The analysis of

meaning

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 Semantics

• The Study of meaning(Leech)

• Science of meaning (Nida & Taber)

• Its goal ‘a systematic account of the

nature of meaning’ (Leech)

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 Translation problems relating
to meanings

• Lack of one-to-one matching across

languages
• The change of semantic field of individual

signs with the change of the signifier

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 Nida’s translation model:
analysis – transfer – restructuring

• Analysis phase : the examination of

sentence structure and of two kinds of
linguistic meaning, referential and
connotative.

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 Referential vs Connotative

• Referential meaning (denotation): deals

with the words as signs or symbols
• Connotative meaning (connotation): the
emotional reaction engendered in the
reader by a word

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Referential meaning (denotation)
•It is generally thought as dictionary meaning
•The meaning of the words as signs or symbols which refers to
objects, events, abstracts and relations.
Objects words are the words indicating objective entities (noun
often function as object words) man, dog, machine etc
Event words are words of action such as run, study, and work
(verb often function as event words)
Abstract words are words implying abstract concept like tall,
quite and beautiful ( adjective and adverb often function as an
abstract word)
Relation words are the words used to link the phrases or
sentences; in, if and although (preposition and conjunction often
function as relation words
 Linguistic problems relating to
referential meaning

1. Polysemous
spirit –liquor, determination, ghost, holy spirit
chair – (noun) an item of furniture, a university
position as professor, chairperson at a
meeting
(verb) to preside over a meeting
correct sense for the translator is determined
by the semotactic environment or co-text

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Polysemous ( has several meaning)

I II
She has a beautiful face He will face the audience
He fell in the water. Please, water the garden.
He saw a cloud The quarrel will cloud the issue.
meaning

I II
Dia memiliki wajah yang cantik Dia akan menghadapi penonton
Dia jatuh ke air Tolong, sirami kebun itu
Dia melihat awan Pertengkaran akan memperkeruh
permasalahan

From the examples above, it can be seen that in column I the words
‘cloud’, ‘face’, and ‘water’ are nouns . While in column II, the
underlined words are not nouns, but verbs. In this case, grammatical
structure of each word refers to the intended meaning explicitly. It
remarks that one word also can defined by the word class.
Semotactic environment

Meaning of a word is also determined by

its relationship with other words in a
certain context.
I II
The horse runs fast. The water runs through the
path.
The lights in this room are very Laura was a very bright
bright students

I II
Kuda berlari dengan kencang Airnya mengalir melalui aliran
Lampu diruangan ini sangat Laura adalah anak yang cerdas
terang
2. figurative
e.g. children of wrath
- ‘people who will experience God’s
wrath’, not ‘angry children’
3. near-synonyms : grace, favour, kindness,
mercy

the translator first needs to disambiguate

the various possible senses of the ST term as
a step towards identifying the appropriate TL
equivalent = contrastive semantic structure
analysis 8
 Disambiguation – semantic structure
analysis

“We are writing to invite you to a conference.

We expect you will attend.”

Esperar

To wish but not To wish To wish or require to wait

necessarily = to want with strong eagerly
with expectation expectation = to look
= to hope = to expect forward to

A wider semantic field than the English

Clue: Co-text and context (the
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situation)
Translator’s problems with homonyms
(the same form but different senses)
Misinterpretation of an intercepted German radio
exchange (The Monte Cassino Monastery in Italy)

Der Abt ist im Kloster. ≠ The battalion is in

the monastery.
Abt

Referent abbreviation of
=leader of a monastery Abteilung

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abbot battalion
example

He moored the boat at the bank.

What does the sentence mean?

•Dia menambatkan kapalnya di tepi

sungai
Riverside/ tepi sungai
•Bank

Financial institution/ bank

 Hierarchical structuring of meaning

• where one language has a wider range of

specific terms for a given semantic field
operating at various levels

Generic term move

(superordinate)
hyponym walk, run, skip, hop, crawl

march stroll
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this kind of analysis can help a translator
to judge whether the TL words and the SL
words are semantically equivalent or not,
whether they belong to the corresponding
ranks or not.
 How to locate equivalents
on the same level in the TL?

• Componential analysis
: a technique of semantic analysis that
examines the basic meaning components
of a word
: allows contrast with other terms in the
same semantic field
: based on the notion of binary opposites
e.g. bachelor (+human, + male, -
married)
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 Linguistic problems relating to
connotative meaning

Connotative meaning refers to a meaning that is

implied by a word apart from the thing which it
describe explicity

In understanding meaning of a word, it is not only

based on the referred object of the word but also
an emotional reaction of the word

a meaning also involves the sender’s emotional

condition not only from its concrete or abstrat
dimension 18
 For shareholders or financial institution, wall street is center of stock
The relationship between the word and
market.

the speaker

For people in Manhattan, wall street is a name

of street in Manhatan.

wall street

For shareholders or financial institution, wall

street is center of stock market.

social class, level of education and religion

Condition of the speaker

The same word expressed by the same

speaker but in different condition may
rise different meaning

For example, when I tell my friend that

there is a robbery at my neighbor’s
house, it will just become an information
to my friend. But if I tell the story in a
police officer, it will have different
response. The story will become a report
that need to be handled.
Linguistics factor
Parallel words which are always in pairs with
other ords give different various connotation.

For example, the word “white” will have

different meaning when it pairs with other
following words

White house -> a building for a president to

live
A white shoes -> a shoes that is white
collocation
Pretty
Good looking
Handsome

When it co-occur with other word such

woman, the meaning can be different

A pretty woman  a beautiful woman

A handsome woman  respectable woman
Greek word gunai (St John’s gospel)
- woman (King James Version)

- mother (New English Bible)

justification of the changes: positive

connotation of the Greek
 Scales of connotative meaning
(Nida & Taber)

5 4 3 2 1
Good bad
Strong weak
Active passive
Technical informal

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BYE BYE

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