Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language has many important functions for human life, especially as a communication tool. For those reasons, people in the world create language for interacting and communicating with others. Nowadays, language diversity and the development of science and knowledge lead people to communicate in different languages. Therefore, people need to be able to communicate in both ways: into and from the foreign language, for example is through translation. Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message andor statement in one language by the same message andor statement in another language. 1 The ability to translate texts from foreign language becomes important. Translation of texts and books is needed because people have to get the information and knowledge as soon as possible instead of spending times to have acquisition of foreign languages. By translating, people can get information from a foreign language without having difficulties in receiving it. 1 Peter Newmark, Approaches to Translation. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981, p. 7 1 Translating a text is obviously not simple. Common sense tells us that this ought to be simple, as one ought to be able to say something as well in one language as in another. On the other hand, it is complicated, artificial and fraudulent, since by using another language we are pretending to be someone we are not. 2 According to Soemarno, as quoted by Zifana, translating a text is very complicated because the translator should understand aspects related to the translation process of a text, such as the background of the text or cultural aspects. 3 In recent years, for the purpose of science, technology, and knowledge transfers, many texts and books are translated. Many English texts and books are translated into Indonesian versions, including literary works, such as novel. Unfortunately, some translations are not easy to understand and it can make the readers disappointed. Sometimes, many readers found some missing words in the translation of the novel they read. Often, the readers feel hard to understand the novel translated from English. It can happen when the translator does not translate the novel based on the translation principles or heshe does not understand the meaning contained in the target language. 4 2 Peter Newmark, A Textbook of Translation. Prentice Hall Internatioanl, 1988, p. 7. 3 Mahardhika Zifana. A Comparative Study on the Translation Methods Used in Three Indonesian Translated Versions of Kahlil Gibran’s ‘The Broken Wings’. A Paper. Bandung: FPBS UPI, 2006 p. 3 4 Edy. An Analysis of Translated Versions of Agatha Christie’s ‘Appointment with Death’. A Paper. Bandung: FPBS UPI, 2003, p. 18 In translating English novels, the translator often makes some necessary changes. The changes like reduction, addition and modification of the intrinsic elements of the novels cannot be avoided. When source language in the novel is translated into target language, not all of the words can be transformed. To find what changes are made from the English novel, a comparison analysis of the English version and Indonesian version can be done. One of the famous literary works nowadays is Twilight, a novel by Stephenie Meyer. It is the first book of the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella Bella Swan, who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen. It received mainly positive reviews from critics and became an instant bestseller when first published originally in 2005. It has been translated into 37 different languages, including Indonesian. The novel is followed by New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. A film adaptation of Twilight was released in 2008. 5 Based on information mentioned above, the writer is interested to know the several changes made from the original version to the Indonesian version and to consider the reasons why the changes made in the Twilight novel. For example, on page 3, the sentence ”It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue” was translated into “Suhu kota Phoenix 23 C langit cerah, biru tanpa awan”. In this translation, the temperature size seventy-five degrees was 5 Twilight Novel, Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. March 25, 2010. http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiTwilight_novel adjusted into 23 C. The adaptation occurs because of the differences in units used to measure the temperature on the source language English, commonly used units of Fahrenheit, and the target language Indonesian, commonly used unit of Celsius.

B. Focus of the Study