Selasa, 05 Januari 2010

The Concept of Meaning

As you have notice in the process of translation, meaning plays an important role. There are different kinds of meaning in language. The meaning relate to the language function as a means of communication. It is closely influenced by the grammars, context, situation and society culture to where the meaning occurs. There are the different kinds of meanings categorized.

A. Lexical Meaning

Meaning as defined in the dictionary is called lexical meaning. Usually it occurs when the word is used in isolation.

Example : English Indonesian

Snobbish Sombong

Rooster Ayam Jago

Oscillate Terombang-ambing

B. Grammatical Meaning

Meaning as defined by word formation (morphology) or word arrangement in phrase or sentence (syntax).

Example : English Indonesia

1. Pencil case Case for putting the pencil

Case pencil A kind of pencil as fit to be put a pencil case

(the type and dimension)

2. Car factory factory car write the Indonesian

3. She Calculation her saving. (every day)

She calculated her saving. (last night)

She has calculated her saving. (since morning)

She is calculating her saving (now)

4. The hunter killed the bear

The bear killed the hunter

Example 1 and 2 show that English modifies come before the main nouns or use MD rules. On the other side, Indonesia has DM rules. The different formation or order determines the meaning.

Example 3 proves the influence of English tense that indicates the time when the activity happens.

Example 4 brings a very far different message from the syntax they use.

C. Textual Meaning

Meaning of word directed to its relation to other words in the sentence.

Example : 1. Hand me your papers (menyerahkan)

2. Just give me a hand (membantu)

3. All hands aboard (anak buah kapal)

4. They are always ready at hand (siap)

Or

1.Masalah itu segera ditangani oleh yang berwajib.

2.Ternyata orang bertato itu merupakan kaki tangan gerombolan perampok

3.Anak muda itu sekarang menjadi tangan kanan pimpinan perusahaan

D. Situational Meaning

Meaning or a word or phrase or sentence that exists in situation or context when it used.

Example : (The following example are taken from book entitle Terjemahan: Pengantar teori dan praktek, written by Zuchridin Suryawinata).

  1. The phrase “Good Morning” is usually used as a greeting when someone meets friends in the morning. But in different situation that greeting changes the meaning. Learn the new situation below.

“A Staff, who always comes late and is lazy, is questioning by his manager but he is arguing and sure with his own reasons. This makes the manager irritates. At last he shouts : “That is enough. Good morning!

Those words are absolutely not a greeting, but it is a command for him to go out of the room as quickly as possible. The result of the translation in Indonesia is “Cukup Keluar”.

  1. Find the proper meaning for the word “fire”

a. Do you have a fire for him?

b. Fire! The house is in a big fire

c. Concentrate to the object, and fire!

E. Socio – Cultural Meaning

It is the meaning closely linked to the values of society and culture of the language. The phrase, sentence or utterances of the language is specific and unchangeable for its function. The formulas are set to maintain verbal social contacts. Since the equivalence is often found in target language or intranslatable, in your translation you should make textual adjustment for those.

Example : Thinks how do you translate them

- How do you do?

- It’s nice of you to meet me.

- What’s wrong with you?

- Excuse me, I want to wash my hand.

- So long!

Read the following example to get clearer concept of the social cultural meaning. This explanation is given by Zuchridin Surtawinata in this book.

Contoh-contoh berikut ini dapat menunjukkan bahwa makna dapat pula ditentukan oleh faktor-faktor sosiokultural:

  1. Kalau seorang Jawa bertemu dengan kawannya yang baru pulang dari berpergian, ia akan bertanya kepada teman itu:

Endi oleh-oleh?

Ungkapan ini tidak berarti bahwa si penanya benar-benar minta buah tangan, tetapi sekedar menunjukkan salam akrab. Teman yang ditegur tidak menjawab dengan benar-benar memberikan oleh-oleh tetapi dapat menjawab, “Slamet” atau dengan bergurau “Kesel” (capek). Tentu saja ungkapan ini sangat sukar diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Inggris. Bahkan konsep “oleh-oleh” pun tidak mempunyai makna yang sama dengan “gift” atau “present” dalam Bahasa Inggris”. Tetapi secara konstektual terjemahan yang paling dekat adalah “How was your trip to ….” dan jawabnya adalah “It was marvelous”, dan bukan “Where’s your gift ….” dan jawabnya bukan pula “(my gift) is tiredness”.

  1. Konsep Jawa “Tumben” (atau “kadingaren”) yang kemudian menjadi Bahasa Indonesia tidak ada dalam konsep Bahasa Inggris. Konsep tersebut mengandung unsur “surprise” karena biasanya tidak begitu. Sebaliknya konsep “exited” dan “exiting” dalam Bahasa Inggris yang mengandung unsur “mendebarkan” sukar diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Demikian pula konsep “Selamat makan”, “Selamat belajar”, tidak dapat diterjemahkan dengan “Good eat” dan “Good learn” karena konsep semacam itu tidak ada dalam Bahasa Inggris.

Exercises

FIND OUT THE INDONESIAN EQUIVALENT OF THE UNDERLINED WORDS IN CONTEXT.

  1. We eat rice everyday
  2. The have been working in the rice field every day
  3. My wife prefer to drink water for breakfast
  4. The gardener waters the garden twice a day
  5. The interesting fishes live in the deep water
  6. Open the windows so that you will get fresh air
  7. The sheep farmers needed fresh for their animal

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