LESSON 10: UNIT 5 (cont.) THE ANALYSIS OF
MEANING (for homework, see last three slides)
-
denotation
componential analysis
connotation
collocation
The American Eugene Nida, who coordinated the translation of the
Bible from English into a variety of African and South American
indigenous languages, made a distinction between two types of
meaning: referential (or denotative) meaning and connotative
meaning (see HM 34-35)
Denotation and referential meaning:
Italian ‘sperare’ arguably covers a wider semantic field
than the English ‘hope’.
Speriamo che tutto vada bene.  Let’s hope everything
goes well. BUT:
Spero di rivederti presto.

Non speravo che saresti ritornato. 
Sperare in Dio 
Speriamo che tutto vada bene.  Let’s hope everything
goes well. BUT:
Spero di rivederti presto.  I’m looking forward to
seeing you soon.
Non speravo che saresti ritornato.  I wasn’t expecting
you to come back.
Sperare in Dio  To trust in God.
There can be pairs of words in a TL that differ from one
another by only a single (and therefore important)
component of meaning. The SL may have only one term
for both of these meanings. Or the writer/speaker of the
ST may have deliberately chosen a single term that
covers both meanings:
E.g., ST  Viveva ancora per quello che di lei si sentiva
vivere nell’anima e nella carne, …. TT  He still lived
for her, for what he felt still living in his soul and flesh
… (not ‘meat’ = human food ). See section on collocation
below.
Another example of a pair of words that differ from one
another only by a single component of meaning is:
see vs show (‘show’ has the additional meaning of
‘cause to see’)
Compare with Italian: see  vedere; show  fare
vedere. (The same verb is used but it is preceded by an
auxiliary verb)
U. Eco (2003: 32) gives the example of how the single
term ‘topo’ covers the same semantic space that is
covered by ‘mouse’ and ‘rat’ in English. ‘… in Italian,
even though the difference between a ‘topo’ and a ‘ratto’
is recorded in dictionaries, in everyday language one can
use ‘topo’ even for a big rat – perhaps stretching it to
‘topone’ or ‘topaccio’– but ‘ratto’ is used only in
technical texts.’
Over to you: translate: ‘How now! A rat?’ (Hamlet, Act
III, scene iv)
For Eco (2003: 32) it is correct to translate this as ‘Cosa
c’è, un topo?’ or ‘Come? Un topo’. ‘Topo’ (rather than
‘ratto’) is sufficient for communicating the intended
meanings of ‘surprise, instinctive alarm and an impulse
to kill’.
In contrast, the Italian translation of the rodent mentioned
in A. Camus’ La peste will require, ‘if not a ratto, at least
a grosso topo or a topo di chiavica’. A plague (‘una
pesta’) is not usually carried by mice but by rats. (The
French word that is used by Camus is ‘un rat’.)
Translate the contemporary idiom: ‘Mmm, I smell a rat’
C’è qualcosa che non va!
Another reason for incorrect translation of a term is
under-translation (Dodds 198).
E.g., the translation of ‘poltrona’ as generic ‘chair’ (rather
than the more specific ‘armchair’) would be a case of
under-translation in that the translator only renders the
common components and misses altogether the
distinctive components of the source language word. Part
of the meaning would be ‘lost’.
Yet another reason for incorrect translation can be the
failure to distinguish between homonyms (i.e., two or
more words that have the same sound and spelling (i.e.,
the same form) but different semantic meanings.
The destruction of the Monte Cassino monastery during
WW2 was due to a translator confusing the German word
‘Abt’ (= Abbot) with an abbreviation of ‘Abteilung
(battalion).
(see HM: 36-7)
HOMEWORK (lesson 9) : Finally, when the SL has
words that are closely related in terms of meaning, it is
important for the translator to be aware of the
components of denotive meaning which distinguish them.
