54 Macdonald, 1976. This type of postmodifier, an ADJ RC, changes into an
English adjectival premodifier, as shown in example 3. Another example is that a noun head modified by a modifying noun and an ordinal number is correctly
translated into English, as shown by example 4. Presiden is the noun head, and it is modified by the modifying noun Indonesia and the ordinal number ke-4. The
modifying noun turns to be a complement PP in English, which modifies the noun head.
Then, the constituent „President of Indonesia‟ is modified by the ordinal number functioning as an ADJ, and the whole NP constituent is preceded by the
definite article. Following Radford‟s 1988 theory in Chapter II, the structure of
the NP as a whole is presented in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1 Correct translation of Determiner + Adjunct + Head + Complement
Furthermore, correct translations are found in the use of syntactic devices
in possessive expression. In INPs, possessors always come after the noun head or the possessee noun. However, in ENPs, possessive construction can be expressed
by either the prenominal genitive or postnominal of-construction. Example 5 shows the correct translation of possessive construction found in the translation
products of ELESP students batch 2010.
55
Table 4.4 Correct translation of possessive expression
SL TL
5 a. pidato pertanggungjawaban Habibie Habibie‟s accountability speech
b. cucu Ki Ajah Pamengger yang merupakan
guru sekaligus ayah angkat Adipati Kebo Marcuet
the grandchild of Ki Ajah Pamengger, the teacher and the stepfather of Kebo
Marcuet
Correct Translation, Appendix 1 number 270 and 402
Examples 5a-b show that the syntactic device to indicate possession in INPs is the same; possessors come after the possessee. However, the structure of
possession in ENPs consists of the genitive ‘s and the of-phrase. In example 5a,
the prenominal genitive is preferred. The possessor of the NP is short or anaphoric construction, since it is a proper name Keizer, 2007; Quirk et al., 1985.
By contrast, the of-construction is preferred in example 5b. This NP contains two possessive expressions, namely cucu Ki Ajah Pamengger and guru
dan ayah angkat Kebo Marcuet. Both expressions function the of-construction. In the first possessive form, the of-phrase is used because the possessor Ki Ajah
Pamengger is postmodified by an apposition. Besides, the of-phrase is preferred in the second possessive form guru dan ayah angkat Kebo Marcuet. The phrase
„the teacher and stepfather‟ describes the previous noun, Ki Ajah Pamengger, in apposition. If the
prenominal genitive is used, as in „Ki Ajah Pamengger‟s grandchild, Kebo Marcuet‟s teacher and stepfather‟, it results in the meaning
discontinuity. The meaning of the apposition „the teacher and the stepfather of
Kebo Marcuet‟ to describe the noun „Ki Ajah Pamengger‟ becomes not clear. Hence, the of-phrase is preferred in example 5b. The structure of example 5b
follows the theories mentioned by Quirk et al. 1985 and Keizer 2007 that an
56 of-phrase is preferred in order to avoid meaning discontinuity and ambiguity, or
when the possessors are coordinated or postmodified by appositions.
C. Complexity of Phrase Noun Head 1. Incorrect Headword
The first syntactic complexity in translating NPs from Indonesian into English is the phrase noun head. A noun head becomes the main element of an NP
as Quirk et al. 1985, p.67 state that “heads are obligatory and modifiers are generally optional”. A noun headword is the place where all other components
cluster. The position of noun heads in INPs and ENPs is different. Therefore, recognizing the noun head in the two different structures is necessary, in order
that the message of the source language can be delivered correctly by the natural structure of the target language.
Based on the theories discussed in Chapter II, it is obvious that the NP structures of the Indonesian and English are totally different. In Indonesian, NPs
are mostly postmodified; the headword of an INP is always located in the beginning of the phrase, except the NP is premodified by quantifiers and
classifiers. By contrast, the noun head of an ENP can come either in the end of the phrase, as it is premodified, or in the beginning, as it is postmodified. In
translating INPs into ENPs, the phrase noun heads should be consistent, though the positions are different. When there are different noun heads between the INPs
and the ENPs, the meanings will be different. The research finds that 278 numbers of incorrect translations occur due to
the incorrect noun heads. The noun heads in the ENPs are distinct from the INPs.
57 As a result, the translations do not reach the intended meaning of the INPs. Table
4.5 provides one of the examples.
Table 4.5 Incorrect noun head in simple modification
SL TL
Acceptable Translation
6 Ia hanya memandang keramaian
dari depan rumahnya saja. He just saw the noisy from the
front house .
the front of his house
Complexity of Phrase Noun head, Appendix 2 number 3
The word depan „front‟ becomes the noun head, and rumah „house‟ is the
modifying noun followed by the possessive pronoun -nya. The modifying N rumah
„house‟ specifies the head, so depan rumah means the front part of a house. When the NP is translated into English, the meaning changes as
„the front house‟ rumah depan. The word
„front‟ in the ENP is an ADJ, not an N. According to Radford 1988, ADJs function as adjuncts. Structurally, the translated NP
consists of Determiner + Adjunct + Noun Head, shown in Figure 4.2.
Figure 4.2 Determiner + Adjunct + Head
Because the functions of the word „front‟ are different between the INP
and the ENP, the meanings contained in both NPs are also distinct. The meaning of the translated NP is that:
6.a among some houses, the intended one is the house located in the front of other houses
58 It contrasts with the meaning of the INP.
6.b the front part of a particular house, in this context Uncle Grasshopper‟s house
Since the noun head in the INP is depan „front‟, the English version should be
„front‟ as an N. Modified by an N, the whole NP should be „the front of his house
‟. In this context, the definite article „the‟ refers to a definite reference Quirk et al., 1985
, namely Uncle Grasshopper‟s house. For convenience, Figure 4.3 shows the syntactic structure of the correct translation.
Figure 4.3 Correct translation of Determiner + Head + Complement
Obviously, the structures of the NPs shown in Figures 4.2 and 4.3 are completely different. In Figure 4.3
, „front‟ is the noun head modified by a PP „of his house‟ functioning as a complement. From the analysis, it is concluded that
the syntactic complexity exists because of different noun heads between INPs and ENPs, which results in different structures of NPs. Consequently, the inconsistent
noun heads cause distinct meanings from that of the INPs. Other cases of incorrect noun head in the English translations also occur in
the following examples in Table 4.6.
