by creating a flood risk assessment model using hazard and vulnerability indicators. The research begins by studying the problems and impacts of urban flooding and the different approaches used in flood risk assessment and flood mitigation. It then goes on to investigate and list the various indicators used for risk assessment and green infrastructure strategies used to counter urban floods. The research then uses the set of predefined indicators, modifying it to fit the local context, and creating a set score for the different scales of the given indictors. All districts, within the scope of study, are then evaluated and classified with their final scores positioning them in a flood risk assessment matrix. The districts are then classified into one of three categories, high, moderate, or low, in relation to both their probability of flooding, and their risk of flooding. Based on these classifications, the districts are assigned a priority, and specific green infrastructure strategies, according to their inherit characteristics.
  • Integral Placemaking in Sensitive Heritage Sites for successful cultural tourism

    Mohammed, Mohammed F. M.; Samarghandi, Salwa; Samir, Haitham; Urban Design Lab; Master of Science in Urban Design
    This research investigates new approaches for developing heritage sites with its relationship with cultural tourism growth. In that sense the research firstly explored the notion of place and place importance, the concept of heritage places, development approaches through years to be followed with exploring the notion of cultural tourism and its relationship with heritage. The research explored in-depth on recent approaches of heritage conservation, where it shows the need for considering urban context, people and intangible aspects. The lack of having tailored approach for developing heritage sites led the research to explore the possibilities of integrating the concept of placemaking as developed approach for heritage and cultural tourism — this through investigating in-depth on the theory history, types and attempts of development. The study also has explored several case studies locally and internationally to investigates the used method in development and identify the significant aspects and point out the shortage on each case in order to support the significant aspects which could contribute in developing the model, therefore, The study aims to build specialized model considering significant factors and aspects which could benefit designers through the development process and taking decisions.
  • Child-Friendly Open Public Spaces: Towards Safety & Sociability in Residential Neighborhoods

    Mohammed, Mohammed F. M.; Moumani, Kholod; MASRI, HALA I.; Master of Science in Urban Design
    The rapid urbanization, high traffic density, and lack of open spaces are noticeable challenges that impose several repercussions on children within urban contexts and restrict them from living a normal childhood. Independent mobility is reduced according to the spatial deprivation of children from pedestrian experiences through urban environments. Most of the children who flourish in urban areas are trapped within indoor and virtual environments where they are deprived of contact with their communities and natural environments. Consequently, children’s opportunities for active engagement and participation in social life are decreased. Recently, child-friendly urban design has gained a lot of attention due to its remarkable advantages as it brings children’s needs and desires into practice. Creating safe and sociable child-friendly open public spaces contributes to protecting children from traffic injuries and crimes while at the same time stimulating their imagination and nurturing communication skills. This research addresses the topic of safe and sociable child-friendly open public spaces in residential neighborhoods which can significantly promote better living environments for children. Building a design framework to promote safety and sociability for children in urban contexts is the main aim that will be tackled. To achieve this aim; the research follows a theoretical approach by applying a qualitative research methodology through historical interpretation and understanding of the main design principles of safe and sociable child-friendly open public spaces. Moreover, verifying the proposed design framework will be performed by questioning the experts in the field and the public in local contexts while conducting site observation in the study area. This would be followed by an evaluative analysis of the related case-studies to demonstrate the applicability of the design framework in evaluating the level of child-friendliness in open public space. Eventually, the research introduced an adapted design framework for designing safe and sociable child-friendly open public spaces in residential neighborhoods that can be applied in local contexts.
  • Strategies for Urban Regeneration of The Deteriorated Areas Case Study: Jeddah

