PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION LECTURE 1 PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION

Principles of Translation Hatim & Munday (2004): Translation as a process 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).

Principles of Translation Hatim & Munday (2004): (2) refers to the concrete translation product produced by the translator.

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.

(Can you give other examples?) For example: ST TT Dalang mastermind? puppeteer? makan sahur having meal? having early morning meal? dangdut ??? wayang puppet? (Can you give other examples?)

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.

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

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).

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.

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

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

(Other examples?) 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?)

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.

Source Text a famous city an old teacher new hired employee preposition attributive noun a famous city an old teacher new hired employee

sebuah kota terkenal seorang guru tua karyawan baru Target Text Preposition Noun Attributive sebuah kota terkenal seorang guru tua karyawan baru

Source Text Noun Attributive war in Iraq time available money to spend

Target Text Noun Attributive perang di Irak waktu yang tersedia uang untuk dibelanjakan

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.

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.

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”.

(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.

The sentences in (2) and (3) show contrasts to their real meanings 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.

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

Indonesian: Jika saya punya waktu, saya akan datang ke pestamu 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)

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

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

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

Modal auxiliaries There are more than 10 modal auxiliaries in English 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

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

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

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.

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.

Where is John. He might be at home. Dimana John 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.

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.

Saya suka kopi tetapi saya tidak suka teh. I like coffee but not tea 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)

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).

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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