In Search for New Translational Norms: Textual Additions in Parentheses as Devices of Textuality

Abstract

This study aims at exploring new norms as to the textual additions in parentheses (=TAiPs) in the translation of a Quranic text as writer-oriented devices of textuality. Coding for this sort of information could be useful in establishing an impact on any decision-making process on the TL version; such TAiPs can give a translated text of the Quran unity and purpose and distinguish it from a disconnected sequence of sentences. Six small-sized chapters of the Quran were selected as a research sample including a number of four handred forty two (442) TAiPs. Two writer-oriented kinds of textuality were found: cohesivity at the levels of grammar and lexis to be in form of recurrence, reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction; and relationality by coherence and intentionality to be in form of reiteration, collocation, connotation, evocation and interpretation. The study is a detailed analysis of such a severely criticized yet officially approved English interpretation of the Quran as the Hilali and Khan Translation (=HKT) against a predetermined set of text-linguistic norms. The strength or weakness of TAiPs as to how they might alleviate or aggravate the TL version is eventually identified for sake of improvement.