Metadiscourse Features in two English Translations of the Holy Quran: A Comparative, Corpus-based Inquiry

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-398
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Vasheghani Farahani ◽  
Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Main Trend ◽  
Frequent Type ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
English Translations ◽  
The Holy Quran

Abstract The main objective of this study was to make a corpus-based comparison between two English translations of the Holy Quran in terms of metadiscourse features application and distribution. For this purpose, two English translations of the Holy Quran by Itani (2012) and Yousef Ali (1992) were selected as the corpus of the study. For the theoretical framework, the model of metadiscourse features proposed by Hyland (2005) was utilized. In order to check the distribution of metadiscourse features, Sketch Engine corpus software was used. The quantitative analysis of the data revealed that interactive metadiscourse features were higher in frequency than the interactional ones. Also, it was observed that within the interactive metadiscourse features, transitions were the most frequent type as compared with hedges which were the most frequent among the interactional ones. Finally, while in Yousef Ali’s translation, interactive metadiscourse features were the main trend, in Itani’s translation, the interactional metadiscourse features were the dominant attribute. The findings of this study have useful implications for researchers in translation as well as contrastive and corpus-based studies.

scholarly journals Politeness Strategies and Maxims in English for Islamic texts: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Quran

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Gittan Jewad ◽  
Zargham Ghabanchi ◽  
Mohammad Ghazanfari
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
The Other ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Holy Quran

This research tackles two chapters from the Holy Quran, the sura of Prophet Yusuf, and the sura of the Cave (al-Kahf) to find out whether the theories of Leech (1983) and Brown and Levinson (1987) can be applied to find out the positive and negative politeness strategies and the politeness maxims. The Leech’s model (1983) consists of six maxims, and for Brown and Levinson (1987), consists of two major politeness strategies. It consists of two principles of politeness, where one of them is positive, and the other is negative politeness. This study aims at investigating politeness strategies, and politeness principle linguistically in two Suras from the Holy Quran, how politeness strategies and politeness maxims used within the Holy Quran. This study tries to investigate the image of the main characters in the most sacred book. A qualitative approach is employed to provide interpretations of selected verses. In this paper, we will discuss the politeness strategies, positive and negative politeness strategies, and politeness maxims. The study falls into two parts. It begins briefly to overview the theoretical framework underlying politeness, in particular discussing some definitions of politeness and politeness principle and its maxims, exploring the face theory and its strategies by Brown and Levinson, and how far these strategies affect polite style then, dealing with politeness maxims by Leech. The other part displays a practical application of what has presented theoretically. Also, the researcher examined the politeness strategies, and politeness maxims of two Suras (Yusuf and Al-Kahf). Moreover, the study observed that approximately the majority of negative politeness in two suras then positive politeness, and the last one is politeness maxims.

scholarly journals Translation as a Social Activity: Towards a Bourdieusian Understanding of Pickthall’s Translation of the Quran

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
English Translations ◽  
The Holy Quran ◽  
Sociological Work

This paper argued for a fresh understanding of Pickthall’s The Meaning of the Glorious Koran: An Explanatory Translation (1930) in light of Bourdieu’s sociological work. The main objective of this study was to develop an initial sociological model for understanding the production of Pickthall’s English translation of the meaning of the Holy Quran. By hypothesizing a field which could be called ‘the field of English translations of the meaning of the Holy Quran’, the researchers aspired to understand the dynamics of this field and its structure through delineating the socio-cultural and socio-political forces. After conducting an analysis at the macro level, the researchers analyzed the paratextual elements of the translation, the data of which represent the starting point for Bourdieusian insights into the production of Pickthall’s translation. The findings revealed that Pickthall’s capitalization is evident in the paratextual zone to secure his position within the field in question. The study concluded that Pickthall’s is a social activity, situated in a social space, and carried out by translating agents, both individuals and organizations, who are in a ceaseless struggle over accumulating capital at stake in the field.

scholarly journals Question Expansion Technique On The Different Translations Of The Holy Quran By Using WordNet And Islamic Synonyms

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 391-396
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Expansion Method ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Religious Text ◽  
Expansion Technique ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Islamic Religion ◽  
The Holy Quran ◽  
Search Systems

The Holy Quran is the most significant religious text, which is followedby thebelievers of the Islamic religion. The translations of the Quran are the interpretation of its meaning in different languages, to assist those who are not familiar with the Arabic language.Most of the Quranic search systems that support theneeds of who are non-native speakers of the Arabic language of the contents of the Holy Quran are basedon keywords matching. Since there are several known English translations of the Holy Quran and each translation has its terminology based on the style of the translator. In addition to that, there are Islamic terms might be not used in the English language, such as "Hajj" or "Saum,"where these terms might vary from one translation to another. Therefore, these search systems do not support the needs of the user, and often there isno matching between the terms of user's questionandtheterms of the Quran.Consequently, this research has used the synonymsofWordNet to expand the user's question,and to cover all the possibilities of theterms that might be usedin the Quran translation, but there are many of Islamic terms are not available in the WordNet database. The WordNet has been enhanced with a set of Islamic synonyms that have been used in the well-known Islamic translations of the English language, which it was created by the researcher, to increase the likelihood of providing a sure matching between the question's words and the contents of the Quran translation. According to the results of this study, the evaluation of this research proved that the method of question expansion by using the both of the WordNet and the Islamic synonyms showed better accuracy and efficiency than the traditional keywords matching systems, or the system that uses only the WordNet synonyms in the question expansion method in terms of matching all user's questions words with documents and retrieve the correct answers to these questions.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of Three English Translations of Yasin Surah Regarding Vinay and Darbelnet Strategies

