The Analysis of

Meaning
By:
Arum Tian Martaina

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Diana Niken Anggraini

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Ermy Dyah A

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The Analysis of Meaning

Concentrate on such scientific approaches to
the analysis of linguistic meaning.
Specifically in relation to the analysis of
individual words or phrases.
Semantic the study of meaning
2 kinds of linguistic meaning :
Referential meaning (denotation) : which
deals with the words as sign or symbols.
connotative meaning (connotation) : the
emotional reaction engendered in the reader
by a word.

Referential Meaning
Nida and Taber (1969: 58-9) described various
linguistic problems relating to referential
meaning.
The word chair polysemous (has several
meanings) :
Noun : an item of furniture , a university position as
professor or the chairperson at a meeting.
Verb : can mean to preside over a meeting.

The correct sense for the translator is

determined by the semotactic environment or
co-text (the other words around it).

Referential Meaning
Some meanings are figurative and need to be
distinguished from the literal meanings :
Father of a child
Our Father in heaven
Father Murphy
Father of an invention or a country
And so on

In this case, as a reader the translator first needs

to disambiguate (differentiate between) the
various possible senses of the ST term as a step
towards identifying the appropriate TL equivalent
contrastive semantic structure analysis.

Disambiguation Semantic Structure

Analysis
An email in English from a Spanish :
We are writing to invite you to a conference. We
expect you will attend.
The incorrect use of expect instead of the more
normal hope (or very much hope) is caused
because the SL term (in this case the Spanish
verb esperar) covers a wider semantic field than
English.

Diagrammatic form :
Esperar

To wish but not

necessarily with
expectation

To wish

To wish or
require with
strong
expectation

To hope

To want

To expect

Semantic structure of esperar

To await eagerly

To look forward to

Diagrammatic form :
The correct English translation will depend on
the context and the force of the Spanish.
Example of non-correspondence of semantic
field is given by Larson(1984/1998:87) :
Russian
English
- ruka
- arm , hand
- noga
- leg, foot
Translation from English to Russian requires
disambiguation using co-text and context (the
situation).

Hierarchical Structuring and

Componential Analysis
Nida and Taber (1969:68) give the example of a
series of motion verbs under the generic move,
which they ordered hierarchically :
Generic Term
move
Lower level
walk, run, skip, hop, crawl
(more specific forms of move)
Lower level
march, stroll
(more specific forms of walk)
The generic term : superordinate
The lower level term :hyponyms

Componential Analysis
A technique of semantic analysis that
examines the basic meaning components
of a word and allows contrast with other
terms in the same semantic field.
The prime elements of componential
analysis is notion of binary / opposites

Connotative meaning
The emotional response evoked in the
hearer.
Scale of connotative meaning
5

good

bad

strong

weak

active

passive

technical

informal