The effects of using translation strategy to overcome cultural problems in translating words related to tools in bumi manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer into this earth of mankind translated by max lane - USD Repository
THE EFFECTS OF USING TRANSLATION STRATEGY TO
OVERCOME CULTURAL PROBLEMS IN TRANSLATING WORDS
RELATED TO TOOLS IN BUMI MANUSIA BY PRAMOEDYA
ANANTA TOER INTO THIS EARTH OF MANKIND TRANSLATED
BY MAX LANE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of Requirement
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
JAMIL NUR ARDIANSAH
Student Number: 034214104
ENGLISH LETTER STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
THE EFFECTS OF USING TRANSLATION STRATEGY TO
OVERCOME CULTURAL PROBLEMS IN TRANSLATING WORDS
RELATED TO TOOLS IN BUMI MANUSIA BY PRAMOEDYA
ANANTA TOER INTO THIS EARTH OF MANKIND TRANSLATED
BY MAX LANE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of Requirement
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
JAMIL NUR ARDIANSAH
Student Number: 034214104
ENGLISH LETTER STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : JAMIL NUR ARDIANSAH Nomor Mahasiswa : 034214104
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :
THE EFFECTS OF USING TRANSLATION STRATEGY TO OVERCOME
CULTURAL PROBLEMS IN TRANSLATING WORDS RELATED TO TOOLS
IN BUMI MANUSIA BY PRAMOEDYA ANANTA TOER INTO THIS EARTH OF
MANKIND TRANSLATED BY MAX LANEbeserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupaun memberikan royalty kepada saya selamA tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyatan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 11 March 2008
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This is to certify that all ideas, phrases, sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if she took somebody else’s ideas, phrases, or sentences without proper references.
Yogyakarta, March 06, 2008 Jamil Nur Ardiansah
…qul ha l y a s t a wi i , a l a dz i i na y a ’ l a muuna wa l l a dz i i na
v
l a a y a ’ l a muun. I nna ma a y a t a dz a kka r u uul ul a l ba a b ( 3 9 : 9 ) .
(… Katakanlah: “Samakah orang-orang yang berpengetahuan dengan orang-orang yang tidak berpengetahuan? Sesungguhnya yang mendapat pelajaran hanyalah orang-orang yang mempunyai pikiran.) Seorang terpelajar harus juga berlaku adil sudah sejak dalam v pikiran, apalagi perbuatan. Itulah arti terpelajar (Pramoedya Ananta Toer) Every thing that happened to me creates me. Every, even, v small thing around me. It can be every single drop of tears,
single track of footsteps, or flowing wind caressing my face.
Fear taught me how to bring light inside the dark…
Allah SW T Muhammad SAW Fa the r M othe r Brothe rs a nd Siste rs … and for M ay, who stands right behind me in every prayer.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alhamdulillah, I would like to praise Allah SWT firstly for all the gift and blessings during the process of this undergraduate thesis writing. I would also like to thank my mother for every single word and tears she had during all-day long prayers, my father for every single drop of sweat he spent, my family for all patient and care.
I am very grateful to my advisor Ms. Adventina Putranti, S.S., M. Hum and Mr. Harris H. S, S. S., M. Hum in guiding me during this undergraduate thesis writing with her advice, suggestion and patience. My gratitude also goes to all staff of the Faculty of Letters for helping me during my study.
Many thanks must also be given to all students of English Letters 2003, my best: maya, denok, ike, sondang, ika, leni, al, elis, gembus, mei, ketut, nani, daud, muji, wahyu, damn- muz, mando, bigar, tyo, abit, dewi, yuni, punk Ve, susilo and all sastra mungil members, 2004s galih, roni, adit, martha, femme, ison, tita, patrick, ucok, pita, april, for having been so many memories with me; pak dammar, bu endut, mba umi, mas yoko-yoso, andika, hijrah, handi, bowo, yoga, mas nunung, sunar, mas arif, bebek, wiwik, and all HMI members for all laugh, smile and time we spent; home sweet home kampret, serge, cecep, sekar, pipit, sate; and also for my sweet November, May, for all warm-tight hug, tears, happiness, ambition and love she shared. Lastly, I would like to thank all people who helped me during my study in Sanata Dharma who are too many to mention.
