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Semantic Translation as Panacea to Misinformation in Literary Translation



Author(s)

Emeka C. Ifesieh

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DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2015.09.003

Delta State University, Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria

Translatorial action is a Janus-headed enterprise, whose main objective is to transfer source language (SL) message(s) into a target language (TL). But it is noticeable from a preponderance of previous studies that in pursuance of either the dynamic or the optimum communicative equivalence, the translator often assumes a total authority of the original author. Subsequently, he/she recreates the SL message(s) in such a way that the TL message(s) leaves little or no trace to the SL text ingenuities. This is problematic, because the end-product of the translatorial action often fails to initiate the target audience into the peculiarities of the SL text. The TL audience is rather misinformed. Semantic approach to translation is explained as bearing on the semantic theory. The theory explains meaning in terms of naming relations that exist between the word and what it stands for in the real world. However, the existence of opaque contexts and words like prepositions, which do not refer to any tangible thing (known as their extensions) in the real world redirects the essence of the theory to concepts. Thus, within the broad theory of semantics, the conceptual theory is formulated to address the problems of opaque contexts and extensionalism by relating signs to concepts, that is, a capsule of thought that represents distinct experiences. Subsequently, the sense of a word is likened to concepts upon which real world experiences are pegged. Subsequently, a concept bears a sense(s)—the word’s nucleus, which signifies or denotes, but does not connote; yet connotations rely on the sense to operate. Sequel to that, the semantic approach is used copiously to exemplify how the pursuance of sense relations in translatorial actions works for the recapturing of the situational context of the SL text production and ingenuities at the TL end as opposed to the communicatively translated texts. However, in the cases of use variations between the two languages in contact, the approach often fails to convey the message adequately and thereby necessitates the use of the communicative approach to translation.

social context of SL text, thought process, semantic approach, Janus-headed enterprise, use variations