i AN ANALYSIS ON LEXICAL AND CONTEXTUAL MEANINGS IN THE
TRANSLATION VERSIONS (ENGLISH- INDONESIAN) OF THE HOLY QUR’AN SURAH AN-NISA VERSE 3 AND 34 INTERPRETED BY
ABDULLAH YUSUF ALI AND THE MINISTER OF RELIGION
THESIS
by:
NOVITA KURNIASTINING WULAN 201110100311320
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
ii AN ANALYSIS ON LEXICAL AND CONTEXTUAL MEANINGS IN THE
TRANSLATION VERSIONS (ENGLISH- INDONESIAN) OF THE HOLY QUR’AN SURAH AN-NISA VERSE 3 AND 34 INTERPRETED BY
ABDULLAH YUSUF ALI AND THE MINISTER OF RELIGION
THESIS
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve Sarjana Degree in English Education
by:
NOVITA KURNIASTINING WULAN 201110100311320
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
v MOTTO AND DEDICATION
MOTTO ارس ي رس ع لا عم نإ
“Sesungguhnya sesudah kesulitan itu ada kemudahan”.
Verily, with every difficulty there is relief.
(Q.S. Alam Nasyrah:03)
“The best of you is when you can say to your parents and other people
“Wow... I finally reached my dreams” and you will see their touching
and curious response. Just do your best and let Allah do the rest”
Novita Kurniastining Wulan
DEDICATION
This thesis is especially dedicated to:
My beloved Father (Late) Sujadi
My dearest Mother Mujiati
My Uncle Parmin
My Aunt Sriani
Young Sister Nela Andriani
vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alhamdulillahirrabbil‘alamin wassolatu wassalamu‘ala sayyidina
muhammadin wa’ala alihi wa sohbihi ajma’in. After going through a long and
challenging journey, the writer finally arrives at her most intended goal that is to
finish this thesis successfully. Accordingly, it is a precise time for the writer to
express her gratitude to all people who are engaged in this long and winding road.
But most of all, firstly, the writer would like to deliver her best gratitude to Allah
SWT for giving her guidance and blessing in order that the writer is able to finish
this thesis in time. Moreover, praises are also offered to the beloved Prophet,
Muhammad SAW as the best role model ever to all people around the world
especially Muslims.
Secondly, the writer warmly gives her uncountable thanks and
appreciation to her first advisor, Mr. Riski Lestiono, S.Pd., M.A who constantly
guides, cares and supports the writer to finish this thesis as soon as possible. Then,
the writer would like to convey her great gratitude to her kind second advisor,
Dian Arsitades, M.Pd who has given her support, suggestion, advice, and helpful
correction to construct an improvement during the writing process. The writer also
extends gratitude to all lecturers of English department of University of
Muhammadiyah Malang who have taught and given their knowledge patiently
during her study.
Thirdly, great, special, and huge gratitude are addressed to the writer’s
viii thanks are presented for all their love, unlimited prayer, care and support. Special
prayer is delivered to her late grandmothers and grandfathers so that Allah SWT
may bless them and give His best place in Jannah. Amin ya Rabbal ‘alamin.
Finally, so much thanks are also delivered to all of the writer’s friends
classmates and many others for their unlimited supports and prayers. Those will
be the writer’s greatest and unforgettable experience for the rest of her life.
