Makalah Translation - Concept of Meaning in Translation

The Concept of Meaning

If you think about it, the act of translation is really the act of determining and then distributing meaning. Think about it; what is going on when you, say, translate German into English? You’re not mechanically substituting words – any machine could do that, and you’ll wind up with gibberish more often than not. No, you’re reading the source, understanding the source, and then transferring that understanding to the target language, trying to match up a bunch of lesser metrics like style and tone. But above all else, most importantly, you’re seeking to transfer meaning from one language to another.

As we known in process of translation. Meaning plays are important role. If we’re talking about translation, we have to talking about meaning too. Because the aim of translation is related to the translate of meaning from a language to other languages. There is a meaning in a word (Alwasilah, 1984:146), according to Nida (1975:1), it can be has the different meaning in a word.

For example the meaning of chair below not only influenced by the position in the sentence, but also based on the context.

1.      He sat on the chair

2.      He has the chair of philosophy at the university

3.      He will chair the meeting

4.      He was condemned to the chair

If the English sentences above translate to Indonesian, the translation will be like this :

1.      Dia duduk di kursi

2.      Dia menjabat mahaguru dalam ilmu filsafat di universitas itu

3.      Dia akan memimpin rapat itu

4.      Dia dihukum mati di kursi listrk.[1]

The meaning of a word is not only influenced by the position in the sentence, but also  kinds of meaning in language.

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 grammar, context, situation and society culture to where the meaning occurs.[2]

A.      Lexical Meaning

Lexical meaning is meaning of language substances as syimbol or events and others. This meaning has language substances apart from the using or the context (Kridalaksana, 1984:120). This meaning also called a linguistic item in dictionary. So, lexical meaning is meaning that is explained or described in dictionary. Lexical meaning is a meaning defined in the dictionary. This meaning , usually occurs when the word is used in isolation or not context or without any correlation to other words. For example, the lexical meaning of the word “hand” which is described in Longman’s dictionary. “Hand”  the moveable parts at the end of arms, including the fingers. However, the translator must be careful in choosing or considering the equivalence for a word before he translates a word. A translator must concern with the context if he wants to get an appropiate equivalence because a word in source language may have some equivalence in receptor language. A translation does not always change the language with the reseptor language. Therefore, a translator should be smart to choose the appropriate equivalent. There are some lexical problems which need attention.

One source language has some equivalences in reseptor language. For example; source language (SL): they surely needed rice. In Indonesia, the word “rice” has a lot of equivalences such as “padi” , “gabah” , “beras” , or “nasi”. A translator should reach and see the context besides the word or the sentence. If this another sentence, he would not find any difficulties.

Example:

SL : Udin’s attitude is very bad

TL : sikap Udin sangat menyebalkan

SL : The grape not only expensive but bad too

TL : Anggur itu tidak hanya mahal, tapi juga busuk

SL : They all looked tired and pale. They surely needed rice

TL : Mereka semua kelihatan letih dan pucat. Mereka membutuhkan nasi.

Polysemy and Homonymy. Polysemy is a word, which has more than one meaning. Here the example of polysemy in English, but the tranlation is surely not polysemy. The word “fresh” in a phrese “fresh air”  means “segar” and polysemy. The word ”fresh” in “fresh water” means “tawar”.  However, in slang, the word fresh in “fresh boy”  means “kurang ajar”. It can be describe like this: fresh - segar – tawar – krang ajar. Homonymy is two words or more which have the same term. For example, the word “can” in these sentences:

SL: How can you can a can into a can?

TL: Bagaimana kamu bisa memasukkan kaleng kedalam kaleng?

In that sentence, actually there are two kinds of “can” the first can mean “bisa” and the second mean “mengalengkan” (as a verb) and “kaleng” (as an onject).[3]

B.       Grammatical or Structural Meaning

If lexical meaning apart from the using or the context, so grammatical or structural meaning is the other way. Grammatical or strutural meaning is  relationship between the language substances in the bigger unit, for example the relationship between a word with another word in a phrase or clause (Kridalaksana, 1984:120). Grammatical or structural meaning is a meaning that is got from formation or word order in a phrase or a sentence. This meaning is produced by affixes or meaning  that is able from a composition of word by word. A translator sometimes cannot translate word by word literally, because the result of the grammatical tranlation is strange. If the reseptor language and the source language are similar, it is easier for the translator to translate the text of reseptor language into source language in the context of structure. However, if the receptor language and source language are different in the context of structure or grammar, the translator will find a difficulty in adjusting or adapting the grammar. From the language knowledge, we know that the language in one family has similar characteristic in grammar and language which come from different family have different characteristic in grammar. Therefore, we can assume that translation from English to Indonesia and vice versa will find a problem in adjusting or adapting the grammar. There are some differences in grammar between English and Indonesia. Below are the examples of grammatical or structural meaning :

English                                                                  Indonesian

1.      They can the fish                                 Mereka mengkalengkan ikan

2.      He kicked the can hard                       Dia menendang kaleng itu dengan kerasnya

3.      She calcutes her saving. (every day)

She calculated her saving. (last night)

He has calculated her saving. (since morning)

Will calculate her saving. (tomorrow)

She is calculating her saving. (now)

4.      The hunter killed the bear

The bear killed by the hunter.

