A STUDY OF THE ACCURACY AND READABILITY OF THE INDONESIAN SUBTITLE IN LILO AND STITCH
A STUDY OF THE ACCURACY AND READABILITY OF THE INDONESIAN SUBTITLE IN LILO AND STITCH AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By YEMIMA AJI PUTRA Student Number: 054214071 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2012
When a train goes through a tunnel
and it gets dark,
you don’t throw away the ticket and
jump off.
You sit still and trust the engineer.
- Corrie Ten Boom-
This Undergraduate Thesis is dedicated to My Dear Parents and My Future Wife
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank Jesus Christ for the blessing in every single day during writing this undergraduate thesis. I thank my beloved parents for the support, encouragement, guidance, love, patience and prayer. I would also like to thank for those who were willing to be my respondents. I really appreciate the help and kindness to spare the time. I thank my thesis advisor, Harris Hermansyah S, S.S., M.Hum., for guiding me in every step of writing the thesis for almost 4 semesters. I also thank my thesis co-advisor, Anna Fitriati S.Pd., M.Hum., for the advices on preparing for the thesis defense. I thank every lecturer who has taught me. I thank the secretariat staff, mbak Ninik, for helping a lot during this process. Moreover, I thank my close friends, Dida, Bruno, Sindu, Galih, Andi, Cahyo, Niko, Iwan, Mutia, Tris, Yanie, for every single help. Finally, I thank ministers, Budi Raharja, Purwanto Rahmat, and Setyo Wahono for the prayers. Once again, I thank all people I cannot mention here who have supported me.
Yemima Aji Putra
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………………... i APPROVAL PAGE ………………………………………………………………. ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE …………………………………………………………… iii MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………………................ iv DEDICATION PAGE ……………………………………………………………. v STATEMENT PAGE ……………………………………………………............... vi STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ………………………………………………. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………………. ix LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………… xi LIST OF DIAGRAMS ……………………………………………………………. xii ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………….… xiii
ABSTRAK
………………………………………………………………............... xiv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study…………………………………………….... 1 B. Problem Formulation …………………………………………………. 7 C. Objectives of the Study ……………………………………………….. 8 D. Definition of Terms …………………………………………………… 8 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies ……………………………………………. 10 B. Review of Related Theories …………………………………………... 12
1. Translation Theories……………………………………………. 12
2. Translation Process ……………………………………………. 14
3. Problems in Translation………………………………………… 16
4. Meaning in Translation…………………………………………. 18
a. Lexical Meaning………………………………………… 18
b. Grammatical or Structural Meaning…………………….. 19
c. Textual Meaning………………………………………… 20
d. Contextual or Situational Meaning……………………… 20
e. Socio-Cultural Meaning…………………………………. 20
5. Translation Accuracy …………………………………………… 21
6. Translation Readability ………………………………………… 24
7. Subtitling Standards ……………………………………………. 27
8. Translating Film Subtitle ……………………………………….. 36
C. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………………… 38
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study …………………………………………………….. 40 B. Method of the Study …………………………………………………….40 C. Research Procedure …………………………………………………….. 41
1. Kinds of Data …………………………………………………… 41
a. Objective………………………………………………… 41
b. Affective………………………………………………… 41
2. Data Collection …………………………………………………. 42
3. Population and Sample …………………………………………. 44
4. Data Triangulation………………………………………………. 45
5. Data Analysis …………………………………………………… 46
D. Research Framework ……….…………………………………………...48
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS A. Translation Accuracy …………………………………………………... 50
1. Highly Accurate Translation……………………………………..51
2. Accurate Translation…………………………………………… 51
3. Inaccurate Translation……………………………………………56
4. Highly Inaccurate Translation……………………………………82
B. Translation Readability …………………………………………............ 83
1. Highly Readable Translation……………………………………. 84
2. Readable Translation……………………………………………. 89
3. Unreadable Translation……………………………….……….... 102
4. Highly Unreadable Translation………………………….…….... 113
a. Inaccurate-Readable Translation…....….………….….... 116
b. Inaccurate-Unreadable Translation……..………….….... 117
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION A. Conclusion ………………………………………………….………..... 119
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………... …….. 123
APPENDICES Appendix 1 Translation Readability Questionnaire………….………….…127 Appendix 2 Data Analyzed …..………………..………….…………….…134 Appendix 3 Data of Tabulation (Readability) …………….…………….....137
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Accuracy Rating Instrument ……………….…………………………...… 23 Table 2. Accuracy Category…………..……………………………………….…… 24 Table 3. Readability Rating Instrument……….……………………………….…… 26 Table 4. Readability Category………...……………………………………….…… 27
LIST OF DIAGRAMS
Diagram 1. Accuracy Score ……………………………….……………………… 82 Diagram 2. Accuracy Scale Classification in Percentage ………………………… 83 Diagram 3. Readability Score of Each Respondent ………………………………. 114 Diagram 4. Readability Scale Classification in Percentage ………………….…….115
ABSTRACT
YEMIMA AJI PUTRA. A Study of the Accuracy and Readability of the
Indonesian Subtitle in Lilo and Stitch. Yogyakarta: English Department, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2012.This undergraduate thesis discusses the accuracy and readability level found in the subtitle of movie Lilo and Stitch. The subtitling of Lilo and Stitch plays an important role in transferring the message from the English dialogues into the Indonesian language. Every dialogue in this movie presents important messages, but the important messages are not fully conveyed. It is due to the inaccuracy in the target language which eventually creates a different understanding and interpretation.
There are two problems analyzed in this thesis. The first problem is how accurate the translated subtitles in Lilo and Stitch is. The second problem is how readable the translated subtitles to the readers is. This thesis examines and analyzes the accuracy and readability of the subtitles when compared to the dialogues spoken. It also gives the effects towards the readers when reading and understanding the translated subtitle.
The method used in this study was qualitative or empirical. The empirical research was done by finding primary data through the subtitling and dialogues in the movie. Then the writer collected the data and distributed questionnaires to 10 respondents. There are two findings in this research. The first finding shows that the translation of subtitles is inaccurate with the average score 2.78. It found that 78% of the translations reach high inaccuracy level. The inaccurate translations in this analysis are mistranslation, deletion of significant information, addition without equivalent reference to the original text, and narrowing interpretation of the original message. According to Nababan’s accuracy-rating instrument, the above score indicates that the translation has failed to transfer the content of the source text. The second finding shows that the translation of subtitles is readable which reaches the average score 2.1. According to readability rating instrument, the rate indicates that although there are some terms which are not fully understood, the translations are easy to read.
ABSTRAK
YEMIMA AJI PUTRA. A Study of the Accuracy and Readability of the
Indonesian Subtitle in Lilo and Stitch. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris,
Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2012.Skripsi ini membahas tingkat keakuratan dan keterbacaan pada teks terjemahan film
Lilo and Stitch
. Teks terjemahan Lilo and Stitch memiliki peranan penting dalam menyampaikan pesan dari dialog bahasa Inggris ke dalam bahasa Indonesia. Setiap dialog pada film menyampaikan pesan penting namun pesan penting tersebut tidak sepenuhnya tersampaikan. Hal ini disebabkan oleh ketidakakuratan pada bahasa sasaran yang pada akhirnya akan menciptakan pemahaman dan tafsiran yang berbeda. Ada dua masalah yang akan dianalisa pada skripsi ini. Masalah pertama mengenai seberapa akurat teks terjemahan dalam film Lilo and Stitch. Masalah kedua mengenai seberapa terbaca teks terjemahan terhadap para pembaca. Skripsi ini menguji dan menganalisis keakuratan dan keterbacaan teks terjemahan ketika dibandingkan dengan dialog yang dituturkan. Skripsi ini juga memberikan efek-efek terhadap pembaca saat membaca dan memahami teks terjemahan.
Metode yang digunakan pada skripsi ini adalah kualitatif atau empiris. Penelitian empiris dilakukan dengan menemukan data primer melalui dialog pada film dan penerjemahan teks. Kemudian, penulis mengumpulkan data tersebut dan mendistribusikan kuesioner kepada 10 responden.
