Lexical Qāla in Qur'anic Narrative Dialogues: An analysis of communicative meaning in Malay translation

• Published in: Kemanusiaan
• Main Author: Mat A.C.; Ismailyaakub A.; Muhammad N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia 2019
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85074262670&doi=10.21315%2fkajh2019.26.1.3&partnerID=40&md5=eddcc5de3d042bb6290d3c32ad547222

Translation is a communication tool that involves cross-cultural meaning. Therefore, the correct meaning of a translated linguistic form alone does not guarantee smooth communication, particularly in dialogues. This study focuses on the translation of the lexical form qāla in Qur'anic dialogues into Malay. The lexical form is often translated into Malay as “berkata”, “berfirman” and “bersabda” (said/has said). The study is informed by the semantic translation theory and the communicative translation theory frameworks by Newmark. The objective of this study is to identify and evaluate the translation of lexical qāla and its derivation in selected Qur'anic dialogues. Based on data extracted from surah al-Kahf, a descriptive analysis of the dialogues containing the lexical form qāla shows that it is translated as “berkata” (said/has said) in many instances (48.2 percent) and as “ujar”, “berfirman” and “berdoa” the rest of the time. A contrastive analysis and evaluation of the narrative translation of the dialogues suggests that there is room for strengthening these lexical translations based on the communicative translation theory. This is so that Qur'anic dialogues could be presented more interestingly and effectively. © Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2019. This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).