Malang, August 22, 2015
The Writer,
ix
1.6 Definition of Key Term………... 8
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Definition of Translation ... 12
x
2.6 Translation of Holy Qur’an……...27
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design ... 31
3.2 Research Object ... 33
3.3 Research Instrument ... 33
3.4 Data Collection ... 34
3.5 Data Analysis ... 36
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research Findings...39
4.1.1 Lexical Meanings of Surah An-Nisa verse 3 Semantically………40
4.1.2 Lexical Meanings of Surah An-Nisa verse 34 Semantically……..43
4.1.3 Contextual Meaning of Surah An-Nisa Verse 3 Pragmatically…..48
4.1.3.1Contextual Meaning of Surah An-Nisa verse 3 Pragmatically (English Version)……….48
4.1.3.2Contextual Meaning of Surah An-Nisa verse 34 Pragmatically (Indonesian Version)………...49
4.1.4 Contextual Meanings in Translation Versions (English-Indonesian) of Surah An-Nisa Verse 3 Pragmatically………..51
4.1.5 Contextual Meaning of Surah An-Nisa Verse 34 Pragmatically…..53
4.1.5.1Contextual Meaning of Surah An-Nisa Verse 34 Pragmatically (English Version)………....53
xi
of Surah An-Nisa Verse 34 Pragmatically………..….55
4.2 Discussion...58
4.2.1 Disparity of lexical meanings of Surah An-Nisa verse 3 and 34 in
translation versions (English-Indonesian………..58
4.2.2 Difference of Contextual Meanings of Surah An-Nisa Verse 34
between English and Indonesian Verb Based on Arabic
Version………...59
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusion ... 61
5.2 Suggestions ... 62
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I DATA CODING……….65
xii LIST OF FIGURE
xiii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Some Common Speech Acts……….20
Table 4.1 Lexical Meanings of Surah An-Nisa Verse 3 Sematically…………....41
Table 4.2 Lexical Meanings of Surah An-Nisa Verse 34 Semantically…………45
Table 4.3 Contextual Meanings in Translation Versions (English-Indonesian) of
Surah An-Nisa Verse 3... 52
Table 4.4 Contextual Meanings in Translation Versions (English-Indonesian) of
xiv LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1………Data Coding
xv REFERENCES
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Adnan, G. (2004). Women and the Glorious Qur’an: An Analytical Study of Women-Related Verses of Surah An-Nisa. Germany: Gottingen.
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Deparment Agama RI (2010). Al-Qur’an & Tafsirnya Jilid II. Jakarta: Ikrar Mandiriabadi.
Dukes, Kais (2009). The Quranic Arabic Corpus. In Leaman, Oliver. http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=4&verse=3&34.
Accessed on June 2015.
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Fatani, Afnan (2006). Translation and the Qur'an. In Leaman, Oliver. The Qur'an: an encyclopaedia. pp. 657–669. Great Britain: Routeledge.
xvi Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams. (2003). An Introduction to Language Seventh
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xvii Portner, Paul. (2006). An Introduction to Language and Linguistic. United
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1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the background of study, problem formulation,
objective of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms.
1.1Background of the study
Language is the role of human life, not only for the daily life but also for all
activities of human life such as research, illumination, news, or even giving an
argument, thinking and feeling (Rohmad: 2008, 3). Knowledge, law, medic,
politic, educations also need the language. By language, human being is able to
communicate everything. However, language is not the only communication tools.
There are language signals, any kind of symbols, codes, sounds which have
meanings after being translated in human language. Therefore, it is no
exaggeration to say if a language is important communication tool of human
being. Language as the tool of communication has a close relation to semantics.
Semantics is the branch of linguistics which is the aspect of language function
that relates to understanding the meanings (Paul Portner: 2007:137). Semantics
focuses on the literal meanings of words, phrases, and sentences. Semantics is one
component in linguistics, such as sound and grammatical component. It is the part
of linguistics because meaning is part of language. The correlation between
semantics and linguistics cannot be separated. The study of linguistics is not
2 language is to convey the meaning. Thinking about language also involves the
meaning itself.
In addition, other field within linguistics that studies meaning is pragmatics.
Pragmatics focuses on the use of language in particular situation; it aims to
explain how factors outside of language contribute to both literal meaning and
nonliteral meanings which speakers communicate using language (Paul Portner:
2007:137). Therefore, semantics and pragmatics are the two branches of
linguistics that deal with the meaning of language and link language to the world.
However, the only obvious similarity between the two branches is that they both
deal with the meanings of words and sentences but in different ways (Bianchi:
2005). Its difference can be shown in the picture below:
Picture 1
The coverage of semantics & pragmatics
Semantics
Semantic meaning Speaker’s meaning
Pragmatics
Lexicon Grammar
3 Adapted from an introduction to
language and linguistics book by Paul
Portner
The explanation based on the picture above according to Portner
(2006:139) are, semantics focuses on the link between the lexicon and the
grammar and semantic meaning. Pragmatics focuses on the connection
between context of use and both semantic and speaker‟s meaning. To
understand semantics meaning, bringing together three main components are
important such as the context in which a sentence is used, the meanings of
words in the sentence and its more phonological and syntactic structure.
