CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the background of the study, reasons for choosing the topic, statement of the problem, purposes of the study, significances of the study, and
the outline of the report.
1.1 Background of the Study
The term “translation” is not new. Translation, either written or spoken, has become a part of linguistics. Written translation played an important role in a
period when there were contacts among ethnics having different languages. Burke 2005: 3 stated that the role of translated texts in movements such as the
Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment is of obvious importance, not to mention the expansion of Europe into other
continents. In this now era, people need to exchange information, do business, absorb
and develop science as well as transfer technology. In fulfilling those demands, people need media. Newspaper article is considered as one of the media,
especially in covering the need of exchanging worthy information throughout the world. While each country in the world has its own language, the activity of
exchanging information accross the globe becomes a difficult task to do. It is then
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clear that good products of translation, especially of newspaper article, are really needed.
Translation, by Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary definition, is act of putting something written or spoken into a different language. Translating a text is
not easy because of many changes by rules, customs, and culture of both languages. One of the mistakes in translating is caused by the translator translating
word by word, not meaning by meaning. Realizing the difficulties in translating from one language to the others,
Larson1984 suggests that the translator must consider the techniques for preparation, analysis, transfer of language, initial draft, reworking the initial draft,
testing the translation, refining, and preparing the final text to be published in order to have a good translation. In addition, as cited in Kusumah2007
Simatupang states that an ideal translator should be both bilingual mastering two languages; the source and the receptor language and bicultural knowing two
cultures well; the source and the receptor culture so that a good translation can be made. Those mentioned by Larson and Simatupang are important in case that the
result of the translation will be easily understood by the readers, since the translator does not only transfer the meaning, but also the culture into the target
language as well. However, the result of translation should be still tested in terms of three
factors mentioned by Larson 1984, those are accuracy the translations should not be irrelevant information or lessen the information that should be at the source
text, clearness The translations should be as easy to understand as the source 2
text, and naturalness the translations result sound idiomatic receptor language. Consequently, it is needed to refine the translation.
In conclusion, translating is difficult due to many changes by the rules, customs, and cultures from both languages. Considering the need of exchanging
information through out the world and the difficulties in translating, the writer is interested in analyzing the lexical non-equivalence in the translation of a
newspaper article by the English Department students of Semarang State University in academic year 20092010.
1.2 Reasons for Choosing the Topic
