AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE COLLOCATIONS IN

NEGERI 5 MENARA

THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirement for the Degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan

Dewanti Eka Larasati

112008097

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

SALATIGA

2013

ii

AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE COLLOCATIONS IN

NEGERI 5 MENARA

THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirement for the Degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan

Dewanti Eka Larasati

112008097

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

SALATIGA

2013

iii

AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE COLLOCATIONS IN

NEGERI 5 MENARA

THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan

Dewanti Eka Larasati

112008097

Approved by:

M. Ch. Eko Setyarini, S.S., M.Hum Lany Kristono, M.Hum

Supervisor Examiner

iv

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Student ID Number : 112008097

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AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE COLLOCATIONS IN

NEGERI 5 MENARA

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vi

LIST OF TABLES

Table. 1. English collocation pattern according to Hill (2000) and Bateni (2010)................... 9

Table. 2. Indonesian collocation pattern as provided in Achmad (2010)................................. 9

Table. 5. Untranslated collocations..........................................................................................15

Table. 6. The structure of collocations from Indonesian to English........................................19

1

AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE COLLOCATIONS IN

NEGERI 5 MENARA

Dewanti Eka Larasati

Abstract

Collocations need to be learned and mastered well, because they are used in everyday

life. However, to learn about collocations is difficult for learners; even more in translating

collocations is more difficult. This study discusses the way Indonesian collocations in Negeri

5 Menara translated into the English version The Land of Five Towers. This is a documentary

analysis which means focusing on the analysis of the novel (Payne and Payne, 2004). The

study is qualitative research because it tries to describe how Indonesian collocations are

translated into English. The data were selected from the four chapters of the novel. The study

reveals that the translator mostly translated the Indonesian collocations to English using

indirect translational equivalence. The study also shows that there are similar pattern on the

Indonesian collocations which are translated into English. In addition, there are two

untranslated collocations and almost all the Indonesian collocations are not translated in the

form of the complete English collocation in this study.

Key word: Translation, collocations, translational equivalence

Introduction

In learning English as foreign language, learners tend to translate the combination of

words literally. It is originated from my experience. I have been learning English language for

about 13 years since I was in the fourth grade of elementary school. During learning English,

I have been confused how to speak by combining words to my friends or someone I talk to.

For instance, I want to write berbuka puasa from Indonesian into English as status update on

my social media account a few years ago. At first, I did not know what the translation of

berbuka puasa in English is, so I wrote it to be open fasting. Whereas the correct translation

and sounds natural of berbuka puasa is break the fast. The word berbuka puasa is an example

of collocations; the combination of two or more words that tends to occur together. Even now

my friends do not know berbuka puasa in English is open fasting or open the fast.

2

When I took Semantics course, a few months ago my lecturer Ibu Titik said that

learners must not just take from the dictionary when they try to translate collocations. She told

me that if a learner translates a collocation taken from dictionary, the translation could lead to

misunderstandings to the interlocutor or reader. When she was in Australia, she meant to say

memupuk persahabatan to her friends. Then she said manure friendship. In fact, memupuk

persahabatan is supposed to be nurture friendship. Similar to Ibu Titik, Chuckwu (1997) also

stated that learners do not always flick through the pages of dictionaries in search of the

meaning of difficult words. Sometimes, they are just searching of words to express ideas in

their heads, or the right verbs, adjectives or prepositions to combine with particular nouns,

etc.

Said (2012) mentions that in Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students (2002: vii),

collocation is a group of words combine in a language to produce a natural-sounding speech

and writing. In learning foreign language, collocation is very important to generate a good

and reasonable speech and writing as the native language speakers. A good speech and

writing contains of collocation which is natural for communication. Nevertheless, translating

collocation words is a problem for most learners. They feel difficult to predict whether the

collocation that they use is natural or not. They also tend to translate the source language

collocation into target language literally, using direct translational equivalence.

Collocation is the tendency of a number of words that can be used together or

combined on a regular basis (Bateni, 2010). As the example provided by Achmad (2010), in

Indonesian we say angin kencang means strong wind in English. It would not be normal to

say heavy wind or fast wind. Probably, heavy wind could be normal for the natural sound of

the English Native Speaker. Another example is when the first time I studied in English

Department, I was confused with what my friend said. My friend said, “Let‟s go to window

shopping!” but I did not know what the meaning of “window shopping” is. I kept thinking

3

until another friend said that “window shopping” is just looking at things in the shops without

buying anything.