J.N. Ardiansah
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGE ......................................................................................................... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE.................................................................................................... iii MOTTO PAGE................................................................................................................ iv DEDICATION PAGE ..................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. vi TABLE OF CONTENT...................................................................................................vii ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................... ix ABSTRAK ....................................................................................................................... x
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1
A. Background of the Study .................................................................................. 1 B. Problem Formulation ........................................................................................ 4 C. Objectives of the Study..................................................................................... 5 D. Definition of Terms........................................................................................... 5CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW ................................................................. 7
A. Review on Related Theories ............................................................................. 71. Definition of Translation............................................................................. 7
2. Principles of Translation............................................................................. 8
3. Problems in Translation..............................................................................10
4. Equivalence .................................................................................................13
a. Equivalence at Word Level...................................................................13
b. Equivalence above Word Level............................................................14
c. Grammatical Equivalence .....................................................................14
d. Textual Equivalence..............................................................................15
e. Pragmatic Equivalence..........................................................................15
5. Lexical Equivalents.....................................................................................16
a. Modifying a generic word with descriptive phrase...............................16
b. Modifying a loan word..........................................................................17
c. Using cultural substitution....................................................................17
6. Translation Strategies at Word Level..........................................................17
a. Translation by superordinate.................................................................18
b. Translation by less expressive word .....................................................18
c. Translation by cultural substitution ......................................................18
d. Translation by loan word (plus explanation) ........................................18
e. Translation by paraphrase using a related word....................................19
f. Translation by paraphrase using unrelated word ..................................19
g. Translation by omission........................................................................19
h. Translation by illustration.....................................................................19
7. Meaning in Translation..................................................................................19
8. Loss, Gain, Wrong Translation, and Accurate Translation ..........................20
B. Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................21
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ..............................................................................23
A. Object of the Study ...........................................................................................23 B. Approach of the Study ......................................................................................24 C. Method of Study................................................................................................24 D. Data Collection .................................................................................................25 E. Technique of Analysis ......................................................................................25CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS ...........................................................................................27
A. Translation Strategy ...........................................................................................271. Cultural Substitution...................................................................................27
2. Paraphrase using a related word..................................................................34
3. Superordinate ..............................................................................................36
4. Loan word Plus Explanation.......................................................................41
B. The Effects in Using Translation Strategy........................................................43
1. Loss of Meaning..........................................................................................44
2. Wrong Translation ......................................................................................48
3. Accurate Translation...................................................................................49
4. Loss and Gain of Meaning ..........................................................................50
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ......................................................................................53
BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................58APPENDIX .....................................................................................................................60
ABSTRACT
JAMIL NUR ARDIANSAH. The Effects of Using Translation Strategy in
Translating Words Related to Tools in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Bumi Manusia
into This Earth of Mankind Translated by Max Lane . Yogyakarta: Department of
English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University. 2008.
This undergraduate thesis is discussing the translation strategies used in This
Earth of Mankind , the English translation of Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
This work is related tightly to some Indonesian traditional cultures, such as Javanese, Madurese, Acehnese cultures. There are many expressions that have no English equivalence that were translated by using particular translation strategies. It is important that they should be translated accurately so that the target text readers can understand the whole context in the story as the same with the source language readers. The data of this undergraduate thesis is focused on words classified as tools. The consideration lies in the fact that this kind of category is the most often in occurrence in the novel. On the other hands, this kind of category gets a lot of distortion in meaning. Hence, the translation strategies used must be examined further in order to find out if the strategies have done in transferring the messages of the data or not because, in fact, the translation strategies still bring effects on the results.There are two problems that will be analyzed in this undergraduate thesis. The first problem is what translation strategies that are used in This Earth of Mankind, and the second is what kind of effects in using these strategies.
In this study, the method used is comparative method, which is a method of comparing the data from one langua ge to another language, because the culture-bound expressions are firstly compared with their translated versions. This is done in order to find out how those expressions are translated and also to classify the data based on some categories of translation strategies suggested by Mona Baker. The semantics approach is used also in analyzing the data. It is used to compare the meaning of the words in ST (Source Text) and TT (Target Text).
The first result of this analysis is the finding of the translation strategies used in translating the data. There are four kinds of strategies; cultural substitution, superordinate, paraphrase using a related word, and loan word plus explanation. The second result is the finding of the effects after using those translation strategies. These effects are gained after comparing the data through their semantics properties, and the meaning built by contextual influence. There are four kinds of effects gained from the analysis, loss of meaning, loss and gain of meaning, wrong trans lation and accurate translation.
