Cultural equivalence in translation

What’s Inside a) Priorities in translation b) Audience Design and Needs Analysis c) Methods in translating d) The Procedures e) The Mechanism f) Major Problem(s) in Translation

Priorities in Translation Dalam penerjemahan, yang diprioritaskan bukanlah kesejajaran formal (formal correspondence), tetapi kesepadanan (equivalence). Ini berarti yang lebih dipentingkan adalah penyampaian pesannya: apakah pesan itu “sama” (atau lebih “sepadan”) atau tidak. Contoh: A white house (MD) Sebuah rumah putih (DM)

Audience Design and Need Analysis Betul-salahnya (correctness) suatu terjemahan tergantung untuk siapa penerjemahan dibuat. Oleh karena itu, penerjemah yang berpengalaman biasanya melakukan “audience design” yaitu mempelajari siapa pengguna terjemahan kita. Lebih dari itu, penerjemah biasanya harus mengetahui untuk tujuan (purpose) atau untuk keperluan (need) apa terjemahan itu dibuat. Audience design biasanya disertai dengan needs analysis. Dengan demikian, pelaksanaan penerjemahan harus berorientasi kepada klien (client oriented)

Method in Translation The V diagram by Newmark (1988:45) SL Emphasis TL Emphasis Word-for-word Transl Adaptation Literal Translation Free Translation Faithful Translation Idiomatic Translation Semantic Tr anslation Communicative Transl

Procedures in Translating 2 Most problematic problems in translation: We did not understand the meaning of words and sentences or the paragraphs so that we were not able to understand the meaning. We found out obstacles in translating texts.

Cultural Equivalence in Translation In all situations under the term “equivalence” there is actually no exact equivalence. No corresponding two words in two different languages ever have identically the same meaning. The problem is not one of finding absolute equivalent but of finding relatively close equivalent. There can be no absolute standard of conformity. It depends only upon how far the cultural and linguistic distance is between the languages.

For example, the English word “bread”, in Indonesian ‘roti’ For example, the English word “bread”, in Indonesian ‘roti’. The translation of “daily bread”, however, cannot be rendered as ‘roti harian’, but rather ‘rejeki sehari-hari’, for bread is important food in Western culture, and is usually eaten at breakfast and so can be considered a blessing God gives at the beginning of the day when people begin their jobs.

Malaysian terms - USB = Bas Bersiri Antara Dunia- BlueTooth = Gigi Biru - SMS / MMS = Sistem Pesanan Ringkas / Pesanan Ringkas Pelbagai Alat -Screen Saver = Penyelamat Skrin - optical mouse = Tetikus Optik (Tikus ada mata) DVD = Cakera Serbaboleh Digital - Software = Perisian - Download = Muat-turun - website = Laman web or laman sawang - program = Aturcara -- password = Kata laluan

expansion slot = ruang pengembangan - Plug & play = cucuk dan main - PDA = Pembantu Peribadi Digital - Hotspot = Kawasan hangat - floppy disk / diskette = cakera liut - hardware = perkakasan - harddrive = cakera keras - RAM = Memori/Ingatan Capaian Rawak

A dictionary can help to show the lexical meaning of words, but this may be invalid if the socio-cultural background of the word is not understood. Therefore, in order to translate effectively it is necessary to have a clear and imaginative understanding of the whole language together with a deep and sympathetic vision of the culture and background of the people speaking it.

If words are in common use, there is actually no difference in usage between the indigenous and borrowed words, such as piknik (from Dutch) and tamasya; in fact, most speakers will not know that many words are borrowed.

However, when a word is still restricted in use, meaning that probably the borrowed word has just been introduced and has not yet gained enough time to make its way completely into the speech of the people, it is then preferable to choose the borrowed word to get the right connotation. This is the case with modern scientific terms, and terms for specialized use in trade, sports and military forces. Since Bahasa Indonesia is growing and accepting many kinds of foreign influence in terms of new words, the use of a word, whether indigenous or borrowed, is largely dependent upon the situation to which the word refers.