Translating Initial Non-verbal Constituents in the Holy Qur’an

Abstract

Constituents starting with phrases other than verbs are common in the Holy Qur’an. Normally constituents like noun phrases, prepositional phrases and adverbs are fronted in Quranic Arabic. And, since unmarked structures in Arabic start with verb, these types of structures are therefore marked and their initial element plays a fundamental role in discourse. Non-verb initial constructions, due to their discourse functions, require a close attention to the discourse enterprise when being translated. Initial noun phrases can either be subject or object. Subjects are more problematic to translate than objects. Moreover, Persian, with its pro-drop nature and freer word order in comparison to English, facilitates a more successful translation.