SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC LOSS IN THE TRANSLATION OF QUR'ANIC DEIXIS INTO GERMAN

This article explores the problem of semantic and pragmatic loss in the translation of Qur’anic deixis into German. Deictic expressions in the Qur’an, including personal pronouns, demonstratives, temporal markers, spatial references and discourse-related elements, play an essential role in shaping meaning and guiding the reader’s interpretation. However, when these units are translated from Arabic into German, certain shades of meaning, rhetorical force and contextual implications may be reduced, altered or lost. The study focuses on how semantic loss occurs when a deictic unit loses part of its original referential or conceptual meaning, while pragmatic loss appears when the communicative effect, speaker-addressee relationship or rhetorical intention is weakened in the target text. Special attention is given to the challenges of rendering divine address, shifts between singular and plural forms, references to the Hereafter, and demonstrative structures connected with revelation.