Working Papers in Linguistics

and Translation

Prof. Dr. Mehdi Fãlih al Ghazãlli

Mustansiriyah University / College of Arts
Department of Translation

2024
 ‫‪Working Papers in Linguistics and Translation‬‬

‫‪Prof. Dr. Mehdi Fãlih al Ghazãlli‬‬

‫الطبعة األولى‪2024 :‬‬

‫‪978-9922-732-02-2‬‬
‫رقم اإليداع‪ 461 :‬لسنة ‪2024‬‬
‫القياس ‪24*17 :‬‬
‫عدد الصفحات‪208 :‬‬

‫جميع حقوق الطبع و إعادة الطبع والنشر والتوزيع محفوظة المؤلف‬

‫منشورات دار ومكتبة عدنان‬

‫للطباعة والنشر والتوزيع‬
‫العراق ‪ -‬بغداد ‪ -‬شارع المتنبي‬

‫© جميع حقوق النشر محفوظة المؤلف‪ ،‬وال يحق ألي شخص أو مؤسسة أو جهة‬
‫إعــادة إصــدار هذا الكتاب‪ ،‬أو جزء منه‪ ،‬أو نقله‪ ،‬بأي شكل أو واسطة من وسائط نقل‬
‫المعلومات‪ً ،‬‬
‫سواًء أ كانت ألكترونية أو ميكانيكية‪ ،‬بما في ذلك النسخ أو التسجيل أو‬
‫التخزين واإلسترجاع‪ ،‬دون إذن خطي من أصحاب الحقوق‪.‬‬

‫فيس بوك‪ :‬دار ومكتبة عدنان | انستغرام‪ | adnanlilbarary8865 :‬تويتر ‪AdnanPublishing@ :‬‬
‫‪Email: adnan،[email protected]‬‬

‫(جميع آراء المؤلف الواردة في هذا العمل وخالفه ُت ّ‬

‫عبر عنه وحده وليست مسؤولية دار‬
‫النشر أو أي جهة أخرى متصلة بها من الجهات الثقافية التنظيمية أو المانحة وغيرها)‪.‬‬
To the Soul of My Late Son “Ahmed”
Who departed early

5
 Contents

Introduction.....................................................................................5
A Semantic Analysis of Personal Names in...................................... 8
English and Arabic............................................................................ 8
Derivational Redundancy and its...................................................26
Pragmatic Significance in English and Arabic:............................... 26
A Contrastive Perspective..............................................................26
Diminutives in Arabic-to -English Translation................................44
Translation Assessment of.............................................................65
Arabic Implicit Negation into English.............................................65
Lexical Gaps in Arabic -to-English Translation..............................106
Translation Assessment of...........................................................127
Temporal Succession of Events in ...............................................127
Narrative Discourse from Arabic into English..............................127
Translation Assessment of the English........................................163
Renditions of the Verb Jaʻala (‫ )جعل‬in Qurȃnic Texts.................163
A Study of the English Translations of the Qur’anic ...................180
Verb Phrase: The Derivatives of the Triliteral..............................180
About the author.........................................................................207

6
 Introduction

The present volume of “working papers in linguistics and trans-

lation” consists of eight chapters; two of which fall within the
area of contrastive linguistics and the rest with particular issues of
translation. The first deals with personal names in both languages
from a semantic angle where reasons for choosing personal names
have been introduced. It was found out that the majority of per-
sonal names have meaning whereas the minority have reference
only. Surnames in both languages (and some other languages e.g.
Spanish, Russian etc.) are derived from the same origins. Unlike in
Standard English, in Standard Arabic and modern Arabic dialects,
primitive beliefs and superstitions still play a role in the choice of
PNs. The second chapter tackles the linguistic phenomenon of der-
ivational redundancy and its realizations within the area of mor-
phology in both languages. It has been shown that the contextual
uses of these morphologically synonymous derivatives are roughly
the same. Besides, the researcher has concluded that it is more ac-
curate to talk of morphological synonymy rather than derivational
redundancy since morphologists in both languages mainly reject
redundancy due to the presence of slight differences of meaning
between morphologically synonymous forms.
The third chapter gets involved in studying the translation of
diminutives from Arabic into English. As it is known by specialists,
diminutives serve a variety of rhetorical functions (e.g. satire, en-
7
dearment, glorification etc.). These functions have been found
universal across languages. The translation study of diminution
has proved difficult because diminutives in Arabic serve more rhe-
torical functions than those of English. Therefore, linguistic differ-
ences between STs and TTs give rise to translation difficulties.
Translation assessment of Arabic into English implicit negation
is the concern of the fourth chapter where in Arabic some ques-
tions expressing denial, interrogative particles, conditionals, verbs
signalling negation, adverbials and shortening are employed in ex-
pressing the sense of implicit negation. English, on the other hand,
utilizes quantifiers (e.g. few, little) too + adjective + infinitive, neg-
ative adverbs and verbs signalling negation to convey the sense
concerned. Due to these linguistic differences, implicit negation
has proved a thorny area in translation owing to the translations
produced by specialists.
The fifth chapter is concerned with lexical gaps in Arabic-to­-English
translation as these gaps refer to the absence of a lexical item in a
language or in one of its semantic fields shelling, bombardment are
in English whereas a pair of lexical items are used in Arabic to express
the sense of each English lexical unit (‫ قصف مدفعية‬, ‫)قصف طائرات‬. Ex-
planation, loan-translation and transliteration are the only resort for
translators to get around the problem of lexical gaps. Moreover, re-
ligion-based proverbs in Arabic are difficult to translate into English
owing to the cultural gaps that are conducive to lexical gaps.
Some verbs in Qurãnic ayas involve senses that are distinct from
one context to another. The senses deserve due attention on the
8
part of the translators of the holy Quran. One of these verbs is
(‫ )جعل‬where different translations of the same verb were pro-
duced. It was found out that translators in the main have failed to
give adequate renditions to the verb under study due to the lack of
in-depth knowledge of commentaries on the Qurãnic texts. To take
the contextual impact on senses of Qurãnic ayas has remained an
influential factor to come up with accurate translations of all suras
of the Quran. This has been the concern of the sixth chapter.
The seventh chapter is devoted to the study of lexical and gram-
matical means to show temporal sequencing of events in English
and Arabic narrative texts; and how temporal succession of events
from Arabic into English is rendered. It has been found out that
translation of temporal succession found in Arabic literary texts
into English has not been easy due to linguistic and discoursal dif-
ferences between both languages.
Finally, the eighth chapter is concerned with throwing light on the
accuracy of the English translations of the Arabic triliteral verb deriv-
atives as found in Qur’ãnic ayahs. the translations of the ayahs con-
taining the triliteral verb derivatives have been inadequate either
due to the absence of appropriate grammatical structures or sound
lexical choices. This is attributable to the fact that Qurãnic texts are
pregnant with meanings to the extent that overtranslation becomes
inescapable from on the part translators to resort to in filling the
syntactic and lexical gaps between both languages.
M.F. Ghazâlli
2024
9
 A Semantic Analysis of Personal Names in
English and Arabic(1)

Abstract:
The present study is concerned with introducing a mean-
ing-based analysis of personal names (PNs) in Standard English
(SE) and Standard Arabic (2)(SA). It is based on the hypothesis that
in both languages surnames are roughly derived from the same
sources. Thus, the study is limited to the investigation of personal
names including surnames. The paper is divided into two parts:
the first sheds light upon the meaning of proper names in English
and their relationship with definiteness, origin of surnames and
ambiguity of proper names. The second part deals with PNs in Ar-
abic, the way they are coined their categorizations into different
classes and on what bases surnames are derived. The results of
the study have validated the hypothesis of the work.
Keywords: Personal names, ambiguity, analysis, definiteness, surnames.
1. Personal Names in English
1.1Meaning and Personal Names

(1) This chapter is based on a paper published in Proceedings of the First Symposium
on Linguistics and Translation held by College of Arts/ Mustansiriyia University/
Iraq. 2012. PP.95-109.
(2) Whenever Arabic is mentioned, reference is made to SA and Arabic dialects used
across the Arab world since SA and the varieties spoken employ the same strate-
gies in the choice of PNs.

10
 “Names play such an important role in human relations that
they are often endowed with magic potencies and surrounded by
elaborate superstitions and taboos” (Ullmann, 1962:71)
Various traditional and current theories concerning PNs have
been proposed by philosophers and semanticists to account for
the status of such nouns in language. The theories in question aim
to highlight the characteristics of PNs from a philosophical and se-
mantico-syntactic perspective. The advocates of the theories hold
much controversy over whether PNs have meaning or not. For
space necessity, it is not Possible to introduce them here (for more
details, see Pollock, 1982:41-54).
Philosophers and semanticists have suggested many definitions
for PNs; for instance, Ullmann (1962:73) asserts that “a proper
name merely serves to identify a person or object by singling it out
from among similar items”. The name is closely associated with its
owner that it stands for his reputation; good or bad .Langendonck
(2008) maintains that “a proper name denotes a unique entity at
the level of langue to make it psychologically salient within a given
basic category”
In fact, there is a traditional philosophical problem that arises in
connection with PNs, which does not arise in connection with oth-
er referring expressions(see1.2 below).The problem is that plausi-
ble arguments can be introduced to show that PNs have meaning,
and others to show that PNs do not have meaning. The very sim-
ple reason behind holding the view that PNs have meaning is that
how is it possible for words having no meaning to serve systematic
11
functions in language? The argument of saying that PNs have no
meaning, on the other hand, is that we do not talk of them as hav-
ing meaning as one says “John is a philanthropist”, it is possible to
ask what “a philanthropist” means, but not what” John “means
.The idea of meaning is a slippery one where it can be easily ap-
plied to common nouns but it cannot always be applied to PNs
(Cooper, 1973:86f, see also Jaszezolt, 2002:126f).
It is concluded from the forgoing discussion that one is not
forced in dealing with PNs to choose between two opposing terms
“meaningful” and “meaningless” since the latter has a pejorative
sense; but it is plausible to say that the majority of PNs have mean-
ing and the minority have reference only(see 1.2 below).

1.2 Proper Names and Reference

As mentioned in (1.1 above), PNs are used to refer to their bear-
ers. Brown and Yule, 1983:210f) hold the same thesis in that the
use of PNs (e.g. Mr. Bennet,Eliazabeth, Edward , Plato etc) as re-
ferring expressions is generally a less controversial issue if they are
compared to common nouns. It is suggested that PNs are used to
show unique identification for individuals. We should be careful
in dealing with this view in that PNs can be so only in specific con-
texts. Elizabeth is not necessarily referring to the Queen, as there
is a large number of Elizabeths in the world. The same holds true
of Plato which can be used to refer to one’s son’s cleverness, and
not necessarily to the famous Greek philosopher.
1. Plato is on the second shelf of your library.
12
 In example (1), Plato refers to one of the books written by the
philosopher. Since PNs can be used with this extended referential
function, it is unwise to maintain that they have a uniquely identi-
fying function.
On the other hand , Kempson(1977:14) introduces a totally dis-
tinct view in stating that” in proper names there is a one-to-one
correspondence between word and object” .According to her, “ob-
ject” means “referent or bearer of the name”, she is wrong in stick-
ing to this perspective because such correspondence between PNs
and referents is not always true as noticed above.
Logically, PNs are the only genuine names because their bearers
cannot be identified by description, but by “deixis in a context of
direct acquaintance”(Harrison, 1979:144). As in (ibid) Mill in his
book System of Logic maintains that a PN such as John although
borne by many persons “it is conferred upon them to indicate any
qualities, or any thing which belongs to them in common”. There-
fore, PNs do not express properties since we cannot infer what
properties a person has from the mere fact that he has a certain
name (Cooper, 1973:87).

1.3 The Rise of Surnames

Depending on records found after 1066(the advent of the Nor-
man Conquest), surnames came gradually into use in England
between 1400-1066.During the period preceding 1066, a person
usually used to have one name only- a Christian name belonging
to himself and not necessarily to his father or his grandfather. The
13
growth of surnames is a sequence of two reasons: the increase
of population and the expansion of government. The simplicity of
life of a small population does not make individuals bother them-
selves to have more than one name; and the confusion caused by
two people having the same name and living in the same village
does not arise too frequently. However, life after 1400 got more
complicated due to the growth of population and the expansion of
towns resulting from travelling and the contact between strange
trade men. In addition, under William and his successors’ reign,
records became more elaborate and voluminous. The old system
“one man- one name” turned to be unworkable and its replace-
ment took three centuries to complete where the present system
of naming has become established since then. In a word, surnames
arose to avoid confusion between people (John&Levitt, 1975:47).
On his part, Langendonck(2008) holds that surnames are often
derived from the towns, villages, or other places people lived in,
particularly when they settled elsewhere but were known to have
originated in a place whose name they were given. The oldest use
of surnames is unclear, but owing to the insufficiency of using sin-
gle names to identify individuals in heavily large populated cities,
surnames have come into use. He adds, in many cultures, the prac-
tice of using additional descriptive terms in identifying individu-
als has arisen. These identifying terms or descriptors may indicate
personal attributes, location of origin, occupation, parentage, pa-
tronage, adoption or clan affiliation.

14
 1.4 Personal Names and Language Universals
No one can deny that it is impossible to find a human language
devoid of proper names (personal and non-personal). Surnames
are no exception in this regard. Langendonck (2008) made a nice
survey to prove the universality of sources of surnames. Accord-
ingly, they are derived roughly from the same sources across lin-
guistically and culturally unrelated languages. For instance, in the
English speaking countries, most surnames of British origin fall
into several types: occupations (eg Smith, Baker), personal char-
acteristics (eg Short, Brown), geographical features (eg Hill, Lee)
place names (eg Flint, Hamilton) patronymics(1)(eg Richardson,
Johnson) matronymics (eg Marriott from Mary) and paternal,
from patronage (eg Hickman meaning Hick’s man).In French, peo-
ple are named, following the same traditions: Legrand( the tall),le
Carpentier (carpenter),le Parisien(from Paris). The same sources
of surnames are true of the Spanish-speaking countries: Delga-
do (thin),Molinero(miller),Aleman from (Germany).In Russian,
one finds the same: Tolstoy(fat or stout),Portnov (tailor),Moskova
(from Moscow).Romanians follow the same procedures in deriving
their surnames:Barbu(bushy bearded),Fieraru(Smith),Munteanu(-
from the mountains) Moldoveanu(from Moldova).In Netherlands,
the Dutch adopt the same path in forming theirs :De Groot(the
great),Van Weert( of the city Weert) (ibid).

(1) Names which distinguish a person by his father are known as patronymics. Those
which refer to a person’s mother are called matronymics.

15
 1.5 Common Nouns vs Proper Names
Scholars often discuss common nouns and PNs concomitantly
due to the fact that the latter usually in grammar or semantics are
subsumed under the former. However, a criterion-based distinc-
tion is drawn between the two.
In surveying the traditional theories of PNs, Pollock(1982:49)
maintains that PNs have a denotation but not connotation; the
sense of a PN, as used on a particular occasion, is uniquely de-
termined by its denotation(i.e, its referent cf 1.2 above)(see also
Jaszezolt:127).Ullmann(1962:73f) states that the criterion of iden-
tification helps to draw a dividing line between common nouns
and PNs in that many philosophers and linguists are in agreement
in regarding PNs as identification marks. Unlike common nouns
whose function is to subsume particular specimens under a gener-
ic concept(eg say various houses, irrespective of material, size, co-
lour or style under the class concept ‘house’), a PN merely serves
to identify a person or object by singling it out from among similar
items. Ullmann(p.76) adds that the great majority of PNs have no
plural. As a general tendency, this is no doubt true and even inev-
itable since the identifying function of PNs does not go easily with
the idea of plurality. The essential difference between common
nouns and PNs lies in their function: the former are meaningful
units while the latter are identification marks. He (p.77ff) clarifies
that although it seems fairly easy to distinguish the two categories,
the border-line between them is totally clear cut. For instance,
16
many PNs are derived from common nouns (eg place names like
Newcastle; surnames like carpenter Christian names like Pearl).
When a common name is made into a PN, the change may be ac-
companied by a restriction in range, but it is not necessarily the
case. This is true of common nouns becoming place-names: there
are many black forests or new markets, but as a PN The Black For-
est and New Market will denote only one place or possibly a small
number of homonymous places.

1.6 Definiteness and Ambiguity of Personal Names

Superficially, there is a close relationship between definite
descriptions and PNs in that both usually refer to specific en-
tities (eg David or the house).Scholars, on their part, do not
unanimously approve this view. Let us consider sentence (2)
and (3):
2. Isaac Newton was awarded Nobel Prize for physics.
3. The person who discovered gravity was awarded Nobel Prize
for physics.
Suppose that it was Robert Hooke who discovered gravity. Then,
if Robert Hooke was awarded Nobel Prize for physics, then (3) is
true and (2) is false. In (2) there is a PN while in (3) we have a defi-
nite description. The PN refers directly and uniquely to one per-
son, while the definite description can refer to different people,
depending on the state of affairs. The semantic properties of PNs
and definite descriptions are different. PNs are rigid designators;
their meaning depends on the object they name. Normally, the
17
meaning of definite descriptions can remain unchanged while the
person or object they refer to differs within circumstances (Wais-
mann and Harre, 1965:128f). Jaszezolt(2002:9) states that definite
NPs refer but do not need to mean that the speaker refers to an
entity by using them. In (4) the definite noun phrase ‘the architect
of this church’ used as a definite description has a referent, a par-
ticular person, but the speaker may have just said that whoever
the architect was, he or she was insane.
4. The architect of this church was mad.
So the property of madness is attributed to whoever satisfies
the description.
In addition to what has been mentioned so far, Cooper (1973:88)
confirms that PNs involve some sort of ambiguity in at least two
ways. First, a PN will mean something different each time it applies
to a different individual (see1.2 above).Second, if a PN means the
same as some descriptive description which applies to the individ-
ual, then since there might be some descriptive expressions which
uniquely apply to that individual.
PNs resemble definite noun phrases in that their intended ref-
erent may be ambiguous. The man may refer to more than one
male individual previously mentioned in the discourse or present
in the non-linguistic context. J. Smith may similarly refer to more
than one individual named Joseph Smith , John Smith, Jane Smith
etc(Nina,2008).
2. Personal Names in Arabic
The researcher has found out that SA and colloquial Arabic va-
18
rieties roughly adopt the same strategies in the choice of PNs.
Therefore, they will be compared to English.

2.1 Introduction(1)
During the pre-Islamic period and onward, Arabs used to follow
certain traditions in choosing their personal names. Roughly, the
same traditions have been followed in modern Arabic dialects. In
classical Arabic(2), some names were chosen by tribes for various
reasons: (1) to threaten their enemies (eg Muqâtil: fighter, Ghâlib:
winner, Asad: lion) (2) to express their optimism of their sons (eg
Sa6yd: happy, Malik: owner, Najy: rescued) (3) to involve the sense
of roughness of land or trees (eg țalħa : thorny tree, ħajar: stone)
or (4) the newly born child is named depending on what his father
comes across while the child’s mother is being in labour. For in-
stance, if the father meets a fox, the child will be named according-
ly: Tha6laba. The same holds true of dog: kalib, crow: Ghurab(Ibin
Duraid,d.321H,nd:5f) (seealsoAltha6aliby,d.430H,2007:406f)
Ibin Qutaybah(d.276 H,1999:67) adds that some people’s names
are taken from names of plants(eg 6alqamah: colocynth) others
from people’s characteristics or attributes(eg al-kareem: generous,
al-shuja6: brave). In the Arabian Peninsula, females were named

(1) Key of Transliteration Symbols of Arabic Letters(AlKhudary, 2004:13)

a :‫ أ‬b:‫ ب‬t:‫ ت‬th:‫ ث‬j: ‫ج‬ħ: ‫ح‬kh:‫ خ‬d:‫ د‬ż:‫ ذ‬r: ‫ ر‬z: ‫ ز‬s:‫ س‬sh:‫ ش‬ș:‫ ص‬dh:‫ ض‬ț: ‫ط‬đ:‫ ظ‬6:‫ ع‬gh: ‫ غ‬f: ‫ف‬q:‫ ق‬k:‫ك‬
l:‫ ل‬m: ‫ م‬n: ‫ن‬h: ‫ هـ‬w: ‫ و‬y: :‫ي ؟‬
(2) Classical Arabic and Standard Arabic are two terms alternatively used in the pres-
ent paper

19
as males. This is attributed to the fact that the tribal societies at
that time need be seen greater in number by others so that they
would think a lot before invading each other.
After the rise of Islam, the tradition of naming persons by the use
of plants’ or animals’ names went on; and other factors for naming
had become involved. For instance, beautiful names were chosen
(al-Rabii6: Spring) and got widely spread due to the Prophet’s po-
sition against the choice of ugly names. He (P.B.W.H) recommend-
ed that parents should select beautiful names that bring happiness
and satisfaction to newly born children. In surveying the traditions
that Arabs followed in naming persons during the pre- and post-Is-
lamic period, one finds that the same traditions have been roughly
adopted by modern Arabic native speakers (Murâd, 1984:36, 46).
Al-Samaray (1961:4) adheres to a rather distinct view in that clas-
sical Arabic is no longer the variety spoken all over the Arab home-
land i.e. different Arabic colloquial dialects are in use. This has had
its impact on the way the PNs are used or chosen in every Arabic
speaking country (see 2.2.1 below).However, Al-Samaray (p.5) does
not state that the traditional ways of naming became totally ab-
sent(see 2.2.2 below). Ulaiq (2001:12ff) further indicates that PNs
in SA and modern Arabic dialects are attributed to:
1. Natural phenomena (eg Qamar; the moon, kawkab: planet,
Hilal; Crescent)
2. The sequential order of the newborn child which has some-
times a part to play in naming him or her(eg Faryd; the unique,
Waħyd; the alone, Rabi6a; the fourth).
20
 3. Well-known or outstanding figures such as poets, heroes,
wise men, presidents, artists or leaders (eg Siina; Avicenna; Salad-
diin, AbdulNasir).
4. Grandfathers’ or grandmothers’ names to glorify them spe-
cially the eldest son.
5. Harmony of the names so as to be of the same musical tone
of the family members (eg Ranny, Rajjy, Wally, Haddy).
6. Particular occasions or events(eg Ramadhan: the fasting
month, Najjah; success, Zilzâl: earthquake)
7. The fear of envy in that ugly names are attributed to infants
(as some people believe) to keep them away from being envied.
Nevertheless, this tradition has become of a very minor role to
play due to the spread of education and knowledge in the Arab
homeland.
In modern Iraqi Arabic, for instance, some names are chosen
because they are either associated with primitive beliefs (eg envy)
or superstitions. For instance, uneducated families tend to name
their newborn infants in such a way that shows triviality. These
families believe that the more names signal bad attributes, the
more their bearers get welfare (eg Shanan: one who brings two
persons in conflict, Irhayf: the weak person) (Murâd, 1984:128f).

2.2 Categorization of Personal Names

As referred to in (2.1 above), a number of factors or strategies
are involved in designating PNs to people. It is possible to for more
than one factor to be at work in choosing such names. Scholars
21
introduce many classifications of PNs used in Arabic.In this regard,
Al-Samaray ( 1961:3-18,1963:53-66 and 1964:59-74) presents a
three-fold categorization of PNs in SA, and dialects used in north
Africa Arabic-speaking countries(eg Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and
Egypt) and Middle East Arab countries (eg Syria, Iraq, and Arab
Gulf states). He (p.5-16) states that PNs in Arabic can be classed
into urban and non-urban. Under the heading of the former falls
PNs that both SA and Arabic varieties have in common since they
are religion-based (eg Muhammad, Abdullah: the slave of Allah)
or history-based (eg Omar, Othman, Ali, Al-Hassan and Al-Hus-
sein).Unlike in SA, in colloquial Arabic varieties spoken in the east-
ern part of the Arab world, the last two names are used without
the definite article. Non-urban names are used in villages and in
Bedouin. Following is a diagram to show the categorization under
discussion.

Diagram: Categories of Personal Names found in Classical Arabic

and Some Arabic Colloquial Varieties
22
 Al-Samaray (p.11f) proceeds to show that two types of PNs could
be subsumed under the subclass of history-based urban names:
novel and old-new. The former refer to those PNs that have been
coined and used for males and females alike (eg Ibtisam: smile,
Najjat: rescue, Rajaa: hope). The rationale behind the choice of
such names is that people became fed up with the names that
have been very common for a long period of time. So, they wanted
something novel to attract others’ attention. The old-new names,
on the other hand, used to be very common and were deserted,
but they have got currency once more. The rise of such names
is attributed to the revival of Arab nationalism (Khalid: immortal,
Tark: the morning star, Umaima: Smith’s hammer).
As to non-urban proper names(p.14), they encompass place
names used to identify people(eg Waddy: valley, Shațy: coast),
plant names(eg Wardah: flower, Rumanah: pomegranate) ani-
mal names(eg Ghazal: deer, Bazoon: cat, ħamamah: dove) tool
names(eg Saif: sword, Minjal: sickle ).

2.2.1 Names signalling Personal Attributes

Al-Samaray(1964:60f) discusses PNs which reflect the fea-
tures of their bearers (eg Mubarrak; blessed, Jabbar; great).Some
of these names involve the evil sense intended to frighten ene-
mies(eg 6addwan; aggressive) or some refer to a colour or a phys-
ical feature(eg Aswad; black, Akhadher; green,Khshaiim; of a small
nose).He(1963:57) adds that the same holds true of the north Af-
rica Arab countries(eg Budirballah; a shabby person, Busnnadir: of
23
separate long teeth).
2.2.2 Names referring to Place or Time
It is doubtless that inhabitants of cities and of Bedouin use
names that are associated with certain places or days or months.
So, women whose infants are given birth on the days of the week
will be named accordingly (eg Sabbti; Saturday, Jumi6ah; Friday).
Or sometimes the months of the year (according to Hijjri calendar)
play a part in the choice of the child’s name (eg Rajjab, Sha6ban
etc).Places’ names, on the other hand, are often taken as PNs; this
is found in Arabian Peninsula (eg Waddy: valley, Nahr; river) and
north Africa Arab countries(eg Bunkhailah; one who is born in an
area full of palm trees)( Al-Samaray,1964:63f; Al-Samaray,1963:57)

2.3 Surnames in Arabic

Surnames are used in SA and colloquial Arabic dialects where they
are derived approximately from the same origins. Some surnames
are based on persons’ fathers’ occupations such as șayad, hunter;
ħaddad; Smith; ħațțab, woodcutter.Other surnames are attributed
to the tribe that a person belongs to like Tamimy, Jiboory,Zwaiyi,
Sinawsy. In addition, people’s birthplaces often become the reason
behind their surnames: for instance, one comes across surnames:
Basrawi( from a city in Iraq), Karaki(from a city in Jordan), Gha-
damisi( from a city in Libya) etc. ( Murâd, 1984:132f,136).
Al-Samaray (1963:59) emphasizes that the same sources to
derive surnames are followed across the whole Arab homeland.
Therefore, it is quite possible to find surnames such as: Najjar, car-
24
penter; Faħaam, coalman or those arising from physical defects
where they are preceded by the definite article (al-) like Ala6war,
the one-eyed man; Alaqra6, the bald man; Alaħddab, the hunch-
back man.

3. Conclusions
On the basis of what has been introduced so far, the following
findings have been drawn:
1. In accordance with the discussion held among English linguists
and semanticists concerning PNs, the majority of such names have
meaning whereas the minority has reference only.
2. It is not always true that there is one-to-one correspondence
between PNs and their referents in both languages.
3. In Arabic and English, among other languages (eg Spanish,
Russian, French, Romanian etc), surnames are roughly derived
from the same origins. Therefore, this has verified the hypothesis
of the present study. Moreover, it is safe to say that surnames are
language universals.
4. PNs in Arabic are coined depending on more reasons than
those found in English.
5. Unlike in SE, in SA and modern Arabic dialects, primitive be-
liefs and superstitions still play a role in the choice of PNs.
6. SA and modern Arabic dialects have more frequently reli-
gion-based names than English does.
7. English linguists and semanticists hold a lot of controversy
over whether PNs are meaningful or meaningless. Arab linguists,
25
on the other hand, unanimously agree that PNs do have meaning.
References:
Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983) Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: CUP.
Cooper, D.E(1973) Philosophy and Nature of Language. London:
Longman.
Harrison, B. (1979) An Introduction to the Philosophy of Lan-
guage. London: The Macmillan Press.
Ibin Duraid(d.321H,n.d)Al-Ishtiqaq(Derivation).Revised by Ab-
dulSalam Harron. Cairo: Al-Khanachy Publishing House.
Ibin Qutaybah (d.267H. 1999) Adeb Al-Katib( The Writer’s Liter-
ature). Beirut: Al-Resalah Publishers.
Jaszezolt,K.M.(2002) Semantics and Pragmatics: Meaning in
Language and Discourse. London: Longman.
John and Levitt,J.(1975) “People Have Names” in Wallace,A.&
Stageberg, N.(eds.) Introductory Readings on Language. New York:
Rinehart and Winston.pp146-154.
Kempson, R.(1977) Semantic Theory. Cambridge: CUP.
AlKhudary, R.(2004) A Dictionary of Islamic Terms.Damascus:
Dar Al-Yamamah.
Langendock,V.(2008) Theory and Typology of Proper Names.
http ://www.degruyter.de/cont/.Retrived on 17th of January 2008.
Murâd, A. K.( 1984) Asma? Al-Nass: M‘anyha wa As-Sbab Al-Tas-
miah Biha( People’s Names: Their Meanings and Reasons of Nam-
ing by them). Vol.I. Baghdad: Dar Al-Huriah for Printing.
Nina(2008) A Survey of the History of English Place Names. http
://www.sca.org.Retrieved on 19th of February 2008.
26
 Pollock,J.L.(1982) Language and Thought. New Jersey: Prince-
ton University Press.
Al-Samara’i, I. (1961)”Al-Ă6lam”(Proper Names) in Journal of
Faculty of Arts Vol. III. Baghdad University.pp3-18.
__________ (1963) “Al-ã‘lam fi AŚ-Śamal Al-Afriqy”(Proper
Names in North Africa) in Journal of Faculty of Arts Vol.XI.Baghdad
University. pp53-66.
___________ (1964) “Al-‘arabiah fi Al-a‘lãm”( Arabic in Person-
al Names) in Journal of Faculty of Arts Vol.XII.Baghdad University.
Pp59-74.
AlTha6aliby,A.A.(d.430H.2007)Fiqih Al-lUghah wa Sirru Al-6ara-
biah(Language Philology and the Secret of Arabic).Beirut: Dar
Al-Ma6rifah.
Ulaiq,B.M.(2001)Al-Wafy fi Al-asma? Al-‘arabiah wa Ma‘anyha(
The Complete Text in Arabic Personal Names and their Meanings).
Beirut: Dar Al-ħamra?.
Ullmann,S.(1962)Semantics: An Introduction to the Science of
Meaning. Oxford. Basil Blackwell.
Waismann,F.& Harre(1965) The Principles of Linguistic Philoso-
phy. London. Macmillan.

27
 Derivational Redundancy and its
Pragmatic Significance in English and Arabic:
A Contrastive Perspective(1)

Abstract:
The present paper sets itself to address how derivational redun-
dancy(2) (DR) is treated by Arab and English scholars and what a
pragmatic role it plays in both languages. DR refers to the existence
of multiple synonymous affixes that expresses the same meaning,
or apparently expresses no meaning at all. This can be evidenced
in cases where the same meaning seems to be expressed more
than once in a word (e.g. dramatic, dramatical; musician, musi-
cianer). The study is based on the hypothesis that DR is of low oc-
currence in both languages due to the little usefulness of morpho-
logical coinage of closely semantically related derivatives. Besides,
its occurrence in both languages is pragmatically motivated by the
same reasons (e.g. flexibility, stylistic variation, etc.). The theoret-
ical analyses of both languages as far as the topic under study is
concerned have uncovered that morphologists in both languages
do not easily approve the idea of morphological derivatives which
carry the same semantic content. Moreover, from a pragmatic an-

(1) This chapter is based on a paper published in Linguistic papers. P.297-311. Vol.II,
issue No.VI (2022).
(2) Derivational redundancy is a term that is synonymous to extended exponence in
the literature available on the topic under research (cf. Lieber, 2004, P.154).

28
gle, derivationally redundant forms go in contradiction with the
maxim of manner of Grice’s cooperative principle in that such
forms can give rise to the absence of brevity and of obscurity. This
definitely leads to flout the maxim of quantity and of relevance as
well. Both hypotheses have been verified.
Keywords: affixes, derivational, exponence, Gricean, inflection,
redundancy, relevance, synonymy.

1. Derivational redundancy in English: A brief introduction

Lieber (2004: 154) is a pioneer in introducing the term DR to the
literature available on the present topic. DR refers to the presence
of “multiple synonymous affixes” whose morphological function is
to express the same semantic content. Matthews (1974:149) uses
the term “extended exponence” to describe cases in which an in-
flectional category” would have exponents in each of two or more
distinct positions” which can express other inflectional categories.
Accordingly, morphemes may not be redundant, but some of the
inflectional features they express may be. Trask (1993: 99) states
that extended exponence is the phenomenon by which a single
grammatical distinction is “overtly expressed at two or more points
within a word form”. Extended exponence “characterizes those
cases of morphological realization where a single morpho-syntac-
tic property seems to be expressed by more than one exponent
(i.e., inflection marker) (Mȕller, 2007:253). To put it simply, expo-
nence “refers to the realization of morphosyntactic features via
inflection”(Aronoff &Fudeman, 2011:160).
29
 To cite some examples, the researcher, being a native speaker of
Arabic, states that this extended exponence can be realized by an
affix attached to verbs and nouns in Arabic to indicate the category
of person, of number and of gender: ‫ قاال‬qȃlȃ: (they both males)
say. Morphologically, the affix -‫ ا‬is concomitantly marking the fact
that the speakers are two (the category of number), and they are
the third speaker (the category of person) and they are masculine
(the category of gender). The same applies to the verb forms and
nouns which are morphologically associated with the affix - ‫ ون‬in
that this affix simultaneously indicates the category of number, of
gender and of person (3rd person plural).By the way, nouns should
be in subject position. e.g.
1. ‫ المهاجرون يبحثون عن ملجأ لهم‬almuhȃjirwn yabḥaṯwn ʿan malja’n
lahum
(Its literal translation: Masculine refugees search for a shelter.)
Refugees search for a shelter.
In support of the above concept, Booij( 2005:116) confirms that
“ in many languages there is no one-t-one relation between inflec-
tional properties and their expressions by morphemes” The two
inflectional suffixes of the Arabic example realize what is called cu-
mulative exponence where more than one category is expressed by
the same inflectional suffix”. Put another way, Stump (2001a: 31)
says that it is very frequent that “a single marking serves simultane-
ously as an exponent of two or more morpho-syntactic properties”.
He (2001b: 4) clarifies that a given property may be expressed by
more than one morphological marking in the same word.
30
 When one goes further in depth in English affixation, he finds
out that although redundancy or extended exponence in deriva-
tion is rare, it is possible for researchers to come across it. For ex-
ample, one can find in Oxford English Dictionary (OED) a number
of examples of double agentives. This can be illustrated in table (1)
below:

Stems Agentive noun Agentive noun

Check Checker Checkerist

Consume Consumer Consumerist

Music Musician Musicianer

Pragmatics Pragmatist Pragmatician

Table (1): Examples of double agentives in English

Affixes forming adjectives exhibit examples of affixal doubling.
This can be evidenced in table (2) as follows:

Stems Adjectives Adjectives

problem Problematic problematical
geography Geographic geographical
analysis Analytic analytical

Table (2) Affixal doubling in adjectives derivation

Although in some pairs, one or another of the two derivatives
has been lexicalized with a special meaning (e.g. historic vs. his-
31
torical, economic vs. economical), in many cases there appears no
distinction in meaning at all (Lieber, 2004:164).