ABSTRAK
JAMIL NUR ARDIANSAH. The Effects of Using Translation Strategy in
Translating Words Related to Tools in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Bumi Manusia
into This Earth of Mankind Translated by Max Lane . Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma. 2008.
Skripsi ini membahas tentang evaluasi atas strategi penterjemahan yang digunakan dalam This Earth of Mankind, terjemahan bahasa inggris dari Bumi Manusia karya Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Karya ini berkenaan erat dengan beberapa budaya tradisional kedaerahan di Indonesia, misalnya budaya Jawa, Madura, dan Aceh. Dalam novel ini terdapat banyak ungkapan yang tidak mempunyai padanan kata dalam bahasa inggris, maka ungkapan-ungkapan itu diterjemahkan dengan menggunakan strategi penerjemahan tertentu. Bagaimanapun juga, sangatlah penting ungkapan-ungkapan itu ditejemahkan secara akurat agar pembaca teks terjemahan dapat memahami konteks cerita secara keseluruhan seperti pembaca teks bahasa asli. Data untuk skripsi ini difokuskan pada kelompok kata yang berhubungan dengan peralatan. Pertimbangan pemilihan kategori ini adalah karena kategori ini muncul paling sering di dalam novel. di lain pihak, kategori ini mengalami banyak distorsi makna. Maka dari itu, strategi penerjemahan yang digunakan dalam novel ini haruslah di evaluasi lebih lanjut agar dapat diketahui apakah strategi penerjemahan itu dapat menyampaikan konsep-konsep yang terkandung dalam setiap kata di data atau tidak karena pada kenyataannya strategi penerjemahan masih saja membawa beberapa efek dari hasil penterjemahan.
Terdapat dua masalah yang akan dibahas dalam skripsi ini. Permasalahan pertama adalah strategi apa saja yang digunakan dalam menerjemahkan This Earth of Mankind, dan permasalahan yang kedua adalah apa saja efek dari penggunaan strategi penerjemahan yang telah diidentifikasi di butir permasalahan pertama.
Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode pembandingan, yang merupakan sebuah metode dengan membandingkan data dari dua versi bahasa, karena ungkapan- ungkapan yang terikat dengan nilai budaya dalam data pertama-tama di bandingkan arti katanya dengan arti kata-kata dalam versi terjemahan. Metode pembandingan ini digunakan untuk mengetahui bagaimana ungkapan-ungkapan itu diterjemahkan, dan metode ini juga digunakan untuk mengklasifikasikan data berdasarkan beberapa kategori strategi penerjemahan oleh Mona Baker. Pendekatan semantik juga digunakan untuk meneliti data. Pendekatan ini digunakan untuk membandingkan makna kata dalam bahasa asli dan bahasa terjemahan.
Hasil pertama yang diperoleh dari analisis ini adalah diketemukannya beberapa strategi penerjemahan yang digunakan dalam menerjemahkan data. Terdapat empat macam strategi yaitu; padanan budaya, penerjemahan dengan kata yang lebih umum, uraian dengan kata yang berhubungan, serta kata pinjaman yang disertai penjelasan. Hasil kedua yang diperoleh adalah efek penggunaan strategi tersebut. Hal ini diketemukan setelah membandingkan properti kata dari segi semantik, serta arti kata yang dibangun dari hubungan kontekstual dalam cerita. Terdapat empat macam efek yang dalam analisis, seperti distorsi makna, berkurang dan bertambahnya makna sekaligus, penerjemahan yang salah, dan penerjemahan yang akurat.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Translation plays an important role in human communication. It enables
people to exchange information to others who speak in different languages and have different culture. Mildred. L. Larson in his book Meaning-Based Translation: A
Guide to Cross-Language Equivalence mentions that language is part of the culture.
Thus, interlingual translation cannot be done well without having deep knowledge about the culture and mastering the language of that culture (1984:162). Language and culture cannot be separated because, in fact, one influences the other. In general, language is a means of communication for people to have interaction with another people. Specifically, language is a means for the culture to share its belief, values, and norms. However, we all know that culture is brought by one specific language and it is different from another language. It affects some important aspects in the translation text such as; diction, tone, and the spirit of language. Cultural values itself can also be found in non-fiction texts, in this case, literary texts. As we know literature is the product of a society. It describes the point of view of people in that society, both explicitly and implicitly.
