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.
Highlights
A ‘text’ entails that the words, phrases, clauses or sentences it is woven out of are of meaning
This study aims at exploring new norms as to the textual addition in parentheses (=Textual Addition in Parentheses (TAiP)) strategy in translating the Quran into English and improving the target text
Focusing on the thought processes of the translators of the English text of the Quran or being subjective, reader-focused and oriented towards an English language and culture, the TAiPs fell under two main types
Summary
A ‘text’ entails that the words, phrases, clauses or sentences it is woven out of are of meaning. For the Arabic text of the Quran in particular, the message is transmitted with literary devices; it is of a nonlinear web-like structure (Nasr, 2007) and its textual expression “exhibit lack of continuity or absence of [...] order and repetitiousness” (Blomm and Bary, 1990: 65) This ostensible disorganization is, self-referentiality by explaining what’s to be transmitted (Wild, 2006). It is first introduced by Vinay and Darbelnet (1958: 8) as “the process of introducing information into the TL which is present only implicitly in the SL.” In this spirit, Nida (1964: 226) argues that to add is basically to adjust the text to select the closest natural equivalent not for tempering the SL message. Explaining the wayward use of a word, relating to the topic itself and accounting for cultural differences (Newmark, 1988: 91-92), such two types could continue or interrupt a potential TL reader’s flow of attention
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