In my own point of view, collocations need to be learned and mastered well. If the

learners do not master in combining two or more words, it may lead to misunderstanding

when they speak English with other people. The other people will feel strange with what the

learner talk about, as stated by Said (2012). As the example provided by Said (2012), a

foreigner looks at a boat at the beach and says perahunya puasa-puasa. Puasa in English is

fasting. Hearing what the foreigner said, the Indonesian people around him felt surprised and

strange. It was impossible that there‟s any boat fasting. After observing with what the

foreigner said, apparently he wanted to say is perahunya lari cepat. The word cepat in

English is fast, but the meaning of the word fast can have different meaning in Indonesian;

cepat and puasa.

This study aims to find out how the Indonesian collocations in Negeri 5 Menara are

translated into the English in The Land of Five Towers, the translated version. The novels are

read by many people and it contains language used in everyday life. Many students often have

difficulty in translating collocation words and we do not really know the equivalence of the

source language collocations into the target language. As also mention by Barfield and

Gyllstad (2010) collocations is one of the most fascinating challenges for everyone especially

those who learn and teach foreign language. If students and translators make mistake in

translating collocation words, it may lead to misunderstanding to the interlocutor.

This research is important to be carried out because collocations are used in everyday

life, and one of the difficulties that learners have to face when they try to combine words. As

novels are read by many people, it is important to analyze the novels because it contains

language used in everyday life. This research is focused on an Indonesian and English

4

translation novel. Hopefully, this study can help students to understand about Indonesian and

English collocations.

There are several relevant studies in my research; the first relevant study is a research

conducted by Joseph (2012) entitled The Equivalence and Shift in the Indonesian Translation

from English Nominal Collocation. The subject of the research is the translation of English

nominal collocation into Indonesian Equivalence and Shift. In this research, the writer found

out how English nominal collocations are translated into Indonesian and to find out shift and

equivalence in the process of translation in Indonesian.

The second relevant study is a research conducted by Sudrajat (2009) with title

Translational Collocation into English in the Field of Health. The subject of this research is

translational equivalence of Indonesian collocations into English in the field of health. The

aims of this research were to find out the direct translational equivalence of Indonesian

collocations into English and the indirect translational equivalence of Indonesian collocations

into English in the field of health.

The third relevant study was conducted by Kurniawan (2009) with title Translational

Equivalence of Indonesian Collocation into English in the Field of Sport. The research aims

were to find direct and indirect translated collocation into English in the field of sport. The

data of the research was taken from the newspaper, sport news TV program, dictionary, and

interview. The result of the analysis showed that between English and Indonesian collocation,

there are direct and indirect equivalence. It was found that forty five point seven percent of

the data are direct equivalences and fifty four point three percent are indirect equivalences.

All the relevant studies are about the equivalence of Indonesian collocation into

English in specific content such as sport, health, and English nominal collocations. I decided

to make an analysis on translation of Indonesian collocation into English focus on a novel to

know the natural translation of collocations which is used in everyday life. Although there are

5

several studies that have been conducted about collocations, in my opinion they did not have

complete and clear explanation about the translation of collocations itself. This research used

different research object, so that this research has never been done before.

In this study, I use Negeri 5 Menara novel written by Ahmad Fuadi. The reasons why

I chose Negeri 5 Menara novel were firstly I have read the novel, second the novel has

English version titled The Land of Five Towers. Both Indonesian and English version are very

popular and also it is worth to be studied. The novel also contains Arabic terms, for example,

sahibul menara means the fellowship of the tower. However, in this study I only focus on the

Indonesian terms.

Hopefully the finding will give more information and knowledge for readers about

how Indonesian collocations translated into English, and will be beneficial for overcoming

learners‟ fear in making errors by activating language awareness. Hopefully translating

collocations can be an additional knowledge or material in Translation course in English

Department Satya Wacana Christian University which is not given in the handout previously.

Besides, this study also can be used either as the reference in the Lexical Approach in

Teaching Learning Strategies course or for other translators and foreign language learners

who want to find out the natural translation of Indonesian collocation into English.

What is Translation?

According to Munday (2000) translation is a change of meaning of source language

into target language, customized the form as much as possible to achieve the equivalence,

aims at complete naturalness of expression, and also the message is appropriate with the

receptor‟s cultural expectation. Larson (1998:3) defined translation as a change of meaning of

a text from a language (source language) into another one (target language). Translation also

consists of studying of lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural

6

context of the source language text. In translation the form of the source language is replaced

by the form of the receptor (target) language.