Nida and Taber states that translation consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, both, in term of meaning and style (The Theory and Practice of Translation, 1969). Hence, translation should also transfer the meaning, not only the form. However, making an ideal translation, which fulfills the requirement above, is not easy. Jean Paul Viney as quoted by Simatupang states that in translation, there is always something missing from the original message (2000:3). As said by Mildred L. Larson in Meaning-Based
Translation , culture differences between the source and target language become a
difficult problem for a translator. Some Source Language (SL) concepts may have no lexical equivalence in Target Language (TL) because of differences in geography, customs, beliefs, worldview, and various other factors (1984:163). Each language is influenced by the culture where it is spoken. The Javanese word kebaya, kemban, and
wayang for example, cannot be easily translated into English because English has no
equivalence for those words.The phenomenon of the appearance of non-equivalence as the result in translating process becomes a serious problem for a translator. Nida and Taber state that a translation reaches the highest degree of equivalence when the receptors of the TL respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the SL (dynamic equivalence). Non-equivalence is usually rooted from the case of untranslatability (1969). J.C. Catford in A Linguistic Theory of Translation mentions that untranslatability or translation failure occurs when it is impossible to build functionally relevant features of the situation into the contextual meaning of the TL text. There are two categories of untranslatability, linguistic and cultural untranslatability. Linguistic untranslatability is caused by the failure to find a TL equivalent which is due to differences in SL and TL. In cultural untranslatability, the failure is due to the absence of the SL situational feature which is relevant in the TL culture (1965:94). While Mona Baker in her In Other Words: A Course Book on
Translation reveals the existence of non-equivalence in the word level as the smallest
unit of language. Non-equivalence at word level means the TL has no direct equivalence concept for a word which occurs in SL (1992:20). Some common causes of non-equivalence at word level are cultural-specific concepts, the SL word is semantically complex, the TL lacks a superordinate and hyponym terminology, and differences in expressive meaning, and the use of loan words in the Source Text (ST) (1992: 20-25).
There are certain strategies that may be used to translate the SL text when the problems of untranslatability or non-equivalence occur, so the translation can be understood easily by the TL readers. In researching the effects of the usage of translation strategies that are applied to overcome cultural problems, an English novel
This Earth of Mankind , which is the translated version of Indonesian novel Bumi
Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, is chosen as the object of the research. Bumi
was translated into English by Max Lane who was the second secretary in
Manusia
the Australian embassy in Jakarta until recalled in 1981 because of his translation of Pramoedya’s Buru Quartet.
The setting of the novel took place in Java in 1898, and set up in the middle of Dutch colonialism. Many Javanese cultural values are introduced in this novel by many expressions uttered that are difficult to translate because they hold cultural concepts that can only be understood by Javanese society. The words and phrases containing cultural concepts, often said to be culture-bound expression that can only be understood by Source Language speakers, may relate to social belief of market day (e.g.: jumat legi), Dutch terminology (e.g.: mevrow, buitenzorg), or even types of Javanese food, language level, tools, and clothes. Those terms are familiar to Javanese speakers, but not for foreigners. Although have been translated into English, they may be very confus ing for those who are outside the society to understand the concepts.
The writer is interested in finding an idea of the result of using translation strategies to overcome cultural problems, which the translation strategies, suggested by Mona Baker, carries some consequences in its practices. The analysis will be focused on the translation of tools that are gained as the data from the novel. The concept of tools, here, contains some of cultural values that can only be easily recognized in SL environment. Ho wever, there is a matter of cultural value in each datum that must be considered consciously by the translator before using the strategy to translate those data because, in fact, they carry social identities and characteristics in its usage. These identities determine their functional usage and even their shapes.
B. Problem Formulation
1. What are the translation strategies, which are suggested by Mona Baker, used to translate words related to tools in This Earth of Mankind?
2. What are the effects of using those translation strategies?
C. Objective of the Study
The aims of this research are to examine the use of translation strategies in translating words related to tools in This Earth of Mankind that was the translated version of Bumi Manusia that are culturally problematic to translate, and the effects that come after using these strategies.
D. Definition of Terms
1. Cultural Problem Mildred L. Larson stated that culture is a complex of belief, attitudes, values, and rules which a group of people share (Meaning –Based Translation, 1984:431).
