Textual source and assertion: Sale’s translation of the Holy Quran

Linguistic studies of intertextuality and assertion pose the question of belief systems available to language users. Although not all utterances in a text are easily read as assertions, one can argue that all translated utterances are textual assertions. Still, the making of the Translated Text may benefit from various sources other than the Source Text.

Using a hermeneutic textual approach, the present paper studies assertion in language and translation through examining the complex intertextual relations and sources which characterize the translator’s assertions. It studies George Sale’s English translation of the Holy Quran in light of three sources: ST sources, Marracci’s Latin translation, commentaries on Arabic sources, and personal communication.

The paper reveals that the source of an utterance is complex and detrimental to the status of the assertions made by the source. The source can be (1) divine, (2) external neutral, (3) external adversary, (4) external opaque (unspecified by speaker), and (5) translator/interpreter. Assertion types relate to the source and show various degrees of commitment to truth: (1) divine assertion, (2) neutral assertion, (3) claim assertion, (4) counterclaim assertion, (5) translational assertions.

Parallel structures, lexical choices and informational additions, show that Sale’s English translation made direct use of Marracci’s Latin translation. Sale also used a complex network of sources including Arabic speaking informants. The study shows that translational assertions are the translator’s own assertions, and hence, Sale’s assertions cannot have the power of the Divine Word of God. Still, Sale’s great contribution lies in interpreting his sources and in the creative formulation of a standard English translation.