1.2. Mismatch between form and meaning in word formation

Adams (1973: 213) states that the “apparatus of word forma-
tion is sometimes present to signal a shift in meaning and use, but
often it is not”. This quotation clearly indicates that there is room
for the absence of the meanings of some bound morphemes when
attached to stems. In other words, one cannot be fully confident to
say that there is one to one correspondence between word forms
(involving affixes) and their meanings. Some affixes seem to lack
any semantic content, yet they are present in deriving nouns from
verbs for instance, as put by Lieber (2004: 12), some morphemes
seem to mean nothing at all (e.g. the -in- in longitudinal or the -it-
in repetition).
Conversely, more than one affix is used in the creation of new
words, i.e. words of the same class. Some word formation rules
have more than one “meaning correlate” as can be evidenced
with reference to the English suffixes -ion, -ment, and -al,. The last
three suffixes are called nominalizing affixes (Booij, 1979: 986). If
one considers the well-formed nominalizations of the verbs which
share the stem -mit (admit, permit, commit, remit, etc.) and the
verbs with the stem –fer (transfer, confer, refer, prefer, defer etc.),
one finds at first sight an entirely haphazard pattern. The conven-
tional lexicon contains admittance, but not *permittance, commit-
ment, but not *remitment, referral, but not *preferral. Yet two
32
generalizations do come to the fore; all verbs in –mit have a cor-
responding noun in -mission (admission, permission, commission,
remission, etc.), and all verbs in -fer have a corresponding noun in
-inference, with stress shifted to the prefix (transference, confer-
ence, reference, preference, etc.). These generalizations can read-
ily be stated as redundancy rules, but these rules, though fully pro-
ductive, must be classified as purely morphological, because the
meanings of the nouns concerned are not predictable, from those
of the verbs. Though not always, usually the meaning of a noun
in -mission, or -ference matches the meaning of the correspond-
ing verb, but this may not be the verb’s commonest meaning. The
commonest meaning of defer is ‘postpone’, yet deference never
means ‘postponement’ but only ‘courtliness, respectful yielding’.
The same holds true for the relationship between commit and
‘commission’ in that the latter means ‘ a reward to a salesman for
making a sale’, official committee’ which have nothing to do with
commit (Carstairs-Macarthy, 1992: 50-1).

1.3. Pragmatic impact of redundant affixation

DR has been frowned upon by semanticists and pragmaticians
alike owing to two reasons that (1) the usefulness of it is not that
great in expanding the language’s lexicon and (2) it does not grant
interlocutors a wide choice of lexis to select from while they are
involved in conversation. As such, it is restricted by pragmatic con-
straints on coinage in that, for instance, negative prefixes might be
disfavoured on negative bases simply because it is usually not par-
33
ticularly useful to coin such words. To rule out redundancy is not
guaranteed, but it is not expected unless its usefulness is there.
One needs to be informative when he coins new words and such
words must be clear. The evidence introduced so far in (1.1. & 1.2
above) suggests that the restriction on affixation is actually not a
semantic one, but a pragmatic one (Leiber, 2004: 166). This is sup-
ported by Downing’s thesis in that the only constraints on affixa-
tion are pragmatic ones reflecting “the factors which determine
the range of situations in which a given novel form may felicitously
be used, and the likelihood that it will be lexicalized”(1977: 480).
Leiber (2004: 166) maintains, in this regard, that one might ap-
peal to Grice’s maxims of his cooperative principle, especially to
Maxim of Manner. The latter maxim consists of four sub-maxims
which state: (1) avoid obscurity of expression, (2) avoid ambiguity,
(3) be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity) and (4) be orderly. These
sub-maxims can be flouted for a variety of reasons which the
present paper is not directly concerned with. These sub-maxims
are related to the maxims of quantity, of quality and of relevance.
One should observe the third sub-maxim; otherwise to fail to be
brief is to make one’s contribution in a conversation more infor-
mative than required, as well as to say what is irrelevant (Birner,
2013: 58, 60).
Accordingly, the researcher underlines that DR leads to flout
the sub-maxim of brevity in that a participant in a given discourse
would use one derivative which is coined from the same base (e.g.
problematic rather than problematical) to convey the message he
34
is after. At the moment of involvement in a conversation, a partici-
pant might be reserved to use both derivatives due to the absence
of necessity to do so since one novel form would do. And he tries
his best to be clear and avoids misunderstanding (on the part of
the other addressee) that might result from obscurity in spoken
discourse.

2. Arab linguists’ treatment of derivational redundancy

Arab grammarians and morphologists speak of morphological
synonymy (MS) which is equivalent in reference and meaning to
DR. However, they do not digest the concept of MS due to the fact
that all traditional and modern scholars of the language hold the
thesis that the resultant of affixation (whether nominal, verbal or
adjectival) is conducive to the birth of new meanings. Some talk
of morphological approximation of nominal, verbal and adjectival
derivatives instead of MS owing to the fact the presence of fine
semantic differences between these superficially morphological
synonymous derivatives remains beyond dispute. This does not
mean that reference to MS is not unaccounted for in authoritative
texts or writings on Arabic morphology. Accordingly, MS is justified
with reference to the presence of two semantically equivalent de-
rivatives in two different dialects (e.g. Qurayšy dialect & Temymy
dialect) of the same standard language. Or, poetic necessity plays
a role in using two equivalent derivatives though they are semanti-
cally different in other contexts. DR is evidenced in verb derivatives
(specially the derivatives of the triliteral), derivatives of infinitives,
35
plural forms derived from the same root which are interchange-
ably used, etc. The following subsections will be concerned with
discussing such issues in some detail.

2.1 Redundant affixation in the triliteral verb and its deriva-

tives
From a morphological perspective, Arabic verbs are broadly di-
vided into two main types: roots and derived. The former refer to
verbs whose radicals (either triliteral or quadrilateral) cannot be
reduced or modified; once a radical is deleted, the verb becomes
meaningless. As for derived verbs, they are transmuted from roots
by the affixation of triliterals with one radical, two radicals or three
radicals. And, quadriliterals are affixated by one radical or two rad-
icals. It is beyond dispute that verb-affixation leads to the rise of
new meanings ( Ar-Rǧḥy, 2014: 32).
The roots, whether triliterals or quadriliterals, are morpholog-
ically categorized in terms of certain inflectional paradigms. The
same holds true of derived verbs (ibid, P.33). For instance, the in-
َ َ
flectional paradigms of the triliteral root verbs are: (1) ‫ ف َعل‬faʿala,
َ َ َ
‫ك َت َب‬: kataba, wrote, (2) ‫ ف ُعل‬faʿula, ‫ح ُس َن‬:
َ ḥasuna, to become hand-
َ َ َ
some, (3) ‫ ف ِعل‬faʿila: ‫ فرِ َح‬fariḥa; to become glad. Quadriliterals, on
ََ َ
the other hand, have in the main one inflectional paradigm ‫فعلل‬,
faʿlala(e.g. ‫سو َس‬ َ ‫ َو‬waswasa, to talk to someone evilly). Once a root
َ
verb is affixated, it acquires a different sense (e.g.‫ ك َت َب‬: kataba, to
َ َ
write; ‫أستك َت َب‬, istaktaba, to ask someone to write) (al-Ḥamlawy,
1957: 29-30; see also Šlȃš etal, 1989: 56-57).
36
 However, some Arab morphologists hold the thesis that the de-
rived verbs and their roots are, on certain occasions, interchange-
ably used to the extent that the presence of one leads to the ab-
sence of necessity to the other. In other words, it is redundant to
use the derived verb since the root verb is there to express the
same sense. Put differently, the two verbs cannot semantically col-
locate in the same utterance. The roots and their corresponding
َ َ
derivatives can express the same meanings; for instance, ‫ج َهد‬, ja-
َ َ َ
hada, and ‫‘ أجهد‬jhada: the former verb is a triliteral root while the
latter is a derived one by affixating the triliteral with one initial
radical, yet the two verbs mean to work harder. The same holds
َ
true of ‫ح ًب‬ḥabba, َ ‘ḥbba mean to love. Introducing a
and ‫أح ٌب‬,
similar view, Ibn As-Sarȃj (d.316 h. 1999: 116-117) speaks of the
derivatives of the triliteral (which are affixated with one or two
radicals) that convey the same meaning. This is true of the follow-
ing example: ‫س ّميت‬sammaytu
َ َ ‫أسم‬
, and ‫يت‬ ّ asmmaytu: both mean
to name someone. Due to space necessity, it is not possible here to
introduce all the examples cited by grammarians in the theoretical
discussion of the present topic.
Some other morphologists maintain that two other inflectional
paradigms affixated with two radicals (derived from the same tri-
ََ َ َ ََ
literal root): ‫فاعل‬‫ ت‬tafȃʿala and ‫ تف ّعل‬tafaʿʿla, are used for referring
ََ َ َ َ
to the same sense. For instance, ‫عاهد‬ ‫ ت‬taʿȃhad and ‫ ت َع ّهد‬taʿʿhada
mean to promise; both verbs denote multiplicity and repetition.
Nevertheless, such a view is rejected by others in that the former
verb means to get involved in a promise on the part of more than
37
one party, while the latter verb to commit to self-promise.
2.2. Redundant derivatives in plural paradigms
Arab morphologists classify plurals in Arabic into two main class-
es: Sound plurals and broken plurals. The latter is subdivided into
plurals of abundance and plurals of paucity whereas sound plurals
are subcategorized into sound masculine plural and sound feminine
plurals. Sound plurals are called so because they are pluralized by
the plural suffix -‫ ون‬and -‫ ات‬to mark masculine and feminine plurals,
respectively; the singular form is unchanged when the two-men-
tioned suffixes are attached to singular nouns. At the other extreme,
plurals of abundance are termed so owing to the fact that they in-
dicate nouns referring to plurals extending from ten to an infinite
number of objects while paucity plurals refer to nouns extending
from three up to ten objects.
Broken plurals consist of twenty eight inflectional paradigms:
four of which are famous for signalling paucity while the rest de-
note abundance. The four inflectional paradigms of paucity plurals
are: (1) ‫فعل‬ُ ‫‘ َأ‬f ʿul where the nouns like ‫ نهر‬nahr : a river are plural-
َ ‘fʿȃl(e.g. ‫‘ أنهار‬nhȃr: rivers),(3) ‫أفع َلة‬
ized as ‫‘ أنهر‬nhur rivers; (2) ‫أفعال‬ ِ
َ ً
‘fʿila,( e.g. ‫‘ أغلفة‬ġlifa :covers) and(4) ‫ ِفعلة‬fʿlah (e.g. ‫ ِغلمة‬, ġilma :
valets)(1) (Šlȃš etal, 1989, P.178-183).
In the same vein, As-Sȃmarȃ’y (1981: 129) states that the vari-
ation in forms of plurals is attributed to: (1) the variety of Arabic

(1) Due to the absence of plurals of paucity in English, it is not easy to draw morpholog-
ical distinctions in translating the Arabic plural forms of this category into English.

38
dialects where more than one paradigm is used for denoting the
same plural, (2) the same plural form is used for denoting paucity
and abundance, (3) the variety of meanings that a singular noun
has where each meaning has a particular plural form or (4) poetic
necessity is involved in giving rise to the existence of more than
one plural form for the same singular noun. He (P.133) adds that
the poet might be obliged to use more than plural form to refer to
the same sense. It is seen by As-Sȃmarȃ’y (P.130) that the different
paradigms of morphological derivations of paucity and abundance
plurals convey different senses. Moreover, sound plurals can be
used to indicate abundance and paucity as well (al-Hȃšimy, 2009:
369).(1) (al-ʿaqydy (2013: 225).
Sybawayh (d.180 h. 2009: 572-573) underlines that morpho-
logical derivatives of more than one paucity plural from the same
singular noun is of currency in Arabic in that , for instance, two
paucity plurals can be derived on basis of the first and the sec-
ond paradigms mentioned above. In this regard, al-ʿaqydy (2013:
242) confirms that the paucity-abundance plurals distinction is
not supported by valid evidence because the choice of one plural
rather than the other is context-dependent. The contextual and
pragmatic determinants entail the use of paucity plurals to refer to
the sense of abundance and vice versa. This is highly recurrent in
Qurȃnic ayas. e.g.

(1) Owing to its wide use in leading journals in linguistics and translation studies, the
ISO transliteration system is used in the present paper.

39
 َ ْ َّ َ َ َّ
َ ‫اأْل ْن ُف َس ِح‬
1. “‫ين َم ْو ِت َها‬ ‫”اهَّلل يت َوفى‬
ُ Az-Zumur/ 42
Allȃh yatawaffa ‘ al-anfus ḥyna mawtiha.
It is Allȃh Who takes away the souls.(1)
The underlined Arabic plural of paucity in the aya above is used
to indicate abundance owing to the fact that human beings’ souls
(which are taken away by Allȃh) are definitely greater in number
than ten souls signalled by paucity plurals. The same is true of pau-
city plurals found in other Qurȃnic ayas such as ‫أنهار‬, rivers, ‫أعين‬
eyes, ‫ أخــوة‬brothers which contextually refer to abundance ; not
paucity. This is supported by al-Ḥadyṯy (2003: 202) in that plurals
of paucity are sometimes contextually used instead of plurals of
abundance and vice versa.
Accordingly, the researcher has concluded that morphological
redundant derivatives in Arabic plural forms are there. In addition,
contextual factors play the vital role in alternatively using two plu-
ral forms though they are derived from the same singular noun.

2.3. On the synonymity of morphologically related derivatives

Morphologically related derivatives are categorized according to
whether they are descriptive or non-descriptive where the latter
classes cannot be treated as synonyms due to the explicitly seman-
tic differences between them. For instance, the active participle

(1) All the translations of Qurȃnic ayas are taken from al-Hilȃli and Khȃn (1996) Trans-
lation of the meanings of the noble Qur’ȃn into the English language. Madinah :
King Fahd Complex for the printing of the holy Qur’ȃn.

40
‫الالعب‬: al-lȃʿib: Player, and the noun of place ‫ الملعب‬al-malʿab: the
stadium; though derived from the same stem, the former describes
the doer of the action while the latter refers to the place where the
activity is practiced. Nouns of place and time, accordingly, cannot
be categorized as descriptive. The non-descriptive derivatives con-
sist of the noun of a tool, nouns of place and of time while the de-
scriptive derivatives consist of the active participle, the past partici-
ple, intensive forms, superlative nouns and assimilate epithet (Ibin
ʿaqyl, 2009: 100f, Vol.III).
Many Arab morphologists think that the intensive paradigm
faʿiilin (e.g, ‫رحيم‬
ٍ raḥymin: very merciful) and the active participle
paradigm fȃʿilin (e.g. ‫راحم‬
ٍ rȃḥimin: merciful) are morphologically
synonymous in expressing the same meaning. The same holds true

ٍ ʿȃlimin: scientist and ‫عليم‬

of ‫عالم‬ ٍ ʿalyymin: all-knowing
The argument supporting this view is that both paradigms above
carry the same essence of the attribute i.e. mercy or knowledge.
If morphologists intend this, it is not morphological synonymy;
it is semantic approximation (al-Hȃšimy, 2009: 311). In addition,
both paradigms are either intensive forms or assimilate epithets
where the former express intensity in carrying out an action more
than the active participle form (e.g. ‫ فهيم‬fiyym; of too much under-
standing). Unlike the active participle, assimilate epithets denote
the inherent attribute of a person or an object (e.g. ‫ كريم‬karym;
over-generous). This can be evidenced by the statement of al-ʻas-
kary, (1974: 216) in that the active participle form and the inten-
sive form are employed to convey the sense of intensiveness (e.g.
41
‫ أالثيم‬al-’ṯym : over-doer of sins, ‫ أالثم‬alȃṯim sin-doer).

2.4 The pragmatic functions of morphological synonymy

Though Arab morphologists have not explicitly touched upon
the pragmatic bearing of MS, they refer to the contextual factors
governing the use of morphologically synonymous derivatives.
This is true of their reference to the alternative use of such deriv-
atives in spite of the fact that they are supposed to be referring to
different grammatical senses (see 2.2. above). Context-dependen-
cy remains the decisive factor in selecting one morphological form
rather than the other. The instances of such a linguistic phenome-
non are very frequent especially in Qur’anic texts.
The intended meaning that two synonymous derivatives ex-
press is discernible from contextual and pragmatic factors ( Ha-
soon, 1987: 10).

3. Conclusions
On the basis of what was introduced in (1. & 2. above), the fol-
lowing conclusions have been drawn:
1. DR is true of Arabic and English and it is pragmatically gov-
erned by the same contextual factors as far as its uses are con-
cerned.
2. Morphologists in both languages have not talked in terms of
total DR in that slight differences of meaning are present between
morphologically redundant (synonymous) derivatives.
3. The terms DR and SM are two terms alternatively used for
42
referring to the same linguistic phenomenon in both languages.
However, in English extended exponence is a synonymous term
for DR.
4. The researcher has concluded that it is more accurate to talk
of MS rather than DR since morphologists in both languages main-
ly reject redundancy due to the presence of slight differences of
meaning between morphologically synonymous forms.
5. Morphologically synonymous plural forms are frequent in Ar-
abic whereas they have not got wide currency (e.g. curriculum;
curriculums/ curricula) in English.
6. Derivationally synonymous verbs are quite possible to come
across in Arabic while they are not easily found in English.

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Aronoff, Marl & Fudeman, Kirsten (2011) What is morphology?
2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
Birner, Betty, J. (2013) Introduction to pragmatics. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Booij, Geert (1979) Semantic Regularities in Word Formation.
Linguistics(17). PP. 985-1001.
Booij, Geert (2005) The grammar of words. Oxford: OUP.
Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew (1992) Current morphology. Lon-
don: Routledge.
Downing, P. (1977) On the Creation and Use of English Com-
43
pound Nouns. Language 53. PP. 810-842.
al-Ḥamlawy, Ahmed (1957) Šaḏa al-ʿurf fy fan Aṣ-Ṣarf. (A
morphological introductory survey). Cairo: Dar alHilal Publishing
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al-ʻaskary, A. (d.395h.)(1974) al-Furuq al-luġawia(Linguistic dif-
ferences). Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʻilmia.
al-ʿaqydyy, R. Hassan (1931) Alʿuwmum aṢṢarfyy fy al-Qurȃn
alkarym.(General morphology of the Qurȃn). Baghdad: Technical
Center.
al-Hȃšimy, Huda, H (2009) Tarȃduf al-’bniyia fy ‘ilm aṣ-Ṣarf.
(Synonymy of derivatives in Arabic morphology). M.A. Unpub-
lished Thesis. Al-Mustansiriyia University. Iraq.
Hasoon, H.R. (1987) Aṣ-Ṣyaġ al-muḏakara al- ʿȃma fy al-Quran
al-karym (General masculine patterns in the Noble Quran). Bagh-
dad: Baghdad University Press.
al-Hilȃli and Khȃn (1996) Translation of the meanings of the no-
ble Qur’ȃn into the English language. Madinah : King Fahd Com-
plex for the printing of the holy Qur’ȃn.
Ibin ʿaqyl, B. Abdullah (d.769h.) (2009) Šarḥ Ibin ʿaqyl.( Com-
mentaries of Ibin ʿaqyl on Ibin Mȃlik’s one-thousand poem of in-
troducing Arabic grammar). Cairo: Dȃr al-ṭalȃ’ʿ.
Ibn As-Sarȃj, Mohammed, S. (d.316 h.) ( 1999) ‘al-’ṣṣwl fy al-
Nnaḥw. Vol. I (Fundamentals of grammar) . Ar-Risȃla Foundation:
Kuwait
Lieber, Rochelle (2004) Morphology and lexical semantics. Cam-
bridge: CUP.
44
 Matthews, P.H. (1972) Morphology: An introduction to the the-
ory of word structure. Cambridge: CUP.
Mȕller, G. (2007) “ Extended Exponence by Enrichment: Argu-
ment Encoding in German, Archi, and Timucua” in U. Penn Work-
ing papers in linguistics. Volume 13. 1. University of Leipzig.PP.253-
266.
Ar-Rǧḥy, A. (2014) At-Taṭbyq An-Naḥwy.( Grammatical applica-
tion). Tehran: AlAttar Publications.
Šlȃš, H ; al-Farṭwsy, M. & Hussein, A. (1989) al-Muhaḏḏab fy
ʻilm At-Tṣryf. (Morphology: An introductory survey). Baghdad: Bait
al-Hikma Publications.
As-Sȃmarȃ’y, F. S. (1981) Maʻȃny al’bnyah fy al-ʻarabyia (Mean-
ings of morphological buildings in Arabic). Kuwait: University of
Kuwait.
Stump, G. T. (2001a) Inflection. In Andrew Spencer & Arnold
A. Zwicky (eds.) The handbook of morphology. Oxford: Blackwell.
PP.13-43
Stump, G. T. (2001b) Inflectional morphology: A theory of para-
digm structure. Cambridge. CUP.
Sybwayh, A. Q.(d.180h.) (1988) al-Kitȃb (The book). Cairo: al-H̱ ȃ-
najy Publishing House.
Trask, R.L. (1993)A dictionary of grammatical terms in linguis-
tics. London Routledge.

45
 Diminutives in Arabic-to -English Translation(1)

Abstract: Diminutives serve a variety of semantic functions such

as preference, satire, affection, endearment etc. The present study
endeavours to highlight similarities and differences between both
languages and the effect they have on how diminutives are trans-
lated from Arabic to English. It is hypothesized that the use of noun
phrases preceded by adjectives could be more recurrent than
those preceded by quantifiers in rendering diminutives from Ara-
bic into English. Two theoretical surveys of diminutives in both lan-
guages were introduced and professional translators were handed
a literary text to render into English. On the basis of the linguistic
and statistical analysis of the translations involving diminutives, it
has been found out that diminutives have been mainly translated
into noun phrases preceded by adjectives more than those noun
phrases preceded by quantifiers.

Keywords: affixes, collocations, diminutives, endearment and

quantifiers
1. Diminutives in English: An Introduction
Traditionally, the term diminutive has been used to refer to
words that denote smallness and possibly also express the speak-
er’s attitude. On his part, Crystal (1997:116) defines what is meant

(1) This chapter is based on a paper published in Babel 58: 4 (2012), P.395–407.

46
by diminutive as “a term used in morphology to refer to an affix
with the general meaning of ‘little’”. Trask (1993:82) maintains that
it is “a derivational affix which may be added to a word to express a
notion of small size, often additionally … a notion of warmth or af-
fection”. It is a common myth that English has no diminutives, but
one can find out that diminutives do exist in it due to the fact that
it is rare to find a book on English morphology that does not touch
upon diminutives. English diminutives are categorized as synthetic
and analytic: the latter are lexis signalling the sense of ‘smallness”
.English has lexical units that carry the sense referred to. The units
concerned do not receive morphological affixes to convey the
sense in question and they are not many in number i.e. they can
be counted and they belong to different word classes (e.g. (a)few,
(a)little, merely, minor, solely, tinny, meager etc ).
The synthetic diminutives, on the other hand, are marked by
suffixes such as: -ie,-ette,-let, -kin, -een, -s, -poo, etc.(Schneider
2004:4).The Synthetic morphological derivation of diminutives is
made by affixes attached to nouns for expressing a variety of sens-
es that are not found in such nouns prior to affixation. The process
of diminutive formation is classified by some as modification rather
than derivation since word class is retained in the process i.e. this
morphological affixation does not change word classes. Thus, the
meaning of the base is modified, but remains basically unchanged.
All that can undergo real changes is the written and phonological
shape of the base. Katamba (1993:21) supports this view saying
that the addition of the diminutive morpheme -ette, for instance,
47
to a noun to derive a new noun has the meaning’ smaller in size’
(e.g. kitchenette is a small kitchen and a cigarette is a small cigar).
Moreover, he (p. 210) maintains that it is controversial to view –
ling,-y,-let and –ette as derivational suffixes, because diminutive
formation is not part of any general, syntactically driven paradigm.
One good argument for this view is that no syntactic rule of En-
glish needs to make reference to the property ‘diminutive’. How-
ever, the reverse holds true of some other languages (e.g. African
languages) where diminutives and augmentatives(1) are marked by
affixes that are at the heart of the inflectional system.
In conclusion, it is thought that diminutive formation is some
sort of morphological modification rather than derivation due to
the fact that prefixation or suffixation involved in forming dimin-
utives keeps word classes unchanged. Moreover, the meaning of
the base remains roughly the same when made into a diminutive
(see 1.1 below).

1.1 Formation of Diminutives

Prefixation and suffixation are at work in forming diminutives
where the latter is more recurrent than the former to co-occur with
nouns to form diminutive nouns. Prefixation, on the other hand, is
attached to verbs and nouns on equal footing to make them into

(1) Augmentative is a term used in morphology to refer to an affix with the general
meaning ‘large’ (Crystal, 1997:34).Augmentatives are not frequently used in En-
glish whereas they are commonly used in Arabic as there are forms of intensive-
ness ‫( صيغ المبالغه‬Al-Azzaawi 2006:161f).

48
diminutives. For instance, suffixes such as –let (small or unimport-
ant) is attached to nouns: leaf- leaflet, book-booklet;-ette(compact)
kitchen-kitchenette, dinner-dinnerette;-ling(minor) duck-duckling,
pinceling while mini-(little) is a prefix attached to nouns such as
bus-minibus, market-minimarket; under-(too little) combines with
verbs and –ed participles freely e.g. under-play, under-estimate,
under-privileged (Quirk et al 1985: 1542,1549,1584).
Stageberg (1981:102f) sticks to the view which is totally distinct
from the above-mentioned one in that he restricts the process
of diminution to nouns where six suffixes are attached to nouns.
These suffixes convey the sense of smallness or endearment or
both. The first suffix involving (-ie,-i,-and y), although spelt differ-
ently, is highly productive and frequently attached to personal
names to suggest endearment, intimacy or smallness (e.g. John-
ny, Janey, Jackie etc). Similarly, it is attached to common nouns,
as in doggie, sweetie birdie. As for the second suffix, -ette, is also
productive to indicate smallness such as a dinette which is a small
dining area, a roomette is a small room. Semantically, it is possible
to distinguish a number of meanings, or possibly a number of dis-
tinct suffixes, for the form -ette .These include a pure diminutive as
in rangette, a marker of imitation, as leatherette, and a feminine
marker as in farmerette( Bauer 1983:119). The other four diminu-
tive suffixes [(kin,-ikin,-kins),-ling,-et,and -let)] are not highly pro-
ductive. In addition, many diminutives have come into English as a
part of borrowing (See also Spencer 2001:142).
In forming diminutives, three processes are involved: morpho-
49
logical, semantic and phonological. The morphological process is
at work in that the shape of the word will be changed by adding
either a prefix or a suffix (e.g. match; minimatch, leaf; leaflet). The
semantic and phonological processes result in producing a new
sense and a different pronunciation of the base, respectively (Kat-
amba 1993:210) See also(Al-Azzaawi 2006:16ff).

1.2 The Semantics of Diminution

Diminutive is a semantic category which is true of human lan-
guage, expressing a variety of senses that includes affection, sym-
pathy, intimacy, contempt, partitive etc. This linguistic phenome-
non is true of German, Czech, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French etc.
In German, for instance, nouns are made into diminutives by the
suffixes –chen and –lein which can be freely attached to nouns
with a suitable meaning: Schwester ‘sister’- Schwesterchen, Frau
‘woman’- Frȁulein. In English and French, this can be done on a
very limited scale (e.g. lamb-lambkin, rio- riotelet etc); normal-
ly German diminutives will have to be rendered by an adjectival
phrase: Schwesterchen ‘little sister’ (Ullmann 1967:108).
Diminution, as used by English natives, has a variety of mean-
ings to express such as smallness, endearment, magnification etc.
This is mainly done by means of affixes which can, by extension,
be used for marking the off-spring of animals, affection, informal-
ity, resemblance or imitation (see1.1 above).Diminutives may be
used for showing less respect to other participants in a discourse.
Allen (1986:19) states:
50
 In some languages, though not English, acquaintances who nor-
mally address each other formally may use an informal use of ad-
dress to mark the withdrawal of respect; the English counterpart
is communicated prosodically … and perhaps by the use of such
informality markers such as diminutives and swearing.
Huddleston and Pullum (2002:1677) classify the suffixes ac-
cording to the meanings they indicate. For instance, the suffix
-ette marks smallness, imitation or female sex (e.g. novelette,
flannelette, usherette); -ie/ y is the most productive of the dimin-
utive markers in present-day English. It is found in numerous hy-
pocoristics (pet names): Billy, Jimmy etc. Secondly, it is commonly
used in language spoken to or by children: granny, piggy, doggie.
As for the suffixe -let, it indicates small size: flatlet, booklet; it is
also used with a few animal names to denote offspring (e.g.piglet,
eaglet). The suffix –ling is used to indicate small or young ani-
mals: spiderling, codling, duckling etc. Applied to adult persons,
it reflects the sense of contempt: princeling, hireling, squirreling.
As mentioned in (1.1), prefixes can also be used as attached to
nouns, verbs and participles. For example, micro- and mini- are
productive in diminutive formation to indicate small size (e.g.
minibudget, miniskirt, minicab, microwave, micrometer micro-
scope etc).-Micro indicates a significantly greater degree of small-
ness than mini- (ibid, 1678).

1.3 Controversy over Diminutives

As referred to in (1. above), there is some debate over the sta-
51
tus of diminutives whether to categorize the process of diminu-
tive-formation as a part of inflectional or derivational morpholo-
gy. Haspelmath (2002:80) holds the view that diminutives are like
classical inflected forms in that “they do not (necessarily) denote
a new concept-Spanish gatito often refers to the same kind of cat
as gato, but occurs under special pragmatic circumstances”. Intro-
ducing a different view, Bybee (1985:98f) discusses the point that
the content of morphological categories determines whether they
will appear in inflectional or derivational domains. He continues
saying that linguists (e.g. Sapir, 1921) have studied this question
and have not reached a firm conclusion. From a different perspec-
tive, examples from other languages prove that inflectional cate-
gories are closely related to some derivational categories. Ander-
son (1982), as quoted in Bybee (ibid), argues that the inflectional
/ derivational distinction cannot be made on the basis of meaning
as he points to the examples of an ordinarily derivational category,
diminutive, which in Fula is inflectional. He (1985:177) adds that
it is quite common for a language to have diminutive formation
even in cases of such fairly productive affixes as German –chen/-
lein or Spanish –ito, there is little reason for calling this an inflec-
tional rather than derivational category. In a few cases, however,
the formation of diminutives is so thoroughly integrated into the
language’s inflectional system that its status is not in doubt.

52
 2. Diminutives in Arabic: A brief Survey(1)
The diminution formation process in Arabic is basically confined
to nouns where they undergo the change according to certain
morphological paradigms. This results from infixes internally in-
serted within the building of nouns to express a variety of senses
that are in the main related to the linguistic meaning of the noun
before its change into a diminutive (eg ,‫شجرة‬shajara: a tree‫شجيرة‬
shujaira: a small tree) ( Al-Nȃaylah 1988:270). Arab scholars (e.g.
Ibin al-Ḥȃjib(2) 1975:27; Ibin al-Sarȃj 1973:36 ,al-Marjȃn 1981:486)
hold the position that turning a noun into a diminutive is intended
to convey the sense of smallness, contempt, minimizing or little-
ness (see 2.2 below).
2.1 Morphological Paradigms of Diminutives
Sybawayh (Vol. III 2009:415,), as other Arab grammarians do, in-
troduces a threefold classification of the morphological paradigms
in terms of which declinable nouns can be changed into diminu-
َُْ ُ
ِ ‫وف َع‬,‫يل‬ َُ
tives. They run as follows:‫عي ٍل‬ ِ ‫وفعي‬, ‫يع ٍل‬ ٍ ‫ فع‬fuʻailin, fuʻaiʻlin and
fuʻaiʻiilin. The first pattern is applicable to triliteral nouns and it is

(1) Key of Transliteration Symbols of Arabic Letters(AlKhudary 2004:13)

a ‫ا‬: b:‫ ب‬t:‫ ت‬th:‫ ث‬j:‫ ج‬ħ:‫ ح‬kh:‫ خ‬d:‫ د‬z:‫ ذ‬r: ‫ ر‬z: ‫ ز‬s:‫ س‬sh:‫ ش‬ș:‫ ص‬dh:‫ ض‬ț:‫ ط‬đ:‫ ع‬:6 ‫ ظ‬gh: ‫ غ‬f: ‫ ف‬q:‫ ق‬k:‫ك‬
l:‫ ل‬m: ‫ م‬n: ‫ ن‬h: ‫ ه‬w: ‫ و‬y: ‫ أ‬:‫ي ؟‬,
(2) It is a tradition in Arabic linguistics that the death dates of ancient Arab traditional
grammarians are mentioned next to their names because such death dates en-
able readers (1) to know the school of grammar the scholar belongs to and (2) to
familiarize them with the general trends of the school on the scholar’s day. Ac-
cordingly, the death dates of scholars quoted throughout the present paper will
be mentioned within the list of references.

