STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS
IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Wendy Rahmad Biyandi
Student Number: 071214131
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2012
STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS
IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Wendy Rahmad Biyandi
Student Number: 071214131
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2012
A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on
STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS
IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS
By Wendy Rahmad Biyandi
Student Number: 071214131 Approved by
Sponsor Date Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd.
15 May 2012
A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on
STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS
IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS
By WENDY RAHMAD BIYANDI
Student Number: 071214131 Defended before the Board of Examiners on ............................ and Declared Acceptable
Board of Examiners
Chairperson : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. ____________________ Secretary : ____________________ Member : ____________________ Member : ____________________ Member : ____________________
Yogyakarta, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education
Sanata Dharma University Dean, Rohandi, Ph.D.
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 06 July 2012 The writer
Wendy Rahmad Biyandi 071214131
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Wendy Rahmad Biyandi Nomor Mahasiswa : 071214131
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS
IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan rolayti kepada saya selama saya tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal:
06 July 2012 Yang menyatakan Wendy Rahmad Biyandi
ABSTRACT
Biyandi, Wendy Rahmad. (2012). Students’ Problems and Methods in Translating Source Language Texts. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Most courses in ELESP are designed to support students’ acquiring English language, such as structure, pronunciation, reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and many more. In the higher levels of study, the students are expected to be able to use their competences of English language in some more advanced purposes, such as how to translate a source language text (SLT) into a target language text (TLT). The lecturers of the Translation Classes in ELESP must have been encouraging the students with some methods, approaches, or techniques of how to ease them in doing the translation tasks. However, there have remained some problems which make the results of the students’ translation not quite appropriate.
This research is intended to answer two research questions: (1) What specific translation problems occurred in the students’ translating process? and (2) What methods did the students tend to use during the translating process? To answer the first research question, the researcher applied document analysis. The documents were taken from the results of mid-term test conducted by Translation I class A in the academic year 2011/2012. Meanwhile, to answer the second research question, the researcher still applied the document analysis to identify the methods used by the students in the translation works. From the findings, it could be identified that there were 22 problems found in the students’ translation works which were divided into two classifications. The first classification was grammatical problems involving complicated source language grammar (83,33%). The second classification was lexical problems involving idioms (100%). Afterwards, the researcher revealed the identified translation methods which were categorized into (1) literal translation involving word for word translation (8,33%) and literal translation (100%) and (2) non literal translation involving semantic translation (33%).
Based on the research findings, firstly, the researcher encourages the students to enrich their capability in translating the text, especially the text which contains so many difficult lexical words or phrases. This could be done by fostering the students’ reading motivation. Dealing with the methods that the students tend to use during the translating process, the researcher really recommends the students to be flexible. The researcher also recommends the ELESP lecturers to give the Translation I class students more practices to translate sentences which contain difficult lexical problems, such as idioms, collocations, proverbs, and many more. Lastly, for future researchers, the researcher encourages other researchers who are interested in studying this topic to deeper analyze other problems or methods that possibly occur in translating.
Keywords: problems, methods, translation
ABSTRAK
Biyandi, Wendy Rahmad. (2012). Students’ Problems and Methods in Translating Source Language Texts. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Sebagian besar mata kuliah di PBI di rancang untuk membantu para mahasiswa dalam mempelajari bahasa Inggris, seperti structure, pronunciation,
reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary, dan masih banyak lagi. Saat
mencapai tingkat yang lebih tinggi, para mahasiswa diharapkan sudah mampu menggunakan kemampuan berbahasa Inggris mereka untuk diaplikasikan pada tujuan tertentu, seperti menerjemahkan teks dari sumber bahasa tertentu ke bahasa target. Para dosen pengampu mata kuliah Penerjemahan di PBI tentunya sudah memberikan berbagai materi perkuliahan seperti pendekatan, metode-metode, ataupun tekhnik dalam menerjemah kepada para mahasiswa. Akan tetapi, masih saja ada masalah dalam menerjemah yang mana menyebabkan penerjemahan yang dilakukan para mahasiswa kurang dapat diterima dengan baik.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab dua pertanyaaan penelitian: (1) Masalah-masalah penerjemahan tertentu seperti apa saja yang muncul pada saat proses menerjemahkan yang dilakukan mahasiswa? dan (2) Metode-metode apa saja yang cenderung digunakan mahasiswa dalam menerjemahkan. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan penelitian yang pertama, peneliti melakukan analisa dokumen. Dokumen yang dianalisa diambil dari hasil mid-term tes yang dilakukan oleh mahasiswa di kelas A Translation I tahun akademik 2011/2012.