Taking the two definitions, the form of the source language can be replaced by the

form of the target language. The form can be different between the source language and the

target language as long as the meaning is not changed, for example the sentence “I catch a

cold”. If the English sentence is translated by the form, not by the meaning, it must be

translated into “Saya menangkap dingin”, not translated into “Saya masuk angin?”

Futhermore, if the English sentence is translated by the meaning, it must be translated into

“Saya masuk angin”. Because “Saya menangkap dingin” does not make sense in Indonesian.

According to Duff‟s (1990) there are some general principles which are relevant to all

translation: (1) Meaning. The translation should reflect the meaning of the original text

accurately, and should be arbitrarily added or removed. (2) Form. A sequence of words and

ideas in the translation should match with the original as closely as possible (3) register.

Language is often very different in their degree of formality in a particular context. (4) Source

language influence. (5) Style and clarity. The translator should not change the style of the

original (pp. 10-11). In translating text, we have to change the meaning of the source text

accurately; form of the source text should be the same depending on the context and the

reader. Furthermore, translation should be able to find the equivalence. It means that the form

of the source language as much as possible adjusted with the target language to achieve a

reasonable equivalence.

There is a problem in translating a text into another language. The problem is the

meaning of a word or phrase in the Source Language (SL) may not be the same as the word or

phrase in the Target Language (TL). The Source Language may have grammatical structures

that do not exist in the Target Language, or in other words the form of a language to another

is not the same. Catford (1978, as cited in Sudrajat, 2009) stated that the problem of

7

translation is about finding translation equivalence. It means that finding the equivalence of

the source language to target language becomes the central problem in translation process.

The important thing to remember is that equivalence is not about similarity. A text can be

equivalent if the reader of the target language can get the same meaning with the reader of the

source language.

According to Hatim and Munday (2004), there is the degree of latitude which

translators enjoy may be seen in terms of another distinction which the relevance model of

translation has had to adopt; direct and indirect translation. According to Gutt (1991:122)

stated that Direct and Indirect itself are proposed in order to differentiate between translation

where the translator is free to interpret or summarize (indirectly) and where he or she

somehow sticks to the explicit content of the original (direct). It means that Direct translations

are more closely tied to the original or translating word-by-word without changing the

meaning that stated by Serge Sharoff as cited in Kurniawan (2009). While indirect

translations are to translate in natural English (Bahns, 1993, as cited in Kurniawan, 2009).

Definition of Collocations

Collocations are word pairs and phrases that are the source of the difficulty for non-

native speakers of a language (Leed and Nakhimovsky, 1979; Benson, 1985; Benson, Benson,

and Ilson, 1986). In Indonesian, collocation means sanding kata; a group of words that

frequently appear together, for instance, in English the word bath goes with take not with do,

so the word bath becomes take a bath. It is also stressed by Imran (2009:27) that Collocations

is tendency of a number of words which can be used together in a language. Every language

has each habit to combine a word with a particular word, for instance in Indonesian the word

mandi usually tends to appear with the word kembang.

Collocations refer to the combination of words that have a certain mutual expectancy

(Howard, 1988). Similarly, Bateni (2010) and McCarty (2004), state that collocations impose

8

constraints on how words can be used together. While according to Lauder (2012), collocation

has been recognized for some time as something that translators need to be aware of.

Collocations are of interest to translators not least because of the challenge of finding target

language equivalence for collocate pairs. Muller (1998:13) also stated that collocations are

non idiomatic, but describes facts objects or phenomenon of reality. Therefore, they are not

usually expressed by different words totally in the other language.

According to Benson, Benson, and Ilson (1986), collocations divided into two major

groups such as grammatical collocations and lexical collocations. Grammatical collocation is

when a verb or adjective must be followed by a particular preposition, or a noun must be

followed by a particular form of the verb. The examples of grammatical collocations such as

depend on, afraid of, to be afraid that... On the other hand, the characteristic of lexical

collocations consist of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.

As cited in Hill (2000), J.R. Firth defined collocation as „the company words keep‟ –

their relationships with other words. Another definition might be „the way words combine in

predictable way‟. There are more than fifteen patterns of English collocation, but the most

frequently used ones are those listed in table.1. (Hill, 2000, Bateni, 2010). In addition, I use

nine patterns of Indonesian collocation, and these are presented in the table.2 to give more

explanations in the data analysis part.

Referring all the theories, collocation is two or more words that stand or appear

together in a predictable manner. When we collocate words, we can use Oxford Collocation

Dictionary to make it easier. In order to produce a good translation, a learner or a translator

should be very careful in choosing the most appropriate word for the word in source text.

