LECTURE 1

PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION

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 Principles of Translation
Hatim & Munday (2004):
1. Translation as a process
2. Translation as a product
(1) focuses on the role of the translator
in taking the source text (ST) and
turning it into a text in another
language (the target text, TT).
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 Principles of Translation

Hatim & Munday (2004):

(2) refers to the concrete

translation product produced
by the translator.

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Two principles of translation:
1. A highly accurate, appropriate,
and clear translation.
It is difficult to apply because
translating the same word,
phrase, or sentence from SL to TL
highly accurately, appropriately,
and clearly is not easy to do.

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For example:
ST TT
• Dalang mastermind? puppeteer?
• makan sahur having meal?
having early morning meal?
• dangdut ???
• wayang puppet?

(Can you give other examples?)

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2. A free translation, focuses more
on the information or message to
its readers. In other words,
readers can easily and
conveniently comprehend the
information or message being
conveyed.

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For example:
Source Text (ST)
I ask that you embrace this behavior of …
TT: Mari kita gunakan kebiasaan …

discuss, decide, and support by actively

berdiskusi, memutuskan 
menggalakkan kerjasama ...
reinforce collaboration

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 Translation Procedures

The translation procedures help

translation process from ST to
TT. In this context, the
procedures encompass loan
words, synonymous words, and
transposition (shift in grammar).
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Loan words
• When the ST words have no
synonyms in TT words, the
procedure is by borrowing them
without any change in the
words or by adjusting their
spelling or pronunciation.

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For example:
ST TT
• rambutan rambutan
• duku duku
• memo memo
• taxi taksi
• procedure prosedur
Give other examples!

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Synonyms
Translating using synonyms
covers the similarities of
structure and concept,
including borrowing and
translating word for word.

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For example:
ST TT
4 groups 4 kelompok/ 4 grup
behavior prilaku
fasilitas facility
Teruslah mencoba. Keep trying.
They will arrive. Mereka akan tiba.
(Other examples?)
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Transposition
It is a procedure for shifting the grammatical structure of
ST to that of TT to get the same translation sense, so a
translator adjusts it to have acceptable and appropriate
translation. In other words, transposition is a change of
one part of speech for another without changing the
sense. The shifting of grammatical structures of ST to TT
aims at obtaining appropriate and clear translation.
In transposition procedure, a translator has to
understand the linguistic components such as phrase,
and positions of attributive adjectives, etc.

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 Source Text

preposition attributive noun

a famous city

an old teacher

a new hired employee

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 Target Text

Preposition Noun Attributive

sebuah kota terkenal

seorang guru tua
seorang karyawan baru

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 Source Text

Noun Attributive

war in Iraq
time available
money to spend
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 Target Text

Noun Attributive

perang di Irak

waktu yang tersedia

untuk
uang
dibelanjakan

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From the two examples above,
it is quite clear that the
translation from ST to TT is
relatively easy when the two
languages have similar
grammatical structures.

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However, when there are differences in
grammatical structures between the
two languages, the translation must be
done carefully.

It is more concerned with sense for

sense translation or free translation
rather than word for word translation,
i.e. keeping the same ideas and forms.

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Grammatical structures of conditional sentences
(1) If they negotiate with the minister, they will
get the project,
or
They will get the project if they negotiate with
the minister.
 
The above sentence has a condition, namely
“negotiate with the minister”, and if this condition is
fulfilled, the prospective result will be “get the project”.

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(2) If I were a president, I would rule the
country wisely,
or
I would rule the country wisely if I were a
president.
 
(3) If US had not attacked Iraq, Saddam
would still have been the president,
or
Saddam would still have been the president
If US had not attacked Iraq.

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The sentences in (2) and (3) show contrasts to
their real meanings. In (2), it implies the
impossible fact that the writer was the president
at the moment the statement was used. While in
sentence (3), the event took place some time in
the past. The writer implies that the US had
already done the attacking and Saddam was no
longer the president of Iraq.

