Evaluating the translation of synonymy in the glorious Quran

الملخص EN

Synonymy is a linguistic term that can be defined as two or more words of similar and/or same meaning.

It is part of the field of semantics.

Synonymous words can sometimes replace each other but not always.

Semantic loss, which can be in the form of overtranslation, undertranslation, or mistranslation for the source text, hence forth (ST), may result in an unacceptable translation because of partial or complete loss of meaning in the target text, hence forth (TT).

It is a prevailing phenomenon in the translations of the Glorious Quran due to factors such as the lack of equivalent of some words in the target language, hence forth (TL).

The study tries to find out how translators take the context into consideration in their translations in opting near-synonymy in the Glorious Quran.

The study aims at evaluating the translation of near-synonymy based on a suggested model that is depended on context – analysis.

The near-synonymous words chosen for analysis are: Jasad, Jisim and Badan.

The study will refer to the following Quranic Translations for analysis: 1.

The meaning of the Holy Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (2002).2.

The Gracious Quran: A Modern-phrased interpretation in English by Dr.

Ahmed Zaki Hammad (2007).3.

Towards Understanding the Ever-Glorious Quran by Dr.

Muhammad Mahmud Ghali (2008).

The analysis of the Quranic Ayas will be as follows: 1.

Presenting the aya where any of the near-synonymous occurs (jasad, jisim or badan ) in the ST followed by the translations.

2.

Explaining the linguistic meaning of each word.3.

Analyzing the context of these words of near-synonyms in Arabic.

4.

Evaluating the appropriateness of the selected translations based on the model of context-analysis.

The results show that translators frequently commit a partial or complete semantic loss of meanings mainly because of mistranslations, semantically complex vocabularies, and variation of culture.