Denotative Meaning & Translation Issues

1. Denotative Meaning & Translation Issues Amal Al-Sayyar Amani Al-Kahtani

2. Meaning? • Translation is concerned with meaning. • “Meaning” is indeterminate and elastic when applied to a whole text.

3. Denotative Meaning: • ‘Cognitive’, ‘propositional’, or ‘literal’ meaning. • It is the dictionary meaning. • The denotative meaning is rigid, but once the words are put into a context, the denotative meaning becomes flexible, and here is the source of difficulty.

4. Denotative Meaning: • Denotative meaning? • We should specify a ‘range’ covered by a word to know what is included in that range and what is excluded.

5. The 3 Degrees of Semantic Equivalence • Synonymy, Hyperonymy, and Hyponymy • Generalization and Particularization • Partial Overlap

6. Synonymy: • Comparisons of denotative meanings can be made between words or expressions from two or more different languages. • Example! • ‘maternal uncle’ is ‘خال’ in Arabic.

7. Example of Full Synonymy:

8. Synonymy: • Unfortunately, Full synonymy is exceptional; both intralingually and interlingually. • Example! • ‘uncle’ in English can mean ‘عم’ or ‘خال’ in Arabic.

9. Hyperonymy- Hyponymy • ‘ Uncle’ in English lacks technical associations of ‘ paternal uncle’ and ‘maternal uncle’. • ‘uncle’ is hyperonym or superordinate. • ‘عم’ and ‘خال’ are hyponyms of ‘uncle’

10. Hyperonymy-hyponymy:

11. Particularizing Translation & Generalizing Translation: • Taking the previous example ‘Uncle’ • it can be particularized and translated into ‘عم’ or ‘خال’. • And ‘عم’ or ‘خال’ can be generalized and translated into ‘uncle’.

12. Particularizing Translation & Generalizing Translation: • SO: • Particularization is adding particulars not present in the SL. • Generalization is omitting particulars given by the SL. • These processes are acceptable when there is no suitable alternative in the TL.

13. Partial Overlap: • Example! Illustrating the concept: • ‘أستاذة’ is translated as ‘lecturer’, NOT ‘teacher’.

14. Partial Overlap: • The overlap in ‘lecturer’ • The target text (TT) keeps reference to someone who instructs. But it also particularizes, because it adds the specific detail that she works at a university not in a school; and at the same time it generalizes, because it omits the detail of her gender.