Translation Evaluation Theoretical Review

Nababan, Nuraeni, Sumardiono 2012: 44 offers a parameter to assess the equivalence of a translation. They believe that three aspects should be studied closely to determine the quality of a translation. They are accuracy, acceptability and readability. The term accuracy refers to the equivalence between source text and target text. Acceptability is an aspect about whether the target text is rendered according to the culture, custom, and the norms of the source language. Meanwhile, readability deals with not only the readability of the source text, but also the readability of the target text. There are also other sets of criteria to assess translation, such as what is suggested by The Institute of Linguists‘ IoL Diploma in Translation as cited by Munday 2001: 30. The criteria are: 1 accuracy, 2 the appropriate choice of vocabulary, idiom, terminology and register, 3 cohesion, coherence and organization, and 4 accuracy in technical aspects of punctuation, etc. To check whether a translation fulfill these criteria, a test needs to be applied. Larson 1998: 533 provides several ways of testing, they are: 1 comparison with the source text, 2 back-translation into the source language, 3 comprehension checks, 4 naturalness and readability testing, and 5 consistency checks.

2.2.11. Translation Accuracy

As shown in the previous sub-heading, some scholars believe that accuracy is one of the most important aspect that needs to be examined in order to assess if a translation is equivalent or not. The 8 th edi tion of Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary defines accuracy as ―the state of being exact or correct; the ability to do something skillfully without making mistakes‖ Hornby, 2010: 10. Therefore, translation accuracy can be interpreted as the correctness of the message rendered from source text to target text. Accuracy is defined by Rahimi 2004 as cited in Anari Bouali 2009: 80 as ―the suitable and detailed explanation of the source message and the transmission of that message as exactly as possible‖. Inaccuracy is indicated by addition in information and wrong analysis of the text meaning. Meanwhile, Farahani 2005 in Anari Bouali 2009: 80 states that accuracy refers to ―the extent to which the writer translates a text accurately and precisely‖. Accuracy is written twice in the assessment criteria created by The Institute of Linguists‘ IoL Diploma in Translation as cited in Munday 2001: