TRANSLATION ERRORS IN ENGLISH ABSTRACT OF ECONOMIC POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS OF STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN.

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TRANSLATION ERRORS IN ENGLISH ABSTRACT OF

ECONOMIC POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS OF STATE

UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

A Thesis

Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Magister Humaniora

By:

NORA OKTAVIA TOGATOROP Registration number: 8106112042

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM

POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

2015

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ABSTRACT

Togatorop, Nora Oktavia. Registration Number: 8106112042.Translation Errors in English Abstract of Economic Postgraduate Students of State University of Medan. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study Program. State University of Medan. 2015.

This study discussed about the translation errors which is found in translating abstract from Indonesian into English by economic students Postgraduate Students of State University of Medan. The objectives of this research were 1) to find out kinds of translation errors i.e. errors in the production of verbs group, error in the distribution of verbs group, miscellaneous errors, errors in the use of preposition, errors in the use of articles, and errors in the use of questions found in the translated abstract of economic students; 2) to know the distribution of translation errors in abstract of economic students; 3) to know the factors influence the translator in doing the errors. In conducting the research, the writer used descriptive qualitative method. The instrument of collecting the data used document sheet. The translation errors were analyzed by descriptive technique. The result revealed that 1) the types of errors found in abstract of economic students are errors in the production of verb group, errors in the distribution of verbs group, miscellaneous errors, errors in the use of preposition and errors in the use of articles; 2) Errors in the production of verbs group is the most errors is 44,83%, while Miscellaneous errors is 39,66%, Errors in the use of preposition is 5,60%, errors in the use of articles is 4,74% and errors in the distribution of verbs group is 5,17%; 3) There are two factors affecting the errors, interlingual and intralingual. For Interlingual transfer, type lexical errors and syntactical errors are causal of errors in the abstract of economic postgraduate students of State University of Medan. Moreover for Intralingual transfer, overgeneralization, ignorance rule restriction, incomplete application of rules and false concept hypothesized happened in this study.

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ABSTRAK

Togatorop, Nora Oktavia. Nomor Induk Mahasiswa: 8106112042. Kesalahan Penerjemahan Abstract Bahasa Inggris Mahasiswa Ekonomi Pascasarjana Universitas Negeri Medan. Tesis. Program Studi Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris. Universitas Negeri Medan. 2015. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah 1) menemukan kesalahan dalam penerjemahan seperti kesalahan dalam menentukan kata kerja, kesalahan dalam pendistribusian kata kerja, kesalahan keanekaragaman kata, kesalahan penggunaan kata penghubung, kesalahan dalam penggunaan artikel dan kesalahan penerjemahan kalimat tanya yang terdapat dalam penerjemahan abstrak mahasiswa Ekonomi; 2) mengetahui penyebaran kesalah penerjemahan yang terdapat dalam penerjemahan abstrak mahasiswa Ekonomi; 3) mengetahui faktor yang mempengaruhi terjadinya kesalahan dalam penerjemahan tersebut. Instrument pengungumpulan data dilakukan dengan dokumen. Kesalahan penerjemahan yang terdapat dalam penerjemahan abstrak dalam penelitian ini dianalisis secara deskriptif. Hasil penelitian ini mengemukakan bahwa 1) kesalahan penerjemahan yang terdapat dalam abstrak mahasiswa ekonomi adalah kesalahan dalam menentukan kata kerja, kesalahan dalam pendistribusian kata kerja, kesalahan keanekaragaman kata, kesalahan penggunaan kata penghubung, kesalahan dalam penggunaan artikel, sedangkan kesalah dalam penerjemahan kalimat tanya tidak terdapat karena tidak kalimat yang menggunakan kalimat tanya dalam abstrak mahasiwa ekonomi; 2) kesalahan dalam menentukan kata kerja adalah kesalahan yang frekuensinya paling banyak yaitu sekitar 44,83%, kesalahan dalam pendistribusian kata kerja sebanyak 5,17%, kesalahan keanekaragaman kata sebanyak 39,66%, kesalahan penggunaan kata penghubung sebanyak 5,60%, dan kesalahan dalam penggunaan artikel sebanyak 4,74%; 3) ada dua faktor penyebab terjadinya error, interlingual dan intralingual. Dalam penerjemahan interlingual,tipe lexical dan sintaktical transfer ditemukan sebagai penyebab kesalahan penerjemahan. Sedangkan dalam intralingual transfer, overgeneralization, ignorance rule restriction, incomplete application rule dan false concept hypothesis merupakan penyebab kesalahan penerjemahan.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the name of Lord, Jesus Christ, here the writer comes with a grateful heart saying how thankful she is for everything He has blessed her with. She would have never thought God’s plans would bring her here, finishing her thesis. She hopes that He’ll continue to be with her through any kinds of day. Love and thanks is dedicated to Him for His love and salvation.

First, the writer would like to deliver her gratitude to her thesis advisors, Dr. Eddy Setia, M. Ed., TESP and Dr. I Wy Dirgeyasa, M. Hum., for all briliant ideas and advice until this thesis comes to its present form. Working under their guidence made the writer learn many things.

Sincere thanks goes to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., Prof. Dr. Sumarsih, M.Pd., and Dr. Zainuddin, M.Hum., for their suggestions. It has been an honor to be their Master student.

She is especially appreciative for the Head of English Applied Linguistics Study Program, Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., and the Secretary Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S., for all of their time and their assistance throughout in the process of completing this thesis and all the lecturers and administrative staffs of the Post Graduated Program of LTBI.

The special gratitude goes to her lovely parents St. M. Togatorop, S. Pd. and E. Manik, for her brother and sisters Muara Winner Roy Togatorop, S.Si, Ratna Fitriany Togatrorop, S. Kep, Ns. and Rini Lenita Togatorop, A.M.Keb., for her sister and brothers in law Tioria Manihuruk, S.Sos, Ronni Hutagalung, A.M.R, Johan M.H. Siahaan, S.E. and for her sweet nieces and nephews. There

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is no word can express how thankful she is to have this wonderful present of God in her life, a big family like you.

In addition, special thanks delivered to Fretty Rolica Sianipar, Christine Magdalena Siregar, S.Pd., and Marlina Tampubolon, S.Pd., for their helping and care.

Last but not least, the writer also appriciates all support from her best friends (YN2), LTBI B XIX, friends elsewhere, and the people whose names cannot be mentioned. Without their kindness and encouragement, this research could not be finished in time. It would not have been possible to write this thesis without the help and support from the kind people around, Danke !

Medan, March 2015 The Writer,

Nora Oktavia Togatorop

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……….………... i

ABSTRACT……….……….….. iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……….. v

LIST OF TABLES……..………... vii

LIST OF APPENDICES……..………. viii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………. 1

1.1 The Background of the Study………... 1

1.2 The Problem of the Study………... 5

1.3 The Objective of the Study………... 6

1.4 The Scope of the Study………... 6

1.5 The Significance of the Study……….. 7

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE………. 8

2.1 The Nature of Translation………..………… 8

2.2 Kinds of Translation……….…………. 10

2.3 Characteristics of a Good Translation……….………….. 11

2.4 Source of Errors…..………... 13

2.4.1 Interlingual Transfer…..………..…… 14

2.4.2 Intralingual Transfer and Developmental Errors …………... 15

2.5 Kinds of Errors………..…... 20

2.6 The Abstract……….………. 32

2.7 Previous Research………. 36

2.8 Conceptual Framework………. 38

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3.1 Research Design……….. 40

3.2 Data Source and Data……….. 41

3.3 Technique of Data Collection………... 41

3.4 Instrument of Data Collection………... 41

3.5 Trustworthiness of Study………. 41

3.6 Technique of Data Analysis………. 42

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS, RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 44 4.1 Analysis Data…..………. 44

4.1.1. The Categories of Translation Errors……….. 44

4.1.2. The Distribution of Errors……… 51

4.1.3. Factor Cause of Errors……….. 52

4.2. Research Findings……… 55

4.3. Discussion ……….. 56

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS………. 60

5.1.Conslusions ……….. 60

5.2. Suggestions……….. 61

REFERENCES………. 62

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1……….. 51

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix A……….. 65

Appendix B……….. 123

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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of Study

The electronic media explosion of the 1990s and its implications for the processes of globalization highlighted issues of intercultural communication. Not only has it become important to access more of the world through the information revolution, but it has become urgently important to understand more about the differences of one’s point of view. For globalization has its antithesis, as has been demonstrated by the world-wide renewal of interest in cultural origins and in exploring questions of identity. One of the effects of globalization is the explosion of use English. The total number of English speakers increases rapidly either as the first language or become the second and foreign language. In a short time, English has been the language of politics, economy, technology, and education. Guided book of a technology result used English. Many books are printed in English and published all over the world.

To exchange information of politics, economy, technology and education to countries where English has role as a foreign language, people have to do the translation. Translation has a crucial role to play in aiding understanding of an increasingly fragmentary world. Lately, translation has been a usual activity done by people in this globalization world. No one, then, deny that people need translation either to get information or to transfer information between nations.

Translation work focuses in the area of education, particularly in higher education. In tertiary level (University level), the students who take the English

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majoring are required to have a translation class. Moreover, these late years there are a policy required the students in university in writing the thesis. Thesis is the final assignment required to do. In thesis, the students are required to put the abstract. Writing abstract is the final step in making a thesis. In abstract the writer gives the brief explanation about what she/he has been done in her/his research. Students of State University of Medan especially Postgraduate School in any major of required to write their thesis abstract in two languages in Bahasa and English. It is done as a contribution to the development of science. It has been done in several years. A policy has been done to anticipate this so every student in Postgraduate School State University of Medan gets an English subject at the first year they study in Postgraduate School University of Medan. Actually, every major in Postgraduate School State University of Medan have the English subject as the solving to this problem. However, having knowledge of grammatical structures of English does not guarantee the production of acceptable language. In translating the Source Text (ST) into Target Text (TT) in second language acquisition by adult (here the post graduate students), the translator faces several problems and make errors invariably. Some errors can be happened in the result of translating text. Translation errors can be caused by misunderstanding of the translation brief or of the content of ST, by not rendering the meaning of the ST accurately, by factual mistake, terminological, etc.

Here is one of the examples translation error in thesis abstract:

“Salah satu indikator kesejahteraan rakyat yang dapat diamati dan sering digunakan secara umum sebagai evaluasi untuk mengukur perkembangan dan keberhasilan pembanguanan dalam bidang kesejahteraan rakyat adalah kemiskinan.” (Amry. 2011)

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“One of indicator of welfare people that able to be perceived and often used in general as evaluation to measure the growth and development efficiency in the field of welfare people is poverty problem.”

The translation of abstract in the example above contains grammatical errors. Firstly, the word indicator should be indicators, it should be the plural form. Second, the use of words ‘perceived’ should be substituted with ‘seen’ so the phrase ‘that able to be perceived’ substitute with ‘which can be seen’. Thirdly, the phrase ‘often used in general’ substituted with ‘generally used’. Fourthly, before ‘development’ there is a missing article ‘the’ and before ‘efficiency’ there is a missing preposition ‘of’. It also contains the content error. The phrase ‘welfare people’ should be change into ‘welfare of people’ or ‘people’s welfare’

“Pola konsumsi masyarakat mempengaruhi keseluruhan perilaku perekonomian baik dalam jangka pendek maupun jangka panjang” (Susanti. 2011)

The translation is

“Consumption patterns affect the overall behavior of the economy in both short and long run”

The translation of an abstract in the example above contains translation error in content error. The word ‘run’ should be ‘term/range’. The word overall should be ‘entire/whole’.

Sumber keungan daerah pada tahun 1999-2000 relatif tidak mengalami banyak perubahan dan bertolak belakang dengan perubahan ekonomi (PDRB) yang terus mengalami kenaikan. (Tarigan. 2011)

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“Source of region’s finance in the year 1999-2000 relative do not experience of a lot of change and leave for the back with the change of economic growth (Product Domestics Regional Brutto) non-stopped experience of increase.”

The translation of abstract above has grammatical errors. The word ‘experience’ should not be written. The word ‘relative’ should be ‘tend’. So the translation becomes ‘tend not to have any changes’. The phrase ‘leave for the back’ should be ‘contradictory’. The phrase ‘non-stooped experience of increase’ should be ‘which is always increasing’.

These conditions were happened for years. It seems writing an English abstract is only to fulfill the requirements in graduating. Moreover, the attention in this case is low. It is need to be improved because those abstracts will be published globally. Hence, International academic society does not underestimate the educational quality of Postgraduate students from seeing the translation abstract which contain a lot of errors. It becomes the background of the writer in doing this research. This study will encourage students of Postgraduate School State University of Medan to give more attention in doing the abstract translation and open their mind that writing a thesis abstract is not just fulfilling the requirement but doing a responsibility.