9

Table. 1. English collocation pattern according to Hill (2000) and Bateni (2010)

No. Patterns Example

1. Verb (activation and or nullification) + Noun Make an appointment

2. Verb (eradication and or nullification) + Noun Cut down the tree

3. Adjective + Noun Attempted suicide

4. Noun + Verb Tragedy happens

5. Noun1 + of + Noun2 This kind of problem

6. Adverb + Adjective Absolutely sure

7. Verb + Adverb Live happily

8. Noun + Noun A pocket calculator

9. Verb + Verb Be able to talk

10. Adverb + Verb Clearly warn

11. Verb + Adjective Feel confused

Table.2. Indonesian collocation pattern as provided in Achmad (2010)

No Patterns Example

1. Noun + Verb Air mengalir

2. Noun + Adjective Gerak cepat

3. Noun + Noun Kopi susu

4. Verb + Noun Mengemudikan mobil

5. Adjective + Verb Cepat sembuh

6. Verb + Adjective Jalan santai

7. Noun + Adverb Halaman belakang

8. Verb + Adverb Segera pergi

9. Adjective + Noun Sakit jiwa

10. Noun unit + Noun Seikat bunga

11. Adverb + Verb Cepat-cepat pergi

12. Verb + Verb Bangun tidur

13. Adverb + Adjective Semakin cepat

The Study

This study is qualitative research. It tries to describe how Indonesian collocations are

translated into English. The analysis that I used in this study is called documentary analysis as

stated by Payne and Payne (2004) which means focusing on the analysis of a text.

10

The Data Research

In this research, the data were taken from chapter 1 to 4 of an Indonesian novel Negeri 5

Menara which is written by Ahmad Fuadi and its English translation The Land of Five

Towers by Angie Kilbane. The novels were published by Gramedia Pustaka Utama, Jakarta;

the Indonesian version in 2009, and the English translation in 2011. The reasons why I chose

the novel were because first I have read the novel. Second, the novel is very popular and has

been printed until 10 times from 2009 until 2011, and the English translation version was first

printed in October 2011.

Data Collection Procedures

To collect the data, I used these following procedures; the first procedure is I looked for

the novels. Second, I read the Indonesian text, then the English version. Third, I made a list of

Indonesian collocations by scanning the novel. Only due to the limit of time, there are 45

collocations from the 4 chapters; chapter 1-4. Fourth, I looked for the translation of

Indonesian collocations in the English version. In addition, I also used Oxford Collocations

Dictionary to check whether the list of the collocations is right or wrong.

Data Analysis Procedures

The data were analyzed using my interpretation and the theory of equivalence by Gutt

(1991) to classify the data. Some collocations fall into direct translational equivalence, and

some are indirect translational equivalence. I also analyzed the data that are not translated.

After that, I used the pattern of English collocation by Hill (2000) and Bateni (2010), and

Indonesian collocation pattern as provided in Achmad (2012) to analyze the structure of the

collocations. The final step of doing this study was drawing the conclusion.

11

Finding and Discussion

In this study, there are 45 collocations in the four chapters of the novel, consisting

direct translational equivalence and indirect translational equivalence. I found indirect

translational equvalence often occur in the chapter 1 to 4 of the novel. I also found a case

where the Indonesian collocations are not translated at all.

Direct Translational Equivalence

Based on the analysis, the data in this category were translated word-by-word without

changing the meaning by the translator. I found 14 collocations included in this category as

provided in the table 3 (See Appendix 1). Here are some examples of the collocations fall into

this category.

(1) Indonesian : “...., kami lepas waang dengan berat hati. “ (Chapter 2 page

13 line 13)

English : “...., we will let you go with heavy hearts.” (Chapter 2 page

13 line 5)

(2) Indonesian : Suara cempreng pubertasku memecah keheningan Minggu

pagi ini. (Chapter 2 page 12 line 24)

English : My shrill pubescent voice broke the silence of that Sunday

morning. (Chapter 2 page 12 line 16)

Berat hati and memecah keheningan are acceptable in Indonesian collocations.

However, the difference of the two collocations is in the number of words in the English

translation. There are two words in heavy heart, and three words in broke the silence.

The two collocations fall into direct equivalence because they were translated directly

or literally. As the example provided in the data analysis number (1), berat hati was

translated into heavy hearts. It is very clear that the collocation was translated literally. The

word berat was translated into heavy, and hati translated into heart. In Indonesian

collocations, the word hati tends to be followed by the word berat.

