1

THE EQUIVALENCE OF ENGLISH IDIOMS INTO INDONESIA WITH

REFERENCES TO THE TRANSLATION OF GILBERT’S

EAT, PRAY, LOVE INTO DOA, MAKAN, CINTA

BY:

Nyoman Dedi Suryanata

0818351033

Abstrak

Judul penelitian ini adalah "The Penerjemahan Idiom bahasa Inggris ke Indonesia di Eat, Pray, Love dan Terjemahan nya". Penelitian ini menganalisis terjemahan bhs Inggris ke Indonesia dalam novel Eat, Pray, Love. Pertanyaan mendasar dari penelitian ini adalah jenis idiom dan penyesuaian semantik yang digunakan oleh penerjemah untuk menerjemahkan idiom bahasa Inggris ke Indonesia. Data dianalisis dengan menggunakan beberapa teori, teori terjemahan oleh Larson, teori idiom oleh Palmer dan teori semantik penyesuaian oleh Nida.

Pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui beberapa tahap, yaitu, pertama-tama, daftar idiom baik dalam bahasa Inggris atau Indonesia dalam rangka untuk menemukan penyesuaian terjemahan idiom bahasa Inggris ke dalam bahasa Indonesia. Setelah menganalisis teks, penelitian telah menemukan bahwa ada tiga jenis idiom bahasa Inggris, kata kerja phrasal, frase preposisional dan idiom parsial dan ada dua jenis penyesuaian semantik dalam penerjemahan idiom bahasa Inggris ke Indonesia, idiom dalam SL menjadi idiom dalam TL dan idiom di SL untuk non-idiom di TL.

Keyword : TL ( Target Language )

SL ( Source Language )

1. Background of Study

The translation equivalence of English idioms into Indonesian was analyzed in this study. The idiomatic expressions are related to the figurative language. Idiom is one class of figurative sense, but which is very language specific. According to Nida and Tabber (1974:4), “anything that can be said in one language can be said in another, unless the form is an essential element of this or this massage." This statement gives information that translation can transfer the massage from one language to another; the function of translation

is copying the information. In a translation, the form of the source language (SL) has to be changed into the target language (TL).

To do an effective translation, one must discover the meaning of the source language form and use the receptor language form which can express this meaning in a natural way (Larson, 1998: 6). The difficulty that is also faced by the translator is to find out the closest natural equivalent in translating. Based on Nida and Taber (1974:42), translation consist of reproducing in the receptor language, the closest natural equivalent of the source language massage, first in terms of meaning and secondly in term of style. According to Palmer (1976: 98), idiom is semantically like a single word but it does not function like one. So, the meaning of the idiom cannot be predicted from the meaning of the words that compose it. Palmer divides types of idioms into phrasal verb, prepositional phrase and partial idiom. According to Beekman and Callo (1974: 121), idioms are the expression of “at least to word which cannot be understood literally and which function as a unit semantically". Idioms also can means an expression of which meaning cannot be inferred from the meaning of it part (Cruse, 1986: 37).

All languages have idioms according to Tan (2002: Vii) who defines idioms as a group of word joining together to assume a specific meaning different from the meaning of each individual word. In other words, an idiom is a phrase, which is something different from the meaning and the separate words that are parts of it. The idiomatic expressions is taken as the topic in this writing because many idioms found in the source text (English Novel) which are translated into Indonesian, do not carry the same meaning as the original text, so that the readers of the target language often cannot feel the same mood and effect as that felt by the readers of the source text.

It is not only a matter of transferring meaning into another language as target languages. In the process of transferring the meaning of idiom great care must be taken. The translator must first be sure of the meaning of the idiom as a whole. Translating idiom has become a parameter producing a good translation since the translator cannot appropriately translate without enough knowledge of idioms.

According to Seild and McMOrdie (1980:3), idiomatic expressions can be defined as a number of words which when taken together will have different meaning from the individual meanings of each words. It is not easy to translate idiom literally.

  • 2    Problem of Study

There are two problems which were analyzed in this study, those are:

  • 1.    What types of idioms were found in novel Eat, Pray, Love?

