The English Translation of Arabic Puns in the Holy Quran

The pun is a tricky use of a word or phrase which has very different meanings that are closely interrelated, or of words with the same sound but different meanings. The Pun is a term with a dual meaning: “close” using obvious reference, and “far” using obscure reference. The hidden is usually meant. The close meaning is the sooner that comes to the listener’s mind. However, the speaker targets at the far one yet use the close to hide it. Translating the Quran text always raises several serious challenges in translation; these challenges are due to the different translations of puns and the misinterpretations between the intended meanings of a pun with their basic concepts, which could result in a certain amount of ambiguity. The study examines the Quranic corpus and its three versions of English translations. The study utilizes the typology of Delabastita?s for horizontal puns, Nida’s techniques of dynamic and formal equivalent and Newmark’s translation methods. This research attempts to investigate the semantic meaning of puns in the Quran translation and to define the translation techniques applied in translating the Quranic puns from Arabic into English.     

The issue at a glance

The issue at a glance     

Peranan bahasa dalam kebudayaan

Bahawa “bahasa” dalam pengertian orang-orang Melayu tidaklah semata-mata bersifat lingual (yang hanya menjadi alat komunikasi antara dua pihak pengguna bahasa sahaja); tetapi bahasa itu adalah lebih kultural (yang menjadi pengilham dan pendorong manusia ke tahap lebih baik dalam hidupnya; sekaligus mempertinggi kebudayaan manusia itu).     

Pre-service special education teachers’ professionalism and preparation in terms of child sexual abuse

This study aimed at examining Jordanian pre-service special education teachers’ professionalism and preparation on the topic of child sexual abuse (CSA). Qualitative research data from interviews with 20 pre-service special education teachers were analysed using thematic analysis. The results showed that these participants generally hold avoiding behaviour toward speaking about CSA as it is an unspoken taboo. Participants also hold low levels of professionalism on the topic of CSA. The results also demonstrate that they felt that their preparation programme is inadequate and desired more content and pedagogy courses that relate to CSA. Implications and recommendations are presented in light of the study findings.     

A comparison between the workplace cultures of Saudi Arabia's private and public education institutes

In Saudi Arabia, it is generally perceived that private special education institutes (SEIs) provide a higher quality education than their public counterparts. Parents tend to trust and invest in private rather than public institutes. This is principally attributed to the greater financial capacity of private special institutes, which ensures services can be provided more effectively. Investigating this perspective, this study seeks to bridge the gap often observed and commented upon between public and private SEIs, and to reflect critically on how the needs of all students with intellectual disabilities can be met within the public system. A comparative case study of two SEIs in Saudi Arabia for students with intellectual disabilities, one public and one private, was designed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents, teachers and principals. A key finding of this study is that there is a major difference in the workplace cultures of public and private institutes. This results in several observable factors that were found to contribute to the quality of provision for learners.     

Negotiating class,ethnicity and modernity: the ‘Malaynisation’ of P. Ramlee and his films

Early Malaysian national cinema disseminates a social reconstruction process aimed at reconstructing Malay supremacy at the centre of a specific geographical, political, economic and cultural space. Aptly termed as ‘Malaynisation’, this process occurred during the Golden Age of Malaysian cinema through the films of P. Ramlee. While existing as a capitalist film culture located within an ethnically diverse society, early Malaysian cinema through Ramlee have produced a significant number of mono-ethnic representations solely focused on the culture, language and lifestyles of the Malays. As such, the articulation of the politics of inclusion and exclusion in Ramlee’s films articulates a right-wing nationalist sentiment that upholds the sovereignty of the dominant Malays while undermining other ethnic communities. The nature of these representations enunciates the context of an ‘imagined community’ which locates the formation of a particular type of nationalism within a social, political and cultural communicative space. This paper examines the construction of the ‘modern Malay’ identity in Ramlee’s films and the nationalist discourse in Ramlee’s films as an attempt at producing the idea of a nation as a continuous narrative of national progression by presenting the postcolonial Malays as a modern, successful and dominant force.     

Broadcast diamond channel: Transmission strategies and bounds

This paper proposes a new multiuser communication model in which a source with broadcast capabilities wants to transmit two different messages to two different destinations in the case that no direct links between the source and its destinations. In this channel model, two parallel half-duplex relays are used to extend the transmission. For this communication model, an outer bound to the achievable capacity is initially derived. Then, two distinctive transmission schemes are characterized such that the source can transmit to the two destinations. In each scheme, the transmission is split into two phases. Specifically, in the first phase, the source can broadcast different messages to the two relays. Then, in the second phase, the two relays can forward the source’s signals into their destinations. Based on the transmission on each scheme, the achievable rate region is characterized. Further, we derive the optimal duration of each phase. The theoretical analyses are followed by many numerical examples that compare between the different transmission techniques and also show the points at which the capacity is achieved.