DENOTATION AND

CONNOTATION IN

TRANSLATION

DENOTATIONDENOTATION – the primary meaning of a lexical item, involving its relationship to the non-linguistic entities which it represents.

-Denotation represents for most linguists the cognitive or communicative aspect of meaning.

-Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the “dictionary definition”.

According to Zdrenghea (1977: 22) denotative meaning, being to a certain extent equivalent to extensional meaning, accounts for the relationship between the linguistic sign and its object. Nevertheless, it is not possible to equate denotation with the object for the same reasons that make it impossible for the referential meaning to cover all its aspects.

In order to establish the denotation, respectively of meanings of words, the use of the dictionary, more exactly of a great number of dictionaries, is compulsory – Levitchi (1975: 19).

In Venuti`s opinion (2000: 21) words have emotional connotations.

According to Chitoran (1973: 35) connotation stands for the emotional overtones a speaker usually associates with each individual use of a word. The connotative aspects of meaning are highly subjective springing from the personal experiences which each speaker has had of a given word as well as from the attitude he would like to emphasize either towards what he wants to express or towards the person he is speaking to.

In Levitchi`s opinion (1994: 113) referring to the classification of connotations these are of two types : objectives and subjectives.

A noun like roserose from English or his Romanian equivalent trandafirtrandafir has “positive” connotations: beauty, perfume, youth, freshness; and the word “hyena” – hiena has “negative” connotations: ugliness, rapacity, danger for people.

These are connotations accepted by a very large social group, that allow us to call them (conventionally) – objectives.

Less interesting, however not to be neglected by the translator, are the subjective connotations, revived by personal experiences and being often opposed and contrasted to the objective connotations. At a social level, rose “trandafir” has positive connotations. But what happens when somebody has suffered from the allergy called rose-fever /-cold, a kind of “rinita alergica” caused by the pollen not always “benign” of the flower? This kind of connotation is a subjective one. The emotion caused by the view or the simple mention of the rose isn't anymore of aesthetic order.

Levitchi (1994: 115) classifies the connotations according to their nature, as following: 1. a word that evokes the referent; 2. a word that evokes one or more attributes of the referent; 3. a word that evokes another word; 4. a word that evokes itself.

1. A word that evokes the referent. This connotation is onomatopoeic; the sounds or a part of the sounds that form the word imitate the sounds characteristics to the referent:

cock-a-doodle-do “cucurigu”; bow-wow “ham-ham”; cuckoo “cuc”; “cucu”; to hiss “a sasai”; to gobble (despre curcani) “a bolborosi”; to flutter “a falfai”; plump “baldabac”; “pleosc”; murmur “murmur”, “susur”.

Sometimes, the onomatopoeic connotation doesn`t have correspondent in the target language: to halloo “a striga”; lullaby “cantec de leagan”; to crack “a (se) sparge” (dar: “a crapa”).

2. A word that evokes one or more attributes of the referent. Simple word (rose), compound word, metaphor, simile, metonymy, synecdoche

and some other figures of speech evoke one or more attributes of the referent. Nose with its metaphorized and attested sense of “prora”, “bot (de corabie)” evokes the prominence, the front placement and the sharpness of the nose.

3. A word that evokes another word. There are three important aspects of the association : A. by analogy; B. by contiguity; C. by contrast. A. Association by analogy: consonantal group; rhyme; derivatives; similar words

without motivation; evocation by similar contents.

B. Association by contiguity: ellipsis, stylistic derivation, anacoluthon.

C. Association by contrast: explicit monovalent antonyms, explicit polyvalent antonyms, implicit antonyms.

4. A word that evokes itself . A word can evoke itself diachronic and synchronic.

A. Diachronic evocation: archaisms, etymology. Archaisms: “yon” (adj., pron.) “acel(a)”, “ace(e)a”, “acei(a)” sau acele(a)” expresses

a greater distance than “that” and “those”, was used more rarely even when it hasn't been an archaism yet, today it is a poetism too.

Etymology: pen “toc” or “stilou”, still remembers us in a way about the old sense of “pana”, “condei” from which they derived (the Romanian “toc” or “stilou” don't have such etymological connotations).

B Synchronic evocation: 1. Semantic dominant2. Metasense3. The Dominant of the grammatical sense4. Echo-Words

EXAMPLES

MENDING WALL, Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbours know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbours'. Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: 'Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it Where there are cows?

But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me~ Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

In Robert Frost’s poem, “Mending Wall,” two neighbours walk along a wall of loose stones that separates their properties.

