Variability of Linguistic Features of Persian Translations by Translators' Gender

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Interpreting / Translating , grade: 17.50, , language: English, abstract: The purpose of the study was to investigate whether there is a meaningful relationship between translators' gender and their translations in terms of such linguistic features as reference, conjunction, misspelling, SL intrusion, punctuation, verbs and sexually-explicit terms. For that reason, the same sample English text was imparted to both female and male translators to be rendered into Persian to ascertain if they vary linguistically, and if they do so, what areas are more frequently different. The organizational factors, rather than pragmatic ones, of language, namely, grammatical as well as textual dimensions were scrutinized in the study. The participants were 30 male and 30 female undergraduate senior students of English at three universities in Qom, Iran. These 60 participants were selected out of 150 students who scored as high as 6 in the IELTS given to them and showed their English proficiency. By analyzing the data elicited descriptively from each translation, primarily, via t test; only 6, out of 22, variables demonstrated a significant difference between translations made by both genders contributing to the research. Thus, although these 6 variables verify the meaningful relationship between translator's gender and translation, these elements are not enough to indicate that grammar and discourse of translations are significantly different. In addition to raising awareness and developing the scope of translation studies, the present study has several implications. As a case in point, a text with a particular feature may be assigned to a specific gender to be better translated.

Mohammad Javad Moafi was born in Behshahr, Mazandaran, Iran on September 19, 1975. Moafi graduated in the field of translation from Azad University, Qom Branch, Iran in 1998. Moafi has been engaged in teaching and translating ever since. Moafi did his MA in translation at Sheikh Baha'i University in Isfahan, Iran in 2010. Moafi received his PhD in Applied Linguistics from South Tehran Branch of Islamic Azad University in 2019. He has been lecturing at various universities in Qom, Iran including University of Science and Technology (Red Crescent Branch), Hazrate Masoumeh University, University of Religions and Denominations, University of Islamic Teachings (Ma'aref), Islamic Art School, International Institute for Islamic Studies, Language and Culture Institute of Al-Mustafa International University and Baqer Al-Oloum University Language Center. He has also been teaching IELTS/TOEFL at Qom University, Gooyesh English Institute and Manzumeh Daneesh English Institute. He is interested in translation studies, philosophy, psychology, sociology, religious and cultural studies as well as gender studies. Dr. Moafi has been translating for different centers. He was the simultaneous interpreter at the International Conference on Family Law, Tehran, Iran in 2009. He was the translator of the first and second volumes of the book 'I Talk With God About Everything' (Memorable Days & Lovely People) in 2012 and 'Bam Is Alive' in 2006 at the request of Teachers Training Center of Children and Teenagers affiliated with Islamic Propagation Organization. He was the translator of 'Dordaneh' which was a biography of Grand Ayatollah Bahjat at the request of his bureau in 2010, 'The Sky of Piety' which was a biography of Grand Ayatollah Najafi in 2015, and 'The Shrine of Love' which was a travel log of the Sacred Shrine of Imam Hossein (P.B.U.H.) from Qom to Karbala in 2015. He has translated the documentary 'Mahe Guyan' which was a story on Hojjatolislam Ebrahimi's martyrdom at the request of Channel One of IRIB, Iran in 2008. He is also the writer of the Persian book 'New Techniques in Language Learning' as well as editor of the translation of the book 'NTC's Common American Phrases in Everyday Contexts' Published in Qom, Iran in 2017. He is currently the official translator of the scholarly journal of Research Quarterly in Islamic Ethics.