Download CONNOTATIVE MEANING AND TRANSLATION ISSUES

CONNOTATIVE MEANING
AND TRANSLATION ISSUES
Ms. Abrar Mujaddidi
LANE 350
Basic Principles
The meaning of a text comprises a number of
different layers:
Referential
content
Emotional colouring
Cultural associations
Social and personal connotations
cont.,
Connotative meaning refers to the associations
which over and above the denotative meaning of
an expression, form part of its overall meaning.
There are six types of connotative meaning.
Attitudinal Meaning
Is that part of the overall meaning of an expression
which consists of some widespread attitude to the
refrent.
E.g.
The police
The filth
The boys in blue
cont.,
The formal nature of Standard Arabic makes it
hard to find attitudinal meaning in its words.
Formal terms have less tendency to show
attitudinal meaning than informal terms.
However, attitudinal meaning is still important in
translating Standard Arabic
cont.,
E.g.
.. BJI‫د‬BL 345678 ‫ص‬:;8‫= ا‬4:>?@8‫ت ا‬BCDEFG‫ ا‬:H5I
military coups provide their
perpetrators with the opportunity….
E.g.
‫ء‬B?V8‫ ا‬WO4DX WOC WX ‫ي‬BSF‫ أ‬B4 ..‫وت‬:OC B4 PQ
My lady amongst millions of women
Associative meaning
Associative meaning is that part of the overall
meaning of an expression which consists of
expectations that are-rightly or worngly- accociated
with the referent of the expression.
E.g. Nurse
crusade
ZJEX
Affective meaning
Affective meaning is the emotive effect worked on
the addressee by the choice of expression, and
which forms part of its overall meaning.
The expression does not merely denote its
referent, but also hints at some attitude of the
speaker or writer to the adressee.
E.g.
[>\‫ ا‬vs.
[]^8‫ء ا‬B_:8‫ا‬
cont.,
It is fairly easy to confuse attitudinal meaning with
affective meaning.
The difference is that attitudinal meaning involves
attitude to the referent (the person or thing referred
to), whereas affective meaning involves attitude to
the addressee ( the person spoken to).
Allusive meaning
Allusive meaning is an intertextual feature.
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 expression.
Collocation and collocative meaning
Collocations are terms which occur closely
together.
E.g.
Pretty (girl, boy, woman, flower)
Handsome ( boy, man, car, vessel)
The importance of finding appropriate collocation
in translation can be
cont.,
The importance of finding appropriate collocation in
translation can be illustrated by the following examples:
Close cooperation for cOd58‫ون ا‬B@78‫ا‬
Forced smile
for =@Vf^X =XB?7C‫ا‬
Collocations also the affect the pattern of occurrence of X
and Y :
i]68 ‫ و‬iX‫ د‬WX his own flesh and blood
cont.,
Collocative meaning is the meaning given to an
expression over its denotative meaning by the
meaning of some other expression with which it
collocates to form a commonly used phrase.
jk@l8‫اك ا‬:68‫ا‬
Reflected meaning
Reflected meaning is the meaning given to an
expression that calls to mind another meaning of
the same word or phrase.
E.g.
Rat
‫ر‬B]o
The textual context is what triggers these latent
reflected meanings.
Other types of connotative meanings
There are additional connotative meanings other
than the types mentioned earlier:
Emphasis
Presentation
of information as predictable or
unpredictable
Presentation of information as foregrounded or
backgrounded
Thank you ☺