A Contrastive Analysis on the Verb Forms of Arabic and Their English Translations in surah Al-baqarah in “The Qur’ān, Arabic Text with Corresponding English Meanings”

Abstract

A Contrastive Analysis on the Verb Forms of Arabic and Their English Translations in surah Al-baqarah in “The Qur’ān, Arabic Text with Corresponding English Meanings”; Galuh Diwasasri, S.Pd., 130120201003; 2015: 96 pages; Master of Linguistics Program; Faculty of Letters; Jember University. In this thesis the researcher investigates the similarities and the differences of the Arabic and English verb forms using contrastive method of analysis. The term contrastive analysis implies that two languages or more are described and analyzed. So, the main purpose of this research is to give a detailed description of the similarities and the differences between the languages compared. The results of this research are expected to help people who want to learn Arabic or English languages or people who want to translate Arabic into English or vice versa. This research belongs to qualitative research which is done under the purpose to give a clear explanation about the object analyzed. Based on the source of the data, this research belongs to the deskwork research because the data are collected from library searches and the researcher is not necessary to go to the field to collect the data. The data of this research are the verb forms of English and Arabic sentences taken from the holy book entitled “The Qur‟ān, Arabic Text with Corresponding English Meanings”. The data of this research considered as qualitative data. The data collection method that is used in this research is documentary method. The process of the data in this research is done in seven steps, which are; 1) data collection, 2) data tabulation, 3) data classification, 4) data validation, 5) data analysis, 6) explanation, and 7) conclusion. From the research, it was found that the forms of Arabic and English verbs based on the classifications of aspects, tenses, moods, and subjects-verb agreement in surah Al-baqarah in“The Qur‟ān, Arabic Text with Corresponding English Meanings” are quite different. In term of aspect and tenses there are two Arabic verb forms based on the classification of aspect, they are imperfect and perfect verbs. Arabic verb forms are not classified based on the classifications of viii tenses. Tenses in Arabic verbs are determined from the sentences contexts. In contrast, English verb forms are classified based on the combination of tenses and aspects that represented in the twelve grammatical English tenses. Although there are twelve tenses in English, not all of those tenses are found, yet there are only seven English verb forms based on the classifications of tenses and aspects. Those seven verb forms are; verbs with present tense, present continuous tense, present perfect tense, past tense, past continuous tense, past perfect tense, and simple future tense. In term of mood, there are four Arabic verb forms based on the classifications of moods, they are verbs with indicative mood, subjunctive, imperative, and jussive verbs, while English has three verb forms based on the classifications of moods which are verbs with indicative mood, subjunctive mood, and imperative mood. In term of subject, it is found that there are ten Arabic verb forms based on the classifications of subjects, they are verbs with first person singular subject, first person plural subject, second person singular masculine subject, second person dual masculine and feminine subject, second person plural masculine subject, third person singular masculine subject, third person singular feminine subject, third person dual masculine third person plural masculine subject, and third person plural feminine subject. Meanwhile in the translation version there are five English verb forms based on the classifications of subjects, which are verbs with first person singular subject, first person plural subject, second person singular or plural subject, third person singular subject, and third person plural subject. The differences between Arabic and English verb forms found in surah Albaqārah in”The Qur‟ān, Arabic Text with Translated English Meanings” can be presented as follows. First, Arabic verb forms are only based on the aspects rather than tenses, tenses in Arabic verbs are depended on the context in the sentence, meanwhile English verb forms are based on the combination between tenses and aspects that are represented in the grammatical English tenses. Second, from the side of mood Arabic classifies its moods into indicative, subjunctive, jussive, and imperative, meanwhile English classifies its moods into indicative, subjunctive, ix and imperative. This difference happens because the Arabic classifies the imperative into indirect imperative (that represented into jussive mood) and direct imperative. Third, from the aspect of subject-verb agreement, Arabic has more classification of verb forms based on the subject-verb agreement, because it classifies its subject based on the categories of person, number, and gender. Meanwhile English classifications of subject are only based on the number and person. In Arabic verb the subject can be seen from the verb form particularly because the suffixes that are adhered to the verb show the person, number, and gender of the subject. Meanwhile not all of the English verbs have clear sign of the person, number, and gender of the subject, that is why in the English sentence, subject has to be stated clearly.