Module 07-08

Problems in Translating

What’s Inside

• Category of Respect

• Lexicon

• Polysemy

• Ambiguity

• Figurative Language

• Syntax

• Semantic Translation

Linguistic equivalence is equivalence in meaning between the source-language information and the receptor-language information.

1. Category of Respect

The Indonesian language distinguishes kinds of respect when referring to or addressing certain kinds of people.

The classification is usually determined by such factors as age, rank, social status, or familiarity and has three major levels:

a) Speaking up: to older people or people of higher rank, as a soldier to his commander, a pupil to his teacher, etc.

b) Speaking down: to younger people or people of lower rank as a teacher

c) to his pupils, parents to their children, etc.d) Speaking to peers: to those of the same level.

2. Lexicon

The meaning of words discussed in the previous section has been dependent primarily upon the cultural factors of the environment. The problem of meaning in which this section treats concerns the linguistic factors in the meaning of the words, though sometimes we cannot get rid of cultural significance.

a). Polysemy

Polysemy (or polysemia) is a compound noun for a basic linguistic feature. The name comes from Greek poly (many) and semy (to do with meaning, as in semantics). Polysemy is also called radiation or multiplication. This happens when a word acquires a wider range of meanings.

For example, "paper" comes from Greek papyrus.

Originally it referred to writing material made from the papyrus reeds of the Nile, later to other writing materials, and now it refers to things such as government documents, scientific reports, family archives or newspapers.

Example (English word Run)

• The athlete is running. • Her nose is running. • For how long is the movie running? • Who left the water running?• She's running the flag up the pole. • Mr. Kelly is running for President. • Does your car run? • Trains run on rails• My computer runs on Windows. • You want to run that by me again? • His sermons seem to run on forever. • We scored a run in the sixth inning. • I have a run in my stocking.

There are two components to meaning: semantic field and semantic context.

By semantic field, we mean the full range of ways the word has and can be used. By examining the "field" of possible meanings, we begin to narrow the options. Normally, there are still too many options, so we have to take another step. The second step is to determine the semantic context.

If "run" for instance can refer to rapid, bipedal locomotion in some contexts, we can eliminate that option in contexts where there are no legs or feet. If "run" can mean "flow," or "drip," it is a possible way of understanding it where noses and faucets appear, but not where liquids do not appear. In everyday speech, we do this kind of comparison to semantic context so rapidly and unreflectively that we are not normally aware of doing it. But we do it nevertheless and normally with great accuracy.

b). Ambiguity

Ambiguity comes from Latin ambiguitas meaning acting both ways.

Something is ambiguous when it can be understood in two or more possible senses or ways.

The word "ambiguity" itself can mean an indecision as to what you mean, an intention to mean several things, a probability that one or other or both of two things has been meant, and the fact that a statement has several meanings. Ambiguity tends to increase with frequency of usage. The sentence “They can fish “ can be understood in two ways: “They may or are able to fish” and “They put fish in cans.”

If the ambiguity is in a single word it is called lexical ambiguity. In a sentence or clause, it is called structural ambiguity.

ExamplesArmEither of the two upper limbs of the human body, from the shoulder to the hand.

Branch of division of a country’s military forces.

BankLand sloping up along each side of a river or canal; ground near a river.

Establishment for keeping money, valuables, etc, safely, the money being paid out on the customer’s order (by means of checks).

MagazinePaper-covered periodical, usually weekly or monthly, with articles, stories, etc, by various writers.

Chamber holding the cartridges of a rifle of pistol before they are fed into the breech.

Figurative Language

Figurative language is language that does not mean exactly what it says word by word, but it must be understood as a whole expression. Figurative expressions are used by writers and speakers to give mental picture to their listeners or readers. These expressions are usually descriptive and colorful, and in order to understand them one has to guess the meaning from the context.

• Belonged to figurative language is the idiom. An idiom is a group of words in one language that take on a specialized meaning distinct from the meanings of the individual words considered separately.

• Metaphor is a figure of speech where a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit (figurative) comparison.

SyntaxSyntax is a study of language that deals with the arrangement of words. Since English and Indonesian differ linguistically, in most cases the two languages do not correspond in the types of arrangement of words. Every word may be correct in form, but the entire expression may be meaningless.

The problem of syntax which translators have encountered in types of modification and which needs attention is the use of classifiers. Classifiers must be

added in translation to conform to the obligatory pattern of the Indonesian language.

Bahasa Indonesia possesses different kinds of classifiers.

These are words which denote the class of the object spoken about, for example, "piece" is translated as ‘secarik’ (for paper, cloth, etc.), ‘sepotong’ (for bread, chalk, etc.) ‘sebidang’ (for land, board, etc.), ‘sebilah’ (for knife,sword, etc.), and still many others.

These indicators are used not only for numbers as shown above, but also for other forms which are particularly used with proper nouns.

Semantic translation

Semantic translation is the process of using semantic information to aid in the translation of data in one representation or data model to another representation or data model.

Semantic translation takes advantage of semantics that associate meaning with individual data elements in one dictionary to create an equivalent meaning is a second system.

Semantic translation requires that data elements in the source and destination systems have "semantic mappings" to a central registry or registries of data elements. There are three types of semantic mappings:

Class Equivalence - indicating that class or "concepts" are equivalent. For example: "Person" is the same as "Individual" Property Equivalence - indicating that two properties are equivalent. For example: "PersonGivenName" is the same as "FirstName" Instance Equivalence - indicating that two individual instances of objects are equivalent. For example: "Dan Smith" is the same person as "Daniel Smith"

Semantic translation is very difficult if the terms in a particular data model do not have direct one-to-one mappings to data elements in a foreign data model. In that situation an alternative approach must be used to find mappings from the original data to the foreign data elements.