    Mohammed, Mohammed F. M.; Alobeid, Nawar A.; Urban Design Lab; Master of Science in Urban Design
    As a result of urban sprawl in Jeddah that led to losing control over the old neighborhoods and focusing more on developing new neighborhoods that attract residents through internal migration. Therefore, many deteriorated areas and slums started to appear in the urban fabric of Jeddah. However, not all these deteriorated areas need the same level of urban regeneration. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide a classification tool for these deteriorated areas that will contribute in helping the developers and decision-makers in the regeneration process. So, the research will address how the deteriorated areas could be classified according to specific characteristics and criteria, and what are the appropriate strategies for upgrading or regenerating each case. The data collection is derived from previous literature reviews, research studies, and different case studies of existing projects as well. The survey study will be directed to experts in the field, in order to verify the importance of the proposed characteristics that contribute to build the desired framework model. The results of the survey will examine the validation and effectiveness of the developed framework at the local scale. As it will be applied in one of the deteriorated neighborhoods of Jeddah. Finally, conclusion and recommendations will be provided at the end of the research. As it will measures the accuracy of the developed framework, and shows the extent to which developers and decision makers will rely on this framework as a classification tool measurement, for generating all the deteriorated areas whether in local or international contexts.
  • Towards Enhancing the Waterfront/City Connectivity in Jeddah City

    Mohammed, Mohammed F. M.; Hanafi, Ghalia A.; Urban Design Lab; Master of Science in Urban Design
    Accessibility is a significant influencing factor in the efficient operation of a metro system. This research has primarily focused on spatial connectivity of the street network accessibility indicators such as connectivity, land use mix and variety, compact and self-obsession, attractive moving environment, prevailing culture and cultural preferences, activity locations, travel duration, and affordability. Recreational waterfront developments can be just aesthetically appealing since they lack the substantial design attributes required for their users' satisfaction. Enhancing the user's comfort and happiness will encourage individuals to spend more time outside, perhaps increasing outdoor time. The approaches used in this study include a structured questioner survey, which focuses on understanding the current user's preferences and degree of satisfaction with the existing situation. This places a greater focus on representative citizen engagement, which is generally overlooked in planning difficulties. The approaches used in this study include a structured questioner survey, which focuses on understanding the current user's preferences and degree of satisfaction with the existing situation. This places a greater focus on representative citizen engagement, which is generally overlooked in planning difficulties. According to recent study, linking waterfronts with the urban framework of the city helps to revitalize waterfront efficiency and promotes physical activities along the shoreline. As a result, this emphasizes the need of providing smooth and simple access to the waterfront while also connecting it to the city structure. Furthermore, this move has a significant impact on the city's socioeconomic status by providing a motivating anchor for developers to rehabilitate the city's unoccupied properties. Furthermore, as a result of these development measures, various social opportunities can be realized. Jeddah has recently experienced a massive continuous urban expansion and a rebuilt waterfront linking the. Accessibility is a significant influencing factor in the efficient operation of a metro system. This research has primarily focused on spatial connectivity of the street network accessibility indicators such as connectivity, land use mix and variety, compact and self-obsession, attractive moving environment, prevailing culture and cultural preferences, activity locations, travel duration, and affordability.
  • Measuring Community Acceptance and Evaluation of Smart Mobility Systems in Saudi Future Cities. A

    Mohammed, Mohammed F. M.; Khashoggi, Aroob; Urban Design Lab; Master of Science in Urban Design
    Nowadays, almost half of the world's inhabitants live in urban areas where information and mobile communication technologies are natural catalysts for innovations. This unprecedented urban growth of recent years required improved urban planning and management to make urban spaces more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Therefore, the idea of smart cities has emerged to cope with resources and limited spaces worldwide by highly advanced technology. Smart Cities can categorize the city by intensively empowering and utilizing the latest technology to integrate human systems with physical and digital techniques. It can creatively and innovatively provide a high quality of life by mastering multiple main six dimensions: mobility, economy, environment, people, living, and government. Additionally, Smart mobility is one of the core subjects of any smart city. It involves optimizing transport and communications to consolidate new sustainability standards, efficiency, safety, and air quality. Therefore, Smart cities require having Smart people be socially smart and sustainable. Thus, this research measures the perception of the Saudi community regarding smart mobility types and usage, While exploring smart cities and highlighting the main challenges of smart mobility and smart people dimensions in smart cities. The methodology followed in this research is both qualitative and quantitative methodological choices. The research comprehensively investigate the smart cities overall approach, to build an evaluation framework to measure the community acceptance of smart mobility systems in Saudi future smart cities. At the end of this research, the main learned lessons are presented to support Saudi cities' transforming process while raising the awareness to reach smart people.
  • Man & Place: Understanding Human Perception of Social Interaction in Urban Public Spaces

