Language and Emotion: Certain English-Arabic Translations Are Not Equivalent

Abstract

Happiness, sadness, and anger are translated into Arabic as farah, huzn, and ghudub, respectively, by the translation-back translation method. But are these translations equivalent? To be equivalent, they must have the same referents, specifically, show a high correlation between profiles of endorsement and a similar breadth of endorsement when used to refer to emotions. Here, English-speaking Americans, English-speaking Palestinians, and Arabic-speaking Palestinians (N = 60, 60, and 42, respectively) rated the extent to which each of 12 words referred to the various emotions conveyed by 22 facial expressions. Only one translation (happiness-farah) passed both tests of equivalence. All others differed with culture or language. © 2013 SAGE Publications.