As they walk they pick up and replace stones that have fallen out of the wall but Frost thinks it’s unnecessary to repair the wall since they have no animals that could harm one another's properties.

His neighbours respond in the last line of the poem saying “Good fences make good neighbours.”

The wall in this poem has both a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning.

The wall is both a boundary (denotation) as well as a barrier that prevents Frost from getting to know his neighbours and prevents any communication or involvement with one another (connotation).

AUTUMN by Christopher Brennan

Autumn: the year breathes dully towards its death,beside its dying sacrificial fire;the dim world's middle-age of vain desireis strangely troubled, waiting for the breaththat speaks the winter's welcome malisonto fix it in the unremembering sleep:the silent woods brood o'er an anxious deep,and in the faded sorrow of the sun,I see my dreams' dead colours, one by one,forth-conjur'd from their smouldering palaces,fade slowly with the sigh of the passing year.They wander not nor wring their hands nor weep,discrown'd belated dreams! but in the drearand lingering world we sit among the treesand bow our heads as they, with frozen mouth,looking, in ashen reverie, towards the clearsad splendour of the winter of the far south.

In the poem, “Autumn,” by Christopher Brennan, the poet describes many aspects of the autumn season using denotation and connotation.

One line in the poem, “the silent woods brood over an anxious deep, and in the faded sorrow of the sun.” The word silent is used here to describe the woods both literally as “making no sound or noise” as well as emotionally since the word silent helps us visualize the woods as “dull, peaceful, and tranquil.”

"Once upon a time, on an inhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. And the Parsee lived by the Red Sea with nothing but his hat and his knife and a cooking-stove of the kind that you must particularly never touch. And one day he took flour and water and currants and plums and sugar and things, and made himself one cake which was two feet across and three feet thick. It was indeed a Superior Comestible (that’s Magic), and he put it on the stove because be baked it till it was done brown and smelt most sentimental. But just as he was going to eat it there came down to the beach from the Altogether Uninhabitable Interior one Rhinoceros with a horn on his nose, two piggy eyes, and few manners. In those days, the Rhinoceros's skin fitted him quite tight. There were no wrinkles in it anywhere. He looked exactly like a Noah's Ark Rhinoceros, but of course much bigger.''

("How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin", Rudyard Kipling)

Comments: Some words and phrases are difficult concerning denotations and translation. Parsee "pars"(neatestat de DLRM, DLRC etc,, dar prezent in Dictionarul german-roman

publ. de Ed. Academiei RSR, 1966); la origine, persan inchinator la lui Zoroastru si al focului, refugiat in India dupa 766 e.n. pentru a scapa de perecutia mahomedanilor.

from whose hat etc. - parsii purtau (atat in casa cat si afara) palarii conice dintr-un material lucios

of the kind... never touch "din cele pe care, cu nici un chip, nu trebuie sa le atingi".

currants (aici) "stafide negre" plums (aici) "stafide obisnuite" and things "si multe altele", "si cate si mai cate" one cake "o prajitura", "o turta"; one nu are valoarea accentuala a numeralului -

este doar un inlocuitor al articolului a(n) in limbajul copiilor. ...across and... thick... (in) lungime si... (in) latime Superior Comestible "Aliment Superior" (Kipling imita ironic reclamele

comerciale, dupa cum reiese si din paranteza that's Magic "ce magie a cuvintelor"!). till it was all done brown "pana cand s-a innegrit de prajita ce era". and smelt most sentimental "si mirosea grozav de imbietor", "si mirosul te

innebunea, nu alta" (sentimental, ca atatea alte cuvinte, e dinanins folosit impropriu). the Altogether Uninhabited Interior "Tinutul cu totul si cu totul de nelocuit";

Kipling parodiaza stilul povestilor cu uriasi pe care le-a citit in copilarie (caracteristicile sunt si initialele majuscule)

a Noah's Ark Rhinoceros "un rinocer din corabia/arca lui Noe"; referirea e la o jucarie pentru copii imitand arca lui Noe.

