Semantic Models and Translating

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines the relevance of three semantic models for translation. Structural semantics, more specificallysemantic feature analysis, has given rise to the maxim that we should translate "bundles of semantic features".Prototype semanticssuggests that word-meanings have cores and fuzzy edges which are influenced by culture. For translation this means that we do not necessarily translate bundles of features but have to decide whether to focus on the core or the fuzzy edges of the meaning of a particular word.Scenesand-frames semanticssuggests that word meaning is influenced by context and the situation we are in. Word-meaning is thus not static but dynamic, and it is this dynamism which should govern our decisions as translators.