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this is achieved, semantic equivalence between SL and TL texts will
not be far from being achieved.
It may not be impertinent, at this particular juncture, to deal at
length with each type of meaning and how the shifting process actually
takes place.
A. OBLIGATORY MEANING
As its name suggests, obligatory meaning is self-
explanatory. It is the type of meaning which the source highlights
and the translator, in turn, is committed to convey in the receptor
language. Though variably labelled, eg. referential (Nida, 1964)j,
conceptual (Leech, 1974) or scientific (Bloomfield, 1933),
obligatory meaning remains invariably the only constant in any
translation theory. The layer of obligatory meaning is at its
thickest in non-literary texts, eg. a science book, a medical
report, a business letter, a legal document, an instructions manual
... etc. Here the form in which the content is embedded is likely
to be subsidiary, the emphasis being lavished on the propositional
content of he message. Structural inconsistencies and grammatical
irregularities will not dramatically obstruct the course of
obligatory meaning. The extractability of the obligatory meaning
depends solely on the translator's prior acquaintance with and,
subsequently, identification of the technical and scientific
terminology involved in the text. His problem is primarily a
terminological one. Once the technical terms are pinpointed, it
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