(Leviţchi, 1993: 30)

In order to illustrate the possibility of expressing all the denotations from an English text in a translation without doing any harm to the Romanian language, we chose a paragraph from Nostromo (part II, chapter 1) by Joseph Conrad. The translation was done by Andrei Ion Deleanu and was published by EPLU, Bucharest, 1969. (Leviţchi, 1993: 32)

Through good and evil report in the varying fortune of that struggle which Don José had characterized in the phrase, "the fate of national honesty trembles in the balance", the Gould Concession, "Imperium in Imperio", had gone on working; the square mountain had gone on pouring its treasure down the wooden shoots to the unresting batteries of stamps; the lights of San Tomé had twinkled night after night upon the great, limitless shadow of the Campo; every three months the silver escort had gone down to the sea as if neither the war nor its consequences could ever effect the ancient Occidental State secluded beyond its high barrier of the Cordillera. All the fighting took place on the other side of that mighty wall of serrated peaks lorded over by the white dome of Higuerota and as yet unbreached by the railway, of which only the first part, the easy Campo part from Sulaco to the Ivie Valley at the foot of the pass, had been laid. Neither did the telegraph line cross the mountains yet; its poles, like slender beacons on the plain, penetrated into the forest fringe of the foothills cut by the deep avenue of the track; and its wire ended abruptly in the construction camp at a white deal table supporting a Morse apparatus, in a long hut of planks with a corrugated iron roof overshadowed by gigantic cedar trees - the quarters of the engineers in charge of the advance section.

Cu zile mai bune sau mai rele in soarta variabila a luptei pe care Don José o caracterizase prin fraza "soarta probitatii nationale oscileaza in balanta", concesiunea Gould, acest "Imperium in imperio", isi continuase opera: din muntele patrat continuasera sa curga comori in scocurile de lemn spre neobositele baterii de maiuri; luminile de la San Tomé licarisera noapte de noapte peste vastul, netarmuritul intuneric de pe Campo; la fiecare trei luni escorta argintului coborase la mare, ca si cum nici razboiul nici consecintele lui n-ar fi putut vreodata sa atinga fostul Stat Occidental izolat dupa inalta bariera a Cordilierei. Toate luptele au avut loc dincolo de maiestusoul zid dantelat de culmi peste care domnea cupola imaculata a Higuerotei, inca nestrapuns de calea ferata, pentru ca nu fusese asezata decat prima parte, partea mai usoara, de pe Campo, de la Sulaco pana la Valea Ivie, la poalele trecatorii. Nici linia de telegraf nu strabatuse inca muntii; stalpii ei, ca niste faruri zvelte pe intinsul campiei, patrundeau pana la liziera padurii de la poalele muntilor, in care se taiase o fasie larga pentru linia ferata, si firul se oprea brusc la cantonamentul santierului, la o masa mica de lemn nevopsit pe care era un aparat Morse, intr-o lunga baraca de scanduri cu acoperis de tabla ondulata dominata de niste cedri uriasi - cartierul general al inginerului care conducea primul tronson.

RED – a primary colour, or any of a spread of colours at the lower end of the visible spectrum varying in hue from that of blood to pale rose or pink.

That red car over there is mine. A red letter day (or scarlet day in academia) is any day of special significance;

holidays (days printed in red on calendars: Sundays, Christmas Day, Easter) etc. The day she graduated from university was a red-letter day for her whole family.

She was the first person in the family’s history to get a university degree. Today is a fantastic day for us – a real red-letter day! We’ve just been blessed with

our first child – a beautiful boy! To paint the town red means to celebrate flamboyantly and publicly, especially to go

on a wild spree, usually involving multiple bars, restaurants and clubs plus copious quantities of alcohol. Painting the town red is, by definition, a group activity, requiring at least two people.

Mary and her friend painted the town red for a few hours. Roll out the red carpet (for) – to welcome and entertain in a grand and impressive

style. The mayor of the little town rolled out the red carpet for new business by calling on

them personally. Red carpet – a carpet laid down for important visitors We’ll have to get out the red carpet for the President’s visit. Red carpet – deferential treatment accorded to a person of importance. The returning hero had a red-carpet reception.

Red-faced – embarrassed Red-handed – in the act of committing a crime or doing something wrong or shameful. They were caught red-handed, and now they are red-faced. (Margaret Thatcher) To see red – to be extremely angry People who don’t finish a job really make me see red.

Red flag – a warning signal; something that demands attention or provokes an irritated reaction; red flag as a warning of danger or a problem:

They had overlooked the red flags that should have alerted them to the county’s disastrous investment strategy.

Red tape – excessive formality and routine required before official action can be taken; bureaucratic procedures that delay progress:

Paula had hoped to settle the inheritance quickly but got caught up in a lot of red tape. Red – a communist or socialist Better dead than Red or better Red than dead. (a cold-war slogan claiming that the prospect of

nuclear war is preferable to that of a communist society; or vice versa). Red Cross – an international organization that cares for the wounded, sick, and homeless in

wartime, according to the terms of the Geneva Convention of 1864, and now also during and following natural disasters.

