THE ROLES OF SEMANTICS IN TRANSLATION :
The main objective of translation is to transfer the meaning from the source language to the target language. In transferring the meaning, a good translator should have the knowledge of source and target language, the grammar and cultures, and also the skills in translation. Skills and knowledge in translation are powerful means to produce better works.
The knowledge can be gained through reading and understanding while the skills can be further gained by more practices Since translation's main objective is "meaning", it is very important to study about theory of meaning Semantics is a branch of linguistics which studies about meaning. Thus, we can see that semantics plays a very important role in translation.
This paper will discuss the roles of semantics in translation briefly Some international journals on semantics have been reviewed to be able to find out any possible roles that semantics can have in translation.
Semantics study provides theories, approaches or methods in understanding meaning that are very useful in translation. Some problems related to meaning are often faced by translators in translating a text. According to Catford, untranslatability occurs when it is impossible to build functionally relevant features of the situation into the contextual meaning of the TL text. This happens where the difficulty Is linguistic, such as ambiguity, and where difficulty is cultural.
A method of analysis is try using componential analysis method. Componential analysis, so called feature analysis or contrast analysis, is a method which analyzes the structure of a word's meaning Thus, I reveal the culturally important features try which speakers of the language distinguish different words in the domain. This a highly valuable approach to learning another language and understanding a specific semantic domain of and Ethnography. This approach is also very valuable translation
For examples:
man =[+ male) (+ mature].
woman= [-male), (+mature),
boy=[+male), [-mature),
child=[+ \ - male] [- mature]
Another approach in meaning which is also very useful for translation study is a theory proposed by Anna Wierzbicka known as Natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) which employs simple culturally shared meanings as its vocabulary of semantic and pragmatic description It states that despite the enormous differences, all languages share a small but stable core of simple shared meanings and that they share a universal grammar That is, in any natural language one can isolate a small vocabulary and grammar which has precise equivalents in all other languages Examples include the primary meanings of the English words: people, say, words, do, think, want, good, bad, if, can and because Semantic primes can be combined to form simple phrases and sentences such as: people think that this is good is bad if someone says something like this, if you do something like this, people will think something bad about you, and so on. Thus, knowing this theory is very beneficial in translation
Another approach to translation is hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is relevant to translation because there is no translation without understanding and interpreting texts, which is the initial step in any kinds of translation including literary translation Inappropriate interpretation results in inadequate translations, if not absolutely wrong translations Hermeneutics involves the ability to understand things from somebody else's point of view, and to appreciate the cultural and social forces that may have influenced their outlook Hermeneutics interprets the meaning through understanding the point of view of an insider
In addition, lexical semantics is also very necessary to be learned in translation study. It deals with synonymy, antonym, polysemy and hyponymy
Most words are more or less ambiguous, and these different meanings or senses of a word in one language may lead to multiple translations in another language. But even when a word has only one translation, the two translation equivalents do not necessarily have exactly the same meaning. Moreover, there are words that have no real translation at all,
One reason why the connections between translations seem very complex is that within language, ambiguities may lead to multiple translations for a single word. It is essential to identify factors that predict the choice of translation, because semantic equivalences are necessary to translate a word From the above explanation we can conclude that semantics plays a very important role in translation study It provides theories, approaches or methods to meaning that are very useful in translation study.
NSM- There is small core of basic universal meaning which can be expressed by words or other linguistics expressions in all languages. if It is used as tool of linguistics or cultural analysis. It explains culture specific terms.
