Explicitation by Textual Addition in Parentheses in Translating the Quranic Text into English

Mohammad Amin Hawamdeh

Abstract


This study aims at exploring new norms as to the textual addition in parentheses (=TAiP) strategy in translating the Quran into English and improving the target text. In such a controversial yet officially approved English version of the Quran as the Hilali-Khan Translation (=HKT), it is to identify binary categories under which the TAiPs can fall and, accordingly, propose a possible corpus-based improvement of the same. Based upon a descriptive approach, this goal mainly concerns itself with the issue of explicitation in pursuance with Klaudy’s (1998/2008) typology. Hypothetically, the TAiPs in such a translation of the Quran are not normatively explicitative, and they only interrupt the flow of attention of a potential TL reader. Six small-sized Surahs/chapters of the Quran in sequence were selected; this sample was to equally represent the Makki and Madani types of Quranic revelation and the whole conceptual story narrated by the Quran. Encountered in the HKT, the TAiPs were classified to be: linguistically explicitative (=LinE) as obligatory or optional, and referentially explicitative (=RefE) as pragmatic or technical. However, they were found to be either filling-out or specifying—or, say, to either continue or interrupt the flow of attention of a reader. Eventually, several binary translational norms of TAiPs were determined and an improved version of the HKT was accordingly proposed.

Keywords


Textual Addition in Parentheses (TAiP), Explicitation, Translation, The Quran, Hilali and Khan

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.7n.7p.202

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