In the data analysis number (2), the words memecah keheningan was translated into

broke the silence. In Indonesian, the word keheningan tends to be followed by the word

12

memecah. If we see memecah keheningan per word in English translation; memecah can be

translated into split, break, and destroy. Split means cause a group of people to divide into

separate or opposing parts; it is usually related to an argument. Break means cause something

to be damaged and separated into pieces, meanwhile destroy means break or damage

something so badly. Through the meaning of the three English translation of memecah can be

concluded that the word break is more appropriate than the others. It is because the word

break is more acceptable in English collocation.

Similar to the word memecah, keheningan can be translated into silence and quiteness.

Silence means complete lack of noise, so it is totally deserted. Whereas, quietness means that

there is still any noise even though it is just a little. Therefore, the English translation which

is more acceptable in English collocation is silence. Furthermore, silence is usually followed

by the word break.

Memecah keheningan is also similar to the other 44 data taken, for example, sepasang

mata and isi perut in the table 3. The translation of sepasang mata is a pair of clear eyes, and

isi perut is the content of stomach. However the difference of the three examples here is in

the form of English translation. The English translation of memecah keheningan consist of

three words, sepasang mata consist of five words and isi perut consist of four words.

(3) Indonesian : ... dengan sepasang mata yang bersih yang dinaungi alis

tebal. (Chapter 2 page 6 line 2)

English : Her face was as thin as her body with a pair of clear eyes

shaded by thick eyebrows. (Chapter 2 page 6 line 2)

(4) Indonesian : ... aku hadapkan muka ke laut lepas dan aku relakan isi perut

ditelan laut. (Chapter 3 page 23 line 4)

English : ... I faced the sea and let it swallow the content of my

stomach. (Chapter 3 page 22 line 16)

The translation of sepasang mata is a pair of clear eyes, and isi perut is the content of

stomach. In Indonesian, the word mata is always followed by sepasang, while the word isi

13

tends to be followed by perut. So sepasang mata, memecah keheningan, and isi perut are

acceptable in Indonesian collocation and can be concluded that the English translation of the

collocations belong to direct translational equivalence.

In here, I found that the translator of the novel translated the Indonesian collocations

directly or using literal translation. However, the source language (SL) has the same order

and meaning with the target language (TL). Therefore, all the 14 collocations can be

concluded that the English translations belong to direct translational equivalence.

Indirect Translational Equivalence

There are 29 of 45 collocations in this category in the table 4 (See Appendix 2). In this

category, almost all the 29 Indonesian collocations were not translated in the form of the

complete English collocation by the translator. It is approximately 16 collocations were not

translated only in one word (not in the form of the complete collocation). Here are some

examples of the collocations fall into this category.

(5) Indonesian : Pikiranku langsung terbang jauh ke masa lalu. (Chapter 1

page 4 line 12)

English : My thoughts immediately flew far away to the past. (Chapter

1 page 4 line 14)

(6) Indonesian : Tepuk tangan murid, orang tua dan guru riuh mengepung

aula. (Chapter 2 page 5 line 3)

English : The boisterous applause of students, parents and teachers

filled the room. (Chapter 2 page 5 line 3)

The word lalu is always followed by masa in Indonesian. It means time that has passed.

However, the word masa lalu in English is in the form of a word (one word), past. If the

words masa lalu were translated word-by-word, for example masa is translated into time and

lalu is translated into pass in English, so the translation of masa lalu would be pass time.

Similar to masa lalu, the word tua tends to be followed by the word orang in Indonesian

collocation. Orang tua means the members of the family or father and mother. If orang tua

were translated word-by-word, it would be old people which means people who are respected.

14

However, in this context orang tua is father and mother. As the two collocations provided in

the data analysis number (5) and (6), they fall into indirect translational equivalence because

they have their own translation in English. Therefore, masa lalu and orang tua were translated

into one word only.

Besides the Indonesian collocations were translated into one word, I also found the

English translation of Indonesian collocations consist of two, three, four, and five words. Here

are the examples of the translation of collocations which consist of two and three words:

(7) Indonesian : ..., Ayah akhirnya angkat bicara. (Chapter 2 page 13 line 13)

English : ..., Father started speaking. (Chapter 2 page 13 line 4)

(8) Indonesian : Angin segar dari jendela yang terbuka meniup-niup muka dan

rambutku (Chapter 4 page 28 line 4)

English : The fresh breeze from the open window blew over my face

and hair. (Chapter 4 page 27 line 3)

Angkat bicara and angin segar are acceptable in Indonesian collocation. The word

angkat is always followed by bicara which means starting to speak or speak up. Similar with

angkat bicara, the word segar is always followed by the word angin which means fresh

breeze in the English translation. Actually, angin segar can be translated into two words as in

angkat bicara. If I see on the sentence, the translator wanted to emphasize that there is a fresh

breeze in that place.

