Person Problems of English - Indonesian Grammatical Categories in Translation

38 translation should be “Maukah kau menikahi aku?” Nevertheless, it does not sound right based on our culture, it should be “Bersediakah kamu menikah denganku?” “As an Indonesian woman who has norm, she is not allowed to ask. A woman is supposed to be beautiful, dumb, waiting, and passive and has no power” http:majalahtempointeraktif.com.

2.8.3 Person

“The familiarity deference dimension in the pronoun system is among the most fascinating aspects of grammar and the most problematic in translation. It reflects the tenor of discourse and can convey a whole range of rather subtle meanings” Baker 1992: 98. The choices of person category depend on the speaker and the listener, what and whom talked about, whether it is close or far, seen or unseen. “That’s why it can be imagined what kind of difficulties occurs when translating person system from language, which the politeness system is not strict into the strict one, for example English into Bahasa Indonesia” Chaer 2000: 83. English pronoun system is simpler than Bahasa Indonesia. “Because the pronoun system of Bahasa Indonesia is more complicated than English, the translator should understand the context well so that the choices can be accepted in target language, i.e. Bahasa Indonesia” Simatupang 2000: 85. It sometimes makes the translator feel confused. English doesn’t consider the relationship between the participants. The choices of pronoun system don’t depend on the intimacy or politeness. Meanwhile, the pronoun system of Bahasa Indonesia depends on those aspects. 39 The examples are: 63 I don’t know that, Anna - Aku tidak tahu itu, Anna, 64 I don’t know that, sir - Saya tidak tahu itu, pak, 65 Do you want to go with me, Anna? - Maukah kamu pergi denganku, Anna? 66 Do you need help, sir? - Apakah anda membutuhkan bantuan, pak? 67 Alice asked her father, “Where were you yesterday?” - Alice bertanya pada ayahnya, “Dimana ayah kemarin?” The first plural pronoun in English we doesn’t differ the inclusive and exclusive form like Bahasa Indonesia kita kami. English differentiates third singular pronoun based on gender ‘he’ for masculine and ‘she’ for feminine. Bahasa Indonesia has only one third singular pronoun ‘dia’ for both masculine and feminine. Translating third singular pronoun of English into Bahasa Indonesia will make some information disappeared. For example: Here are Tono and Tini Ini ada Tono dan Tini Do you want to talk to them? Apakah kamu ingin berbicara dengan mereka? Yes but only with her. Ya tapi hanya dengan dia It will be confusing when we have to answer the questions as follows: 1 What does her refer to? Her refers to Tini, 2 What does dia refer to? Dia refers to Tono or Tini. Bahasa Indonesia has second singular kamu anda and plural kalian pronouns. English has only one you. Therefore, it is quite difficult to choose kamuanda or kalian when the relation between the speaker and the addressee is not recognized. 40

2.8.4 Tense and Aspect