The problem of translatability of sad-related adjectives in Spanish and English

Abstract

The objective of this study is to address translatability issues of the three sad-related adjectives in Spanish and English through the lens of Natural Semantic Metalanguage framework: a) triste/sad; b) abatido/dejected, depressed, and c) apesadumbrado/distressed, afflicted. Systematic corpus inquiry and semantic analysis was the methodology used to elaborate semantic explications of these adjectives in Spanish, which were contrasted to their English counterparts (Wierzbicka, 1972, 1992b). The findings point to the complexity of direct translation of these adjectives due to the following reasons. Firstly, in comparison to their English semi-equivalents, the explications of the Spanish adjectives proposed here are more meaning-specific and recognize more than one meaning for the same adjective (the cases of triste and abatido). The second problem derives from the combinatory with the two allolexes of to be in Spanish (ser, be permanently, and estar, be temporally). While in Spanish there is a distinction between feeling, attitude, and character trait for triste (sad), in English this distinction has not been described for sad. Finally, the explanations proposed here for the Spanish adjectives are richer in semantic features than the explanations of their English semi-equivalents. Although this prevents a direct comparison between both languages, the analysis led to some suggestions to lexicographers related to the definitions of emotions in bilingual dictionaries.