Example 1 and 2 show that english modifiers come before the main nouns or use MD rules. On the other side, indonesia has DM rules that put the modifiers after the main nouns. The different formation or order or words gives different meaning. Example 3 proves the influence of English tense that indicates the time when the activity happens. The meaning entail in those sentences are obviously different in each sentence. Example 4 brings a very far different message from the syntax they use.

C.  Textual meaning

Textual meaning related to the text or passage. The difference kinds of the text also caused the meaning of a word would be different. Textual meaning is a meaning which is determined by its relationship with the other words in a sentence (Suryawinata, 1989:22). The words “hard” can have several meaning depends on the other words in that sentence.

The examples below show how the word hand (English) and tangan (Indonesian) processes several dissimilar meanings when it is used in different contexts.

Examples:

1.    Morphology is a science study of the structure and form of either animals and plants (dalam ilmu biologi)

2.    Morphology is a science study of the structure and form of either words and phrases (dalam ilmu linguistik)

3.    Hand me your papers (menyerahkan)

4.    Just give me a hand (bantuan)

5.    All hands aboard (anak buah kapal)

6.    They are always ready at hand (siap)

7.    Hands up (Angkat tangan)

Like the word “hand” in English, in Indonesia the word “tangan” also has several meanings, too. For examples:

1.    Ia sekarang menjadi tangan kanan pimpinan perusahan

2.    Orang itu ternyata kaki tangan sindikat pengedar narkoba

3.    Kapan masalah ini ditangani pihak kepolisian?

4.    Uluran tangan para dermawan diperlukan untuk menyelamatkan korban bencana alam

5.    Puisi ini buah tangan seorang penyair muda

D.  Contextual or Situation Meaning

Contextual or situational meaning is a relationship between the word and situation where the word is using (Kridalaksana, 1984:120). According to Suryawinata ( 1989:23 ), contextual meaning or situational meaning is a meaning that is appeared from a situation or context where the phrase sentence or utterence is used. In pragmatic knowledge, the element of the context or situation is participant, setting, purpose, topic and communication‘s element. An expression of  “ good morning” can have different meaning although it is the same to be pronounced by an employer to his employee. “Good morning” means a greeting it is said by an employer to his employee when his employee comes earlier then the others. “Good morning” means a warning in the employee comes late. Therefore, a translator must be smart to translate this two expressions of good morning, because one of the mean “selamat pagi” in indonesia in the other mean “kamu terlambat lagi”, which shows the situational meaning. “good morning” is not always equivalent with “selamat pagi” if we concern with the setting when the dialogue happens. At 01:00 A.M. greeting is “selamat malam” in indonesia and “good morning “ in English. Thus, the proper meaning of the utterance mainly depends on the context at the time it is spoken.

Suryawinata (1985) gives another example: the phrase “good morning” is usually used as a greeting when someone meets others in the morning and it brings a message of friendliness or warmness. But in different situation the greeting “good morning” changes its meaning quite extreme as that shown in the new situation below.

            “A staff, which always comes late and is lazy, is being questioned by his manager but he is arguing and sure with own reasons. This makes the manager irritates. At last he shouts: that is enough. Good morning”. [Suryawinata, 1985]

The utterance good morning which is spoken in high tone and rising intonation is completely not a greeting, but it is a sign of commanding the staff to go out of the room as quickly as possible. There isn’t any friendliness message anymore in the greeting, but an anger or insult. Therefore, the result of the idiomatic translation in Indonesian is as follows “Cukup. Keluar!”.