53
the smallest pattern of diminution (e.g.‫ َر ُجل‬rajul : a man‫ ُر َجيل‬rujay-
lun: a little man) .The second pattern can be applied to quadriliter-
al nouns(e.g. ‫ درهم‬dirham, ‫ دريهم‬duryhim:a small dirham) while the
third paradigm is true of quinqueliteral nouns( ‫ مفتاح‬miftȃḥ, a key:
‫ مفيتيح‬mfytyḥ: a small key)( see Ibin Jinni 1982:330)

2.2 Semantic Functions of Diminutives

Traditional and modern Arab grammarians agree that dimi-
nution refers to a change (caused by infixation) in word building
that takes place basically within the structure of the base forms of
nouns to serve a variety of semantic functions. This change occurs
according to particular morphological paradigms whose sense in
the main is to express the sense of contempt and minimizing of
quantity or number (Al-Nȃaylah 1988:270).
1. ‫ كتبت وريقات نافعة‬katabtu wrayqatin nafiʻatin: I wrote a few
useful papers.
Moreover; diminution serves a variety of other senses. Ibin ʻṣ-
foor(1971:435) states that diminution is used for expressing close-
ness of time and dearness or intimacy of one’s position to another.
Following are examples to show the two senses referred to.
2. ‫ وصــل أحمد قبيل المساء‬waṣala Ahmed qubayla alʻṣr. Ahmed
reached closer to evening.
ُ
3. ‫ مرحبا بك ياأخيي‬marḥaban bika yaukhayy. Welcome my dear
brother.
Kufa linguists hold the view that diminution can express the
sense of magnification as they have their own arguments to sup-
54
port their stand whereas Basra linguists do not adhere to the same
position. They argue that the examples given by Kufa grammarians
still serve the sense of contempt and they are only two examples:
ٌ
4. ‫تصفر منها األنامل‬ ‫ دويهية‬diwayhiyatun taṣfarru minnha al?nȃmi-
lu. A little calamity which turns one’s fingertips yellow. This little
calamity plays a great part in putting an end to people’s lives al-
though it is underestimated.
ٌ
5. ‫ فويق ُجبيل شامخ الرأس لم تكن لتبلغه حتى تكل وتعمال‬fuwaiqa Jubaylin
shȃmikhu alr?si lem takun litablaghahu ḥata takkila wataʻmala.
It is over a small mountain whose top is too high for anyone to
see to the extent that it turns people tired and exhausted.
Examples (3) and (4) above clearly show that the intended
meaning behind using” a little calamity, a small mountain” is to re-
fer to the idea that they are great in effect and in size, respectively
since the former stands for death which people cannot contempt,
and the former signifies the great height of the mountain’s top
which is not easily accessible for people to look at (See also Alʻak-
bary, 1995:158).
AlḥadyƟy(1972:231) maintains that Arabs sometimes prefer to
use diminutives for the sake of brevity and conciseness. So, saying
‫ ُرجيل‬rujail, a small man is briefer than using two words (‫رجل صغير‬
rajulin ṣaghyrun) to serve the same purpose.
Al-Nȃaylah(1988:271f) mentions three more functions for dim-
inution to express: nearness of place , showing pity and endear-
ment.
6. ‫ جلست دويــن النهر‬jalastu diwayn alnahr. I sat down near the
55
river
7. ‫ قابلت رجال مسيكين‬qabaltu rajulan misaykyn. I met a very pau-
per man
In sentence (7) the speaker uses a diminutive noun to show pity
for the man he met.
8. ‫ ُب ٌنيتي التنامي متأخرة‬bunayaty lȃtanȃmy muta?khirah. Oh My
darling daughter, do not sleep late.
Finally, diminution can carry the sense of contempt where a
speaker produces an utterance involving a diminutive that shows
how he wants to undermine what is expected to be great in de-
gree or in rank.
9. ‫ يقولون أن شويعر حضر المهرجان‬yaqwlwn inna shiwayʻrin ḥađara
almahrajȃn
They are saying that a very minor poet attended the festival.
2.3 Non-diminutivizeable nouns
As mentioned in (2.1 above), diminution, according to given
morphological paradigms, is applicable to declinable nouns. This
implies that non-declinable nouns are not liable to diminution. In
this regard, Alṣiywṭy (1998:351f) maintains that the following can-
not be turned into diminutives:
1. Attributes of Allah cannot be changed into diminutives be-
cause they are meant to convey the sense of magnification and
glorification (e.g. ‫ العليم‬,‫ القدير‬all-knowing, all-powerful etc).This is
due to the fact that the senses of such attributes go in contradic-
tion with the basic sense of diminution which is contempt.

56
 2. Since diminution is intended to describe someone or some-
thing with contempt, particles and verbs (apart from verbs of sur-
prise) cannot express the sense concerned.
3. Mixed compounds cannot be turned into diminutives (eg ‫تابط‬
‫ جاد المولى‬,‫ )شرا‬because the first parts of which are verbs. Prothet-
ic compounds (‫عبداهلل‬Abdullah ,Ma’adyakrub‫معديكرب‬, synthetic com-
pounds (e.g. ba’labek ,‫بعلبك‬hadramawt‫ ) حضرموت‬and compound
numbers (e.g.‫ (خمس عشر‬, on the other hand, are prone to dimi-
nution where only the first part is changed into a diminutive form
(e.g. ‫ خميسة عشر‬,‫ حضيرموت‬,‫ بعيلبك‬,‫ معيديكرب‬,‫)عبيداهلل‬.
4. Nouns of interrogation and nouns of condition are also not
subject to diminution because they are diptotes.
5. Nouns whose morphological paradigms are similar to those
of diminutives (e.g. ‫كميت‬Kumait, Shu’aib,‫ شعيب‬,Zuhair‫ ) زهير‬cannot
be changed into diminutives owing to the fact that such paradigms
cannot be made diminutives twice (See also Al-Nȃaylah, 1988:273).
There is some controversy between Basra and Kufa grammari-
ans over whether days of week can be diminutivized or not. Syb-
awaih (2009:478ff) states that days of week cannot be changed
into diminutives because they are proper names. Kufa grammari-
ans, by contrast, confirm that it is permissible to turn days of week
into diminutives when one says ( alJum’a: Friday ,‫اليوم الجمعة‬alsab-
bit: Saturday ‫واليوم السبت‬and ‫اليوم‬is in the nominative case. Howev-
er, if it is in the accusative case, it is not possible to change days of
week into diminutives (Alṣiywṭy 1998:353)
4. Contrastive Analysis
57
 On the basis of the theoretical surveys of the treatments of
diminutives in both languages, the following conclusions have
been drawn:
1. Diminution is mainly true of nouns (and verbs of surprise) in
Arabic whereas it holds true of nouns, verbs, participles in English.
2. Diminutives roughly serve the same semantic functions in
both languages. However, Arabic diminutives express the senses
of nearness of time, of place and of magnification while English
ones do not.
3. In English, prefixation and suffixation are at work in making
nouns, verbs and participles into diminutives whereas in Arabic
only infixation is responsible for changing nouns into diminutives.
4. In forming diminutives, three processes are involved: mor-
phological, semantic and phonological. They hold true of both lan-
guages.
5. Affixes used in the formation of diminutives in English carry
particular meanings. In Arabic, on the other hand, the morpholog-
ical paradigms of diminutives have a variety of senses to convey.
6. In both languages, diminutive formation keeps word classes
unchanged.
The value of the above findings may clarify the reasons behind
the difficulties involved in translating diminutives from Arabic into
English.
5. Translation of Diminutives
This section is devoted to the translation of diminutives from Ar-
abic into English. Ten Arabic-speaking translation specialists were
58
given the same text to render it to English to find out the linguis-
tic features of such translations. The text in question is a narra-
tive one (an anecdote) telling a story of one of the ancient Persian
kings who went astray in a desert. Throughout the whole analysis,
a distinction is made between noun phrases proper and quantified
noun phrases where the latter is called quantifier-noun phrases.
This is due to the reason that the researcher wants to quantify the
translations of diminutives into those noun phrases preceded by
adjectives and those preceded by quantifiers. As a procedure for
analysis, if the translations of a given diminutive are the same (as
produced by specialists), they will not be repeated in discussion
.The diminutives in the original will be underlined and italicized
since they are the concern of the present paper.
‫يحكى ان احــد ملوك الفرس تــاه في الصحراء أثــر عاصفة رملية ُبعيد المغرب وبعد‬
.‫انجالئها لمح شجيرات في قلب الصحراء‬
yuḥka inna aḥad milook alfurs taha fy alṣaḥrȃ? iƟra ʻȃṣifatin
ramlyah buʻaida almaghrib wabaʻda injilȃ?hȃ lamaḥa shujairatin fy
qalib alṣaḥrȃ?.
It is narrated that one of the king of Persian kingdom went astray
in a desert due to a sandy storm closer to the evening. After the
storm had been over, he saw a few trees in the heart of the desert
The first diminutive bu’aida ‫ ُبعيد‬near which is used in Arabic
to show nearness of time was translated as shortly, after a very
short period of time, not too far and after that” while the second
diminutive (‫ شجيرات‬shujayrȃt: a few trees) whose morphological
paradigm signifies the sense of fewness was rendered as several
59
shrubs, bushes, some shrubs and some small trees. The accurate
translation of the first diminutive is shortly because it expresses
the sense of nearness of time whereas the second diminutive is
better rendered into some small trees since it reflects the meaning
of paucity. Translators’ adequate rendering of the latter diminutive
can be possibly attributed to the similarity between both languag-
es as far as diminutives expressing the sense of smallness are con-
cerned.
‫فسار بمفرده ولما وصل اليهن رأى بيتا من الشعر وقد توسدته شويتات لرجل أعرابي‬
.‫مسن‬
fasȃra bimufardihi walama wasala ilayhuna r?ȃ baytan min
alshaʻr waqad tawasadthu shiwaytatin lirajulin ?ʻrabyin musn.
Then, he walked alone as he reached them, he saw a wool-made
tent surrounded by a few ewes possessed by an old-aged man.
The renditions of the diminutive ‫شويتات‬: shiwaytatin,( the dimin-
utive form of a ewe) as produced by translators are as follows: lit-
tle sheep, some ewes, ewes, few sheep, a few sheep, small ewes
and little goats. The morphological paradigm of the diminutive
plural form in question signifies the sense of minimizing number
and quantity. Thus, translators have used adjectives or quantifiers
to refer to the sense concerned.
” ‫ركض الرجل لزوجه وهو يقول” صويحبتي ’أظن أن هذا شويعر‬
Rakadha alrajilu lizawjihi wahwa yaqul ; ṣiwayḥibaty ?dhinnu
inna hȃđȃ shiwayʻr
The man ran to his wife as he says” Oh, my darling, I guess that
our guest is a low-rank poet”
60
 The first diminutive ‫ صويحبتي‬ṣiwayḥibaty, in the extract above
is intended to show intimacy between two parties or more. The
renditions produced are: my partner, darling, my dear, dear fel-
low, my dear wife, dear, my darling and my beloved. Out of these
translations, one can realize that translators have tried to convey
the sense of intimacy or affection between the Bedouin and his
wife as found in the original. As for the diminutive ‫ شويعر‬shiwayʻr,
it expresses the sense of contempt. Translators gave the follow-
ing renditions to this diminutive: a poet, some poet, poetaster
and a versifier. It seems that all translators have failed to produce
the meaning intended. This translation difficulty could be due to
the lack of awareness on the part of translators of the sense this
diminutive indicates. This has been discovered after they have
been asked why they were unsuccessful in rendering it accurately.
Accordingly, it is better to translate it into: a low-rank poet.
‫وفتحا الصرة فوجدا حفنة من دريهمات من ذهب مع وريقة‬
wafataḥȃ alṣurata fawajadȃ ḥafnatan min durayhimȃtin min
zahabin maʻa wrayqatin.
Both opened the sack and found a few of dirhams made of gold
with a tiny paper.
The diminutive ‫ دريهمات‬carries the sense of fewness. It was
translated into: little dirhams, money and pennies. All the transla-
tions produced are inadequate because they have not given the
same sense that the diminutive carries. Therefore, it is thought
that the appropriate translation is: a few of dirhams. As far as the
diminutive ‫ وريقة‬wrayqatin is concerned, its morphological para-
61
digm is basically intended to convey the sense of smallness. It was
translated into; a paper, a little piece of paper, a written paper, a
small paper, a piece of paper, a tiny paper, a little sheet of paper
and a small sheet of paper. Four translations of the aforemen-
tioned are accurate to convey the sense found in the original: a
little piece of paper, a tiny paper, a little sheet of paper and a small
sheet of paper. Once the same diminutive has become definite, it
was rendered to: the sheet of paper, the little sheet of paper, the
paper, the piece of paper and the small piece of paper. It is true to
say that two translations were sound to express the same mean-
ing of the diminutive found in the ST. They are: the little sheet of
paper and the small piece of paper.
7. Conclusions
On the basis of the linguistic analysis of the translations of the
diminutives done above, some conclusions can be drawn. First-
ly, diminutives are primarily translated in terms of noun phrases
sometimes preceded by adjectives such as little and short. This
has verified the hypothesis of the present study. The percentages
of how diminutives have been translated run as follows: 75, 7%
of the translations of the diminutives were noun phrases some-
times preceded by adjectives; 15, 7% were in form of phrases
preceded by quantifier. 5,7% of diminutives were rendered into
adverbs and 2, 8% were in form of adjectives. Secondly, the sense
of smallness or littleness expressed by diminutives in the origi-
nal has been roughly retained in the TT. This is attributed to the
similarity between both languages in that diminutives in either
62
language are used for denoting smallness. Thirdly, translating
diminutives expressing the sense of contempt has proved difficult
to produce though both languages have diminutives showing the
sense concerned. Finally, once the diminutive becomes definite
due to second mentioning, translators generally tend to render it
as a non-diminutive noun.

Summary:
Diminutives serve a variety of semantic functions such as pref-
erence, satire, affection, endearment etc. The present paper has
been concerned with investigating whether translating diminu-
tives from Arabic into English is a difficult task to undertake by Ara-
bic-speaking professional translators or not. It is hypothesized that
the use of noun phrases preceded by adjectives could be more
recurrent than those preceded by quantifiers in rendering dimin-
utives from Arabic into English. Two theoretical surveys have been
done on diminutives in both languages to shed light on the simi-
larities and differences between both languages as far as the area
under investigation is concerned. This can help in attributing the
translation difficulties involved to their possible reasons. Then, an
Arabic literary text involving diminutives was chosen and handed
to ten translation specialists (whose mother tongue is Arabic) to
render to English. The translations produced have been assessed
in the light of the theoretical framework of the study. Accordingly,
it has been found out that accurate renderings produced are at-
tributed to the similarity between both languages in the linguistic
63
area under study. Inaccurate translations, on the other hand, are
possibly due to the differences between both languages. A high
percentage (75,7%) of the translations of the diminutives were
noun phrases preceded by adjectives. As a result, the hypothesis
of the study has been verified.
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Jurafsky,D.(1996)” Universal Tendencies in the Semantics of the
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Katamba, Francis (1993) Morphology. London: Macmillan
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al-Marjȃn, K. B.(1981)Kitȃb Alttkmila li?by Ali Al-Fȃrisi: A Revi-
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66
 Translation Assessment of
Arabic Implicit Negation into English(1)

Abstract: Unlike explicit negation which is grammatically or mor-

phologically signalled, implicit negation is a syntactico-semantic
concept referring to those sentences that are semantically negat-
ed by the presence of some adverbials, quantifiers, conjunctions,
particles etc. The present study is concerned with assessing the
English translations of implicit negatives as found in Qura’nic ayahs
and Arabic literary texts to uncover whether or not the translations
of this type of negation are accurately produced. It is hypothesized
that inaccuracies in the translation of implicit negation seem to be
more recurrent than the accurate renditions as far as the linguistic
area under study is concerned. The assessment of the translated
texts has proved that translation of implicit negatives is difficult
to process and convey from Arabic into English due basically to
the linguistic differences between both languages. This sometimes
has led to translate Arabic implicit negatives into English explicit
negatives.

(1) This chapter is built on a paper published in International Journal of English Lin-
guistics.Vol.3 No.2 April 2013 P.129-144.( Canada)

67
 1. Implicit Negation in Arabic: A Preliminary(1)
As defined by Arab grammarians (e.g.al-Makhzumi, 2005:265),
negation is a linguistic category which is opposite to affirmation and
intended to disprove or deny the truth value of a proposition. Ne-
gation is of two types: explicit and implicit. The former is signalled
َ
by particles such as:, lan ‫ لن‬mȃ‫ ما‬,la,‫ ال‬lam‫ لم‬etc and it is possible to
negate the whole sentence(whether nominal or verbal) by placing
the particle at its beginning. Some particles are exclusively used to
negate sentences whose tense is past and the same holds true of
those sentences whose tense is present (cf. Nahr, 2004:267-302).
ُ
1. ‫ ماحضر محمد‬Mȃ ḥadara Muhammadun(2). Muhammad did not
attend.
ُ
2. ‫ لن يحضر محمد‬Len yaḥdar Muhammadun(3). Muhammad does
not/ shall not attend.
As for implicit negation, it is one of the subtypes of negation
that is not referred to by negative particles but it can be under-
stood from the linguistic context of the sentence or the context
of situation. It can be carried out by interrogatives and condition-

(1) Thanks are due to Hussein K. Zanboor, a PhD researcher in Arabic Dept. of the
College of Arts, Mustansiriyia University, for providing me with Arabic sources.
(2) Apart from the Qurȃnic ayas, all the Arabic examples in the present paper are
translated into English by the researcher. In addition, the examples in the theoret-
ical part of the paper are the researcher’s.
(3) Key to Transliteration Symbols of Arabic Letters(AlKhudary 2004:13)
a ‫ا‬: b:‫ ب‬t:‫ ت‬th:‫ ث‬j:‫ ج‬ħ:‫ ح‬kh:‫ خ‬d:‫ د‬ż:‫ ذ‬r: ‫ ر‬z: ‫ ز‬s:‫ س‬sh:‫ ش‬ș:‫ ص‬dh:‫ ض‬ț:‫ ط‬đ:‫ ع‬:6 ‫ ظ‬gh: ‫ غ‬f: ‫ ف‬q:‫ ق‬k:‫ك‬
l:‫ ل‬m: ‫ م‬n: ‫ ن‬h: ‫ ه‬w: ‫ و‬y: ‫ أ‬:‫ي ؟‬,

68
als that imply the negative sense. Moreover, this type of negation
expresses some sense of brevity in the Arabic sentence without
which verbosity may come to the fore (Nahr, 2004:303)
3.‫ من قال ٌان األنسان معصوم؟‬Man qȃla inna alinsȃna ma’suum.
Who said that Man is perfect? Definitely such a sayer is absent.
The interrogative sentence above carries the sense that no one
has said so.
4.‫ لوزارني محمد أل كرمته‬Law zȃrani Muhammad la?kramtuh.
Had Muhammad visited me, I would have rewarded him.
The conditional sentence above expresses the sense that Mo-
hammad did not pay a visit to me and accordingly I did not reward
him (Atyia, 2007:211f).

1.1. Grammatical Devices of Implicit Negation

As mentioned in (1. above), implicit negation can be signalled
by interrogative particles, conditionals, adverbials and shortening.
Such devices will be introduced below.

1.1.1 Interrogative Particles Implying Negation

Arab grammarians hold a general consensus that there are four
interrogative particles that can be used in disaffirming the truth
value of a sentence. Firstly, besides its primary use for forming yes-
no questions, the interrogative particle “‫ هل‬: Hel” has the sense of
negation in that the linguistic context clearly indicates the meaning
concerned. In raising questions by the use of this particle, what is
intended by the speaker is not to know a piece of information that
69
he is not familiar with, but to negate or disprove the statement he
is introducing. e.g.
5.‫ هل يستطيع الطفل ان يرفع الحافله؟‬Hel yastaṭyu alṭifl an yarfa’a alḥȃ-
fila.
Is the child able to pick up the track?
The above example clearly shows that the implied negative
sense is there (al-Hirawy(1), 1971:218, see al-Awsy, 1988:371f,
al-Makhzumi, 2005:273).Secondly, the interrogative particle”‫من‬
men” whose meaning is “who” can be contextually used to reflect
the sense under study. e.g.
6.‫ من أنكر ان الشمس أ كبر من األرض؟‬Men ?nnkara anna alShams? kbar
min al?rdh
Who denied that the sun is larger than the earth?
Ibn Faris (1977:243) adds that the interrogative particle “ ‫كيف‬:
kaif, what or how” has an extra-meaning to exhibit negation. Since
the particle expresses the sense concerned, it can collocate with
the exceptive particle ”‫ اال‬:illa, except”. e.g.
َ
7. ‫كيف أعطيك هدية الفائز وأنت لم تشترك في السباق؟‬
Kaifa ?u”ṭiika hadyaten wa?nta lem tashtarik fi alsibȃq?
How could I give you a medal and you did not partake in the

(1) It is a tradition in Arabic linguistics that the death dates of ancient Arab traditional
grammarians are mentioned next to their names because such death dates en-
able readers (1) to know the school of grammar the scholar belongs to and (2) to
familiarize them with the general trends of the school on the scholar’s day. Ac-
cordingly, the death dates of scholars quoted throughout the present paper will
be mentioned within the list of references.

70
race?
8.‫كيف جزت أمتحان الكفاءة في اللغة األنجليزية لغة أجنبية بهذا المستوى الركيك‬
‫اال ان تكون قد غششت؟‬
Kaifa jizta ?mtiḥȃn alkfȃ?a fi alughah al?injlyziah lughatan ajna-
biah bihȃđȃ almustawa alrakyk illa en takuna qad ghashasht ?
How had you passed the TOEFL with such a weak level unless
you already cheated?
Finally, the glottal stop (‫الهمزة‬:hamza) is a widely used interroga-
tive particle to denote negation since it serves the sense of denial.
9.‫? أمثل حاتم الطائي يتهم بالبخل؟‬mith Ḥȃtam al-Ṭȃ?y yutaham bial-
bukh.
Is Ḥȃtam al-Ṭȃ?y(1) accused of miserliness?

1.1.2 Conditionals
There are three particles carrying the implicit negative sense
and they introduce conditional constructions. These conditionals
are usually of two parts; the first involving the verb of the condi-
tion and the second the answer of the condition. The first particle
‫لو‬: lou is a non-jussive conditional particle which is used for exhib-
iting the non-fulfillment of an action due to the non-fulfillment of
the condition (see 1. above) (Ibn Faris, 1977:252).
10.‫لو جاء بكل المستندات للتعيينه لحفظ حقه أسوة بأقرانه‬

(1) Ḥȃtam al-Ṭȃ?y is a person who is a symbol of hospitality and generosity in Arabian
Peninsula during the pre-Islamic period where he has been taken as an example
of generosity even by present-day Arabs .

71
 Lou jȃ?a bikul almustanadȃt lilta’yynhi laḥafiđa ḥaqahu
?swatan bi?qranihi
If he had brought all the credentials for employment, he would
have kept his rights as his peers.
It is quite clear that the sense of negation is there in the above
sentence.
Al-Maliqy(2002:362) speaks of the second non-jussive condi-
tional particle ‫ لوال‬, loula that it indicates the non-occurrence of an
action in the if- clause, and consequently the action in the main
clause was not fulfilled.
11 . ‫لوال الحياء لعادني استعبار ولزرت قبرك والحبيب يزار‬
Loula alḥayȃ?u la’ȃdany ist’bȃru walazirtu qabraki walḥabyybu
yuzȃru
If Shyness had been absent, oh my wife, I would have visited
your grave.
The same view is adhered to by al-Murȃdy(1992:597-599) in
that he confirms the idea that this particle shows the correspon-
dence of the non-fulfillment of both actions in the two parts of
the conditional clause involving the particle concerned. It is worth
noticing that the particle ‫لوال‬, loula indicates implicit negation in the
past (see al-Hirawy, 1971:178; al-Rrumȃny, 2008:139; Ibn Faris,
1977:254).
Finally, the third non-jussive conditional particle ”‫لوما‬: loumȃ”
has the same role to play in exhibiting the implied negative sense.
12.‫لوما القراءة المتواصلة لعجزت عن مناظرة المختصين‬
loumȃ alqirȃ?ah almutawaṣ la’ajazta ‘an munȃđarat al-
72
mukhtaṣyn.
You would have proved unable to hold debate with specialists if
you had not kept a non-stop reading.

1.1.3 Shortening
Shortening is a rhetorical term referring to the attribution of a
given merit or an act to a particular person or an object; and deny-
ing its access to others (al-Sakȃky, 2011:400, also see al-Hȃshimy,
1998:117). Al-Makhzumi, (1966:210) states the following:
‫ يهدف بها المتكلم الــى تثبيت غرضه فــي ذهن‬, ‫القصر طريقة مــن طــرائــق التوكيد‬
َ
‫وأزالة مافي نفسه من شك فيه والتوكيد بالقصر أقوى طرائق التوكيد وأدلها على مايراد‬,‫السامع‬
.‫تثبيته أو تقريره‬
Alqasr ṭaryqa min ṭarȃ?q altawkyd, yahdif biha almutakalim
ila tathbyt gharađihi fy zihn alsȃmi’, wa?zalat mafy nafsihi min
shak fiih waltawkyd bialqasr aqwa ṭarȃ?q altawkyd wa?dalaha
ala maurȃd tathbytih aw taqryrih.
Shortening is a method of emphaticness, by means of which
the speaker aims to enhance his purpose in the listener’s mind,
and removes the latter’s doubt or suspicion of a particular issue.
Shortening is the best means of emphasizing what one wants to
keep in the other party’s mind.
There are four methods for shortening: coordination, negation
and exception, the use of the shortening particle ‫إنما‬innamȃ and
topicalization(1). The present study is concerned with the third

(1) Topicalization refers to the phenomenon in which some constituent of a sentence

73
method of shortening.al-Sakȃky (2011:401f) states that the use of
the shortening particle ‫إنما‬innamȃ has its own manifestation in
that it is used for emphasizing that a given act or merit is merely
true of a particular entity , person or object ;and this act or merit
is neither done nor shared by others (see al-Qizwyny,2004:121).
al-Sakȃky(p.403f) adds that shortening occurs between topic and
comment, verb and subject, subject and object.
ُ
13. ‫إنما الشاعر زيد‬innamȃ alshȃ’r Zaidun. The only one who is the
poet is Zaid.
Sentence (13) removes doubt from the addressee’s mind of who
is the poet in that it underlines that Zaid (no any other person) is
the poet. This is topic-comment shortening.
َ
14.36”‫ون‬َ ‫ين َي ْس َم ُع‬ ُ ‫ أألنعام”إ َّن َما َي ْس َتج‬/ innamȃ yastajyb allazyna
َ ‫يب ّال ِذ‬
ِ ِ
yasma’wn. It is only those who listen…. Will respond(1).
This is verb-subject shortening where the act of responding is
exclusively confined to those who listen (unlike the deaf who are
not able to respond to what they listen).
15.‫ إنما التفاحة قد أ كلت‬innamȃ altufȃḥtu aklutu. It is the only ap-
ple I have eaten.

is singled out and moved to the front of the sentence to be its topic by the use
of a marked construction (e.g. The orphan you have to take care of.) .(Crystal,
1997:392; Trask, 1993:280).
(1) All the translations of the Quranic examples found in the Arabic theoretical part
of the present paper are taken from Hi-Kh.’s Translation of the meanings of the
Noble Qur’ȃn into the English Language (1996).

74
 Sentence (15) shows subject-object shortening where the parti-
cle used indicates that the apple (not the orange, for example) that
the doer of the action has eaten.

1.1.4 Verbs exhibiting implicit negative sense

As in any other language, verbs in Arabic receive different cat-
egorizations. Such categorizations are either morphologically or
semantically based. Arab grammarians found out that some verbs
carry the sense of negation, denial or prohibition as they disprove
the truth value of the whole sentence. Shlãsh etal(1989:237) list-
ed the majority of these verbs:‫ َأبق‬:?baqa: disobeyed, ‫ أبى‬: ?bȃ,
ََ
refused,‫ َج َم َح‬:jamaḥa, became uncontrolled,‫ نف َر‬,nafara; became
َ َ
disinterested,‫ ف َر‬:farra, escaped,‫ ش َم َس‬,Shamasa: refused to be rid-
den(for a mare),‫ عاند‬:’ȃnada; became obstinate,‫ ; َح َج َم‬ḥajama, re-
َ َ ََ
fused to talk, ‫ع َزف‬:’azafa, rejected,‫; نش َزت‬nashazat,(for a woman)
refused to have sexual intercourse with her husband,‫’; َع َث َر‬thara(
ٌ ٌ
for a horse) did not stop from running, ‫حد‬ḥadda; (for a woman) did
not put make-up,‫ َح َج َب‬: ḥajaba: prevented something from being
َ
seen,‫ف َط َم‬, faṭama: did not feed a child with milk.
Al-Obeidi (1994:126,137) adds that one can find more verbs im-
َ َ َ
plying the negative sense (,‫ج َحد‬:jaḥada, did not admit,‫ح َج َر‬:ḥajara,
ََ
prevented the idiot to deal with his money,‫ ; كظ َم‬kađama, did not
openly show one’s anger, etc).
It is to be noted that the researcher translated the meanings of
the above verbs as they negate the whole sentence. One should
notice that verbs appear in Arabic-Arabic dictionaries in their per-
75
fect forms.
1.1.5 Lexical Devices of Implicit Negation
There are some lexical items (e.g adverbs, exceptive parti-
cles etc.) in Arabic that involve the sense of implicit negation.al-
Sȃmarȃy (2003:183) confirms that the adverb ”‫”قلما‬qallamȃ, when
used in a sentence, serves the sense that an action is, in the main,
not done. e.g.
16.‫ قلما أزور صديقي يوم األحد‬qallamȃ ?zoor Ṣadyqy yawm al?ḥad. I
rarely visit my friend on Sunday.
Ibn Faris (1977:268) holds the view that the rectification par-
ticle”‫ ”لكن‬lȃkinna: but follows either a negative sentence or a
sentence expressing denial. The particle in question intervenes
between two opposing clauses where the speaker rectifies what
is negated by an affirmative sentence or he does the reverse (al-
Rrumȃny, 2008:148f; see Nahr, 2004:306). He (p.307) adds that
exceptive particles imply the negative sense because the relation-
ship holding between exception and negation is a part-whole rela-
tion. e.g.
17. ‫حضر العمال كلهم لالجتماع اال المرضى‬Ḥadara al’umȃl Kulhum lil?-
jtimđ’ illa almarđȃ.
All workers attended the meeting apart from the sick ones.
The above example proves the part-whole relation which holds
between negation and exception in that the sick workers are part
of the whole workers where the latter attended but the sick did
not.
َ َ َ َّ َ َ ْ ُ ُ ُ ْ َ ْ َ
18.” 17/ ‫اهّلل ق َتل ُه ْم “األنفال‬ ‫ لم تقتلوهم ول ِـكن‬falem taqtiluhum walakinna
76
Allah qatalhum.
You killed them not, but Allȃh killed them.
19.””28/‫وماأرسلناك إال كافة للناس بشيرا ونذيرا ولكن أ كثر الناس اليعلمون سبأ‬
wamȃ?rsalnaka ila bashyran wanazyran walȃkinna ?kthara al-
nȃsi lȃya’lamwn
And We have not sent you (O Muhammad ) except as a giver
of glad tidings and a Warner to all mankind, but most of men know
not.
In addition to what has been said so far, some Arab scholars(e.g.
al-Hȃshimy, 1998:117) maintain that some other lexical units such
as ‫وحده‬,‫ فقط‬faqaṭ, waḥdih: only ,alone imply the negative sense.
These lexis exhibit the meaning concerned very clearly and when
deleted the implied sense is no longer there.
20.‫ وصل بطرس لوحده‬waṣala Puṭrus liwaḥdihi. Peter arrived alone
(no one else).
21. ‫ عمي فقط زارني‬zarany ‘amy faqaṭ .Only my uncle visited me (no
one else).

2. Implicit Negation in English: A Brief Survey

“Negation is a semantic universal since every language has gram-
matical and lexical means for negating a given sentence”(Löber,
2002:193).Accordingly, implicit negation in English can be sig-
nalled by the presence of particular lexis. There are some kinds
of sentences in English which are affirmative in form but they are
negative in meaning due to the involvement of implicit negative
indicators in such sentences. Quantifiers (e.g. few, little, some), co-
77
ordinators (e.g. but), adverbs (e.g. rarely, scarcely, seldom, barely,
alone, rather), adjectives (e.g. mere, only, reluctant) or verbs (e.g.
deny, refuse, ignore) are carriers of the sense of implicit negation
.The following subsections will be concerned with the introduction
of implicit negative indicators.

2.1. Implicit negative adverbs and Quantifiers

Although negative sentences-explicit or implicit- are pragmati-
cally less favoured than positive ones because negatives are gen-
erally less informative than their positive counterparts(Leech,
1983:100), there are several adverbs and determiners (quantifi-
ers included) which are negative in meaning, but not in form (e.g.
rarely, scarcely, seldom, barely, hardly, barely, few, little).They ef-
fect clause negation as they are followed by non-assertive forms,
in addition, the sentences in which they appear generally require
positive tag questions. These adverbs cannot co-occur with the
negative particle “not” e.g.
22. I seldom get any reward in turn of my hard work.
23. Brave soldiers scarcely seem to care for food, do they?
Negative adverbials normally cause subject-operator inversion
when they are positioned initially (e.g. rarely does he frequent this
night club).However, such subject-verb inversion becomes unnec-
essary when these negative adverbials are introduced by It is or It
was. The word only which can be used as an adjective and adverb
is to some extent capable of negating a sentence implicitly where
it can be followed by nonassertive item such as any. (Quirk etal,
78
1985:780f)
24. It was barely for David to reconsider the membership fees
because he had already received a ministerial decree to stop do-
ing so.
25. Only two officers had any experience in swimming. (also see
Graver, 1968:170 and Biber etal: 1999:915ff)
Dixon (2005:443) speaks of the inherent negative meaning of
those adverbs (e.g. hardly) and it is by virtue of this that they may
be used initially. In addition, the degree adverb “too” is an indica-
tor of implicit negation in that it signals the negation of the infin-
itive in its scope (e.g. He is too young to marry means he is not
mature enough to shoulder marriage responsibilities).One should
notice that non-gradable adjectives (e.g. dead, alive, single, mar-
ried) cannot normally follow the degree adverb “too”. e.g.
26.* Jane is too dead to speak with.
Two quantifiers i.e. few and little are indicators of implicit ne-
gation corresponding to many and much. The two collocate with
count and non-count nouns, respectively.
27. I have few (it means not enough) sources to write my re-
search. I need more to do so.
28. Mary has little (it means not enough) tea. She has to buy
more to prepare three cups. (Grozdanova, 1976:146)
Finally, some adjectives in English show inherent negation of a
following complement clause (e.g. reluctant equivalent to eager
not to, mere, equivalent to no more than, only equivalent to noth-
ing else or no one else).
79
 2.2. Inherently Negative Verbs
A two-fold classification of verbs that carry the implicit negative
sense can be made. The classification concerned is either mean-
ing-based or prefix-based. Put differently, verbs such as deny, re-
fuse, ignore, etc. imply the sense under study. Bybee (1985:176)
says that inflected verbs can also incorporate a negative meaning
in lexical expressions (e.g. disbelieve, mismanage, and unfreeze).
This is not only true of English; rather, Korean, silta “to dislike”
Maasai, Pawnee and Zapotec contain verbs inflected for negation.
This is called affixal negation where negative prefixes are attached
to verbs, nouns (e.g. inattention) and adjectives (e.g. incomplete).
However, affixal negation falls outside the domain of the present
study. There are inherently negative verbs as they require any rath-
er than some in certain environments. Such verbs can be classed
into two types; those which involve inherent negation of the com-
plement clause. e.g.
29. They forbade the tourists to take any photos.
Other inherently negative verbs of this type include deny that
(equivalent to say/ state that not), doubt that (equivalent to think
that not), dissuade from (equivalent to persuade not to), ignore
(equivalent to pay no attention to).The other type involves inher-
ent negation of the main clause verb. e.g.
30. They rejected the idea that the tourists had taken any photos.
The verb reject is like not to accept in taking any. Further exam-
ples of this type include forget (equivalent to not to remember).
(Dixon, 2005:441).
80
 2.3 Conditional clauses expressing implicit negation
Open and hypothetical conditional clauses can easily reflect the
sense of implicit negation owing to the fact that open conditional
clauses are neutral in that the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of the
condition is left unresolved.
31. If Douglas arrives Baghdad, he is unquestionably staying at
the Bright Star Hotel.
The above sentence leaves unresolved whether Douglas ar-
rives to Baghdad, and hence it leaves unresolved his staying at the
Bright Star Hotel.
Open conditional clauses are sometimes labelled ‘probable’, but
it is important to note that the probability of the condition being
fulfilled often exists in the speaker’s mind (Graver, 1986:90).
On the other hand, a hypothetical conditional clause conveys
the speaker’s belief that the condition will not be fulfilled (for fu-
ture conditions), is not fulfilled (for present conditions) or was not
fulfilled (for past conditions).e.g.
32. If he read well, he’d get high marks.
33. They would reach on time if they caught the train.
34. If you had worked hard, you would not have failed the exam.
The conditional clauses in these sentences convey the following
implications:
32a. He very probably won’t read well.(future reference con-
trary to expectation)
33a.They presumably don’t catch the train.(present reference
contrary to present assumption)
81
 34a.You certainly didn’t work hard.( past reference contrary to
fact)
Conditional clauses– particularly introduced by if, in case, in the
event that are like questions in being generally either neutral in
their expectations of an answer or biased toward a negative re-
sponse. Accordingly, they tend to admit nonassertive forms. e.g.
35. If you had ever worked hard, you would not have failed any
exam. (Quirk etal, 1985:1091f).
Graver (1986:100) maintains that the conjunction unless is more
emphatic in expressing a negative condition.
36. Unless Mary had invited Jack to attend her graduation party,
he would have remained unknown for his relatives.
The negative sense in sentence (36) is attributed to the fact that
Jack would not have met his relatives without Mary’s invitation.

