The loss of meaning in translation : its types and factors with reference to ten English translations of the meaning of the Qur'an

Jumeh, Mohammed S. A (2006) The loss of meaning in translation : its types and factors with reference to ten English translations of the meaning of the Qur'an. Doctoral thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

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Abstract

This work examines ten English translated versions of the meaning of the Qur'an chosen in considerations of different factors. The date of the version and the background of the author represent the main factor behind the selection process. The aim of this study is to provide a theoretical analysis of the main trends of the translation theory, which was applied on the practical parts of the work. As for the practical parts, the study aims to analyse the source language and the target language texts in order to identify the loss of meaning in translating the Qur'an into English so that the translatability of the Qur'an could be assessed. The study adopts text analysis to find out the linguistic characteristics of both source language and target language texts. It also makes comparison between the different target texts on the one hand and between them and the original text on the other hand. The study, however, tries to base its findings on a more general linguistic framework. The study consists of five chapters. The first one is the introduction. The second one is the theoretical setting in which many theoretical issues related to the scope of this study have been analysed to set up a theoretical frame work to be used in approaching the practical parts of this thesis. The third chapter is the lexical meaning where the loss of meaning is discussed in terms of the linguistic, cultural and phonic levels. Some aspects of the loss of meaning, as found out in this chapter, are related to linguistic factors, but other aspects are related to issues beyond language. The fourth chapter is the syntactic meaning where the loss of meaning is dealt with on the syntactic/grammatical level. The fifth chapter in this thesis, however, is the conclusion in which the results and the recommendations of this work are presented. The study results were all related to the main results, which are that the Qur'an is an untranslatable text; it could not be reproduced adequately into any other language. That is to say that the loss of meaning in the English translated versions of the Qur'an is inevitable and this, in fact, supports the Issue of the Qur'an untranslitibilty. The main recommendations in this regard are that the translation of the Qur'an should be carried out by more than one translator; a committee or an organisation should stand for this more important task. The existing English translated versions of the Qur'an should also be revised from time to time for many reasons could be related to new views in understanding the Qur'anic text or in relation to the interpretation, or changes in the language into which the translation is done, or new ideas regarding the communication and translation theory.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc
Divisions:	Theses and Dissertations > Doctoral Theses
Depositing User:	EThOS Web Service
Date Deposited:	12 Aug 2019 10:27
Last Modified:	27 Jul 2023 13:49
URI:	https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/1067

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