    Mohammed, Mohammed F. M.; SAMMAKIEH, JOUD K.; Urban Design Lab; Master of Science in Urban Design
    Integrating human perception during the urban design and planning phase has proved crucial in ensuring the success and efficiency of cities. Urban public spaces designed to ensure people have positive perceptions about the place have always attracted many visitors and users for pleasure and social interaction. Therefore, understanding the human perception of social interaction plays a significant role in designing effective interactive urban public spaces. An exploration carried out highlighted shortage of research work and viable tools to effectively investigate the social interaction in urban spaces from the users' perception. This is despite the underlying significance of the users' perception of impacting the overall outlooks of urban public spaces. Worth noting that the integration of both users' and designers' perception into the framework of urban public spaces is fundamental to warranting quality and better outcomes. Accordingly, the study aims to build a tool that helps in understanding the human perception of social interaction in urban public spaces by correlating the actual settings designed and implemented by specialists (Distal Cues) with the users' perceived images (Proximal Cues). The key finding of the study highlighted a significant difference between the designers’ viewpoints and users’ perception of ideal interactive public spaces. Consequently, the influence of the users' perception in the overall construction or development of interactive public spaces cannot be understated.
  • Urban Farming as a Measure of Urban Resiliency; the case of Jeddah

    Mohammed, Mohammed F. M.; Aljohani, Yara; Master of Science in Urban Design
    Globally the population is increasing in urban areas due to migration and new-borns, and with a higher population increases the risk. Cities require stressing on the attempt to keep the city’s assets safe by building urban resiliency. This research focuses on enhancing Jeddah’s urban resiliency through urban farming. The goal of the research is to contribute to finding an urban farming framework applicable to Jeddah to enhance the city's resiliency and mitigate climate change and socio-economic challenges. The research objectives are finding the type and form of urban farming suitable for Jeddah and developing recommendations to adopt urban farming. The research methodology is by correlational case studies and literature Review through Books, Journals, Interviews, Live conferences, and case studies.
  • Linguistic and Cultural Norms in Translating Fairy Tales : “Beauty and the Beast” as a Case Study

    Salameh, Ranya; Al-Sabbagh, Abrar N.; English & Translation
    “Beauty and the Beast”, “Cinderella, "and "Little Red Riding Hood” are famous fairy tales all over the world. Fairy tales are one of the most well-known, most loved, and most influential genres of literature. They are collections of stories from different cultures. Reading them is important in the early stages for children to develop their sense of creativity, critical thinking, and reading skills. The focus of the present study is to investigate linguistic and cultural norms in translating fairy tales from English into Arabic, as these norms play an important role in the translation process. To achieve this purpose, the original English version of “Beauty and the Beast” by The Brothers Grimm (1812), one of the most popular fairy tales, is chosen as a corpus to compare with Ladybird and Disney versions. The comparison is for extracting categories of linguistic and cultural norms, and the procedures used to translate them. Moreover, the research uses the qualitative method to analyze such categories and practically apply translation procedures to linguistic and cultural norms. The findings of this research showed that the most used procedures according Vinay and Darbelnet (1958) are: modulation, equivalence, literal translation, calque, and adaptation. This study answers the following questions: what are linguistic norms for translating fairy tales from English into Arabic? What are cultural norms in translating fairy tales from English into Arabic? What are the best procedures that should translators use? What is the role of a translator in translating fairy tales regarding linguistic and cultural norms?
  • Design guidelines to Improve the Air Quality in Hot Climate Open Spaces - Jeddah city as a case study

