EQUIVALENT AT WORD LEVEL

A.    The Word In Different Languages

1.      What is a word

            The smallest unit which we would expect to possess individual meaning is the word. Defined loosely, the word is ‘the smallest unit of language that can be used by itself’ (Bolinger and Sears, 1968 :43).’ On another hand, Most of us think of the word as the basic meaningful element in a language. This is not strictly accurate.So, This will be discussed in more detail in the following chapters.

2.       Is there a one-to-one relationship between word and meaning?

      If  you are consider a word such as rebuild, you will note that there are two distinct elements of meaning in it : re and build, i.e . ‘to build again ‘. Elements of meaning which are represented by one orthographic words in one language. For example, tennis player is written as one word in Turkish ; tenisci; if it is cheap as one word in Japanese : yasukattara ; but the verb type is rendered by three words in Spanish : pasar a maquina. This suggests that there is no one-to-one correspondence between orthographic words and elements of meaning within or cross languages.

3.      Introducing morphemes

      An important difference between morphemes and words is that a morpheme cannot contain more than one element of meaning and cannot be further analysed. To take an example from English, inconceivable is written as one word but consist of three morphemes : in, meaning ‘not’, conceive meaning ‘think of or imagine’, and able meaning’ able to be. Some morphemes have grammatical functions such as marking plurality ( funds ), gender  ( manageress ) and tense

 ( considered ).  Others change the class of the word, for instance from verb to adjective (like : likeable), or add a specific element of meaning such as negation to it ( unhappy )

B.     Lexical Meaning

The lexical meaning of a word or lexical unit my he thought of as the soecific value is has in a particular linguistic sistem and personality it acqueris through  usage within that system

1.      Propesitional vs expressive meaning

     The propesional meaning of a word or uttarance arises from the relation between  it and what it refersto or describes in a real or imaginary word. Expressive meaning cannot be judged as true or false.this is because expressive meaning relatesto the speakers feelings or attitude rather  than to what words  and uttarances refers to.

2.      Presupposed meaning

            Presupposed meaning arises from co-occurencerescrictions ,i,e rescrictions on what other words or expressionswe expect to see before or after a particular lexical unit.

            These restrictions are of  two types :

·         Selectionalrestrictions

           These are a function of the propositional meaning of a word.

·         collocotional restrictions

            These are semantically arbitrary restrictions whict do not follow logically from the propesional meaning of a word.

3.      Efoked meaning

      Evoked meaning arises from dialect and register variation .It may be classified on one of the following bases

·         Gographical (e.g a scottish dialect,or american as opposed to british english : of the difference between life an elevator)

·         Temporal (e.g word and structures used by members of different age groubwithin a comunity ,or words used at different periods in the history  of a language :of verily and really

·         Social (words and structures used by remembers of different socialclasses:of scent and ferfume,napkin and serviette

            Register is a variety of language that a language uservconsiders appropriate to a specific situation.register variation arises from variation in the following:

1.field of discourse:this is abstrac term for “what is going on”that is relevan to the speakers choice of linguistic items.

2.tenor of discourse :an abstrac term for relationships between the people talking part in the discourse

3. Mode of discourse :an abstrac term for the role that the language is playing (speech,essay,lecture,intructions) and for its medium of transmission   (spoken,written)

C. THE PROBLEM OF NON- EQUIVALENCE

            The choice of a suitable equivalent in a given context depends on wide variety of factors may be strictly linguistic. The choice ofa suitable equivalent will always depend not only on the linguistic system or systems being handled  by the translator, but also on the way both  the writer  of the source text and the producerof the target text.

a.       Semantic fields and lexical sets – the segmentation of experience

In linguistics , the divisions are called semantic fields. Fields are abstract concepts. An example of semantic field would be the field of  SPEECH, or PLANTS, or VEHICLES.  A large number  of semantic fields are common to all or most languages. Most, if not all, languages will have fields of DISTANCE, SIZE, SHAPE , TIME, EMOTION, BELIEFS , ACADEMIC SUBJECTS,and NATURAL PHENOMENA. The actual words and expressions under each field are sometimes called lexical sets.

