Translation of Binomials in the Holy Qurʾān: A Corpus-Based Study
Binomials, as a sub-type of collocation, are made of two connected words (e.g.,
heaven and earth), and they are considered challenging to translate because some are
idiomatic, ambiguous, culture-specific, or alliterative, whereas others adhere to one
common word order. More importantly, they are found more commonly in religious texts
such as the Holy Qurʾān. Thus, preserving collocability for translated binomials is essential
to produce a quality translation. Based on this, the present study examined the translations
of Qurʾānic binomials by seven translators in terms of form and meaning. In other words,
the researcher explored to what extent translators have maintained collocability in their
translations and whether they normalized binomials or explicated them. In addition, the
researcher analyzed binomials in relation to semantic categories and word class. Further,
translations were investigated in terms of semantic shifts of generalization, specification,
mutation, and omission.
The current study is descriptive and corpus-based employing qualitative and
quantitative procedures in a mixed-methods approach. Besides using the Quranic Arabic
Corpus that includes seven translations (i.e., Sahih International and translations by
Pickthall, Yusuf Ali, Shakir, Muhammad Sarwar, Muhammad Al-Hilali and Muhammad
Khan, and Arberry) of the Holy Qurʾān, the researcher utilized two reference corpora (i.e.,
the Bible Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English [COCA]) to decide
on the collocability of binomial translations. She also developed a framework based on
previous studies to explore normalizing (i.e., domesticating, using common terms, etc.) and
explicating (i.e., explicative paraphrasing, of-constructions, rank shifts, etc.) shifts.
Results showed that there are 120 binomials in the Qurʾān occurring twice or more.
They consist mainly of complementary nouns denoting culture-specific items. However,
others are made of proper nouns, whereas many are peculiar to the Holy Qurʾān. Further,
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results revealed that only 7% of the translations are with maintained collocability and are
basically of universal, antonymous concepts. Collocability was mainly maintained by
Pickthall, Yusuf Ali, Sarwar, and Hilali-Khan. However, less than a quarter of the
translations, which are chiefly of complementary binomials, were normalized mostly by
Arberry and Sarwar. On the other hand, less than half of the translations were prone to
explicitation shifts more commonly by Hilali-Khan, Yusuf Ali, and Sarwar. Regarding
semantic shifts, they mark more than a quarter of binomial translations and affected
basically one conjunct and are primarily associated with Sarwar's translation. In general,
half of the semantic shifts are examples of generalization and basically characterize
translations of antonymous binomials. However, shifts of omission were used scarcely and
mainly by Sarwar. Results also indicated that shifts of generalization and mutation were
used chiefly by Sarwar and Pickthall. However, the majority of specification shifts were
utilized by Yusuf Ali. More importantly, specification shifts primarily mark antonymous
binomials, whereas those of mutation characterize complementary ones. In general,
Hilali-Khan and Arberry used the minimum of semantic shifts.
With or without shifts in form, semantic shifts are inevitable. This is due to a
number of reasons such as the need to produce either a source- or target-oriented
translation, translators' awareness of a specific group of readers, and lack of translators'
knowledge of equivalent binomials. Furthermore, some binomials are culture-specific,
idiomatic, polysemous, ambiguous, or peculiar to the Holy Qur'ān. Others consist of
complementary conjuncts or suggest certain connotative meanings. More importantly,
Qur'ānic binomials are contextualized. Thus, it is recommended that translators evaluate
risks associated with translating religious texts and choose the appropriate method that
ensures the minimum of semantic shifts.
Binomials, as a sub-type of collocation, are made of two connected words (e.g., heaven and earth). Similar to other lexical collocations, binomials can be idiomatic, ambiguous, or culture-specific…
Binomials, as a sub-type of collocation, are made of two connected words (e.g.,
heaven and earth), and they are considered challenging to translate because some are
idiomatic,…
Background: Synonymous words behave differently, and language users should be aware of the fact that though near-synonyms share similar denotational meanings, they require different collocates.…