Levels of Meaning in Literary Translation: A Semantic Analysis of Associative Meaning in Maysaloon Hadi’s Novel Mohammad’s Brothers

Abstract

This study investigates associative meaning in literary translation with the selected examples from Maysaloon Hadi’s novel Mohammad’s Brothers. The research is based on Leech’s categorization of meaning, namely the five subcategories of associative meaning, i.e., connotative meaning, social meaning, emotive meaning, reflective meaning, and collocative meaning. It argues that the associative meaning is crucial in literary translation, as lexical items do not have just their dictionary meanings, but they also evoke cultural, emotional, stylistic, and contextual associations that might be different from Arabic to English. This is a qualitative, text-based study that seeks to investigate several Arabic portions of the novel and presents English translations that aim to keep the relevant connected meanings. These proposed translations are not considered published works for evaluation but are analytical examples of how a translator might go beyond denotation to convey meaning. The analysis reveals that words of cultural importance, forms of address, informal phrases, metaphorical descriptions, and politically charged terminology necessitate translation decisions based on both meaning and cultural impact. The study suggests that understanding of associative meaning is vital for making literary translations that are exact, fluid, and attentive to the communicative purpose of the original text.