2.4 Exception
Exception and condition (see2.3 above) are bended by the use
of several subordinators. Clauses of exception are introduced by
some subordinators such as except (that), excepting (that), save
that (formal) and but that. The latter requires that the matrix
clause precede it be negative. Only can express the meaning of ex-
ception while unless, though restricted to informal style, combines
condition with the exception (except if), hence the negative mean-
ing. The are some prepositions or prepositional phrases used for
denoting exception such as; except for, with the exception of, apart
from, aside from(AmE), excluding(Quirk, etal 1985:707,1102f).
82
 2.5 Implicit Negation and Presupposition
Semanticists and language philosophers concomitantly discuss
the relationship holding between negation (the implicit one is in-
volved) and presupposition in that first of all, they draw a distinction
between presupposition and entailment since both are interrelat-
ed to each other and to negation as well. Bates (1996:99) under-
lines that “negation is a separate kind of performative in which the
speaker denies a given presupposition attributed to the listener”.
As defined by Crystal (1997:136,306), entailment “refers to a rela-
tion between a pair of sentences such as the truth of the second
sentence necessarily follows the truth of the first. Entailment has
come to be contrasted with presupposition, on the grounds that
different consequences follow from either of the sentences being
false” e.g.
37. “I can see a dog” entails “I can see an animal”
38.”The president of Spain is brave” presupposes that” There is
a president of Spain”
Kempson (1977:142) adds that for S1 to presuppose S2, the
truth of S2 must follow from the truth of S1, but if S2 is false, then
S1 will have no truth value. Accordingly, the truth or falsity of sen-
tence (38 above) can be assumed with reference to the existence
of the president of Spain; and by assessing on the basis of this
assumption whether or not he is brave. If there is no president
of Spain, then the statement of The president of Spain is brave is
neither true nor false.
Having introduced these two notions, the researcher has con-
83
cluded that both can be applied to implicit negation especially as
far as implicit negative verbs, adjectives and quantifiers are con-
cerned (see 2.1 &2.2 above).
39. Mary is reluctant to partake in the symposium on linguistics
and translation. Entails that she is unwilling to do so.
40. Jack is blind. Entails he is unable to see.
41. Up-to date sources are not enough to write my research.
Presupposes that the up-to-date sources I have are few in number.

3. Contrastive Analysis Findings

On the basis of the two theoretical surveys concerning implicit
negation in both languages, one can draw the following findings
which are of some value in the practical part of the present study
in that some translation difficulties involved in rendering Arabic
implicit negatives into English can be attributed to the differences
between the two languages. As for similarities, first of all, linguistic
context plays a significant part in determining implicitly negative
constructions in both languages. Secondly, conditional clauses are
able to exhibit implicit negation in both languages. Thirdly, both
languages involve inherently negative verbs which are capable of
turning the sense of the whole sentence implicitly negative. Fourth-
ly, implicit negative adverbs are true of both languages. Fifthly, the
employment of exception for expressing implicit negatives holds
true of the two languages. As far as differences between the both
languages are concerned, one can notice that interrogative parti-
cles in Arabic can be used to exhibit implicit negation whereas this
84
is not found in English. The grammatical device of shortening in
Arabic can show implicitly negative structures while such a device
is absent in English. Nevertheless, English can express the same
senses of shortening by the use of clefting. Affixal negation [where
negative prefixes are attached to verbs (e.g. distrust, nouns (e.g.
inattention) and adjectives (e.g. incomplete)] is an English mor-
phological device employed for signalling negation. However, it is
not present in Arabic as far as verbs, adjectives and nouns are con-
cerned.
5. Translation Assessment
Much has been theorized about translation assessment or eval-
uation. Scholars have designed a variety of models for assessing
translations of various text-types. They are famous for their di-
chotomies: Nida (1964) formal vs. dynamic equivalence, Catford
(1965) formal correspondence vs. textual equivalence, House
(1979) overt vs. covert translation, and Newmark (1981) seman-
tic vs. communicative translation. The researcher relies to some
extent on Reiss’s (1971) model for translation assessment in de-
signing his own model because it is thought to be more suitable in
serving the purpose of the present study in that it covers the se-
mantic-grammatical and orthographic aspects of the texts under
assessment.

85
 Diagram: A Model of Translation Assessment of Arabic Implicit
Negation into English

6. The Translation of Implicit Negation

6.1 Qurȃnic Ayahs
The present subsection is devoted to the assessment of the
translations of Qurȃnic ayahs involving implicit negatives. The
assessment concerned will be carried out in the light of the pro-
posed model. In addition, the theoretical surveys in 1.and 2 above
will be of help in passing judgments over the quality of the transla-
tions produced. The results of contrastive analysis of the research
will be utilized in figuring out the translation difficulty involved in
86
transferring the meaning intended. Alternative translations will be
introduced in case the translations produced have proved failure
in conveying the sense of implicit negation involved in the ayahs
under study. To serve this purpose, six published translations of
the Qurãn will be consulted, rendered by:
1. Ali, A. Y (1934)
2. Arberry, Arthur (2003)
3. Al-Hilali, M. and Khan, M. M. (1996)
4. Irving, T.B. (2003)
5. Pickthall, M. M. (1930)
6. Shaker, M. H. (2003)
The above – mentioned translators’ names are, respectively, ab-
breviated as follows: Ali, Arb. , Hi. – Kh., Ivg. , Pick. and Sh.
َ ‫اسر‬ َ ْ َ ّ ُ ُ َ ُ ُ َ ْ َ َ ْ ُ ْ َ َ َّ ُ ْ َ َ ْ َ
64/ ‫ين ))البقرة‬ ِ ِ ‫اهَّلل عليكم و رحمته لكنتم ِمن الخ‬ ِ ‫ فلوال فضل‬.43
Faloula fadhlu Allȃhi ‘alaykum waraḥmatuhu lakuntum min
alkhȃsiryn. The cow /64
Ali.(p.10) Had it not been for the Grace and Mercy of Allah to
you , you had been surely among the lost.
Arb.(P.20) and but for the bounty and mercy of God, you had
been of the losers.
Hi. – Kh.(P.13) Had it not been for the Grace and Mercy of Allȃh
upon you, indeed you would have been among the losers.
Ivg.(P.10) and if God’s bounty and His mercy had not [rested]
upon you, you would have turned out to be losers!
Pick.(P.10) and if it had not been for the grace of Allah and His
mercy, ye had been among losers.
87
 Sh.(P.40)so were it not for the grace of Allah and His mercy on
you, you would certainly have been among the losers.
The implicit negation in the above ayah signalled by the non-jus-
َ َ
sive conditional particle (Faloul a‫ (فل ْوال‬was translated into explicit
negatives by the involvement of not. The translations do not con-
tain (a) lexically selected item(s) that signal the sense of the im-
plicit negation. Accordingly, the alternative translation could be: If
Allȃh’s Grace and Mercy had been prevented from you by Him; you
would have been among losers.
ُ َ َّ ُ َ َ ٌ َ َ َ َ
)‫يونس(فل ْوال كان ْت ق ْر َية َآم َن ْت ف َنف َع َها ِإ َيمان َها ِإال ق ْو َم ُيونس‬/ 98 .43
Faloula kȃnat qaryatan ȃmenat fanafa’ahȃ ?ymȃnuhȃ ?illa
qawm Younis. Jonah/98
Ali.(P.214)If only there had been a single township(among those
We warned), which believed,-so its Faith should have profited it,
except the people of Jonah?
Arb.(P.285)Why was there never a city that believed, and its be-
lief profited it? Except the people of Jonah.
Hi. – Kh. (P.284) Was there any town (community) that believed
(after seeing the punishment), and its Faith (at the moment) saved
it (from the punishment)? (The answer is none)-except the people
of Yȗnus (Jonah).
Ivg.(P.220) If only there had been a town which believed and
whose faith had benefited it besides Jonah’s people.
Pick.(P.220) If only there had been a community(of all those that
were destroyed of old) that believed and profited by its belief as
did the folk of Jonah!
88
 Sh.(P.268)And wherefore was there not a town which should
believe so that their belief should have profited them but the peo-
ple of Yunus?
One translation (i.e. Ali’s) of the above ayah is accurate because
it comprises the syntactic collocation if only plus the third type of
conditional clauses to indicate the sense of the implicit negation
involved. The rest are inadequate either due to the involvement
of the negative particle not or the absence of accurately selected
lexis to convey the sense referred to.
َّ ْ َ ً ّ ًُ َ ُ َ َّ َ َ َ ُْ َ َ ْ َ
ِ ‫اشعا ّم َت َص ِدعا ِّم ْن خش َي ِة‬
21/ ‫اهَّلل الحشر‬ ِ ‫ ((لوأ َنزل َنا هذا الق ْرآن على َج َب ٍل ل َرأ ْي َته خ‬.44
Lou ?nzalnȃ hȃżȃ alQurȃn ‘ala jabalin lar?aytahu khȃsh’an
mmutasadi’an mmin khashiat Allah. The Gathering/21
Ali.(p.514)Had We sent down this Qur’ȃn on a mountain ,verily,
thou wouldst have seen it humble itself and cleave asunder for
fear of Allah.
Arb.(P.728)If We had sent down this Koran upon a mountain,
thou wouldst have seen it humbled, split asunder out of fear of
God.
Hi-Kh.(P.756) Had We sent down this Qur’ȃn on a mountain, you
would surely have seen it humbling itself and rent asunder by the
fear of Allȃh.
Ivg.(P.548) If We had sent this Qur’an down on a mountain, you
would have seen it solemnly splitting open out of awe for God.
Pick.(P.548) If We had caused this Qur’ȃn to descend upon a
mountain, thou(O Muhammad) verily hadst seen it humbled, rent
asunder by the fear of Allah.
89
 Sh.(P.633)Had We sent down this Quran on a mountain, you
would certainly have seen it falling down, splitting asunder be-
cause the fear of Allah.
The translations of the sense of implicit negation present in the
above ayah have proved accurate because all the renditions in-
volved the use of the third type of conditional clauses which refers
to the non-fulfillment of both actions in the if-clause and the main
clause of the conditional.
َ ْ َ ُ َُ َْ َ َ ُ َُ ْ
ٍ ِ‫(يو َم نقول ِل َج َه ّن َم ه ِل ْام َتأَل ِت َوتقول هل ِمن ّمز‬
30/ ‫يد) ق‬ .45
Yawma naqulu lijahannam hel ?mtala?ti wataqul hel min mma-
zyd.Qȃf/30
Ali.(P.510) The Day We will ask Hell, “Art thou filled to the full?”It
will say, “Are there any more (to come)?”
Arb. (P.686)Upon the day We shall say unto Gehenna (Hell), ‘Art
thou filled?” And it shall say, Are there any more to come?
Hi-Kh.(P.707) On the Day when We will say to Hell:”Are you
filled?” It will say:”Are there any more (to come)?”
Ivg.(P.519) On the day We shall say to Hell:”Are you filled up?”, it
will say:”Are there any more to be added?”
Pick.(P.519) On the day when We say unto hell: Art thou filled?
and saith: can there be more to come?
Sh. (P.597) On the day that We will say to hell: Are you filled up?
And it will say: Are there any more?
The interrogative particle found in the above ayah is intended to
refer to implicit negative sense (see 1.1.1 above) since it contex-
tually indicates that Hell due to its vastness, (according to Islamic
90
theology), will not be filled with disbelievers, pagans polytheists,
idolaters and atheists. All the above renditions of the sense of the
interrogative have not successfully reflected it accurately because
it has been translated as an ordinary interrogative. Therefore, it is
thought that the sense can be orthographically translated as: On
the Day We will say to Hell” Are you filled up!!!?”
ْ َ َْ
‫االنعام‬/50 ) ‫(هل َي ْس َت ِوي األ ْع َمى َوال َب ِص ُير‬ .46
Hel yastawy al?’maȃ walbaṣyr. Livestock/50
Ali.(P.135) “Can the blind be held equal to the seeing?”
Arb.(P.176) Are the blind and seeing man equal?
Hi-Kh.(P.176)”Are the blind and the one who sees equal?
Ivg.(P.133)”Are the blind and the sighted man equal?”
Pick.(P.133)Are the blind and the seer equal?
Sh.(P.176) Are the blind and the seeing one alike?
َ ‫ين َاَل َي ْع َل ُم‬ َ َ ََْ َ
‫الزمر‬/9 )‫ون‬ َ ‫ون َو ّال ِذ‬ َ ‫(ه ْل َي ْس َتوي ّال ِذ‬
‫ين يعل ُم‬ َ .47
ِ
Hel yastawy alżiyna ya’lamuwn waalżiyna lȃ ya’lamuwn. The
companies/9
Ali.(P.452) “Are those equal, those who know and those who do
not know?”
Arb.(P.606) “Are those equal- those who know and those who
know not?”
Hi-Kh.(P.621)”Are those who know equal to those who know
not?”
Ivg.(P.459)”Are those who know, to be considered equal to those
who do not know?”
Pick.(P.459) Are those who know equal to those who know not?
91
 Sh.(P.531) Are those who know and those who do not know
alike?
ُّ َ َ َ َّ َّ َ َ ٌ َ َ ْ ْ ُ ُ َ ََْ
7/ ‫اهدت ْم التوبة‬ ِ ‫ين ع ْهد ِعند‬
‫اهّلل َو ِعند َر ُسو ِل ِه ِإال ال ِذين ع‬ ‫ون ِلل ُمشرِ ِك‬ ‫ ((كيف يك‬.48
Keifa yakunu lilmushrikyn ‘ahdun ‘ind Allȃh wa’inda rasuwlihi
?la alżyna ‘ȃhaddtum. The repentance/7
Ali.(P.186) How can there be a covenant before Allȃh and His
Messenger with the pagans, except those with whom ye made a
treaty.
Arb.(P. 426) How should the idolaters have a covenant with God
and His messenger?-except those with whom you made a cove-
nant.
Hi-Kh.(P.244) How can there be a covenant with Allȃh and His
Messenger… for the Mushrikȗn( polytheists, idolaters, pagans, dis-
believers in the Oneness of Allȃh) except those with whom you
made a covenant.
Ivg.(P.188) How can there be any treaty with associators on the
part of God and his Messenger, except for those with whom you
ratified one.
Pick.(P.188) How can there be a treaty with Allah and with His mes-
senger for the idolaters save those with whom ye made a treaty.
Sh.(P.237) How can there be an agreement for the idolaters with
Allah and with His Messenger; except those with whom you made
an agreement.
َ ْ ًََ َ ُ َْ
86/‫اهّلل ق ْوما كف ُروا َب ْعد ِإ َيما ِن ِهم ال عمران‬ ‫((كيف َي ْه ِدي‬ .49
Keifa yahdy Allȃh qawman kafarw ba’da iymȃnihin. The Family
of Imran/86
92
 Ali.(P.64) How shall Allah guide those who reject Faith after they
accepted it.
Arb.(P.84) How shall God guide a people who have disbelieved
after they believed.
Hi-Kh.(P.85) How shall Allȃh guide a people who disbelieved af-
ter their belief.
Ivg.(P.61) How should God guide a folk who disbelieve following
their[profession of] faith.
Pick.(P.61) How shall Allah guide a people who disbelieved after
their belief.
Sh.(P.95) How shall Allah guide a people who disbelieved after
their believing.
ً َ َ ْ َ َ َّ َ َ ْ ُ ُّ َ ْ ُ َ ْ َ َ
40/‫ين َواتخذ ِم َن ال َمآل ِئك ِة ِإناثا اإلسراء‬ ‫ ((أفأصفاكم ر بكم ِبالب ِن‬.50
?faṣfakum rabbukam bilbanyn wa?ttakhaża min almalȃ?kati
inȃthȃ. The Night Journey/40
Ali.(P.279) Has then your Lord, (O pagans!) preferred for you
sons, and taken for Himself daughters among angels?
Arb.(P.372) What, has your Lord favoured you with sons and tak-
en to Himself from the angels females?
Hi-Kh.(P.373) Has then your Lord(O pagans of Makka!) preferred
for you sons, and taken for Himself from among the angels daugh-
ters?
Ivg.(P.286) Has your Lord singled you out to have sons, while He
has accepted daughters from among the angels[for Himself]
Pick.(P.286) Hath your Lord then distinguished you( O men of
Mecca)by giving you sons, and then hath chosen for Himself fe-
93
males from among the angels?
Sh.(P.339) What! Has then your Lord preferred to give you sons,
and (for Himself) taken daughters from among the angels?
َ ‫(آهّلل َأذ َن َل ُك ْم َأ ْم َع َلى اهّلل َت ْف َت ُر‬
59/‫ون ء)يونس‬ ِ ِ ُ .51
? Allȃh ?żina lakum ?m ‘ala Allȃh taftaruwn. Jonah/59
Ali.(P.210) Hath Allah indeed permitted you, or do ye forge
(things) to attribute to Allah?’
Arb.(P.279) Has God given you leave? Or do you forge to God?
Hi-Kh.(P.278) ‘Has Allȃh permitted you (to do so ), or do you in-
vent a lie against Allȃh?”
Ivg.(P.215)”Has God allowed you it or are you inventing some-
thing about you?”
Pick.(P.215)Hath Allah permitted you, or do ye invent a lie con-
cerning Allah?
Sh.(P.263) Has Allah commanded you, or do you forge a lie
against Allah?
َ ُّ
ُ ‫وب إ ّال‬
135/‫اهّلل) ال عمران‬ َ ‫الذ ُن‬ ْ َ
‫(ومن َيغ ِف ُر‬ .52
ِ
Wamen yaghfru alżinwb illa Allȃh. The Family of Imran /135
Ali.(P.70)and Who can forgive sins except Allah?
Arb.(P.92) And who shall forgive sins but God?
Hi-Kh.(P.93) and none can forgive sins but Allȃh.
Ivg.(P.67) for who forgives offences besides God?
Pick.(P.67)Who forgiveth sins save Allah only?
Sh.(P.102) And who forgives the faults but Allah.
The sense behind the use of the interrogative particle in exam-
ple (52) was accurately rendered by Sh. because he has made a
94
lexical precise selection of the coordinator but to signal the sense
of implicit negation involved. The same is true of Arb. The coordi-
nator but can express some senses; one of which is implicit nega-
tion.
ً ُ َ َ
ِ ‫ َوم ْن أ ْصدق ِم َن‬.53
87 /‫اهّلل َح ِديثا)) النساء‬
Wamen ?ṣdaqu mina Allȃh ḥadythȃ. Women/87
Ali.(P.95) And whose word can be truer than Allah’s?
Arb.(P.123) And who is truer in tidings than God?
Hi-Kh.(P.122) and who is truer in statement than Allȃh?
Ivg.(P.92) Who is more reliable than God as a Narrator?
Pick.(P.92)Who is more true in statement than Allah?
Sh.(P.129)Who is more true in word Allah?
What has been said about the interrogative particle in Qurȃnic
example (45) holds true of examples (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, and 53)
because all these ayahs involve the particle concerned to implicitly
negate the whole sentences involved. As to their renditions, they
are all translated as ordinary interrogatives without giving sound
syntactic or lexical indications to convey the meaning intended.
The suggested translations will be introduced, respectively:
· “Are the blind and the one who sees equal? Definitely, this is
untrue.
· Are those who know and those who do not know alike? Im-
possible!
· How can there be a covenant with Allȃh and His Messenger (of
course there will be a non-covenant) for the Mushrikȗn (polythe-
ists, idolaters, pagans, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allȃh) except
95
those with whom you made a covenant.
· How shall Allȃh guide a people who disbelieved after their be-
lief? Definitely, He should not.
· Has then your Lord (O pagans of Makka!) preferred for you
sons, and taken for Himself from among the angels daughters?
This is impossible due to pagans’ misconceptions.
· “Has Allȃh permitted you to do so (which is untrue), or do you
invent a lie against Allȃh?”
· And who is truer in statement than Allȃh? It is too clear to
raise a question in this regard.

َّ َ َ ْ َ َّ َ َ ً َ َ ً َ
َ ‫الناس َاَل َي ْع َل ُم‬ َّ ّ ً َّ َ َّ َ َ ْ َ ْ َ َ
28/‫ون)سبأ‬ ِ ‫ر‬‫ث‬ ‫ك‬ ‫أ‬ ‫ن‬ ‫ك‬ِ ‫ل‬ ‫و‬ ‫يرا‬ ‫ذ‬
ِ ‫ن‬ ‫و‬ ‫يرا‬‫ش‬ِ ‫ب‬ ‫اس‬
ِ ‫لن‬ ‫ (و ما أرسلناك ِإاَّل كافة ِل‬.54
wamȃ ?rsalnȃka illȃ kȃffatan lilnnȃs bashyran wanażyran wal-
akinna ?kthara alnnȃs la ya’lamuwn. Sheba/28
Ali. (P.422) We have not sent thee but as a (Messenger) to all
mankind, giving them glad tidings, and warning them (against sin),
but most men know not.
Arb. (P.566) We have sent thee not, except to mankind entire,
good tidings to bear, and warning; but most men do not know it
Hi-Kh.(P.579) And We have not sent you(O Muhammad  )
except as a giver of glad tidings and a warner to all mankind, but
most of men know not.
Ivg.(P.431) We have not sent you[Muhammad] except as a news
bearer and a warner to every single human being, even though
most men do not realize it.
Pick. (P.431) And We have not sent thee (O Muhammad) save as
96
a bringer of good tidings and a warner unto all mankind; but most
of mankind know not.
Sh.(P.496) And We have not sent you but to all the men as a
bearer of good news and as a warner, but most men do not know.
The rectification particle”‫ ”لكن‬lȃkinna: follows either a negative
or a sentence expressing denial (see 1.1.5 above). It is found in the
above ayah to implicitly disprove the truth value of the ayah that a
few know the truth of the Prophet’s task as a bearer of good news
and a Warner to all mankind. As far as its renditions are concerned,
they all contain the phrase “most men (mankind)” preceded by
but which implicitly means that not all men or mankind know the
Prophet’s task.
َ َّ َّ َ َّ َ ُ َ َ ً َ ّ َ َّ ُ َ
80‫اهَّلل خ ْي ٌر ِل َم ْن َآم َن َو َع ِمل َصا ِلحا واَل يلقاها ِإاَّل الص ِابرون‬
ُ ِ ‫ القصص «ثواب‬/”.55
Thawab Allȃh khayrun limen ȃmana wa’amila ṣȃliḥan walayu-
laqqȃhȃ illȃ AṢṣȃbiruwn The Stories/ 80
Ali. (P.388)The reward of Allah (in the Hereafter) is best for those
who believe and work righteousness: but this none shall attain,
save those who steadfastly persevere (in good).
Arb. (P.519) The reward of God is better for him who believes,
and works rightness; and none shall receive it except the steadfast.
Hi-Kh.(P.528) The Reward of Allȃh (in the Hereafter) is better for
those who believe and do righteous good deeds, and this none
shall attain except those who are As-Sȃbirȗn (the patient in follow-
ing the truth).
Ivg. (P.395)” God’s recompense is better for anyone who be-
lieves and acts honorably. Yet only the patient will encounter it”
97
 Pick.(P.395) The reward of Allah for him who believeth and doeth
right is better, and only the steadfast will obtain it.
Sh.(P.459) Allah’s reward is better for him who believes and does
good, and none is made to receive this except the patient.
َّ
The above ayah contains the exceptive particle ( ‫ ِ)إاَّل‬which is used
here for expressing the sense of shortening(see1.1.3 above). Nega-
tion and exception collaborate to exhibit the sense of shortening.
Accordingly, the Qurȃnic ayah involves the sense of implicit nega-
tion as shown by shortening. As to its translations, they contain
the preposition except which denotes exception (see 2.4 above).
It is thought that Ivg.’s rendering is more appropriate to reflect the
sense concerned because it involves the adjective only which is
employed to indicate the implicit negative meaning.

6.2 Literary Texts

An Arabic literary text (i.e. an anecdote narrating one’s autobi-
ography) involving a variety of implicit negative constructions was
chosen and handed to ten professional Arabic-speaking transla-
tors(M.A and PhD holders) to render it to English. The text is one
page size and comprises eight implicit negatives realized by differ-
ent structures as introduced in the Arabic theoretical framework of
the present paper (see 1, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 above). Each structure
will be introduced with the renditions produced by translators:
‫ لتوجب عليك االنتظار لموسم‬, ‫ لوال مجيئك المبكر اليوم‬,‫قال كامل “ محظوظ أنت‬.56
”‫العمل في الصيف القادم‬
Qȃla Kȃmil” loula maji?aka almubakir alyawm, latawajaba ‘alay-
98
ka alintidhȃr limawsim al’amal fy alṣayf alqȃdim
Due to the presence of the non-jussive conditional particle‫لوال‬
loula, the underlined construction conveys the implicit negative
sense because this Arabic conditional sentence describes an action
that did not take place in the past. Translators produced a variety
of renditions in that they used the third type of conditional clauses
with the involvement of the negative particle not .Therefore, the
implicit Arabic negative here was translated as an English explicit
negative. For instance, such translations were worked out” How
lucky you are, had it not been for your early arrival, you would
have waited the work season next summer” Six translations out
of ten were so while four were translated as an implicit negative
using the same type of conditional clauses i.e. without the use of
not. However, the latter were not accurate in structure. Instances
such as “you are lucky. If you had come late, you would have been
to wait till next work season in Summer” were in evidence. It is
thought that the implicit Arabic negative should be translated into
an implicit English negative and the alternative translation could
be: you are lucky. If you had come late, you would have waited till
the next work season in Summer.
“ ‫ لفقدت فرصة العمل‬, ‫قال الشاب فارس” لوال توفيق هلل ورحمته‬. 57
Qȃla alshȃb Fȃris” louma tawfyq Allȃh waraḥmatih, lafaqadtu
furṣata al’amal
This Arabic sentence contains the non-jussive conditional parti-
cle‫ لوال‬loula (see1.1.2 above) where the implicit negative sense is
involved here. Five translations were explicit negatives while five
99
were implicit. For instance, renditions such as:” Had it not been
success and mercy granted by Allah Almighty, I would have lost
the work opportunity” .One implicit negative translation of the
above sentence runs as follows:”It is the good fortune and mercy
granted by Allah; otherwise I have lost this working opportuni-
ty”. The latter translation is considered appropriate to convey the
sense involved in the Arabic structure.
”‫فخاطبه أحدهم “أنما العامل المخلص أنت‬.58
Fakhaṭabahu aḥaduhum Qȃl?lan “innamȃ al’ȃmil almukhliṣ ?nt
The above original sentence contains the rhetorical device of
shortening which is one of the means for expressing the implicit
negative sense (see 1.1.3 above). This is signalled by the presence
of the shortening particle ‫إنما‬innamȃ. Translations such as” What
a devoted worker you are. The honest worker is you. Verily, you
are a loyal worker etc.” were given. All the renditions failed to con-
vey the sense in question. Therefore, it is better to translate it as:
It is only you who is faithful among workers.
”‫ عبداهلل مخاطبا فارس ذات يوم “ قلما أراك يوم الجمعة وهو يوم عطلة‬.59
Abdullah mukhȃṭban Faris thata yawm “ qallamȃ ?rȃk fy yawm
aljumu’a wahwa yawm ‘uṭlah.
The above Arabic original was accurately translated into English
by the ten translators in that they either involve the adverb rarely,
seldom or hardly in their translations. For example, one translator
rendered it to: Abdullah said to Faris” I rarely see you on Fridays
and they are holidays”. The rest roughly translated it the same way.
This accuracy in translation can be attributed to fact that transla-
100
tion courses at the BA level in Iraqi universities have kept telling
EFLs that the words ‫ قلما‬qallamȃ and ‫ بالكاد‬bilkȃd should be trans-
lated by using equivalents such as rarely, seldom, hardly or barely.
Moreover, the two languages exhibit convergence as far as the two
lexis are concerned in that the latter express the same sense of
implicit negation in both languages.
”‫ فرد فارس” النني أعمل بتنقية الحبوب بالغربال وبالكاد أصل مبكرا ألزورك‬.60
Farada Faris” lianny ?’mal bitanqiat alḥibwb bilghrbȃl wabilkȃd
?ṣil mubakiran l?azwrak
Accuracy in the translation of sentence (60) is there due to the
same reason as in sentence (59) above. A variety of renditions pro-
duced as they involve either barely, scarcely, hardly to convey the
sense of implicit negation which is very explicit in the above Arabic
original due to the presence of the lexical item‫ بالكاد‬bilkȃd. Trans-
lations such as the following were noticed:”That is because I work
in grain refinement” replied Faris”I hardly come back early to visit
you” or “I barely get home early to visit you” “I barely get in time
to see you”. However, two renderings involved the negative parti-
cle not i.e. they were explicit negatives.
”‫ فارس مخاطبا مضيفه “ كل العمال يؤدون عملهم كما يجب إال كبار السن‬.61
Faris mukhȃṭiban mudhayifahu “ kul al’umȃl ywaddun
‘amaluhum kamȃ yajib illȃ kibȃr alsin.
Sentence (61) contains the exceptive particle ‫ إال‬illȃ which ex-
presses the implicit negative sense (see 1.1.5 above) since ex-
ceptive particles in Arabic imply the negative sense; and the rela-
tionship holding between exception and negation is a part-whole
101
relation. As to the translations given, they all involve the English
preposition except which also shows the negative sense implicitly
(see 2.4 above). As an example of the translations given, the re-
searcher comes across the following: Faris addressed his host” All
workers do their job properly except the old ones””except for the
elders”, “All work hard except the old men”
“ ‫” من قال َإن المسنين قادرون على العمل؟‬.62
Men qȃla inna almusinyn qȃdirwna ‘lȃ al’mal
”‫”وهل ينكر أحد العوز الذي تعانيه الناس؟‬.63
Wehel yankuru ?ḥad al’awaz allazy tu’annyh alnȃs
The two originals above contain interrogative particles implying
the negative sense due to the context in which these two sentenc-
es are used. As for sentence (62), it was translated as an ordinary
interrogative without giving a lexical, syntactic or orthographic
marker that indicates the sense implied. One comes across trans-
lations such as” Who said that the old workers are able to work?
Who said the Old are capable of working? Whoever said that the
elder ones are able to work?” However, one rendition involved af-
fixal negation and it runs as follows:”Who said they can? They are
powerless”. Accordingly, overtranslation is inescapable when Ara-
bic interrogatives expressing implicit negation are translated into
English. The alternative translation would be: Who said that the
old-aged people are capable of working appropriately!!???
The last implicit negative found in the original (sentence 63.)
was rendered either as an explicit negative-interrogative or an or-
dinary interrogative. Renditions such as: Can anybody deny the
102
poverty and deprivation of which people suffer? Nobody denies
the poverty people are suffering from? Who can deny or ignore
the poverty of all? were seen. Therefore, the suggested translation
can be: Who can deny the poverty that people suffer from (defi-
nitely, such one is absent)?

7. Conclusions and Recommendations

The translation assessment of the Qurȃnic ayahs and Arabic lit-
erary text has yielded the following conclusions and recommenda-
tions:
1. Arabic implicit negatives have proved quite difficult to trans-
late into English (thirteen Arabic implicit negatives out of twenty
were inaccurately translated into English). This is attributed to the
linguistic differences between the two languages as far as the area
under investigation is concerned.
2. Overtranslation is inescapable when Arabic interrogatives
expressing implicit negation are translated into English. In both
Arabic text-types (Qurȃnic ayahs and the literary text), interrog-
atives expressing implicit negation were translated as normal in-
terrogatives without giving any lexical, syntactic or orthographic
indication to the sense concerned. Sometimes, explicit negatives
or affixal negation is the only alternative.
3. Arabic texts involving lexis that indicate implicit negation were
precisely rendered to English as implicit negatives. This is due to
the similarity between both languages as far as lexis signalling the
sense of implicit negation are concerned.
103
 4. Arabic implicit negation as indicated by shortening has proved
very difficult to render to English. However, it is recommended that
it is better translated by using clefting proper in English.
5. Arabic implicit negatives as expressed by exception were easy
to render to English. This is attributed to the fact that exception in
both languages carries the sense of implicit negation.
6. Paying attention to the overall linguistic context, on the part
of translators, is an essential prerequisite to accurately translate
implicit negative constructions from Arabic into English. Other-
wise, implicit negatives will be rendered to explicit ones.
7. Arabic conditional clauses showing implicit negation in liter-
ary texts were translated into the third type of English conditional
clauses with the negative particle not in the if clause.

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al-Rrumȃny, al-Hasan, A.(d.384h.) (2008) Kitȃb Ma’ȃny Al-
ḥuroof.(Meanings of Particles).Revised by Dr. AbdulFattȃḥ. A. Shal-
aby. Beirut: Dȃr Al-Hilȃl.
al-Sakȃky, Y.M.A.(d.626h.)(2011)Miftȃḥu al’ulwm.(The Key of
Knowledge).Revised by Dr AbdulHamyd Hindawy. Beirut: Dar al-
Kitub al’ilmia..
al-Sȃmarȃy, Fadil.S.(2003) Ma’ȃny alNaḥu.( Meanings of Gram-
mar).2nd edition. Amman. alFikr House for Printing and Distribu-
tion.
Shaker, M. H. (2003) Holy Qur’an. Qum: Ansariyan Publications.
Shlãsh H. T.Al-Farţusy,S.M. and Hussein,U.A.(1989)Al-Muhażżab fi
‘ilm Al-TaŞryf .(An Introductory Survey of the Science of Morphol-
ogy).Baghdad: Beit Al-ħikma Publications.
Trask, R. L.(1993) A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguis-
tics. London: Routledge.

107
 Lexical Gaps in Arabic -to­-English Translation(1)

Abstract:
The present paper addresses itself to study how lexical gaps
constitute a thorny area for Arabic- to -English translators to en-
counter and overcome. It is based on the hypothesis that lexical
gaps in religious translation seem problematic to get around. The
paper is limited to the investigation of morpho- lexical gaps. Trans-
lation data for analysis is taken from three published renditions
of the Glorious Qurân where ayahs involving morpho-lexical gaps
have been discussed along with alternative translations for the in-
adequately translated ayahs. The assessment of the translations
of Quranic ayahs under study has yielded that lexical gaps are too
thorny in religious translation to overcome unless appropriate
translation techniques are utilized to process them. .

Keywords: gaps, holes, inaccuracy, alternative translations,

ayah, surah.

1. Lexical gaps
1.1 An Introduction
‘Lexical gaps or lexical holes’ are two terms alternatively used
in the literature available on the topic. However, a lexical gap as

(1) This chapter is built on a paper published in STJ. Vol. 4 P. 69-81 London

108
a term is in more currency than a lexical hole. There is a unani-
mous agreement between linguists and translation specialists of
what a lexical gap means. According to Trask(1993:157), the term
refers to” the absence of a hypothetical word which would seem
to fit naturally into the pattern exhibited by existing words” . Leh-
rer (1974:95), as a semanticist, states that the term ‘lexical gap’
is multiply ambiguous in the sense that it has been applied to all
sorts of instances where a word, in one way or another, is miss-
ing. Gaps are of various types; realized at phonological (e.g.*pkly/
pkli/), morphological (e.g.*ungood), syntactic (e.g.*informations)
or semantic (e.g. *male dog) levels.
It is beyond dispute that the lexical framework of any language
is often built in terms of semantic fields (e.g. kinship relations,
colour terms, military ranks etc), sense relations (e.g. hyponymy,
synonymy, antonymy etc), collocation, idioms and relational oppo-
sites. The basic principle behind the availability of certain lexis in a
given language is its users’ need. So, it is possible to find a lexical
item referring to a particular object or concept in one language,
but it is absent in another. Bentivogli and Pianta(2009) underline
that a lexical gap occurs whenever a language expresses a concept
with a lexical unit whereas another language expresses the same
concept with a free combination of words. Lyons (1977:303)(see
also Kiekema 2009) maintains that lexical gaps are attributed to
unlexicalized concepts or objects across languages. For instance,
due to the cultural institutionalization of the distinction between
dead humans and dead animals, two lexical items are coined refer-
109
ring to both as ‘corpse’ and ‘carcass’, respectively. However, there
is no word referring to dead plants. The same holds true of the dis-
tinction in English between ‘shelling’ and ‘bombardment’ where
both are translated into Arabic as ‫القصف‬QaŞif” “unless the former
collocates with artillery”maddfa’iah”‫ “ مدفعيه‬to be distinguished
from the latter when co-occurring with aircraft fighters ţaai?rat
“‫”طائرات‬. Thus, such lexical mismatches will lead to the absence of
adequate translations where the translator must decide between
straight borrowing, neologism and providing an explanation.

1.2 Lexical gaps and Semantic fields

Semantic field theory was first introduced by German linguists
(e.g. Trier) where it refers to word-groups that exhibit semantic re-
latedness and sameness of word class (Löbner, 2002:94). It is often
common for lexical gaps to come to the fore within semantic fields
where there is a hole in the pattern i.e.” the absence of a lexeme
at a particular place in the structure of a semantic field”(Lyons,
1977:301). For instance, the semantic field of temperature in En-
glish, as introduced by Conner (1983:43), consists of four terms:
cold, cool; warm, hot. In some contexts these terms turn to be
synonyms (e.g. cold/ cool water) and in other they are antonyms
(e.g. cold/ *cool outer space).In Arabic, on the other hand, the
semantic field of temperature involves three terms where a lexical
gap is easy to recognize. This could be shown diagrammatically as
follows:

110
 In English cold cool warm hot
In Arabic ‫( بارد‬bârid) ----------- ‫(دافى‬dâfi?) ‫( حار‬ħâr)

Diagram 1: Semantic field of Temperature in English and Arabic

This lexical gap has its negative impact on translation from En-
glish into Arabic where cool and cold are rendered the same in
contexts where they turn to be antonyms.
1. He fell into the cool waters of the lake.
‫سقط في مياه البحيرة الباردة‬
Saqaţah fii almiah albuħayrah albâridah
2. The winners were given a cold welcome when they arrived
home.
‫لقي الفائزون أستقباال باردا عند عودتهم للوطن‬
Laqiah alfa?zuun istiqballan bâridan ‘ indah ‘ awdatihim lilwaţan
It is worth noting that in sentence (2) the word cool is not cor-
rect to use. The same holds true of the semantic field of kinship re-
lations where there is a huge gap between both languages in that
in Arabic eight kinship relations ( i.e,‫ أبن خالة‬,‫ أبن خال‬,‫ أبن عم‬.. ‫بنت العم‬
,‫ أبن العمة بنت العمه‬, ,‫ بنت الخالة‬,‫ )بنت الخال‬are inadequately matched
in translation by one lexical kinship term’ cousin’. This lexical gap
can only be bridged by paraphrasing written in form of footnotes
or comments within the body of the text under translation. Two
examples are given below:
‫تزوج أبن خالتي البارحة‬.1
Tazawaja ibnu khalatii albariħah

111
 My cousin (my maternal aunt’s son) got married yesterday.
‫ تزوجت بنت عمي البارحة‬.2
Tazawajat bintu ‘ amii albariħah.
My cousin (my parental uncle’s daughter) got married yesterday.
Altha’alibii (d.430h., 2007:356) introduces the Arabic seman-
tic field of gifts consisting of six terms: alħudyya( a gift given to a
good news teller),al’urđah(a gift given by a passenger coming back
home),almuŞna’ah(a gift given to a worker),alatawah( a gift given
by a king) alshshakad( a gift given to somebody before he does his
work) and shukm( a gift given to somebody in turn of what he did).
These are not necessarily lexically matched in English as shown in
the following diagram:

In Ara- Alħudyya Al’urđah almuŞna’ah Alatawah Ash- Shukm

bic ‫الحديا‬ ‫العرضة‬ ‫المصنعة‬ ‫األتاوة‬ shshakad ‫الشكم‬
‫الشكد‬
In En- Gift or ----------- -------------- Prize ---------- re-
glish present ward

Diagram 2: Semantic field of Gifts in Classical Arabic and Stan-

dard English
Thus, in translating a text from classical Arabic into English,
there is no any other alternative at the translator’s disposal but
to explain such unlexicalized concepts between the two languag-
es concerned. Moreover, it is not necessary that lexical gaps arise
only within semantic fields: for instance the word nerd is found in
English to refer to a person who is highly well-versed in computer
112
science and lacks social skills, yet this word is not found in Arabic
where paraphrasing is the only choice for translators to make. Yet,
this word does not fall within a particular semantic field in English.

1.3 Lexical gaps: Reasons and Treatment

Lexical gaps, as referred to in (1.1 and 1.2 above), are attribut-
ed to a variety of reasons such as the absence of the lexicaliza-
tion of some concepts in a given language. The lexicalization of the
same concepts in another language constitutes translation prob-
lems and difficulties. Owing to the very close relationship between
language and culture where cultural differences are mirrored by
linguistic ones, Teleoaca(2009) speaks of cultural gaps specially
realized in technical terminology. This makes translators perma-
nently face the problem of how to treat the cultural aspects im-
plicit in a source text(ST) and how to find the most appropriate
techniques for successfully conveying these aspects in the target
text(TT).These problems may vary in scope depending on whether
the two languages (or more) concerned are linguistically and cul-
turally related or not. Lyons (1981:310) takes the same position
in saying that “differences of lexical structure (including most ob-
viously, lexical gaps...) make exact translation between languages
difficult and at times impossible”. This could lead to two types of
untranslatability: linguistic and cultural. The former is ascribed to
the non-existence of a syntactic or lexical substitute in the TT for
an ST item whereas the latter, on the other hand, is due to the ab-
sence in the TT culture of a relevant situational feature for the SL
113
text (McGuire, 1980:32).
The physical environment of a speech community is also in-
volved in creating lexical gaps in the sense that words are coined
by speakers to refer to objects or animals found in their surround-
ings, but not necessarily found elsewhere. The true realization of
such influence of environment on language is the coinage of one
hundred names for the camel in the Arabian Peninsula. The lack of
a particular word in a language for a particular concept or object
could be compensated by adding a new word when speakers be-
come familiar with the concept. Speakers have four ways opened
to them to bridge such gaps: semantic extension, blending, com-
bination of old existing words or borrowing Wikipedia, 2009).As to
translation, Weise (1988:190) maintains that any gap either in the
form of one-to-zero or one-to-many equivalents must be compen-
sated by the translator’s skill.
To take examples from Arabic, semantic extension is true of
the word”‫ ”قطار‬Qiţâr(train) which originally denoted a caravan of
camels, in modern standard Arabic it refers to a train. Blending, al-
though not that productive in Arabic, plays a minor role in deriving
new words such as” ‫ ”الزمكان‬azamakan referring to place-time and”
‫ ”جيوسياسي‬geosiasy referring to geopolitics while borrowing is more
vividly seen in political register and scientific terminology such as
‫ سيناريو‬,‫ دكتاتوريه‬,‫ برلمان‬,‫ الراديكاليين‬,‫ ديمقراطيه‬desktop, mouse, clutch,
gear where they are loan-translated in modern Arabic and the last
four words are naturalized in the colloquial Arabic dialects. As far as
borrowing in the political discourse is concerned, some calls were
114
voiced to update the classical Arabic political terms where ‫الرادكاليين‬
(radicals),‫( الديمقراطية‬democracy) ‫( الدكتاتورية‬dictatorship) ‫أأليديولوجية‬
(ideology) are supposed to be respectively replaced by ,‫االصالحيون‬
‫العقيدة‬,;‫الشورى‬, ‫ ( األستبداد‬ħafyydh,1989:78). Nevertheless, the voices
concerned have not rung a bell in the minds of politicians because
the borrowed terms have got currency in the formal and informal
modern Arabic political discourse.

1.4 Gaps in the Translation of Idioms

Although much has been written on the translation of idioms
from Arabic into English and vice-versa, some idioms have re-
mained controversial among translation professionals to be ade-
quately rendered. This is owing to the fact that such idioms have
one- to –zero equivalents in the TL. Proverbs are no exception in
this regard since they are classified as a subcategory of idioms and
they are culture-bound. However, this does not mean that this ap-
plies to all proverbs, on the contrary, some have one-to-one or one
-to-many equivalents (Awwad, 2009) (see also Ghazala, 1995:142-
149).
Awwad(ibid) maintains that when the expressions and functions
of idioms differ in both SL and TL, the translator’s task becomes
extremely difficult. In such a situation, the mastery of the culture
and the way of life besides that of the linguistic system become
prerequisites if functionally adequate renderings of such idioms
(including proverbs) are sought (e.g. Between the devil and the
blue sea :‫ بين فكي كماشة‬bayna fakky kamaŞah’ (between the two
115
jaws of a pair of pincers’).
Being a native speaker of Iraqi Arabic, the researcher relies on
his intuition in citing some proverbs whose origin is attributed to
the cultural Islamic heritage i.e. either they are Qurân- based or
Hadyth-based where the cultural gap is easily recognized.
1. 54 :24 )‫)ماعلى الرسول أ أل البالغ المبين‬
Ma’ala alrasuul ila albalagh almubyn( literally it means:The
messenger is not concerned, but to convey the message). It is said
to exonerate one’s responsibility, but telling what he was entrust-
ed with. This proverb is a Quranic ayah.
‫ بين العين والحاجب فرج‬.2
Bayna al’ayyn walħajib faraj (literally it means: Between the
eye and its brow is a hope). It is said on critical occasions and it is
based on the following Quranic Ayah:”94:6 )”‫ )أن مع العسر يسرا‬which
means:’ verily, along with every hardship is relief.’
3. ‫رحم اهلل أمرء عرف قدر نفسه‬
Raħama Allahu ?mri?in ‘arafa qadara nafsih(literally it means:
Mercy of Allah on the one who knows his position).It is one of the
Prophet’s (P.B.U.H) sayings normally pronounced to show that a
man should not claim or speak more than he can or deserves.
4. ‫الصدق نجاة‬
AlŞidiq Najjat(literally it means: telling the truth is a rescue). This
proverb is based on the Quranic ayah “‫ياايها اللذين أمنوا أتقوا اهلل وكونوا مع‬
119 :9 )”‫ )الصادقين‬ya?uha allađyna ?manu ?taqu Allâh wakunu ma’a
alŞadiqiin “O, you who believe be afraid of Allâh and be with the
truthful”. This ayah urges people to be true in words and deeds.
116
 It is not easy to give idiomatic translations in English to the
above-quoted proverbs due to the cultural gap between both lan-
guages.

1.5 Lexical Gaps in the Translation of the Qurân

When one makes a survey of the existing English renditions of
the Qurân, he distinguishes the fact that the translations aim at the
communication of the message without considering the idiosyn-
crasies and the prototypical features of the Qurân. This could take
a variety of challenges: lexical, structural, morphological or rhe-
torical (Abdelwali, 2009).The following subsections are concerned
with discussing and assessing English translations of the Qurânic
ayahs which involve morphological and semantico-lexical gaps.
Three translations of the Qurân have been chosen for assessment
where translators’ names are abbreviated(1) and page numbers are
indicated opposite each ayah. In addition, surah names will be first
referred to by numbers, and then followed by ayah numbers.

1.5.1 Morphological Gaps in Quranic Translations

As it is well-known that Arabic is an inflectional language and
the classification of verbs is morphologically based where affixes
give rise to paramount change in the meaning of the verbs derived
from the same trilateral or quadrilateral stems. Some ayahs involve

(1) Abdullah Yusuf Ali is abbreviated as Ali., M. H. Shaker as Sh. and M. Hilali & M.
Khan as Hi-Kh

117
such verbs as they pose semantic challenges (resulting from mor-
phological gaps) to translators. This is clearly seen in the following
ayahs:
ْ َ َّ َ َ ْ َ َ ْ َ َ َ ْ َ َ ً ّ َ ُ ّ َ ْ َ َ ْ َ ْ َ َ َ َّ َ
3:3 )‫الت ْو َراة َو ِاإلن ِجيل‬ ‫)نزل عليك ال ِكتاب ِبالح ِق مص ِدقا ِلما بين يدي ِه وأنزل‬
Nazzala ‘alayka alkitaba bilħaqqi muŞaddiqan limma bayna ya-
dayhi wa?anzala alttawrat walinjiil
Ali (p.52) It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth,
the Book, confiring what went before it; and He sent down the
Torah(of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus)
Sh. (p.83) He has revealed to you the book with truth, verifying
that which is before it, and He revealed the Tavrat and the Injeel.
Hi-Kh(p.67) It is He Who sent down the Book(the Qurân) to you
(Mohammad) with truth, confirming what came before it. And
He sent down the Taurât(Torah) and Injeel(Gospel).
The verb Nazzala signifies the gradually repetitive revelation of
the Qurân which lasted for 23 years whereas the verb ?anzala to
reveal one time and at once. Sh.’s and Hi-Kh’s translations proved
failure in conveying the semantic difference found between both
verb forms. In contrast, Ali’s translation is somehow accurate in
the sense that he paraphrases the difference (i.e. sent down step
by step) in meaning between both verb forms.
ُ ُّ ٌ
)‫ َ(و ْيل ِلك ِل ُه َم َز ٍة ل َم َزة‬:104
Waylun likulli humazatin llumazah
Ali(p.600)Woe to every (kind of) scandal-monger and backbiter.
Sh.(p.702) Woe to every slanderer, defamer.
Hi-Kh(p.853) Woe to every slanderer and backbiter
118
 The noun Waylun(Woe) is in the nominative case, not in the
subjunctive case, because the former means that the sentence is
nominal while the latter indicates a verbal sentence. The ayah is
used for threatening those who gather money greedily without
paying Zakat(1) or charities, expecting that they will be immortal.
Those money gathers will be everlastingly tortured. Accordingly,
unlike the subjunctive case of the nominal sentence indicating its
non-continuity, the nominal sentence in the nominative case refers
to the non-stop torture of the money gathers who pay no rights as
Allah recommends. This difference in meaning is signalled by the
morphological case-marking (As-Sammar’ay, 2007:33).
The three translations given are inadequate in the sense that
they did not signal the sense of the everlasting woe that results
from the morphological case marking found in the original. It could
be translated more accurately as follows: Everlasting woe to every
slanderer and backbiter.
ً َْ َ ْ َ َ
18:97 )‫)ف َما ْاس َط ُاعوا أن َيظ َه ُر ُوه َو َما ْاس َت َط ُاعوا ل ُه نقبا‬
Fama aŞţa’u an yađharwhu wam aŞtaţ’u lahu naqqba
Ali (p.297) Thus, were they made powerless to scale it or to dig
through it.
Sh.(p.359) So they were not able to scale it nor could they make
a hole in it.

(1) Zakât is one of the pillars of Islam where each Muslim should pay 2% of the extra
money of his annual income for those who are in need of. Zakât is handed over to
the most knowledge Muslim scholar who will be responsible for distributing Zakât
to those who are in need of.

119
 Hi-Kh.(p.399) So they[Ya’juj and Ma’juj(gog and Magog)] could
not scale it or dig through it.
The above ayah contains two verbs ?Şţa’u and ?Ştaṭȃ’u are mor-
phologically derived from the same stem (ţȃ’a), yet the latter, un-
like the former, is inflected with the letter “t”. This gives rise to
difference in meaning in that ?Şţa’u means to ascend or to scale
whereas ?Ştaṭȃ’u means to become with much difficulty able to
do something (As-Sammar’ay, 2007: 75).The three translators’ ren-
ditions are inaccurate in that they did not indicate the sense of
difficulty to do something involved within the meaning of ?Ştaṭȃ’u
which is the resultant of the morphological infix.
ْ ٌ َ َ
12:30 )‫َ)وقال ِن ْس َوة ِفي ال َم ِد َينة‬
Waqȃla niswatun fi almadinah
Ali (p.232) Ladies said in the city.
Sh. (p.288) And women in the city said.
Hi-Kh.(p.306) And women in the city said
َ ُ ََْ ْ َ َ
49:14 )‫اب َآم ّنا‬ ‫)قالت األعر‬
Qalat al?’rab amanna
Ali (p.508) The desert Arabs say, “We believe”
Sh.(p.595) The dwellers of the desert say: We believe.
Hi-Kh.(p.703) The Bedouins say “We believe”
The above two ayahs involve the same verb qâla but it is in-
flected for masculine gender in the first ayah while for feminine
gender in the second. The masculine verb form implies the sense
of paucity in that a few women in the royal palace of pharaoh say
that the latter’s wife has become verily in love with her slave. On
120
the other hand, the feminine verb form qâlat indicates the sense
that a lot of desert people claim that they are true believers, but in
fact they are only Muslims. This morphological gap is attributed to
the fact that verbs in Arabic, unlike in English, are inflected for gen-
der which resulted in this difference in meaning. As to the trans-
lations, neither the sense of paucity nor that of bounty is lexically
signalled. Following are two alternative renditions for both ayahs.
A few women in the city said.
A plenty of the Bedouins say “We believe”.

1.5.2 Semantico-lexical gaps in Qurânic Translation

As mentioned in (1.2 above), lexical gaps are the resultants of
the unlexicalized concepts in a given culture. Language and culture
are so intimately related in the sense that the latter is part of the
former, which is why some regard language as the mirror of culture
.Since the Arabic language has got a long cultural heritage behind
it and the Qurân enriched its lexical framework, many Qurȃnic lexis
have no one-to-one equivalents in English. In fact, culture causes”
many more severe complications for the translator than do differ-
ences in language structure”(Nida, 2000:130). So, some Qurânic
ayahs will be discussed and their translations will be assessed to
prove how semantico-lexical gaps are present and treated.
َ َ َّ َ
17:1 )‫ان ال ِذي أ ْس َرى ِب َع ْب ِد ِه ل ْيًال‬ ‫)س ْب َح‬
ُ
Subħana alađy asara bi’abdihy laiylan.
Ali (p.274) Glory to (Allah) Who did take His Servant for a jour-
ney by night.
121
 Sh. (p.335) Glory be to Him Who made His Servant go on a night.
Hi-Kh.(p.368) Glorified(and Exalted) is He(Allâh)Who took His
slave (Muhammad) for a journey by night.
The present ayah contains the verb Asra which means to go on
a journey by night or to travel by night does not have a one-word
verb equivalent in English unless it is explained in a comment or a
footnote. The translations above have proved accurate in convey-
ing the same sense of the verb by doing some sort of paraphrasing.
َْ َ َ ََ ْ ْ ُ ْ َ َ َْ َُ َ ُ َ َ
21:78 )‫ان ِإذ َي ْحك َم ِان ِفي ال َح ْر ِث ِإذ نفش ْت ِف ِيه غ َن ُم الق ْو ِم‬‫)وداوود وسليم‬
Wa Dawood wa Sulaiman iđ yaħkuman fi alħarthi iđ nafashat
fiyhy ghanamu alqawm.
Ali (p.323) And remember David and Solomon, when they gave
judgement in the matter of the field into which the sheep of cer-
tain people had strayed by night.
Sh. (p.387)And Dawood and Sulaiman when they gave judge-
ment concerning the field when the people’s sheep pastured
therein by night.
Hi-Kh.(p.436) And(remember) Dâwûd (David) and Sulaimân(Sol-
omon)when they gave judgement in the case of the field in which
the sheep of certain people had pastured at night.
The underlined verb in the above ayah nafashat means to fan
out at night (Al-Zamakhshary, d.538h. 2002:683).It could be said
that the accurate translation for the ayah is Hi-Kh.’s. However, it
needs the following addition: “fan out” to reflect the exact mean-
ing of the verb nafashat.
And (remember) Dâwûd (David) and Sulaimân(Solomon)when
122
they gave judgement in the case of the field in which the sheep of
certain people had fanned out and pastured at night.
َّ ‫الز َك َاة َو ْار َك ُعوا َم َع‬
َ ‫الر ِاك ِع‬
1:43 )‫ين‬
َّ ُ َ َ َّ ُ ‫َ)و َأ ِق‬
‫يموا الصالة وآتوا‬
Wa?qymu alŞalat waâtu alzakât wa?rka’u ma’a alraki’yn
Ali (p.7)And be steadfast in prayer: give Zakat, and bow down
your heads with those who bow down (in worship).
Sh. (p.37)And keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate and bow
down with those who bow down.
Hi-Kh.(p.10) And perform As-Salât and give Zakât, and bow
down( or submit yourselves with obedience to Allâh) along with
Ar-Râki’un.
The present ayah contains the word Zakât which does nether
neither a lexical equivalent nor a cultural one. Therefore, it should
be transliterated within the translation of the ayah and explained
in a footnote as shown in endnote no II below.
ُ َ َ َ ُ ُّ َ َ ْ َ ْ َ ْ َّ ُ ُ ُ ْ َّ َ َّ ُ َ ْ ُ ْ ْ ُ ْ َ َ َ ُ َ َ َّ َ ُّ َ َ
‫وه ّن ف َما لك ْم‬‫ات ثم طلقتموهن ِمن قب ِل أن تمس‬ ِ ِ ‫(يا أيها ال ِذين آمنوا ِإذا نكحتم الم‬
‫ن‬ ‫م‬ ‫ؤ‬
َّ َ َ
)33:48( )‫َعل ْي ِه ّن ِم ْن ِعد ٍة‬
Ya?uuha alđyna ammanu iđa nakaħtum almumnat thuma
ţalqtumuhinna min qabi an tamassuhinna famalakum ‘alahunna
min ‘idda
Ali(p.461) O ye who believe! When you marry believing women,
and then you divorce them before ye have touched them, no peri-
od of ‘Iddat have ye to count in respect of them.
Sh.(p.490) O you who believe! When you marry the believing
women, then divorce them before you touch them, you have in
their case no term which you should reckon.
123
 Hi-Kh.(p.570)O you who believe! When you marry believing
women, and then you divorce them before you have sexual inter-
course with them, no’ddah[ divorce prescribed period] have you
to count in respect of them.
According to the Islamic jurisprudence, a divorcee woman can-
not get married once more unless her ‘ddah becomes over. ‘ddah
is a one-hundred day period following a woman’s divorce. This
word does not have a cultural or a lexical equivalent in English.Ali’s
and Hi-Kh.’s translations are more accurate than Sh.’s because the
latter involves the word term being regarded as an equivalent to
‘ddah which is not.
َ
ٌ َ
49:6 )‫اس ٌق ِب َن َب ٍإ ف َت َب َّي ُنوا‬
َ ُ ْ َ ‫َ)يا َأ ُّي َها ّال ِذ‬
ِ ‫ين َآم ُنوا ِإن َج َاءك ْم ف‬
Ya?yyha ?alđynu ?in ja?akum fâsiqun binabin fatabyyannu.
Ali(p.507) O ye who believe! If a sinner comes to you with any
news, ascertain the truth.
Sh.(p.593)O ye who believe! If an evil-doer comes to you with a
report, look carefully into it.
Hi-Kh(p.701) O you who believe! If Fâsiq(liar-evil person)comes
to you with any news, verify it.
The lexical item Fâsiq in the Islamic jurisprudence refers to the
one who commits one of the Major Sins(eg committing adultery
,notoriety of telling lies etc ), and whose evidence is not accepted
in an Islamic court. A sinner, on the other hand, denotes any one
who commits any kind of a sin and even a very minor one, thus
every human being is a sinner. Accordingly, every Fâsiq is a sinner,
but the reverse does not hold true (Sirriyya, 1998:27).
124
 So this cultural gap can be bridged in translation by paraphras-
ing it. It is better to transliterate it and add a comment between
two brackets.
O you who believe! If Fâsiq( a Major-Sin committer) comes to
you with any news, verify it.
ُ َ ُ ًَ ً َ َ ُ َ ََ
4:43 )‫)فل ْم ت ِجدوا َم ًاء ف َت َي ّم ُموا َص ِعيدا َط ِّيبا ف ْام َس ُحوا ِب ُو ُج ِوهك ْم َوأ ْي ِديك ْم‬
Falam tajidu ma?n fatayammum Şa’ydan ţayban fa?imsaħu bi-
wijuhikum waaydukum
Ali(p.89)and ye find water, then take fore yourselves clean
sand(or earth),rub therein your faces and hands.
Sh.(p.122) and you cannot find water, betake yourselves to pure
earth, then wipe your faces and hands.
Hi-Kh(p.114)and you find no water, perform Tayammum with
clean earth and rub therein your faces and hands Tayammum(1).
The lexical item Tayammum has been transliterated and then
footnoted in the last translation since this word has not been lexi-
calized in English because it is absent in the Christian culture . Ali’s
and Sh.’s translations involve some sort of paraphrasing to convey
the sense of Tayammum.
It is to be noted that many other lexical items (e.g. Sunna ‫سنه‬: it
refers to the Messenger’s sayings and actions to be taken as exam-
ples to follow),‫ خارجي‬kharijji : a person who violates God-enacted

(1) Strike your hands on the earth and then pass the palm of each on the back of the
other and them blow off the dust from them and then pass(rub) them on your
face, this is Tayammum

125
laws yet he cannot be considered a disbeliever) found in Qurânic
ayahs and literature available on jurisprudence are untranslatable
but they are explainable in form of footnotes or comments.

1.6 Conclusions
The present study has yielded some conclusions. First, although
lexical gaps are more vivid to recognize within semantic fields,
such gaps are not necessarily confined to come out within such
fields as the majority of scholars think. Second, cultural differences
between languages constitute the main reason behind the rise of
lexical gaps. Third, lexical gaps are more frequent in religious texts
and scientific texts than other text-types. This is due to the fact
that religious texts have got long cultural heritage behind them
where cultural differences become wider between languages in-
volved in translation. Scientific texts, on the other hand, involve
continually increasing lexis referring to the new discoveries and
inventions which are not quickly lexicalized across the world’s lan-
guages. Fourth, explanation, loan-translation and transliteration
are the only resort for translators to get around the problem of
lexical gaps. Fifth, religion-based proverbs in Arabic are difficult to
translate into English owing to the cultural gaps that give rise to
lexical gaps. Finally, voices to update the Classical Arabic political
terminology have not rung a bell to people concerned because the
loan-translated political terms have got currency in modern Arabic
political discourse.

126
 References:
Abdelwali,M.(2009) “The Loss in the Translation of the Quran”.
http:// www.accurapid.com 40 quran.htm. .
Ali,A.Y.(1934) The Holy Qurân.Beirut: Dar Al-Furqan.
Awwad,M.(2009) “Equivalence and the Translatability of En-
glish and Arabic Idioms”http”//www.ijaes.journal/org/bibli-
ographics/1-A htm.
Bentivogli & Pianta (2009) Looking for Lexical Gaps. http”//
www.itc.it/paper/wordnet-euroalex2000.
Conner,D.F.(1983) Understanding Semantics. Vol.XI. Exeter, Ex-
eter University Press.
Gazala, H.(1995) Translation as Problems and Solutions. Malta:
ELGA publication.
Ħafyydh, A.(1989)”Altarjumah: m?sât almusţalaħ wa furagh al-
ma’na” (Translation: The Tragedy of Terminology and the Meaning
Gap).Alwiħdah Journal.No.61-62 PP.75-84.
al-Hilâli, M. & Khân,M.(1996)Translation of the Meanings of the
Noble Qurân.Madinah.King Fahd Complex for the the Printing of
the Holy Qurân.
Kiekema, A.R.(1998) “Translation Events in Dutch Cross-Lan-
guage Information Retrieval”.In Annual Review of Information Sci-
ence. Vol. XXXIII. Martha Williams (ed.) PP.64-86.
Lehrer, A.(1974) Semantic Fields and Lexical Structure. Amster-
dam: North-Holland Publishing Company.
Lyons, J.(1977) Semantics. Vol.I. Cambridge: CUP.
Lyons, J.(1981) Language and Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP.
127
 Löbner, S.(2002)Understanding Semantics. London: Edward Ar-
nold.
MaGuire, Susan-Bassnett (1980) Translation Studies. London:
Muethen.
Nida, E.(2000)”Principles of Correspondence” In Laurence Ve-
nuti(ed.) The Translation Studies Readers.PP.126-140(first pub-
lished in 1964).
As-Sammar’ay, Fadhil Salih(2007) Al-Ta’beerAl-Qurâny.(The
Qurânic Expression).Amman: Dar Ammar for Publication.
Shaker, M. S.(2003) The Holy Quân Translated. Qum: Ansariyan
Publication.
Sirryyia, S.S.(1998)” Translating Islamic Non-Qurânic Texts into
English”. An M.A Unpublished Thesis. Al-Mustansirriyah University.
Iraq
Al-?Skafy,A.(d.420h,1973) Durat alTanzeel wa Ghurat alTaweel(
The Diamond of Revelation and the Gist of Commentary).Beirut:
Dar al-Afaaq al-Jadeedah.
AlTha’aliby,A.A.(d.430H.2007) Fiqih Al-lUghah waSirru Al-’ara-
biah(Language Philology and the Secret of Arabic) .Beirut:Dar
Al-Ma’rifah.
Trask, R. L.(1993) A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguis-
tics. London: Routledge.
Al-Zamakhshary,J.M.O.(d.538H. 2002) Tafseer al-kashâf.(The
Commentary of the Discoverer).Beirut: Dar al-Ma’rifa.
Weise, Günter (1988) “Contrastive Linguistics and the Problem
of Equivalence in Translation” In Poznaň. Vol.XXII PP.187-194.
128
 Translation Assessment of
Temporal Succession of Events in
Narrative Discourse from Arabic into English(1)

Abstract:
The present paper aims at investigating the lexical and gram-
matical means by which events in written texts are temporal-
ly sequenced in standard Arabic and Standard English. Temporal
succession refers to the chronological order of events which is
signalled typically by conjunctions, tense, aspect, synonyms, ant-
onyms, time adverbials and prepositions. The researcher built his
study on two hypotheses: firstly, both languages tend to use the
same lexico-grammatical devices to achieve the succession con-
cerned. Secondly, translating Arabic temporal connectives, found
in narrative texts, into English seems to pose rendition difficulties
which can be attributed to grammatical and discoursal differences
between the two languages. The results of the contrastive analysis
conducted by the researcher have proved that the two languag-
es partially employ the same lexico-grammatical connectives to
maintain the temporal sequence of actions and events. However,
unlike English, Arabic employs some coordinators as time connec-
tives. As for the translation assessment, it has been found out that

(1) The present chapter is based on a paper published in Studies in English Language
Teaching. Vol.2.No. 4. (PP.367-384) 2014.USA

129
in Arabic literary texts, time connectives have not been accurately
translated. This has been particularly in evidence as far as Arabic
coordinators (as time connectives) are concerned.

Keywords: Arabic, assessment, connectivity, devices, English,

rendition, succession, temporal

1. Introduction
Prose translation has received less attention by translation the-
orists in comparison with poetry translation. This is attributed to
the widely spread erroneous notion that a novel or a short story
is somehow of a simpler structure than a poem and consequent-
ly easier to translate (Bassnett, 2002, p. 114). On equal-footing
with poetic texts, prose texts (when translated across languages)
involve rendition difficulties which should be carefully treated. It
is normally claimed by some scholars and translators that the sim-
plicity of the translation of novels, short stories or anecdotes is
owing to the lack of such a literary genre to rhyme, meter, imag-
ery, assonance, etc. Nevertheless, prose translation is not devoid
of thorny areas at different levels of language analysis (e.g. lexi-
cal, syntactic, semantic, or discoursal) that such areas pose chal-
lenges to translators to handle. Differences at these levels would
definitely add to the difficulty of translating a given text from one
language to another especially when the absence of equivalence
comes to the fore. It is very frequent that the fine senses of some
lexis (e.g. coordinators, prepositions, etc.) in the source language
130
lead to the rise of inaccuracies in the target language due to the in-
herent difficulty (which is present in the source language itself) of
such lexis. Besides, one cannot deny that there is “chronological as
well as logical priority in translation: the source text precedes the
translation in time and serves as the basis for the latter’s creation”
(Toury, 1985, p. 20). This explicitly shows that the translator is con-
strained by the source text linguistic and cultural norms and he has
to transplant it in a newly different linguistic and cultural world.
Accordingly, the translation of any text-type involves some lin-
guistic challenges (lexical and structural) that entail special atten-
tion on the part of translators. These challenges can be overcome
by meticulous scrutiny of the key lexical units that are pregnant
with meanings and they are used intentionally by the original’s
writer. The same applies to structural difficulties.
In addition, it has been settled that cultural differences between
the source text and the target text are the most challenging trans-
lation difficulties that translators encounter (Nida, 1964). Howev-
er, translation difficulties stemming from cultural differences are
beyond the coverage of the present paper.

2. Literature Review
The translations of different sub-types (e.g. poetic, dramatic,
etc.) of literary texts have been continually produced where vari-
ous mistranslations are diagnosed by translation critics. Such mis-
translations emanate from linguistic and cultural discrepancies
between the languages involved in the translation process. For
131
instance, the English translation versions of an Italian novel Fon-
tamara show several types of negative shift where the sentences
appear to have been translated at face value, rather than as com-
ponent units in a complex overall structure. Such types of negative
shift involve: (1) mistranslation of information, (2) sub-interpreta-
tion of the original text and (3) superficial interpretation of con-
nections between intentional correlatives (Bassnett, 2002, p. 118).
Moe (2010) studied the translation of popular fictions from En-
glish to Slovene where he pinpointed various types of shifts in-
volved in the translation of such a literary text-type. He (2010, pp.
132-134) categorized the shifts such as increased formality in that
a higher level of it is achieved by lexical choices: more formal syn-
onyms, sometimes unusual words or phrases, or archaisms. Trans-
lators sometimes choose to leave out or embellish very informal
or vulgar expressions. Besides, shifts of meaning ranked second
(after increased formality) in translating popular fictions as they
are attributed to various reasons such as interference between
English and Slovene, cases of word-for-word translation. As for sty-
listic shifts, Moe (2010, p. 135) cited examples of compression;
translators frequently decide to say the same thing with less words
than the original author. One typical example where one of the
characters talks about “the man who is married to my sister” so as
to distance himself of a very unpleasant character, who, in Slovene
translation, becomes “my brother-in-law”. Another very common
change is omission of repeated words, according to the Slovene
norm, which is quite different from the English norm. Mizaal (2011)
132
assessed three Arabic translations of (the British novelist) William
Golding’s Lord of the Flies. This novel is considered by critics as the
author’s masterpiece as he got Nobel Prize for literature for writ-
ing such a novel. After he finished the translation assessment, he
(pp. 170-174) concluded that the three translations involved vari-
ous flaws such as resorting to the use of the foreign words instead
of the target ones where the latter are present. For instance, the
use of phonetic translation “ ,‫اﻟﺒﻼج اﻻﺟﻮن‬, ‫( ”اﻟﺴﻮﻳﺘﺮ‬whose meanings
respectively run as: seashore, sweater, lagoon) appeared in the
translations where the translators could have respectively used
the Arabic equivalents: ‫ ﺳﺘﺮة ﻣﻦ اﻟﺼﻮف‬,‫ﺑﺤﻴﺮة ﺳﺎﺣﻠﻴﺔ ﺳﺎﺣﻞاﻟﺒﺤﺮ‬,
3. Temporal Cohesion in Language
The concept of cohesion “is a semantic unit; it refers to rela-
tions of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a
text” (Halliday & Hassan, 1976, p. 4). No doubt that cohesion in
language is maintained by various means: grammatical and lexical.
The former can be fulfilled by reference, substitution, ellipsis and
conjunction whereas the latter is maintained by repetition, collo-
cation, reiteration, reference and conjunction. Lexical conjunction
could be additive, causal, and temporal. Accordingly, temporal co-
hesion is maintained in part by lexis, and by the grammatical cate-
gory of tense and of aspect (see section 3.3 below).

