Abstract
A rhetorical question has the form of a question but does not perform its function, i.e. does not seek any information but rather, is used to give a specific or rhetoric function such as denial, assertion, testing, equalization and negation. The present study investigates the two English translations that were used in the translation of the Quranic rhetorical questions. In a nutshell, this is a comparative study that aims to discover if the grammatical shifts that had occurred in the two English translations would have an effect on the denial, assertion, testing, and equalization and negation modes of the Quranic rhetorical questions. For this purpose, we had adopted the register theory of Halliday and Hassan (1985) as well as the translation shifts of Catford (1965) in the comparison of the two English translations, namely the Koran Interpreted that was authored by Arberry (1955) and the Noble Quran: English translation of the meanings and commentary as transcribed by al-Hilali and Khan (1996). According to the analyses, the occurrence of grammatical shifts between the two translations had in fact affected the mode of the ST rhetorical questions, their rhetorical meanings and consequently, issues on mode sustenance. Therefore, it can be said that the register theory of Halliday and Hassan (1985) had been a beneficial tool used in the analysis of the translation process.
Highlights
IntroductionThe rhetorical question is a visible notion that exists in all languages, where according to Siemund (2001:1015), “can be found in all languages of the world, and they appear to be functioning in a comparable manner”. Hackstein (2004:167) had emphasized rhetorical questions as a cross-linguistic phenomenon that occurs in both written and oral discourse, where the rhetorical question is generally seen as a nonseeking information question. Larson (1984:257) for example, had explained the use of rhetorical questions for indicating interrogative grammatical forms with an intended meaning, and to serve the speaker’s subtle purpose in commanding, requesting or emphasizing a particular point (Larson 1984:257) or as described by IIie (1994:130), “heard as questions and understood as statements”. Abioye (2011:291) had mentioned rhetorical question as being a type of figure of speech that comes in the form of a question, but is used for its persuasive effect, where the rhetorical question and the seeking-information question had shared the same syntactic structure, each had served a different purpose
The data from the study had originated from the Quran, where they had consisted of rhetorical questions that were associated with denial, assertion, negation and test functions
This study had compared two English translations of the Quranic rhetorical questions, where the main objective had been to discover if the occurrence of grammatical shifts during the translation process had affected the mode of the ST Quranic rhetorical questions
Summary
The rhetorical question is a visible notion that exists in all languages, where according to Siemund (2001:1015), “can be found in all languages of the world, and they appear to be functioning in a comparable manner”. Hackstein (2004:167) had emphasized rhetorical questions as a cross-linguistic phenomenon that occurs in both written and oral discourse, where the rhetorical question is generally seen as a nonseeking information question. Larson (1984:257) for example, had explained the use of rhetorical questions for indicating interrogative grammatical forms with an intended meaning, and to serve the speaker’s subtle purpose in commanding, requesting or emphasizing a particular point (Larson 1984:257) or as described by IIie (1994:130), “heard as questions and understood as statements”. Abioye (2011:291) had mentioned rhetorical question as being a type of figure of speech that comes in the form of a question, but is used for its persuasive effect, where the rhetorical question and the seeking-information question had shared the same syntactic structure, each had served a different purpose. Larson (1984:257) for example, had explained the use of rhetorical questions for indicating interrogative grammatical forms with an intended meaning, and to serve the speaker’s subtle purpose in commanding, requesting or emphasizing a particular point (Larson 1984:257) or as described by IIie (1994:130), “heard as questions and understood as statements”. Abioye (2011:291) had mentioned rhetorical question as being a type of figure of speech that comes in the form of a question, but is used for its persuasive effect, where the rhetorical question and the seeking-information question had shared the same syntactic structure, each had served a different purpose. In Arab, rhetorical questions had been extensively studied by both the ancient and modern scholars alike because of its wide occurrence in the Holy Quran. In Arabic, “rhetorical question” is known as “istfham balagi” “”استفهام البلاغي, which means interrogation, a statement that is formulated as a question, but has another connotation
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