- Dr. Muhammad F. Alghazi: Associate Professor of Translation Studies and Text Linguistics at the (post-graduate) Insti... moreDr. Muhammad F. Alghazi: Associate Professor of Translation Studies and Text Linguistics at the (post-graduate) Institute of Applied Linguistics and Translation, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, Egypt (and the former Executive Director of ESP Center at Alexandria University)edit
This paper is concerned with revisiting the concept of equivalence in the translation process in regard to the rendering of the Prophet’s names (proper names/nouns) in the Quranic text with particular reference to their respective... more
This paper is concerned with revisiting the concept of equivalence in the translation process in regard to the rendering of the Prophet’s names (proper names/nouns) in the Quranic text with particular reference to their respective Biblical renditions wherein such proper names/nouns appear. Within the range of the present paper, including selected Quranic and Biblical translations, the researcher has observed that the translational process of ‘naming’ has often followed a certain philosophy or concept which either in terms of etymology (and philology at large) or in terms of culture, where the criterion has always been the story or the narrative itself wherein the person i.e., the round character and/or protagonist (i.e., the Prophet here) has usually encapsulated the story as well as the leitmotif thereof. The translators’ choices, in turn, have represented different strategies of rendering, which oscillated between a foreignized transliteration and a domesticated cultural equivalence, no matter the degree of the readership’s understandability and/or textual referentiality.
Similar renditions of the Biblical stories about the same Quranic narratives, the researcher has observed, made a sample of translators thoroughly adopt the Biblical names in case a translator believed the person is one and the same; while others, in a similar vein, has totally adopted Arabic transliteration as a strategy, which was proved to urge the western English-speaking reader to ask about the real equivalent entity/person (even ‘persona’ in terms of literature) which the narrative revolves around. Another criterion that has also governed translators’ choices of ‘names’ and/or ‘proper nouns’, this paper reached, has been the etymological factor and interpretations as could be delineated throughout the research.
Keywords: biblical, naming, Prophets, proper names, Quranic, translation
Similar renditions of the Biblical stories about the same Quranic narratives, the researcher has observed, made a sample of translators thoroughly adopt the Biblical names in case a translator believed the person is one and the same; while others, in a similar vein, has totally adopted Arabic transliteration as a strategy, which was proved to urge the western English-speaking reader to ask about the real equivalent entity/person (even ‘persona’ in terms of literature) which the narrative revolves around. Another criterion that has also governed translators’ choices of ‘names’ and/or ‘proper nouns’, this paper reached, has been the etymological factor and interpretations as could be delineated throughout the research.
Keywords: biblical, naming, Prophets, proper names, Quranic, translation
Research Interests:
Abstract The present thesis is entitled "A Study of the Rendering into English of the Appellative Function in the Quranic Text". It starts from the realization that one important, if not the most fundamental, tenet in Skopostheorie... more
Abstract
The present thesis is entitled "A Study of the Rendering into English of the Appellative Function in the Quranic Text". It starts from the realization that one important, if not the most fundamental, tenet in Skopostheorie converges with the requirement of rendering the Quranic appellative function into English: skopos (purpose, intention or aim); a term which has hypothetically had different levels throughout this thesis according to its respective language functions, hence acquired different interpretations and/or perspectives within its scope, whether on the level of the text itself or on that of the translator's understanding.
In her "Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained" (1997: 40), Christiane Nord defines the appellative function as "the use of language to make the receiver feel or do something, corresponding to 'operative' in Reiss's terminology". In another part (42), she states: "directed at the receivers' sensitivity or disposition to act, the appellative function ('conative' in Jakobson's terminology) is designed to induce them to respond in a particular way".
Contemplating what has been mentioned above– of course after marshalling facts on the appellative function in both Arabic and English– it has turned out that the foregoing definition of the "appellative function" copes greatly with what has been received in Arabic rhetoric and/or grammar as الإنشاء الطلبى i.e., the non-informative appellative speech/language function, which includes such Arabic linguistic modes as الأمر , النهى, الاستفهام, التمنى, النداء, العرض, التحضيض, الدعاء and الترجى, translated respectively as ‘imperative’, ‘prohibition’, ‘interrogation’, ‘wish-expressing mode’, ‘vocative’, ‘soft/polite request’, ‘interminable request’, ‘supplication’ and ‘hope-expressing mode’.
