Shift of Addressee in the Qur'an and Its Realizations in English and Persian Translations

Abstract

Shift of addressee is one of the main issues in the Qur'an which has not yet been properly investigated; its determining function, as a result, needs focus and attention. While expounding on the concept itself within the Revelation, this paper has attempted to examine the problems of some English and Persian renderings of the Qur'an with respect to the shift of addressee and has then tried to offer some solutions to them. The results obtained indicate that the translators clearly lacked proper knowledge of the concept of shift of addressee and the oral language of the Qur'an. In brief, a total number of 2181 verses with vocative architecture were found in the Qur'an among which 62 verses involved shift of addressee, and were analyzed under four categories of context-based, stylistic, strategic and language-based.