The Roles of Semantics in 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 grammar and cultures, and also the skills

in translation. Skills 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 by more practices.

Since translation main objective is “meaning”, it is very important to study about

theory of meaning. Semantics is a branch of linguistics which studies about meaning. Thus,

we can see that semantics plays a very important role in translation. This paper will discuss

the roles of semantics in translation briefly. Some international journals on semantics have

been reviewed to be able to find out any possible roles that semantics can have in

translation.

Semantics study provides theories, approaches or methods in understanding

‘meaning’ that are very useful in translation. Some problems related to meaning are often

faced by translators in translating a text. According to Catford (1965: 94) untranslatability

occurs when it is impossible to build functionally relevant features of the situation into the

contextual meaning of the TL text. Those happen where the difficulty is linguistic such as

ambiguity (due to shared exponent of two or more SL grammatical or lexical items and

polisemy) and oligosemy, and where difficulty is cultural. In semantics, there are some

methods of analyzing the meaning of a word. Ogden and Richard propose the triangular

concept of meaning in which semantics is also related to semiotics, pragmatics, and

1
discourse. The point is, in understanding the meaning we also need to relate it with the

context (pragmatic).

Another method of analysis is by using componential analysis method.

Componential analysis, 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”. Componential

analysis is a method typical of structural semantics which analyzes the structure of a word's

meaning. Thus, it reveals the culturally important features by which speakers of the

language distinguish different words in the domain (Ottenheimer, 2006, p. 20). This is a

highly valuable approach to learning another language and understanding a specific

semantic domain of and Ethnography. For examples: man = [+ male], [+ mature], woman

= [– male], [+ mature], boy = [+ male], [– mature], girl [– male] [– mature], child [+/–

male] [– mature]. This approach is also very valuable in translation.

Another approach in meaning which is also very useful for translation study is a

theory proposed by Anna Wierzbicka known as Natural semantic metalanguage (NSM)

which employs simple culturally-shared meanings (semantic primes) as its vocabulary of

semantic and pragmatic description. The natural semantic metalanguage theory

(Wierzbicka 1996a; Goddard and Wierzbicka eds 1994, 2002; Goddard 1998; Goddard 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 exponents as words or word-like expressions

in all languages, and that they share a universal grammar of combination, valency, and

complementation. That is, in any natural language one can isolate a small vocabulary and

2
grammar which has precise equivalents in all other languages. The number of semantic

primes appears to be in the low-sixties. Examples include the primary meanings of the

English 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 says something like

this’, ‘if you do something like this, people will think something bad about you’, and so

on. The words and grammar of the natural semantic metalanguage jointly constitute a

surprisingly flexible and expressive “mini-language”. Thus, knowing this theory is very

beneficial in translation.

Another approach to translation is hermeneutics. According to Shi in the article

entitled Hermeneutics and Translation Theory, hermeneutics is relevant to translation

because there is no translation without understanding and interpreting texts, which is the

initial step in any kinds of translation including literary translation. Inappropriate

interpretation inevitably results in inadequate translations, if not absolutely wrong

translations. Essentially, hermeneutics involves cultivating the ability to understand things

from somebody else's point of view, and to appreciate the cultural and social forces that

may have influenced their outlook. Hermeneutics interprets or inquires into the meaning

and import of these phenomena, through understanding the point of view and 'inner life'

(Dilthey) of an insider, or the first-person perspective of an engaged participant in these

phenomena.

In addition, lexical semantics is also very necessary to be learned in translation

study. It deals with synonymy, antonym, polisemy and hyponymy. Lexical semantic

3
analyses necessarily involve more or less explicit considerations concerning the number of

interpretational variants of a word form, i.e. identifying the lexical items associated with a

lexeme (Solstad).

From the above explanation we can conclude that semantics plays a very important

role in translation study. It provides theories; approaches or methods to meaning that are

very useful in translation study.

4
References

Catford, John C. 1965. A Linguistic Theory of Translation: an Essay on Applied

Linguistics, London: Oxford University Press.
Goddard, Cliff. 1998. Semantic Analysis: A practical introduction. Oxford. Oxford
University Press.
Goddard, Cliff. 2002. The search for the shared semantic core of all languages. In Cliff
Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka (eds). Meaning and Universal Grammar -Theory
and Empirical Findings. Volume I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 5-40.
Shi, Aiwei. Hermeneutics and Translation Theory. Xinzhou Teachers University. Shanxi,
China
Solstad, Tolgrim. The variant problem in lexical semantics and translation. Institut für
Maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung, University of Stuttgart.
Wierzbicka, Anna.1987. English Speech Act Verbs: A semantic dictionary. Sydney:
Academic.
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1996. Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org