As far as the Quranic text is concerned, Skopostheorie, on the above account, turns to be highly connected with methods of rendering the Quranic appellative language function into English, the thing that has paved the way to hypothesizing, on the researcher’s part, that the present thesis can take advantage of the translational mechanisms, so to say, this theory provides when it comes to rendering the Qruanic appellative language function into English.
The study, on the whole, represents, an attempt to solve systematically the problems (rather than difficulties) of rendering the Quranic appellative language function into English. That being so, the material whereupon this thesis is based has been a select group of the Quranic verses that exemplify the appellative language function with their respective translations produced chronologically by Pickthall, Yousuf Ali, Arberry and Ghali. The thesis has also sought to provide a comprehensive critical assessment of the problems of rendering the Quranic appellative language function into English in the light of Skopostheorie as a modern translational theory including new methods and models of analysis believed to help a translator render the Quranic appellative function more accurately.
The study is composed of four chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion as follows:
Introduction
Chapter One: Skopostheorie: A Modern Translational Method Moving from Traditional Equivalence to Functionality
Chapter Two: The Problems of Rendering the Quranic Appellative Function into English
Chapter Three: A Model for Translation-Oriented Text Analysis: Towards New Functions and Intentions Explored in the Quranic Appellative Structure
Chapter Four: The Appellative Function Compared in the Four Translations: Between Intention and Intuition
Findings and Conclusion
The present thesis is entitled "A Study of the Rendering into English of the Appellative Function in the Quranic Text". It starts from the realization that one important, if not the most fundamental, tenet in Skopostheorie converges with the requirement of rendering the Quranic appellative function into English: skopos (purpose, intention or aim); a term which has hypothetically had different levels throughout this thesis according to its respective language functions, hence acquired different interpretations and/or perspectives within its scope, whether on the level of the text itself or on that of the translator's understanding.
In her "Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained" (1997: 40), Christiane Nord defines the appellative function as "the use of language to make the receiver feel or do something, corresponding to 'operative' in Reiss's terminology". In another part (42), she states: "directed at the receivers' sensitivity or disposition to act, the appellative function ('conative' in Jakobson's terminology) is designed to induce them to respond in a particular way".
Contemplating what has been mentioned above– of course after marshalling facts on the appellative function in both Arabic and English– it has turned out that the foregoing definition of the "appellative function" copes greatly with what has been received in Arabic rhetoric and/or grammar as الإنشاء الطلبى i.e., the non-informative appellative speech/language function, which includes such Arabic linguistic modes as الأمر , النهى, الاستفهام, التمنى, النداء, العرض, التحضيض, الدعاء and الترجى, translated respectively as ‘imperative’, ‘prohibition’, ‘interrogation’, ‘wish-expressing mode’, ‘vocative’, ‘soft/polite request’, ‘interminable request’, ‘supplication’ and ‘hope-expressing mode’.
As far as the Quranic text is concerned, Skopostheorie, on the above account, turns to be highly connected with methods of rendering the Quranic appellative language function into English, the thing that has paved the way to hypothesizing, on the researcher’s part, that the present thesis can take advantage of the translational mechanisms, so to say, this theory provides when it comes to rendering the Qruanic appellative language function into English.
The study, on the whole, represents, an attempt to solve systematically the problems (rather than difficulties) of rendering the Quranic appellative language function into English. That being so, the material whereupon this thesis is based has been a select group of the Quranic verses that exemplify the appellative language function with their respective translations produced chronologically by Pickthall, Yousuf Ali, Arberry and Ghali. The thesis has also sought to provide a comprehensive critical assessment of the problems of rendering the Quranic appellative language function into English in the light of Skopostheorie as a modern translational theory including new methods and models of analysis believed to help a translator render the Quranic appellative function more accurately.
