On the Impact of Global Coherence on Translation Comprehension of the Holy Quran: A Case Study of PhD-ESP Learners

Introduction

According to Brigaglia (2005, p. 424), considering the inimitable style of the Holy Quran and the fear for meaning deviation in the Quran, one of the earliest translations of the holy text into other languages raised the opposition of Quranic scholars, though later translations of the Holy Quran such as Sales’ translation attracted the interest of readers and scholars. Then, to capture the original sense of the Holy Quran, different scholars adopted different views. These views include Elimam`s view (2009, pp.282-295) that underscored stylistic affinity, Ahmed`s view (2004, p.199) that emphasized the consideration for an ongoing process of the translation and avoiding literal translation, and Abdulraof`s view (2005, p.172) that underlined the issues of cultural interference and message distortion. For instance, Abdulrauf’s view indicates that Arberry’s translation of the 9^th verse of the surah Joseph which is translated into “that your father’s face may be free for you”, has not been able to convey the real metaphorical meaning of the text.

Abdelwali (2007, p.10) adds that the Quran enjoys a specific discourse feature. Thus, it is difficult or even impossible to render it to other languages. Also, Al-Jabbari (2008, p.24) adds that literal, lexical, and interpretative translation of the Holy Quran lags behind adequacy for translation of this divine text. Underscoring the use of Tafsir (commentary) in Quranic translation, Al-Shahab (2012, p.12) states that a text gain benefits from the previous text and other texts, emphasizing the importance of global coherence in translation.

Though evaluating the quality of translation has been a formidable challenge for practitioners, many linguistic and non-linguistic approaches and tools are suggested for this purpose which encompasses different areas of the process such as meaning transfer, agreement of grammatical rules and conventions, consistency of terminologies used, consideration for contextual and cultural factors, etc. Yet, among linguistic factors that exert influence on intelligibility and comprehension of any written and spoken discourse, coherence has a critical position. However, this issue is not extensively exploited in the translation discipline. Furthermore, a review of the literature on translation studies conducted on the translation of holy texts, especially the Holy Quran, shows that research in this area is in its infancy. Therefore, the current research is an attempt to shed light on the effect of coherence on comprehension of translated Quranic texts from a linguistic and instructional point of view.

According to Halliday and Hassan (1976, pp.4-6), spoken or written discourses are not a random selection or an arbitrary collection of information and therefore enjoy a logical organization that helps the readers or hearers to comprehend them. This statement might imply coherence, yet, Engebresten (2000, p.5) believes that as far as linguistics is concerned, coherence is perceived as the totality of the mechanisms which state coherence correspondence to the system of explicit and implicit connective elements of immanent entity of the text. From the traditional point of view, all issues related to the coherence of the text reside in the text itself and therefore, the properties of the text including reference, theme, conjunctions, etc.

In the same line of thinking, Van Dijk (1995, p.389) believed that textual features are necessary but not sufficient condition for coherence and a text needs unity too. Carrel (1982, p.477) and Brown and Yule (1983, p.223) also belonged to this school of thought and adopted their positions concerning different concepts and notions of coherence. In a pragmatic view, however, coherence does not necessarily reside inside the text but, according to Crystal (2008, p.85), it resides in principles that underlie the functional correctness and the identity of the text which encompasses factors such as the language users' knowledge of the world, their inferences and assumption, and especially how they communicate. Accordingly, Yule (1996, pp.84-85) believes that coherence includes those known or expected relationships in human experience which are used to connect the meaning of utterances implicitly or explicitly.

Despite these definitions and views, Blum-Kulka (2002, p.299) states that the coherence of the text is not a stable phenomenon, and therefore processes like translation might change or destroy the coherence of the text. To verify this assertion, Naoum (2011, pp.33-35) conducted a study and found that translation of a text from Arabic to English affects its coherence to a great extent. This study has concluded that a coherent-oriented approach toward translation promotes the intelligibility of translation by readers of the target text. AL-Azzawi (2004, pp.1-2) had already carried out research and explained that identifying coherence markers, especially those of global coherence which are beyond textual properties, has a great effect on the success of the translator. Later Zheng (2009, p.53) investigated the importance of coherence in translation and concluded that a successful and accurate translation is one that preserves the continuity of senses through combining concepts and relations into a network of knowledge space that is shaped around main topics in the target discourse.

