Translating some Qur'anic Connotative Meanings into English Language: A Socio-pragmatic Comparative Study

Abstract

The current study has focused on the use of translating and connotative words and their basic and secondary meanings in the selected surah of the Holy Quran with special references to the three translations of the meanings of the Holy Quran. The study has explored to three translation namely Abdul-Haleem,Mohammed M. Pickhall and Muhammed M.Khan and Mohammed Hilali.

The present  study does not claim  to encompass all aspects of change   of the three translations. Rather, it has focused on the aspect of connotation of the selected pairs of meanings in their Quranic contexts and with different nuances in adjacent context as well. Indeed, the Holy Quran  carries  an abundance  of  connotation  with minute differences  and thus they create  a lot of  difficulties  to the translators of  the Holy Quran.

By analyzing the corpus of examples of the various English translations of the meaning of the Holy Quran the researcher realized that some deviations and under translations are the results of insufficient references of the Holy Quran, lack of understanding of Arabic rhetoric and inability to decode the nuances of  connotative words. If translators choose to under translate by ignoring the nuances of connotative words, they would fail to accommodate all the meanings of the original; this is because connotations, in the Holy Quran serve a purpose. In order to maintain the informative and aesthetic functions of connotative Qur'anic words  and phrases, translators should try to produce render them in approximate adequate and accurate renditions.

Keywords: connotative meaning, Socio-pragmatic, the Holy Quran, translation