Tikrit University

Analyzing Gemination Effect on Verb Transitivity in the Glorious Qur'an with Reference to its Translations in English

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Abstract
This study investigates the linguistic and translational impact of gemination on verb transitivity in Arabic and examines how these effects are rendered in English translations. The study aims at examining how gemination in Arabic verbs affects their transitivity, meaning, and syntactic structure as well as identifying and analyzing the translational shifts that take place when geminated Arabic verbs are rendered into English. It is hypothesized that there is a key relationship between gemination in Arabic verbs and changes in their transitivity and the process of translating Arabic geminated verbs into English leads to shifts in verb transitivity and semantic intensity. The research adopts a qualitative approach using a purposive sample of five Qur'anic verses and their corresponding English translations. The analysis focuses on identifying geminated verbs, classifying their transitivity, and examining the shifts and strategies employed in English translations. Data are analyzed through a dual-model framework: a linguistic model grounded in Arabic morphological theory, and a translation model based on grammatical equivalence and translation shift theory. The findings show that geminated verbs in Arabic undergo semantic weakening or structural transformation when translated into English. Translators often resort to expansion, omission, or paraphrasing to convey the intensity and altered transitivity of the original verbs.

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Volume 10, Issue 1, Part 1
Winter 2026
Pages 207-227

  • Receive Date 01 July 2025
  • Accept Date 25 July 2025
  • Publish Date 01 March 2026