An Analysis of Partial and Complete Semantic Losses in Arthur John Arberry's Translation of Some Joseph Surah Verses and a Proposal for Solutions

Abstract

Semantic loss in the Target Text (TT) can happen in over-translation, under-translation and mistranslation, resulted either in partial or complete loss of meaning in the TT. This phenomenon is resulted from both non-equivalence in the TL for some linguistic and cultural elements in SL, and the translators' inability to find the suitable TL equivalents. The main goal of the present study is to discover the partial and complete semantic losses, analyzing their causes in the English translation of Joseph Surah by the translator Arthur John Arberry. The research design is descriptive qualitative and comparative through using descriptive content analysis for some words in the Joseph Surah, then comparing them with the translated words to detect both partial and complete loss of translation. The Arabic meanings of the selected words are to be identified by using the classical exegetical works of Ibn Kather and Al-Sa'di interpretive books for Qur'ān. Baker's (2011) Model of non-equivalence was used to identify the causes of semantic loss of translation. For this purpose, (14) samples of verses were extracted from Joseph Surah and were qualitatively analyzed. After analyzing these samples (10) of them were found out as partial semantic losses, and (4) others were complete semantic losses. The findings showed frequent partial losses due to the narrowing of the Arabic Qur'ānic words, and few complete semantic losses of meanings mostly due to mistranslations, semantic complexity of the vocabularies, and culture.