ChatGPT and Human Translation: Evaluating Linguistic Accuracy, Stylistic Fidelity, and Cultural Resonance in Translating John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

Abstract

Artificial intelligence has expanded the use of machine translation in multilingual communication. Although ChatGPT produces fluent translations rapidly, its suitability for literary translation remains contested because literature requires more than semantic transfer. It depends on rhythm, imagery, symbolism, narrative voice, and culturally embedded meaning. This study compares ChatGPT’s Arabic translation of John Steinbeck’s The Pearl (1947) with Yousef Ibrahim Al-Jahmani’s professional human translation. It evaluates the AI output across linguistic accuracy, stylistic fidelity, and cultural integrity. The study uses a mixed qualitative and quantitative design. Qualitative analysis applies Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion theory to examine reference, conjunction, and lexical cohesion, while Nida’s dynamic equivalence informs the assessment of emotional and cultural effect. Representative extracts were assessed for semantic fidelity and stylistic and cultural difficulties. ChatGPT achieved semantic accuracy in 84% of the examples. Cohesion-related problems occurred in 28% of translated sentences, while 16% showed loss of imagery or figurative language and 12% contained cultural misunderstandings or inaccuracies. The findings indicate that ChatGPT preserves much of the novella’s propositional content, especially in direct passages. Its limitations emerge when meaning relies on literary form rather than lexical equivalence. Repetitive conjunctions, literal lexical choices, inconsistent treatment of names, and weakened figurative language can disrupt narrative rhythm and diminish the source text’s emotional and cultural force. Comparison with the human translation suggests that literary translation requires interpretive decisions not captured by semantic accuracy alone. The study therefore supports a hybrid model in which ChatGPT generates preliminary drafts and human translators provide the stylistic, cultural, and interpretive revision necessary for literary translation.