ENGLISH-INDONESIAN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF VERBS FOUND IN DESPICABLE ME MOVIE.

ENGLISH-INDONESIAN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF VERBS
FOUND IN DESPICABLE ME MOVIE

A THESIS
Submitted to the English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts,
State University of Medan, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

Swari Fadhillah
Registration Number 2113220041

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015

DECLARATION
I have familiarized myself with the university’s policy on academic integrity.

Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own word, has been
expressed in my own words, and has not previously been submitted for

assessment.
I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise
for plagiarism.

Medan,
The Writer

August 2015

Swari Fadhillah
2113220041

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Great thanks and praise to the Almighty Allah SWT who has blessed and
given the ability to the write to complete her thesis as the partial fulfillment of the
requirements for degree of Sarjana Sastra at the English Department, Faculty of
Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the
help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable
assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special

appreciation goes to:




Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of
Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean Faculty of Language and Arts,
State University of Medan.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department, Dra. Meisuri, MA., the Secretary of English Department,
Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., the Head of English Education
Program and Dr. Rahmah, M.Hum., the Head of English NonEducational Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of








Medan.
Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga, M.Hum., as her thesis supervisor.
Dr. Rahmah, M.Hum., Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S., and Drs.
Muhammad Natsir, M.Hum. as her thesis examiners.
Maam Eis Sri Wahyuni, M.Pd., as the Administration Staff of English
Department for helping the writer in preparing all the fulfillment in



conducting this thesis.
Beloved parents, Suwarno and Erna, for the patience, affection, prayer,
financial support and taught the writer many worth things in facing the
life. Thanks also given to her brothers and sister: Istianti Ningrum, Sasti
Andini, Arif Akbar, and Luthfi Dzakiyyah. And also given to her

ii

brother in law: Adi Syahputra Saragih, my cute niece: Kalila Adisti



Saragih.
All her beloved friends in English Literature A and B 2011, especially for
Eren Julianto Gultom, Lusi Lisna Ria Manalu, Ines Butar-Butar,
Viatari Dipa Pencawan, Swarman Rindu Siahaan, Henny Anggria,
and others that cannot be mentioned all. Thanks for their support,
kindness, great love and care to the writer, also warm hearted



encouragement friendship in finishing this thesis to the writer.
The people who direct or indirectly contributed in this study, your
kindness means a lot to her.

Medan, June 2015
The writer,

Swari Fadhillah

iii


ENGLISH-INDONESIAN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF
VERBS FOUND IN DESPICABLE ME MOVIE
*
**

Swari Fadhillah

Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga
ABSTRACT

This research focused on translation equivalence of verbs found in Despicable Me
Movie. The research was conducted by using qualitative method. The source of
data was collected from the movie script and its translation in Indonesian, and the
data was limited on the verbs. The objective of the study are to find out the type of
translation equivalence in Despicable Me Movie script and its translation, the
most dominant type of equivalence found in the movie script and its translation,
and the naturalness of expression in the translation of movie script. The data was
analyzed based on Nida (McGuire, 1991) theory about translation equivalence.
There are two types of equivalences, they are: (1) Formal Equivalence, which
focus attention on the message itself, in both form and content, and (2) D-E

translation, which is based upon the principle of equivalence effect.
Keywords: Translation Equivalence, Verb, Movie.

*
**

Graduate Status
Lecturer Status

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ABSTRACT ...........................................................................................

i

ACKNOWLEDGMENT........................................................................

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................

iv

LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................

vi

LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................

vii

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................

1

A. The Background of the Study .......................................................

1


B. The Problems of the Study ...........................................................

5

C. The objectives of the Study ..........................................................

5

D. The Scope of the Study.................................................................

5

E. The Significances of Study ...........................................................

6

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE .......................................

7


A. Theoretical Framework ................................................................

7

1. Definition of Translation ........................................................

7

2. The Function of Translation ...................................................

8

3. The Process of Translation ......................................................

9

4. The Kind of Translation ..........................................................

15


5. Translation Equivalence .........................................................

16

a. Formal Equivalences .........................................................

17

b. Dynamic Equivalences ......................................................

18

6. Translation Assessment ..........................................................

20

7. The Role of Culture in Translation ..........................................

21


8. The Classification of Verbs.....................................................

23

a. The Classification of Verbs in English ..............................

23

b. The Classification of Verbs in Indonesian .........................