3.1 Temporal Connectivity in English

English has its links to signal the sequencing of events when
they occur in written or spoken discourse. These links, broad-
133
ly speaking, fall within the area of lexis, grammar and discourse
analysis. Discoursal links are generally implicit (e.g. the greeting
ritual in conversational opening is followed by the topics of com-
mon concern to participants). Occurring in English and some other
languages, typically temporal connectivity (Note 1) is traditionally
treated “in terms of sequence of tense in that a tense of a finite
verb in a matrix clause places constraints on the tense of a com-
plement clause” (Trask, 1993, p. 251). That is, it is accurate to say:
David opened the door of the reading room and started to type
his research but it is not correct to say David opened the door of
the reading room and starts to type his paper. However, tempo-
ral succession is not confined to the dependencies between tense
forms in successive clauses .It can be signalled by lexis whose real-
izations are time deixis that “makes reference to the ways particu-
lar cultures conceptualize and measure time” (Marmaridou, 2000,
p. 82). Generally speaking in most languages time is measured in
cycles that refer to a 24-hour day and the ways it is divided into
sub-section of sociocultural significance e.g. the month and its
7-day week cycles, the three-month season cycle corresponding to
cycles of natural order , and the year which constitutes the highest
unit of temporal cycle.
The most prominent expressions in encoding time deixis in En-
glish are the adverbs: now, then, soon, recently and verb tense.
When time deixis interacts with calendrical units of time words like
today, tomorrow and yesterday, they are used to locate an utter-
ance relative to time. Nevertheless, the use of these is flexible in
134
that it can indicate the entire time span specified or just a relevant
part of it (ibid.).
Cruse (2011, p. 321) confirms that temporal deictics function to
locate points or intervals on the time axis using “(ultimately) the
moment of speaking as a preference point.” Thus, there are three
major divisions of the time axis (i) before the moment of utter-
ance, (ii) at the time of utterance (iii) after the time of utterance.
One should not forget that temporal deictics depend heavily on
calendric notions subsuming both clock and calendar.
The temporal relationship between the events and states that
are described in successive sentences in a narrative discourse
is often signalled explicitly by means of definite time adverbials
(e.g. Brown arrived to Baghdad at 8 PM. He left again at PM 10.).
Scholars (e.g. Jespersen), nevertheless, have noticed the absence
of temporal relationship markers and yet the temporal succes-
sion is maintained. This is true when a sentence contains a verb
conveying the sense of an accomplishment or of an activity, but
no definite time adverb, that sentence is understood to describe
an event occurring later than the time of the previous sentence’s
event, i.e. narrative time moves forward in the second sentence. It
is often suggested that achievements differ from accomplishments
in that achievements are punctual in some sense whereas accom-
plishments have duration; dying, an achievement, it happens at
once while building a house is an accomplishment that takes time
(Dowty, 1986, p. 42).
(1) John entered the conference hall. The organizing commit-
135
tee members walked over to him. (Walking over takes some time;
therefore, it is an accomplishment)
(2) John entered the conference hall. The organizing committee
members woke up. (Waking up happens at once; it is an achieve-
ment)
Griffiths (2006, pp. 67-68) supports the above view in saying
that the progressive aspect and the verb stop can be used as cri-
teria distinguishing between achievements and accomplishments.
The progressive aspect can also be used to differentiate between
sentences expressing states and activities.
(3) He stopped having a cosmetic surgery. (Accomplishment)
(4) He stopped joining the band. (Achievement)
(5) He was having a cosmetic surgery. (Activity)
(6) He was having one leg. (State)

3.2 Anaphoric and Cataphoric Temporal Markers

Halliday and Hassan (1976, p. 261) state that the relation be-
tween the theses of two successive sentences may be simply one
of sequence in time; the one is subsequent to the other. So, it is
logically accepted to say: Mr. Brown died yesterday. Then, he was
buried the following morning, where the order of these two sen-
tences cannot be reversed. In a similar vein, Levinson (1983, p. 74)
maintains that the temporal markers can be in a sharp contradic-
tion with each other in case they exhibit the threefold time distinc-
tion, i.e. past, present and future. For instance, now contrasts with
then and indeed then can be described as “not now” to allow for
136
its use in both past and future. Then is sometimes claimed to be
necessarily anaphoric in nature and it can be used for indicating
future actions.
(7) Farmers sow the fields with wheat. Then, they start to har-
vest it. (Schiffrin, 1994, p. 299f)
Quirk et al. (1985, pp. 533-539) hold the view that there are key
items realizing forward span which are until and till used for in-
troducing clauses or prepositional phrases. The key term realizing
backward span is since.
(8) Tony’s performance was postponed {until all dignitaries ar-
rived.
{until midnight.
(9) Sara has not visited the Egyptian Museum since her father
left Cairo as ambassador to France there.
(10) Steven has been trying to finish his thesis since last June.
On his part, Orvokki (1978, p. 74) states that time connectives
can indicate sequence of events anaphorically and cataphorically;
the typical of time connectives are after and before, earlier and
later. They, i.e. after and before, are normally considered as con-
verses. Consider the following examples:
(11) a. John finished his studies before he travelled all over the
world.
b. John travelled all over the world after he finished his studies.
(12) a. John was a military police officer before Jack was.
b. Jack was a military police officer after John was.
In sentence (11. a) and (11. b), the two conjunctions are not
137
converses because the order of events involved was reversed but
no difference in meaning arises because the pair of the sentences
entails each other.
To conclude, in such sentences the two conjunctions are used to
signal the sequence of events anaphorically and cataphorically on
equal footing. However, this does not hold true for sentence (12.
a) and (12. b) because (a) entails (b) but not the other way round.
This is owing to the fact that (a) is true only if John became a mili-
tary police officer before Jack became one, but (b) can be true no
matter in which order their careers began, if for instance Jack con-
tinues to be a military police officer even after John has stopped.
Accordingly, before-after, as a pair of conjunctions, exhibits a
preceding-following relation between events whose order is re-
versible unless the before-clause has a durative predicate (state
or activity) where A. before B. entails B. after A. but not the other
way round.
To sum up, temporal markers belong to different parts of speech
which can be, broadly speaking, categorized into those showing
sequentiality, simultaneity, immediateness, repetition, specificity,
etc. (Halliday & Hassan, 1967, p. 266)

3.3 Tense and Aspect

Many definitions of the category of tense have been introduced
by linguists and grammarians (e.g. Jespersen, Quirk, Leech etc.).
Moreover, tense has remained an area over which much contro-
versy is held among specialists even in languages (e.g. English) in
138
which this category is almost theoretically well-established (e.g.
the sentence I wish I knew is not necessarily referring to the past
time, historical present is a case in point etc.). For space necessity,
it is not suitable to get involved in such a controversy. As defined
by Lyons (1968, p. 304), “the category of tense has to do with time
relations in so far as these are expressed by systematic grammat-
ical contrasts”. He (p. 305) adds that the essential characteristics
of the category of tense is that it relates the time of the action,
event, or state of affairs referred to in the sentence to the time of
utterance (the time of utterance being “now”). Accordingly, it is a
deictic category, i.e. partly or wholly dependent upon deixis. Crys-
tal (2008, p. 479) maintains that tense is “a category used in the
grammatical description of verbs … referring primarily to the way
grammar marks the time at which the action denoted by the verb
took place”.
One should keep in mind that there is no one-to-one correspon-
dence between tense forms and time. In addition, there are over-
laps between tense forms and other verbal functions such aspect
and mood. And since it is typically a deictic category, it is an es-
sential means of signalling temporal relations in a language. Lyons
(1977, p. 678) supports this view by saying that “tense … is part
of the deictic frame of temporal reference: it grammaticalizes the
relationship which holds between the time of the situation that is
being described and the temporal zero point of the deictic con-
text”. English is no exception in this regard.
Modern English grammarians (e.g. Quirk et al., 1985, p. 78)
139
underline that English has two tenses; past and non-past (inaccu-
rately called present due to the absence of one to one match be-
tween tense verb form and time reference as referred to above).
Morphologically, English has no future form of the verb, but
there are certain grammatical constructions capable of express-
ing future time actions and events (e.g. will + bare infinitives, be
+ going to, present progressive aspect be + v-ing etc.) (Huang,
2007, p. 148). For instance, the progression of events in the fol-
lowing text exhibits temporal cohesion which is marked by tense
and aspect.
Mr. Brown is an English citizen who is fond of learning foreign
languages since his childhood. He joined The Higher Institute of
Languages for three years. Consequently, he has learnt Spanish,
German and Danish. Searching for vacancies, he is going to work
in the National Oil Company next month as a translator because he
needs a good financial resource so as to get married.
The events of (1) joining the institute, (2) learning the three
languages and (3) to join the new job are sequentially marked by
simple past tense, present perfect aspect and be + going to, re-
spectively.
Accordingly, the category of tense and of aspect are significant
inseparable devices involved in maintaining temporal succession
of events in languages (e.g. English) where tense normally func-
tions as a time deictic category.

3.4 Temporal Connectives and Order-Preserving of Occurrenc-

140
es of Events
The correspondence between language and the outside world
is evidenced by the structural devices (e.g. cohesive links, verb
tense, adverbs, adjectives, etc.) that language employs to refer to
the changes involved in the real world. Cohesive links such as sub-
ordinators (e.g. because, after, before), prepositions (e.g. owing to,
because of), adjectives (e.g. previous, former, latter), verb tense
(e.g. play vs. played) and adverbs (previously, formerly, latterly)
play a significant role in indicating the correspondence concerned
and keep the temporal order of occurrences of events (Dijk, 1977,
pp. 103-105). This can be noticed in the following two texts:
(A) David was a rich man whose apartment was next to ours.
All of sudden, he had disappeared where his family informed the
police in the square. It was rumoured that he was kidnapped. After
a search of several days, the body of the victim was found hidden
under some bushes in the nearby foothills. Because of this event,
the police officer started to question the victim’s family if he had
been previously threatened. The family’s answer was that they
were not aware of such a threatening before. Medical reports later
proved that he was poisoned by relatives to inherit his wealth. Due
to the discovery of the fingerprints of the people involved, they
were arrested and set on trial.
(B) David was a rich man whose apartment was next to ours.
After his sudden disappearance, David’s family informed the po-
lice in the square. It was rumoured that he was kidnapped. Before
finding the body of the victim hidden under some bushes in the
141
nearby foothills, policemen and detectives had spent several days
of search to attain their goal. The police officer started to question
the victim’s family if he had been previously threatened. Owing to
the absence of such a threatening, the policemen latterly received
the medical reports that proved the involvement of some people
in poisoning David to inherit his wealth. The discovery of some
people’s fingerprints had led to arresting them and setting them
on trial.
When one looks at the above two texts, he can easily recognize
that the chronological order of events (e.g. David’s disappearance
followed by informing the police, the search preceded the discov-
ery of the victim’s body, the start of the family’s questioning , the
reception of medical reports, etc.) is preserved by the temporal
connectives. In other words, the temporal connectives found in
the two texts have kept the temporal succession of events as hap-
pened in the real world regardless of changes in language struc-
tures. (Orvokki, 1978, ch. 3)

3.5 Time Adverbials

It is proved by linguists that not all languages (e.g. Chinese, Ma-
lay) have the category of tense, but it is true to say that all lan-
guages have deictic adverbs and particles of time (see section1
above) equivalent to the English time adverbs such as now, then,
soon, recently, today, yesterday, tomorrow, etc. They are also used
(in collocation with tense) in English for “drawing deictic tempo-
ral distinctions” (Lyons, 1977, p. 679) to signal the sequence of
142
events or actions within the preceding-following time relation. The
temporal relations holding within the parts of a text are seen with
reference to a temporal linear scale whose fixed point is the time
of the occurrence of an action. This can be referred to (in addition
to tense) by time adverbials whose temporal reference can be for-
ward or backward (see section 1 above) (Quirk et al., 1985, p. 481)
For example,
(13) The Iraqi football team stayed at Doha airport for ten hours
yesterday until the Qatari authorities intervened and granted them
visas.
(14) Douglas has been working on his PhD in linguistics since his
joining London University last summer.
The above two examples exhibit temporal connectivity in those
two actions in each sentence are temporally sequenced by tense
and time adverbial clauses.
In addition, time adverbials are capable of showing the deictic
function of the tense more explicitly in case the shape of the verb
is not changed (e.g. yesterday they cut the grass vs. tomorrow they
cut the grass) (Saeed, 1997, p. 115)
One should not forget that understanding time adverbial refer-
ence basically depends on a variety of “contextual parameters in-
cluding sociocultural knowledge” (Marmaridou, 2000, p. 83). This
is owing to the fact that such adverbials e.g. now may either relate
to the actual time of utterance (i.e. coding time (CT)) or to a whole
span of time specified in relation to CT. For example,
(15) Take the right road now.
143
 (16) She is in the office now.
(17) Jane is a Deputy Director now.
The reference points of now in each of the above sentences can
be explained by the fact that now in (15) is interpreted as referring
to CT because it is part of an order that involves immediate action.
In (16) and (17) the adverbial is interpreted against our cultural
knowledge that if one in office he is likely to be there for some
time, whereas being a Deputy Director spans over a period of time
and is not a momentary property of an individual (ibid.). Accord-
ingly, as Cummings (2005, pp. 24-25) states, even these terms en-
code different units of time as they can do so in a way that refers
to larger and smaller parts of those units. For example, in the ut-
terances
(18) Yesterday was a glorious day.
(19) The accident occurred yesterday.
The term “yesterday” constitutes a 24-hour unit of time. Howev-
er, the “yesterday” of the first utterance refers to most, and prob-
ably all, of this 24-hour unit, while the “yesterday” of the second
utterance refers only to seconds within this unit.
Another interesting point is that the use of today/tomorrow/yes-
terday pre-empts, that is, it has priority over, the use of the calen-
drical terms for the relevant days. Thus, speakers of English would
normally avoid saying sentence (20) if either today or tomorrow is
Saturday. This is because on a Saturday they would use today, and
on a Friday they would use tomorrow (Huang, 2007, p. 145).
(20) I’ll depart to London on Saturday.
144
 To conclude, this does not mean that the time deictic role of
such adverbs becomes absent, but the involvement of one’s cul-
tural knowledge is of some importance in enabling readers to un-
derstand the parts such adverbials play in maintaining temporal
cohesion in a text.
4. Connectives of Temporal Succession in Arabic
Arabic has a variety of markers of temporal connectivity where
Arab traditional and modern scholars (grammarians, rhetoricians
and theologians) devoted detailed descriptions of these markers.
The involvement of theologians in language description is attribut-
ed to the fact that the Arabic language and the Holy Qurȃn are
closely tied to each other since the Islamic teachings (according
to the religion’s principles) should be introduced in a highly ac-
curate language. Therefore, it has become a commitment for re-
ligious men to study and master the grammar of Arabic to better
understand and interpret religious teachings derived from the
Holy Qurȃn. Traditional and modern Arab grammarians have kept
citing examples in their writings basically from two sources; the
Holy Qurȃn and the Arabic classical poetry. This applies to tempo-
ral markers where the examples that will be given below are from
the two sources in question.

4.1 Tense
Tense refers to “the verb form indicating an action that is tied
to a particular time” (Saybawaih (Note 2), 1988, p. 34, Vol. I). Arab
grammarians introduced too much detailed descriptions to the
145
non-correspondence between the form of the verb and its time
reference. Moreover, some particles when used before verbs
change the time reference (e.g., ‫( ﻟﻼﺟﺘﻤﺎع ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻳﺤﻀﺮ ﻟﻢ‬lam yaħđr
mohammed
llijtimȃ‘) Mohammed did not attend the meeting). The tense of
the verb is imperfect, but once it is preceded by the jussive particle
‫ﻟﻢ‬, its time reference has changed into perfect (Al-Sȃmarȃiy, 2007,
p. 8, Vol. IV). For the moment, we are not concerned with going
into such minute details. Our primary concern is to see how tense
is used as a cohesive temporal device to signal the sequencing of
events in texts.
Arab modern grammarians draw a distinction between morpho-
logical tense and grammatical tense. The former refers to tense in
isolation from context whereas the latter refers to a contextual-
ized tense (Ħassȃȃn, 1973, p. 241). The grammatical tense along
with some particles like(e.g.,‫ﻟﻘﺪ‬, ‫ﻗﺪ‬,‫ ﺳﻮف‬,‫س‬.. ‫) ﻟﻤﺎ‬, defective verbs
(,‫آﺎن‬,‫ﻣﺎزال‬,‫ ) ﻣﺎﻓﺘﻰء‬verbs of beginning (‫ﺷﺮع‬, ‫ﻃﻔﻖ‬,‫ )ﻗﺎم‬express a variety
of aspectual senses since aspect is formally absent in Arabic. Used
to bridge this linguistic gap between English and Arabic, the aspec-
tual senses help to indicate the sequence of events. This true of
sentence (1) where the first action followed the second one. For
instance,‫لأن أﺧﻮﻩ ﻗﺪ‬. ‫ﺳﺎﻓﺮ ﻋﻠﻲ اﻟﻰ اﻟﺒﺼﺮة ﻟﻠﻌﻤﻞ ﻓﻲ ﻣﺆﺳﺴﺔ اﻟﻤﻮاﻧﻲء اﻟﻌﺮاﻗﻴﺔ‬
1( ‫)ﺳﺒﻘﻪ ﻟﻠﻌﻤﻞ هﻨﺎك‬
sȃfara Ali illa albaṣrah lli’amal fi muasasat almawȃni al‘iraqia.
kȃna akhuhu qad sabaqahu lli ‘amal hunȃk.
Ali travelled to Basra to work in Iraq Ports Company. His brother
146
had preceded him to work there. (Rasheed, 2008, pp. 25-29)

4.2 Coordinators
In addition to grammatical tense mentioned in section 4.1
above, some coordinators in Arabic can exhibit a variety of senses
among which is the succession of events. The three below coordi-
nators are used for marking the sequentiality of events, but with
different meanings.

4.2.1 Waw
The coordinator waw basically conveys two senses: involvement
and succession. As for the former, it means that one cannot de-
termine which one of the two coordinated noun phrases (wheth-
er they are subjects, objects, or complements of prepositions) or
verbs comes before which. This is due to the fact that the two are
involved in the same grammatical function (Saybawaih, 1988, p.
218, Vol. I).
(2) ‫ وﻣﺤﻤﺪا َ زﻳﺪا ً زرت‬zirtu Zaidan waMohammadan. I visited Zaid
and Mohammed.
(3) ‫ أكـلـت وﺷﺮﺑﺖ كـثـيـرا‬akaltu washaribtu kathiiran. I ate and drank
very much. One cannot tell with certainty whom the speaker vis-
ited first in sentence (2). It is possible that he visited them one by
one, i.e. Zaid first then Mohammed, or the reverse, or both at the
same time. As for the coordination of verbs in sentence (3), the
speaker may have eaten then drunk, or the reverse or eating and
drinking are involved in taking place at the same time (Al-‘Alawy,
147
2009, p. 42, Vol. II) (Ibin, 1965, p. 445).
Al-Sȃmarȃey(2007, p. 188, Vol. III), among other linguists,
states that the present coordinator can be used as a marker for
temporal succession. This is true of many Qurȃnic ayas. To cite
just an example:
‫)ﺳﻤﺎﻋﻴﻞ وإﺳﺤﺎق وﻳﻌﻘﻮب واﻷﺳﺒﺎط وﻣﺎأوﺗﻲ ﻣﻮﺳﻰ وﻋﻴﺴﻰ وﻣﺎأﻧﺰل اﻟﻰ‬4(
)p.27(.)136/ ‫ ﺳﻮرة اﻟﺒﻘﺮة‬-‫إﺑﺮاهيم‬
wamȃunzila ila Ibrahiima wa Ismȃ‘iil waIsħȃq waYa‘qub wal?
ṣṣbȃṭwamȃutia Musȃ wa ‘iisȃ
What has been sent down to Ibrȃhȋm (Abraham), Ismȃȋl (Ishma-
el), Ishȃq (Isaac), Y‘qȗb (Jacob) and to Al-Asbȃt (the offspring of
the twelve sons of Y‘qȗb (Jacob)), and that which has been given
to Mȗsȃ (Moses) and ‘Isȃ (Jesus). (Baqara, aya: 136, p. 27) (Note 3)
Therefore, in the above aya, the prophets’ names are men-
tioned in chronological order which is signalled by the presence of
waw. Nevertheless, the same coordinator can serve other rhetor-
ical purposes (e.g. fronting, coordination of generic to specific or
the reverse etc.) which we are not concerned with for the moment
(ibid.).

4.2.2 FaIbin Jinny (2007, p. 262, Vol. I)

maintains that when Fa is indeclinable, it functions as follows: a
coordinator signalling sequentiality of occurrence of events and a
particle whose presence and absence is redundant. Basically, this
coordinator serves the function of cohesiveness and succession.
(5) ‫ ﻓﺼﺪﻳﻘﻲ أﺧﻲ ﻗﺎم‬Qȃma akhii faṣadiiqy. My brother stood up
148
then my friend immediately.
The occurrence of the event of “standing up” done by the speak-
er’s bother has followed his friend’s immediately without a con-
siderable interval (see section 2 above). Al-Shȃṭiby (2007, p. 80f),
on his part, confirms that the coordinator in question shows the
succession of what goes before and after it. The interval between
the occurrences of the two coordinated actions is too short to con-
sider in that the second action cannot be started unless the first
has come full circle. He (p. 86) compares it to thumma (see section
2 above) in saying that the interval between both actions is longer
in time to consider.
Al-Makzumy (1966, p. 191), among other grammarians (e.g. Say-
bawaih), adds that this coordinator expresses “involvement in the ac-
complishment of the action and the temporal order of doing it.”
‫) ﺟﺎء ﻋﺒﺪاﷲ ﻓﻤﺤﻤﺪ‬6(
Jȃ? ‘abdullah faMuhammed. Abdullah came then Mohammed.
Looking at sentence (6), one can recognize that both subjects
were involved in the act of coming, but Mohammed’s coming con-
secutively followed Abdullah’s.
This coordinator can express some other rhetorical purposes
(e.g. causality) or it can be used as a coordinator showing no con-
secutiveness (Ibn, 2001, p. 170).
(7) ‫‘? ﻓﺸﻜﺮ هﺪﻳﺔً اﻟﻔﻘﻴﺮ أﻋﻄﻴﺖ‬ṭaitu alfaqyr hadiatan fashakar. I gave
the poor man a prize, then he thanked. (Prize-giving causes thanks).
4.2.3 Thumma

149
 Al-‘Alawy (2009, p. 43) explains that Thumma is a coordina-
tion device used to signal a succession of the coordinated events
whose occurrences take place with some intervals. That is, the
occurrence of the coordinated action follows the first action, but
with an interval, it may take months or even years. This is true of
the following Qurȃnic texts.
yuħyyn thumma yumytiny waȃlazy 81) p. ,‫اﻟﺸﻮرى( ”واﻟﺬي ﻳﻤﻴﺘﻨﻲ ﺛﻢ‬
8( “‫)ﻳﺤﻴﻴﻦ‬
“And Who will cause me to die, and then will bring me to life
(again)” (Al-Shura, p. 81, p. 494) Accordingly, one can notice that
“bringing to life” is coordinated to “death” by Thumma because
the time span between both may take years.
12-14). pp. ,‫اﻟﻤﺆﻣﻨﻮن( ”وﻟﻘﺪ ﺧﻠﻘﻨﺎ اﻷﻧﺴﺎن ﻣﻦ ﺳﻼﻟﺔ ﻣﻦ ﻃﻴﻦ * ﺛﻢ ﺟﻌﻠﻨﻪ‬
9( “‫ )ﻧﻄﻔﺔ ﻓﻲ ﻗﺮا ٍر ﻣﻜﻴﻦٍ*ﺛﻢ ﺧﻠﻘﻨﺎ اﻟﻨﻄﻔﺔ ﻋﻠﻘﺔ‬thumma makiin qarȃrin fy
nuṭfatan ja‘lnȃhu thumma ṭiin min sulalatin min alinsȃn khalqnȃ
Walaqad ‘alaqatan alnuṭfata khalqna
And indeed we created man (Adam) out of an exact of clay (wa-
ter and earth). Thereafter, we made him (offspring of Adam) as a
Nutfah (mixed drops of the male and female sexual discharge and
lodged it) in a safe lodging (womb of the mother). Then, we made
the Nutfah into a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood). (Al-Mu-
auminun, aya: 12-14, p. 455)
The above aya depicts the stages of Man’s creation as the coordi-
nation of the transference of Man in his mother’s womb is referred
to by Thumma because these stages take some span of time until
one is given birth. Therefore, Thumma is the best coordinator to

150
signal the succession of these events since it rhetorically involves
coordination implying longer time interval than what Fa refers to
(see section 4.2.2 above) (Al-‘Alawy, 2009, p. 44; Ali, 1998, p. 154).
However, some say that this coordinator is not necessarily refer-
ring always to distance in time between two coordinated actions
or nouns. It can also refer to emphaticness when the same noun is
repeated and coordinated by Thumma. e.g.
(10) “‫ ”آﺎذب ﺛﻢ آﺎذب ﺛﻢ ﻟﻜﺎذب أﻧﻪ واﷲ‬Wallah Innahu lakȃżib thu-
ma lakȃżib thumma lakȃżib. I swear that he is a liar, a liar and then
a liar. (Al-Sȃmarȃiy, 2007, p. 211, Vol. III)
4.2.4 Other Coordinators
Reference has been made to three coordinators above as far
as their temporal cohesive functions are concerned. Nevertheless,
this does not mean that there are no other coordinators in Arabic;
rather there are more but they do not function as temporal links.
For, instance, ħatȃ (even), is a coordinator whose function is to
signal doing an action or thing to its maximum limits. This could be
materialistic or symbolic.
(11) ‫ اﻷﻧﺒﻴﺎء ﺣﺘﻰ اﻟﻨﺎس ﻣﺎت‬mȃta alnȃs ħatȃ alenbia. All People die,
even prophets
Accordingly, such coordinators (aw, to express choice; bel, to ex-
press retractation; lȃkin, to covey the sense of rectification, etc.)
(Note 4) are not of immediate concern to the present paper (Ibn,
1965, pp. 446-447; Ibn, 2001, pp. 171-172).
4.3 Time Adverbials and Prepositional Phrases
Time adverbials and adverbial objects in Arabic are capable of
151
signalling how events in discourse are sequenced. These time ad-
verbials are of three types: some collocate with the past, some
with the present and some with the future time. Traditional Arab
grammarians call time adverbials as nouns of times that are nor-
mally in the accusative case; they are of three types: specific, lim-
ited and undefined. Accordingly, specific nouns of time are called
so because they exhibit a specific period of time that can be an
answer to when-questions (e.g. ‫اﻟﺨﻤﻴﺲ‬, Thursday). Limited nouns
of time are called so due to the
fact that they can show the length of period of time involved in
doing an action (e.g. ‫ﺷﻬﺮ‬, ‫أﺳﺒﻮع‬, ‫ ﺳﻨﺔ‬a
month, a week, a year etc). Finally, undefined nouns of time ex-
hibit no specific time within which the
action is carried out (e.g.‫اﻟﺤﻴﻦ‬, ‫ اﻟﻮﻗﺖ ذﻟﻚ ﻋﻨﺪ‬now, at that time)
(Ibn, 2001, pp. 129-130).
Adverbial objects can be realized by nouns of time. These reali-
zations serve as temporal relationship markers. e.g.
on fasted I alJum‘ah. yawma wasȃfartu alkhamiis yawma Ṣimtu
12( ‫و ﺳﺎﻓﺮت ﻳﻮم اﻟﺠﻤﻌﺔ‬.‫)ﺻﻤﺖ ﻳﻮم اﻟﺨﻤﻴﺲ‬
Thursday and travelled on Friday.
The nouns of times can be categorized into three classes as far
as their colligation (Note 5) is concerned. Moreover, such nouns
reflect the threefold division of time: past, present and future:
a. Nouns of times collocating with the past time are: ‫أﻣﺲ‬, yes-
terday, last night ,‫اﻟﻤﺎﺿﻴﺔ اﻟﻠﻴﻠﺔ اﻟﺒﺎرﺣﺔ‬
‫ ﺁﻧﻔﺂ‬lastly .‫اﻟﺸﻬﺮ اﻟﻤﻨﺼﺮم‬, month last ‫اﻟﻠﻴﻠﺔ اﻟﺴﺎﺑﻘﺔ‬night, previous
152
 b. Nouns of times collocating with the present time runs as fol-
lows: ‫ اﻷن‬now, ‫ اﻟﺤﻴﻦ‬for the moment, ‫ هﺬا اﻟﻮﻗﺖ‬at this time.
c. Nouns of times collocating with the future time include: ‫ﻏﺪا‬
tomorrow, ‫ ﻻﺣﻘﺎ‬later, etc. (Zaqlȃm, 1986, pp. 162-165)
Besides, there are some prepositional phrases in Arabic that can
mark temporal relationship such as: ‫ﻓﻴﻤﺎ ﺑﻌﺪ‬,‫ﺑﻴﻨﺎ‬meanwhile,,‫ﺑﻌﺪ هﻨﻴﺌﺔ‬
later after a moment , precedingly ‫ اﻟﺴﺎﺑﻖ ﻓﻲ‬for (two past hours,
days,‫اﻟﺦ( ﺧﻠﺖ‬.. ‫ﺳﺎﻋﺘﻴﻦ‬,‫) ليومين‬etc.),
To conclude, these nouns of time, adverbial objects and prep-
ositional phrases can be employed to create temporal cohesion
within written or spoken Arabic texts.

5. Findings of Contrastive Analysis

After the theoretical survey for temporal connectives in both
languages has come full circle, English and Arabic have yielded the
following similarities and differences.

5.1 Similarities between Both Languages

The similarities between both languages concerning the area
under investigation run as follows:
(1) Time adverbials are employed in both languages to signal
how the occurrences of events are temporally sequenced.
(2) Tense and aspect are two common denominators to show
succession of events in both languages.
(3) Absence of correspondence between the verb tense and its
time reference is true of Arabic and English.
153
 (4) Prepositional phrases functioning as time adverbials are
present in the two languages to realize temporal cohesion.
(5) English and Arabic have temporal markers in common to
show forward and backward time reference.
5.2 Differences between Both Languages
The divergences of the two languages as far as the topic in ques-
tion is concerned are the following:
(1) Arabic employs nouns of time and adverbial objects for
marking temporal succession of events while both are not found
in English.
(2) Some coordinators in Arabic are used for exhibiting how ac-
tions in texts are temporally sequenced. English, however, does
not utilize coordinators to mark temporal cohesion.
(3) Aspect is formally absent in the Arabic verb system whereas
it is found in its English counterpart. Therefore, this linguistic gap
is bridged by Arabic defective verbs and verbs of beginning to refer
to the progression of events in discourse.

6. Translation of Arabic Temporal Connectives into English: An

Assessment
In light of the theoretical surveys of temporal cohesion in both
languages, translation criticism would be carried out to English
renditions of an Arabic literary text (see section below).

6.1 Translation Assessment

An Arabic literary text has been handed to ten translators (M.A.
154
and PhD holders) to render it to English. All of them are native
speakers of Arabic. The text choice is based on the fact it involves
the Arabic temporal connectives discussed above (see section 3.).
Moreover, it is written in modern standard Arabic which is easy to
understand by Modern Arabic translators. The text (written by an
Iraqi modern short story writer (Note 6)) is one page size and it in-
volves different structures where the sequence of events is either
implicitly or explicitly indicated. Its general theme talks about an
Iraqi young farmer who went to Basra in 1940s to work in the Iraqi
Ports Company due to his family poverty. As a translation assess-
ment procedure, each structure will be introduced with the sam-
ples of renditions produced by translators. The potential-optimal
equivalence distinction (Reiss, 2000) will be referred to in passing
judgement over the translation quality of the renditions below. Be-
sides, the repeated translations which are produced by more than
one translator will not be discussed individually.
‫ ﺗﺰوج اﻷخ‬.‫لأن أﺑﻮ ﻧﺎﺟﺢ ﻳﺪﺧﺮ ﺟﺰءا َ ﻣﻦ اﻟﻤﺒﻠﻎ اﻟﺬي ﻳﺮﺳﻠﻪ وﻟﺪﻩ لأﺳﺒﻮﻋﻴﻦ‬
14 ‫اﻷول ﻓﺎﻟﺜﺎﻧﻲ ﺛﻢ اﻟﺜﺎﻟﺚ ﻓﻲ ﻣﺪة ﺳﻨﺔ‬
Kaana abuNȃjħ yadakhiru juzan min alMuablagh alażii yursilahu
waladahu kulla esbu’ayn. Tazawaja alekh aleawal falthȃnii thumma
althȃlith fii muddati sana.
Abu Nȃjiħ used to save some of the money that his son kept
sending fortnightly. The first brother got married, the second then
the third in a year’s time (The researcher’s translation).
The above bold-typed Arabic sentence involves the acts of mar-
riage (of three brothers) which are temporally marked by the three
155
coordinators discussed above. The renditions given have exhibited
that translators followed the avoidance strategy in producing the
translations in that they use numerals, quantifiers and adverbials
to show the succession of events. In fact, they have given poten-
tial translation for the text portion. This inadequacy in translation
can be attributed to the absence of English coordinators showing
the sequence of events as those found in Arabic. Accordingly, they
have given translations such as
“Within a year his first brother got married, followed by the sec-
ond and the third. His first brother got married, then the second
and finally the third one. His brothers got married respectively
within one year. His three brothers got married one by one. They
all got married within one year”.
It is thought that the optimal translation (reflecting how the
events are temporally sequenced by Arabic coordinators) for the
present extract is “The first brother got married, then the second
and after some period of time the third one”.
)15( ‫ﻗﺮر ﻧﺎﺟﺢ زﻳﺎرة أهﻠﻪ ﻓﺴﺎﻓﺮ ﻣﻊ ﺟﻤﻊ ﻣﻦ اﻟﻌﻤﺎل اﻟﻤﺘﻮﺟﻬﻴﻦ ﻟﺒﻐﺪاد‬
Qarara Nȃjħ ziȃrat ehlih, fasȃfara ma‘a jam‘in min al ‘umȃl almu-
tajihiin liBaghdȃd
Nȃjiħ decided to pay a visit to his family as he travelled with a
group of workers to Baghdad (the researcher’s translation).
The two bold-typed verbs in sentence (15) indicate deci-
sion-making first and then travelling respectively. The presence of
the coordinator Fa in the second sentence of the above text in-
dicates that decision-making concerning travelling preceded the
156
act of departure. As for the renditions produced, eight out of ten
translators signalled how the two events succeeded one anoth-
er by the conjuncts “therefore” and “so”. For instance, the trans-
lations are: Najih decided to visit his family, so he took the boat
along with some workers who were heading to Baghdad/Najih
decided to visit his family. Therefore, he accompanied a group of
workers leaving for Baghdad. One translator has used an infinitival
clause and another used past perfect for the first act while simple
past for the second act. Najih decided to travel on a ship to visit his
family. Najih had decided to visit his family; therefore he travelled
on the Baghdad Ship accompanied by a group of workers moving
to the capital.
The last rendition is expected to be the optimal one because of
the use of past perfect for the first act which came full circle first
then the second action which is referred to by simple past.
‫وﺑﻌﺪ وﺻﻮﻟﻪ اﻟﺒﺼﺮة ﺑﺴﻨﺔ ﺗﻘﺪم ﻟﻠﺰواج ﻣﻦ أﺧﺖ ﺻﺪﻳﻘﻪ ﻗﺎﺳﻢ وﺗﻢ اﻟﺰواج ورزق‬
)16( ‫ﺑﻌﻠﻲ وﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻓﺰﻳﺪ ﺛﻢ ﺣﺴﻦ‬
Waba‘da wiṣṣwlihii albaṣra bisanatin taqadama lilzawȃj min ukh-
ti ṣadiiqihi Qȃsim watama alzawȃj waruziqa bi‘alii waMuħamad
faZayd thumma Ħassan.
A year after his arrival to Basra, he asked his brother’s sister’s
hand. He married her and was bestowed with Ali, Mohammed
then Zaid and after a while Hassan (the researcher’s translation).
The above extract indicates succession of actions done by Najih:
his re-arrival to Basra signalled by the Arabic adverbial time Wa-
ba‘da: after, asking his friend’s sister’s hand, getting married sig-
157
nalled by tama which is supposed to be translated (according to
Arabic Academies) in form of perfective aspect in English, and his
wife’s delivery of four children signalled by three Arabic coordina-
tors whose semantic reference shows the temporal sequence of
the children’s births.
As far as the renderings given, the translators have rendered
the succession of events referred to above by the use of preposi-
tional phrases, subordinate clauses starting with the conjunction
after, or the use of the coordinator and. The latter use can be
attributed to the Arabic text where the coordinator in question is
syntactically associated with every item or action counted, unlike
English, the coordinator and is used only with the last item or
action mentioned. All translators have failed to render the act of
marriage accurately which is signalled in the original by the word
tama which indicates the equivalence of the perfective aspect
in English. Similarly, as in sentence (14), they have proved un-
successful in translating the part of the text involving coordina-
tors which show the delivery of the four children in a sequential
temporal order. As translation examples, the following have been
produced:
One year after his arrival to Basrah, Najih asked his friend’s sister
for marriage. They got married and he had four sons they are as
follows: Ali, Mohamed, Zaid and Hassan. After a year of his arrival
to Basrah, he engaged to his friend’s sister, and then got married,
and had four children Ali, Mohamed, Zaid and Hassan. etc.
Accordingly, the inaccuracies in the renditions given above
158
are attributable to the linguistic and rhetorical differences found
between both languages. The alternative translation of the text
portion can be: A year after his re-arrival to Basra, he asked his
friend’s sisters’ hand and the marriage had taken place. He was
blessed with four children: Ali, Mohammed, then Zaid and later
Hassan.

