CHAPTER III THE RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter discusses research design, method of translating, data and
data sources, the technique of collecting the data, data analysis, methods for verification or trustworthiness, and selecting source texts .
3.1 Research Design
This study is within the translation studies discipline. Munday, 2001:1 describes translation studies is related to the study of the theory and phenomena of
translation.By its nature it is multilingual and also interdisciplinary, encompassing languages, linguistics, communication studies, philosophy and a range of types of
cultural studies. In this study the researcher used qualitative research as an umbrella of the
study and it was rooted by based on descriptive translation studies DTS. In accordance with the
Holmes’s diagram in Chapter II DTS has three orientations, which are product oriented, process oriented and function oriented.
Holmes’ approach is interdisciplinary. Venuti, 2004:177 argues that process-oriented
DTS is concerned with the process or act of translation itself. DTS was used to transfer the message of the ST into the TT and to seek the procedures and
methods of transferring specific culture-bound terms of the ST into the TT. Systemic-Functional Linguistics SFL is a theory of language developed by
the linguist Halliday in the 1960s and it is centered on language function. SFL has become a strong and important influence in translation studies. Among others
Baker 1992, Catford 1965, Newmark 1991, Munday 2001 and Steiner
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2005. Halliday favors SFL, arguing that a sentence is a clause and it has a theme and a rheme.
The researcher believed that SFL was capable of providing a number of insights and impulses when applied to the process of translating rebu texts in
Karonese society into English. Qualitative research, Halliday’s SFL, Holmes’s DTS,
Newmark’s translation methods and procedures, Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies
were relevant in identiifying the researcher’s research questions. They were all applied in this study.
According to Newmark 1981: 19, translation theory is concerned mainly with determining appropriate translation methods for the widest possible range of
texts or text-categories. It also provides a frame work of principles, restricted rules and hints for translating texts and criticizing translations, a background for
problem solving. To translate the specific culture-bound terms in the ST into the
TT Newmark’s translation methods and translation procedures were applied in this study, as they had clear connection with the researcher’s research questions,
which were actually answered. In qualitative research, the ‘researcher as translator ’ focused on unmarked
and marked themes of rebu text clauses, specific culture-bound terms and politeness. In conducting qualitative research on translating cultural texts,
understanding the SL and TL is crucial, not only in the research process but also in the resulting data and its interpretation. By understanding the two languages the
researcher found it easy to understand the human behavior, social cultural processes and cultural meanings of the two cultures and languages. Karonese
language is the researcher’s mother tongue and he understands the Karonese culture. He is, actually, an insider of Karonese language and Karonese culture.
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Moreover, he has linguistic competence in English. The researcher understands the cultural issues of the SL and he is in a good position to conduct this translating
cross-cultural research. The definitions of translation, which were proposed by Catford 1965: 20-
21, Hatim and Mason 1990 : 30, Nida and Taber 1982 :12, Newmark 1988: 9, Munday 2001 : 4, Ming 2007 : 75 and Venuti 2004 : 128 show that the
translation process is not only the process of transferring structures of SL but it is also the process of translating culture from ST to TT. Translation is the process of
transferring message from ST into TT. In the process of translating, the meaning is transferred but the form of the SL structure can be changed in the TL. They are
untranslatable. Their meanings are transferred by certain translation procedure and translation methods.
It has also been suggested by Catford 1965 and Nida and Taber 1974 that there are elements of transferring cultures in the translation. The translator must
keep remembering that every language has its own system and structure. Therefore the system and structure of the SL cannot be forced into the TL. Some
of the message in the SL cannot be transferred into the target language accurately and, if the translation is forced, it is unnatural. The norms in the rebu texts were
analyzed and the message was transferred into English. The data were analyzed systematically to answer the research questions. The
first research question required identifying and describing the themes of the SL and translating them into the TL. This study applied the SFL framework proposed
by Halliday and Mathiesen 2004. Qualitative research methods, supported by interdisciplinary and multiple approaches, were used. This framework was used
to identify the themes in every clause of the SL and the TL. The research
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methods, supported by interdisciplinary and multiple approaches, were used. The linguistic approach incorporates the concepts of theme, culture, politeness,
strategies, methods and procedures and analysis, which were examined in the contexts of translation studies. The diagram below was developed by Larson
1988 to show the process of translating Fig. 3.1.
Figure 3.1. L arson’s 1984 diagram of the translation process
Larson presents three absolute requirements for the translator, who must
understand the SL, the TL and the subject to be translated. Using this process the meaning of the ST can be understood. The meaning of the source language SL
text was then re-expressed or translated into the TL text. In this study the researcher used descriptive research methodology to identify the translation
process of the cultural texts of rebu in Karonese society into English. This method was selected to discover and to describe the meaning systematically, factually
and accurately, and to investigate the characteristics of an existing phenomenon of rebu in Karonese society then re-express the meaning in English.
This study used a procedure for collecting and analyzing qualitative data at some stage of the research process within a single study, to understand a research
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problem more completely. The researcher describes his dissertation in the
following diagram Fig. 3.2.
Source Text : Karonese Cultural Text Target Text : English
Translating
Figure 3.2. Text sources Relationship
The above diagram was adopted from Newmark’s model of translation, and the texts were analyzed following
the research questions. Rebu texts covered the uniqueness of structure, participants, cultural specific bounds, and their politeness.
The diagram was modified in accordance with the research questions were answered for a good translation. Bell 1991: 11 remarks that a good translation
should be one in which the merit of the original work is so completely transfused into another as to be as distinctly apprehended and as strongly felt by the native of
the country to which that language belongs, as it is by those who speak the language of the original work.
Rebu
Karonese Clans
Daliken si Telu
Kinship
Transfer Restructuring
Translation
Analysis
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3.2 Method of Translating