Ada dua penemuan dalam penelitian ini. Penemuan pertama menunjukkan bahwa terjemahan dari teks film tidak akurat dengan skor rata-rata 2,78. Ditemukan bahwa 78% terjemahan mencapai tingkat ketidakakuratan yang tinggi. Terjemahan yang tidak akurat pada analisis ini adalah terjemahan yang salah, penghilangan informasi signifikan, penambahan tanpa referensi yang sepadan dengan teks asli, dan tafsiran yang sempit dari pesan asli. Berdasarkan skala dan indikator kualitas keakuratan terjemahan versi Nababan, skor di atas mengindikasikan bahwa terjemahan tersebut gagal menyampaikan kandungan teks sumber. Penemuan kedua menunjukkan bahwa terjemahan teks terbaca mencapai skor rata-rata 2,1. Berdasarkan skala dan indikator kualitas keterbacaan terjemahan, rata-rata tersebut mengindikasikan bahwa meskipun terdapat beberapa istilah yang tidak sepenuhnya dimengerti, terjemahan tersebut mudah dibaca.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Technology has made people live a better life. In accordance with the
development of technology, nowadays, people can get entertainment much more easily and frequently than in the past. For instance, it can be seen that almost all people have television as one representation of the development of technology. Before television was invented, people could only get entertained by radios. However, with the invention of color television, their views were broadened as there were many interesting visual program offered on television.
There are many programs broadcast by TV station on the television. A film, for example, is one of popular programs among people in the world. A film is accepted among people as a media to educate. A documentary film, for instance, is a program which teaches people to learn culture, history and reality. People can learn more about real events in certain time and place. Another is Discovery Channel, for example, which provides a lot of information about science and technology. This channel shows encouraging viewers to explore people’s world and satisfy their positive curiosity. Specifically, people must have common sense, self development and critical knowledge to value beauty and art of watching film.
2 Movie as a form of entertainment can not only be watched through TV station but also through VCD (Video Compact Disc) or DVD (Digital Video Disc) player.
VCD and DVD can be rent and are available at many stores. To buy a VCD or DVD people just spend at least five thousand rupiahs instead of spending fifteen thousand rupiahs to buy a ticket at cinema. Nowadays, people not only watch local movies but also watch foreign movies. Some say that they have good quality on the picture and some says that they are more interesting. By watching a foreign movie people can learn not only the content of the film itself but also the language used in the conversation.
West movies, for instance, commonly use English dialog in the conversation. When people watch a west movie, they will see texts at the bottom of the screen. The translated text appeared at the bottom screen is called subtitle <http://translationjournal.net/journal//40humor.htm> (18 June 2010). Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, and are usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. Beside subtitle, voice dubbing is another way to make film easier to understand. The term of voice dubbing most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be speaking a different language. Foreign language films are often dubbed into the local language to increase their popularity with the local audience by making them more accessible. Generally, movies and TV shows intended for children are dubbed, while all TV shows and movies for older audiences are
3 Subtitles usually come out in one or two lines at the foot of the screen simultaneously with the spoken dialogue or narration in the source language.
Subtitles play an important role as a medium used by viewers to understand the plot of the movie. Karamitroglou in his translation journal says, “In unified framework of European communication, subtitling as the means of overcoming linguistics barriers between the nations will come to play a critical role” (Karamitroglou, 1997).
Subtitlers, of course, have barriers when doing and finishing their work. Therefore, it may result to the way the subtitlers comprehend the movies subtitles. They need to make their subtitling readable because movie subtitle should be enjoyed by the viewers of different background.
It is necessary for the subtitlers to understand the movies, the meaning and the uses of languages, source language and target language. It is so because there are many idioms, terms, expressions, and so forth in the movies, considering the elements of the country where the movies are made. It may also mean that they should concern with the situation or the context of the message conveyed. In relation to the movie screen, viewers should have to divide the out looking moment between two different activities, reading the subtitles and watching the moving picture, and continuously connecting them all together. Thus, to make the subtitling readable and comprehensible, the subtitlers should use good strategies in subtitling the dialogue.