7. Conclusions
Having finished the assessment of the translations of the liter-
ary extract, the researcher has reached the following conclusions.
Firstly, translating temporal connectives from Arabic literary texts
into English has proved difficult to carry out. This is due to linguis-
tic and discoursal differences between both languages as far as
the topic is concerned. Secondly, the two languages exhibit more
similarities than differences in maintaining temporal order of
events by employing roughly the same lexico-grammatical devic-
es. Accordingly, both of the hypotheses of the present paper have
been verified. Thirdly, the absence of form contrasts in the Arabic
verb system concerning aspect has made its translation from the
original into the TT more complicated. Due to the lack of English
coordinators as temporal connectives, translators have resorted
to using conjuncts such so, therefore, hence, etc. Finally, deletion
and compensation strategy have been in evidence on the part of
translators to keep themselves away from involvement in render-
ing the text’s portions that seem to lack one-to-one equivalence
between ST and TT.
159
 It is worth mentioning here that the temporal succession of
events in a different text type (e.g. political) is worth investigating
with reference to translation in a bidirectional way.

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Endnotes:
Note 1. Temporal succession and temporal connectivity are two terms al-
ternatively used in the present paper.
Note 2. It is a tradition in Arabic linguistics that the death dates of an-
cient Arab traditional grammarians are mentioned next to their names be-
cause such death dates enable readers (1) to know the school of grammar the
scholar belongs to and (2) to familiarize them with the general trends of the
school on the scholar’s day. So, the death dates (according to Hijjri Calendar)
of scholars who are quoted throughout the present paper will be mentioned
163
within the list of references.
Note 3. All the translations of the Qurȃic ayas will be taken from al-Hilȃli
and Khȃn’s (1996) Translation of the meanings of thenobel Qur’ȃn into the
English language. Madinah: King Fahd Complex. To save space, in the body of
the paper reference will be made only to page number after the translations
of the ayas cited.
Note 4. All the Arabic grammatical terms are taken from Chachia’s (1973)
The monitor: A dictionary of the Arabic grammatical terms. London: Long-
man. Besides, the researcher’s experience is involved in this regard.
Note 5. Colligation. “A term in Firthian Linguistics for the process or result
of grouping a set of words on the basis of their similarity in entering into Syn-
tagmatic Grammatical Relations” (Crystal, 2008, p. 86).
Note 6. Qȃsid, Hussein (2011) Majmu ‘a min qasas alfuloklor al ‘irȃqi (A
collection of Iraqi folkloric stories). Baghdad, Union of Ira

164
 Translation Assessment of the English
Renditions of the Verb Jaʻala (‫ (جعل‬in Qurȃnic Texts(1)

Abstract:
The present paper sets itself to carry out translation assessment
of some English published renderings of Qurȃnic texts involving
the verb; ‫ جعل‬Jaʻala (to make). The verb in question has a variety
of senses that necessitates special focus on the part of translators.
This is due to the fact that the co-text plays a significant role in
assigning the various senses to the verb under investigation. Ac-
cordingly, some Qurȃnic ayas involving the verb will be chosen and
subjected to translation assessment to find out how far accurate
renditions have been produced by translators. Inadequate transla-
tions will be discussed and alternative ones will be put forward. It
is hypothesized that mistranslations of the verb tend to be more
than accurate translations. This might be attributable to the vari-
ous rhetorical senses that this Arabic verb conveys which can be
classified as language specifics. The specifics are usually difficult to
render across languages.

Keywords: Adequacy, Alternative, Assessment, Criticism, Ren-

derings, Specifics

(1) The current chapter is based on a paper published in English Linguistics Research.
Vol.3, No. 2. (P.33-38) 2014. USA.

165
 1. Introduction
Lexical units in legal texts (religious texts included, definitely)
constitute a serious challenge for translators unless they pay due
attention to such lexis because they are pregnant with fine mean-
ings. Unlike literary texts, religious texts, according to Reiss (2000),
are classified as informative texts where the translator’s main fo-
cus should be on semantic relationships holding within these texts.
The present study is concerned with the assessment of the trans-
lations of the Qur’anic texts involving a lexical verb i.e. Jaʻala (‫;)جعل‬
to make or to do to uncover how far these renditions have been
accurate or not. The choice of the topic is motivated by the fact
that the verb under investigation conveys a variety of semantic
and rhetorical senses depending on the linguistic context in which
it occurs. In addition, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge,
no previous study has been conducted to assess the translations of
the same verb. To fulfil the aims of the study, a grammatical survey
from Arabic traditional grammar has been introduced. Then, four
published translations have been consulted for carrying out the
translation quality assessment (see section 3. below). Reiss’s mod-
el has been selected for the purpose of translation criticism. Al-
ternative translations have been suggested for those inadequately
translated texts i.e. ayas. This inadequacy in translation has been
diagnosed on the basis of the assessment made.
2. Grammatical treatment of the verb Jaʻala(‫)جعل‬: A brief look
Arab grammarians have introduced various classifications of
verbs (e.g. full vs. defective verbs, preponderance verbs, verbs of
166
beginning, verbs of propinquity etc.) where the verb under study
was viewed differently. For instance, Aṣ-Ṣantamary (1987: 276,
Vol. I) underscores that the verb can convey two senses: to do or
to make. If the first sense is intended, it is a monotransitive where-
as the second sense turns the verb into a ditransitive. Accordingly,
the second sense has three different uses, each expressing a par-
ticular meaning: naming, imagining and changing. The following
examples illustrate these senses, respectively.
1) Waja’alu almlăl?kata alżyna hum ‘ bădu alRahmăn unăthan
(Note 1)/ az-Zuḳrif:19
And they make the angels – who are servants of the Beneficent
Allah—female. (P. 564) (Note 2)
This Quranic aya highlights the fact that the polytheists named
and imagined the angels (who are Allah’s servants) as females.
2) Ij’al al?meer ‘ămyan/ Make the prince an ordinary man. It
means to imagine the prince as an ordinary person.
3) Rabbi ij’al hăżă baladan ăminan/ The Cow: 126
My Lord, make it a secure town. (P. 50)
The last Quranic aya in example (3) where the verb involved re-
fers to the sense of changing Mekka into a secure area. (Also see
al-Răjħy, 1988: 200f)
As-Sămarrăy (2007: 26, Vol. II) maintains that the verb in ques-
tion can express the meaning of transforming i.e. to change some-
thing from one state to another. In addition, the verb is capable of
expressing the sense of guessing and belief. e.g.
4) Waqadimna ila mă ‘amilu min ‘amalin faja’alnăhu habă?n
167
manŧură / al-Furqăn: 32
And we will proceed to what they have done of deeds, so we
shall render them as scattered floating dust. (P. 422)
5) Ja’ala Basra Baghdad. He believed or guessed Basra to be
Baghdad.
Sybawyaih (2007: 156f, Vol. I) confirms that meaning of the verb
which is context-based determines whether the verb is followed by
one object or two objects. The sense of creation keeps the verb as
a monotransitive (e.g. Ja’ala al-Ameer mundahiṣan. He made the
prince astonished) while the sense of becoming or turning chang-
es the verb into a ditransitive (e.g Ja’altu aṭ-ṭiin ḳazafan. I turned
the clay into pottery).
From a morphological perspective, Arab morphologists include
the verb Jaʻala (‫ )جعل‬within the classification of the triliteral verbs
(those consisting of three radicals). Such verbs constitute the larg-
est category of verbs in Arabic where one can form a large number
of the derivatives of the triliterals by attaching one radical, two
radicals or three radicals to the base. Definitely, these newly de-
rived verb forms have different meanings from those of the base
forms because it is roughly generally held in Arabic morphology
that expansion in word building leads to new senses or semantic
extension (Ṣlăṣ, al-Farṭusi, and Hussein, 1989:60, 80, 89).
3. Translation Quality Assessment: Reiss’s Model
Much has been theorized about translation assessment or eval-
uation. Scholars have designed a variety of models for assessing
translations of various text-types. They are famous for their di-
168
chotomies: Nida (1964) formal vs. dynamic equivalence, Catford
(1965) formal correspondence vs. textual equivalence, House
(1979) overt vs. covert translation, Newmark (1981) semantic vs.
communicative translation, Reiss’s potential vs. optimal transla-
tion etc. The latter will be applied to the translations of the above
ayas because optimal equivalence takes into consideration the im-
pact of linguistic context on the meaning of the lexical units when
contextualized. In addition, the great concern given (by Reiss) to
the influence of co-text on creating semantic and lexical equiva-
lence between the source text and the target text has made the
model more suitable to apply here. Potential translation, on the
other hand, is concerned with introducing translation equivalents
in isolation from the influence of the co-text. In this regard, Re-
iss (2000: 49) states that translation is basically possible because
“there are parallels between languages on the level of langue (lan-
guage as system). The act of translating involves choosing the opti-
mal equivalent from among the potential equivalents on the level
of parole (language as actually spoken)”.
Reiss (ibid: 51) adds that every act of translating involves first rec-
ognizing the potential equivalents, and then selecting from among
them the one best adapted to the particular context, also consid-
ering how well each element in the translation unit fits the overall
context. ( e.g. the word operation has several potential equivalents
in Arabic: ‫ عملية تجارية‬,‫عملية حاسوبية‬,‫ عملية جراحية‬,‫عمليةعسكرية‬: mili-
tary operation, surgical operation, computer operation, business
operation). The selection of one of these translation equivalents
169
depends on the linguistic context that a word appears in.
Munday (2012; 114) states that Reiss lists a series of intralin-
guistic and extralinguistic criteria by which the adequacy of a tar-
get text may be assessed. The linguistic components comprise:
semantic equivalence, lexical equivalence and grammatical and
stylistic features. The extralinguistic determinants, on the other
hand, consist of situation, subject field, time, place (characteristics
of country and culture), receiver, sender and affective implications
(humour, irony, emotion, etc.).
Initially, Reiss sought to establish a correlation between text
type and translation method, arguing for the need to preserve
the predominant function of the text in translation. Therefore, the
translator’s main focus is on semantic relationships as far as infor-
mative texts (religious texts included) are concerned. Connotative
meanings and aesthetic values of informative texts occupy a sec-
ondary concern for translators of religious texts (Hatim & Munday,
2004: 181).
In brief, the text type plays an important role in choosing the
suitable translation method that the translator is going to apply in
translating a given text. Special attention is given to the translation
of religious texts which are regarded as part of legal texts in that
they are typically translated by applying word-for-word translation.
4. Translation assessment of the Qur’anic texts involving the
verb
The present section is devoted to the discussion of Arab schol-
ars’ and theologians’ treatment of the verb under investigation.
170
This is because great concern is given to the lexis in the Quran due
to the fact that the lexical units (e.g. main verbs, nouns etc.) have
important impact on the provisions that Muslims should abide by.
Accordingly, the verb as found in Qur’anic texts has a variety of
senses. Each sense will be introduced hand in hand with its pub-
lished translations: four published translations of the Quran will
be consulted for this purpose. They are translated by Ali, A. Yusuf
(1934), al-Hilăli and Khăn (1996), Pickthall, M. (1996) and Shaker
(2004).
The above – mentioned translators’ names are, respectively, ab-
breviated as follows: Ali, Hi. – Kh., Pick. and Sh. The choice of these
translations is based on the fact that the translators are of various
religious and linguistic backgrounds (Muslim native Arabic speak-
ers, an orientalist, a Persian)
Translation assessment will be carried out of the renditions pro-
duced. Reiss’s (2000) model (potential vs. optimal equivalence
distinction) will be applied to pass judgements on the translation
quality of the renditions. Due to space limits, one Qur’anic aya ex-
pressing one meaning of the verb will be selected for discussion
and assessment. In case inadequate translations are diagnosed,
alternative ones will be put forward by the researcher. This is be-
cause, as (Reiss, 2000: 15) remarks, “Constructive translation criti-
cism must also offer satisfactory alternative translations, substan-
tiated with convincing evidence”.
To resume the discussion of the verb’s senses as found in Qur’an-
ic ayas, Abid (2007: 6-11) has summed them up as follows:
171
 · Naming. This is noticed in many Qur’anic ayas. e.g.
6) Wakażălika ja’alnăkum ummtan wasaṭa (The Cow: 143)
Ali (P. 22) Thus have made of you an Ummat justly balanced.
Hi-Kh. (P. 29) Thus we made you a just nation.
Pick. (P. 22) Thus we have appointed you a middle nation.
Sh. (P. 53) And thus we have made you a medium (just) nation.
Once one has a look at the above-quoted translations of the
aya, one can easily recognize that Pick.’s rendition is the most ade-
quate because it expresses the accurate sense of naming that the
verb conveys in this linguistic context. Therefore, others’ transla-
tions involve potential equivalents while his is optimal (see section
2. above).
· Creation
Az-Zrkaṣy (2004:74f) draws a distinction between two senses
which can be expressed by the same verb: creation and making.
The former sense indicates creation out of nothingness while the
latter could involve transforming something already found and
could be changed from one state to another (see section 1.above).
e.g.
7) Waja’lna al-llayl waalnnahăr ayatayn. Al-Isră/ 12
Ali (P. 276) We have made the Night and the Day as two (of our)
signs.
Hi-Kh. (P. 369) And we have appointed the night and the day as
two Ayăt (signs etc.)
Pick. (P. 283) And we appoint the night and the day two por-
tents.
172
 Sh. (P. 336) And we have made the night and the day two signs.
According to the sense intended in this aya, all the renditions
have proved inaccurate because the translators either introduced
the verb “make or appoint” to be an equivalent to the verb in the
original. This does not hold true owing to the fact that the meaning
intended is not accurately rendered to the target text. Therefore, it
is more accurate to translate the text as: And We have created the
Night and the Day as two signs.
· Transformation
This sense of the verb is the most frequently recurrent in the
Quran in that Az-Zrkaṣy (ibid) maintains that the verb can refer to
two types of transformation: materialistic and spiritual.
8) WaAllah ja’ala lakum al-Arđ bisăṭan. Nuh: 19 (materialistic
transformation)
Ali (P. 565) And Allah has made the earth for you as a carpet.
Hi-Kh. (P. 793) And Allăh has made for you the earth a wide ex-
panse.
Pick. (P. 571) And Allah hath made the earth a wide expanse for
you.
Sh. (P. 660) And Allah has made for you the earth a wide ex-
panse.
When one has a look at the above-quoted translations, one can
easily distinguish that apart from Ali’s potential translation, all the
renderings have attained optimal equivalence in that they have
been sound (Note 3) in conveying the intended meaning of the
verb as found in the original.
173
 9) Falamma ja?a ?mrună ja’alnă ‘ăliahă safilahă. Hud: 82 (mental
transformation)
Ali (P. 225) When our decree issued, we turned (the cities) up-
side down.
Hi-Kh. (P. 297) So when our commandment came, we turned
(the towns of Sodom in Palestine) upside down.
Pick. (P. 231) So when our commandment came to pass, we
overthrew (that township).
Sh. (P. 280) When our decree came to pass, we turned them
upside down.
The transformation that the verb expresses is attributed to the
lexical sense resulting from the co-text that the verb shows. Hi-
Kh.’s translation is the most appropriate one due to the fact that it
refers, in a very explicit manner, to what is turned upside down i.e.
the towns of Sodom
· Making something out of something.
Waja’ala lakum min Aj-Jibălii aknănă. An-Naħl: 81
Ali (P. 269) Of the hills, He made some for you as shelter.
Hi-Kh. (P. 358) Allăh has made you for you places of refuge in the
mountains.
Pick. (P. 276) Allah hath given you places of refuge in the moun-
tains.
Sh. (P. 329) He has given you in the mountains places of retreat.
With reference to the sense of the verb in the above Qur’anic
aya, the translations cited proved inaccurate to convey the mean-
ing concerned .This is owing to the fact that the translators used
174
the verb “give” as an equivalent to the verb in the original which
should be rendered as “made”. However, Hi-Kh.’s translation seems
to be sound because it reflects the sense of making places of shel-
ter out of mountains. Accordingly, the optimal equivalence (see
section .2 above) was accurately chosen by both translators i.e.
Hi-Kh.
· Making something ready at one’s disposal
Waman yataqy Allah yj’al lahu maḳrajă. Divorce: 2
Ali (P. 551) Those who fear Allah, he (ever) prepares a way out.
Hi-Kh. (P. 770) And whosoever fears Allăh and keeps his duty to
Him, he will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty).
Pick. (P. 558) And whosoever keepth his duty to Allah, Allah will
appoint a way out for him.
Sh. (P. 644) And whoever is careful of (his duty to) Allah, he will
make for him an outlet.
The meaning that the verb expresses is “to make something
ready and easily accessible to use”. Therefore, Hi-Kh.’s translation
stands for the optimal equivalence which has taken into consider-
ation the contextual meaning in a more explicit manner than oth-
ers’ translations which have met the criteria of potential transla-
tion (see section 2. above).
· Believing
Waja’alu lillAllah ṣurakă? Aj-jinn. al-An’ăm/ 100
Ali (P. 142) Yet, they make the Jinns equals with Allah.
Hi-Kh. (P. 186) Yet, they join the jinn as partners in worship with
Allăh.
175
 Pick. (P. 140) Yet they ascribe as partners unto Him the jinn.
Sh. (P. 184) And they make the jinn associates with Allah.
From a contextual perspective, the verb is used here for convey-
ing the sense of belief in that the pagans at the advent of Islam be-
lieved that Allan and Jinns should be worshipped on equal footing.
This is, as pagans believe, because Allan and Jinns are partners in
running the universe. As for the translations produced, they all
proved failures in reflecting the same sense intended in the orig-
inal. This is attributed to the reason that they have not referred
to the concept of belief that the verb under study pinpoints to.
Accordingly, the alternative translation runs as follows: And they
believed the Jinns to be partners in worship with Allah.
· Imposition:
Wamăja’al al-qublata allatii kunta ‘alyhă. The Cow: 143
Ali (P. 22) And we appointed the Qibla to which thou wast used.
Hi-Kh. (P. 29) And we made the Qibla (prayer direction towards
Jerusalem)which you used to face.
Pick. (P. 22) And we appointed the qiblah which ye formerly ob-
served.
Sh. (P. 53) And we did not make that which you have to be the
qiblah
The meaning of the verb in the above ayah is “to impose the prayer
direction on Muslims to abide by” (Abid, 2007: 9). Therefore, the
translations above have not referred to the concept of imposition.
The alternative translation is; we imposed the Qiblah (prayer direction
towards Jerusalem) which you used to direct your face to.
176
 · Replacement:
Wataj’aluna rizqakum innakum tukażżibun. al-Wăqi’a:82
Ali (P. 530) And have ye made it your livelihood that ye should
declare it false?
Hi-Kh. (P. 735) And instead (of thanking Allăh) for the provision
He gives you, you deny (Him by disbelief)!.
Pick. (P. 537) And ye make denial thereof your livelihood.
Sh. ( 620) And to give (it) the lie you make your means of sub-
sistence.
The verb in this context means that instead of thanking Allah
for his bestows, the pagans and polytheists express their ingrati-
tude by denying such bestows. As to the translations, Hi-Kh.’s is the
most adequate due to the fact that it precisely conveys the exact
meaning that the verb under investigation conveys i.e. replacing
Allah’s bestows by denial of such blessings.
· Donation or giving:
Qăla rabbi ?j’ l lii aya. Maryam: 10
Ali (P. 299) (Zakariya) said :”O my Lord! Give me a sign”
Hi-Kh. (P. 402) (Zakariyyă) said: “My Lord! Appoint for me a sign”
Pick. (P. 305) He said: My Lord! Appoint for me some token.
Sh. (P. 361) He said: My Lord ! Give me a sign.
Az-Zamḳṣary (2002:633) emphasizes that the sense of the verb
in this linguistic context is that Zachariah asks his Lord to “give him
evidence or sign so that his fellow-citizens would trust his sayings
and believe his message”. As for the translations of the aya, Ali’s
and Sh.’s renditions are the most sound due to the fact that they
177
have achieved accurate lexical equivalence between the original
and the target text when they have chosen the verb “give” which
expresses the exact sense of the verb in the source text.
5. Discussion of Results
In introducing the results of the translation assessment con-
ducted above, one can recognize that the translators of the
Qur’anic texts involving the verb under study have mainly relied
on the literal meaning of the texts. This has been in evidence ow-
ing to the fact they have generally failed to produce accurate ren-
ditions of the meanings of the verb being translated. Deep theo-
logical knowledge about the various senses of the ayas containing
the verb seems to be absent from the Qur’anic text translators’
minds. Moreover, the texts translated have remained lacking any
comments or notes to convey the accurate rhetorical meanings
of the verb. It is sometimes obligatory for translators to resort
to overtranslation in dealing with religiuos texts so that accurate
translations are produced. This has been evident in introducing
alternative translations in the present study. Hi-Kh’s translations
of the ayas selected have ranked first as far as lexical and rhetor-
ical accuracy of their translation are concerned. This is attributed
to the fact that the translation assessment conducted above has
shown that Hi-Kh’s translations are more adequate than the other
three translations chosen for assessment in the present study. This
can be attributed to their linguistic background (native speakers of
Arabic) and they are specialists in Islamic religion. Being specialists
in the field has enabled them to be aware of the impact of Qur’an-
178
ic lexis in the interpretation of the texts to take out provisions for
Muslims to follow. As for Arab grammarians, they hold a unani-
mous agreement over the verb’s variety of rhetorical and semantic
senses resulting from the influence of the co-texts in which the
verb has appeared.
6. Conclusions
On the basis of the translation assessment carried out in section 3
above, several conclusions have been drawn. First of all, knowledge
in depth about the key lexical items in the Qur’anic texts is a non-ne-
gotiable prerequisite to produce accurate translations. Second, it is
sometimes unavoidable to resort to paraphrase-translation in con-
veying the exact sense or meaning of the Qur’anic ayas. This has
been in evidence in introducing alternative translations for those
ayas (involving the verb under study) which have been inaccurate-
ly translated. Third, translators in the main have failed to give ade-
quate renditions to the verb Jaʻala ((‫ جعل‬as found in the ayas whose
translations have been assessed (twenty five translations out of thir-
ty have been inadequate; i.e. only five translations have proved ac-
curate). Therefore, this has validated the hypothesis of the present
paper. Fourth, the impact of co-text has been in particular very evi-
dent in assigning the various senses to the verb in the Qur’anic texts.

Acknowledgements:
Thanks are due to Prof Dr. Latiifa Abid A. (Arabic Dept. College
of Arts of al-Mustansiriyia University/ Iraq) for the advice she has
presented to the researcher.
179
 References:
Abid, L., A. (2007). “Ja’ala bayna al-Dalăla al-Naħwya wa al-Dalăla
al-Qurănya” “Ja’ala between Grammatical treatment and Qur’anic
senses” in Addăb al-Mustansiryia Journal. Issue. XXXXV. PP. 1-15.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5089/9781589064843.051
Al-Hilali, M. & Khan, M. M. (1996). Translation of the meanings
of the nobel Qur’ãn in the English language. Madinah: King Fahd
Complex for Printing the Quran.
Ali, A. Y (1934). The holy Qur’an. Beirut : Dar Al-Furqan.
Al-Răjħy, A. (1988). Ata-Ṭbiiq An-ħwy.( Grammatical application).
Beirut: Dăr An-hđa Al-’arabia.
Al-Sȃmarȃy, F. (2007). Ma‘ȃny al-naħu.( Meanings of grammar).
Beirut: Dar Eħia al-Turȃth alArabi.
AṢ-Ṣantamary, A.Y. (1987). An-Nukat fi kăb Sybawaih.(Grammat-
ical riddles in Sybawaih’s book) Revised by Zuhair A. Sultăn. Ku-
wait: Arab Organization for Science and Culture.
Az-Zamḳṣary, A. J. M. (d.538 h.)(2002) al-Kaṣăf.( The discoverer).
Beirut: Dar al-Ma’ rifa.
Az-Zrkaṣy, B., M. A. (d.794 h.) (2004). al-Burhăn fii ‘luum al-Qu-
ran (The proof of sciences in the Qur’an). Revised by Mohammed
A. Ibahiim. Cairo: al-ḳănajy Publishing House.
Cachia, P. (1973). The monitor: A dictionary of Arabic grammati-
cal terms. London: Longman.
Hatim, B. & Munday, J. (2004) Translation: An advanced resource
book. London: Routledge.
Munday, J. (2012). Introducing translation studies: Theories and
180
applications. London: Routledge.
Pickthall, M. M. (1996). The Glorious Qur’ãn. Istanbul. Ĉağri
Publications.
Reiss, K. (2000). Translation criticism: The potentials and limita-
tions. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Saybawaih, A. Uthmȃn bin Qanbar (d.180 h.) (1988). Al-Kitȃb.
(The book). Cairo: al-Khȃnachi Library.
Shaker, M.H. (2003). Holy Qur’an. Qum; Ansariyan Publications.
Ṣlăṣ, H. al-Farṭusi, S. & Hussein, A. (1989) Al-Muhażżab fi ‘ilm
Al-TaŞryf .(An introductory survey of the science of morphology).
Baghdad: Beit Al-ħikma Publications.

Notes:
Note 1. Transliteration symbols: a ‫ا‬: b:‫ ب‬t:‫ ت‬ŧ:‫ ث‬j:‫ ج‬ħ:‫ ح‬ķ:‫ خ‬d:‫ د‬ż:‫ ذ‬r:‫ ر‬z:‫ز‬
s:‫ س‬ṣ:‫ ش‬ʄ:‫ ص‬ď:‫ ض‬ҭ:‫ ط‬: đ: ‫ ع‬:̒ :‫ ظ‬g: ‫ غ‬f: ‫ ف‬q:‫ ق‬k:‫ ك‬l:‫ ل‬m: ‫ م‬n: ‫ ن‬h: ‫ ه‬w: ‫ و ي‬y:
‫أ‬::?
Note 2. The translations of all Quranic texts in the theoretical
part of the paper will be taken from Shaker’s (2003) Translation
of the Holy Qur’an. Qum: Ansariyan Publications. In documenting
them, reference will be made only to page number in the body of
the present paper.
Note 3. Sound translation, accurate translation and adequate trans-
lation are three terms alternatively used in the present paper.

181
 A Study of the English Translations of the Qur’anic
Verb Phrase: The Derivatives of the Triliteral(1)

Abstract: The present study is concerned with throwing light on

the accuracy of the English translations of the Arabic triliteral verb
derivatives as found in Qur’ãnic ayahs. The triliteral can be affixa-
ted with one radical, two radicals or three radicals to obtain such
derivatives that have senses distinct from the base forms. This
holds true of the derivatives of the quadrilateral. It is hypothesized
that the English translations of such ayahs seem mainly inaccurate
to convey the same senses from the source text into the target
text. To validate this, ayahs containing such derivatives have been
randomly chosen, and their renderings have been assessed. It has
been found out that the senses of the derivatives of the triliteral
were, generally, imprecisely translated. Moreover, some verb de-
rivatives are alternatively used to express the same senses.
Key words: affixes, derivatives, infixated, quadrilateral and trilit-
eral, verb phrase.

1. The Verb Phrase in Arabic

The verb phrase (2)(VP) is basically simple i.e. it consists of one

(1) The present chapter is based on a paper published in Theory and Practice in Lan-
guage Studies. March 2012. Vol.2 No.3 P.605-612(Finland)
(2) The verb phrase is used in the present study in the traditional sense not in the
transformational sense.

182
lexical verb (e.g. ‫ جاء الولد‬ja?a alwaladu. The boy came).However,
verbs of beginning and of to be (e.g,‫ شرع‬, shara’a,,‫ كان‬kãna) can
co-occur with other lexical verbs to form compound VPs ( e.g(1) ‫ثمار‬
‫صبره بدأ يقطف‬bada?a yaqţifu thimãra şabbrih .He started to obtain
the fruits of his patience).(Khalil,1999,p.232-3). The treatments
of verbs by traditional and modern Arab grammarians prove that
verbs have received a variety of classifications such as weak vs
strong, transitive vs intransitive, base vs derivative etc. The latter
categorization is of immediate relevance to the present work be-
cause it is morpho-semantic in the sense that the affixes attached
to verbs give rise to various meanings that are absent in the base
verb forms. Al-Nãiila (1988, p.97) states that in attaching the affixes
to the base verb forms, two points should be borne in mind; first,
when the verb undergoes the change, this will result in altering
meaning. This meaning is distinct from that of the base before the
attachment of the affixes. Second, affixation(2) takes place inconsis-
tently i.e. one verb can be affixated with hamza(glottal stop) while
another verb cannot. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge,
no study has yet been conducted to investigate the accuracy of the
translations of such senses from Qur’anic ayahs into English.

(1) All the Arabic examples, apart from Quranic ayahs, were translated into English
by the researcher.
(2) Affixation is an umbrella term used in morphology to refer to prefixation, infixa-
tion and suffixation

183
 1.1 Classes of Verbs
As mentioned in (1. Above) verbs were classed from different
angles. The presence or absence of vowels led Arab grammarians
to draw a distinction between strong and weak verbs where the
former consists of consonants only and the latter involves vowels
and consonants as well (Nãsir, 1967, P.47).
As in any other language, Arabic exhibits the transitive-intransi-
tive distinction of verbs which is drawn to indicate whether objects
follow verbs or not (e.g.‫وصل زيد‬,waşala Zayd; Zayd reached vs ‫فتح‬
‫ زيد الباب‬fataħa Zayd albãb; Zayd opened the door).
In dealing with the base-derivative categorization of verbs, Arab
morphologists approximately hold a unanimous agreement that
the base is of two types: triliteral and quadriliteral. These two sub-
types can be affixated (i.e. prefixated, infixated and suffixated) to
produce a lot of derivatives. Ibin Jinny(d.392 h,1999:41) ,among
others,(e.g. al-Ħamlawy,1957,P.29,36; al-Ħadiithy,2003,P.253…),
confirms that verbs in Arabic are divided into base and derivatives.
The former is called so because its radicals are basic constituents
of its building where the omission of one of such radicals results
َ
َ ‫ك‬.kataba,
in spoiling the form and meaning of such verbs (e.g. ‫تب‬
wrote; ‫سلسل‬,salsala, sequenced(1)). The attachment of affixes to the
base forms leads to the formation of derivatives that are distinct in

(1) Unlike in English, the base verb forms in Arabic are listed in the perfect forms in
Arabic dictionaries.

184
form and meaning from the triliteral and quadriliteral(1).
1.2 The Base Verb Forms
Apart from the diacritics that the morphological patterns can
َ
receive, the base verbs have two morphological patterns ‫ف َعل‬
َ َ
fa’ala,and ‫ ف َعلل‬,fa’lala for the triliteral and quadriliteral, respec-
tively. Primarily,the value of these two morphological patterns
are twofold:(1) to distinguish which radicals are basic and which
are affixes, and (2) to recognize the possible positions that affixes
َ َ
can occupy. For instance,‫ ن َصر‬,nasara, supported,‫ َجل َس‬,jalasa, sat
َ
down,‫ل َع َب‬,la’aba, played, are all triliterals, but they can be affixat-
ed where new meanings are produced(see 1.2.1 below). This holds
true of the quadriliterals as well; e.g. ‫ب َع َث َر‬,َ ba’thara, scattered,‫رج َم‬
َ ‫ح‬,
َ
ħarjama,gathered etc.(Shlãsh,1972,p.21-47; see also Shlãsh etal,
1989,p.56).

1.2.1 The Derivatives of the Triliteral

As referred to in (1.1 above), the triliteral can be prefixated,
infixated and suffixated to produce the derivatives of the triliter-
al. The radicals attached to the base are grouped in a meaning-
less word”‫”سألتمونيها‬, sa?ltumunyhã. In this regard, Ibin Jinny(d.392
h,2005,p.13)notices that:
ُ
‫وينبغي أن تعلم أن قولنا”الحروف الزائده”إنما نريد به أنها هي التي يجوز أن تزاد في‬
ً
.‫ ُفيقطع عليها بالزياده أذا قامت عليها الدالله‬,‫بعض المواضع‬

(1) The triliteral consists of three radicals whereas the quadriliteral is of four radicals
as the deletion of any of these radicals makes the verb meaningless.