    Mohamed, Mady; Mohdher, Lujain; Urben Design Lab; Master of Science in Urban Design; Mohamed, Mady
    Air Pollution has become a global concern that is harming human life, and it is increasing as societies are developing. Air pollution has become the reason respiratory and cardiovascular diseases lead to death. In this research, the air quality in the urban open spaces of Jeddah city will be studied know about the quality of air in hot climate open spaces. In a hot climate, the air propagates more, and there are chances it can cause more health problems. In this scenario, the air quality should be at a satisfactory level. So, in this study, first, the air quality and the factors affecting the air quality will be determined, which will further lead to the statistical analysis to find out the significant factor that is affecting the air quality. Ultimately, this will help us to prepare a set of guidelines to enhance the air quality of the open spaces of Jeddah.
  • Power Quality Disturbances Elucidation in Hybrid Systems Based on Event-Driven Variational Mode Decomposition in The Smart Grid Prospect

    Mian Qaisar, Saeed; Alghazi, Omnia Sameer; Master of Science in Energy Engineering
    Recently renewable energy (RE) sources were combined with a utility network to establish a hybrid power system to accomplish the stability of power generations. Integrating a renewable-resources-based distributed generation (DG) system into the current power grid could cause problems with power quality (PQ), system dependability, and other challenges. The power quality (PQ) disruptions assessment is essential to guarantee high-quality power generations in smart grids. The research collected effectively models different types of PQ disturbances signals. After that, these can be used for the PQ disturbances interpreting systems training and performance quantification. The recording and collection of such signals is not an easy task. A common trend is the generation of real-like signals from mathematical models to overcome this limitation. This thesis will determine the PQ disturbances model based on IEEE 1159-2019 standard. The outcome of the model will evaluate the performance of the devised system. Firstly, the signal reconstruction will be performed to realize analog-quasi signals. In this context, mature and precise cubic-spline interpolators-based signal reconstruction algorithms are sued. In the next step, the reconstructed signals will be acquired by using the MATLAB-based event-driven sensing models. The acquired signals will be segmented by using novel event-driven activity selection techniques. Afterward, the segments will be decomposed in oscillatory modes by using the adaptive-rate Variational mode decomposition (VMD). This decomposition will result in Mode updates. The pertinent features will be extracted from modes. These features used to prepare templates, testing instances and to prepare and evaluate the considered classification algorithms. The outcome of the model evaluated the performance of the devised system. In this work, we evaluated 11 classes as final results, including the following cases transient, oscillatory transient, flicker, harmonics, interruption, sag, swell, notch, harmonics with sag with flicker, harmonics with swell with flicker, and swell with oscillatory transient signals by using the MATLAB-based event-driven sensing models. The comparison of the trained data between instants PQDs and extracted data using VMD feature extraction has been studied. The average results of the VMD feature extraction method of classifiers showed an improvement percentage between 10.05% to 60.38%.Accuracy and speed have been raised. The most significant improvement in the linear SVM classifier has been shown by 60.38% of average measurements. That will help the smart grid to reach maximum power and increase its affection. Assuming that it will result in rising energy efficiency and simple hardware along with lower latency realizations compared to the classical counter sensing and processing-based approaches. This Study is well aligned with the 2030 vision of Saudi Arabia and can be well integrated into the NEOM smart metering system. The solution has potential and could be commercialized in collaboration with the authorities and industrial partners in Saudi Arabia.
  • Assessment of translation of pragmatic meaning and referents in season-three of political satire show albernameg

