form and meaning

Form and Meaning

What is translation?

Dictionary definition of translation: changing from one state or form to another, to turn into one’s own or another’s language. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) Translation is basically a change of form.When we speak of the form of a language, we are referring to actual words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, etc which are spoken or written. These forms are referred to as the surface structure of a language. In translation, the form of the source language is replaced by the form of the receptor (target) language. . Translation consists of transferring the meaning of the source language into the receptor language. This is done by going from the form of the first language to the form of a second language by way of semantic structure. (deep structure) It is meaning which is being transferred and must be held constant. Only the form changes.

 Definition of translation by different authors

• Nida and Taber (1982:12) say that translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of a source language, firstly in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. Wills (1982:112) says that translation is a procedure which leads from a written source language text to an optimally equivalent target language text and requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic, and text pragmatic comprehension by the translator of the original text.
•  Larson (1984:3) says that translation consists of translating the meaning of the source language into the receptor language. This is done by going from the form of the first language to the form of a second language by way of semantic structure. It is meaning which is being transferred and must be held constant. Only the form changes.
• Malinowski (1965:11-2) quoted by Tou (1999:31) says that translation must always be the re-creation of the original into something profoundly different. On the other hand, it is never substitution of word for word but invariably the translation of whole contexts. Catford (1965:20) states that translation may be defined as follows: the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL).

The purpose of this text is to show that translation consist of transfering the meaning of the source language into the receptor language. This is done by going from the form of the first language to the form of a second language by way of semantic structure. It is meaning which is being transferredand must be held constant. Only the form changes. The form from which the translation is made will be called the SOURCE LANGUAGE and the form into which it is to be changed will be called the RECEPTOR LANGUAGE. Translation, then, consists of : 1. studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language text, 2. analyzing it in order to determine its meaning, 3. and then reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the RECEPTOR LANGUAGE and its cultural context.