Table Of ContentThe (Un)Translatability of
Qur’anic Idiomatic Phrasal Verbs
Qur’anic idiomaticity, in its all aspects, poses a great deal of challenge to Qur’an
readers, learners, commentators, and translators. One of the most challenging
aspects of Qur’anic idiomaticity is Qur’anic idiomatic phrasal verbs, where
significances of proper Arabic verbs are entirely fused with significances of
prepositions following them to produce new significances that have nothing to
do with the basic significances of those verbs and prepositions.
By examining a corpus of ten of the most influential English translations of
the Qur’an, this study scrutinizes how some translators of the Qur’an have dealt
with the phenomenon of Qur’anic idiomatic phrasal verbs, the difficulties that
they have encountered when translating them into English, and the strategies
that they have employed in their attempts to overcome the inherent ambiguity of
such expressions and provide their functional-pragmatic equivalents for English
readership.
The study proposes a working model for analysing and assessing the translation
of the Qur’anic idiomatic phrasal verbs and provides a number of theory-based
recommendations for translators in general and Qur’an translators in particular.
Ali Yunis Aldahesh is a lecturer in Arabic language, literature, and culture at
the University of Sydney, Department of Arabic Language and Cultures, School
of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He holds a PhD
in translation and linguistics, an MA in translation and linguistics, and an MA in
Semitic studies. Dr Aldahesh’s area of research interest is translation and linguistics,
with a special emphasis on the language, text, and translation of the Qur’an.
His published works include English Translations of the Qur’an: A Descriptive
Comparative Study in their Aspects of Disagreement (2020), The Concept of
Taqwa in the Holy Qur’an as Understood by Muslim Commentators (2010), and
Translating Idiomatic English Phrasal Verbs into Arabic: A Contrastive Linguistic
Study (2009).
Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting
Studies
58 African Perspectives on Literary Translation
Edited by Judith Inggs and Ella Wehrmeyer
59 Interpreters and War Crimes
Kayoko Takeda
60 Simultaneous Interpreting from a Signed Language into a Spoken
Language
Quality, Cognitive Overload, and Strategies
Jihong Wang
61 Changing Paradigms and Approaches in Interpreter Training
P erspectives from Central Europe
E dited by Pavol Šveda
6 2 Empirical Studies of Translation and Interpreting
T he Post-Structuralist Approach
E dited by Caiwen Wang and Binghan Zheng
6 3 English and Translation in the European Union
U nity and Multiplicity in the Wake of Brexit
A lice Leal
6 4 The (Un)Translatability of Qur’anic Idiomatic Phrasal Verbs
A Contrastive Linguistic Study
A li Yunis Aldahesh
6 5 The Qur’an, Translation and the Media
A Narrative Account
A hmed S. Elimam and Alysia S. Fletcher
F or more information about this series, please visit h ttps://www.routledge.
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The (Un)Translatability of
Qur’anic Idiomatic Phrasal
Verbs
A Contrastive Linguistic Study
Ali Yunis Aldahesh
First published 2022
by Routledge
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© 2022 Ali Yunis Aldahesh
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Contents
List of figures and tables ix
Acknowledgements x
List of abbreviations xi
T able of transliteration xii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Statement of the problem 1
1.2 Aim of the study 3
1.3 Outline of the study 4
1.4 Limitations of the study 5
2 (Un)translatability of the Qur’an: A theoretical perspective 8
2.1 Introduction 8
2.2 The Qur’an’s (un)translatability 12
2.2.1 The Qur’an’s (un)translatability as viewed by Muslim
intellectuals 13
2.2.2 The Qur’an’s (un)translatability as viewed by English
translators 18
2.3 Conclusion 31
3 Arabic idiomatic phrasal verbs: Nailing down
the phenomenon 34
3.1 Introduction 34
3.2 Establishing a parameter for AIPVs 35