185
 Waiinbaghy an ta’lama inna ma’na qawlanã alħuroof alzã?da
innama nuriidu bihi ?annaha hiia ?laty yajoozu ?an twzãd fii bađi
almawãđ’ fayuqţ’u ‘alayhã bialzzyãdah idã qãmat ‘alayhã ald-
dalãlah(1)
One should recognize that the introduction of affixes is intended
here to refer to some possible positions that these affixes can oc-
cupy. This can be settled by evidence where the affixated radicals
can be omitted, and the base remains able to stand alone with a
full sense.
Al-Nãiila (1988,p.98), among others, emphasizes that the tri-
literal can be affixated with one radical (e.g.‫د ًر َس‬,َ darrasa, taught;
derived by gemination from ‫ َد َر َس‬,darasa,‫أخاف‬,?khãfa, made some-
one afraid, derived from ‫خاف‬,khafa by the glottal stop affix, got
َ
afraid of)two radicals( e.g. ‫أع َت َبر‬,?’tabara, took a lesson from; de-
َ
َ ‘abara, passed,‫أند َر َس‬,?ndarasa,
rived from ‫ع َب َر‬, vanished away, de-
َ
َ
rived from ‫د َر َس‬,darasa, studied) or three radicals( ‫أستأذ َن‬,?st?đana,
ََ
took a permission from, derived from ‫? أذ َن‬đana, gave a permission
to) (see also Shãhiin,1980,p.71-3).
In looking at the above examples, one can easily recognize how
far the derivatives are largely different in form and meaning from
the trilateral base (for more details see below).
1.2.0.1 The Triliteral affixated with one radical: Its senses

(1) Key of Transliteration Symbols of Arabic Letters(AlKhudary, 2004:13)

a :‫ أ‬b:‫ ب‬t:‫ ت‬th:‫ ث‬j:‫ ج‬ħ:‫ ح‬kh:‫ خ‬d:‫ د‬ż:‫ ذ‬r: ‫ ر‬z: ‫ ز‬s:‫ س‬sh:‫ ش‬ș:‫ ص‬dh:‫ ض‬ț:‫ ط‬đ:‫ ع‬:6 ‫ ظ‬gh: ‫ غ‬f: ‫ ف‬q:‫ ق‬k:‫ك‬
l:‫ ل‬m: ‫ م‬n: ‫ ن‬h: ‫ ه‬w: ‫ و‬y: ‫ي‬

186
 The triliteral which is affixated with one radical has three mor-
َ
phological patterns: ‫?أفعل‬f ‘ala, such as ‫?أ كرم‬krama, granted, ‫ف ًعل‬,
ًَ َ
fa’’ala, such as ‫قد َم‬, qaddama, introduced and ‫فا َعل‬, fã’ala, such as
ََ
‫قاتل‬,qãtala, got involved in fighting. These morphological patterns
have some senses to exhibit as morphologists differ in introducing
such senses to the extent that some say that they (the senses) are
ten in number or more. Nevertheless, the most common senses
will be discussed here. The affixation of the triliteral with the glot-
tal stop ( ‫أ‬hamza) is basically meant to change the base from in-
transitivity into transitivity(‘đaimah ,1955,p.100-101).
َ
1.‫َوقف علي عند الباب‬
Waqafa Aliun ‘nda albãbii. Ali stopped near the door.
ً َ
ُ ‫أوق‬
2.‫فت عليا عند الباب‬
?wqaftu Alian ‘nda albãbii. I stopped Ali near the door
Discussing the morphological structures in Sibbawayh ‘s book
“Al-Kitãb”, al-Ħadiithy(2003,p.262), as some think so, speaks
of the opinion that the glottal stop affixated to the triliteral has
many senses; the most common of which are(1)possession,(2)ex-
posure,(3)removal,(4) over-exaggeration and abundance etc. The
examples below will be given according to the senses mentioned.
ُ َ ََ
3.‫الرجل‬ ‫? أتمر‬tmara alrajulu.
The man had dates.
َ ُ ً ُ ‫أقت َل‬
َ
4.‫الرجل بسرعته الالمعقوله‬ ‫سائق السيارة‬
?qtala sã?qu alsayãrata alrajula bisir’atihii allama’qulah.
The car driver, due to his unreasonable speed, exposed the man
to death.
187
 ُ ‫ ّأق َذ‬aqżayitu ‘aynu walady.
5.‫يت عين ولدي‬
I removed dust from my son’s eye.
ُ ‫الب‬
6.‫ستان‬ َ ?shjara albustãn.
ُ ‫أشج َر‬
The orchard became greatly full of trees.
(See also Al-Nãiila, 1988, p.99; al-Ħamlawy, 1957,P.39-40)

َ َ
With regard to the morphological pattern ‫ ف ًعل‬fa’ ‘ala, it indicates
that the trilateral is made a derivative by geminating the second
radical. Sibbawayh(1) (d.180h.1982, p.63-64), as other morpholo-
gists do, (e.g.’đaimah (1955, p.107), holds the thesis that this de-
rivative is used for indicating the high frequency of doing an action
repeatedly e.g.
ُ ‫ َو ًق‬waqqartu ?khya al-ãkbar.
7.‫رت أخي أال كبر‬
I over-dignified my eldest son many times.
The same morphological pattern can convey the sense of trans-
ference from one state to another.
ً
8. ‫‘ َع ًج َزت زوجتي مبكرا‬ajjazat zawjaty mubakiran.
My wife became old early.
In addition, that intransitive verbs could be changed into transi-
tive ones is possible to carry out by the use of the same morpho-
logical pattern.eg

(1) It is a tradition in Arabic linguistics that the death dates of ancient Arab traditional
grammarians are mentioned next to their names because such death dates en-
able readers (1) to know the school of grammar the scholar belongs to and (2) to
familiarize them with the general trends of the school on the scholar’s day.

188
 ً َ َ
9. ‫ ف ًر َحت َولدها بشراء لعبة ُله‬farraħat waladaha bishrã? lu’batan lahu.
She delighted her son by buying him a toy.
َ َ
The morphological pattern‫ فا َعل‬, fã’ala conveys a variety of sens-
es due to the infixation of the trilateral base. In this line, Sibbawayh
(d.180h.1982,P.68) speaks of its main sense as follows:
ُ َ ‫“أعلم ًأنك أذا قلت‬
“ ‫فقد كان من غيرك اليك مثل ماكان منك إليه‬,‫فاع ُلته‬:
? ‘lam ?nnaka ?żã qulta fa’altuh, faqad ;kãna min ghayruka
?layka mithlu mã kãna minka ?layh
In uttering the morphological pattern fã’ala, one should recog-
nize that the speaker receives from the other party the same type
of activity that the speaker does to the other party.
This signifies that the two parties are involved in doing an action
to the same extent that they participate in fulfilling it. e.g.
10. ‫ شارك الطالب في بناء قاعة الدرس‬shãraka alţilãbu fii binã? Qã’ ati
ãldaris.
Students took part in building the study room.
ََ َ
ٍ ‫ تقاتل الجنديان‬taqãtala aljundiyãnu bishdatin
11.‫بشدة‬
The two soldiers got involved in fighting each other fiercely.
Shlãsh(1971,p.324-6) introduces an exhaustive treatment of the
senses of such a derivative in that he lists eighteen senses. How-
ever, some of them are farfetched. For instance, he (ibid) says that
the sense of having someone fallen into a trap is quite possible to
express by such a derivative.
ٌ
11. ‫غريمه‬
ِ ‫ خازى سعد‬khãzã Sa ‘dun gharymihi.
Saad has his opponent fallen in disgrace.
1.2.0.2 The Triliteral affixated with two radicals: Its senses
189
 َ َ
The present derivative has five morphological patterns: ‫أنف َعل‬
َ َ َ َ َ
?nfa’ala(e.g.‫? أنك َس َر‬nkasara; became broken) ,‫أفت َعل‬ ?fta’ala(e.g.‫أقت َتل‬
ََ َ ََ َ
?qtatala; got involved in fighting), ‫فاعل‬ ‫ت‬, tafã’ala(e.g.‫تغافل‬,taghafala;
ًَ ََ
pretended to ignore)alla’afat‫تفعل‬ (e.g. ‫تش َج ًع‬,tashajja ‘a; faked to be
ًَ َ
brave) and ‫أفعل‬ ?f ‘alla(e.g ‫?أحم ًر‬ħmarra; became very red) ( al-Ħa-
diithy,2003,p.264-267).
In introducing its main senes, Ibin Jinny(d.392 h,1999,p.95-96)
َ َ
proves that the first morphological pattern ‫? أنف َعل‬nfa’ala signifies
that the verb is always intransitive. The main, if not the only, sense
that the derivatives coined on the basis of this pattern is to show
that something or someone is influenced by an order or some
force.
ُ َ َ َ َ
12.‫بصعوبة‬
ٍ ‫الحبل‬ ‫? أنقطع‬nkaţa ‘a alħablu biş ‘wbatin
The rope became cut with difficulty.
The above example indicates that someone cut the rope since
the rope is unable to cut itself.
Sibbawayh(d.180h.1982,p.74) refers to the point that the mor-
َ َ
phological pattern ‫أفت َعل‬ ?fta’ala has two basic meanings to convey:
undertaking and assiduity.
َ ٌ ََ
13.‫أختد َم ُم َح َمد َصديق ِه‬ ?khtadama Muhammedun Şadiiqihy.
Mohmmed took his friend as a servant. (Undertaking)
ُ َ َ
14.‫أجت َهد الباحث في َطلب العلم‬ ?jtahada albãħithu fii ţalabi al’ilmi.
The researcher worked hard to gain knowledge.
Al-Nãiila (1988, p.105) declares that the morphological pattern
ًَ
‫?أفعل‬f ‘alla denotes high density of colour, chronic bodily defects
and exaggeration .e.g.
190
 ُ َ ً
15.‫أحمر لونه‬ ?ħmarra lawnuhi(colour density)
His face- colour turned very red.
ُ
16.‫أسو ًد الليل‬
َ ?swadda ãlaylu
Night became very deeply dark.(exaggeration)
َ َ ًَ
17. ‫أحول الفتى منذ ُطفول ِته‬ ?ħwalla alfatã munż ţifulatihi
The young boy became cross-eyed since his childhood.
‘đaimah (1955,p.113) explains that the morphological pattern
ََ َ
‫فاعل‬ ‫ت‬, tafã’ala is either transitive or intransitive. The transitive has
two main senses: the involvement of the subject and of the object
(provided that they are human) in carrying out an action, and to
show some sort of pretence.eg
َ َ
ُ
18.‫الوزير مع مستشاريه‬ ‫ تناق َش‬tanãqasha alwaziir ma ‘a mustashãryh.
The minister got involved in discussion with his advisers.
ُ َ َ َ
19.‫مارض الطفل‬ ‫ ت‬tamãradha alţiflu
The child pretended to be sick.
Shlãsh etal( 1989,p.96) maintain that the morphological pattern
ًَ
‫ تفعل‬tafa’alla is used for showing the following senses:(a) to oblige
oneself to do an action that involves hardship and agony,(b) under-
taking, and (c) gradual doing of an action.eg
ُ َ
20.‫ ت َص ًبر الرجل‬taşabarra alrajulu.
The man faked to be patient.
ُ ‫ َت َو َس ًد‬tawasadda ‘Amru yadahu
21.‫عمر يده‬
Amru took his hand as a pillow.
َ
َ
22.‫الماء‬ ‫ ت َج َر ًع‬taja’a’’a alma?a
He gradually drank water dose by dose.
Al-Ħadiithy (2003, p.266) made a survey of senses of the pres-
191
ent derivative as she mentioned that it can express the sense of
making sure of something.e.g.
َ َ
ِ ‫ ت َيق ًنا من‬tyaqannã min bara?tihi
23.‫برائته‬
We made sure of his innocence.

1.2.0.3 The Triliteral affixated with three radicals: Its senses

There are four morphological patterns of the triliteral when af-
ََ َ َ َ ?staţ ‘ama;
َ ‫أست‬
fixated with three radicals:‫فعل‬ ‫? أست‬stf ‘ala(eg ‫طع َم‬
َ َ َ َ
asked someone for food),‫?أفع َو َعل‬f ‘aw’ala(eg ‫?أخشوش َن‬kh shawsha-
َ َ
na; became taugher), ‫فع ًول‬ ‫? ِا‬if ‘awwala(eg ‫علو َط‬ً ‫ ِا‬,?’lawwaţa; rode
ً َ ً ‫ ِا‬, ?iħmãrra; turned too
a saddless horse),and ‫افعال‬, ?f ‘ãlla(eg ‫حمار‬
red). The first morphological pattern of the present derivative is
more recurrent than other patterns. Therefore, it is the only pat-
tern whose senses will be highlighted here.
Sibbawayh (d.180h.1982, p.70-71) holds the view that this de-
rivative is usually basically used for asking something from some-
one .e.g.
24.‫سمحت ُه عما بدر مني‬
َ َ ‫? ِا‬istasmaħtahu ‘ama badara miny
‫ست‬
I asked him to forgive me of what I did.
Ibin Jinny(d.392 h,1999,p.100) indicates the fact that such a de-
rivative can be transitive or intransitive.eg
ً
25.‫ اليستأخرون ابدا‬la yast?khirwna ?badan
They did not utterly get late.
Moreover, he (p.101) says that one of its senses is to show
change from one state to another.eg
ً ‫لج‬ُ ‫الث‬ َ َ
َ ‫حال‬
26.‫ماء‬ ‫? أست‬staħãla althalju mã?an
192
 Ice turned into water.
‘đaimah (1955,p.124) indicates that the morphological pattern
in question can express the sense of discovering something or
someone in its/his real essence.
27.‫? أستكرمته‬stakramtahu
I found him generous.

1.3 Translations of the Triliteral’s Derivatives as found in

Qurãnic Ayahs
The present section is devoted to the discussion and assess-
ment of the translations of ayahs containing the derivatives intro-
duced above. Instances of Qur’ãnic ayahs will be cited according
to the senses of each derivative. The derivatives concerned will
be underlined throughout all ayahs quoted, and item-analysis is
followed in discussing ayahs linguistically and assessing the rendi-
tions one by one.
It is thought that the number of ayahs seems enough to pass
judgments over whether the renditions are accurate or not. Alter-
native translations will be suggested to those ayahs that are inad-
equately rendered.
To serve this purpose, four published translations of the Qurãn
will be consulted, rendered by:
1. Ali, A. Y (1934)
2. Al-Hilali, M. and Khan, M. M. (1996)
3. Pickthall, M. M. (1930)
4. Shaker, M. H. (2003)
193
 The above – mentioned translators’ names are, respectively, ab-
breviated as follows: Ali, Hi. – Kh., Pick. and Sh.
1.3.1 Ayahs Containing Triliterals affixated with One radical
ُ َ َ ُ ّ َُ ََْ ََ ُ ْ ُ َ ُ َُ َ َْْ ُ َ ْ َّ َ ْ َ
27.”‫ون أ ْب َناءك ْم‬ ‫اب يذ ِبح‬
ِ ‫ذ‬ ‫ع‬ ‫ال‬ ‫ء‬‫و‬ ‫س‬ ‫م‬ ‫ك‬ ‫ون‬ ‫وم‬ ‫س‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ن‬ ‫و‬ ‫ع‬ ‫ر‬ ‫ف‬
ِ ‫آل‬
ِ ْ ‫اكم ِّم‬
‫ن‬ ‫” و ِإذ نجين‬
Al Baqarah/ 94
W?ż najjaynãkum min ãl Fir’awn yaswumwnakum su? al-’ażãb
yużabbiħuna ?bnã?kum
Ali (p.249) He delivered you from the people of Pharaoh: they
set you hard tasks and punishments, slaughtered your sons.
Hi. – Kh(p.328) He delivered you from Fir’aun(Pharaoh) people
who were afflicting you with horrible torment, and were slaugh-
tering your sons.
Pick.(p.256)He delivered you from Pharaoh’s folk who were af-
flicting you with dreadful torment, and were slaying your sons.
Sh.(p.306) He delivered you from Firon’s people, who subjected
you to severe torment and slew your sons.
The derivative verb ‫ يذ ّبحون‬yużabbiħuna is intended here to sig-
nify the sense of abundantly doing the act of slaughtering Jews’
sons by Pharaoh’s supporters. All the renditions above failed to
convey the sense concerned. It is thought that the appropriate
translation of this ayah is: He delivered you from Pharaoh’s peo-
ple who were afflicting you with horrible torment, and were abun-
dantly slaughtering your sons.
ُ ُ ‫» َق ُالوا َح ّر ُق ُوه َو‬Al-Anbiyã’/68
28.” ‫انص ُروا آ ِل َه َتك ْم‬ ِ
Qãlw ħarriquhu w?nşirw ãlihatukum
Ali (p.322) They said,” Burn him and protect your gods”
194
 Hi. – Kh(p.435) They said:” Burn him and help your ãliha(gods)”
Pick.(p.327) They cried: Burn and stand by your gods.
Sh.(p.386) They said: Burn him and help your gods.
All the translations were inaccurate to covey the exact sense of
the geminated triliteral derivative due th the fact that the deriva-
tive is rendered “burn” where there is no indication to the sense
of overdoing the act of burning. The ayah should be rendered as:
They said” over-burn him and stand by your gods”.
َ َ ََ َ ْ َ َ َََ
29.”‫ » فل ّما َرأ ْي َن ُه أ ك َب ْرن ُه َوق ّط ْع َن أ ْي ِد َي ُه ّن‬Yûsuf/31
Falmma ra?ynahu waqţţa’na ?ydiyahunna
Ali (p.232)” When they saw him, they did extol him, and (in their
amazement) cut their hands.
Hi. – Kh.(p.306) Then, when they saw him, they exalted him(at
his beauty) and( in their astonishment) cut their hands.
Pick. (p.239)And when they saw him, they exalted him and cut
their hands.
Sh. (p.288) So, when they saw him, they deemed him great, and
cut their hands.
ََ
These three ayahs contain a derivative(‫ )ق ّط ْع‬of the trilateral by
means of gemination to reflect the sense of carrying out the act
of cutting women’s hands many times. Accordingly, the alternative
translation is: Then, when they saw him, they exalted him (due to
his handsomeness) and cut their hands many times.
َّ َ َ َ ُ َ ّ َ ُ َ َ َ َ
30.”‫اص ِحين‬
ِ ‫الن‬ ‫ «وقاسمهما ِإ ِني لكما ل ِمن‬Alaa6răf/ 21
Waqãsamahumã ?nny lakumã min al-nnaşihyn
Ali (p.153) And he swore to them both that he was their sincere
195
adviser.
Hi. – Kh.(p.202)And he[Shaitãn(Satan)] swore by Allãh to them
both(saying):”Verily, I am one of the sincere well- wishers for you
both.
Pick.(p.152) And he swore unto them(saying):Lo! I am a sincere
adviser unto them.
Sh.(p.198) And he swore to them both: Most surely I am a sin-
cere adviser to you.
َ
The derivative in the above Qur’ãnic ayah”‫ ”ق َاس َم‬is to signify the
sense of participation in fulfilling an action. This means that Satan
swore to Adam and Eve of his sincere advice; and they, in turn,
did their best to make sure of his credibility. Due to their purity
and innocence, Adam and Eve trusted the Satan as both expected
that no creature, at their time, could dare to swear untruthfully
(Mughnyyah, 1995:157).Therefore, both parties were involved in
this action. As for the renditions, it seems that Hi. – Kh.’s transla-
tion is more accurate than others’ in expressing the sense intend-
ed.
َ ‫” َما َل ُك ْم َاَل َت َن‬As-Sãffãt/25
32.”‫اص ُرون‬
Mãlakum lãtanaşaruwn
Ali (p.438)”What is the matter with you that ye help not each
other?”
Hi. – Kh.(p.600) What is the matter with you? Why do you not
help each other?”
Pick.(p.447) What aileth you that ye help not one another?
Sh.(P.515) What is the matter with you that you do not help
196
each other.
Concerning the translations of the above ayah, all are accurate
to convey the precise sense of it including the meaning of the de-
rivative involved. This is due to the introduction of the pronoun
“one another or each other” with the verb help. Semantically, this
signals the sense of involvement in doing the act.
َ ْ ُ َ ُ ُ َ َ
”‫وه ّن َو ْاب َتغوا َما ك َت َب اهّلل‬ ‫اشر‬
ِ ‫” اآلن ب‬.33
Al- Baqarah/187
?lãna bãshruhinna wa?btaghw mãkataba Allãh
Ali (p.30) so now associate with them, and seek what Allah hath
ordained.
Hi. – Kh.(p.38)So now have sexual relations with them and seek
that which Allãh has ordained for you.
Pick.(p.29)So hold intercourse with them and seek that which
Allãh hath ordained for you.
Sh.(P.60) So now be in contact with them and seek what Allah
has ordained for you.
All renditions above are imprecise owing to the absence of any
lexical or grammatical indication that shows the sense of participa-
tion signified by the underlined derivative. Therefore, the following
translation is thought more appropriate: So now get involved in sex-
ual relations with them and seek what Allãh has ordained for you.
Al- Baqarah/83 .43
َ َ َ َ
ْ َ َّ َ ُ َّ َ َ َ
ُ ‫الش ْي َط‬
”‫ان َع ْن َها فأخ َر َج ُه َما ِم ّما كانا ِف ِيه‬ ‫“فأزلهما‬
Fa?zalahumã al-shshayţãnu ‘anhã fa?khrajahumã mimmã
kãnã fyhi
197
 Ali (p.6) Then did Satan make slip from the (Garden), and get
them out of the state (of felicity) in which they had been.
Hi. – Kh.(p.9) Then the Shaitãn(Satan) made them slip there-
from (Paradise), and got them out from that in which they were.
Pick.(p.6)But Satan caused them to deflect therefrom and ex-
pelled them from the (happy) state in which they were.
Sh.(p.36) But the Shaitan made them both fall from it, and
caused them to depart from that(state) in which they were.
The above ayah contains two derivatives which are underlined
and they are transitive expressing the sense of removal (see1.2.1.1.
above).Put differently, it means that the Satan removed the state
of happiness from Adam and Eve and made them lose it.With re-
gard to its renditions, the ayah is accurately translated by Ali since
his lexical choices are more precise than others’ in conveying the
meaning concerned.
َ ‫اهم ب ُذ ُنوبه ْم َو َأ ْغ َر ْق َنا َآل ف ْر َع‬
َ ‫ون َو ُك ٌّل َك ُان ْوا َظا ِل ِم‬ َ
ُ ‫“فأ ْه َل ْك َن‬
”‫ين‬ ِ ِِ ِ .53
Al- Anfăl/54
Fa?hlaknãhum biżunwbihim wa?ghraq ?la Fir’aun wakullun
kãnw đãlimyn
Ali(p.182)so We destroyed them for their crimes, and We
drowned the people of Pharaoh: for they were all oppressors and
wrong-doers.
Hi. – Kh.(p. 239) so We destroyed them for their sins, and
We drowned the people of Fir’aun(Pharaoh) for they were all
Zãlimũn(polytheists and wrong-doers).
Pick.(p.184) so We destroyed them in their sins. And We
198
drowned the folk of Pharaoh. All were evil-doers.
Sh.(p.233) therefore We destroyed them on the account of their
faults and We drowned Firon’s people, and they were all unjust.
The above ayah contains two derivatives which are underlined
and they are transitive expressing the sense of exposure in that
Pharaoh’s followers were exposed to destruction and drowning
due to their wrong deeds. The translation of the ayah by Hi. – Kh.
is adequate enough to reflect the sense of the ayah including the
two derivatives concerned.
1.3.2 Ayahs Containing Triliterals affixated with two radicals
َ ُّ ْ ْ ُ َ َ
”‫“يت َج َّر ُع ُه َوال َيك ُاد ُي ِسيغ ُه َو َيأ ِت ِيه ال َم ْو ُت ِمن ك ِل َمك ٍان‬
َ .63
Ibrahim/17
Yatajarra’ahu walayakadu yastasyghahu way?tyhi almawtu
min kulli makãn.
Ali(p.250) In gulps will he sip it, but never will he be near swal-
lowing it down to his throat: death will come to him from every
quarter.
Hi. – Kh.(p. 330) He will slip it unwillingly, and he will find a great
difficulty to swallow it down his throat and death will come to him
from every side.
Pick. (p.257) Which he sippeth but can hardly sallow, and death
cometh unto him from every side.
Sh.(p.308)He will drink it little by little and will not be able to swal-
low it agreeably, and death will come to him from every quarter.
َ
The above Qurãnic ayah contains the derivative”‫ ;ت َج َّر ُع‬tajarra’a:
drank little by little with much difficulty” of whose senses is to
199
show gradual doing of an action that involves hardship and agony.
Sh.’s rendering is the most adequate one because it reveals how
difficult and hard the act of drinking water little by little unwillingly.
ْ َ َ ُ ُّ ُ َ َ ْ َ ً ْ َ َ َ ْ َ َ َ ْ ُ ْ ْ َ َ َ
”‫اس ّمش َر َب ُه ْم‬
ٍ ‫ “فانفجرت ِمنه اثنتا عشرة عينا قد ع ِلم كل أ‬.73
‫ن‬
Al- Baqarah/60
Fa?nfajarat minhu ?thnata ‘asharata ‘aynan qad ‘alim kullu ?un-
ãsin mmashrabuhim
َ ‫انب َع َث َأ ْش َق‬
”‫اها‬ َ ‫“إذ‬
ِ .83
Al- Shamas/21
?ż ?nba’atha ?shqãha
Ali (p.594) Behold, the wicked man among them deputed (for
impiety).
Hi. – Kh.(p. 842) When the most wicked man among them went
forth( to kill the she-camel).
Pick. (p.595)When the basest of them broke forth.
Sh.(694) when the most unfortunate of them broke forth with.
َ َ
The derivative (‫?;أنب َعث‬nba’atha)found in the above ayah is in-
tended to express the sense of over-exaggeration in doing an act
as the doer is motivated by some force or an order. The context of
the ayah indicates that the most obstinate disbeliever (who saw
tangible evidence i.e. the she-camel) of the people of the proph-
et, Salih, was motivated by his distrust of the prophet’s message.
The translations of the ayah were inaccurate due to the absence
of lexically adequate equivalents to express the senses found in
the original. As such, the ayah should be translated as follows:
When the most wretched man among them went forth (to kill the
200
she-camel).
َ َ ََ َ َ ُ َ َْ ََْ َ
”‫يم َر ّب ُه ِبك ِل َمات فأت ّم ُه ّن‬ ‫ “و ِإ ِذ ابتلى ِإبر ِاه‬.93
Al- Baqarah/124
wa?ż ?btalã ?Brahyma rabbuhu bikalimãtin
Ali(p.19)And remember that Abraham was tried by his Lord with
certain commands, which he fulfilled.
Hi. – Kh. (p. 23) And remember when the Lord of Ibrãhîm(Abra-
ham) (i.e,Allãh) tried him with (certain) commands, which he ful-
filled.
Pick. (p.19)And (remember) when his Lord tried Abraham with
(His) commands, and he fulfilled them.
Sh.(p.50) And when his Lord tried Ibrahim with certain words,
he fulfilled.
َ
The derivative ‫? ْاب َتلى‬btalã: tried expresses the sense of undertak-
ing (see1.2.1.2. above)i.e. the responsibility of fulfilling the Lord’s
commands. Regarding the renditions, it seems that Ali’s transla-
tion is sounder to convey the senses present in the source text.
This is attributed to the use of passive construction that shows the
thematic focus intended.
َُ َ ْ َ َُ َ َ ُ ُ َّ َ ُّ َ ُ َ َ َّ َّ
”‫اهَّلل ث َّم ْاس َتق ُاموا ت َت َن ّزل َعل ْي ِه ُم ال َماَل ِئكة‬ ‫ “ان ال ِذين قالوا ر بنا‬.04
Fuşilat/30
?nna all-żyna qãlw rabbunã Allãhu thumma ?staqãmu tatanaz-
zalu ‘alayhum al-mala?kat
Ali (p.471) In the case of those who say, “Our Lord is Allah”, and
further,
stand straight and steadfast, the angels descend on them( from

201
time to time).
Hi. – Kh. (p. 648) Verily, those who say;”Our Lord is Allãh
(Alone),”and then they stand firm, on them angels will descend (at
the time of their death).
Pick. (p.480)Lo! Those who say: Our Lord is Allah, and afterward
are upright, the angels descend upon them.
Sh.(p.552) As for those who say: Our Lord is Allah, then continue
in the right way, the angels descend upon them.
The derivative in the above ayah is meant to show the gradual
doing of an action. This is clearly seen in that the ayah indicates
that angels’ descending on the straight and steadfast people is
from time to time. Ali’s translation is more correct in referring to
the gradual descending of angels on those believers (according to
the Islamic commentaries).
ٌ ‫“و ْاب َي َّض ْت َع ْي َن ُاه ِم َن ْال ُح ْز ِن َف ُه َو َك ِظ‬
”‫يم‬ َ .14
Yusuf/48
Wa?byadhdhat ‘aynãhu mina alħuzni fahuwa kadhym
Ali (p.239) And his eyes became white with sorrow, he was sup-
pressed with silent sorrow.
Hi. – Kh. (p. 314) And he lost his sight because of the sorrow that
he was suppressing.
Pick. (p.245)And his eyes were whitened with the sorrow that
he was suppressing.
Sh.(p.295) and his eyes became white on the account of the
grief, and he was a suppressor( of the grief).
One of the senses of the derivative found in the Qur’ãnic ayah
202
is to signify high density of colour and chronic bodily defects. The
translations above lack the lexical item that indicates such a sense.
Accordingly, the alternative translation is: and his eyes became
highly whitened because of his grief that he was a suppressor of.

1.3.3 Ayahs Containing Triliterals affixated with three radicals

َ ْ ُ ُ ُ َ ْ ْ َ َ
”‫“و َيا ق ْو ِم ْاس َتغ ِف ُروا َر ّبك ْم ث َّم ت ُوبوا ِإل ْي ُه‬ .24
Hũd/52
Wayaqawm ?staghfiru rabbakum thuma twbu ?layhi
Ali (p.221)” And O my people! Ask forgiveness of your Lord, and
turn to Him (in repentance).
Hi. – Kh. (p. 293)”And O my people! Ask forgiveness of your Lord
and then repent to Him.
Pick. (p.227) And, O my people! Ask forgiveness of your Lord,
then turn unto Him repentant.
Sh.(p.276) And, O my people! ask forgiveness of your Lord, then
turn to Him.
Of the uses of this derivative is usually basically to ask something
from someone. This holds true of example (43) .Three renderings
of the ayah have remained imprecise due to either the absence of
appropriate equivalents or the mischoice of structures. However,
Hi. – Kh.’s translation is accurate in expressing the meaning of the
ayah as a whole.
َ َّ ُ ُ ْ َ َ َّ
ُ ‫اك َن ْس َت ِع‬
”‫ين‬ ‫ ِ“إياك نعبد و ِإي‬.34
Al- Fatiha/5
?yyãka na’budu wa?yyãka nasta’yn
203
 Ali(p.1)Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
Hi. – Kh. (p.1) You (Alone) we worship, and You (Alone) we ask
for help (for each and everything).
Pick. (p.1)Thee (alone) we worship;Thee(alone) we ask for help.
Sh.(p.31)Thee do we serve and thee do we beseech for help.
Hi. – Kh.’s rendering is appropriate to highlight the sense of ask-
ing that the derivative exhibits.
َ ‫ين َك َّذ ُب ْوا ب َآيات َنا َس َن ْس َت ْدر ُج ُهم ّم ْن َح ْي ُث َال َي ْع َل ُم‬ َّ
”‫ون‬ ِ ِ ِ َ ‫ذ‬
ِ ‫“و‬
‫ال‬ َ .44
ِ
Al-I’raf/182
Wallażyna każżabw bi?yãtina sanastadrijuhum mmin ħaythu
la’lamwn..
Ali(p.173) Those who reject Our signs, We will lead them step by
step to ruin while they know not.
Hi. – Kh. (p. 227) Those who reject Our Ayãt(proof, evidenc-
es,verses, lessons, signs, revelations etc.), We shall gradually seize
them with punishment in ways they perceive not.
Pick. (p.174)Those who deny Our revelations-step by step We
lead them on from whence they know not.
Sh.(p.222) And(as to) those who reject our communications, we
draw them near(destruction) by degrees from whence they know
not.
The derivative in this ayah is used for showing gradual change
from one state to another (see 1.2.1.3. above).This sense is not
rendered accurately. It should have been translated as: As for
those who did not believe Our revelations, We shall gradually lead
them step by step from welfare to misery as they know not.
204
 َ ُ ْ ْ َ ُ ْ َْ َ َُ َ َ
”‫ “قال ْاب َن أ ّم ِإ ّن الق ْو َم ْاس َتض َعفو ِني َوك ُادوا َيق ُتلون ِني‬.54
Al- I’raf/150
Qãla ?bin umm ?nna al-qawm ?stadh’afuny wakadu yaqtilwnany
Ali(p.169)To him Aaron said:”Son of my mother! The people did
indeed reckon me as haughty, and went near slaying me!
Hi. – Kh. (p. 221) Aaron said:”O Son of my mother! Indeed the
people judged me weak and were about to kill me.
Pick. (p.169)He said: Son of my mother! Lo! The folk did judge
me weak and almost killed me.
Sh.(p.217) He said: Son of my mother! Surely the people reck-
oned me weak and had well-nigh slain me.
The verb derivative of this morphological pattern can express the
sense of discovering something or someone in its/his real essence.
This is what the verb derivative signifies here in that Moses’ peo-
ple found his brother Aaron weak when Moses went to receive the
tablets of (al-Torah) the Old Testament from his Lord. It is Hi. – Kh.’s
translation shows accuracy in conveying the sense of the ayah.
1.4 Conclusions
The theoretical discussion of the triliteral verb derivatives and
assessment of the translations of the ayahs containing such deriv-
atives have yielded some findings. First of all, Arab morphologists
hold a high degree of unanimity as far as the senses that verb-de-
rivatives express are concerned. It is possible for more than one
morphological patterns (on the basis of which such derivatives are
coined) to be used in conveying the same sense. Moreover, some

205
derivatives are very rare to encounter in Qurãnic surahs.
As for translation assessment, generally, the translations of the
ayahs containing the triliteral verb derivatives have been inade-
quate either due to the absence of appropriate grammatical struc-
tures or sound lexical choices. This is attributable to the fact that
Qurãnic texts are pregnant with meanings to the extent that over-
translation becomes inescapable from for translators to resort to
in filling the syntactic and lexical gaps between both languages. In
addition, some verbs which are turned into derivatives by germi-
nation were not accurately rendered owing to the fact that germi-
nation in Arabic is functional but it is not so in English. However,
this does not mean that such verbs are untranslatable. Finally, a
separate study is worth conducting to investigate the translation
accuracy of the quadriliteral derivatives in Qurãnic suras.

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 About the author

Prof. Dr. Mehdi Fãlih alGhazãlli is a specialist in linguistics and

translation. He got the PhD degree from the department of trans-
lation Mustansiriyah University / Iraq in June 2006. Prof. alGhazãl-
li taught in various Iraqi and Arab universities (Libya and Jordan).
He had held different positions in the college of Arts for (13)
years (Chair of translation department, head of promotion unit,
vice dean for scientific affairs and acting dean). Publishing in lo-
cal and international specialist journals, Prof. alGhazãlli has kept
participating in local and international conferences on language
and translation. In line with his career, he teaches undergraduate
and postgraduate studies in translation department and English
department.

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400
G411 AL Ghazalli, Mehdi Falih
Working Papers in Linguistics and Translation / Mehdi Falih
AL Ghazalli - T. Baghdad : Adnan house 2024.
P. (208) S (17*24)
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