CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Language is “the system of communication in speech and writing that is used by people of a particular country or area”
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. Language as a medium of communication has an important role because through language people can
express ideas, feelings and opinions. Nowadays, language is also expected to use as a medium to elicit information and knowledge as wide as possible. Many
people around the world have mastered not only everyday language of certain society in a certain region, but also other languages used in other regions or
countries. To spread extensively information provided in many foreign languages,
the role of translator surely essential. Actually, there are many definitions about translation. Simatupang gives the definition of translation in his book
“Menerjemahkan adalah mengalihkan makna yang terdapat dalam bahasa sumber ke dalam bahasa sasaran dan mewujudkannya kembali di dalam bahasa sasaran
dengan bentuk-bentuk yang sewajar mungkin menurut aturan-aturan yang berlaku dalam bahasa sasaran”, Translation is to transfer the meaning from source
language into target language and recreate it in the target language in the most
1
Albert Sidney Hornby, 2005, Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, Oxford University Press,
p. 862.
natural forms going along with applicable rules in the target language.
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It can be said that translation is a process to transfer the meaning, not the form. For
example, Indonesian translation of I take bus is not Saya mengambil bis but it is translated to Saya naik bis. The sentence is translated so in order to keep the
naturalness of the meaning. Such as a statement of Simatupang in his book: “Kewajaran menurut bahasa sasaran harus diusahaan agar pembaca hasil
terjemahan tidak menyadari bahwa dia sedang membaca suatu terjemahan”, Naturalness according to the target language must be attempted to make the
readers don‟t realize that they are reading a translation.
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Translation becomes a necessity in many fields. It is proven with many books, articles and other texts that have been translated from one language into
another language to fulfill people‟s need of information. Not only books contain scientific knowledge, but also other genres of books such as novel, short story,
and other mediums of entertainment have been translated as well. Reading a translation of a literary work is no more unusual in the
circumstances of readership. One of literary works is novel. Besides popular, novel has become an interesting reading for many people as a medium of
entertainment. To satisfy the reader, translator must make an effort to produce a good
translation product. The best translation is the one which a uses the normal language forms of the receptor language, b communicates, as much as possible,
2
Maurits D. S. Simatupang, 19992000, Pengantar Teori Terjemahan, Direktorat Jendral Pendidikan Tinggi Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, p. 2.
3
Ibid.
to the receptor language speakers the same meaning that was understood by the speakers of the source language, and c maintains the dynamic of the original
source language text.
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Producing a good translation is not an easy work. It requires understanding of relevant theories and broad knowledge in many fields. One of
the obstacles that may be found by the translator is translating English words combinations into Indonesian, for example, is in translating collocations.
Etymologically, collocation can be defined as “a combination of words in
a language, that happens very often and more frequently than would happen by chance”.
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Simatupang stated that collocation is also fixed combination of some words and each meaning of the former words is basically kept.
“Kolokasi juga merupakan kombinasi tetap beberapa kata dan makna masing-masing kata
pembentuknya pada dasarnya dipertahankan”.
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English collocation can be translated into Indonesian collocation, for example the phrase a piece of paper can
be translated to secarik kertas. Combination of word secarik and kertas often occurs and becomes the most natural combination in Indonesian. Sometimes, a
pair of words may not be absolutely wrong, and people will understand what it does mean, but it may not be the natural, normal collocation. If someone says I
did a few mistakes they will be understood, but a fluent speaker of English would probably say I made a few mistakes.
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As McCarthy and O‟Dell said:
4
Mildred L. Larson, 1984, Meaning-Based Translation, University Press of America, p.6.
5
Albert Sidney Hornby, Op. cit., p. 293.
6
Maurits D.S Simatupang, Op. cit., p. 57.
7
Michael McCarthy, Felicity O‟Dell, 2005, English Collocations in Use, Cambridge University Press, p.6.
Some collocations are fixed, and some of them are more open. However, both kinds of collocations are quite hard to guess especially by English non-
native speakers. “Learning collocation is an important part of learning the vocabulary of a language. Some collocations are fixed, or very strong, for
example take a photo, where no word other than take collocates with photo to give the same meaning. Some collocations are more open, where several
different words may be used to give a similar meaning, for example keep to stick to the rules
.”
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Sentence below is taken from Novel Percy Jackson and the Olympians “The Battle of the Labyrinth”.
“Hi, Percy,” he said, so depressed he didn‟t ever offer to shake my hand. It is translated to “Hai, Percy,” katanya begitu depresi sampai-sampai dia bahkan
tidak mengulurkan tangan untuk mengajakku bersalaman. Words shake and hand collocate each other and create a meaning i.e. bersalaman atau berjabat tangan,
not translated to menggoncangkan tangan. Shake hand is also a fixed collocation where there is no word can substitute shake to collocate with hand to get the same
meaning. Overall, translator should be concerned to find the equivalence of English
collocation in Indonesian. As a matter of course, there are English collocations that have no equivalences in the form of Indonesian collocation. Therefore it is a
necessary to find out other strategies in translating collocation. “Hal lain yang
perlu diperhatikan oleh penerjemah ialah bagaimana mencari kolokasi yang
8
Ibid.
benar”, Another thing that translator should pay attention with is how to find the correct collocation.
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The explanations above become the main interest for the writer to find out more about translating collocation. After looking for what kind of text would
be used as the source of data, the writer chose novel Percy Jackson and the Olympians “The Battle of the Labyrinth”. That novel is the fourth series of the
novel Percy Jackson and the Olympians which is the first novel had been filmed and released in Indonesia. The fourth series was chosen because at the time this
research was carried out, this was the latest series that had been published in Indonesian language. Beside the novel has an interesting story, there are many
collocations inside the novel as the project of this research.
B. Focus of the Study