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Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an

Translators of the Holy Quran confront many quandaries in their attempt to transfer the Qur’anic verses from Arabic into English. One of these quandaries is how to rhetorically communicate the intended meanings (implicatures) of the prepositional phrases in the Holy Qur’an. The translation of Arabic...

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Main Authors:	Hummadi, Ali Salman, Mat Said, Seriaznita, M. Hussein, Rafi, Sabti, Ahmed Abdulateef, Ali Hattab, Huda Abed
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	SAGE Publications Inc. 2020
Subjects:	BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc PE English
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/91018/1/AliSalmanHummadi2020_RhetoricalLossinTranslatingPrepositionalPhrases.pdf http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/91018/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2158244020902094
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spelling	my.utm.910182021-05-31T13:41:24Z http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/91018/ Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an Hummadi, Ali Salman Mat Said, Seriaznita M. Hussein, Rafi Sabti, Ahmed Abdulateef Ali Hattab, Huda Abed BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc PE English Translators of the Holy Quran confront many quandaries in their attempt to transfer the Qur’anic verses from Arabic into English. One of these quandaries is how to rhetorically communicate the intended meanings (implicatures) of the prepositional phrases in the Holy Qur’an. The translation of Arabic prepositional phrases in the Holy Qur’an as a source text (ST) may lead, in some Qur’anic verses, to a rhetorical loss in communicating their implicature in the target text (TT). That implicature or implicitly communicated meaning other than the explicature is the one intended to be expressed and required to be faithfully translated. In rendering the preposition into the target language (TL), translators bring into home only the explicitly stated meaning unaware of the implicitly stated meaning created as a result of the application of this specific rhetorical device. This study investigates the problem of the rhetorical loss encountered in the translation of prepositional phrases of the Qur’anic verses and identifies the cause of this problem. It also attempts to suggest a mechanism that is, to some extent, helpful and insightful in coping with the difficulties of translating Arabic prepositional phrases in Qur’anic verses. This research adopts a descriptive qualitative content analysis of the Qur’anic verses and their English translations that are relevant to the focus of the research. The source of failure of the English translations of the verses in conveying the rhetorical meanings of prepositional phrases has been identified in terms of the Relevance Theory and the distinction between explicature and implicature of these phrases. The study concludes that meaning equivalence in translation requires translators to be aware of not only the explicitly stated meanings of prepositions but the implicitly communicated ones as well which are recoverable through referring to Arabic heritage resources and interpretation books dedicated to exploring the rhetorical purposes of prepositions alternation in Qur’anic verses. The results of the analysis and the new suggested mechanism have been verified by an Arabic language and Qur’anic sciences expert who is a proficient speaker of English as well. SAGE Publications Inc. 2020-01 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/91018/1/AliSalmanHummadi2020_RhetoricalLossinTranslatingPrepositionalPhrases.pdf Hummadi, Ali Salman and Mat Said, Seriaznita and M. Hussein, Rafi and Sabti, Ahmed Abdulateef and Ali Hattab, Huda Abed (2020) Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an. SAGE Open, 10 (1). ISSN 2158-2440 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2158244020902094 DOI:10.1177/2158244020902094
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
building	UTM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
content_source	UTM Institutional Repository
url_provider	http://eprints.utm.my/
language	English
topic	BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc PE English
spellingShingle	BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc PE English Hummadi, Ali Salman Mat Said, Seriaznita M. Hussein, Rafi Sabti, Ahmed Abdulateef Ali Hattab, Huda Abed Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an
description	Translators of the Holy Quran confront many quandaries in their attempt to transfer the Qur’anic verses from Arabic into English. One of these quandaries is how to rhetorically communicate the intended meanings (implicatures) of the prepositional phrases in the Holy Qur’an. The translation of Arabic prepositional phrases in the Holy Qur’an as a source text (ST) may lead, in some Qur’anic verses, to a rhetorical loss in communicating their implicature in the target text (TT). That implicature or implicitly communicated meaning other than the explicature is the one intended to be expressed and required to be faithfully translated. In rendering the preposition into the target language (TL), translators bring into home only the explicitly stated meaning unaware of the implicitly stated meaning created as a result of the application of this specific rhetorical device. This study investigates the problem of the rhetorical loss encountered in the translation of prepositional phrases of the Qur’anic verses and identifies the cause of this problem. It also attempts to suggest a mechanism that is, to some extent, helpful and insightful in coping with the difficulties of translating Arabic prepositional phrases in Qur’anic verses. This research adopts a descriptive qualitative content analysis of the Qur’anic verses and their English translations that are relevant to the focus of the research. The source of failure of the English translations of the verses in conveying the rhetorical meanings of prepositional phrases has been identified in terms of the Relevance Theory and the distinction between explicature and implicature of these phrases. The study concludes that meaning equivalence in translation requires translators to be aware of not only the explicitly stated meanings of prepositions but the implicitly communicated ones as well which are recoverable through referring to Arabic heritage resources and interpretation books dedicated to exploring the rhetorical purposes of prepositions alternation in Qur’anic verses. The results of the analysis and the new suggested mechanism have been verified by an Arabic language and Qur’anic sciences expert who is a proficient speaker of English as well.
format	Article
author	Hummadi, Ali Salman Mat Said, Seriaznita M. Hussein, Rafi Sabti, Ahmed Abdulateef Ali Hattab, Huda Abed
author_facet	Hummadi, Ali Salman Mat Said, Seriaznita M. Hussein, Rafi Sabti, Ahmed Abdulateef Ali Hattab, Huda Abed
author_sort	Hummadi, Ali Salman
title	Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an
title_short	Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an
title_full	Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an
title_fullStr	Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an
title_full_unstemmed	Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an
title_sort	rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the holy qur’an
publisher	SAGE Publications Inc.
publishDate	2020
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/91018/1/AliSalmanHummadi2020_RhetoricalLossinTranslatingPrepositionalPhrases.pdf http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/91018/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2158244020902094
_version_	1702169633907277824
score	13.211869

Rhetorical loss in translating prepositional phrases of the Holy Qur’an

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