The study is composed of four chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion as follows:
Introduction
Chapter One: Skopostheorie: A Modern Translational Method Moving from Traditional Equivalence to Functionality
Chapter Two: The Problems of Rendering the Quranic Appellative Function into English
Chapter Three: A Model for Translation-Oriented Text Analysis: Towards New Functions and Intentions Explored in the Quranic Appellative Structure
Chapter Four: The Appellative Function Compared in the Four Translations: Between Intention and Intuition
Findings and Conclusion
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper aims at investigating and analysing literary-term translation problems as manifested in the rendering into Arabic of the Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, edited by Sloane (2001), 1st edition, and published by Oxford University Press,... more
This paper aims at investigating and analysing literary-term translation problems as manifested in the rendering into Arabic of the Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, edited by Sloane (2001), 1st edition, and published by Oxford University Press, which translates as موسوعة البلاغة, and was published by the Egyptian National Center for Translation in 2016. The researcher of the present paper was one of the translators who produced this voluminous Arabic translation (around 2500 pages, and three large volumes) where he observed translational problems relating to the nature of the encyclopedia literary terms and/or entries rather than the literary content and/or text itself, particularly when it came to metalingual explanation of a literary term!
Under an English entry of the encyclopedia, the author/authors of the encyclopedia could make metalingual references assuming, for instances, linguistic, poetic literary and/or rhetorical references that refer back to the English term or phrase, whilst, in the Arabic version i.e., the TT, there were problematic points in regard to rendering the same references to the same term or phrases, taking into account that lexical gaps between English and Arabic literary terms, within the scope of the present research, are of technical and or idiomatic nature in such a specialized context of the encyclopedia.
Assuming a theoretical framework and approach from translation theory as well as introducing the translation itself (as an applied/practical part), the researcher here endeavours to account for the associated translation problems embedded in literary-term translation processes, hence the metalingual loss and even discrepancies that are likely to appear in a final product and/or ‘translatum’ of a translation process.
Keywords: literary-term translation, metalingual loss, Encyclopedia of Rhetoric
Under an English entry of the encyclopedia, the author/authors of the encyclopedia could make metalingual references assuming, for instances, linguistic, poetic literary and/or rhetorical references that refer back to the English term or phrase, whilst, in the Arabic version i.e., the TT, there were problematic points in regard to rendering the same references to the same term or phrases, taking into account that lexical gaps between English and Arabic literary terms, within the scope of the present research, are of technical and or idiomatic nature in such a specialized context of the encyclopedia.
Assuming a theoretical framework and approach from translation theory as well as introducing the translation itself (as an applied/practical part), the researcher here endeavours to account for the associated translation problems embedded in literary-term translation processes, hence the metalingual loss and even discrepancies that are likely to appear in a final product and/or ‘translatum’ of a translation process.
Keywords: literary-term translation, metalingual loss, Encyclopedia of Rhetoric
Research Interests:
This paper is concerned with the investigation into English and Arabic poetic/expressive language functions through proposing a new approach to the translation of the genre of poetry, both in theoretical and practical terms. Given the... more
This paper is concerned with the investigation into English and Arabic poetic/expressive language functions through proposing a new approach to the translation of the genre of poetry, both in theoretical and practical terms. Given the fact that the translation of poetry is known to be an arduous translational task, as authorities and, further, practising translators emphasize, the researcher here argues that dividing poetic texts up into their intralinguistic-extralinguistic components on the levels of genre, meaning and form, in addition to categorizing them are believed to be of great avail when translating poetry lyrically into a target language (TL) as a ‘metanarrative’ (an explanatory product here) reported about a ‘narrative’ in the source language (SL). This, the researcher has argued, can help strike a balance between the poetic language musicality and the levels of ‘meaning’ and ‘genre’, where all are to be approached in terms of the interdisciplinarity that marks translation, generically, as a branch of knowledge, taking into account the present paper provides practical examples of English poetry with their respective Arabic translations, recited/sung by the researcher himself (documented throughout this paper via soft/online audio material), hence the practicality and credibility of the theoretical part of the research. The paper also holds both the text (in writing) and its recitation (in audio) as one indivisible translation unit/entity, yielding, in turn, a two-layer metanarrative translation (as documented via multimedia links). This has been taken as central to the research hypothesis and, then, proved as a paramount researching result of the translational ‘narrative’/‘metanarrative’ relationship within the translation process⸺ to say nothing of a proposed interdisciplinary text-music semiotics perspective.