  • 3    Aims of study

The aims of this study as based on the problems above are as follows:

  • 1.    To analyze the types of semantic adjustment which are used in the translation of idioms in Eat, Pray, Love into its Makan, Doa, Cinta.

  • 4    Research Method

Methodology is an explanation and is an important thing in making a scientific writing because it was intended to give an idea about what method applied in this research. This paper concerned with the procedure of determining the data and presenting the analysis of the data as well as of drawing conclusion. The method of the research includes data source, data collection and data analysis.

Data source is the source from which the data are taken. This study used the data which were taken from the novel entitled Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and its Indonesia version with the title Makan, Doa, Cinta. This novel was chosen, because this novel is well known and it contains a lot of idioms that can not be translated literally. It needed to be analyzed deeply in order to find out the closest equivalence in translation. The translator has to maintain the meaning of the source text

The method of collecting data applied in this research was documentation method. Documentation is the method usually conducted when the research is held to collect data about things, like notes, transcription, books, newspaper, magazines, etc. This study was done by observing closely

the data that contain idioms in the source language and determining their translation. This method was also supported by note taking technique, in which the important data required for this study was noted down.

The data was collected through some stages. First, the novel was read deeply to find words or phrases which indicate idioms. After reading the novel, the idioms were listed both in English or Indonesian. After that, those idioms were compared in order to find out the adjustments in the translation of English idiomatic expressions into Indonesian.

The collected data was analyzed qualitatively, knowing the characteristic of the data used as the non-numerical data or qualitative data. The analysis was done all through qualitative analysis specifically in descriptive qualitative analysis. It uses narrative in answering the questions. The steps in analyzing the data were described as follows:

Firstly the idioms were classified based on Palmer (1976: 98) which was divided into phrasal verb, prepositional phrase and partial idiom. Next, the meanings of the idioms was analyzed in the source language and described based on the theory of adjustment. After all those steps, the result was presented descriptively in order to make the result easier to digest.

  • 5 . Types of Idioms

In the previous chapter, are discussed various types of idioms according to Palmer (1976). There are three types of idioms, phrasal verb, prepositional phrase and partial idioms. In the following discussion and analysis of types of idioms are presented.

Phrasal verb is a very common type of idiom in English, which includes combination of verb plus adverb, verb plus preposition, and there also sequence of verb, adverb and preposition. The meaning of those combinations cannot be predicted from the individual verbs and adverbs, and in many cases there is a single verb with the same or a very close meaning.

  • 1.    SL : "He could not heart break the feeling that something was going to go wrong. (gilbert , 2006: 7)

TL : "Dia tak berhasil remuk hati perasaan bahwa aka ada sesuatu yang tidak benar. (Nugroho , 2006: 7)

Verb

Preposition

SL

Heart

Break

TL

Remuk hati

In this case the idiom above is translated into ‘remuk hati’. The expression of heart break is combined by two words: break as a verb means 'to raise your shoulders and then lower them to show that you do not know or care about something' and the word break as a preposition means 'away from a place; at a distance in space or time' (Hornby, 2000: 914). The expression heart break has a single meaning 'to treat something as if it is not important (Hornby, 2000: 1240). Something that is not important should be removed, so the translator used the word remuk hati as the equivalent of heart break. In Indonesian, the expression heart break means ‘Luka yang mendalam’ (Primapena, 2004: 454). The translation method applied by the translator in translating this idiom is meaning based translation or idiomatic translation. The translator used the natural forms of the TL both in grammatical or the choice of lexical item.

Partial Idioms

Partial idiom is also known as verbal idiom, where one of the words has its usual meaning; the other has a meaning that is peculiar to the particular sequence.

