AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF SHIRAISHI’S YOUNG HEROES: THE INDONESIAN FAMILY IN POLITICS INTO PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA: KELUARGA INDONESIA DALAM POLITIK BASED ON TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE THEORIES A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Program in English La

  

AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF

SHIRAISHI’S YOUNG HEROES: THE INDONESIAN FAMILY

IN POLITICS INTO PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA: KELUARGA

  

INDONESIA DALAM POLITIK BASED ON TRANSLATION

EQUIVALENCE THEORIES

The Graduate Program in English Language Studies

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of

  

Magister Humaniora (M. Hum)

in

English Language Studies

by

YOHANA VENIRANDA

  

01.6332.007

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2003

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page PAGE OF TITLE ……………..……………………………………………..… i PAGE OF APPROVAL ………...…………………………………………..…. ii PAGE OF DEFENCE APPROVAL PAGE …………………………………. iii

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ……………………………………….…. iv

LIST OF TABLES ……………………..……………………………………..... v

LIST OF FIGURES …………………….…………………………………..…. vi

ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………...…. vii

ABSTRAK ….…………………………………………………………….….… ix PREFACE …………………………………………………………………...… xi TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………...….. xiii

  CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………….. 1 A. Background of Study………………………………………………….…… 1 B. Problem Formulation …………………………………………………..….. 7 C. Objectives of Study ………………………………………………………… 7

D. Problem Limitation ………………………………………………….….…. 8

E. Benefits of the Study ………………………………………………….…… 8

CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL REVIEW …………………………………. 10

A. Definitions of Terms …………………………………………………….…. 10

  1. Translation ………………………………………………………………..… 10

  2. Source Text (ST) ...…………………………………………………………. 12

  4. Source Language (SL) …………………………………………………...… 13

  5. Target Language (TL) …………………………………………………..…. 13

  

B. Theories on Translation……………………………………………….…... 13

  1. The Processes of Translation ………………………………………….…... 14

  2. General Principles of Translation ………………………………………..… 21

  3. Approaches to Translation ………………………………………….……… 23

  b. The Variational Approach ……………………………………….……… 25

  4. Approaches to Teaching Translation ……………………………….……….27

  a. The Process-Oriented Approach ……………………………….……...… 27

  b. The Product-Oriented Approach ………………………………….……... 31

  5. Equivalence …………………………………………………………..…….. 31

  a. Equivalence at Word Level ……………………………………….……... 32

  b. Equivalence above Word Level ….……………………………….……... 36

  c. Grammatical, Textual, and Pragmatic Equivalence .……………….….… 39

  6. Untranslatability ……………………………………………………….….... 46

  7. Using Translation as a Resource for the Promotion of Language Learning …………………………….……………………………………… 48

  

C. Theories on English to Indonesian Translation ….……………………… 50

  1. Simple and Complex Noun Phrases ………………….………………….… 51

  2. Conjunctions and Conjuncts ………………………….…………………… 51

  3. Relative Pronouns …………………………………….…………………… 53

  4. Tense and Aspect …………………………………….……………………. 54

  6. Prepositions ………………………………………….………….………….. 57

  7. Pronouns …………………………………………….………….…………... 60

  8. Singular and Plural ………………………………….……………………… 61

  9. Problems in English to Indonesian Translation: Grammatical and Socio-Political-Cultural Aspects …………………….……………….…….. 63

A. Research Data ………………………….…………………………………. 69.

  

B. Research Procedures ……………. …………………………………….… 70.

  

C. Data Analysis ………….………………………….…………………….…. 70

  

CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ………………..… 74

A. Data ……………………………………………………………………...… 74

B. Analysis …..……………………………………………………………...… 97

C. Discussion …..……………………………………………………………... 130

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS …………….…… 140

A. Conclusions …..….……………………………………………………..… 140

B. Suggestions ……....……………………………………………………….. 144

BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………… 147

APPENDIX ….……………………………………………………………….. 151

  ABSTRACT

  YOHANA VENIRANDA. (2003). AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION

  OF SHIRAISHI’S YOUNG HEROES: THE INDONESIAN FAMILY

IN POLITICS INTO PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA: KELUARGA

  

EQUIVALENCE THEORIES. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies,

Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.

  This thesis has aimed at exploring the theories on translation as an overview in general and the theories on English to Indonesian in particular, and questions in this study. The first is what the psychological nature of translation processes is. The second is what the theoretical nature of English to Indonesian translation is. And the third is how the results of the analysis on the phrases and sentences in the translation of Shiraishi’s Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family

  in Politics into Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik are.

  The answers to questions number one and number two have been derived from the study on the theories on translation. The answer to the third question has been the result of the analysis on the data, that consist of phrases and sentences, of the translation of Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics into

  Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik.

  From several models of translation processes, it can be concluded that the process of translation is the process of information processing. The psychological nature of translation process is the transfer of meaning. The translator needs to discover the meaning of the ST and re-express the meaning in the TL. The process involves syntactic, semantic and pragmatic analyzers, which continues with syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic synthesizers. It is possible for some stages to be passed through very quickly, for example in the Frequent Structure Store and Frequent Lexis Store. The norm for the process is a combination of bottom- up and top-down.

  The nature of English to Indonesian translation can be concluded as follows:

  1. English and Indonesian have some differences in grammatical aspects, among others are the use tenses and aspects, verb agreement/ concord with the Subject, use of pronouns, relative pronouns, singular and plural markers of noun phrases, use of articles, positions of conjuncts, and meanings of conjunctions

  2. Some problems in socio-political-cultural aspects include some daily expressions, idioms, fixed expressions, and use of measurements.

  3. Understanding the nature of the differences between the SL and the TL, a translator will be able to anticipate problems that may arise from the differences.

  The results of the analysis on the translation product show that the translation of Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics into Pahlawan-

  Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik can be considered good for

  1. Meaning or message has been the main focus rather than the forms. The translator is not too much tied up with the literal words and phrases. For a better understanding, many reformulations of the sentences have been done.

  2. Easy reading has been tempted by cutting very long sentences into shorter and precise ones. The translator has taken into account the consideration that the TT is a popular reading.

  3. Most of the translation losses have been for some purposes such as to avoid lengthy repetition, to make the sentence more precise, to avoid unexpected misinterpretation of some phrases. The translation losses have been mostly for understandable reasons and there are no significant meaning biases that have changed or destroyed the main message of the ST.

  4. Machali’s description of good translation can be used to describe the result of meaning. There are some inappropriate literal translations, grammatical and idiomatic mistakes but less than 15% of the whole text, and there are one or two uses of non-standard terms and one or two spelling errors.” (Machali, 2000:120)

  At the end of the discussion on the theories on translation, it is worthwhile to remind translators that in translation, translators have some missions to accomplish. Benjamin (1968:76) mentions that the task of the translator consists in finding that intended effect (intention) upon the language into which he is translating which produces in it the echo of the original. Siegel (1986:7) emphasizes the responsibility of a translator because translation can sustain a culture as well as stifle it. Sontag (2002:340-341) mentions three variants of the modern idea of translation, i.e. translation as explanation, translation as adaptation, and translation as improvement.

  It can be stated as a closing remark that many studies have resulted in many theories on translation and on translators. However, some existing theories of translation should not be seen as the solution to all problems in translation. As Beaugrande (Beaugrande in Bell, 1997:23) said it is inappropriate to expect that a theoretical model of translation should solve all the problems a translator encounters. Instead, according to him, it should formulate a set of strategies for approaching problems and for coordinating the different aspects entailed. In other words, translation theory is reoriented towards description, whether of process or product, and away from prescription.

  ABSTRAK

  YOHANA VENIRANDA. (2003). AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION

  OF SHIRAISHI’S YOUNG HEROES: THE INDONESIAN FAMILY

IN POLITICS INTO PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA: KELUARGA

  

INDONESIA DALAM POLITIK BASED ON TRANSLATION

EQUIVALENCE THEORIES. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies.

  Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.

  Tesis ini bertujuan mendalami teori terjemahan sebagai tinjauan umum, dan teori terjemahan dari bahasa Inggris ke bahasa Indonesia khususnya, dan penelitian ini. Pertanyaan pertama tentang hakekat psikologis dari proses terjemahan. Yang kedua tentang hakekat teori terjemahan dari bahasa Inggris ke bahasa Indonesia. Dan yang ketiga, hasil analisa dari frasa dan kalimat dalam terjemahan karya Shiraishi Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics menjadi Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik.

  Jawaban untuk pertanyaan pertama dan kedua diperoleh dari kajian pustaka tentang teori-teori terjemahan. Jawaban untuk pertanyaan ketiga diperoleh dari hasil analisa data, yang terdiri dari frasa-frasa dan kalimat-kalimat, dari terjemahan Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics menjadi

  Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik.

  Dari beberapa model proses terjemahan, dapatlah disimpulkan bahwa proses terjemahan adalah proses pengolahan informasi. Hakekat psikologis dari terjemahan adalah transfer makna. Penerjemah menemukan makna dari naskah sumber dan menyampaikan makna tersebut dalam bahasa yang dituju. Proses itu mencakup analisa sintaksis, semantik, dan pragmatik, yang kemudian dilanjutkan dengan sintesa sintaksis, semantik, dan pragmatik. Beberapa tahap dilalui dengan cepat, seperti di Frequent Structure Store and Frequent Lexis Store. Proses ini merupakan kombinasi proses dari bawah ke atas dan dari atas ke bawah.

  Hakekat teoritis terjemahan dari bahasa Inggris ke bahasa Indonesia dapat disimpulkan sebagai berikut:

  1. Bahasa Inggris dan bahasa Indonesia memiliki perbedaan dari segi tata bahasa, antara lain penggunaan tenses dan aspek, perubahan kata kerja yang disesuaikan dengan Subyek, penggunaan kata ganti, kata ganti penghubung, penunjuk kata benda tunggal/jamak, penggunaan artikel, posisi kata penghubung kalimat, dan arti kata sambung.

  2. Beberapa masalah aspek social, politik, dan budaya mencakup ungkapan sehari- hari, kata kiasan, peribahasa, dan istilah untuk penunjuk ukuran.

  3. Dengan memahami hakekat perbedaan antara bahasa sumber dan bahasa yang dituju, seorang penerjemah dapat mengantisipasi masalah yang mungkin muncul dari perbedaan itu.

  Hasil analisa terjemahan menunjukkan bahwa terjemahan Young Heroes:

  The Indonesian Family in Politics menjadi Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik dapat dikelompokkan ke dalam terjemahan yang baik

  1. Makna lebih menjadi pokok perhatian dari pada bentuk. Penerjemah tidak terlalu terikat pada kata dan frasa secara harafiah. Untuk memberikan pemahaman yang lebih baik penataan ulang kalimat telah dilakukan.

  2. Untuk menghasilkan karya yang nyaman dibaca, kalimat-kalimat yang terlalu panjang telah dipenggal menjadi lebih pendek. Penerjemah mempertimbangan bahwa naskah terjemahan ditujukan untuk bacaan popular.

  3. Sebagian besar dari bagian yang hilang dalam terjemahan memiliki tujuan tertentu seperti untuk menghindari pengulangan yang terlalu banyak, untuk menghasilkan kalimat yang lebih ringkas, dan untuk menghindari penafsiran yang keliru dari beberapa bagian frasa. Terjemahan yang hilang lebih dikarenakan alasan-alasan yang dapat diterima dan tidak ada penyimpangan makna yang signifikan yang mengubah atau merusak makna inti dari naskah

  4. Penjelasan Machali tentang terjemahan yang baik dapat digunakan untuk menjelaskan hasil analisa data dalam penelitian ini: Tidak ada distorsi makna; Ada terjemahan harafiah yang kaku, kesalahan tata bahasa dan idiom tetapi relatif tidak lebih dari 15% dari keseluruhan teks. Ada satu-dua penggunaan istilah yang tidak baku/umum dan satu atau dua kesalahan tata ejaan.” (dari Machali, 2000:120)

  Pada akhir pembahasan tentang teori terjemahan, perlulah mengingatkan penerjemah bahwa dalam menerjemahkan, penerjemah memiliki misi yang perlu dicapai. Benjamin (1968:76) menyebutkan tugas dari penerjemah mencakup penyampaikan makna yang dimaksudkan dengan bahasa yang dituju, yang dapat menghasilkan gaung dari bahasa sumber. Siegel (1986:7) menekankan tanggung jawab penerjemah karena penerjemahan dapat mempertahankan dan juga meniadakan suatu budaya. Sontag (2002:340-341) menyebutkan tiga pemikiran baru tentang terjemahan, yaitu terjemahan sebagai penjelasan, sebagai adaptasi, dan sebagai perbaikan.

  Sebagai kata penutup, dapat disampaikan bahwa banyak penelitian yang telah menghasilkan teori-teori penerjemahan dan tentang penerjemah. Akan tetapi, teori-teori terjemahan yang ada, seharusnya tidak dilihat sebagai solusi untuk semua masalah dalam terjemahan. Beaugrande (dalam Bell, 1`997:23) menyatakan bahwa tidak semestinya berharap suatu model teori terjemahan dapat menyelesaikan semua masalah yang dihadapi seorang penerjemah. Menurutnya, teori terjemahan semestinya merumuskan suatu rangkaian strategi untuk menyelesaikan masalah dan untuk mengkoordinasikan berbagai aspek yang terkait. Dengan kata lain, teori terjemahan diarahkan untuk deskripsi, baik untuk proses ataupun produk, dan bukan untuk preskripsi.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of Study Some cases of onomatopoeia, i.e. the use of words, which have been

  formed like the noise of the thing that they are describing or representing, can be the sound of the cocks in the morning as cock-a-doodle-doo, the sound is ku-ku-

  

ru-yuk in Indonesian, and it becomes tik-ti-la-ok in the Philippines. The sound of a

  gun, for example, in English is usually written down as bang-bang but in Indonesian, it is dor-dor. To imitate the knock on the door in English, people use “knock-knock” and in Indonesian it is “tok-tok-tok”.

  Cases of idiomatic expressions can be funny jokes. Translating It’s

raining cats and dogs into Indonesian will not mention the two kinds of animals.

  It is Hujan lebat sekali. Translating This book costs me a fortune, a student has confidently related it to a familiar word fortune teller and the result was Saya

  

membutuhkan seorang peramal untuk memberitahu saya harga buku ini instead of

Buku ini sangat mahal. A Further question is why puppy love is cinta monyet.

  And still about animals, let the sleeping dogs lie is Jangan membangunkan macan tidur.

  The examples above can be discussed from the view Saussure proposes,

  

i.e. about the sign, the signified and the signifier. In a language, the signified is the

  concept, the signifier is the acoustic image (which is mental), and the relation concrete entity (Saussure in Barthes, 1972:113). Starting from the fact that in human language the choice of sounds is not imposed on us by the meaning itself, Saussure had spoken of an arbitrary relation between signifier and signified. The

  

ox does not determine the sound ox, since in any case the sound is different in

  other languages (Barthes, 1981:50). A further problem for translators to recognize is the second set of sign, signifier and signified, which form a myth. The Figure 1.1. The Tri-dimensional Pattern of the Signifier, the Signified and the Sign in Myth (Barthes, 1972:115)

  1. Signifier

  2. Signified Language

  3. Sign

  I SIGNIFIER

  II SIGNIFIED MYTH

  III SIGN Barthes (1972:115) calls the first set ‘language-object’ and the second set

  ‘metalanguage’. When talking about the signs, translators cannot avoid considering the signified and the signifier of the source language and the target language, especially in the level of myth. The same sign between the source language and the target language will not always refer to the same signifier or signified.

  The examples and description above show that translation is not merely a process of transferring words into their counterpart target language words.

  Sometimes, a warning like “Be careful with the dictionary when you translate!” seems necessary because some students feel that as long as they already base their translation on the words in the dictionary, they are “safe”, meaning they cannot be wrong.

  Translation can be a complex process that involves many aspects to consider before we come to a final version of a translation product. Some teachers consider translation as a separate skill. It implies that translation requires practice rather than theories. To some extent, translation is a skill because the have complained that they cannot improve themselves well by merely keeping on translating without understanding any theories on translation.

