The issue of meaning is undoubtedly significant in translation theory. Based on Catford's and Nida's view on meaning in translation, this paper aims at explore linguistic school's contribution to the theoretical description of meaning. With Nida's semantic studies as a focus, it argues that Nida's semantic studies represent an important stage and carry the linguistic school's theoretical studies of meaning in translation a step forward. (Contains 4 footnotes, 2 figures and 1 table.)