14 grammatical problems, the second is about lexical problems, and the third is about
stylistic problems.
a. Grammatical Problems
English and Indonesian grammars are different according to each of its structure. Ghazala 1995 provides one example of sentence dealing with this
problem, of the three books you have recommended to me, I have chosen only one. If the sentence is translated into Indonesian, it will become dari ketiga buku
yang telah kamu rekomendasikan kepada saya, saya hanya memilih satu.
According to Ghazala 1995, this kind of sentence structure, which is starting with ‘of’ and postponing the main clause ‘i have chosen’ to a back position, is considered
complex. Ghazala 1995 notes that it can make the students of translation find it
difficult to understand easily and directly. He adds that the point becomes clearer at
comparing it to the following normal and direct structure, just like I have chosen only one of the three books you have recommended to me, or in Indonesian it
becomes Saya telah memilih satu dari ketiga buku yang kamu anjurkan kepada saya.
b. Lexical Problems
Ghazala 1995 explains that “Lexical problems occur when a word, a phrase or an expression is not understood clearly and directly, misunderstood, not
known at all to students, or not found in standard dictionaries p. 19. According to Ghazala 1995, there are specific problems that the students might worry. The
problems are dealing with collocations, idioms, proverbs, and cultural terms.
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1 Collocations
According to Ghazala 1995, collocation is the combination of two or more words that always occur consistently in different texts and contexts in
language p. 106. Ghazala 1995 adds that collocations occur in several conditions, such as certain nouns occur with certain adjectives e.g. ‘blind
confidence, a verb with a noun e.g. ‘draw a sword, a noun with a noun e.g. ‘brain drain, and many more.
Indonesian and English have their own different collocations. Meanwhile, Ghazala 1995 emphasizes that collocations play a vital role in a language p.
106. Collocations are sometimes inevitabe and it creates a beautiful part in a language. Therefore, Ghazala 1995 notes that students need to attend to the
collocations fully in Indonesian to lend the Indonesian version the same beauty of the English text p. 106. It means that it is important for the students to
undermine the concern with the translation of the English collocations in Indonesian.
2 Idioms
Ghazala 1995 explains that idiom is any “phrases which have fixed forms and special meaning of their words” p. 19. English idioms, such as found
in this sentence, ladies and gentlemen, lend me your ears, cannot be translated
directly into Indonesian. Ghazala 1995 states that it has methaporical meanings, and it is saying something to mean something else p. 129.
However, translating English idioms directly into Indonesian is still
acceptable only if the meaning can be clearly understood. For example, the
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company is on the black list. In Indonesian translation, the sentence would be perusahaan itu sedang dalam daftar hitam. In Indonesia, daftar hitam has the
same meaning as black list, of which this word tries to describe a list of people
who are out of favor. However, the case is different from this sentence example,
the exam was a piece of cake for me. If the sentence is translated literally into Indonesian, the sentence would be ujiannya seperti sepotong kue bagi saya. The
phrase ‘a piece of cake’ in English means undertaking something that is so much
easy to do. Therefore, it has no relation at all with Indonesian words sepotong kue.
Another problematic problem dealing with idioms is phrasal verb. Ghazala 1995 explains that phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and an adverb or
preposition, or both an adverb and a preposition, such as up, down, on off, in, out, over, and many more p. 133. If the verb and the adverb or preposition are
combined together, it might result a specific idiomatic meaning. The meaning of the combination between the verb and adverb or preposition usually cannot be
understood individually. The students of the translation class might face this kind of problem.
Students sometimes become misled and confused when they are trying to distinguish which English phrasal verb is idiomatic or normal. There are two
examples of sentences which indicate whether it is prepositional verb or phrasal
verb that has specific meaning. Put the book on the table, this sentence has a
clear meaning and it is understandable, there is the verb ‘put’ and the preposition
‘on’. The other example is put your coat on, this sentence is different from the
17 previous one. There is something missing after the preposition ‘on’, there is no
adverb such as found on the former sentence. The second sentence indicates an idiomatic meaning which has no relation to the first sentence, eventhough both
sentences are using the verb and the preposition ‘put on’.
3 Proverbs
Ghazala 1995 states that proverbs are special, fixed, unchanged phrases which have special, fixed, and unchanged meanings, just like idioms p. 138.
According to Ghazala 1995, a proverb cannot be understood as a collection of the individual meanings of its words. Ghazala 1995 adds that proverbs are
metaphor and stand for something else. Proverbs in English cannot be translated or understood directly because it
has a certain relation with culture. Students might become more confused when they are trying to find an Indonesian phrase which has a closest proverb relation
with the English phrase.
c. Stylistic Problems