Investigating Cognitive Allegory in An-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths: a Translational and Pragmatic Analysis

Abstract

Allegory, as a way of conveying a message, is profoundly cognitive. It expresses cases where one proposed proposition can only be recognized by the use of cognition. The doer of the action is non-intrinsic and there is no correlation between the subject and its associated predicate unless mental reasoning is applied. A descriptive approach proposed by Toury (1980) is followed to conduct a systematic and objective analysis of two sets of translation of the Forty Hadith collection of An-Nawawi supported by comments of Hadith specialists as well as rhetoricians in this regard. The analysis showed that literal representation for the allegorical message through utilizing SL (source language) oriented procedures would deprive the TL (target language) reader from important allegorical information. The translations need extra information so that optimal representation attained. Pragmatic analysis supported the translational analysis to give a comprehensive image of the meaning of Hadith. Pragmatic analysis for the extracts showed that these texts have pragmatic functions and all the extracts fulfilled these functions. The pragmatic functions have pragmatic meaning and it is recommended that these meanings accompany the translation of such extracts. Subtle meanings will be lost if such additions would not accompany the translations.