Indonesian subtitles on the movie Lilo and Stitch become the major analysis of the study. There are many inappropriate words, phrases, and sentences which do not transfer
4 considering the processes and strategies of translation. Many words, phrases, and sentences are translated incorrectly by the translator. The translator does not consider the structure, grammar, and even he changes, adds, and omits some words or phrases. Here, the accuracy of the subtitles needs to be evaluated.
The translator of the movie Lilo and Stitch unconsciously or not is trapped on translating idiomatic expressions. It is because they do not know the forms of it and they just interpret or paraphrase the idiom into the source language then translate it into the target language. The example of inappropriate translation is shown below:
ST: We look after Lilo’s dog until I get a job. TT: Kita akan mencarikan Lilo anjing setelah aku mendapat pekerjaan.
Basically, the target language text above is readable. Audiences who read the text will understand the message being transferred. Unfortunately, the target language text is not accurate to the source language text. The inaccuracy of the target language is seen in the phrase look after. According to Kamus Praktis Bahasa Indonesia-
Inggris dan Inggris-Indonesia Lengkap
(Sulistyo, 1999), the word look after in the sentence above does not actually mean mencarikan. These two words are different because they are two different things. According to Longman Dictionary (Addison, 1998:394), look after means to take care of someone or something, while mencarikan is translated into look for. The translator actually gives a wrong translation. He translates look after into mencarikan rather than merawat. Here, the translator has lack of vocabularies in doing the translation. Basically, the word look after is a verb
5 translate it only by word for word method. It should be translated idiomatically in order to get the message.
The translator should know that some idioms are misleading that they seem transparent because they offer a reasonable literal interpretation and their idiomatic meanings are not necessarily signaled in the surrounding text. A large number of idioms in English, and probably all languages, have both literal and an idiomatic meaning, for example go out with and run out. In this case, a translator who is not familiar with the idiom may easily accept the literal interpretation and miss the translation on idiom. Another example of an inappropriate translation is shown below:
ST: All aliens know about the rule. TT: Alien semua tentang aturan.
Basically, the target language text above is unreadable. Audiences who read the target text will find a difficulty to understand the message being transferred. They will find difficulties to define whether the target text is a sentence or a noun phrase. Besides, the target language text is inaccurate to the source language text. Here, the translator mistypes the verb tahu in the target text. So, it makes audiences hard to understand the meaning and the context in the conversation.
To find the appropriate meaning in the target language is the main problem. A translator should undergo the right steps to find the appropriate meaning in the target language. Nida in his book Toward a Science of a Translation gives the steps of translating process as quoted below:
6 "What he actually does is to decode the meaning, transfer the content, and then generate the message in the receptor language."(1964:68)
In short, translating is not an easy work; the difference of the linguistic and the background of culture between source language and target language is the obstacle which is difficult to avoid. Probably, the evidence of this opinion still needs to be proved, but in fact we sometimes find the difficulties of finding the equivalent. For example in Indonesian there are words kamu and kalian, whereas in English for the two words there is only one word you.
In this case the translator is forced to change, to omit, or to add certain words to solve his problem, but the translator should remember that in solving problem he/she is not permitted to change the meaning. He may change the word but not the meaning. Finlay in his book Translation says:
"...any translation worthy of the name must reproduce the sense of the original, omitting nothing and adding nothing." (1974:2)
Nevertheless, translation can be wrong sometimes. The mistakes in translation, according to Newmark, can be categorized into two types based on the significance of the mistake. Translation mistake can be either misleading or nuanced. There are two types of misleading mistakes i.e. referential and linguistic. In this study, the writer would like to focus more on the first type of translation mistakes, for example, misleading mistakes because they are more significant in changing the meaning of the original text than nuanced mistakes. Nuanced mistakes may be harmless, make little
7 difference and sometimes they are concerned with the style or taste of the translators.
(Newmark, 1993: 29-30) Translators should know that translating subtitles on movies or TV programs is different from translating texts. In film, the dialogues are to be spoken with intonation, pattern, pitch, loudness, and rhythm. This involves the actor’s interpretation. The text may not be translated either too literary or too freely. It must give a balance among characters, scenes, and speech, for example, freer interpretations of particular expressions in the target language, the deviation of gesture patterning between the source language and the target language, etc. When the translators do the translation on subtitles, there are a lot of questions dealing with the quality of translating subtitles. Are the translations accurate? Is it readable? These questions actually give the writer an idea to do research on translating subtitle of the foreign movie into Indonesian. In order to explore the mistakes of translation, the movie Lilo and Stitch has been chosen as the case study here. Some mistakes done by the translator in subtitling movie Lilo and Stitch then give the writer idea to do analysis on the problems.
