Near-synonymy in the Glorious Quran and its realization in English

Ssalahuddeen, Alaa

	Near-synonymy in the Glorious Quran and its realization in English
College Of Basic Education Research Journal
Article 44, Volume 12, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 981-1010 PDF (0 K)
Author
Alaa Ssalahuddeen
Abstract
The choice of vocabulary which is part of the concept of synonymy is one of the significant linguistic issues which must be well understood. It is a subject that has always been controversial to pioneering and modern scholars for its significance in understanding the Qur’ānic vocabulary. The present research studies lexical choice as an important phenomenon in the Glorious Qur’ān. It deals with near-synonymous words in the Glorious Qur’ān; their usage and the related meanings and tries to unveil the subtle differences in their meanings which might mislead some scholars and translators to think that they are synonymous. This study aims at highlighting this phenomenon in the Glorious Qur’ān, by choosing (7) pairs of near-synonymous terms selected from different verses in five published translations of the Glorious Qur’ān which are assessed in terms of whether the translators have succeeded in choosing the appropriate term conveying the exact interpretive meaning of those terms in source language. Among the conclusions of this study are: 1. Choosing the most appropriate terms among near-synonymous words in the target language depends largely on knowing the nuances of these terms i.e. attention should be paid to the semantic differences of these terms in the source language. 2. Some translators do not properly render the near-synonymous terms in a way that shows the nuances in the interpretative meaning between them or at least highlight the reasons behind their nuances. 3. The semantic analysis of near-synonyms in the Glorious Qur’ān and lexical choice is mostly influenced by context
Keywords
Glorious; Quran

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