Connotation and denotation in literary translation

Abstract

Translation is generally considered as the act of transforming data from a source language to a target language. It is a well-known fact that a translator should always be a good linguist since she/he tackles language all the time regardless whether it is the target language (TL) or source language (SL). Among the translation types of technical, science, literary, legal and interpretation, literary translation is of great importance since it consists of translating poetry, prose, short stories, novels and other creations related to literature. This paper focuses on connotation and denotation which could be considered as a socio linguistic aspect that is relevant in the field of literary translation. This research employs the data that is being collected by the researcher which had been extracted from the novel Giraya and its translation and a deductive research had been carried out since this examines an existing theory and has not generated new theories. In addition, translating connotative and denotative terms and how translators have identified and translated such terms are being eloquently discussed in this research.