  Some teachers treat translation as a scientific orientation to linguistic structures, semantic analysis, and information theory. According to Nida and Taber (1974:vii), translation is far more than a science. It is also a skill, and in the ultimate analysis, fully satisfactory translation is always an art. The translation of the Bible into some 800 languages, representing about 80 percent of the world’s population involved at least 3,000 persons. According to Nida and Taber (1974:1), in the translation of the Bible, the underlying theory of translation has not caught up with the development of skills. Despite consecrated talent and painstaking efforts, a comprehension of the basic principles of translation and communication in the bible translation has lagged behind the translation in secular fields. Translators of religious materials have sometimes not been prompted by the feeling of urgency to make sense (Nida and Taber, 1974:1).

  There are people who believe that skill in translation cannot be learned, and cannot be taught. There is an assumption that some people are born with a gift have got it or you have not. Translation is similar to subjects like mathematics or physics. Some people are good at it, others find it difficult (Hervey and Higgins, 1992: 13).

  Hervey and Higgins (1992:13) argue that when we talk of proficiency in translation, we are no longer thinking merely of the basis of natural talent an individual may have, but of the skill and facility that require learning, technique, teaching of translation is twofold: students with a gift for translation invariably find it useful in building their native talent into a fully-developed translating proficiency; students without a gift for translation invariably acquire some degree of proficiency.

  Newmark (1981:38) quotes Savory’s words from The Art of Translation (1968:54): A translation must give the words of the original.

  A translation must give the ideas of the original. A translation should read like an original work. A translation should read like a translation. A translation should reflect the style of the original. A translation should possess the style of the translation. A translation should read as a contemporary of the original. A translation should read as a contemporary of the translation. A translation may add to or omit from the original. A translation may never add to or omit from the original. A translation of verse should be in prose. A translation of verse should be in verse.

  Savory’s words above describe how translation is not a single absolute definition. It does not consist of a single absolute criterion. The debate over how a translation should be cannot reach a single absolute solution or conclusion.

  Belitt (1983:481) describes translation from different groups of people’s point of view: “Indeed, Babel is always with us. The moralist will say, for example: Translation is a long discipline of self-denial, a matter of fidelity or betrayal. The vitalist will say: Translation is a matter of life and death, merely: the life of the original or the death of it. The poet will say: Translation is either the composition of a new poem in the language of the translator, or the systematic liquidation of a master-piece from the language of the original. The epistemologist will say: “Translation is an illusion of the original forced upon the translator at every turn for that of the poet’s and must fabricate his reality as he goes. The sybil sees all and says: Translation is the truth of the original in the only language capable of rendering it “in truth”: the original language untouched by translation.” (Belitt: 1983:481)

  The quotation above adds the list of the various descriptions and definitions of translation with a sense of confusion in it.

  A translation class has not been an easy class to handle. The problem lies on the difficulties to judge a translation of a certain text when we are given a list of alternatives. We can only say this one is possible and that one is also possible. Then a decision on which is better between two alternatives or which is the best among several alternatives is made. Sometimes it takes a long time to decide which version of translation is better or the best. The decision is usually not a single absolute choice and it is sometimes still debatable. Going through such a process of decision-making can sometimes be tiring, but students need to understand that the process can also be part of learning.

  This study is going to explore the theories on translation in general and the theories on English to Indonesian translation in particular. It is an attempt to look at translation both as a process and as a product. This study uses the translation

  

Politik, which is translated from Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in

Politics, as a case study, for the analysis. Henceforth, in most part of this thesis,

  the source text is referred to as Young Heroes and the target text is Pahlawan-

  

Pahlawan Belia. The source text has been chosen on the ground that it is a

  research report, an academic work. As a form of scientific writing, the language is a formal language. It uses good and standard English. Choosing a novel or involve more cultural implications, rhymes, beauty, style, and some personal mode.

  The writer of Young Heroes, Shiraishi, is a Japanese, who pursued her further studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. This book is derived from her dissertation for her doctorate degree. From the point of the content, it is an interesting book because it depicts a lot of Indonesian family values. The values are projected and reflected into the political life of the nation. One part of the book also discusses children in the classroom. This book is worth reading for teachers and anyone involved in educational field.

  Another reason is that it has been translated into Indonesian by Tim

  

Jakarta Jakarta, with Seno Gumira Ajidarma, who is an artist and a novelist, as

  the coordinator. With the English and the Indonesian versions at hand, the analysis can be done. We may see and learn something from Tim Jakarta

  

Jakarta, because they are professionals in using Indonesian for popular purposes.