  • 25.    SL : "With the hard feel Elizabeth got to his feet, from his chair, and go to out side". (Gilbert, 2006: 28)

TL : "dengan berat hati Elizabeth bangkit dari kursi yang ia duduki, dan pergi keluar, “(Nugroho, 2006: 30)

Verb

Preposition

Noun

SL

Got

To

(his)feet

TL

Bangkit

The expression of got to his feet is concerned with the usual meaning of the words got to and his feet whose meaning is peculiar to the particular sequence. If it translated literally, it would be ‘mendapatkan sampai kaki’ but it sounds meaningless and far from what the writer of the SL text meant. The translator adopted meaning based translation method in translating this idiom so the resulted of translation was clear and natural based on the context of the whole story in the novel. In this case the meaning of the expression got to related with the state or position. The expression got to means to reach a particular state or condition (Hornby, 2000: 563) and feet means the lowest part of the leg below the ankle on which person or an animal stands (Homby, 2000: 522). The translator used the word ‘bangkit’ as the equivalent of expression got to his feet.

Idiom to Idiom

The translator will be necessary to translate idioms into nonidioms, but sometimes a good idiom is used in the TL, if there are idioms, which matches the idioms in the SL. In this case, the translator needs to develop a sensitivity to the use of idiom in the TL, and use the naturally to make the translation lively and keep the style of the SL.

  • 1.    SL : "Then I started meditating every morning on ancient Sanskrit mantra the guru gives to all her student with under his breath. (Gilbert, 2006:211)

TL : "Kemudian saya mulai melakukan meditasi setiap pagi dengan menggunakan mantra sansekerta kuno yang diberikan oleh Guru kepada semua muritnya dengan pelan". (Nugroho, 2006: 219)

This idiom consists of the word under and breath, under means 'in, to or through a position that is below something' (Horaby, 2000: 1467) and breath means 'the air that you take into your lungs and send out again' (Horaby, 2000:153). If it translated literally, it would be meaningless and makes the reader confused about the real meaning so the translator used the

meaning based translation method in order to find the closest natural equivalent meaning of the idiom. According to dictionary, the idiom under his breath means 'to say something quietly so that people cannot hear' (Hornby, 2000: 153), which in Indonesian means mengatakan sesuatu dengan hati-hati sehingga tidak terdengar. It was equivalent with pelan.

  • 6. Conclusion

The conclusions are drawn based on the research as stated below. Idiom occurs in all languages. Idiom is a group of words, phrase or sentence where taken together, have different meaning from the individual words that make it up. This study is aimed to answer the problems about types of idiom found in the novel Eat, Pray, Love referred to Palmer (1976:44) and the semantic adjustments of translation English idiom into Indonesian based on Nida (1975:39)

Translating idioms is not an easy task to do. Therefore, idioms cannot be translated literally or word for word because the meaning is different from individual words forming it. A translator is obliged to make some adjustments in order to reproduce meaning in terms of the SL context. When semantic adjustments are made in the translation, idioms are the most obvious forms that are need for semantic adjustments. The semantic adjustments based on this study concerned in two ways, they are:

  • 1.    Idiom to non-idiom

  • 2.    Idiom to idiom

Generally, the translator has used the natural form of the target language to avoid misinterpretation and be able to translate them well.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Badudu, J.S. 2008. Kamus Ungkapan Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Kompas.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. 2006. Eat, Pray, Love. Great Britain. Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

Gunawan Adi. 2001.kamus Lengkap, Indonesia – Inggris. Inggris – Indonesia. Surabaya. Penerbit Kartika.

Ismayanti. 2002. English Idioms in The Novel Disclosure and their Translation into Indonesia. Denpasar: Udayana University.

Larson, M. 1998. Meaning Based Translation: A Guide to Cross Language Equivalence. Lanham: University Press of America.

Leech, Geoffery. 1974. Semantics. London: Penguin.

Nida, E.A. 1975. Language Structure and Translation. California: Stanford University Press.

Nida, E.A. and Thaber. Charles, R. 1974. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Netherland: E. J. Brill. Leiden.

Oxford Leanner’s pocket Dictionary. Third Edition. 2000. New York. Oxford University. Press.

Palmer, F.R. 1976. Semantic A New Outline. Melbourne: Cambrige University Press.

Selid, W. Memordie. 1989, English Idioms. London: Oxford University Press.

Abdi Tandur, 2006, Makan, Doa, Cinta, pada penerbit Dinastindo.

9