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The above examples on the grammatical structures of
conditional sentences, particularly examples in (2) and (3), need
to be considered carefully since their real meanings are quite
different from the literal meanings of the words. In Indonesian
language, the conditional sentences are generally represented
by the phrase, jika, jika saja or seandainya (If). When the
Indonesian conditional sentences (ST) are translated into
English (TT), to have an appropriate translation, a translator has
to consider the grammatical structures used in ST in order to
determine which type of conditional sentence it is in English

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Indonesian: Jika saya punya
waktu, saya akan datang ke
pestamu.
English:
If I have time, I will come to your
party.
(future wish showing possibility)
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Indonesian: Jika saja saya punya waktu,
saya datang ke pestamu.

English: If I had time, I would come to your

party.

(present wish showing contrary to the fact)

 
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Indonesian: Jika saja saya punya
waktu, saya datang ke pestamu.

English: If I had had time, I would have

come to your party.

(past probability)
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Sentence 1 can of course use may instead of
will to show hesitation of the writer. Sentence 2
and sentence 3 may create a problem for a
translator in a way that s/he has to be certain
about the context of the sentences, present wish
or past probability. It is due to the fact that
Indonesian language has no corresponding
grammatical structures of conditional sentences
expressing present wish/imaginative and past
probability
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Modal auxiliaries
There are more than 10 modal auxiliaries in English. Their meanings
depend on the context of the sentences where they are used. In
homonymy, senses of the same written word can be distinguished based
on their syntactic behavior, and spelling (Saeed, 1998). In other words,
they are lexemes (semantic words) of the same syntactic category, and
with the same spelling.

There are at least six functions of the modal auxiliaries: showing ability
(can, could), showing permission (can, may), giving advice (should,
ought to, had better), showing obligation (must, have to, have got to),
showing possibility (may, might, must), showing politeness (will, would,
could). Below are the examples of the functions

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Amir dapat berbahasa Inggris dengan baik.
Amir can speak English well.

Waktu kecil, dia dapat berbahasa Sunda.

When he was a child, he could speak Sundanese

They can take more water.

Mereka boleh mengambil air lebih banyak.

You may go now.

Anda boleh pergi sekarang.

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He should lose some weight.
Sebaiknya dia mengurangi berat badan.

You ought to study harder.

Sebaiknya anda belajar lebih giat lagi.

You had better stop there.

Sebaiknya anda berhenti disana.

We must pay tax.

Kita wajib membayar pajak.

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In their negative forms, some of the modal
auxiliaries have different meanings:
 
You must not smoke in this room.
Anda dilarang merokok di ruangan ini.

You do not have to go now. Take your time.

Anda tidak perlu pergi sekarang. Santai saja.

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In their negative forms, some of the modal
auxiliaries have different meanings:
 
You must not smoke in this room.
Anda dilarang merokok di ruangan ini.

You do not have to go now. Take your time.

Anda tidak perlu pergi sekarang. Santai saja.

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Where is John? He might be at home.
Dimana John. Dia mungkin ada di rumah.

Look at the man standing at the top of that high

building
Lihatlah pria yang sedang berdiri di atas gedung tinggi
itu.

He must be crazy.
Dia pasti orang sinting.

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Ellipsis

Ellipsis is an omission of words needed for

grammatical completeness. The ommitted
words are usually the ones which have been
mentioned or written in the previous
sentence. They may be words, verbs, or
even a sentence. The following are the
examples.

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Saya suka kopi tetapi saya tidak suka teh.
I like coffee but not tea.
(I like coffee. I don’t like tea)
 
Sherly didn’t have lunch. Neither did I.
Sherly tidak makan siang. Saya juga.
(Sherly didn’t have lunch. I didn’t have
lunch)

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The elliptical sentences are a lot easier to translate
from ST to TT when their structure patterns are similar
in many respects. If not, the adjustment of translating
sentences from ST to TT will be difficult. In addition,
meaning is not only structured in words/phrases but
also occur in all parts of a text. A reader usually
collects and manages meaning, and then constructs
the meaning so that there will be the same process of
comprehending between the writer of the ST and the
reader (De Lopez, 1977).

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CONCLUSION
 
Translation skill from ST to TT needs knowledge
such as linguistics. In addition, translation
principles and procedures are important. Free
translation with accurate, appropriate, and clear
meaning depends on who the readers are. Loan
words, synonyms, and transpositions are among
others the procedures that a translator does in a
translation process. The most important thing is
that the substance of the ST is maintained and has
the same meaning as in that of TT..

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END OF SLIDES

QUESTIONS?

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