Cultural problem in translation appears due to the differences between SL and TL. There are always some SL concepts that have no lexical equivalence in TL because of differences in geography, customs, beliefs, worldview, and various other factors (1984:163). It can be concluded that cultural problem means the difficulty in translation that is caused by cultural differences between two languages that the translator deals with. It leads to the existence of culture-bound exp ressions.
A.S. Honby in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English defines culture as “subjects of a particular group or nation”, and expressions as “word or phrase” (1989:285,407). In this case, the culture-bound expression means all words or phrases that are used and developed in some culture.
2. Translation Strategy Zuchridin Suryawinata and Sugeng Haryanto define translation strategies as the way to translate words, phrase, clause, or maybe a whole sentence if the translated part cannot be separated into smaller unit to be translated (2003:67). In this case, the translation strategy means designed plan to manage and overcome difficulties and problems in the activity in translation in order to achieve a good result.
3. Tool A.S. Honby in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English defines tool as any instrument that held in the hand and used for making or repairing something, or instrument that helps one to do one’s job (1989:1260).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review on Related Theories
1. Definition of Translation
J. C. Catford in his book A Linguistic Theory of Translation mentions that translation is an operation performed on languages; a process of substituting a text in one language for a text in another language. He proposes that translation should refer to the theory of language, in this case a general linguistic theory. In this definition, the form plays an important role. Translation is indeed a change of form in which the form of the source language (SL) is replaced by the form of the receptor’s (target) language (1965:20). According to Nida and Taber, this kind of approach belongs to the older focus in translation. The new focus has shifted from the form of the message to the response of the receptor (1969:1). The receptor of the TL should have the same response as the receptor of the SL. It is the meaning that plays an important role in translation subject. Based on the point of view of meaning, Nida and Taber state that translation consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, both, in term of meaning and style (The
Theory and Practice of Translation , 1969:12). Hence, translation should also transfer
the meaning, not only the form. It is supported by Larson (1984:6) who mentions that in order to do effective translation, one must discover the meaning of the SL and uses receptor’s language forms which express this meaning in natural way.
2. Principles of Translation
As quoted by Basnett, there are five principles for a translator that was published by Dolet in 1540 in a short outline of translation principles (1996:54): 1) The translator must fully understand the sense and meaning of the original text; 2) The translator should have a perfect knowledge of both SL and TL; 3) The translator should avoid word- for-word renderings; 4) The translator should use forms of speech in common use; 5) The translator should choose and order word appropriately to produce the correct tone.
Dolet’s principles stress the importance of understanding the SL text as primary requisite. According to Dolet, the translator is far more than a competent linguist, and translation involves both a scholarly and sensitive appraisal of the SL text and an awareness of the place the translation is intended to occupy in the TL system.
On the other hand, Nida and Taber in The Theory and Practice of Translation set the principle of translation by using stimulating question “what is a good translation?” (1974:173). They try to answer it by contrasting a good translation with bad translation of two kinds:
A Good Translation Contrasted with Two Kinds of Bad Translations
(Nida and Taber, 1974:173)
Bad Good BadFormal correspondence: Dynamic equivalence: the Paraphrase by addition, the form (syntax and form is restructured deletion, or skewing of classes of words) is (different syntax and the message. preserved; the meaning is lexicon) to preserve the lost or distorted. same meaning.
Nida and Taber explain that it is possible to produce a bad translation by preserving the form at the expense of the context, as in the first column. It is also possible to produce a bad translation by paraphrasing loosely and distorting the message to conform to alien cultural pattern, as in the third column. However, a good translation focuses on the meaning or context as such and aims to preserve that intact; and in the process it may quite radically restructure the form, as in the second column.
Mildred L. Larson in his Meaning-based Translation: A Guide to Cross-
Language Equivalence discusses that the best translation is the one which:
1) uses the normal language form of the receptor language; 2) Communicates, as much as possible, to the receptor language speakers the same meaning that was understood by the speakers of the source language, and; 3) Maintains the dynamics of the original source language text.
Maintaining the “dynamics” of the original source language text means that the translation is presented in such a way that it will, hopefully, evoke the same response as the source text attempted to evoke (1984:6).
