Paraphrase Strategies for Translating Idioms
50 TL correspond. However, the researcher finds that most idioms in the movie
which are translated using this strategy convey the different meaning.
Excerpt [18]
There are nine idioms translated using literal translation strategy. One of the idioms is
hold your horses
. This idiom means to tell somebody to wait for a moment
and not be so excited that they take action without thinking about it first.
Table 4.9 Form and Meaning: Literal Translation
SL Idiom TL Idiom
Idiom hold your horses
tahan kudamu
Form
idiomatic expression non-idiomatic expression
similar lexical items
Meaning wait a moment
handle your horse Referring to Table 4.9,
hold your horses
and
tahan kudamu
have different meaning. The idiom
hold your horses
is translated word per word without taking into account the meaning in the TL. After looking at the context, the idiom will be
more meaningful if it is paraphrased into
bersabarlah
. The idiom emerged when Jules‟s additional driver scolded another driver because he almost hit Jules‟s car.
In f act, Jules‟s additional driver was the one who drove crazily.
The second idiom is
a piece of cake
A93
.
This idiom means that something is very easy to do. The strategy which is used to translate the idiom is
literal translation.
A piece
becomes
sepotong
and
cake
becomes
kue
. In other words, the translator translates the idiom based on their literal meaning. This
translation is not accurate because the meaning of the SL idiom in the TL is not
English Subtitles Indonesian Subtitles
00:58:47,062 00:58:50,329
- Come on - Hold your horses, maniac
00:58:47,140 00:58:50,407
- Ayolah - Tahan kudamu, orang gila A73
51 the same.
Sepotong kue
does not yield the same meaning with the SL.
A piece of cake
will be more meaningful if it is paraphrased into
sangat mudah.
Table 4.10 Categories of Idioms and Strategies for Translating Idioms
Category
Strategy Pure Idioms
Semi- idioms
Literal Idioms
Total n
N N
n SMF
1 0.8
3 2.3
3 2.3
7 5.4
SMDF 3
2.3 1
0.8 4
3.1
B
2 1.5
2 1.5
P 47
36.1 27
20.8 31
23.9 105
80.8
O 1
0.8 2
1.5 3
2.3
LT 6
4.6 2
1.5 1
0.8 9
6.9
Total 57