B. Problem Formulation
The problems formulation in the study is stated as follows:
1. How is the accuracy of the translated subtitles in the movie Lilo and Stitch?
2. How is the readability of the Indonesian subtitles in the movie?
8 C. Objectives of the Study This study aims to find out the translation accuracy and the translation readability of the movie subtitles. The translation accuracy is evaluated by analyzing the inappropriate words, phrases, and sentences found in the Indonesian subtitles of movie entitled Lilo and Stitch. Besides, this study aims to find out whether the target texts are readable to the audiences. Moreover, the translation accuracy and translation readability are evaluated in order to reach the translation level of the movie subtitles.
D. Definition of Term
There are important terms related to the study that should be clarified in order to avoid misunderstanding and give deeper understanding on it.
Helen J Lever in her article, MA in Translating & Interpreting, subtitles can be defined as textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, and are usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. In another word, subtitles can be defined as transcriptions of film or TV dialogue, presented simultaneously on the screen. <http://www.peak-translations.co.uk/pdfs/Subtitling.pdf> (accessed on March 5, 2010)
Translation accuracy, according to Newmark, is one of the representations of the faithfulness in translation, i.e. showing how accurately the translator has managed to reproduce the message of the ST into the TL ( Newmark, 1981). Accuracy, according to Larson in Meaning-Based Translation, means to communicate the same meaning
9 as the source language (Larson, 1984:49). It means that the words or phrases or clauses of the target language should convey the best closest meaning to source language.
Translation readability, according to Larson, is a good reading and writing translation, that is, it has a pleasing style, a good rhythm, punctuation, spelling and moves along at an acceptable pace (Larson, 1984).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Hilda (2009) in her undergraduate study tries to figure out the accuracy and
acceptability in the translation of subtitling movie entitled Facing the Giants when compared to the dialog spoken. She examined the effects toward the viewers with the existence of the subtitling. Although translation has never been defined its standard of accuracy, an accuracy to some extent cannot be tolerated. There are changes and revisions that are truly proposed to make the translation more accurate, understandable, and acceptable.
Basically, Hilda conducted a combination of empirical and library research study in her undergraduate thesis. The empirical research was done by finding primary data through the subtitling and dialog in the movie and the questionnaire distributed to 20 respondents of 6 beliefs including Christians. The returned questionnaires were analyzed, and 10 respondents available for interview were asked for further information concerning their answer relating to the effects of the translation.
The results of the study shows that the translation of the movie is good according to Christian respondents assuming that they all know and are familiar with Christian terminologies. The result also shows that the translation of the movie is quite acceptable to 20 respondents including Christians, Catholics, Moslems,
11 acceptability are being compared, the effects found are more negative on the viewers and it arouses misunderstandings of messages and perceptions conveyed in the movie. As a result, viewers lose track of the movie and disturb them about the truth of Christianity and its value.
Another study conducted by Rahayu (2004) also discusses translation of movie subtitle. She wanted to find out kinds of mistakes which occur in the subtitles that do not convey the meaning of the original utterances, mistake that mostly occurs in the subtitles, and the quality of the subtitle. To answer the research questions, she used the theory of translation from Newmark about unit of translating, audience criteria, and the categorization of translation mistakes. She also used theory from Durieux about the criteria of a good translation. As her research instrument, she used original VCD entitled American Beauty to obtain the data.
Rahayu only analyzed twelve scenes out of seventy six scenes from the film in her study. The findings of her analysis reveal that there are two kinds of mistakes occurring in the subtitles: misleading mistakes and nuanced mistakes. The subtitles that have misleading mistakes occur more than the ones that have nuanced mistakes.
There are seventy six subtitles for misleading mistakes and fifty three subtitles for nuanced mistakes. Furthermore, she concluded that the quality of the translation is good.