Moreover, the conclusion based on statement above is pragmatics
concerns both on the relationship between context of use and sentence
meaning, and the relationship among sentence meaning, context of use, and
speaker‟s meaning. In this section, focus on those aspects of pragmatics has to
do with how the context of use contributes to semantic meaning. However,
this research focuses on both semantics and pragmatics. Semantics is used to
investigate lexical meaning, while pragmatics is used to investigate contextual
meaning.
Meaning as the shape of the component of semantic discussion is complicated
4 such as the view of life, culture, and the value which belongs to the society whom
use the language.
In Islamic perspective, every Muslim studies Qur’an and al-Hadist as their
guidance of life, on the other hand, studying Qur’an is not easy to comprehend the
meaning. There are many differences of meaning in studying Qur’an when people
examine it. Qur’an passages about polygamy and men and women, those case
belong to surah An-Nisa verse 3 and 34. In those cases, perhaps most often
misunderstood or misused by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Sometime it has to
be explained with al-Hadist. Furthermore, people shall interpret this passage in
the light of the authentic sunnah (tradition) of Prophet Muhammad, peace and
blessing be upon him. They shall study the meaning of by explaining the crucial
Arabic words in question correct. Therefore, investigating the meaning of surah
An-Nisa verse 3 and 34 lexically and contextually will result in the appropriate
meaning.
The wrong perspective made by Muslims in Surah An-Nisa verse 3 and 34
cause the wrong statement. This case appears because they can‟t interpret those
verses in the right meaning. It matter happened in verse 3 which reveal polygamy
topic. While in verse 34, most of people especially non-Muslims who don‟t have
knowledge of Islam often reveal wrong way conclusion to conclude this verse. It
result many people blamed Islam religion. This stage is support by non-Muslims
opinion; non-Muslims think Islam gives the low position for woman. Moreover,
provide the appropriate meaning of those verses give exact understanding of many
5 Holy Qur'an, informally known as the Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation, was
a British-Indian Islamic scholar who translated the Qur'an into English. It is
reported to be the most popular and now the most widely disseminated Qur'an in
most Islamic bookstores and mosques throughout the English-speaking world.
Therefore, the writer surely believes that Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation is more
accurate and is the best choice to be taken into account for this present study.
In relation to this present study, there are some previous studies that are
chosen as considerations. The first is Al-Hamad (2013) who conducted a study the
translatability of euphemism in the Holy Qur’an. The main focus of his study was
on finding out 23 examples of euphemistic expression cited from different surahs
of the Holy Qur’an. The study has revealed that euphemism is an evident
phenomenon in the Holy Quran and that the process of translating it into English
is generally problematic for reasons such as linguistic and cultural diversity.
Finally, the researcher suggested – where necessary – more appropriate
translations of these Quranic euphemisms consider the criteria of meaning and
euphemism.
The second is Najim (2010) who conducted a study on the meaning of hudā in
the Qur‘an with reference to three English translations. Iman found every
Qur‘anic verse that includes the term hudā or one of its derivatives (h-d-y) is
grouped and analyzed to establish the correct meaning accurately. Hudā in this
āyah does not refer to any of the four types of hidāyah. Instead, hudā refers to the
act of giving aid or success. This āyah deals with the concept of unfaithfulness as
6
yahdī. In fact the āyahs before and after this āyah deal with some religious rulings
that regulate one„s life.
From the phenomena above, this present study is intended to analyze the
meaning. Because the writer is interested in analyzing the case into a thesis
entitled “An Analysis on Lexical and Contextual Meanings in the Translation
Versions (English- Bahasa Indonesia) of The Holy Qur‟an Surah An-Nisa Verse 3
and 34 Interpreted by the Minister of Religion and Abdullah Yusuf Ali.” Holy
Qur’an as an object analysis makes this study different, unique and challenging.