  Discussing the audience of the source text and the target text can be interesting. The audience of the source text (ST), as a research report and a is mostly non-Indonesians, although they are ‘Indonesianists’, who have involved a lot in Indonesian studies. The audience of the target text (TT), as a popular book, is Indonesians, especially the educated, middle-class Indonesians. This difference may result in some consequences in the translation product. It can be interesting to find out the consequences of such different audiences for the ST and TT. Even Shiraishi herself said that she was anxious to wait and see how this introduce themselves as the Javanese, the Sundanese, etc. Shiraishi wants to convince to readers that the concept of “Indonesian people” does exist. She is curious how the translators will maintain the nuance of her English text into Indonesian. In many examples of cases in her book, Indonesian is a language which often maintains a weird emptiness, a void at its core (Shiraishi, 1997:121).

  B. Problem Formulation

  This study tries to answer the following questions:

  1. What is the psychological nature of translation processes?

  2. What is the theoretical nature of English to Indonesian translation?

  3. How are the results of the analysis on the phrases and sentences in the translation of Shiraishi’s Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics into Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik?

  C. Objectives of Study

  This study aims at exploring the theories on translation in general and the results of a case study on a translation product. By using Shiraishi’s Pahlawan-

  

Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik, which has been translated

  from Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics, this study tries to present an example of an English to Indonesian translation product. The analysis to present the strengths and weaknesses of the translation product is done based on the theories on translation.

  D. Problem Limitation

  Some theories on translation are applicable to translation in general. It means that they can be used as the general principles to translate a text of any languages into any other languages. This study focuses on English to Indonesian translation. Some general theories on translation are included on the considerations that they are useful to provide some basic principles of translation and some general approaches to translation. The discussion on the general theories on translation is followed by the discussion on the theories English to Indonesian translation. In this part, more examples of English to Indonesian translation are given. It is impossible to include all the theories on translation in this study. The theories presented are chosen on the consideration that they are applicable to translation in general and relevant to the analysis of English to Indonesian translation.

  E. Benefits of the Study

  The theories on translation can help us see the psychological processes of translation. The theories on English to Indonesian translation can provide us with some general principles of translating English to Indonesian texts. The theories include some discussion on the difference between the two languages in lexical, syntactic, as well as socio-political-cultural aspects.

  The results of the analysis on the translation product will provide us with some insights about the problems, techniques and considerations in English to

  

Politics is an interesting book. There are a lot of similar books on Indonesian,

  which are still written in English. The translation of such books will be useful for more Indonesian people to reflect on themselves. The analysis on the book in this study can be as a sample for other translators who are interested in translating similar books.

  Hopefully, with a better understanding of the theories, the difficulties and the considerations, some suitable exercise models for translation classes can be developed and students can then improve their skills more.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Definitions of Terms

1. Translation

  According to Webster (1994), translation is an act, process, or instance of of such a rendering, b) a change to a different substance, form, or appearance (conversion). Webster describes the verb to translate as 1) to turn into one’s own or another language, 2) to transfer or turn from one set of symbols into another (transcribe), 3) to express in different terms and especially different words (paraphrase), 4) to express in more comprehensible terms (explain, interpret).

  Nida and Taber (1974:12) define translation as the reproduction in a receptor language of the closest natural equivalent of the source message, first in terms of meaning, and secondly in terms of style. Cobuild (1995:1781) defines translation as a piece of writing or speech that has been translated from a different language. Hornby (1974:919) defines translation as giving the meaning of something said or written into another language. However, Hornby differentiates a translator from an interpreter. He defines a translator as a person who translates, especially something written, and an interpreter for something spoken. Other authors have other different opinions. Martinich (1996:441-442) says that a sentence of English can be understood or interpreted in English. In contrast, translation requires a second insofar as translation is supposed to preserve the meaning of the original utterance, and it is unlike interpretation, which aims at going beyond the meaning of the utterance.

  Though some writers differentiate translation from interpretation, many writers use the two terms interchangeably. According to Quine and Davidson (in Martinich, 1996:442), the fact that understanding, interpretation, and translation the cognitive activity is the same in each case. In other words, according to them, the difference between the terms is a matter of usage, not meaning.

