换言之 翻译教程 第二章 笔记

Chapter 2 Equivalence at word level

2.1. The word in different languages

2.1.1 What is a word?

The smallest unit which we would expect to possess individual meaning is the"word".

If defined loosely ,the word is the smallest unit of language that can be used by itself.

2.1.2 Is there a one-to-one relationship between word and meaning?

within or across languages.

2.1.3 Introducing morphemes

Morpheme is the minimal formal element of the meaning of language.

An important difference between morphemes and words is that a morpheme cannot contain more than one element of meaning and cannot be further analysed.

2.2. Lexical meaning

It is just the lexical meaning which is the most outstanding individual property of the word.

The lexical meaning of a word or lexical unit may be thought of as the specific value it has in a particular linguistic system and the personality it acquires through usage within that system.

According to Cruse, we can distinguish four main types of meaning in words and utterances:propositional meaning,expressive meaning,presupposed meaning and evoked meaning.

2.2.1. Propositional meaning VS expressive meaning

The propositional meaning of a word or an utterance arises from the relation between it and what is refers to or describes in a real or imaginary world.

It is this type of meaning which provides the basis on which we can judge an utterance as true or false.

When a translation is described as 'inaccurate', it is often the propositional meaning that is being called into question.

Expressive meaning cannot be judged as true or false. This is because expressive meaning relates to the speaker's feeling or attitude rather than to what word and utterances refer to.

Two or more words or utterances can therefore have the same propositional meaning but differ in their expressive meaning.

The meaning of a word or lexical unit can be both propositional and expressive.

Words which contribute solely to expressive meaning can be removed from an utterance without affecting its information content.

2.2.2. Presupposed meaning

Presupposed meaning arises from co-occurrence restriction, i.e. Restrictions on what other words or expressions we expect to see before or after a particular lexical unit:selectiona l restrictions and collocational restrictions.

2.2.

3. Evoked meaning

Evoked meaning arised from dialect and register variation.

A dialect is a variety of language which has currency within a specific community or group of speakers. Dialect can be classified on such bases as geographical, temporal or social.

Register is a variety of language that a language user considers appropriate to a specific situation.

Register variation arises from variations in the following: