Method of Translating THE RESEARCH METHOD

3.2 Method of Translating

Methods of translation in the process of translating were determined as the frames in the analysis of the ST and the TT. The methods selected in the process of translating were emphasized to ST and were all adapted from Newmark’s methods and procedures of translation. Newmark has eight methods of translation; four of the eight methods are oriented to the SL, and the four others are oriented to the TL. Venuti, 2004: 20 proposed two methods in the process of translating, which are “domestication and foreignization”. The researcher has chosen to use the foreignization method in translating themes of rebu texts in Karonese society into English because rebu text consists of many culture-bound terms, which are untranslatable. The benefit of this method was the accuracy of translating, but the researcher needed to provide a lot of explanations. He found the concept of foreignization particularly useful in transferring the message of cultural text in Karonese society into English because there are many linguistic and cultural differences between the ST and the TT in this study. Foreignizing the meaning sometimes achieved a more accurate result. For example, amak cur, should be explained as a small white mat, which is usually used to honor certain participants in Karonese social life, especially in cultural ceremonies. The translation of kalimbubu, senina and anakberu should be, of course, a foreignized choice of words, because they refer to several sub kalimbubu, senina and anakberu and they need to be explained in the process of translating. Calling an older person by his or her order among siblings is not common among Karonese people. For the researcher as a native Karonese speaker, it was a difficult problem to translate cultural terms, because in Karonese society this Universitas Sumatera Utara custom is widely applied, within nuclear and extended families, between siblings and friends. In English the seniority of siblings is ignored and they do not bother or distinguish “elder brother “ from “ younger brother”. Nicknames are important in Karonese culture. All Karonese society have nicknames, and when children are born they automatically get a nickname which refers to their sub clan, for example, if the clan is Sembiring, the sub clan is Meliala, so a boy’s nickname is Sukat and a girl’s nickname is Gadong, and when the sub clan is Pelawi, Pola is used for a boy and Tajak is used for a girl. However, for untranslatability, a description and an explanation can be a solution in the process of translating. Perpola is very specific name for a farmer in Karonese society, but there is no standard translation for this work yet. The researcher needs to explain it in order to make it meaningful for English readers. To bridge the gap between the ST and the TT of a translation, the researcher informed the readers of the TT by applying footnotes and other types of annotation. As a result, he used many words to translate and explain the cultural terms of rebu. The central points of the analysis are the culture and language of the ST, which are transferred into the TT. The participant observation reveals that cultural aspects of language were viewed as important to communicate the meaning of the ST into the TT. Culture came to be the primary issue in the process of translating themes of rebu texts in Karonese society into English. The cultural consideration of language is linked through the ST into the TT. For example, certain vocabulary, such as daliken si telu may not be accepted in English culture and needed to be explained to be familiar in the target culture. In this study, the researcher examined cultural terms in rebu text in Karonese society and their translation was based on Nida and Universitas Sumatera Utara Taber’s 1982 and Catford 1965 concepts of translation, and the theories about culture which are presented by Newmark 1988, Larson 1984. Newmark’s procedures of translation were used in the process of translating the SL into the TL in this study. They are descriptive equivalence, transference, paraphrase, couplets, transposition and notes. These procedures of translation were chosen because there are some specific cultural bound terms in the SL that do not have the same meaning in the TL. They can not be translated. These terms need to be described and explained in the TL. Two of Newmark’s methods of translation were applied, literal translation and semantic translation. They tend to be foreignization methods in the process of translating in this study. Four factors influ enced the researcher’s choice of the methods he would use in translating rebu texts into English. The four factors, which are likely to influence the choice of literal translation and semantic translation methods are the purpose of translation, the researc her’s attitude to propose Karonese cultural terms towards the target readers, the type of text and the readership. Diverse translation strategies were used to solve the problems of translating SCBT in ST into the TT.

3.3 Data and Data Sources