An Examination of Lexical Coherence in Three English Translations of Complementary Oppositions in Surah Al-An'aam

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Translation Department - Imam Reza International University - Rezvan College - Mashhad - Iran

2 Department of English Language, Imam Reza International University, Holy Mashhad, Islamic Republic of Iran

10.22081/ttais.2025.70251.1043

Abstract

The present research was an attempt aimed at the investigation of whether or not complementary oppositions (COs) in the Glorious Qur'an have been translated accurately from Arabic into English. The theoretical framework was grounded in Halliday and Hassan's theory of lexical cohesion (1976), focusing on lexical cohesive devices in the three selected translations of Cos in Surah al-An'aam. Cos have been defined as paired semantic oppositions, where the negation of one reinforces the other. This qualitative study employed an analytical-documentary method to assess the translations. Translators often encounter challenges with various aspects, including collocations in translation, striving to maintain both meaning and form. The selected theoretical framework of Halliday and Hassan (1976) focused on lexical cohesive devices, including repetition, collocations, and sense relations. The study aimed primarily to examine the lexical coherence of those selected translations and to analyze the lexical relationships between their English CO equivalents, serving as essential lexical cohesive devices. The study utilized Arabic CO examples extracted from Seyyedi and Baghojary (2020) and their corresponding English translations by Arberry (1955), Pickthall (1930), and Qaraa'i (2005), extracted from Tanzil Qur'an Navigator (www.tanzil.net). The findings indicated that Arberry's translation, among others, exhibits superior lexical coherence due to its alignment with the Qur'anic style and the frequent use of collocations and contrasting repetition.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 11 November 2024
  • Revise Date: 09 February 2025
  • Accept Date: 11 March 2025
  • Publish Date: 01 April 2024

Share

How to cite

Statistics