Pragmalinguistic Problems Encountered in Rendering some Qur’ānic Satirical Expressions into English, with Special Reference to Surrat Al-Masad: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating pragmalinguistic problems encountered in rendering Qur’ānic satirical expressions into English, with special reference to Surrat Al-Masad, that is in English translations of Abdel-Haleem, Khan, and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai and Pickthall. Also, the study aims at exploring how the three translators deal with these problems and constraints in their renderings. The three renditions of Qur’ānic satirical expressions from Surrat Al-Masad were purposively selected and analyzed. Various pragmalinguistic problems and pragmatics losses in the three translations explored by the two researchers were found. The study reveals that there are some pragmalinguistic problems in the translation of the meaning of Qur’ānic satirical expressions into English in Surrat Al-Masad rendered by Abdel-Haleem, Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai and Pickthall. Moreover, the types of pragmalinguistic and pragmatics losses problems are attributed to lack of knowledge of contexts for example context of situation by some translators such as Pickthall. The study also aims at identifying the translation strategies adopted by the three translators in rendering Qur’ānic satirical expressions into English, in Surrat Al-Masad. The study also recommends that translators of the Holy Quran must adopt footnotes, transliteration, and other translation strategies to avoid a probable pragmatic loss and semantic loss of the intended meaning of the Holy Quran in general and rhetorical tropes such as satire in particular.