Untuk menjawab pertanyaan penelitian yang kedua, peneliti masih menggunakan analisa dokumen untuk menganalisa metode yang dipakai siswa dalam dalam menerjemahkan. Dari hasil penelitian, ditemukan 22 masalah yang terbagi menjadi dua jenis pengelompokan. Pengelompokan pertama adalah masalah tata bahasa yang mencakup tata bahasa sumber yang rumit (83,33%). Pengelompokan kedua adalah masalah leksis yang mencakup idiom (100%). Kemudian, peneliti mengungkapkan metode-metode penerjemahan yang teridentifikasi yang dikategorikan menjadi (1) penerjemahan harafiah yang mencakup penerjemahan kata demi kata (8,33%) dan penerjemahan harafiah (100%) dan (2) penerjemahan tidak harafiah yang mencakup penerjemahan semantis (33%).
Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, pertama, peneliti menghimbau para mahasiswa untuk memperkaya kemampuan mereka menerjemahkan teks sumber, terutama teks yang berisi banyak kata-kata atau frasa leksis yang rumit dengan meningkatkan minat membaca Dalam hal metode dalam menerjemahkan, peneliti sangat menganjurkan mahasiswa untuk fleksibel dalam menerjemahkan. Peneliti juga menganjurkan dosen Translation I PBI untuk lebih memberikan latihan- latihan soal yang berisi permasalahan leksis, seperti idiom, kolokasi, pepatah, dan lebih banyak lagi. Terakhir, untuk peneliti berikutnya, peneliti mendorong peneliti lain yang tertarik pada penelitian yang berhubungan dengan topik ini untuk menganalisa lebih dalam tentang masalah-masalah dan metode-metode yang mungkin muncul dalam menerjemahkan.
Kata kunci: masalah, metode, penerjemahan
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alhamdulilahirobil’alamin. Firstly, I would like to express my greatestgratitude to Allah SWT, who made this thesis possible. I owe my deepest gratitude to my sponsor, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., whose feedback, encouragement, and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to finish this thesis. It is such a great honor for me to be guided by a great lecturer who was willing to share her precious time, knowledge, and experiences.
I would like to particularly thank the Translation I Class lecturer in the academic year 2011/2012, Fidelis Chosa Kastuhandani, S.Pd., M.Hum. for his permission to conduct this research in his class. My sincere gratitude also goes to
Herdiansari Hayuningrum for all of her supports and suggestions given to me,
and Mbak Devy for her help as my proofreader.I would like to give my special thanks to all of the lecturers of English Language Education Study Program who have taught me everything, especially to
Drs. Y.B. Gunawan, M.A. for being my academic advisor. I would also like to
thank Mbak Dhanniek and Mbak Tari for their help during my study, the library staff for their hospitality and help; and all of the fifth semester students who were taking Translation I Class C in the academic year 2011/2012 for their willingness to be participants in this research by letting me use their translation works as the data.
My sincerest gratitude is addressed to my father Wahyu Widayat for his priceless support, to my mother Widi Harni for her endless love and prayers, to my brother Riski for cheering up my days.
I owe my deepest gratitude to Edulight personnels: Heri, Bretya, Asep,
Nidya, Susan, Asri, and Gloria for the unforgettable moments that we had all
along; to Dwi, Hening, Seto, Shanti, Hedwig, Gaby, and my other friends in ELESP 2007 whom I cannot mention one by one, for accompanying me to conquer the hard time together. I would also like to express my special thanks to my girlfriend Riyani who has always been there for me anytime when I need her.
May Allah bless all of the people who have supported me during the completion of this thesis. Amen.
Wendy Rahmad Biyandi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................. i APPROVAL PAGES ...................................................................................... ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY .............................................. iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ................................................ v
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... vi
ABSTRAK ........................................................................................................ vii
ACNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................... xiv LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................. xv
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Research Background .......................................................................
1 B. Problem Formulation ........................................................................
4 C. Problem Limitation ...........................................................................
5 D. Research Objectives ..........................................................................
5 E. Research Benefits ..............................................................................
5 F. Definitions of Terms ..........................................................................
6 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description .....................................................................
