Cultural Equivalence and Loss of Meaning in the Translation of Idiomatic Expressions from English into Urdu: A Comparative Textual Analysis

Abstract

Idiomatic expressions are culturally embedded linguistic units whose meanings are often non-compositional and context-dependent, making them particularly challenging to translate across languages with distinct cultural frameworks such as English and Urdu. This study investigates cultural equivalence and the extent of meaning loss in the translation of English idioms into Urdu using a controlled comparative design. A corpus of idioms was subjected to four treatment conditions: control (no adaptation), literal translation, cultural substitution, and paraphrasing. Outcomes were evaluated using expert ratings on semantic accuracy, cultural resonance, and pragmatic effect. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by post-hoc comparisons. Results indicate that cultural substitution yields significantly higher communicative equivalence, while literal translation leads to the greatest semantic loss. The study concludes that functional adequacy should be prioritized over formal fidelity in idiomatic translation.