On Translating Semantic Prosody of Some Nature–related Words in the Holy Qur’an: A Corpus-based Study

Abstract

This study explores the semantic prosody of three selected Qur’anic words and evaluates their interpretations in three selected English translations. The selected nature- related words: رطم rain, راهنلأا/ رهن river(s), and ميلا the main are examined using the Quranic Arabic corpus (Dukes, 2017). The study examines translation equivalence at and above the word level. Moreover, it detects any undergone shift in semantic prosody and collocation in the selected translations as a result of the translators’ unawareness of subtle prosodic differences in the source text (ST) or even the semantic prosody of the alternatives in the target text (TT). The study adopts Mona Baker’s (2011) descriptive approach to account for the way the adopted translation strategies can influence the semantic prosody of the node. The study concludes that the translators were unaware of semantic prosody which posed a hurdle in translation.