8 1. Translation ....................................................................................
8
2. Translation and the Cultural Implication ......................................
10 3. Translation’s Considerations ........................................................
12 4. Translation Problems ....................................................................
13 a. Grammatical Problems .............................................................
14 b. Lexical Problems ......................................................................
14 1) Collocations .........................................................................
15 2) Idioms ..................................................................................
15 3) Proverbs ...............................................................................
17 c. Stylistic Problems .....................................................................
17 1) Formality vs. Informality ....................................................
18 2) Style of Fronting .................................................................
19 3) Passive and Active Styles ....................................................
20 5. Translation Methods .....................................................................
21 a. Word for Word Translation ......................................................
22 b. Literal Translation ....................................................................
23 c. Semantic Translation ................................................................
24 B. Theoretical Framework .....................................................................
25 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ..............................................................................
28 B. Research Setting ................................................................................
30 C. Research Participants ........................................................................
30 D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique .....................................
30 1. Human as Instrument ....................................................................
31
2. Documents ....................................................................................
45 3. Collocations ..................................................................................
59 3. Word for Word Translation ..........................................................
56 2. Semantic Translation ....................................................................
55 1. Literal Translation .........................................................................
54 B. Methods that the Students Tend to Use During the Translating Process .........................................................
53 7. Passive and Active Styles .............................................................
52 6. Style of Fronting ...........................................................................
51 5. Formality vs. Informality ..............................................................
49 4. Proverbs ........................................................................................
39 2. Complicated Source Language Grammar .....................................
31 E. Data Analysis Technique ..................................................................
37 1. Idioms ...........................................................................................
A. The Specific Translation Problems that Occured in the Students’ Translating Process .....................................................
36 CHAPTER IV RESEARCH RESULTS AND FINDINGS
36 4. Concluding and Reporting Findings .............................................
36 3. Analyzing Data .............................................................................
35 2. Collecting Data .............................................................................
35 1. Asking Permissions to the Lecturer ..............................................
32 F. Research Procedure ...........................................................................
62
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. Conclusions .......................................................................................
65 B. Recommendations .............................................................................
67
1. For English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) Students ...............................................
67
2. For English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) Lecturers ..............................................
70 3. For Future Researchers .................................................................
71 REFERENCES ................................................................................................
72
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 3.1 Types of Grammatical, Lexical, and Stylistic Problems in the Students’ Translation .........................................33 Table 3.2 The Types of Methods in the Students’ Translation .....................
34 Table 4.1 The Percentage of the Identified Specific Problems in the Students’ Translation Work ...............................................
38 Table 4.2 The Percentage of the Identified Translation Methods in the Students’ Translation Work ...............................................
56
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page Appendix A Permission Letter .....................................................................
73 Appendix B The Analysis Result of Students’ Translation Problems .........
75 Appendix C The Analysis Result of Students’ Translation Methods ..........
81 Appendix D The Frequency of Identified Problems in Students’ Translation Works ..............................................
85 Appendix E The Type of Methods Found in the Students’ Translation Works ........................................
87
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter consists of six major sections. They are research background,
problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definitions of terms.
A. Research Background
English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) is a study program under Teachers Training and Education Faculty in Sanata Dharma University.
ELESP is known as Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris (PBI). This study program aims to prepare future English teachers who have four competences; professional, pedagogic, personal, and social (Panduan Akademik Program Studi PBI, 2007).
Several courses in ELESP are designed to support students’ acquiring English language, such as structure, pronunciation, reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and many more. In the higher levels of study, the students are expected to be able to use their competences of English language in some more advanced purposes, such as how to translate a source language text (SLT) into a target language text (TLT). When the students are in the fifth semester, the lecturers of the ELESP begin to introduce translation course.
There are several kinds of problems that the students face in translating either English into Indonesian or Indonesian into English text. The main aim of
2 translation is to serve as a cross-cultural bilingual communication vehicle among people (Gerding-Salas, 2000). In order to make such a good ‘communication vehicle’ among people, a translator then must try to translate a certain text properly so that the target people will be able to understand the meaning of the source language. Thus, translating means a translator re-tells the source language by using the target language without deforming its original meaning.
