Challenges of rendering Qur'anic total paronomasia : a semantic-pragmatic study

Abstract EN

The current study attempts to investigate the problematic rendering of paronomasia (agnominatio or punning)in the Qur'an from a semantic-pragmatic perspective.

M.

H.

Abrams (1999) defines paronomasia as “A play on words that are either identical in sound (homonyms) or very similar in sound, but are sharply diverse in meaning” (253).

Thus, paronomasia is a rhetorical device that is like a word play intentionally used to exploit the confusion between words having similar sounds but different meanings.

Use of paronomasia in the Qur'an is intentionally employed in order to address the early Arwho were fluent in their use of language and literature especially in their poetry which was considered part of their daily life.

In Arabic rhetoric, paronomasia has two main types: total and partial under which there are 82 types.

However, this paper focuses on discussing the use, effect and meaning, and how to translate total paronomasia in the Qur'an.

The problem lies in the fact that the translator may not have the linguistic competency, or the cultural background needed for such a mission in order to transfer the implied meaning of Qur'anic paronomasia with the same level of rhetoric into English.

The samples of the study are (5) paronomasia verses drawn from the Qur'an.

Five sample verses are the samples of the study with their rendering in eight translations of the Qur'ân.

The study findings and conclusion found out that in order to overcome the challenges of translating paronomasia in the Qur'an, the translator has to stick to the original Qur'anic text by mentioning their equivalent terms to preserve the faithfulness to the source text of the Qur'an taking into consideration the readership principle.

Achieving this complex equation can be through three strategies; adding within-the-text-notes, or footnotes, or endnotes.