3. Meaning Equivalence
According to Catford 1965:20, translation is the replacement of textual materials in one language to another language by equivalent textual materials in
another language. Equivalence is the important point that has to be paid more attention in the activity of translation. It is discovered by comparing the source
language and target language. Baker in In Other Words 1992:5 classifies equivalence in translation into
five. The first is equivalence at word level, which explores are the meaning of a single word or expressions. The second is equivalence above word level, which
explores the meaning of combination of words and phrases. The third is grammatical equivalence, which deals with grammatical categories such as
number and gender. The fourth is textual equivalence, which explores the meaning of the textual level of language. The last is pragmatic equivalence, which
looks at how texts are used in communicative situations that involved variables such as writers, readers, and cultural context.
Meanwhile, Bell 1991:6 says that a text in a different language can be equivalent in different degrees. Bell divides the degrees equivalence into
equivalent meaning which consists of fully equivalent and partly equivalent, and non equivalent meaning which consists of different meaning and no meaning.
4. About Negeri 5 Menara
Negeri 5 Menara is written by Ahmad Fuadi. It is first book of trilogy Negeri 5 Menara. A. Fuadi was born in West Sumatera and went to Java to obey
his mother’s order to enter an Islamic boarding school. After graduated from the
Islamic boarding school, he continued his study in Padjadjaran University and he became a journalist. Fuadi is a scholarship hunter. Until today he has got eight
scholarships to study abroad. He wrote this novel based on his life story. Negeri 5 Menara tells about
Alif’s life journey at Madani Islamic Boarding School in East Java. Alif meets four boys from across archipelago who
later became his best friends. In the first day of school, they were given a doctrine by their teacher through an Arabic proverb Man Jadda Wajada which
means “he who gives his all will surely succeed”. The teacher used a log and a blunt machete
when demonstrated the proverb. They gathered in beneath of the mosque’s
minaret when they have spare time. They do anything under minaret such as studying before exam, practicing before their performance, waiting the time of
praying, etc. Since that they were known as “fellowship of the manara”. Under the
minaret they discuss everything such as about their dream. Each of them has dream to visit a country. By the Arabic proverb, they believe that if they work
hard to make their dream come true, they will get their dream in future, because
God truly is The Listener. B.
Conceptual Framework
This research focuses on finding out the types of proper nouns, the translation techniques of the proper nouns and the degree of the meaning
equivalence of the translation of the proper nouns in Negeri 5 Menara by Fuadi which is translated by Angie Kilbane into The Land of Five Towers. They are
derived by analyzing the types of proper nouns in the novel.
This research adopts the notion of translation by Nida and Taber, that translation is the process of reproducing a natural and equivalent meaning from
the source language SL to target language TL firstly in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. Therefore, the employments of the translation
techniques influencing the meaning equivalence in the target language are the points in this study. In analyzing the techniques used in the English translation,
the collected data of proper nouns are categorized into six types. This research adopted the definition and the types of proper noun by
Frank. The definition of proper noun by Frank is a proper noun begins with a capital letter in writing. These types of proper nouns employed in the texts appear
to be the first point. Those are personal name, geographic unit, nationality and religion, name of holiday, time unit, and word use for personification. Personal
name is name of person that must be written by capital letters, for example “Ahmad Fuadi”. Geographical unit is name of some places including countries,
cities, rivers, mountains, etc. for example is “Musi River”. Nationalities and
religion also must be written which capital letters for example “Christians” and
“Sundanese”. The example of holiday’s name is “Waisak”. Moreover, time units are including name of day and month, the examples are
“June” and “Thursday”. The last one is word used for personification, a thing or abstraction treated as a
person, for examples are “Liberty” and “Nature”. Proper nouns can be expressed
in word or phrase rank expression. This research adopts Lincoln Fernandes’ translation techniques. Fernandes
classifies ten techniques of translation. They are rendition, copy, transcription, re-
creation, substitution, deletion, addition, transposition, phonological replacement, and conventionality.
The notion of meaning equivalence in this research is adopted from Bell ’s
theory. Based on his theory, it is divided into equivalent meaning and non equivalent meaning.
Equivalent meaning consists of fully equivalent meaning and partly equivalent meaning. The fully equivalent meaning occurs when the message of
the source text is fully translated into the target text. For example word “Sumatera
Barat ” translated into “West Sumatera”. While partly equivalent meaning occurs
when the translation omits or adds some information in the target text that is not found in the source text. The meaning of the source text is not fully delivered into
the target text. For example the words “Sazli Rais” that refers to a news anchor
has special characteristic, in the target text it is generalized into “news anchor”.
Non-equivalent meaning consists of different meaning and no meaning. Different meaning occurs when the meaning from the source text is translated
differently into the target text. The example of different meaning is the word “Isya” in the ST which means one of Muslim’s pray, it is translated in the TT into
“dinner” which means eating in the evening. No meaning occurs when one or some words are omitted so that the information or message of the source text loses
in the target text. The example is the word “Betawi”. In the ST, which is omits in
the TT.
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