Ghazala (2008) notes that in translating a text, there must be some difficulties that the translators might face, “a translation problem is any difficulty we come across at translating, that invites us to stop translating in order to check, recheck, reconsider or rewrite it, and make a sense of it” (p. 17). In this case, ELESP students are trained to be able to not only transfer the meaning of the source language into the target language text but also understand the principles, problems, or the process of translation. Meanwhile Newmark (1988) explains that “in a narrow sense, translation theory is concerned with the translation method appropriately used for a certain type of text” (p. 10).
The lecturers of the translation class in ELESP must have been encouraging the students with some methods, approaches, or techniques of how to ease them in doing the translation tasks. However, there have remained some problems which make the results of the students’ translation are not appropriate.
According to Molina and Albir (2002), “translation method refers to the way of a particular translation process that is carried out in terms of the translator’s objective, such as a global option that affects the whole texts” (p. 507). Moreover, during the activity of translating, some problems which include grammar, lexical,
3 stylistic, or phonological are also forcing the translators to hardly continue translating.
This situation puts a translator into a condition where he has to negotiate form and meaning between the source language text and the reader of target language. When the students in the translation class are working on a translation task, he or she might hardly consider some methods in translating. In fact, recognizing and understanding the methods in translating are actually helpful for them in the process of translation. Some examples of this phenomenon could be established as follows, Joanne gave me two tickets yesterday which is translated into Joanne memberi saya dua tiket kemarin. People who understand English, especially ELESP students know that the result of the English language sentence into Indonesian language is acceptable. However, the sentence still sounds a little bit awkward and unnatural. There is another better alternative sentence that a translator can choose, such as kemarin Joanne memberiku dua tiket. A similar way of how students do their translation task from Indonesian language text into English language text sometimes frequently occurred. For instance, cepat atau
lambat cuacanya akan berubah which is translated into fast or slow the weather
will change. The result of the translation does sound English and grammatically
correct, but it sounds awkward and is very unnatural in English. The sentence “sooner or later the weather will change” would be much more appropriate to be used.
The examples above show that there is a consideration about the result of the translation, whether a translator should be ‘faithful’ to the form of the sentence
4 or the meaning of the sentence. In the world of translation, there is a tendency of people to use a ‘word for word’ translation method (Newmark, 1988, p. 46) since maybe the SLT is unbearably too difficult to be translated into TLT. Thus, he keeps to be faithful to the form of the sentence. Nevertheless, there are also many people or translators who try to consider the level of faithfulness based on not only the form but also the meaning. Therefore, it is important for the students in translation class to pay attention to the methods of translation before they start translating. Understanding the methods would help translators to doing translation because the methods influence the result of the whole text (Newmark, 1988, p.
45). Nevertheless, not all methods can be considered good to be used in the translation tasks.
All these kinds of general facts about translation can be found on every translator’s works, including the works done by the translation class students of ELESP. Therefore, based on the phenomena that there are several problems in translating as well as less attention to the methods of translation, a research to find out the the students problems and methods in translating source language texts is conducted.
B. Research Problems In the research problems, there are two questions to answer.
1. What specific translation problems occurred in the students’ translating process?
2. What methods do the students tend to use during the translating process?
5 C. Problem Limitation In this study, the writer analyzes the translation products done by
Translation I class students. Since it is Translation I class, the translation is the one from English as the source language into Indonesian as the target language text. The data are taken from their result of progress I translation test.
The writer analyzes the problems as well as the methods of how the students work on the translation task. There are a number of problems and methods elaboration of which they are explained in the Chapter II. Any mistake in spelling and punctuation will be disregarded since the writer would only focus on the problems and methods out of the minimum requirements.
D. Research Objectives
Dealing with the two research questions mentioned previously, this study is conducted to achieve these objectives.
1. To figure out the specific problems occurring in the students’ translating process.
2. To find out the methods which the students tend to use during the translating process.
E. Research Benefits This research is expected to give benefits to both students and lecturers.
For the students, the research shows them how well their mastery in translating so that they know which part should be improved. It also makes them know some
6 crucial problems that might occur in translating. It is expected that by learning from their problems, students will be more careful in translating and encouraged to optimize the use of translation methods
Also, by knowing which part of students’ difficulties in translating, lecturers would find it easier to teach them based on their needs and weaknesses.
Hopefully, by exposing the students to some various types of problems and methods in translation to keep in mind, the ELESP students can be more careful in doing their translation tasks.