Keywords: two-layer metanarrative, language musicality, poetic translation
Keywords: two-layer metanarrative, language musicality, poetic translation
This paper is concerned with the investigation into and the translation of certain problematic cases of exophoric/endophoric reference– with particular reference to 'dummy pronouns'¬– in two modern-phrased translations of the Quranic... more
This paper is concerned with the investigation into and the translation of certain problematic cases of exophoric/endophoric reference– with particular reference to 'dummy pronouns'¬– in two modern-phrased translations of the Quranic text; a translation-oriented text analysis approach is adopted. Namely, these two are The Gracious Qur’an: A Modern-phrased Interpretation in English by Ahmad Zaki Hammad, published in 2006 (edition used is that of 2008) and The Qur’an by Saheeh International, published in 1997 (a revised edition of 2004).
Certain problematic cases of reference are observed within the range of the present paper to cause real translational dilemmas for translators: sometimes the referent is not only ‘questionable’ pushing the translator to make critical decisions that can result in mistranslations and/or mistakes, but it can be both anaphoric and cataphoric within its micro context as well; even a multi-referent/dummy pronoun. In such a case, the translator is supposed to make a decision that solves the problem and does not affect the communicativeness of the context at the same time. Still, reference ambiguity, in such cases, does have a subtle function and/or purpose that cannot be conveyed in the translation process due to the morpho-syntactic yet pragma-semantic differences between English and Arabic. In this case, the problem is not with the translators, but the problem, as it were, is with the target language norms and/or traditions.
The ultimate objective of this paper, inasmuch as the researcher endeavours to answer its respective research questions, is to give insight into such morpho-syntactic yet pragma-semantic translational problems of reference, on the one hand, and to reach a conclusion of avail to practising translators, on the other hand, eschewing respective translation loss in the examples selected as well as in similar ones.
Keywords: exophoric, endophoric, dummy, reference, Quranic translations
Certain problematic cases of reference are observed within the range of the present paper to cause real translational dilemmas for translators: sometimes the referent is not only ‘questionable’ pushing the translator to make critical decisions that can result in mistranslations and/or mistakes, but it can be both anaphoric and cataphoric within its micro context as well; even a multi-referent/dummy pronoun. In such a case, the translator is supposed to make a decision that solves the problem and does not affect the communicativeness of the context at the same time. Still, reference ambiguity, in such cases, does have a subtle function and/or purpose that cannot be conveyed in the translation process due to the morpho-syntactic yet pragma-semantic differences between English and Arabic. In this case, the problem is not with the translators, but the problem, as it were, is with the target language norms and/or traditions.
The ultimate objective of this paper, inasmuch as the researcher endeavours to answer its respective research questions, is to give insight into such morpho-syntactic yet pragma-semantic translational problems of reference, on the one hand, and to reach a conclusion of avail to practising translators, on the other hand, eschewing respective translation loss in the examples selected as well as in similar ones.
Keywords: exophoric, endophoric, dummy, reference, Quranic translations
Research Interests:
Quranic Intertextuality in Salwa Bakr's Wasf Al-Bulul The present paper has started from the realization that the text of Salwa Bakr's Wasf Al-Bulbul is believed, the researchers assume here, to be highly intertextual with the Quranic... more
Quranic Intertextuality in Salwa Bakr's Wasf Al-Bulul
The present paper has started from the realization that the text of Salwa Bakr's Wasf Al-Bulbul is believed, the researchers assume here, to be highly intertextual with the Quranic text, hence the researchers’ hypothesis that uncovering such prospective features of intertextuality is to contribute to a better reading/understanding/ interpretation of the literary work under research. Be that as it may, the researchers here employ a theoretical framework of an intertextual nature. Intertextuality, the researchers assume, has to do with the interpretative side of such a literary work under research because ‘intertextuality’ does have the theoretical potential presumed to relate the novelistic text to the Quranic one, hence reaching solid results. Elements of intertextuality, as discussed by the French theorist Michael Riffaterre, will be expounded throughout this paper under respective items as need be. Questions central to this paper have included such points as the extent to which the novel is intertextual with the Quranic text and whether such intertextuality has been of aesthetic effect.