27

9. A Brief Explanation of Despicable Me Movie ........................

29

10. Indonesian Script Translator of Despicable Me Movie ............

29

B. Previous Research ........................................................................

30

iv

C. Conceptual Framework ................................................................

31

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................

33

A. Research Design ...........................................................................

33

B. The Source of Data .......................................................................

33

C. The Technique of Collecting Data ................................................

33

D. The Technique of Analyzing Data ................................................

33

CHAPTER IV. DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ..................................

35

A. The Data ......................................................................................

35

B. The Data Analysis ........................................................................

35

C. The Findings ................................................................................

41

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ......................

42

A. Conclusions ..................................................................................

42

B. Suggestions ..................................................................................

42

REFERENCES ......................................................................................

43

APPENDICES ........................................................................................

45

v

LIST OF TABLES

TABLES

Pages

Table 4.1.

F-E Translation .................................................................

36

Table 4.2.

D-E Translation .................................................................

37

Table 4.3.

Dominant Type of Equivalences .......................................

39

Table 4.4.

Naturalness of Expression .................................................

40

vi

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX

Pages

Appendix A

....................................................................................... 45

Appendix B

....................................................................................... 54

Appendix C

....................................................................................... 79

vii

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of Study
Human beings in this world consist of different races and languages.
Besides, humans are social creatures who cannot live alone and need each other
for the sake of living. Based on this, humans need to communicate, and the most
common way humans use to communicate is through language. According to
Wibowo (2001:3), language is a system of symbols that are meaningful and
articulate sound (generated by said tool) which are arbitrary and conventional,
which is used as a means of communicating by a group of human beings to give
birth to feelings and thoughts. Today, humans can communicate to others
worldwide

easily

by

using

internet.

However,

humans

often

have

miscommunication in their interaction because of the language differences used
among the speakers. Some people can speak some languages, but some cannot.
Therefore, the role of translation is needed.
Translation is the neutral term used for all tasks where the meaning of
expression in one language (the’ source language’ is turned into the meaning of
another (the ‘target language’), whether the medium is spoken, written, or signed
(Crystal, 1987:334). As a means of communication, the translation should be
accurate, clear and natural. There should be correct equivalence of meaning
between source language and target language, and also parallelism in form in
order that people can understand the text easily. But sometimes it is hard for the
translator to find a suitable word when translating text from source language (SL)

into target language (TL). ’Lontong’ in Bahasa Indonesia, for instance, has no
lexical item in English. It happens because no words in SL can be translated
accurately in TL. Philosophically speaking, there are no two things that are
absolutely identical. Indeed, the basic reason why there are some words in SL
can’t be translated accurately to TL is culture. Nababan (1984:50) states, “bahasa,
sebagai sistem komunikasi, mempunyai makna hanya dalam kebudayaan yang
menjadi wadahnya, mengerti sesuatu bahasa tertentu memerlukan sedikit banyak
pengertian tentang kebudayaan”.
As Indonesia people have rice as a main course, lontong is another form of
rice itself. Meanwhile, in foreign country, especially western, they don’t eat rice
as a main course. Thus, we can’t find lontong in western countries. Therefore, we
can’t translate lontong accurately in English or any other language. As the way to
solve such kind of this issue, translator must modify the translation by using
another word in TL that equivalent with the words in SL so the reader of the
translation in TL can understand more what the original author want to tell.
Translators must have deep knowledge about both language, SL and TL, in order
to find the equivalent word. As a result, lontong translated as a food consisting of
rice steamed in banana leaves.
Equivalence translation is the similarity between a word or expression in
one language and its translation in another, this similarity results from
overlapping. Translation equivalence cannot be considered as the similarity but
considered as equal meaning in translating text in source language (SL) into target
language (TL). Crystal (1987:334) stated ”translation equivalence refers to the

