Semantic features of language units as a translation problem

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of a source text translation analysis, namely the importance of understanding semantic meanings of source text units while corresponding to a target text. The article considers the most common views in domestic and foreign linguistics on the nature of language meaning, what meaning is and what relation it has to the language form, because without this it is impossible to solve the problem of lexical correspondences in translation. Meaning is a mental entity formed by the reflection of individual elements of reality. It can be defined as an objective reflection of reality. As a socially determined category, the meaning is characterized by a stable status in synchrony, however, it changes in diachrony. The meaning of a word or word combination is determined by the content of necessary and arbitrary features of the notion, that is, the semantic structure that the word or word combination corresponds to, regardless of whether these features are reflected. In our research, we consider a meaning as the relation of a sign to a set of graphemes or phonemes, denotatum and signifier – elements that are not in themselves as meanings of a sign, but due to their presence, the sign gets meanings, that is, it becomes what it is – a sign, and not just an object of reality. So, the system of relations that a sign includes is multi-sided – any sign is part of a whole grid of complex and diverse relations. In modern semiotics, it is customary to talk about three types of relations, which include a sign – and, accordingly, about three types of meanings, in connection with each of which translation problems arise on the level of semantics. Based on the fact that in the text (speech macro-expression), an autonomous language unit becomes an integral speech component of the whole, losing its vocabulary autonomy and entering into indissoluble connections both with neighboring units and with the entire utterance, the translator should use a macro-translation approach to the original.