F. Definitions of Terms
It is important to define some terms used in this study to avoid misunderstanding and to lead readers to a better understanding on the topic being discussed. The terms are as follows.
1. Translation
According to Larson (1984, p. 3), translation is the transfer of meaning in the source language text into the target text; this is done by replacing the form of the first language by the form of the second language. Translation means rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text. In this research, translation represents the students’ process in how the students do the task of rendering the meaning. In other word, the task of what is called ‘translation process’. The students in the Translation I class work on translating Indonesian text as the SLT into English as the SLT.
7
2. Method
In this research, Purwati (2010) states that there are many procedures or methods in translation. She adds that a procedure is the act or manner of proceeding in any action or process. In the Mcquarie Dictionary (1982) as quoted by Purwati (2010) explains that “a method is a way to doing something, especially in accordance with a definite plan”.
In this study, method is the way the Translation I class students do something in their process of translating. The method is dealing with how the students create a certain plan to work on their translation task.
3. Translation I Class
The next term is Translation I Class; Translation I Class refers to a class or course offered in the fifth semester by ELESP of Sanata Dharma University.
Translation is designed to introduce knowledge of the definition, principles, problems, and process of translation. The students are exposed to the hands-on experiences of translating various types of text types.
Some concepts dealing with translation are also introduced, such as cultural transfer, naturalization, coherence, unity, and flow (Panduan Akademik
Program Studi PBI, 2011). In this research, Translation I Class is the class where
the students do the process of translation under the guidance of the lecturer.
Panduan Akademik Program Studi PBI additionally stated that the ELESP
students are to identify syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic problems in translating letters, news, editorials, leaflets, abstracts, and journals.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE In this chapter, related literature is discussed as theoretical base on which the
study outlined in Chapter I is conducted. There are several important discussions presented in this research. The literature review is divided into two parts; those are theoretical description and theoretical framework. First, the theoretical description contains the relevant theories as references to support this research. Second, the theoretical framework discusses how the selected theories help to answer the research questions.
A. Theoretical Description In this section, the researcher presents several theories of translation.
Translation theories are important to be discussed since those theories become the major focus of the study. The researcher describes some experts’ definitions related to translation, translation and cultural implications, translation considerations, translation problems, as well as translation methods.
1. Translation
There are many ways people can describe what translation is. According to Larson (1984), “Translation consists of changing from one state or form to another, to turn into one’s own or another’s language” (p. 3). Larson (1984) also states that “translation is the transfer of meaning in the source language text into
9 the target text; this is done by replacing the form of the first language by the form of the second language” (p. 4).
When students of English Language Education Study Program are learning translation, especially in Translation I class, it is not impossible that each of them face some problems in working on the exercise. Hatim and Mason (1990) explains that “Translators are inevitably acting under the pressure in the negotiation of meaning between the source-language text producer and the reader of the target-language text, both of whom exist within their own, different social frameworks” (p. 21). In Translation I class, the students act as if they are the real translators who have to be able to translate English text into Indonesian text appropriately, but problems still occur here and there. Many cases are found that most students do a literal translation, which more likely make them difficult to translate a source-language text naturally. Such ‘habit’ might lead the students to produce a translation product which does not sound English. Students tend to do the translation word by word, so the result remains too Indonesian. It is English but the context of language used in the translation product hardly represents a common characteristic of the social framework.
Hatim and Mason (1990) explains that there are always so many improving aids that translators can utilize to make a good translation product, but actually the problems faced by the translators remain the same. Hatim and Mason (1990) describes several types of problems; the first is about the comprehension of source text, which covers parsing of text (grammar and lexis), access to specialized knowledge, and access to intended meaning. The second is about the
10 transfer of meaning, it includes relaying lexical meaning, relaying grammatical meaning, and relaying rhetorical meaning, including implied or inferable meaning, or potential readers. The third is about assessment of target text, it pervades readability, conforming to generic and discoursal TL conventions, and judging adequacy of translation for specified purpose.