Hymes (in Bell, 1997:11) describes a good translation to be: That in which the merit of the original work is so completely transfused into another language, as to be as distinctly apprehended, and as strong felt, by a native of the country to which that language belongs, as it is by those who speak the language of the original work. There are three principles that implicitly described in that quotation. The first is that the translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work. The second is that the style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original. The last is that the translation should have all the ease of the original composition
3. Problems in Translation
J.C. Catford in A Linguistic Theory of Translation mentions that there is a translation problem namely untranslatability. Translation fails, or untranslatability occurs, when it is impossible to build functiona lly relevant features of the situation into the contextual meaning of the TL text (1965:94). There are two categories of untranslatability, linguistic and cultural untranslatability. In linguistic untranslatability, the functionally relevant features include some which are in fact formal features of the language of the SL text. It occurs when TL has no formally corresponding feature (1965:94). In cultural untranslatability, the failure is due to the absence of the situational feature which is relevant in the SL culture in the TL culture.
Nida, in his essay A Framework for the Analysis and Evaluation of Theories
of Translation compiled by Sakri in Ikhwal Menerjemahkan, mentions two problems
in transferring the message, namely problem of content and problem of form (1985:71).
1) Problem of Content Talking about content of a message, it must be distinguished clearly between the story and the setting. That is to say, what happens in the story constitutes a series of problems, and the culture setting of the story would give a series new problems. When the culture setting of the story is really different from the culture setting in the target language, it will raise the serious problems in translation. The problems concern the equivalence; if we talk about culture, the problem is to find the equivalence because each country has its own culture, and language, of course, is one of the products of the culture itself.
There are two dimensions that directly concern the content; they are setting of time and culture. It can be explained, if there are two countries that have a great distance, the culture of those countries must be different. For example the culture of Indonesia in Bumi Manusia is different from the culture of other countries, in this case Australia. The same thing also happens in the setting of time. If the time when the novel is written with the time when the novel is translated has a great distance, the translator must really understand that the situation in the story is different from the present day situation. For example the situation and condition of Indonesia in the era of colonialism in Bumi Manusia is really different from the present day.
The degree of foreign culture setting preserved in a translation depends on its imperative function in the story. The culture setting is important to preserve because it will promote the particular types or the features of the source language culture to receptor language readers. Sometimes a translator feels justified to change the feature of the culture setting of the original, in purpose to make the receptor understand what happened at the particular time in the story or in another culture. But above all the translator is generally obligated to preserve as much of the original culture setting as possible.
2) Problems of Form Nida says that though the difficulties related to the adequate reproduction of content are often acute, they generally do not constitute as complex and intractable a series of problems as the particular formal features of language in a message (1976:172). Therefore it will be easier for someone to analyze and describe cognitive equivalences of content than the formal equivalences of language. That is to say, the componential features of cognitive meaning can be more readily transferred and, if necessary, redistributed from source language to receptor language than the corresponding features of discourse structures.
The formal linguistic features become all the more important as the text under consideration contains more and more highly specialized stylistics features (1976:128). Therefore, the greater the significance of the form for the comprehension and appreciation of the message, the more difficult it is to find appropriate formal equivalence in the receptor language.
As the formal features of a text become more highly specialized (that is, distinctive of the source language in question), the more difficult it is to approximate the form and the unlikely it is that even a formal equivalence will carry anything like the same significance for receptor language readers.
4. Equivalence
There are five categories of equivalence according to the level of complexity, suggested by Mona Baker in her In Other Words: A Course Book on Translation (1992:5). They are:
a. Equivalence at Word Level
It can be gained by exploring the meaning of a single word in ST and replacing it with TL word which expresses the same meaning as the word in ST does.
Non-equivalence at the word level can be one of the problems in translating ST. Non- equivalence at the word level means the TL has no direct equivalence of a word that occurs in ST (1992:20). There is some common non-equivalence at the word level (1992:20-25). They are: 1) Culture-specific concepts
Certain words occurring in the ST may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture, such as type of food, and some other concepts related to religious belief and social custom. 2) The SL word is semantically complex
A single word in the SL may express a complex set of meanings. As a word may have several meaning in its usage.
3) The TL lacks a superordinate The TL may have specific words (hyponyms), but no general word
(superordinate) to head the semantic field. On the other hand, the TL sometimes may have superordinate but lacks of specific words.