            Limitations aside, there are two main areas in which an understanding of semantic fields and lexical sets can be useful to a translator :

a.       Appreciating the ‘value’ that a word has in a given system.

b.      Developing strategies for dealing with non – equivalence.

Non –equivalence at word level and some common strategies for dealing with it.

            The type and level of difficultyposed can very tremendously depending on the nature of non –equivalence.

Common problems of non- equivalence

a.       Culture spesific concepts

The concept in question may be abstract or concrete ; it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom , or even a type of food. Such concepts are often referred to as ‘ culture-specific’. An example of an abstract English concept which is notoriously difficult to translate into other languags is that expressed by the word privacy.

b.      The source –language concept is not lexicalized , that is not ‘ allocated ‘ a target – language word to express it. The adjective standart( meaning’ordinary, not extra ‘, as in standard range of products) also expresses a concept which is very accessible  and readily understood by most people.

c.       The source-language word is semantically complex.

The source-language word may be semantically complex. This is a fairly common problemin translation. Words do not have to be morphologically complex .

d.      The source and target language make different distinction in meaning

The target language may make  more or fewer distinction in meaning than the source language. What one language regards as an imprtant distinction in meaning another language may not perceive as revelant. For example, indonesian makes a distinction betwen going out in the rain with the knowledge that is raining( kehujanan) and going out in the rain with the knowledge that is raining( hujan-hujanan)

e.       The target language lacks a superordinate

It may have specific words ( hyponyms) but no general word (superordinate) to head the semantic field. Russian has no ready equivalent for facilities, meaning ‘any equipment , bulding ,services , etc. That are provided for a particular activity or purpose it does.

f.       The targer language lacks a specific term( hyponym)

More commonly, language tend to have general word( superordinate0 but lack specific ones( hyponyms), since each language makes only those distinctions in meaning which seem relevant to its particular environment. English has many hyponym under article for which it is difficult to find precise equivalent in other language. For example : feature , survey, report, critique, commentary, review and many more. 

g.      differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

physical perspective has to do with where things or people in relation to one another or to a place, as expressed in pairs of words  such as comelgo, take/bring, arrive/depart, and so on.

h.      Differences in expressive meaning

There may be a target-language word which has the same prepositional meaning as the source-language word, but it may have differentexpressive meaning.

i.        Differences in form

Certain suffixs and prefixes which convey propositional and other types of meaning in English often have no direct equivalent in other language. English has many couplets such as employer/employee, trainer/trainee, and payer/payee. It also makes frequent use of suffixes such as ish (boyish, hellish, greenish)

j.        Differences in frequency and purpose using specific forms

Even when a particular form does have a ready equivalent in the target language, there may be a difference in t

He frequncy with which  it is used or purpose for which it is used. English, for instance, uses the continious –ing form for binding clauses much more frequently than other languages which have equivalentfor it, for example German and Scandinavian language.

The use of loan words in the source text

 The use of loan words in the source text poses a special problem in translation. Quite apart from their perspective propositional meaning, loan word such as au fait, chic, and alfresco in english are often used for their prestige value, because they can be add and air shopistication to the text or its subject mater.  Loan words also pose another problem for  the unwary translator , namely the problem of false friends, or expression which have the same form in two  or more languages but convey different meaning.

   Conclusion

            Meaning can be carried by units smaller or more complex than  single words and by various linguistic and non-linguistic devices (tone, stress, facial expression). But, to start with, what is a word? One possible definition is : “the smallest unit of language that can be used by it self. Everything would be easier if there were a one-to-one relationship between words and meaning in the various languages.But it is not so. In order to isolate elements of meaning more efficiently, some linguistis indroduced the concept of morpheme as the smallest unit of a language that carries a semantic interperation. A morpheme cannot be futher analyzed as opposed to a lexeme (dictionary entry).