BASIC CONCEPTS

OF TRANSLATION

1. A BRIEF HISTORY
2. THEORY OF TRANSLATION
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
TRANSLATION
The practice of translating was discussed by:
a. Cicero and Horace (1 st Century BCE)
Translation was regarded as a means of
b. St. Jerome (4 th Century CE) learning a new language or reading a
foreign language until one had the
c. The Buddhist’s Sutras (1 st Cent CE) linguistic ability to read the original

d. Grammar-translation method (late 18 th Century to the 1960s)

e. James S. Holmes (1988) “Contemporary Translation Theories” is a
founding statement of the field. He found that
translation was dispersed across older
disciplines.
THE PHENOMENON
INDONESIAN CONTEXT

The scarcity of qualified translator that is badly needed and the poor
quality of translation performance in Indonesia.
The high tendency of using google translate or any tranlation tools
to translet language. How is the accuracy?
FUNNY BUT
SADDENING
FUNNY BUT
SADDENING
FUNNY BUT SADDENING
DEFINITIONS
1. WHAT IS TRANSLATION?
a. Catford (1965: 20) Translation is the
replacement of textual material in
one language by equivalent textual
material in another language.
b. Savory (1969: 13) Translation is
made possible by an equivalence of
thought that lies behind its different
verbal expressions
WHAT IS TRANSLATION?
c. Translating consists of 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, 1982)
WHAT IS
TRANSLATION?
d. (Mc Guire, 1980:2) Translation involves
the rendering of a source language (SL)
text into the target language (TL) so as to
ensure that (1) the surface meaning of
the two will be approximately similar and
(2) the structure of the SL will be
preserved as closely as possible, but not
so closely that the TL structure will be
seriously distorted.
WHAT IS TRANSLATION?
e. Translation is a process of finding a
Target Language equivalent for a Source
Language utterance. (Pinchuck,
1977:38)
f. 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 statement in
another language. (Newmark, 1981:7)
WHAT IS
TRANSLATION?
g. Translation is a transfer process
which aims at the transformation of a
written SL text into an optimally
equivalent TL text, and which requires
the syntactic, the systematic and the
pragmatic understanding and
analytical processing of the SL (Wilss
and Noss, 1982).
DEFINITION, MAIN POINTS:

Replacement (Catford) and

reproducing (Nida) indicate the Equivalence (Catford, Savory, Nida
process (Pinchuck) happens when and Pinchuck) = Similar (McGuire)
translating a SL text into TL text.

Textual Material (Catford), SL Text

(McGuire), written message
(Newmark), and SL message (Nida)
Meaning, Style and Craft
indicate that something to be
translated into TL text is uni-
directional
WHAT IS THE PROCESS OF TRANSFERRING THE
MEANING INTO THE RECEPTOR LANGUAGE TEXT?

Translation consist 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.
 EXAMPLE OF TRANSFERRING
SIR (NO NAME)

Dear Sir,
You will not be paid Job
F L
Search Allowance because O E
your wife’s income is higher R T
than the amount allowed M T
A E
under the Income Test. Because the opening didn’t mention the L R
receiver’s name
Yours Faithfully,
John Smith
District manager
 PROCESS OF TRANSFERRING:
WHICH ONE IS BETTER? WHY?
Dengan hormat,
Tuan yang terhormat,

Tuan tidak akan dibayar Tunjangan
pencarian kerja karena pendapatan
istri Tuan lebih tinggi dibandingkan
jumlah yang dibolehkan menurut Uji
pendapatan.
Bapak tidak akan memperoleh Tunjangan
Pencari Kerja karena pendapatan isteri
Bapak lebih tinggi dari jumlah yang
diperbolehkan menurut Peraturan
mengenai pendapatan.

Dengan sesungguhnya,
Hormat saya,
John Smith
John Smith
Manajer Daerah Manajer distrik
TRANSFERRING IS
COMMUNICATING PROCESS
 PROCESS OF TRANSFERRING:
WHICH ONE IS BETTER? WHY?
Dengan hormat,
Tuan yang terhormat,

Tuan tidak akan dibayar Tunjangan
pencarian kerja karena pendapatan
istri Tuan lebih tinggi dibandingkan
jumlah yang dibolehkan menurut Uji
pendapatan.
Bapak tidak akan memperoleh Tunjangan
Pencari Kerja karena pendapatan isteri
Bapak lebih tinggi dari jumlah yang
diperbolehkan menurut Peraturan
mengenai pendapatan.

Dengan sesungguhnya,
Hormat saya,
John Smith
John Smith
Manajer distrik Manajer distrik
TRANSLATE THIS SENTENCE
(1 MIN)
SL: Man is a thinking animal
Transferring into TL
Manusia adalah hewan yang berpikir.
Restructuring TL
Manusia adalah makhluk yang berpikir.
 TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWINGS
(2 MINS)
SL: The Indonesian tourist industry is one of the major non-oil and gas income
producers for Indonesia. Each year a total of 3 million tourists from over forty
countries visit the archipelago.
Transferring from SL to TL:
Industri turisme Indonesia merupakan salah satu penghasil pendapatan non-
minyak/gas untuk Indonesia. Tiap tahun sebanyak tiga juta turis-turis dari
lebih 40 negara mengunjungi kepulauan Indonesia.
The final result in TL after restructuring :
Industri pariwisata Indonesia merupakan salah satu penghasil pendapatan
nonmigas bagi Indonesia. Setiap tahun sebanyak tiga juta wisatawan
mancanegara dari lebih 40 negara mengunjungi kepulauan Indonesia.
THE PROBLEM OF EQUIVALENCE

1. Translation equivalence could be in the rank of word for word,

phrase for phrase, sentence for sentence, etc.
Example:
Rumah sakit = hospital
Perawat rumah sakit = hospital attendant (nurse?)
Saudara perempuanku perawat = My sister is a hospital
attendant
EQUIVALENCE PROBLEMS
Since words sometimes have more than one meaning, their translation
equivalence could be a problem unless they are used in context:
Plane … ?
New Plane …?
The carpenter has a new plane …?
The carpenter has a new plane to make the wood smooth.
Plane = pengetam
MORE CHALLENGING
Cat …. kucing
To bell the cat …. ?
To let the cat out of the bag …. ?
A cat and dog life ….?
To rain cats and dogs ….?
When the cat is away the mice will play ….?
EXTRA LINGUISTICS FACTOR ARE BROUGHT INTO PLAY
(TOGETHER WITH THE COMMUNICATION FUNCTION OF
LANGUAGE)

1. Subject matter of the text

2. Objective of the original text
3. The author
4. The intended reader
5. Time and place
SUM UP WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT:

1….
2….
3….
4….
Etc