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Mojtaba Aghajani ◽  
Goldis Seyedi Jalali
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
English Translation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
English Translations ◽  
The Holy Quran ◽  
Persian Translation ◽  
Holy Book

Over the past few years, the Persian and English translations of Quran have been studied from different standpointsThroughout the centuries, Muslim and non-Muslim translators have been very concerned to convey the meaning ofthe Quran into languages other than Arabic. The holy Quran is a divine book and its translation into other languagesmust be done meticulously. In this regard, Persian and English translation of one of the surahs of this magnificentbook was selected to be compared. the present study has gone through the investigation of the Persian translation ofone of the surahs of this holy book “Yasin” by Dr. Elahi Ghomshei (1361) and its English translation by threefamous translators Yusuf Ali (2000), Pickthall (1930) and Sarwar (2011) to see discrepancies. Also, this study triesto find out the unit of translation and classify different kinds of Vinay and Darbelnet’s procedures used by theEnglish translators.

scholarly journals Expertise and Explicitation in English Translations of the Holy Quran

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-169
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Raoufkazemi ◽  
Majid Khorsand ◽  
Moussa Pourya Asl ◽  
Amin Amirdabbaghian
Keyword(s):  
Holy Quran ◽  
English Translations ◽  
The Holy Quran

scholarly journals Exploring Morphosyntax-related Semantic and Pragmatic Dimension Losses in Three English Translations of the Meanings of Sūrah AlKahf: A Comparative Pragmalinguistic Analytical Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
pp. 134-143
Author(s):  
Majda Babiker Ahmed Abdelkarim ◽  
Ali Albashir Mohammed Alhaj
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Study ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Research Paradigm ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
The Holy Quran ◽  
Alternative Research ◽  
Pragmatic Dimension

The current research paper explores some morphosyntax-related semantic and pragmatic dimension losses in three English translations of the meanings of Sūrah AlKahf of Mohammed A.S Abdel- Hakeem, Mohammed M. Pickthall, and Mohammed Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai . Also, the study aims at probing the reasons that lead to these semantic and pragmatic losses, either partial or complete. The two researchers utilized the qualitative descriptive paradigm, which is proper and apt to this study because the Holy Quran rendition is multiplex and cannot be deeply examined adopting another alternative research paradigm. Markedly, the qualitative descriptive paradigm is apt to analyze the data extracted from the three translations of Mohammed A.S Abdel- Hakeem, Mohammed M. Pickthall, and Mohammed Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai Abdel of Surah AlKahf .The study indicated losses in renditions, tense, verbs, losses of consistency and morphosyntax grouping, and culture-specific terms. The study also revealed that the morphosyntax-related semantic and pragmatic dimension losses might lead to meaning losses, fixed expressions, idioms, or culture-specific terms. This study recommends that the translators of the Holy Quran in general and the translators of Surah AlKahf, notably, employ suitable translation strategies to decrease the morphosyntax-related semantic and pragmatic dimension losses in the translation of the Holy Quran.

scholarly journals Linguistic Precautions that to be Considered when Translating the Holy Quran

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Ahmed Gumaa Siddiek
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
English Translations ◽  
The Holy Quran

The present study is an attempt to raise some points that should be considered when translating the Quranic Text into English. We have looked into some samples of translations, selected from well known English translations of the Holy Quran and critically examined them. There were some errors in those translations, due to linguistic factors, owing to the differences between the Arabic and the English Language systems. Some errors were due to the cultural background of the translator which intentionally or unintentionally has affected the translation. Many samples were discussed and suggestions for corrections were made. Then further recommendations were given to be used as guidelines for similar future attempts. We concluded that the simulation of old words in drafting a translation does not fit with the English language as a target language. As this use of archaic stylistics would lead to further complications, which makes the language of translation look strange and complicated 

scholarly journals An Investigation of the Underlying Linguistic Problems in the Translation of Surah Quraish into English: A Comparative Syntactic and Semantic Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Ali Albashir Mohammed Alhaj
Keyword(s):  
Intended Meaning ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Probable Loss ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
English Translations ◽  
The Holy Quran ◽  
Research Questions

The current study aims at exploring some syntactic and semantic underlying problems in three English translations of the meanings of Surat Quraish; that is in English translations of Abdel-Haleem, Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai and Pickthall. Also, the study aims at probing how the three translators deal with some syntactic and semantic underlying problems and constrains in their renderings of the meanings of Surat Quraish into English. Four Ayahs of Surat Quraish were purposefully selected to address the research questions and categorized into semantic, and syntactic problems. The study shows that there are some syntactic, and semantic underlying problems in the translation of the meaning of Surat Quraish into English rendered by Abdel-Haleem, Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai and Pickthall. Moreover, the types of the syntactic, and semantic underlying problems are lack of cohesion and coherence as well as the translation strategies employed by the three translators. The study also recommends that translators of the Holy Quran must adopt footnotes, paraphrase, modulation, transposition and transliteration, and other translation strategies to avoid a probable loss of the intended meaning of the Message.

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