3.3 AIPVs’ components 41
3.3.1 Arabic proper verbs 41
3.3.2 Arabic preposition 46
3.4 AIPVs’ syntactic and semantic properties 51
3.4.1 a l-Ta’alluq (verb–preposition relation, attachment,
or dependency) 55
vi Contents
3.4.2 a l-Ta’addī (verb transitivity) 56
3.4.3 a l-Inābah (preposition substitution) and
al-Taḍmīn (verb implication) 57
3 .5 AIPVs’ register variations 60
3.6 Conclusion 61
4 Qur’anic idiomatic phrasal verbs 66
4 .1 Introduction 66
4 .2 Syntactic idiosyncrasies of QIPVs 68
4 .2.1 QIPVs’ word order 69
4 .2.1.1 Nonsplit QIPVs 70
4 .2.1.2 Split QIPVs 72
4 .3 Semantic idiosyncrasies of the QIPVs 76
4.3.1 QIPVs’ semantic fields 78
4.3.2 QIPVs’ semantic categories 78
4.3.2.1 Metaphorical QIPVs 78
4.3.2.2 Figurative QIPVs 82
4.4 Pragmatic idiosyncrasies of the QIPVs 83
4.4.1 Direct speech acts performed by QIPVs 90
4 .4.2 Indirect speech acts performed by QIPVs
(QIPVs’ implicatures) 91
4.5 Conclusion 94
5 Research methodology 97
5.1 Theoretical framework 97
5.2 Data collection 103
5.3 Research questions and data analysis 106
5.4 Research procedure 107
5.5 Towards a model for analysing and assessing the translation
of QIPVs 107
5.5.1 On translating metaphorical and figurative
expressions 108
5.5.2 Speech acts 110
5.5.3 Conversational implicatures 110
5.5.4 Adequacy/inadequacy 111
5.6 Model for analysing and assessing translations of QIPV 114
5.7 Conclusion 115
6 Qualitative data analysis, assessment, and discussion 118
6.1 Case study 1 118
6.1.1 Tertium comparationis 118
Contents vii
6.1.2 English equivalents provided 120
6.1.3 Analysis 122
6.2 Case study 2 124
6.2.1 Tertium comparationis 124
6.2.2 English equivalents provided 126
6.2.3 Analysis 127
6.3 Case study 3 129
6.3.1 Tertium comparationis 129
6.3.2 English equivalents provided 131
6.3.3 Analysis 134
6.4 Case study 4 135
6.4.1 Tertium comparationis 135
6.4.2 English equivalents provided 136
6.1.3 Analysis 138
6.5 Case study 5 140
6.5.1 Tertium comparationis 140
6.5.2 English equivalents provided 141
6.5.3 Analysis 142
6.6 Case study 6 146
6.6.1 Tertium comparationis 146
6.6.2 English equivalents provided 147
6.1.3 Analysis 148
6.7 Case study 7 150
6.7.1 Tertium comparationis 150
6.7.2 English equivalents provided 152
6.7.3 Analysis 155
6.8 Case study 8 156
6.8.1 Tertium comparationis 156
6.8.2 English equivalents provided 158
6.8.3 Analysis 159
6.9 Case study 9 161
6.9.1 Tertium comparationis 161
6.9.2 English equivalents provided 162
6.9.3 Analysis 165
6.10 Case study 10 166
6.10.1 Tertium comparationis 166
6.10.2 English equivalents provided 168
6.10.3 Analysis 169
6.11 Discussion 172
viii Contents
7 Conclusion 195
7.1 Summary of the study 195
7.2 Findings of the study 197
7.3 Recommendations 201
7 .4 Suggestions for further research 203
Appendix I: Concordance for the Qur’anic idiomatic
phrasal verbs 205
Appendix II: Frequencies 270
Index 275
Figures and tables
Figures
3.1 The Interrelatedness of the AIPV four factors 60
5.1 Model for analysing and assessing translations of QIPV 114
Tables
4.1 Types of Qur’anic verb-preposition combinations 67
4 .2 Nonsplit QIPVs 70
4 .3 Split QIPVs 73
4 .4 Major semantic fields of the QIPVs 79
4 .5 Direct speech acts performed by QIPVs 90
6 .1 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 2:222 123
6 .2 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 3:21 128
6 .3 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 2:255 134
6 .4 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 28:11 139
6 .5 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 18:11 143
6 .6 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 9:12 149
6 .7 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 59:2 155
6 .8 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 2:130 160
6 .9 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 9:120 165
6 .10 Translators’ performance when dealing with the QIPV used
in the Qur’an, 94:8 170
6 .11 Translators’ overall achievement of functional-pragmatic
equivalence 172
6 .12 Ranking procedures according to their frequency and usage
adequacy 188