    Khalid, Mohammed; Al-Khateeb, Diana Azmi; Graduate Studies and Research (Effat University, 2019)
    This research paper assesses the translation of season-three episodes of the political satire show, Albernameg, in terms of the rendition of pragmatic meaning and referents. It also assesses the understanding of 124 extracts by the native Egyptian and English audiences. Following a mixed approach, parallel semi-structured, in-depth, individual interviews were conducted, and surveys were distributed. The interviews aimed at making generalizations and hypotheses, which were validated and tested by the surveys. The research finds that 95% of the pragmatic meaning and referents were either partially mistranslated or untranslatable. It also concludes that the native English audience, who relied on subtitles only, was not able to fully comprehend those two linguistic elements. This study lays the foundation for future research on similar Arab political satire shows that were inspired by Albernameg, since it brings new insights about the Egyptian dialect. Furthermore, its findings can be used by students, professional and practitioner translators as well as subtitlers.
  • Text-linguistic evaluation of Twitter's auto-translation service: Donald Trump’s Tweets during 2020 USA elections

    Elimam, Ahmed; Beladel, Samira; Graduate Studies and Research (Effat University, 2021)
    Over the years, technology has revolutionized our daily lives and played an essential role in developing all work fields, including translation. However, some argue that depending on machine translation (MT) completely would produce a poor-quality translation. To illustrate, social media is a way to communicate across cultures, yet allowing users to access as much content as possible requires translation services. According to Twitter’s 20 Earnings Release, Twitter users in the 2020 1st quarter reached 166 million users worldwide, but not all of them speak the same language. Therefore, offering translations of tweets into as many languages as possible was necessary to assure a wide range of communication across different linguistic boundaries. In collaboration with a well-known MT software, namely, “Google Translate,” Twitter has launched an auto-translation service that translates all tweets immediately into the default language of the user’s account. Although on the face of it, MT saves time and effort, its outcome does not live up to expectations and may indeed hinder rather than help the process of communication. Therefore, research aiming to develop MT performance and outcome is essential to keep up with the ever-growing need for successful and timely communication nowadays. With this in mind, this research aims to evaluate the auto-translation (MT) of Donald Trump’s tweets during the US presidential elections in 2020, using text linguistic analysis model (Neubert and Shreve 1992), identifying and analyzing issues in the MT output, and suggesting alternative solutions to those issues in order to help produce better quality translations of these tweets. This textual product-oriented study finds out that although MT produces understandable translation, generally speaking, it is not ready yet to be relayed upon completely in translating Twitter’s political tweets, because of the recurring violations of the seven standards of textuality.
  • A cultural conceptual, model-based analysis of web translation in tourism

    Khuddro, Ahmad; Alamoudi, Yasmeen; Graduate Studies and Research (Effat University, 2020)
    Tourism web translation, as part of the commercial translation sector, has gained special attention in recent years, which is all thanks to globalization. Today, in just one click of a button on a tourism website, the tourists can plan and as well as decide on their next tourist destination. However, there appears to be limited study with the focus on cultural conceptualization and how it relates to the translation of tourism websites. In this regard, this study is aimed at analyzing the translation of a tourism website, using the Cultural Conceptual Translation Model (CCT). Two sets of corpora are used in the analysis of this study. The first set refers to the English and Arabic versions that were taken from the "Visit Saudi tourism website"(https://www.visitsaudi.com/en/). The second set of corpora refers to other English and Arabic parallel texts that were taken from commercial websites. A qualitative research methodology is conducted through a multiple choice and open-ended questions survey. Twenty-five participants responded to the survey, nine English nativespeakers and sixteen Arabic native-speakers. An extra-textual analysis was carried out on the VisitSaudi.com and parallel-text corpus. Based on the extra-textual analysis, relevant cultural dimensions particularly religious beliefs, individualism vs. collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, indulgence vs. restraint, high vs. low context communication, orality vs. literacy were recognized. The cultural dimensions are discussed in relation to the destination themes, naturescapes and adventurescapes, and how these themes are presented by the website, stylescapes. Findings revealed that identification of the cultural dimensions is essential for the translation of style and content related to the tourism destination themes as it preserves the function of Tourism Promotional Materials (TPMs) by fulfilling the target audience's expectations. We also found that TPMs in a digitized medium tend to be localized more than translated, making them more accessible to different audiences with different cultural conceptualizations, expectations and motives.

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