Key Words: Hermeneutics, Intertextuality, Michael Riffaterre, Salwa Bakr, Textuality
The present paper has started from the realization that the text of Salwa Bakr's Wasf Al-Bulbul is believed, the researchers assume here, to be highly intertextual with the Quranic text, hence the researchers’ hypothesis that uncovering such prospective features of intertextuality is to contribute to a better reading/understanding/ interpretation of the literary work under research. Be that as it may, the researchers here employ a theoretical framework of an intertextual nature. Intertextuality, the researchers assume, has to do with the interpretative side of such a literary work under research because ‘intertextuality’ does have the theoretical potential presumed to relate the novelistic text to the Quranic one, hence reaching solid results. Elements of intertextuality, as discussed by the French theorist Michael Riffaterre, will be expounded throughout this paper under respective items as need be. Questions central to this paper have included such points as the extent to which the novel is intertextual with the Quranic text and whether such intertextuality has been of aesthetic effect.
Key Words: Hermeneutics, Intertextuality, Michael Riffaterre, Salwa Bakr, Textuality
Research Interests:
This paper is concerned with the investigation into English and Arabic poetic/expressive language functions through proposing a new approach to the translation of the genre of poetry, both in theoretical and practical terms. Given the... more
This paper is concerned with the investigation into English and Arabic poetic/expressive language functions through proposing a new approach to the translation of the genre of poetry, both in theoretical and practical terms. Given the fact that the translation of poetry is known to be an arduous translational task, as authorities and, further, practising translators emphasize, the researcher here argues that dividing poetic texts up into their intralinguistic-extralinguistic components on the levels of genre, meaning and form, in addition to categorizing them are believed to be of great avail when translating poetry lyrically into a target language (TL) as a ‘metanarrative’ (an explanatory product here) reported about a ‘narrative’ in the source language (SL). This, the researcher has argued, can help strike a balance between the poetic language musicality and the levels of ‘meaning’ and ‘genre’, where all are to be approached in terms of the interdisciplinarity that marks translation, generically, as a branch of knowledge, taking into account the present paper provides practical examples of English poetry with their respective Arabic translations, recited/sung by the researcher himself (documented throughout this paper via soft/online audio material), hence the practicality and credibility of the theoretical part of the research. The paper also holds both the text (in writing) and its recitation (in audio) as one indivisible translation unit/entity, yielding, in turn, a two-layer metanarrative translation (as documented via multimedia links). This has been taken as central to the research hypothesis and, then, proved as a paramount researching result of the translational ‘narrative’/‘metanarrative’ relationship within the translation process⸺ to say nothing of a proposed interdisciplinary text-music semiotics perspective.
Keywords: two-layer metanarrative, language musicality, poetic translation
Keywords: two-layer metanarrative, language musicality, poetic translation
Research Interests: Translation Studies, Literary Criticism, Literary Stylistics, Modernist Literature (Literary Modernism), English Arabic Translation, and 11 moreLiterary Theory and Criticism, Idioms, Contrastive Rhetoric, Trasnlation and Heremenutic, Arabic-English translation, Literary Terms, CONSTRASTIVE STUDIES, Contrastive Analysis of English and Arabic, Terminology Translation, Constrastive linguistics, and English-Arabic Contrastive Grammar
On Translating the Quran: Towards Understanding Hidden Meanings beyond the Quranic Syntactic Construction (An-nazm) via Skopostheorie في ترجمة القرآن نحو فهم المعاني الكامنة خلف النظم القرآني Dr. Muhammad Fawzi Al-Ghazi Assistant... more
On Translating the Quran: Towards Understanding Hidden Meanings beyond the Quranic Syntactic Construction (An-nazm) via Skopostheorie
في ترجمة القرآن
نحو فهم المعاني الكامنة خلف النظم القرآني
Dr. Muhammad Fawzi Al-Ghazi
Assistant Professor of Translation Studies, Text Linguistics and English Literature
Academic Visitor at Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Assistant Professor of Translation Studies and Text Linguistics at the Dept. of European Languages and Literature, King Abdul-Aziz University, KSA
International academic referee/a member of the editorial board of The Moroccan International Journal for Translation Studies
A translator's (university) guide to understanding religious translation through practical examples of translation-oriented text analysis applied to the Quranic non-informative appellative speech & repetition
Foreword
It goes without saying that the Quranic text– even regardless of being a divine text transmitted to Muslims by the God-sent Prophet (peace be upon him) – is a fertile area of research that has attracted a large number of scholars, academicians, and university students around the world due to the fact that it is the ideal of perfection in the Arabic language on various levels, the linguistic, the semantic, the rhetorical, and so forth. It is no accident, therefore, that the translation of the Quran was, and still has been, a problematic area that has incessantly raised a great fuss over how to bring a proper or even appropriate translation of it.
