An Investigation of the Underlying Linguistic Problems in the Translation of Surah Quraish into English: A Comparative Syntactic and Semantic Study

Abstract

The current study aims at exploring some syntactic and semantic underlying problems in three English translations of the meanings of Surat Quraish; that is in English translations of Abdel-Haleem, Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai and Pickthall. Also, the study aims at probing how the three translators deal with some syntactic and semantic underlying problems and constrains in their renderings of the meanings of Surat Quraish into English. Four Ayahs of Surat Quraish were purposefully selected to address the research questions and categorized into semantic, and syntactic problems. The study shows that there are some syntactic, and semantic underlying problems in the translation of the meaning of Surat Quraish into English rendered by Abdel-Haleem, Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai and Pickthall. Moreover, the types of the syntactic, and semantic underlying problems are lack of cohesion and coherence as well as the translation strategies employed by the three translators. The study also recommends that translators of the Holy Quran must adopt footnotes, paraphrase, modulation, transposition and transliteration, and other translation strategies to avoid a probable loss of the intended meaning of the Message.