Interpersonal metadiscourse in the English translations of the Holy Quran

Abstract

The holy book for Muslims is the 'Quran.' The Quran is written in Arabic and due to its nature, is accepted as sacred, its divine revelation-it's being the word of God. The Quran, after its revelation has been translated into many languages. Whether Muslim or not, people who do not know the Arabic language are unable to read the Holy Quran, the source text in its original language, but somehow this needs to be communicated. As a result, the demand for religious or Quranic exigencies occurred and this was met through various discourse types such as interpretations, translations or translations of meaning. The present study attempts to investigate, how interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers were employed in the Surah Yaseen, in three different English translations of the Quran. These Quran translations belong to Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, Abdullah Yusuf Ali and IFTA, and Talal Itani. As can be seen from the present study, metadiscourse markers employed by these translators of the Quran, have presented the Quran readers with a sense of the translator's own identity and selected mode of interaction.