بررسي كاربرد افعال وجهي در ترجمه هاي انگليسي قرآن كريم

An Investigation of Modal Verbs in English Translations of the Holy Qurʹanʹ

Religious texts particularly the Holy Qurʹan, translated by various translators in a given language as well as in different languages, form an appropriate corpus for researchers in translation studies and linguistics. The present study has investigated the frequency of six modal verbs - can, could, may, might, must and should - in seven translations, namely Arberryʹs, Pickthalʹs, Irvingʹs, Shakirʹs, Qaraieʹs, Saffarzadehʹs and Yusof Aliʹs, of one third of the Holy Qurʹan. The study demonstrates that there is a significant difference in the frequency of each of the modal verbs in the above-mentioned translations. Moreover, it is revealed that from among the said translators, Arberry has made use of modal verbs less than others. The study has also indicated that there is a significant difference between non-native translators (NNTs) and native translators (NTs) in using can, could, might and should. NNTs have used the modals can, could and should significantly more than NTs, while NTs have used ʹmighf more than NNTs. One further result is that in addition to the difference in frequency, in similar situations the translators may use different modals.