Connotative meaning and translation issues - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Connotative meaning and translation issues

“

the communicative value an expression has by virtue of

what it refers to

,

over and above its purely conceptual content” (Leech, 1974: 14) Slide2

For example, the word ‘woman’ is defined conceptually by three properties ‘human’, ‘female’, ‘adult’. In addition, the word includes other psychological and social properties such as ‘gregarious’, ‘subject to maternal instinct’. Leech maintains that ‘woman’ has the putative properties of being frail, prone to tears, and emotionalSlide3

Based on Leech’s classification of meaning (1974: 26),

Dickins

et al (2002: 66-74) distinguish six major types of connotative as follows:Slide4

1. Attitudinal meaning

The expression does not merely denote the referent in a neutral way, but also hints at some attitude to it.

For instance, ‘

the police

’, ‘

the filth

’ and ‘

the boys in blue

’ have the same denotative meaning. However, the expressions have different connotative meanings. ‘

The police

’ is a neutral expression, ‘

the filth

’ has pejorative overtones while ‘

the boys in blue

’ has affectionate ones.Slide5

Example 1:

In the following example, the translator has used the term ‘lady’ rather than ‘

woman

’ since ‘

lady’

has overtones of respect.

آه يا بيروت..... يا أنثاي من بين ملايين النساء

Ah Beirut….my lady amongst millions of women.

 Slide6

2 Example

و قد راحوا يقتحمون البيوت بيتاً بيتاً

“They have raided homes one by one”

Here the word “

homes

” can be contrasted with its near –synonym “

houses

’. “Houses” is a neutral word in English, whereas “homes” has warm emotional connotations

.

Slide7

2. Associative meaning

It may consist of expectations

wrongly associated with the referent that

are rightly or

of

the expressionSlide8

For example, the term ‘

Crusade

’ has strongly positive associations in English, whereas its Arabic equivalent

حملة صليبية

has negative associations, since the word is associated with the Crusades to Palestine in the Middle AgesSlide9

Conversely, the term

جهاد

in Arabic has positive associations, since the word is associated with one of the five pillars of Islam, and those who are killed in the cause of Allah are rewarded with heaven on the Day of JudgementSlide10

On the contrary, the term جهاد

has negative associations in the West, since the word is connected with international extremist organizations, especially after the September 11 attacks.Slide11

ثم شد الغطاء على جسمها الهرم

Then he pulled the cover over her frail body

هرم

The translator has taken the association of

and has accordingly used the denotative meaning ‘

frail

; to render this associative meaning of

هرمSlide12

3. Affective meaning

It is related

to the emotive effect worked on the addressee by the choice of expression.

For

instance, the two expressions ‘silence please’, and ‘shut up’, or

الرجاء الصمت

and

أسكت

in Arabic share the same denotative meaning of ‘be quiet

’. Slide13

However, the speaker’s attitude to the listener produces a different affective impact, with the first utterance producing a polite effect and the second one producing an impolite

one.Slide14

The translator should choose a suitable lexical item that produces the same effect on the TL reader as that intended by the author of the original text on the SL reader.Slide15

4. Allusive meaning

It occurs

when an expression evokes an associated saying or quotation in such a way that the meaning of that saying or quotation becomes part of the overall meaning of the

expressionSlide16

For example, the oath

الالتزام التام بالإخلاص

و

الثقة والسمع والطاعة في العسر

و

اليسر والمنشط

و

المكره

.

which members of the Muslim Brotherhood swore to their leader, Hassan Al

Banna

, alludes to the

Quranic

verses:

إن مع العسر يسر

اً

.

إ

ن مع العسر يسراًSlide17

5. Reflected meaning

The

meaning given to the expression over and above the denotative meaning which it has in that context by the fact that it also calls to mind another meaning of the same word or phrase.

Slide18

For

example, the word ‘

rat

’ in ‘

John was a rat

’ has two meanings:

The

first denotative meaning

is:

someone who deserts his

friends.

T

he

second connotative reflected meaning is the animal ‘

rat’

.

In Arabic

to call someone

حمار

means

denotatively ‘

stupid

’. The word

حمار

also refers to the animal ‘donkey’, which in this context provides a connotative reflected meaningSlide19

6. Collocative meaning

“the associations a word acquires on account of the meaning of words which tend to occur in its environmentSlide20

‘

Pretty

’ and ‘

handsome

’

share

the common grounds of ‘good looking’, but they are differentiated by the range of nouns with which they are likely to co-occur. ‘

Pretty

’ collocates with ‘

girl’, ‘boy’, woman

’, ‘

flower

’, while ‘

handsome

’ collocates with ‘

boy’, ‘man’,

‘

vessel

’, etcSlide21

Baker

says that the propositional

(denotative

) meaning of a word does not always determine the

collocational

patterning. Slide22

For example, English speakers typically ‘

pay a visit’

but less typically

‘make a visit’

and they do not

‘perform a visit’.

Another example of collocation in English is ‘

rancid’

and

‘addled

’. Though the two words have the same denotative meaning, they have different

collocational

patterning. ‘

Addled

’ collocates with ‘

eggs

’, while ‘

rancid

’ collocates with ‘butter’Slide23

Collocations differ from one language into another. According to Baker (1992: 49) English and Arabic use different

collocational

patterns that reflect the preferences of each community for certain modes of expression and certain linguistic configurationsSlide24

English Collocation

Arabic equivalent

deliver a letter/telegram

يسلم خطابا \ تلغ

رافاً

deliver a speech/lecture

يلقي خطبة\ محاضرة

deliver news

ينقل أخبارًا

deliver a blow

يوجه ضربة

deliver a verdict

يصدر حكماً

deliver a baby

يولد امرأ

ةSlide25

English Collocation

Arabic equivalent

catch a fish

سمكة

يصطاد

catch a cold

برد

بنزلة يصاب

catch a train

بالقطار يلحق

catch fire

النار فيه تشتعلSlide26

According to

Dickins

et al (2002: 71) the two languages also have different collocations in the

use of conjoined phrases

.Slide27

For instance, the English equivalent of

أصحاب النفوذ

و

أهل الود

would be ‘the rich and powerful’, rather than ‘the powerful and rich”, while the collocation

من دمه ولحمه

is equivalent to ‘his own flesh and blood “, rather than ‘his own blood and flesh’. Other examples include ‘life and death’

الموت والحياة

and ‘day and night’

ليل نهارSlide28

Collocations constitute a major problem for translators. As

Newmark

(1988:180) maintains “The translator will be caught every time, not by his grammar, which is probably suspiciously ‘better’ than an educated native’s, not by his vocabulary, which may well be wider, but by his unacceptable or improbable collocations”.Slide29

In translating from English into Arabic or vice versa the translator faces the difficult task of finding appropriate collocations in the target language, as he is dealing with two languages that are linguistically and culturally distinct. Therefore, the translator should pay considerable attention to the

collocational

differences between the two languages in order to choose the appropriate collocation in the target language.Slide30

A translator who renders ‘

shake hands

’ as

يهزالأيدي

would give an erroneous translation. The Arabic equivalent for the English collocation ‘

shake hands

’ is

يصافح

, which is not a collocation in Arabic