3. Intralinguistic meaning of the word

It is conditioned by the place the word occupies in the system of the language. It occupies a special place in relations between units of SL and TL in the fifth level of equivalence. Like the word “стіл” – it is semantically connected with other general and concrete names of furniture „меблі, лаштунки, стілець, крісло”. Another type of relations is established between this word and other words that may combine with this word in speech “дерев’яний, круглий, накривати”. The third type of semantic relations reveals common elements of meaning of the word “стіл” with words like “столова, столуватися, застілля”, united by the common root morpheme. There is also a linguistically conditioned relation between the meanings of a polysemantic word (board).

The character of reproduction of the intralinguistic meaning of the word differs from ways of rendering the denotative and connotative meanings described above. First of all, in most cases, equivalence of the SL and TL words does not depend on whether the intralinguistic meaning is preserved or not. This meaning is imposed on the word by the language system and contains information that is considered the element of shaping the thought, but not the thought itself. The necessity of reproducing the components of intralinguistic meaning arises only when this meaning is brought to the forefront, when special attention is paid to it, making it communicatively important.

Components of intralinguistic meaning:

1.) Morphemic (wordbuilding) component of the meaning – reflection of meanings of morphemes in the meaning of the word (woodman, machine-gun, aircraft the meanings of the word is not equal to the sum of meanings of its morphemes). However these meanings may be emphasized and morphemic structure may be a part of the content of the original. Equivalency may be achieved only if the building of the words in SL and TL coincide:

Не looked surprisingly young to Eric, who had always assumed that the nation's elders were really old.

Он выглядел очень молодо к большому удивлению Эрика, который всегда считал, что старейшины страны и на самом деле были стариками.

When word-play based upon the meaning of morphemes within the word makes up the main content of the utterance, to ensure equivalence, they sometimes do it through playing upon the meaning of other units in the TL. This way we lose some other elements of meaning, so equivalency is achieved only for the most important part of the original:

By-and-by, he said: "No sweethearts I b'lieve?" "Sweetmeats did you say, Mr. Barkis?" (Ch. Dickens)

- А нет ли у нее дружочка? - Пирожочка, мистер Баркис? (not root morphemes but affixes)

Sometimes each part of the word is translated separately:

"Do you know anything about books?" "Yes, sir, I'm a good bookkeeper." "Holy Moses! Our job is getting rid of them. My firm are publishers." (J. Galsworthy)

- Вы что-нибудь смыслите в книгах? - Да, сэр, я умею вести конторские книги. - Ах ты, боже мой! Да у нас надо не вести книги, а избавляться от них. Ведь у нас издательство. (Пер. Р. Райт-Ковалевой)

As seen from examples above, reproducing this component of meaning often involves some losses.

2) Usually a word is used in the original only in one of its meanings chosen by the speaker.

The task of reproducing the polysemy of the original word arises only when this polysemy is used by the Source to give additional information:

Не says he'll TEACH you to take the boards and make a raft of them; but seeing that you know how to do this pretty well already, the offer...seems a superfluous one on his part. (J.K. Jerome)

Он кричит, что ПОКАЖЕТ вам, как брать без спроса доски и делать из них плот, но поскольку вы и так прекрасно знаете, как это делать, это предложение кажется вам излишним.

But their united sagacity could make nothing of it, and they went to bed - metaphorically - IN THE DARK. (Ch. Dickens)

Но даже их объединенная проницательность не смогла помочь им в этом разобраться, и они легли спать, - фигурально говоря, - В ПОТЕМКАХ. (Пер. А. Кривцовой и Е. Ланна)

Much less equivalence is achieved in cases when the corresponding word in TL does not have the necessary polysemy. In this case we either give up this component or reproduce it in the semantics of another word, i.e. reproduce the original components less accurately. Mostly happens in literary translations:

Не ... said he had come for me, and informed me that he was a PAGE. "Go 'long," I said, "you ain't more than a PARAGRAPH." (M. Twain)

Он сказал, что послан за мною и что он ГЛАВА ПАЖЕЙ. - Какая ты глава, ты одна СТРОЧКА! - сказал я ему.

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