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Figure 2.9 Hierarchical levels in NP
The syntactic complexity appears because either the noun head is modified by one or more modifiers, or the modifier takes its own modifier with its syntactic
structure. The reason is that an extra hierarchical level exists when a modifier appears Givón, 2001. Syntactic complexities occur in the research data gathered
from the translation products of ELESP students batch 2010. Most INPs take heavy modifiers. The modification causes particular difficulties in translating the
NPs into English. Translating NPs from Indonesian into English, which is called interlingual
translation Munday, 2008, involves two distinct verbal languages. Syntactic complexities appear due to the presence of multiple modifiers and the difference
of NP structure between both languages. To produce natural translations of INPs in English, the natural structures of ENPs are required. The reason is that
translation is transferring the meaning of the source language into the target language using the natural form of the target language Larson, 1984.
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5. Review of Previous Studies
Some previous studies on the similar topic of translating NPs had been conducted by several researchers. As an example, Sutanti 2002 conducted a
research about problems in translating complex NPs from English into Indonesian and factors that caused the problems. Survey research was carried out by an
experiment test on translation to 40 ELESP students in the seventh semester. The findings revealed that the problems encountered in translating complex NPs
consisted of grammatical interference, lexical interference, and semantic interference. The more complex the modifiers, the more difficult it was to
translate. Besides, it found that the factors influencing the problems came from the students‟ unawareness in translating the NPs. The limitation of the research is
that it did not discuss the syntactic structure of the NPs which caused the problems.
Another similar research on translating NPs was done by Marihartanto 1979. He proposed some suggestions in translating complex NPs from English
into Indonesian. The findings showed that in translating English modification, yang is required, with the exception for translating prepositional phrases,
genitives, infinitive clauses, and appositions. Other than using yang, changing the structure of modification is possible. In addition, the research found that English
premodification should change into Indonesian postmodification, regarding that Indonesian premodification is limited to certain items, such as numbers. The
previous research focused on investigating the problems in translating complex
42 NPs from English into Indonesian. Meanwhile, the current study focuses on the
syntactic complexities in translating NPs from Indonesian into English.
B. Theoretical Framework
This section tries to answer the research question theoretically using the discussed theories. The syntactic complexities in translating INPs into ENPs
consist of several cases. The first complexity is in determining the headword of the INP. Before
translating an INP into English, what should be determined primarily is the noun head of the INP. The theories used in this case are those written by Sneddon
1996, Sneddon et al. 2010, Macdonald 1976, Loewen 2011, and Alwi et al. 2014. The noun heads of the INPs and the ENPs should be consistent, although
the positions are different. The next is the modification structures in both languages. INPs tend to be
postmodified, while ENPs can be both premodified and postmodified. The choice of these modifications is based on the theories of NP modification by Quirk et al.
1985 1972, Radford 1988, Macdonald 1976, Loewen 2011, Givón 2001 2009 and Haegeman and Guéron 2004.
Furthermore, the syntactic complexity appears in the choice of prenominal genitive and postnominal of-construction. The choice of the two structures is
based on the theories by Quirk et al. 1985 1972, Keizer 2007, and Haegeman and Guéron 2004. In addition, the theories written by Larson 1984,
Munday 2009, and Hatim and Munday 2004 are used to relate the syntactic complexities of NPs in Indonesian and English and the basis of translation. All of
43 the discussed theories are also functioned to determine the NPs in the Indonesian
original texts and English translation texts in the first stage of the data analysis.