2. Translation and the Cultural Implications
It is mentioned above that translators have a high risk to translate a source language text (SLT) into the target language text (TLT) without any concerns of common characteristics of the social framework. James (2002) states that translation is a kind of activity which inevitably involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions. Therefore, translators are inevitably confronting with how to treat the cultural aspects found in a ST and to find the best technique of conveying the intended meaning in the TLT. James (2002) explains that a "gloss translation" mostly typifies formal equivalence where form and content are reproduced as faithfully as possible and the TLT reader is able to "understand as much as he can of the customs, manner of thought, and means of expression" of the SLT context.
Persons engaged in the complex task of translating possess some type of underlying or covert theory; as explained by Nida (1991), even though it may be still very embryonic and described only as just being "faithful to what the author was trying to say," (p. 19). James (2002) mentions that the cultural implications for translation may take several forms ranging from lexical content and syntax to
11 ideologies and ways of life in a given culture. In this case, translators have to be able to analyze the significances found in the cultural aspects of the SLT and how necessary those significances are to be translated into the TTL. Some of the major problems of translation are over-translation, under-translation, and untranslatability (Abdellah, 2002). This statement implies that if translators fail to transfer the required cultural meanings from the SLT into the TTL, they might lead the translation products into over-translation, under-translation, or even untranslatability.
It is true that the richness of vocabulary and the understanding of language structure out of the source language as well as the target language could influence the quality of the translators’ product of translation. However, the depth of the cultural understanding is essential to considering the implications for translation.
James (2002), in her study mentions that based on the conclusion of importance to both linguistic and cultural differences between the SLT and the TLT, differences between cultures may cause more severe complications for the translator than do differences in language structure. More theory found in James’ study reveals that no language can exist unless it is steeped in the context of culture; and no culture can exist which does not have at its centre, the structure of natural language.
These theories clearly indicate that mere ability or competence to create grammatically correct sentences as an impact to the TLT is not sufficient for the translators to be “as faithful as possible” to the SLT. The manner in which cultural aspects may be perceived and make translating decisions accordingly (James, 2002).
12
3. Translation’s Considerations
Gerding-Salas (2000) states that every translation activity has one or more specific purposes and whichever they may be; the main aim of translation is to serve as a cross-cultural bilingual communication vehicle among peoples. In translating, there are several procedures, processes, or techniques of which a translator must consider, “Through experience I have learned that the consequences of wrong translations can be catastrophic” (Gerding-Salas, 2000).
This statement shows how the task of translating could be getting much more difficult. Thus, translators cannot just simply translate a SLT into TLT without considering some kind of approaches. The translators’ habitual use of the language is unavoidably determining how perfect the result of the translation product (Gerding-Salas, 2000), “I shall assume that you, the reader, are learning to translate into your language of habitual use, since that is the only way you can translate naturally, accurately and with maximum effectiveness”. In fact, however, most translators do translate out of their own language.
Gerding-Salas (2000) mentions that there is always a way of approaching an SLT, whether the translator chooses the author-centered traditional model, the text-centered structuralistic model or the cognitive reader-centered model. In order to decide which approach a translator must go on, a translator has to understand “the nature” of the confronted text. Several kinds of problems are provided in the study conducted by Gerding-Salas (2000). One of the problems is dealing with semantic and cultural nature (Tricas, 1995). According to Gerding- Salas, this problem occurs when the translators happen to reading and
13 comprehending the SLT. In this case, the richness of vocabulary that the translators have plays quite a big role. Additionally, the cultural understanding supports the translators to comprehend the deep meanings of the SLT.
Furthermore, Gerding-Salas (2000) adds that there might be a possibility of “Linguistic Untranslatability”, of which it obstacles the translators from finding the appropriate lexical terms, such as true and false friends, calque, and other forms of interference; institutional and standardized terms, neologisms, aphorisms, and many more. Another one Gerding-Salas (2000) states is about the “Cultural Untranslatability” such as idioms, sayings, proverbs, jokes, and so on.
Thus, it would lead the translator into the ability to determine which one is to translate and which one is supposed to be not. As a result, cautious attitude towards these problematical issues in the translating process is taken into account. Otherwise, the result of the translation would be vulnerable to some misuse or interference of both languages.
4. Translation Problems
Ghazala (1995) states that “A translation problem is any difficulty we come across at translating, that invites us to stop translating in order to check, recheck, reconsider or rewrite it, or use a dictionary, or a reference of some kind to help us overcome it and make sense of it” (p. 17). In this section, the researcher discusses several problems that might occur during the translation process. There are three major focus of translation problems to be discussed. The first one is about
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