Translation of Implicit Meaning 1
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Translation is an essential tool for communication between people of different
cultures. As pointed out by Gerding-Salas (2000), “The main aim of translation is to serve as
a cross-cultural bilingual communication vehicle among peoples” (p. 1). Translation plays an
important role in conveying ideas, thoughts, and messages from the source language into the
target language, especially given the non-stop evolution of knowledge and technology. A
good translation renders all the ideas, thoughts, and messages to the target language in a
reasonably and natural way.
Crystal (1992) defined translation as the process or result of changing the expressions
of one language, which is called the source language, into the expressions of another, which
is called the target language, so the meanings correspond. According to Larson (1984),
effective translation transfers the meaning (semantics) of the source language into the target
language and can be achieved by changing the form (lexicon and grammar) of the first
language into the form of a second language. The original meaning must stay constant.
A good translator must bear in mind that one form is used to represent several
alternative meanings. For example, the English word run has different meanings. It has a
lexical meaning when it is said in isolation and denotative meanings, which a word has in
context with other words.
-
The boy runs.
‫ﯾﺮﻛﺾ اﻟﺼﺒﻲ‬
-
The motor runs.
‫ﯾﻌﻤﻞ اﻟﻤﺤﺮك‬
-
His nose runs.
‫ﯾﺴﯿﻞ أﻧﻔﮫ‬
Translation of Implicit Meaning 2
In order to convey meaning adequately, a translator must be aware of the fact that there are
many kinds of meaning. One area of concern in conveying accurate meaning in the natural
form of the target language includes consideration of both explicit and implicit information.
Implicit information refers to shared information that is part of the total information
assumed by the writer. Explicit information refers to information that is overtly stated by
lexical items and grammatical forms. For example, the sentence “Peter made the Queen's
list.” contains implicit meaning in Queen's list. If the audience does not recognize the
meaning of Queen's list, then the translator needs to provide explicit information: “Peter
made the Queen of England's yearly honors list.”
Significance of the Study
One of the aims of translation is to communicate the approximate meaning in a
second language as was communicated in the first. The study focuses on the principle of
meaning-based translation rather than form-based translation.
Implicit texts have meanings that are not overt. Understanding and taking into account
the various types of meaning—such as referential meaning, organizational meaning, and
situational meaning—in translation help in reproducing an ideal translation that is accurate,
natural, and equivalent to the source text in terms of meaning and style. This must be
accomplished without causing ambiguity or sacrificing the unity of meaning.
The objective of this research is to provide understanding about different kinds of
meaning; implicit referential meaning, implicit organizational meaning, and implicit
situational meaning, and to find out how, by paying attention to the perspective of semantic,
pragmatic, and discourse analysis, these meanings are translated into Arabic.
Translation of Implicit Meaning 3
Statement of the Problem
This research needs to be conducted to show that implicit meanings can lead to
misunderstanding and misrepresentation in comprehending texts in the target language. The
explication of implicit information changes the meaning of the translated text. In this paper,
the writer shows that recent insights from communication theory can help the literary
translator to better cope with the problem of implicit information.
Research Questions
The current research attempts to answer the following questions that deal with
accuracy, clarity, and naturalness:
1. How does the translation communicate the same meaning as the source language?
2. To what extent does the audience for whom the translation is intended understand it
clearly?
3. Is the form of the translation easy to read and does it use natural receptor language,
grammar, and style?
Limitations of the Study
As with any study, this present one has limitations. The study focuses on and analyzes
three kinds of implicit meaning: implicit referential meaning, implicit organizational
meaning, and implicit situational meaning, which are found in the novel One, Two, Buckle
My Shoe by Agatha Christie, including the Arabic translation ‫إﺑﺰﯾﻢ اﻟﺤﺬاء‬. Due to time
limitations, the researcher did not cover and analyze all of the implicit information in the
Arabic translation of the novel. Data is collected randomly in relation to the three different
kinds of implicit meaning; implicit referential meaning, implicit organizational meaning and
implicit situational meaning, so the results are based on the chosen data.