Since thesis abstract is considered as informative text which is emphasizing the accurate information. It is simply because this text is widely used for ones who want to get information about the thesis and the students of university. It means that these thesis abstracts must be translated with no serious mistakes. If the errors disturb the translator in translating the scientific texts,

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moreover, the meaning of the ST will be distorted. This situation leads the reader to misinterpret the meaning.

To solve the problem during translating process, several methods and procedures of translation are applied by the translator. He should choose and decide the best translation methods and procedures to find the best equivalence for the translated text. In this way, he has minimized the percentage of inaccurateness and errors in the translated text.

The main reason choosing the thesis as the data source of study is the researcher herself as an English Applied Linguistics student of State University of Medan interest to research writing of the abstract in English. The writer found some errors. The reason choosing Economic thesis is researcher interested in economics moreover the research in economic thesis different with any major in Postgraduate State University of Medan which most of them are research in education.

The observation done by the writer showed that most of English abstract errors. In this study the writer will expose kinds of errors happened in the English abstract, then ascertain how it distribute, and try to find some factors influenced the errors.

1.2. The Problem of Study

In this study, the problems of study are formulated as follows.

1. What kinds translation errors found in thesis abstract of Economics students?

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3. What factors do influence the translators done the errors?

1.3. The Objectives of Study

Based on the problems of study, the objectives of this study are:

1. to find out kinds of translation errors i.e. errors in the production of verbs group, error in the distribution of verbs group, miscellaneous errors, errors in the use of preposition, errors in the use of articles, and errors in the use of questions found in the translated abstract of economic students.

2. to know the distribution of translation errors in abstract of economic students.

3. to explore the factors influence the translator in doing the errors.

1.4. The Scope of the Study

Since the main topic of the research is related to the translation errors of translation product in this study thesis abstract, the scope is two folds i.e. those that are related to the translation errors and those that are related to the subject analysis. The scope that is related to the translation errors covers the theoretical background about translation errors based on Richard’s theory and the scope is related to the subject analysis covers of two sources of data i.e. thesis abstract in the two languages as mentioned.

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7 1.5. Significance of Study

Findings of the study are expected to be relevant and useful theoretically and practically. The findings could give the contribution to all readers for those who are concerned with this field, here are the usefulness of the findings theoretically and practically.

a. Theoretical Significance

Theoretically, usefulness of the findings will support the application of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory specifically related to the field of translation and it will give further horizon and the justification of the theory used.

b. Practical Significance

Practically the usefulness of the findings is the following.

1. By knowing the translation errors. It is expected for the translators to be more careful in translating the abstract and minimize the error.

2. For the students, it encourages and motivates them to be a good investigator in making good translation of abstract. So, their English abstract will be accurate, accurate, correct and understandable.

3. For the lecturers, it can give contribution to the translation subject, particularly at Postgraduate Program of state University of Medan.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1. Conclusions

Having analyzed the data in the thesis abstract, the conclusions are drawn as followed.

a. In this study, it can be seen that abstract of Economic Postgraduate Students of State University of Medan consist of errors in the production of verb group, errors in the distribution of verbs group, miscellaneous errors, errors in the use of preposition and errors in the use of articles.

b. In abstract of Economic Postgraduate Students of State University of Medan showed that the errors in the production of verb group had the biggest percentage than followed by Miscellaneous errors, Errors in the use of preposition, errors in the distribution of verbs group, and errors in the use of articles stands in the last level.

c. In this study, it is clearly seen that the main cause of errors in abstract of Economic Postgraduate Students of State University of Medan is intrerlingual factor which consists of lexical interference and syntactic interference. Intralingual factor gives influence to the errors after the interlingual factor. Intralingual factor consist of false concept hypothesis, incomplete rule application, ignorance of rule restriction, and overgeneralization.

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5.2. Suggestions

a. The translator should be more careful in translating the abstract by avoiding the errors and paying attention in the use of appropriate grammar and widen the use of appropriate vocabularies in abstract. b. The English teacher should encourage the students in studying more

about translation subject and the rule of translation in communication.

c. More teaching and training about translation should be conducted in classroom especially for the students who are required to write the abstract in English. This is conducted to minimize the translation errors found in abstract in the future.

d. If it is possible, it is better to have a checking of abstract translation before it published. This is conducted to encourage students that making an abstract translation is more than to fulfill the requirements but it is a contribution to the science.

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