THE MEDICAL CONCEPT OF DAMAGE AND ITS INDONESIAN EQUIVALENT CEDERA: A NATURAL SEMANTIC METALANGUAGE APPROACH

Sri Rwa Jayanti, I Gusti Agung ( STIBA Saraswati Denpasar)

LINGUAL: Journal of Language and Culture
Vol 2, No 3 (2014)

This paper investigates the meaning configuration of English medical concept ‘damage’ and its Indonesian equivalent ‘cedera’ as one of the interesting phenomena faced in English-Indonesian medical terminology translation. The former is found in the medical textbook entitled General Ophtamology while the latter is its Indonesian translation identified in Oftamologi Umum. The two books are references for the study of eye disease and medication. Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory proposed by Wierzbicka (1996) and her colleagues is utilized to explicate the meaning of the terms. Following Otomo dan Torii (2006) in adding the specific feature of meaning once the explication is made, the distinctive characteristic of ‘damage’ and ‘cedera’ can be comprehensively presented in this study.