Taking such axioms into account, as the writer of the present translational work, I have tried to bring translators as well as scholars of religious texts in general and the Quranic text specifically into real and practical problems of rendering such a sublime text. That's why I have been too careful to bring all theoretical information related to the subject matter of the present work unless when needed. It is thus of paramount importance to note here that the subject matter of the present work is mainly excerpted with latitude from the writer’s M.A. and Ph.D. theses (with grade Excellent with First Class Honor) entitled respectively as “The Rendering of Repetition into English in the Meccan Quranic Verses: An Analysis of Three Well-known Translations” and “A Study of the Rendering into English of the Appellative Function in the Quranic Text” [Cairo University, Faculty of Arts, Dept. of English Language and Literature]. Both studies have been supervised by Professor M.M.M. Enani of Cairo University, who is often regarded as the father figure in the field of Translation Studies in Today's Egypt as well as in the Arab world.
Dr. Muhammad Fawzi Al-Ghazi
في ترجمة القرآن
نحو فهم المعاني الكامنة خلف النظم القرآني
Dr. Muhammad Fawzi Al-Ghazi
Assistant Professor of Translation Studies, Text Linguistics and English Literature
Academic Visitor at Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Assistant Professor of Translation Studies and Text Linguistics at the Dept. of European Languages and Literature, King Abdul-Aziz University, KSA
International academic referee/a member of the editorial board of The Moroccan International Journal for Translation Studies
A translator's (university) guide to understanding religious translation through practical examples of translation-oriented text analysis applied to the Quranic non-informative appellative speech & repetition
Foreword
It goes without saying that the Quranic text– even regardless of being a divine text transmitted to Muslims by the God-sent Prophet (peace be upon him) – is a fertile area of research that has attracted a large number of scholars, academicians, and university students around the world due to the fact that it is the ideal of perfection in the Arabic language on various levels, the linguistic, the semantic, the rhetorical, and so forth. It is no accident, therefore, that the translation of the Quran was, and still has been, a problematic area that has incessantly raised a great fuss over how to bring a proper or even appropriate translation of it.
Taking such axioms into account, as the writer of the present translational work, I have tried to bring translators as well as scholars of religious texts in general and the Quranic text specifically into real and practical problems of rendering such a sublime text. That's why I have been too careful to bring all theoretical information related to the subject matter of the present work unless when needed. It is thus of paramount importance to note here that the subject matter of the present work is mainly excerpted with latitude from the writer’s M.A. and Ph.D. theses (with grade Excellent with First Class Honor) entitled respectively as “The Rendering of Repetition into English in the Meccan Quranic Verses: An Analysis of Three Well-known Translations” and “A Study of the Rendering into English of the Appellative Function in the Quranic Text” [Cairo University, Faculty of Arts, Dept. of English Language and Literature]. Both studies have been supervised by Professor M.M.M. Enani of Cairo University, who is often regarded as the father figure in the field of Translation Studies in Today's Egypt as well as in the Arab world.
Dr. Muhammad Fawzi Al-Ghazi