He joined the Red Cross following a 21-year career in the United States Army where he worked within the Army’s healthcare system.

2. YELLOW – the primary colour between green and orange in the visible spectrum.

Give me that yellow book, please ! Yellow journalism – Journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news

to create sensations and attract readers. When it comes to yellow journalism, The Mirror, Sunday Mirror and the People

– newspapers make the Daily Mail seem like a church gazette. Yellow Pages – A volume or section of a telephone directory that lists business,

services, or products alphabetically according to field. The Romanian Yellow Pages does not verify advertising claims or content, and

does not assume any responsibility regarding ads. Yellow dog – an offensive term meaning so cowardly and mean as to be

beneath contempt (informal insult). The man says you’re a yellow dog. Wanna make something of it? Yellow-dog contract – an employer-employee contract, now illegal, by which

an applicant for a job agrees not to be a labour-union member while employed. Yellow dog contracts were common in many industries until the 1930s, when

they were made illegal. Yellow people are a vast Asiatic nation, settled in China, Japan, Korea,

Thailand and other countries. (of the colour yellow; having a yellow-brown skin colour; - offensive being a person of Asian origin)

BLUE blue film – a film that shows a lot of sexual activity. Children cannot watch blue films. Blue joke – (Indecent) vulgar I do not tolerate blue jokes in my house! blues - A dress blue uniform, especially that of the U.S. Army. Good blue True blue – someone loyal and faithful Out of the blue – unexpected (could be positive or negative) Blue ribbon – first rate, top prize Blueblood – person of noble birth, royalty Bluestocking – well-read or scholarly woman Bluebook – register of socially prominent people The Blues (capitalized) – popular style of music sometimes characterized by melancholy melodies and

words Baby blues – Blue eyes (also see Bad blue words) Bad blue Feeling blue – feeling sad or depressed Blue devils – feelings of depression the blues (not capitalized) – depression, state of sadness Blue Monday – feeling sad Baby blues – post-partum depression Singing the blues – bemoaning one’s circumstances Blue laws – laws originally intended to enforce certain moral standards Blue language – profanity Bluenose – puritanical individual Into the blue – entering the unknown or escape to parts unknown Out of the blue – unexpected (could be positive or negative)

green-eyed monster – jealousy The phrase was used by, and possibly coined by, Shakespeare to denote

jealousy, in The Merchant of Venice, 1600 : Portia : How all the other passions fleet to air, As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy! O love, Be moderate; allay thy ecstasy, In measure rain thy joy; scant this excess. I feel too much thy blessing: make it less, For fear I surfeit. In Othello, Shakespeare also alludes to cats as green-eyed monsters in the way

that they play with mice before killing them. Iago : O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger; But, O, what damned minutes tells he o`er Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves! Green hand - a novice He is a green hand in the field.

black market – a place or system for selling goods illegally, as in violation of rationing.

Black market labour is a fundamental problem in Romania and is mainly encouraged by public system corruption and lack of legislation.

black sheep – a member of a family or group regarded as not so respectable or successful as the rest.

He is the black sheep of the family. In the black – running a business profitably Since he became manager, the company has been running in

the black. Black day – a day when something sad or disastrous happens. She always remembers that black day when her cat died.

A white lie – An often trivial, diplomatic or well-intentioned untruth

Everyone tells a white lie on occasion, it’s just a question of why?

A white hope – any person who is expected to bring honour, glory, etc. to some group, place, etc.

The great white hope is a singer from Ireland. White meat – any light-coloured meat, as pork, chicken, beef She regularly eats white meat. white elephant – something from which little profit or use is

derived; A white elephant gift exchange is a popular holiday party game

in the North America. White night – sleepless night She had 3 white nights last week because of her baby.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chitoran, D., (1973) Elements of English Structural Semantics, Bucuresti, Editura Didactica si Pedagogica.

Dima, G., Outlines of English Semantics, Galati, Universitatea “Dunarea de Jos”.

Levitchi, L., (1975) Indrumar pentru traducatorii din limba engleza in limba romana, Bucuresti, Editura Stiintifica si Enciclopedica.

Levitchi, L., (1994) Manualul Traducatorului, Bucuresti, Editura Teora.

Neagu, M., (2007) Lexicologie si semantica, Galati, Universitatea “Dunarea de Jos”.

Venuti, L., (2000) The Translation Studies Reader, London, Routledge Publishing House.

Zdrenghea, M., (1977) Introduction to Semantics, Cluj Napoca, Universitatea “Babes - Bolyai”.