Gadallah, M., El-Nashar, M. (2024). A Semantic study of the (un)translatability of Image Schemas in three English translations of Surat Yusuf. CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education, 85(1), 175-207. doi: 10.21608/opde.2024.349214
Marwa Gamal Abdel-Hamid Gadallah; Mohamed M. El-Nashar. "A Semantic study of the (un)translatability of Image Schemas in three English translations of Surat Yusuf". CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education, 85, 1, 2024, 175-207. doi: 10.21608/opde.2024.349214
Gadallah, M., El-Nashar, M. (2024). 'A Semantic study of the (un)translatability of Image Schemas in three English translations of Surat Yusuf', CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education, 85(1), pp. 175-207. doi: 10.21608/opde.2024.349214
Gadallah, M., El-Nashar, M. A Semantic study of the (un)translatability of Image Schemas in three English translations of Surat Yusuf. CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education, 2024; 85(1): 175-207. doi: 10.21608/opde.2024.349214
A Semantic study of the (un)translatability of Image Schemas in three English translations of Surat Yusuf
1English Instructor at the German University in Cairo
2Professor of Linguistics and Translation – Dean, College of Language and Communication - Cairo
Abstract
This paper investigates and compares the accuracy of three English translations of the meanings of Surat Yusuf in echoing the cognitive semantic image schemata of some Qur’anic terms. It also examines the amount of translation/semantic loss resulting from this process, and investigates why some translations lose sight of part of the culture-bound, culture sensitive and language-bound schema. In analysing this Surah, the researcher used a descriptive qualitative and quantitative research design based on the storytelling image schema analysis framework of Turner (1996) and Kimmel (2009). The English translations of Surat Yusuf were selected from Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall “The Holy Quran with full Arabic text English Translation” (1930), Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s work “The Holy Qur’an: Text and Translation” (1939) and Muhammad Mahmoud Ghali’s translation “Towards Understanding The Ever-Glorious Quran” (1996). The researcher used a quantitative approach where the number of storytelling image schemas are depicted to finally compare the total number of each image schemas. Findings showed that spatiality into temporality image schema is mostly used in the translation of the verses of Surat Yusuf. This thesis revealed a number of semantic losses mostly by Pickthall, a few inconsistency occurrences upon translating the same Arabic terms and some untranslatable images due to cultural bounds, misunderstanding or misinterpretation of some concepts and terms