equivalence relationships between target text (TT) and source text (ST)”. Catford
also generalize the conditions for translation equivalence as follows: “translation
equivalence occurs when an SL and a TL text or item are relatable to (at least
some of) the same features of substances”.
In a text, there is main element called verb. Verb is word that expresses
actions, state of being, or relation between two things. It functions as the main
elements of a predicate (what is said about the subject) (Manurung, 2007:26).
Verb is classified into different type in each language. In English, for instance,
verb classified into five (Frank, 1982). And Indonesia, verb classified into four
(Kridalaksana, 1990). As the main element in a sentence, verb in an SL must be
translated clearly in TL. But, some verbs are untranslatable as shown in example
below:
SL : I ‘am’ beautiful (English)
TL : aku cantik (Indonesia)
‘Am’ is classified into auxiliary verb to modify ‘I’ that function as
adjective and noun. As ‘aku’ in Indonesia is clearly act as a first person, no need
to modify with any lexical item. Based on this, the writer want to analyze the
translation equivalence of verbs using Nida (McGuire, 1991:26) theory that
classified translation equivalence into two, they are Formal Equivalence, which
focuses attention on the message itself, and Dynamic Equivalence, which is based
on principle of equivalence.
Besides, foreign movies nowadays are much published, especially
Hollywood movie which use English language. The writer choose Despicable Me

as one of America’s film presented by Universal Picture and produced by A Chris
Meledandri Production. This film is about Gru, a man that has an ambition to be a
greatest villain of all the time by stealing the moon. But, he transforms become a
kind man after met Margo, Edith, and Agnes, an orphan that he adopted to help
him get a shrink ray to steal the moon. Let us see example of translation
equivalence of verbs that the writer found in Despicable Me Movie script both in
SL (English) and TL (Indonesian).
SL : I know how you must be feeling. I, too, have encountered great
disappointment, but in my eyes, you will always be one of the greats.
TL : Aku tahu bagaimana perasaanmu. Aku juga, mengalami kegagalan
besar. Tapi dimataku, kau selalu yang terbaik. (00:06:5200:06:55)
‘Have encountered’ in SL is a verb and translated in a verb too in TL as
‘mengalami’. As formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in
both form and content, example above has no change in form. It is verb in SL, and
it is verb also in TL. Compare with example below:
SL : That was you, wasn’t it?
TL : Itu ulahmu, kan? (00:14:0100:14:03)
The word ‘was’ as auxiliary verb in SL doesn’t translate as verb in TL. It
is translated as ulah that classified into noun in Indonesia. This is what Nida said
as Dynamic Equivalence that means as the closest natural equivalent to the
source-language message.
From the explanation above, the research is about translation equivalence
of verbs found in Despicable Me Movie script and its translation, in Indonesia.

B. The Problems of Study
Based on background above, the writer tried to get the answers of
following questions:
1. What type of equivalences found in English-Indonesia translation of verbs
in Despicable Me Script?
2. What type of equivalences dominantly found in English-Indonesia
translation of verbs in Despicable Me Script?
3. To what extent the naturalness of expressions in the translation of
Despicable Me Movie?

C. The Objectives of Study
The purposes of this research were to find out:
1. The types of equivalence found in English-Indonesia translation of verbs in
Despicable Me script.
2. The most dominant type of equivalence found in English-Indonesia
translation of verbs in Despicable Me script.
3. The naturalness of expressions in the translation of Despicable Me script.

D. The Scope of Study
This study was related to translation equivalences of a movie ‘Despicable
Me’. The translation equivalence was limited on verbs used in the movie script,
both English and Indonesia translation.

E. The Significances of Study
The findings of this study were expected to be useful for:
1. Students of English language, who are interested in studying translation,
especially translation equivalences.
2. Translators, who’d like to translate the foreign movies, to increase the
knowledge about translation equivalence.
3. Researchers, especially a linguistic researcher, to increase the understanding
and idea, to conduct further related studies.

REFERENCES
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University Press.
Crystal, David. 1987. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge :
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Duff, Alan. 1989. Resource Book for Teachers: Translation. Oxford : Oxford
University Press.
Frank, Marcella. 1972. Modern English – A Practical Reference Guide. New
Jersey : Prentice Hall, Inc.
Julkhairi, 2009. The Equivalence of Passive Verbs In J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter
and The Deathly Hallows And Its Translation Into “Harry Potter dan
Relikui Kematian” By Listiana Srisanti. Medan : Faculty of Letter USU
Kridalaksana, Harimurti. 1996. Kelas Kata Dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta :
PT. Gramedia.
Larson, Mildred L. 1984. Meaning-Based Translation : A Guide to Cross
Language Equivalence. Lanham : University Press of America.
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Harry Potter Dan Orde Phoenix By Listiana Srisanti. Medan : Faculty of
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Turnip, 2001. The Equivalence of Verbs in the Translation of Mary Higgins
Clarks’ Where Are The Children Into Dimana Anak-Anakku. Medan :
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