WORDS AND

MEANINGS IN
TRANSLATION
RYAN N. PASTOLERO
MARLE LINDLEY C. GUERRERO

WHAT IS A
WORD?

NOTE:
It is notoriously difficult to provide a
definition of the notion word.

LEXICOGRAPHY

WHAT IS A
WORD?
- LEXICOGRAPHY
Any
uninterrupted
sequence
of
graphemes that is commonly felt to
correspond to a concept.

base form, lemma, lexeme

WHAT IS A
WORD?

lemma
- relies on the notion of concept, which
itself is far from problem free
Hunston (2002)
- To a large extent the notion of lemma
is a convenience.

WHAT IS A
Aichison (1994) WORD?
*mental lexicon
- sets out with a notion of the word
derived from dictionary practices
- educated adult speaker of English
understands and is potentially able to
use at the very least 50,000 words

WHAT IS A
difficultyWORD?
in lexicographical

potential
definition:
notion of the grapheme, it assumes a
written word
Robins (1989)
- words are in fact only linguistic
figments, the product of an advanced
linguistic analysis

WHAT IS A
WORD?

Robins (1989)
- diverse experiences goes to show that
native speakers have an intuitive
awareness of word-like entities in their
own language, whether written or not.
- This is an important issue in linguistic
theory, because the word has been seen
as the unit par excellence of traditional
grammatical theory (Lycons, 1968).

WHAT IS A
WORD?
contrast, the
word is

In
only
occasionally and incidentally the
effective unit of translation: words in
texts tend to operate in unison, and
it is generally more helpful to speak
of stretches of text (of varying
lengths and compositions) when
discussing translation units.

WHAT IS A
WORD?
problem with the notion

It is this
of
the word which underlies the
distinction, traditionally drawn in
writings on translation, between
translation word-for-word and
translation sense-for-sense.

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN CLASSICAL
TRANSLATION THEORY

translation word-for-word
translation sense-for-sense
Libellus de optimo genere oratum
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Ars Poetica
Horace
sense-for-sense

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN CLASSICAL
TRANSLATION THEORY

translation word-for-word
literalness and accuracy
translation sense-for-sense
freedom and creativity

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN CLASSICAL
TRANSLATION THEORY

translation word-for-word
difficulties arise because (a) words in
different languages do not generally
correspond one to one; (b) languages
differ in the conceptual distinctions they
choose to make explicit by distinct word
forms; and (c) it is the morpheme, not the
word, that tends to represent a single unit
of meaning

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN CLASSICAL
TRANSLATION THEORY

translation sense-for-sense
difficulty is to establish exactly what might
be meant by the term sense as a unit that
a translator can select as his or her focus
of attention

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN LINGUISTICS AND
TRANSLATION

WORD CLASSIFICATION

2 major ways of classifying words:

1. draw a distinction between words
which belong to closed systems, also
sometimes known as function words or
grammatical words, or words which
belong to so-called open classes or
content words.

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN LINGUISTICS AND
TRANSLATION

1. Open class
2. Closed class
. OPEN CLASS
-. content words/lexical
. CLOSED CLASS
-. Function words/grammatical

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN LINGUISTICS AND
TRANSLATION
OPEN CLASS
may have both technical and general
uses
possible to add new members
CLOSED CLASS
function words/grammatical
do not admit new members

a)
b)
c)
d)

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN LINGUISTICS AND
TRANSLATION
In the case of linguistic innovation in
the language of the text to be
translated, translators may select one
of four major, well known strategies:
circumlocution
use of an existing term
invention
importation

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN LINGUISTICS AND
TRANSLATION

WORD CLASSIFICATION

2 major ways of classifying words:

2. Classifying words according to word
class, such as the class of articles and
demonstratives (parts of speech)

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN LINGUISTICS AND
TRANSLATION

1. Nouns: stand for phenomena of various types

2. Adjectives: describe and inform about
phenomena
3. Pronouns: can substitute for a noun (phrase)
or proper name
4. Determiners: used before nouns to indicate
definiteness and/or quantity
5. Verbs: ascribe actions or states to do
something

WORDS AND MEANINGS

IN LINGUISTICS AND
TRANSLATION

6. Adverbs: inform about time, place, manner of

an action or state
7. Prepositions: indicate directionality or place
and relationships between phenomena
8. Conjunctions: link language units (words,
phrases, clauses)