This research is important in order to clarify misinterpreted and misunderstood in
society of those verse and to result the real meaning. The writer expects this
clarification can give people the right knowledge of those verses.
Last but not least, based on the writer‟s personal observation, it comes to a
conclusion that there are still very few researches conducted lexical and
contextual meaning in the Translation Versions (English- Bahasa Indonesia) of
the Holy Qur’an Surah An-Nisa Verse 3 and 34. Therefore, the writer believes
that Holy Qur’an becomes the most suitable choice of being the object of analysis
in this study.
1.2 Statement of Problems
Based on the background of the study, the writer would like to formulate
some problems as follows:
1. What are the lexical meanings of surah An-Nisa verse 3 and 34 interpreted
7 2. What are the contextual meanings of surah An-Nisa verse 3 and 34
interpreted by The Minister of Religion and Abdullah Yusuf Ali?
1.3 Purpose of the Study
In the writing this thesis, the writer has some objectives as follows:
1. To find out the lexical meanings of surah An-Nisa verse 3 and 34
The writer expects the result of the study will give additional information
to the reader. The writer expects that the study can contribute to the development
of semantics study especially lexically and contextually, particularly among
students who study of religious texts such as Holy Qur’an as Holy Scripture.
Moreover, the readers can concern on analyzing the study of semantics in surah
An-Nisa verse 3 and 34 in Holy Qur’an. Therefore, this study of linguistic texts,
which enables us to uncover how language is maneuvered to make meaning, has
received popular application in (critical) discourse analysis and (foreign) language
8 1.5 Scope and Limitation
The scope in this study is on investigating the lexical and contextual
meaning in Holy Qur‟an translation versions (English-Indonesian) in which it has
114 Surah. This study is limited on Holy Qur‟an Surah An-Nisa verse 3 and 34.
1.6 Definition of Key Terms
To avoid mistakes of the title, the writer clarifies the terms as the
followings:
1. Semantics Analysis
Semantics is the branch of linguistics which is the aspect of language
function that relates to understanding the meanings (Caroline Bowen: 2011). It
focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs, and
symbols.
In linguistics, semantic analysis is the process of relating syntactic
structures, from the levels of phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs to the
level of the writing as a whole, to their language-independent meanings. It also
involves removing features specific to particular linguistic and cultural contexts,
to the extent that such a project is possible. The elements of idiom and figurative
speech, being cultural, are often also converted into relatively invariant meanings
9 2. Lexical Meaning
The lexical meaning is study of semantics which concerns on the meaning
based on the dictionary. Lyons (1995) states lexical meaning is a meaning
describes in the lexicon or dictionary. A lexical meaning usually the type expected
from a request for definition, and it is generally expected that such a definition
will be stated as simply as possible in order to convey information to the widest
readers. Another case, the meaning of a content word that depends on the
nonlinguistic concepts it is used to express content word and open-class word, a
word to which an independent meaning can be assigned meaning, signification
and import, the message that is intended or expressed or signified.
3. Contextual Meaning
Contextual meaning is the study of semantics which concern with the
meaning based on the situation. According to Lyons (1995), contextual meaning
is the meaning of word according to the situations in which context is used.
4. Translation
Translation is the most important thing in transferring the source language
10 4. Surah An-Nisa verse 3 and 34
Surah An-Nisa verse 3 and 34 have different topic. Verse 3 shows
polygamy topic, it reveals the right statement of polygamy in guidance of Islam.
The real Islamic person must be submissive in Qur’an. It also explains the rules of
polygamy in Islam, while verse 34 of this surah states the position men and
woman based on Islam perspective and the obligation between men and women as
a couple in the family.
Surah An-Nisa verse 3
“And if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphan-girls, then
marry (other) women of your choice, two or three, or four but if ye fear that you
shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one or (the captives and the
slaves) that your right hands possess. That will be more suitable, to prevent you
11 Surah An-Nisa verse 34
“Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the
one more [strength] than the other, and because they support them from their
means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in [the
husband's] absence what Allah would have them guard. As to those women on
whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them [first], [Next], refuse
to share their beds, [And last] beat them [lightly]; but if they return to obedience,
seek not against them Means [of annoyance]: For Allah is Most High,great [above