Describe the situation in which the following utterances are expressed differently before finding the most 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

Meaning of a word that related with socio-cultural the user of the language called socio-cultural meaning.[4] Socio-cultural meaning is a meaning which appropriate or suitable with the factors of the people’s culture who used that languange. For examples: javanese people usually ask to his friend who comes from traveling with the words “ endi oleh-olehe?”. It means “ mana oleh-olehnya? In indonesia, but this quastion does not really means that the speaker ask some gifts from his friend. It is just like a greeting. This utterance is hard to be translated literally in english, because in english, we do not know about “ oleh-oleh, because it does not really match with “ gift or present”. The word “ kodingaren” in javanese or the word  “ tumben” in indonesia, is also hard to be translated in english. This concept containst element of “ surprise”. Therefore, the word “ tumben”  can be translated as “ it’s a surprise” although the meaning is not really correct

The socio-cultural meaning are set to maintain verbal social contacts. Since the equivalence of SL is seldom found in TL means that the phrase, sentence or utterances of the language is untranslatable, in your translation, you should make textual adjustment for them.

Example : think! How do you translate the following utterences to indonesia.

·         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![5]

Masalah Makna dalam Penerjemahan

            Masalah makna merupakan bagian yang tidak terpisahkan dari bidang penerjemahan. Jika kita berbicara tentang penerjemahan. Jika kita berbicara tentang penerjemahan, kita juga harus berbicara tentang makna. Alasannya adalah karena tujuan penerjemahan erat kaitannya dengan masalah pengalihan makna yang terkandung dalam suatu bahasa ke dalam bahasa yang lain. Makna ada di balik kata (Alwasilah, 1984: 146), dan suatu kata, menurut Nida (1975:1), dapat mempunyai sejumlah makna yang saling berbeda.

            Makna suatu kata tidak hanya dipengaruhi oleh posisinya dalam kalimat tetapi juga oleh bidang ilmu yang menggunakan kata itu. Tidak jarang pula makna suatu kata sangat ditentukan oleh situasi pemakaiannya dan budaya penutur suatu bahasa. Makna kata chair dalam kalimat-kalimat berikut ini ditentukan tidak hanya oleh posisinya dalam kalimat tetapi juga oleh konteks pemaainya.

5.      He sat on the chair

6.      He has the chair of philosophy at the university

7.      He will chair the meeting

8.      He was condemned to the chair

Kalau keempat kalimat bahasa inggris di atas di terjemahkan ke dalam bahasa indonesia, kalimat-kalimat terjemahannya akan berbunyi

5.      Dia duduk di kursi

6.      Dia menjabat mahaguru dalam ilmu filsafat di universitas itu

7.      Dia akan memimpin rapat itu

8.      Dia dihukum mati di kursi listrk

Dalam praktek menerjemahkan yang sesungguhnya, perhatian seorang penerjemah terfokus tidak hanya pada pengalihan makna suatu kata. Perhatiannya meluas ke masalah pengalihan pesan atau amanat.

Makna Leksikal

Makna leksikal ialah makna unsur-unsur bahasa sebagai lambang atau peristiwa dan lain sebagainya. Makna leksikal ini dipunyai unsur-unsur bahasa lepas dari penggunaannya atau konteksnya (Kridalaksana, 1984:120). Makna leksikal ini dapat juga disebut makna yang ada dalam kamus mengingat kata yang ada dalam kamus lepas dari pennggunaannya atau konteksnya. Misalnya, sebagai kata sifat, kata bad bisa mempunyai enam buah makna, yaitu: jahat, buruk, jelek, susah, tidak enak, busuk. Kita tidak tahu secara pasti mana dari keenam makna itu yang menjadi padanan kata bad sebelum kata itu berada dalam suatu rangkaian kata.

Makna Gramatikal

Kalau makna leksikal lepas dari penggunaannya atau konteksnya, maka makna gramatikal adalah sebaliknya. Makna gramatikal ialah hubungan antara unsur-unsur bahasa dalam satuan yang lebih besar, misalnya hubungan suatu kata dengan kata yang lain dalam frasa atau klausa (Kridalaksana, 1984:120). Kata can  bisa berarti dapat, kaleng atau mengkalengkan, bergantung pada posisi kata itu dalam kalimat. Kata can dalam kalimat, they can the fish, berfungsi sebagai predikat dalam bentuk kata kerja, sedangkan kata can dalam kalimat, He kicked the can hard. Berfungsi sebagai objek kalimat.

Makna Kontekstual atau situational

Makna kontekstual atau situational ialah hubungan antara ujaran dan situasi di mana ujaran itu dipakai (Kridalaksana, 1984:120). Dengan kata lain, makna kontekstual ialah makna suatu kata yang dikaitkan dengan situasi penggunaan bahasa. Ucapan bahasa inggris, Good morning!, tidak selamanya harus diterjemahkan menjadi selamat pagi. Ucapan itu dapat juga diterjemahkan menjadi, keluar! Apabila ucapan itu dituturkan oleh seorang pimpinan kepada bawahannya yang selalu masuk terlambat di kantor. Contok menarik tentang makna kontekstual ini diberikan oleh Soemarno (1987) sebagai berikut. Dalam suatu kesempatan, sepasang sejoli sedang bermesraan di taman. Sang gadis mencubit lengan kekasihnya dan dengan suara gemas berkata, I really hate you. Kata hate dalam kalimat itu seharusnya diterjemahkan menjadi mencintai bukan membenci.