There are similarities between the present writer's study and Rahayu’s study. First, both studies analyze translation mistakes or errors. Second, both studies
12 similarity occurs when both writers discuss the accuracy of translation. In contrast, the object of both studies is different. The movie Facing the Giants is aimed for adult viewers whereas Lilo and Stitch is aimed for kids and all ages. Of course, the translation techniques used are different when the writer does the translation. In the end, Hilda’s study discusses the effect of the translation toward audiences whereas the present study discusses the quality of the translation based on accuracy and readability.
Both Rahayu’s and Hilda’s study gives an insight for the writer’s present study. After reading this study, the writer realizes that although Rahayu concluded that the overall quality of the movie translation is good, there are still many translation mistakes occur. Thus the writer wants to know if translation mistakes occur in other movie. The study of Hilda also inspires the writer to focus more on the quality of the translation by evaluating the translation accuracy and readability.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Translation Theories
According to J.C Catford, translation maybe defined as the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL). The use of the term textual material underlines the fact that in normal conditions it is not the entirely of a source language text which is translated, that is, replaced by target language equivalents. It is seen that Catford emphasizes the equivalency in translation since it is very important in translation (Catford, 1965:20).
13 Catford’s definition of translation becomes stronger when Peter Newmark’s is closely related to his. He defines translation as a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language (Newmark, 1981:7). He also says that a translator must be able to translate either scientific work or fiction by considering the language, structure and content and must not focus only on one aspect.
Catford’s opinion is also supported by Finlay’s. According to Finlay, translation is a presentation of a text in a language other than that in which it was originally written (Finlay, 1971:1). Basically, a translator should not consider the language form of a text. The most important thing he/she should consider is the message of a text. He/she should interpret the message from the source language and then convey it into the target language.
Levy’s statement is actually different from Catford’s. According to Levy, as quoted by Hanafi, translation is a creative process which always leaves the translator a freedom of choice between several approximately equivalent possibilities of realizing situational meaning. Creative process means that translators have freedom to present proper equivalents based on situational context. In this case, skill has important role in translation. In order to do translation the translators must have skill and ability so that they can produce a good translation (Hanafi, 1986:24).
Nababan also says that Catford’s theory is weak because he thinks that a translator will never be able to replace the source language text with the target
14 Nababan contrasts between Catford’s theory and Brislin’s. Brislin defines that translation is a general term points to shifting the idea from source language to target language. Nababan also supports Kridalaksana’s theory of translation. According to Kridalaksana, translation is a transferring message from source language into target language firstly by stating meaning and secondly the language style (Nababan, 1999:19).
It is concluded that the important thing in translation is transferring message from the source language into the target language. It is not a matter of transferring the language form but the message. Nida and Taber say that translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style (Nida and Taber, 1969:1). They think that a translator must produce the natural equivalent which is close to the source language either the meaning or the style. Essentially, a translator must be able to adapt lexical and grammatical form of language in order to avoid misunderstanding in translation.
2. Translation Process
Newmark says that a translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or in another language. (Newmark, 1981:7). However, the work of translating is not as easy as it sounds. A translator cannot j us t directly translate a text word by word.
There are many considerations that have to be thought of, such as the structure, the
15 process. Much of the time is spent by the translator by thinking. In other words, the process of translation is mostly done in the mind of the translator.
According to Suryawinata and Hariyanto, there are four processes of translating. They are analysis, transfer, restructuring, and evaluation.
In analysis process, a translator analyzes and understands the source language text (SLT). A translator must analyze and understand the meaningful relationship between words, grammatical relation, the meaning of its words or words combinations, textual meaning, and even contextual meaning.
After having completed the process of analysis which involves both grammatical and semantic aspects of the text, it is essential for the results of the analysis to be transferred from the source language text into the target language text (TLT). This transfer process takes place in a translator’s brain.
In restructuring process, a translator finds the essential components of words, expression, and their sentence structure. Therefore, the content, meaning, and message of the source language can be fully transferred.
After transferring the text into target language, the result of translation must be evaluated and revised, or rechecked of the target text in terms of correctness with the SLT. If a translator feels that there is still awkwardness in the language, he or she must revise it again.
