Problematic cases of exophoric-endophoric reference in two modern-phrased translations of the Qur'anic text with particular reference to dummy-impersonal pronouns

Abstract EN

This paper is concerned with the investigation into and the translation of certain problematic cases of exophoric/endophoric reference– with particular reference to 'dummy pronouns'– in two modern-phrased translations of the Qur'anic text, namely The Gracious Qur'an: A Modern-phrased Interpretation in English by Ahmad Zaki Hammad, published in 2006 (edition used is that of 2008) and The Qur'an by Saheeh International, published in 1997 (a revised edition of 2004).

A translation-oriented text analysis approach is adopted.

Certain problematic cases of reference are observed within the range of the present paper to cause real translational dilemmas for translators: sometimes the referent is not only 'questionable' pushing the translator to make painful decisions that can result in mistranslations and/or mistakes, but it can be both anaphoric and cataphoric within its micro context as well; even a multi-referent/dummy pronoun! In such a case, the translator is supposed to make a decision that solves the problem and does not affect the communicativeness of the context at the same time.

Still, reference ambiguity, in such cases, does have a subtle function and/or purpose that cannot be conveyed in the translation process due to the morpho-syntactic yet pragma-semantic differences between English and Arabic.

In this case, the problem is not with the translators, but it, as it were, is with the target language norms and/or traditions.

The ultimate objective of this paper, inasmuch as the researcher endeavours to answer its respective research questions, is to give insight into such morpho-syntactic yet pragma-semantic translational problems of reference, on the one hand, and to reach a conclusion of avail to practising translators, on the other hand, eschewing respective translation loss in the examples selected as well as in similar ones.