Can you translate the different (but partly overlapping)
denotative meanings of these pairs:
congress / conference || aggravate /irritate || libel
/slander || lend /borrrow || gabbled / garbled || classic /
classical || effect (noun and verb) / affect (noun and
verb). E.g., ‘It is claimed that global warming has
affected our weather patterns and that we shall suffer the
effects for many years’
congress = a big meeting of a political group
conference = a meeting of people who are interested in the same
subject
aggravate = to make worse
irritate = to make someone feel annoyed or impatient (medical: to
make a part of the body red, swollen or painful)
libel = writing or printing of anything that will discredit someone
slander = the saying of anything that will discredit someone
lend /borrrow (you know it already)
gabbled = the sound of a lot of people talking quickly and
simultaneously
garbled = to communicate something in speech or writing that is
not clear (e.g., a garbled speech/lesson)
classic = art, music and literature of the first rank.
classical = Greek and Roman culture and languages
effect (noun and verb) = consequence
affect (noun and verb) = influence.
E.g., ‘It is claimed that global warming has affected
(influenced) our weather patterns and that we shall suffer
the effects (consequences) for many years’
COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
In order to deal with the above problems componential
analysis has been used in translation theory (see Larson,
HM 154). Lexical items that are related in terms of
meaning are broken down into their basic meaning
components. It can then be seen which of these
components have contrasting meanings:
E.g., girl = human, young, female
boy = human, young, male.
‘Human’ and ‘young’ are the generic, shared components;
‘female’ and ‘male’ are the contrastive components . Can
you distinguish between the generic and the contrastive
components of table, chair, wardrobe and cupboard?
The types of meaning mentioned so far are referential
(otherwise known as denotative). But connotative and
collocative meanings also have to be translated .
Connotative meanings: = additional meanings which a
lexical item acquires beyond its primary, referential
meaning, e.g., notorious means not just famous but
famous for something bad. E.g., translate: ‘This city is
notorious for its traffic jams’. (HM 336)
Ideas or higher qualities associated with a word or
expression in addition to its literal sense. For example,
the word peasant has negative connotations that the
word farmer does not have (Taylor 318). E.g., translate:
‘Farmers enjoy privileges that peasants don’t have’.
Consider the closely related pair lady and woman.
Lady can have a denotative rather than a connotative
meaning. It can be the formal equivalent of gentleman. ‘This
lady has lost her passport’. (‘This woman has lost her
passport’ could sound abrupt and somewhat rude to older
people.) Lady can also function as a formal title that is the
equivalent of Lord (e.g., Lady Chatterley’s Lover). This too is
a denotative meaning.
But in other contexts lady can have negative connotations and
can be condescending. E.g., In a supermarket at the cash till:
‘Come on lady! Hurry up! Translate this.
Lady can also have negative connotations when it is used as a
marked term. E.g., A lady driver. A lady doctor. This is
sometimes called semantic derogation. There is no male
equivalent: we don’t say ‘a man driver’ or a ‘man doctor’.
Concerning connotation, Crystal (2003: 170) writes:
‘A group of synonyms cannot by definition be
distinguished in terms of their denotation, but they
usually display noticeable differences of connotation, as
in the case of car, automobile, runabout, banger, old
crock.’
Translate these.
HOMEWORK: How would you translate the
following sentences which have connotative terms?
•Some male teenagers are youngsters and some are louts
or yobbos (= ‘boy’ spelt backwards)
•(From two estate-agent advertisements): A residence
with immaculate views. ||| A dwelling that is near the
shops.
•I am firm, you are obstinate and he is pig-headed.
•A is slender, B is thin and C is skinny. (Reversal:
‘skinny jeans’  anorexic)
•(From a newspaper): Francis: the Pope of the masses?
•I am a creative writer, she has journalistic flair and he
is a prosperous hack.
HOMEWORK Compare the Italian and English
translation of a German advertisement for a shoe
company. Is there any connotation in the Italian
translation? If so, is it appropriate for the text type?
•Das FinnComfort-Konzept: die Natur als Lehrmeisterin.
Paßform, Fußbetten und Sohle sind streng nach
anatomisch-orthopädischen Gesichtspunkten entwickelt.
•The FinnComfort concept: Learning from nature. Nature
is our teacher. Fit, footbeds and soles are developed
strictly in accordance with anatomical and orthopaedic
principals.
•La filosofia FinnComfort: obbedire alla natura. Forma,
plantari e suola sono ideati e realizzati nel pieno rispetto
di tutti i criteri anatomici ed ortopedici.
Homework:
Read the following pages in HM (if you haven’t done it
already) :
Section A, unit 5, pp. 34-39
Section B, unit 5, pp. 152-159