NATURAL SEMANTIC METALANGUAGE IN ENGLISH INDONESIAN TRANSLATION: A CROSS-LINGUISTIC SEMANTIC CASE STUDY

Abstrak

This study explores the application of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) in translating English
lexical items into Indonesian. NSM provides a framework for analyzing meaning using universal
semantic primes, allowing for precise cross-linguistic comparison. Using a qualitative descriptive
approach, this research examines selected English verbs (provide, inform, give, tell) and adjectives
(smart, clever, intelligent) alongside their Indonesian equivalents (menyediakan, memberi, memberi
tahu, pintar, cerdas, pandai). The analysis demonstrates that translation equivalence is rarely one
to-one, as Indonesian lexical items encode additional semantic distinctions such as intentionality,
temporality, and cognitive evaluation. The findings confirm that NSM is an effective tool for
uncovering semantic nuances and improving translation accuracy. This study contributes to
translation studies and cross-cultural semantics by highlighting how meaning is structured
differently across languages.