Word meaning and equivalence

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Word meaning and equivalence

• M.A. Literary Translation- Lesson 1
• prof. Hugo Bowles
• January 31 2007

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Lesson 1 - part 1

• Analysing word meaning

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PARADIGMATIC SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS

• Horizontal relationships are syntagmatic
• Vertical relationships are paradigmatic
• So semantic relationships are paradigmatic

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Lexical relations - Hyponymy

• Flower
• daffodil tulip pansy rose
• Sheep
• ram ewe lamb
• In this model one lexeme can substitute another
  X is a kind of Y.
• This relation is called HYPONYMY

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Do these pairs mean the same thing?
enough sufficient insane mad rancid rotten autumn fall
die kick the bucket deep profound fraternal brotherly sodium chloride
freedom liberty endless everlasting purchase buy regal kingly
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Lexical relations - SYNONYMY

• Synonyms are lexemes which have the same meaning
• English has a lot of synonyms because its
  vocabulary comes from different sources
  (Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, French)
• But is it possible to have true synonyms, i.e.
  words with exactly the same meaning?

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Distinguishing meanings

• Some words only occur in particular contexts
  (e.g. dialect words, autumn-fall)
• Some words only occur in certain styles (die and
  kick the bucket)
• Some words only occur in certain collocations
  (deep water but not profound water)
• Some words are emotionally stronger (e.g.
  freedom, not liberty)
• Some words overlap in meaning but are not
  identical (e.g. govern and direct)

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Why is synonymy important for translators?

• Because absolute synonyms do not exist for the
  translator!
• You need to be able to distinguish between the
  shades of meaning of words in the source language
  which appear to be synonyms. Making these
  distinctions and matching them to similar
  distinctions in your own language is one of the
  biggest problems for the translator

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Lexical relations - polysemy

• Eye
• Eye is classified as one word
• with two different meanings.
• This happens when the
• difference in meaning is
• predictable or regular.
• There is a core meaning
• from which the other meanings
• (eye of a needle, eye of a
• tornado) can be predicted.
• Metaphors are often ploysemous

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Lexical relations -homonymy

• Bank
• The word bank in river bank and Lloyds
  bank are classified as two different words with
  separate meanings even though they have the same
  form.
• This is because the meaning of one form is not
  predictable from the meaning of another.