Education English | Three Types of Meaning in Translation | In the translation process, the first thing to do is understand the total meaning of the source text. There are three types of ‘meaning’ that can be determined in the analysis of meaning of the source text (Nida and Taber, 1982: 34).
1. Grammatical meaning
When one thinks of meaning, it is almost inevitably in terms of words or idioms. Generally grammar is taken for granted since it seems to be merely a set of arbitrary rules about arrangements, rules that must be followed if one wants to understand, but no rules themselves that seem to have any meaning. A comparison of ‘John hit Bill’ and ‘Bill hit john’ should convince us that grammar has meaning. It is the first word which performs the action of the second word, and the third word identifies the goal of the action specified by the second word. ‘Did you go’ and ‘You did go’ can be altered with the same pattern of intonation, but the grammatical difference of order provides quite a different meaning.
2.Referential meaning
This refers to words as symbols which refer to objects, event, abstract, and relations. For example:
1. He bought a hammer
1. Grammatical meaning
When one thinks of meaning, it is almost inevitably in terms of words or idioms. Generally grammar is taken for granted since it seems to be merely a set of arbitrary rules about arrangements, rules that must be followed if one wants to understand, but no rules themselves that seem to have any meaning. A comparison of ‘John hit Bill’ and ‘Bill hit john’ should convince us that grammar has meaning. It is the first word which performs the action of the second word, and the third word identifies the goal of the action specified by the second word. ‘Did you go’ and ‘You did go’ can be altered with the same pattern of intonation, but the grammatical difference of order provides quite a different meaning.
2.Referential meaning
This refers to words as symbols which refer to objects, event, abstract, and relations. For example:
1. He bought a hammer
2.they will hammer the nail
3.He will chair the meeting
3.He will chair the meeting
4.He was condemned to the chair
The distinct meaning of the terms ‘hammer’ and ‘chair’ are very closely marked by the occurrence of these terms in quite a different contrast with verbs.
3.Connotation meaning
Connotative meaning refers to how the users of the language react, whether positively or negatively, to the words and their combination. Sometimes, the associations surrounding some words become so strong that people avoid using them at all. This is what is called verbal taboos. There are positive and negative taboos. Negative taboos associate feelings of revulsion, disgust, against words such as those which refer to a certain organ of a body and functions. Hornby (1996:12-14) defines taboo words as ‘words that are often considered offensive, shocking or rude, e.g. because they refer to sex, an organ of body race’. The fact that taboo is against the word and not referent, can be from the fact that there are quite innocent terms which refer to the same things and which are perfectly acceptable. However, the feeling against the words is such that even though everyone knows them, they are not used in polite society, and even many dictionaries refuse to print them. Such words are thought to defile the users. On the other hand, there are positive taboos associated with feeling of fear: certain words (often names of the powerful beings) are also regarded as powerful, and misuse of such words may bring destruction upon the hapless users.
Translation has been performed as a process which begins with the source text, and then the meaning of text is analyzed, discovered, transferred, and re-expressed in the receptor language. In actual practice, however, the translator moves back and forward from the source text to the receptor text. Sometimes he will analyze the source text in order to find the meaning, and then restructure this meaning in the receptor language, and move back once again to look at the source text.
The distinct meaning of the terms ‘hammer’ and ‘chair’ are very closely marked by the occurrence of these terms in quite a different contrast with verbs.
3.Connotation meaning
Connotative meaning refers to how the users of the language react, whether positively or negatively, to the words and their combination. Sometimes, the associations surrounding some words become so strong that people avoid using them at all. This is what is called verbal taboos. There are positive and negative taboos. Negative taboos associate feelings of revulsion, disgust, against words such as those which refer to a certain organ of a body and functions. Hornby (1996:12-14) defines taboo words as ‘words that are often considered offensive, shocking or rude, e.g. because they refer to sex, an organ of body race’. The fact that taboo is against the word and not referent, can be from the fact that there are quite innocent terms which refer to the same things and which are perfectly acceptable. However, the feeling against the words is such that even though everyone knows them, they are not used in polite society, and even many dictionaries refuse to print them. Such words are thought to defile the users. On the other hand, there are positive taboos associated with feeling of fear: certain words (often names of the powerful beings) are also regarded as powerful, and misuse of such words may bring destruction upon the hapless users.
Translation has been performed as a process which begins with the source text, and then the meaning of text is analyzed, discovered, transferred, and re-expressed in the receptor language. In actual practice, however, the translator moves back and forward from the source text to the receptor text. Sometimes he will analyze the source text in order to find the meaning, and then restructure this meaning in the receptor language, and move back once again to look at the source text.
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