Makna Tekstual

Makna tekstual berkaitan dengan isi suatu teks atau wacana. Perbedaan jenis teks dapat pula menimbulkan makna suatu kata menjadi berbeda. Dalam teks biologi, kata morphology artinya suatu cabang biologi yang berhubungan dengan bentuk dan struktur tumbuh-tumbuhan dan binatang. Dalam bidang teks kebahasaan, kata itu diartikan sebagai studi morfem suatu bahasa dan bagaimana morfem itu digabungkan untuk membentuk makna. Hal yang sama juga terjadi dengan kata interest yang berarti bunga dalam teks ekonomi.

Makna Sosio-kultural

Makna suatu kata yang erat kaitannya dengan sosio-budaya pemakai bahasa disebut makna sosio-kultural. Kata marhusip dalam bahasa Batak Toba mempunyai hubungan yang erat dengan suatu adat perkawinan. Jika kata itu diterjemahkan secara harfiah ke dalam bahasa Indonesia, artinya adalah berbisik. Akan tetapi dalam konteks perkawinan suku Batak Toba, kata marhusip mengandung arti yang sangat luas dan dalam, tidak hanya sekedar berbisik. Karena luas dan dalamnya makna yang dikandung itu dalam konteks perkawinan suku Batak Toba, seorang penerjemah seyogyanya membiarkan kata marhusip tersebut tetap tertulis dalam bahasa Batak Toba. Guna memudahkan para pembaca dalam memahami makna kata itu, penerjemah harus membuat anotasi kata tersebut. [6]

·         If you think about it, the act of translation is really the act of determining and then distributing meaning. Think about it; what is going on when you, say, translate German into English? You’re not mechanically substituting words – any machine could do that, and you’ll wind up with gibberish more often than not. No, you’re reading the source, understanding the source, and then transferring that understanding to the target language, trying to match up a bunch of lesser metrics like style and tone. But above all else, most importantly, you’re seeking to transfer meaning from one language to another.

·         That of course requires first that you extract the meaning from the source text, which is sometimes much more difficult than you might imagine, depending on the nature of the source text and the skill of the translator in question. After all, the meaning of some novels and poems are still being argued centuries after their publication – and the argument is between people who are native speakers of the language the text was written in. What hope does a translator have?

·         Two Sides

·         The most important aspect of the concept of ‛meaning’ in relation to translation work is that the meaning of a word, sentence, or paragraph is not a singularity. Meaning is a relationship, and there are two components to it: One, the meaning the author intended or believes they have achieved, and two, the meaning that the reader takes from it. After all, haven’t we all experienced a moment when we thought something written was very clear and straightforward, but the recipient of our text completely gets the meaning wrong? Aren’t many farcical comedies based entirely on this concept?

·         It is important to understand the dual nature of meaning because when you are a translator, you assume both roles. You are the reader of the source, struggling to ensure you understand the meaning intended by the author, and then you become the author, attempting to convey meaning to the reader in a clear and unmistakable fashion. This means there are two possible points of failure in the process: When you read the original, and when the audience reads your translation. Subtle mistakes can be amplified in this process.

·         Context

·         Words can be said to have fixed meanings to a certain extent – the definitions found in a dictionary. Once you combine two words or more into a sentence, however, they cease to have a fixed meaning, and context comes into play. In fact, through context like irony you can actually make words mean the exact opposite of what they are defined to mean.

·         That makes translation even more difficult, as you often must read the entire text before you can truly say you understand the meaning of the whole, as subsequent sections may reach back and later the meaning of the words that have gone before, much as a “twist” ending in a novel can change your perception of the whole story.

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[1] Drs. M. Rudolf Nababan. 2008. Teori Menerjemah Bahasa Inggris. (Yogyakarta : Pustaka Pelajar). Hlm 47

[2] Langgeng Budianto, dkk. 2010. A Practical Guide for Translation Skill. (Malang : UIN-Maliki Press). Hlm.  37

[3] Ibid. Hlm. 38

[4] Drs. M. Rudolf Nababan. Op Cit. Hlm. 51

[5] Langgeng Budianto, dkk. Op Cit. Hlm. 42

[6] Drs. M. Rudolf Nababan. 2008. Teori Menerjemah Bahasa Inggris. (Yogyakarta : Pustaka Pelajar). Hlm 47-51