  Bell (1997:19) discusses translation as bilingual communication. He describes the communication process in the following figure.

  

Figure 2.1.

Translation as bilingual communication (Bell, 1997:19)

  Code

  1 Channel Channel SENDER SIG[message]NAL 1 TRANSLATOR

  Content

  1 Code

  2 RECEIVER SIG[message]NAL 2 Channel Channel Content

  2 Bell describes the figure as follows: translator receives signal 1 containing message, recognizes code 1, decodes signal 1, retrieves message, comprehends message, translator selects code 2, encodes message by means of code 2, selects channel, transmits signal 2 containing message.

  Bell (1997:13) also tries to define three distinguishable meanings for the word translation. object);

  b. A translation: the product of the process of translating (i.e. the translated text);

  c. Translation: the abstract concept, which encompasses both the process of translating and the product of that process.

  In this study, translation is defined as bilingual communication that involves the reproduction in a target language or receptor language of the closest natural equivalent of the source message, both in meaning and style.

  2. Source Text (ST)

  A source text or ST is the text that requires translation (Hervey and Higgins, 1992: 15). The source text is sometimes referred to as the original version of a text. In this study, the source text (ST) is the English text of Shiraishi’s Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics.

  3. Target Text (TT)

  A target text or TT is the text which is a translation of the ST (Hervey and Higgins, 1992: 15). The target text (TT) is sometimes referred to as the translated version of a text. In this study, the Indonesian text of Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia:

  Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik is the target text (TT).

  4. Source Language (SL)

  A source language or SL is the language in which the text requiring translation is couched (Hervey and Higgins, 1992: 14). In this study, Shiraishi’s

  

Young Heroes, which is the source text (ST), uses English. Therefore, English is

the source language (SL).

  5. Target Language (TL)

  be translated (Hervey and Higgins, 1992:15). Some other writers such as Larson (1984), Nida and Taber (1974) also use the term a receptor language to refer to TL. In this study, Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia, which is the target text (TT), uses Indonesian. Indonesian is the target language (TL).

B. Theories on Translation

  “The purpose of translation theory is to reach an understanding of the process undertaken in the act of translation and not to provide a set of norms for affecting the perfect translation” (Bassnett-Mcguire in Bell, 1997:22). De Beaugrande (in Bell, 1997:23) gives a warning that it is inappropriate to expect a theoretical model of translation to solve all the problems a translator encounters.

  Instead, it should formulate a set of strategies for approaching problems and for coordinating the different aspects entailed. In other words, translation theory is reoriented towards description, whether of process or product, and away from prescription.

  Given the word translation, three possible theories depending on the focus

  The first is a theory of translation as process (i.e. a theory of translating). This would require a study of information processing and within that, such topics as perception, memory, the encoding and decoding of messages, and would draw heavily on psychology and on psycholinguistics.

  The second is a theory of translation as product (i.e. a theory of translated texts). This would require a study of texts not merely by means of the transitional recent advances in text-linguistics and discourse analysis.

  The third is a theory of translation as both process and product (i.e. a theory of translating and translation). This would require the integrated study of both and such a general theory is, presumably, the long- term goal for translation studies (Bell, 1997:26).

1. The Process of Translation

  According to Hervey and Higgins (1992:15), a translation process can, in crude terms, be broken down into two types of activity, i.e. understanding an ST and formulating a TT. According to Nida and Taber (1974:208), translation, which aims at dynamic equivalence comprises three stages, namely analysis, transfer, and restructuring. Larson (1984:3) states that translation consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation and cultural context:

  “Translation, then, consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language text, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning and then reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context.” Larson’s description of the process of translation is shown in figure 2.2.

  

Figure 2.2.

The Process of Translation (Larson, 1984:4)

SOURCE LANGUAGE RECEPTOR LANGUAGE

  Text to be Translation

  Translated Discovering Re-express the meaning the meaning

  

MEANING

  Widdowson (1979:108) thinks of translation in terms of three alternative processes, which is shown in the following figure.

  

Figure 2.3.

Three Processes of Translation (Widdowson, 1979:108)

  Rhetorical deep structure (pragmatic representations)

  SL surface TL surface forms forms

  Grammatical deep structure (semantic representations)