This study suggests a form-based approach to the translation of sacred texts, particularly the Holy Qur'an. This approach is referred to as Translation by Evidence(TE). Drawing upon Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory (1986, 2002), TE suggests that any translation of the Holy Quran should be faithful to the source text (ST) in two ways: It should transfer all pieces of evidence that serve a particular function (1), and keep ST and TT receptors' processing efforts comparable (2). The study applied TE to the polar interrogatives in the translation of the Qur’an initiated with the particle [hal] (roughly translated as isor is there). The pieces of evidence in the Ayas were found to be suggestive of three speech acts, namely assertives, expressives and directives. The study argued that TE is a more adequate translation strategy as it producea amore faithful translation in terms of the cognitive effect of the translated Ayas processing effort by the TT receivers.Keywords: Translation by Evidence, Relevance Theory, the Holy Qur'an, Interrogatives, Faithfulness

Title

Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures

Publisher

Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures

Publisher Country

Jordan

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

None

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

16

Year

2024

Pages

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