The Roles of Semantics in Translation

 Ni Luh Windiari Windiari

The Roles of Semantics in Translation Translation

The main objective of translation is to transfer the meaning from the source language to the target language. In transferring the meaning, a good translator should have the knowledge of source and target language, the gram gramma marr and and cult cultur ures es,, and and also also the the skil skills ls in tran transl slat atio ion. n. Skil Skills ls and and knowledge in translation are powerful means to produce better works. The knowledge can be gained through reading and understanding while the skills can be further gained b more practices. Since translation main objective is !meaning", it is ver important to stud about theor of meaning. Semantics is a branch of linguistics which stud studie iess abou aboutt mean meanin ing. g. Thus Thus,, we can can see see that that sema semant ntic icss pla plass a ver ver important role in translation. This paper will discuss the roles of semantics in transl translati ation on briefl briefl. . Some Some intern internati ationa onall journa journals ls on semant semantics ics have have been been reviewed to be able to find out an possible roles that semantics can have in translation. Sema Semant ntic icss stud stud  prov provid ides es theo theori ries es,, appr approa oach ches es or meth method odss in understanding #meaning$ that are ver useful in translation. Some problems relat related ed to mean meanin ing g are are ofte often n face faced d b tran transl slat ator orss in tran transl slat atin ing g a te%t te%t.. &cco &ccord rdin ing g to 'atf 'atfor ord d ()*+ ()*+- */ */ untr untran ansl slat atab abil ilit it  occu occurs rs when when it is impossible to build functionall relevant features of the situation into the conte%tua conte%tuall meaning of the TL te%t. te%t. Those Those happen where where the difficult difficult is linguistic such as ambiguit (due to shared e%ponent of two or more SL gramma grammatic tical al or le%ica le%icall items items and polise polisem/ m/ and oligos oligosem em,, and where where difficult is cultural. In semantics, there are some methods of anal0ing the

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meaning of a word. 1gden and 2ichard propose the triangular concept of  meaning in which semantics is also related to semiotics, pragmatics and discourse. The point is, in understanding the meaning we also need to relate it with the conte%t (pragmatic/. ¬her method of analsis is b using componential analsis method. 'omponential analsis, also called  feature analysis or contrast  analysis, refers to the description of the meaning of words through structured sets of semantic features, which are given as !present", !absent" or !indifferent with reference to feature".

'omponential analsis is a

method tpical of structural semantics  which anal0es the structure of a word3s meaning. Thus, it reveals the culturall important features b which speakers of the language distinguish different words in the domain (1ttenheimer, 455+, p. 45/. This is a highl valuable approach to learning another language and understanding a specific semantic domain of and 6thnograph. 7or e%amples : man 8 9: male;, 9: mature;, woman 8 9< male;, 9: mature;, boy 8 9: male;, 9< mature;, girl   9< male; 9< mature;, child   9:=/ which emplos simple culturall?shared meanings (semantic primes/ as its vocabular of semantic and pragmatic description. The natural semantic metalanguage theor (Wier0bicka )**+a@ Aoddard and Wier0bicka eds )**, 4554@ Aoddard )**B@ Aoddard ed. in press/ is based on evidence supporting the view that, despite their enormous differences, all languages share a small but stable core of simple shared meanings (semantic  primes/, that these meanings have concrete linguistic e%ponents as words or  word?like e%pressions in all languages, and that the share a universal Semantics

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grammar of combination, valenc, and complementation. That is, in an natural language one can isolate a small vocabular and grammar which has  precise eCuivalents in all other languages. The number of semantic primes appears to be in the low?si%ties. 6%amples include the primar meanings of  the 6nglish words- someone/person, something/thing , people, say, words, do, think , want ,  good , bad , if , can and because. Semantic primes can be combined, according to grammatical patterns which also appear to be universal, to form simple phrases and sentences such as- #people think that this is good$, #it is bad if someone sas something like this$, #if ou do something like this, people will think something bad about ou$, and so on. The words and grammar of the natural semantic metalanguage jointl constitute a surprisingl fle%ible and e%pressive !mini?language". Thus, knowing this theor is ver beneficial in translation. ¬her approach to translation is hermeneutics. &ccording to Shi in the article entitled  Hermeneutics and Translation Theory , hermeneutics is relevant to translation because there is no translation without understanding and interpreting te%ts, which is the initial step in an kinds of translation including literar translation. Inappropriate interpretation inevitabl results in inadeCuate translations, if not absolutel wrong translations. 6ssentiall, hermeneutics involves cultivating the abilit to understand things from somebod else3s point of view, and to appreciate the cultural and social forces that ma have influenced their outlook. Dermeneutics interprets or  inCuires into the meaning and import of these phenomena, through understanding the point of view and 3inner life3 (Eilthe/ of an insider, or the first?person perspective of an engaged participant in these phenomena. In addition, le%ical semantics is also ver necessar to be learned in translation stud. It deals with snonm, antonm, polisem and Semantics

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hponm. Le%ical semantic analses necessaril involve more or less e%plicit considerations concerning the number of interpretational variants of  a word form, i.e. identifing the le%ical items associated with a le%eme (Solstad/. 7rom the above e%planation we can conclude that semantics plas a ver important role in translation stud. It provides theories@ approaches or  methods to meaning that are ver useful in translation stud.

References

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'atford, Gohn '. )*+.  A Linguistic Theory of Translation: an Essay on Applied   Linguistics, London- 1%ford Hniversit ress. Aoddard, 'liff. )**B. Semantic Analysis: A practical introduction !"ford !"ford  #ni$ersity %ress Aoddard, 'liff. 4554. The search for the shared semantic core of all languages. In 'liff Aoddard and &nna Wier0bicka (eds/. &eaning and #ni$ersal 'rammar (Theory and Empirical )indings *olume + &msterdam- Gohn Jenjamins. pp. ?5. Shi, &iwei. Hermeneutics and Translation Theory. Kin0hou Teachers Hniversit. Shan%i, 'hina Solstad, Tolgrim. The $ariant problem in le"ical semantics and translation Institut fr  >aschinelle Sprachverarbeitung, Hniversit of Stuttgart. Wier0bicka, &nna.)*BM.  English Speech Act Verbs: A semantic dictionary. Sdne&cademic. Wier0bicka, &nna. )**+. Semantics: %rimes and #ni$ersals. 1%ford- 1%ford Hniversit ress. Wikipedia, http-==en.wikipedia.org

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