A Stylistic and Semantic Study of Artificial Intelligence and Human Literary Translation of Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye into Arabic

Authors

  • Lee Jung Ae

    Department of Asian Languages, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
  • Majd Abu Shariha

    Department of English Language and Literature, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
  • Zaydun A. Al-Shara

    Department of English Language and Literature, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i11.11218
Received: 23 July 2025 | Revised: 15 August 2025 | Accepted: 27 August 2025 | Published Online: 20 October 2025

Abstract

The future of literary translation has become a major concern due to the rapid development and integration of artificial intelligence in creative and interpretive domains. This research performs a comparative analysis of the Arabic translation of J.D. Salinger's iconic novel The Catcher in the Rye, translated by Ghalib Halasa, and the Arabic translation produced by ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI. The study explores how both translations convey complex literary elements, including stylistic voice, cultural allusions, idiomatic expressions, and emotional resonance. The evaluation employs carefully selected excerpts of the text and relies on formal theories of translation. These include Vinay and Darbelnet's stylistic approach, Peter Newmark's semantic and communicative approach, and Eugene Nida's dynamic and formal equivalence. The results show that although ChatGPT achieves high lexical accuracy and syntactic fluency, it consistently ignores the pragmatic and cultural meanings of the source text. Halasa's human translation, by contrast, reflects cultural sensitivity, interpretive depth, and contextual awareness more in line with the goals of literary Arabic communication. The research contends that artificial intelligence, at present, lacks the creativity and skill to simulate human literary translation. By exploring the potential and limitations of AI for translating literature across cultures, this study contributes to the cross-disciplinary debates among the fields of Arabic literary studies, machine translation, and digital humanities.

Keywords:

Arabic Translation; Dynamic Equivalence; Idiomatic Expressions; ChatGPT; Literary Translation; AI-based Translation; Translation Theory; Stylistics

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How to Cite

Jung Ae , L., Abu Shariha, M., & Al-Shara, Z. A. (2025). A Stylistic and Semantic Study of Artificial Intelligence and Human Literary Translation of Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye into Arabic. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(11), 292–306. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i11.11218

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 11 (November 2025): In progress

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Article

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Copyright © 2025 Lee Jung Ae , Majd Abu Shariha, Zaydun A. Al-Shara

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.