4) Differences in expressive meaning The TL may have a word with the same proportional meaning as the SL word, but the expressive meaning is not definitely yet the same. It often happens in translating a text related to sensitive issues such as religion, politics, and sex. 5) The use of loan words in the ST
It can add the atmosphere of sophistication that almost cannot be transferred into the TT. Another problem is called false friends which refers to some words or expressions having the same form in two or more languages, but convey different meaning (1992:25). Word or expression which is borrowed in another language will develop in meaning. It rarely has the same meaning as the original.
b. Equivalence above Word Level
The second type of equivalence is the equivalence above word level. It is gained by exploring the meaning of the combination of words and phrases. This types of equivalence covers collocation, idiom and fixed expression.
c. Grammatical Equivalence
Every language has its own grammatical rules. The differences in the grammatical structures often result in some change in the information content of the message during the process of translation (1992:86). The differences in the grammatical structures that can raise problems for translator may be deal with number (singular and plural distinction), gender (the classification of nouns and pronouns into masculine and feminine), person (forms of pronoun in expressing different level of situational background such as familiarity, and interaction), tense and aspect (the distinction of tense that not all language has this type), and voice (the distinction of passive and active forms and the effect of using such patterns).
d. Textual Equivalence This level of equivalence emphasizes on the aspect of cohesion (1992:80).
Cohesion is the relation that provides links between various parts of a text. There are five main cohesive devices in English that are identified by Halliday and Hasan (Baker, 1992:182-208). The first is reference. It refers to the use of anaphora and cataphora in the text. The second is substitution. Certain words can refer to the same aspect. This cohesive device mainly focuses on verb. For example; He loves you. He
does. The third is ellipsis. It uses when there are two or more subjects in the sentence
with same verb. It is used to avoid unnecessary repetition. For example; I read novel
but Andy a poem . The verb read is omitted because those subjects are doing the same
action using one verb. The fourth is conjuction, such as and, but or, etc. the last is lexical cohesion. It refers to the role played by the selection of vocabulary in organizing relation within a text.
e. Pragmatic Equivalence
It deals with how a text ‘make sense’ for readers. This level of equivalence emphasizes on the aspect of coherence. It is more complicated than cohesion. It refers to the network of conceptual relations which underlie the surface of the text. There is also the aspect of cooperative principle that must be understood in the text and the context of dialog that merely influences the meaning of the text.
5. Lexical Equivalence
Mildred L.Larson in his Meaning-Based Translation states that translation was described as the process of studying the lexicon, the grammatical structure, and the communication situation of the source language text, analyzing it in order to determinate the meaning (1984:153). The translator is constantly looking for lexical equivalents between the source language and the receptor language. Larson states that language, it is also mentioned in chapter I, is part of culture. Therefore, a translator should be the one who has an adequate knowledge about both SL and TL structures and cultures because culture differences between SL and TL can be serious problems for a translator, since some SL concepts mat have no lexical equivalence in TL as the result of differences in geography, customs, belief, and various other factors (1984:163).
Beekman and Callow (1974:191-211) proposed three basic alternative ways in which a translator can find an equivalent expression in the receptor language as quoted by Larson (1984:163-172). They are:
a. Modifying a generic word with descriptive phrase
When an SL concept does not occur in the TL, it may be very helpful to analyze its meaning component to discover a generic word and a descriptive modification. Descriptive modification can be based on the form or function of the concept. The form has to do with the physical aspects of particular thing or event, while the function has to do with the significance, the reason for, or the purpose of the thing or event. Equivalence can be gained by modifying a generic word and a descriptive phrase. In modifying a descriptive phrase, it is necessary for a translator to study the context to decide whether he/she will include the form, function, or both.
The decision will depend on which component is significant in the context.
b. Modifying a loan word
It refers to a word from another language and mostly unknown for receptor language speakers. These words are commonly used for the names of people, places, etc (1984:169). Loan word can be used in translation by modifying it with a classifier or with a description of form, function, or both of them.
c. Using cultural substitution
It is used by using certain concepts that are no t exactly the same but occur in the TL. Cultural substitution always results in some distortion of meaning and should not be used unless the other possible solutions have proven insufficient. On the other hand, a cultural substitute does establish dynamic equivalence, without which part of the original message might not be understood.
6. Translation Strategies at Word Level
Mona Baker in her In Other Words: A Course Book on Translation suggests some translation strategies to deal with the occurrence of non-equivalence at word level (1992:26-42) as follows:
a. Translation by a more general word (superordinate)
A translator may “go up ” one level by giving a word from higher semantic field, in other word, a more general word when TL has no word that share the same proportional meaning as the SL word.
b. Translation by a more neutral/ less expressive word