Jayantini, I Gusti Agung Sri Rwa (2014). The medical concept of damage and its Indonesian equivalent cedera: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. Lingual: Journal of Language and Culture, 3(2). DOI: 10.24843/LJLC.2014.v03.i02.p06. PDF (open access)

This paper investigates the meaning configuration of the 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 is utilized to explicate the meaning of the terms. Adding the specific features of meaning once the basic explication is drawn up allows for the distinctive characteristics of ‘damage’ and ‘cedera’ to be comprehensively presented.


Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner