Translation of the Semantic Dimension and the Suggestive Dimension in the Holy Quran : Pickthall, "Village" and "City"

Abstract

Following the unlimited number of the existing English translations of the holy Qu'ran, basically when focusing on the transfer of some words and Quranic concepts that seem to be synonyms or near-synonyms from the Arabic language as a source language into the target English language. Those kinds of translations seem to be superficial, for having tackled and dealt with those "key-words" literally, disregarding their holy references and sacred messages revealed for: a matter that does not serve and convey the aim of the Word of Allah. The aim of this modest paper is to shed the light on synonymy and near-synonymy in the Quran. The sample corpus of this study is limited to two concepts :"the village" and "the town"; and how have they been translated from Arabic into English language by the exChristian and the new converted Pickthall. This latter, as one among some western translators of the Quran could not grasp and fathom the deep meanings of these indefinite occurring sacred words . If this issue is very involved for those linguists; for the common people will become more convoluted, since they could not make a distinction between a mere connotative sense and a denotative one. This article may underscore this lost ring in translating these near synonyms into the target language.