More specifically Farghal (2012, pp.13-15) studied shifts of coherence in Quranic translations from both textual and reader`s point of view and found that due to cultural distance between Arabic and English languages and referential gaps, Quranic translators mostly fail to convey coherence ties and markers. Besides, Tabrizi and Mahmud (2013, p.3), studied selected English translations of the Holy Quran and its Arabic text from a discourse structure perspective and found differed structure and word domain between source and target languages. In the same line of research Alamadari and Suzani (2016, p.25), studied the effect of explicitation on translation coherence of Quranic verses and reported that employing explicitation procedure in transferring meaning from source language to target language removes ambiguity from the translated verses and promotes coherence of the text. Fraghal (2017, pp.13-15) delved into the issues of textuality and cohesion and coherence in Arabic to English translations and concluded that various text-related features between two languages have greatly affected both cohesion and coherence of transitions from Arabic into English.  

Taking these issues into account and considering the solution-based gap in the literature concerning Quranic translation accuracy and comprehensibility, the current research has adopted a new approach to shed light on the coherence of translation from an instructional angle and therefore, investigates the effect of coherence on comprehension of the English translation of Quranic verses from the viewpoint of English learners registered in an ESP (English for Specific Purpose) course. To this aim, the following research question is formulated:

Does coherence of English translations of Quranic verses affect comprehension of ESP learners?

Method

To answer the question posed, a mixed-method design was employed by the researcher which included both qualitative and quantitative phases. In the qualitative phase, through conducting discourse analysis, some Quranic verses with coherence clues were identified among famous English translations of the holy texts. In the quantitative phase, however, through adopting a quasi-experimental design, the effect of coherence in translation on comprehension of ESP learners was measured. For the quantitative phase, 12 Ph.D. students of theology and Quranic sciences registered in the ESP course were selected from two universities in the city of Qom through convenient sampling.

In the first round of the research, all Surahs in the 30^th chapter of the Holy Quran as well as their English translations (Pickthail, Qaraei, Arberry, Moeiniani), were scrutinized through discourse analysis for global coherence clues. Then, some selected Quranic verses with global coherence clues were identified. Their counterparts which lacked coherence clues were also identified in these translations. Then, two comprehension exams including Quranic verses with and without coherence clues were developed by the researchers. These two tests were administered to participants on two different occasions. The obtained scores were entered into SPSS (version 23) and analyzed through a paired-sample (dependent) t-test. The results of both qualitative and quantitative phases are presented below.

Results and Discussion

In the first round of the research, the 30^th chapter of the Holy Quran was investigated and some verses with global coherence were identified. Some examples are presented in the following tables:

Table 1: Chapter 30^th, Surah No, 106 (Quraysh), Verse 1 (لِإیلافِ قُرَیشٍ)

* That is, the team spirit and concord amongst clans of the tribe of Quraysh, who conducted the trade caravans between Yemen and Syria in summer and winter

Table 2: Chapter 30th, Surah No, 102 (Al-Takathur), Verse 5 (کَلّا لَو تَعلَمونَ عِلمَ الیَقینِ)

*(you would not have devoted all your time to work, work and work to pile up wealth.)

Table 3 : Chapter 30th, Surah No, 98 (Al-Bayyinah), Verse 2 (رَسولٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ یَتلو صُحُفًا مُطَهَّرَةً)

* This clear proof is Qur’an which …..

Then, considering the corpus obtained, one reading comprehension test encapsulating global coherence and one test without manifest global coherence ties were developed by the researcher and administered to the participants. Afterward, the obtained data were entered into SPSS and analyzed through a dependent-samples t-test to investigate whether coherence-loaded translations affect comprehension or not. The results are presented in the following tables.

Table 4 : Paired Samples Statistics

As it is shown in this table, there is a difference between the mean scores of the group performing on two different tests administered on two different occasions. Despite that, the statistical significance of this difference can be determined through conducting a t-test the results of which are presented below:     

Table 5: Paired Samples Test