This theory on translation process is useful for the writer to understand what is actually going on in the mind of a translator when he or she tries to identify the
16 problems in the SLT and, then, find the strategies to be applied in the TLT (Suryawinata and Hariyanto, 2003).
1. Problems in Translation
The problems of translation can be divided into two; problems of content and problems of form (Nida, 1976:171). Talking about the content of a message, the translator must distinguish clearly between the story and the setting. That is to say, what happens in a story constitutes a series of problems, and the cultural setting of the story will give a series of new problems. The cultural setting and understanding will give a new problem when the translator does not know the real other cultures. As we know that each culture has its own identity that makes one different from other. Talking about the form, the problem of translation seems appear on lexical, semantic, stylistic and syntactic analysis.
Basically, meaning in translation plays important role. Meaning in translation cannot be easily taken from dictionary but it must be equal to the context. Style is as the same as meaning; a translator must do as an original text writer does or change it with his own style in order to make the translation easy to understand. In translation, equivalency is also a very important thing; it becomes the foundation of translation. It becomes a problem in translation since there are cultural meanings which the translator does not know much.
Generally there are three problems of equivalency; content, purpose and language (Hanafi, 1986:35). Content has close relation to concept of meaning which
17 conveyed must have information and clear or understandable fact. Finally, the language must have relation to style. Another problem in translation is laid on word, structure, grammar, terminology, allusion etc. The target text, for instance, will be read easily if the translator uses transformation in translation. Sentence A visit to a
grandmother
is translated into Sebuah kunjungan ke seorang nenek. It is correct but it is more suitable if the translator changes the noun visit into a verb. So it becomes
mengunjungi nenek
. Another problem in translation is laid on the idiomatic expressions. Translators say that the important thing in translating texts or subtitles is not the language but the content. When the translators do the translation on idiom they will find many problems. It is because idioms cannot be translated literally from one language to another language without several changes in meaning or its connotation.
There are various types of idioms, some more easily recognizable then others. Those which are easily recognizable include expressions which violate truth conditions such as It’s raining cats and dogs. It includes expressions which seem ill formed because it does not follow the grammatical rules of the language (Baker, 1992:65). Literally, it is translated into Ini hujan kucing dan anjing. Idiomatically, it is translated into hujan lebat. Idiomatic expressions have individual collocational patterns. They form collocations with other items in the text as single units and enter into lexical sets which are different from those of their individual words. Take, for instance, the idiom to have cold feet. Cold as a separate item may collocate with
18
chilblain, smelly
etc. however, having cold feet, in its idiomatic use, has nothing necessarily to do with winter, feet or chilblain and will therefore generally be used with a different set of collocates (Baker, 1992:67). Another, the verb count, for instance, is translated into menghitung or menjumlah. When the verb count is attached with preposition on the meaning will be different. Count on will be translated into berharap or mengharapkan and count will be translated into
menjumlah or menghitung.
2. Meaning in Translation
According to Suryawinata, there are five meanings, such as lexical meaning, grammatical or structural meaning, textual meaning, contextual or situational meaning, and socio-cultural meaning.
a. Lexical Meaning
Lexical is a linguistics item in dictionary. So, lexical meaning is meaning that is explained or described in dictionary. For example; the lexical meaning of the word hand which is described in Longman’s dictionary, is the moveable parts at the end of the arms, including the fingers. However, the translator must be careful in choosing or considering the equivalent for a word before he translates a word. A translator must concern with the context if he wants to get an appropriate equivalence, because a word in source language may have some equivalences in receptor language. A translation does not always change the source language with the receptor language (Suryawinata, 1989:21). Therefore, a translator should be smart to choose the
19 appropriate equivalent. There are some lexical problems should be paid attention to by translators. For example: SL: They surely needed rice.
In Indonesia, the English noun rice has a lot of equivalences such as: padi,
gabah
, beras, or nasi. A translator should reach and see the context beside word or sentences. If there is another sentence, the translator will not find any difficulties. For example: SL: They all looked tired and pale. They surely needed rice.
TL: Mereka semua kelihatan letih dan pucat. Mereka tentunya membutuhkan nasi.