Another examples which are similar to the data analysis number (9) and (10), in the

English translation, buang air was translated into go to the bathroom which consist of four

words. Whereas the English translation of diam sejenak consist of five words. Here are the

examples:

(9) Indonesian : Keluar hanya untuk buang air dan mengambil sepiring nasi

untuk dimakan di kamar lagi. (Chapter 2 page 11 line 10)

English : I left only to go to the bathroom and to take a plate of rice to

eat in my room. (Chapter 2 page 11 line 3)

(10) Indonesian : Lalu diam sejenak dengan muka rusuh. (Chapter 2 page 7 line

4)

15

English : Then she went quiet for a moment with a troubled face.

(Chapter 2 page 7 line 3)

Usually buang air in English is to pee, not dispose water or throw away the water. In

my opinion, the Indonesian sentence can be translated into I left only to pee and take a plate

of rice to eat in my room. So go to the bathroom can be replaced with to pee because it also

does make sense in English. However if I see from the context of the sentence in Indonesian

version, the character of the novel wants to urinate that is certain in the bathroom or toilet.

In the words diam sejenak, it means that the character does not say a word for a

moment. In the English translation, went quiet for a moment does not mean the character goes

to a place and then do not say a word for a moment. However, the word quiet is always

followed by go in English collocations. So, the translator translated diam sejenak into went

quiet for a moment.

Some collocations may be translated into a single word in the Target Language (TL).

However, the Indonesian collocation is not always translated into two words in English and

vice versa. Therefore, all the 29 collocations can be concluded that the English translation of

the Indonesian collocations belong to indirect translational equivalence.

Untranslated Collocations

I found two collocations which were not translated by the translator. The two

collocations are gathered in the table 5. I have read all the Indonesian and English version,

but there are some parts that the translator did not translate. I mean the translator did not

translate all the Indonesian version text into English. Although there are a few sentences that

were not translated, it still covers the core of story.

Table 5. Untranslated Collocations

No. Indonesian English translation

1 Latar belakang (not translated)

2 Percaya diri (not translated)

16

In here, latar belakang and percaya diri are not translated because they are included in

the sentences which are not translated in the English version text. The sentences are in the

data number (11) and (12).

(11) Indonesian : Padahal latar belakang religius ayahku tidak kalah kuat.

(Chapter 2 page 10 line 8)

(12) Indonesian : ...... bantahku percaya diri kepada para pembujuk ini.

(Chapter 3 page 17 line 9)

Latar belakang in English is background. So the English translation in the sentence can

be translated more or less like though my father's religious background is not as strong. Latar

belakang is included in Indonesian collocation, because the word belakang is usually

followed by the word latar. It is the same as the previous data, although the collocation is

included in Indonesian collocation, it is not translated in the form of the complete collocation.

Similar with the words latar belakang, percaya diri is included in Indonesian collocation, but

the translation is confident which is not in the form of the complete collocation in English.

The translation of the sentence is probably I said confidently to the persuader. If latar

belakang and percaya diri were translated by the translator, it would be included in indirect

translation equivalence.

The Structure of Collocations From Indonesian to English

In this category, I found 22 collocation patterns both from Indonesian and English.

Mostly the 11 English collocation patterns according to Hill (2000) and Bateni (2010) are

often occur in the 45 collocations, as well as the 13 Indonesian collocation patterns as

provided in Achmad (2010). In here, I only found 7 Indonesian collocation patterns, and 6

English collocation patterns. However, not all the structure of the English translation are the

same as Indonesian collocation patterns. I presented the all 45 collocations along with its

patterns in table 6.

17

I found a case where there are two patterns that are not listed on the Indonesian

collocation pattern and five English collocation pattern in the 22 collocation patterns that I

found. Here are the the Indonesian collocation patterns that I found in data number (13) and

(14).

(13) Adjective + Adjective:

Mabuk darat

Riuh rendah

Mabuk and darat are adjective, similar with riuh rendah. The word darat in here is not

as the noun because it explains the word mabuk. So mabuk darat means feeling sick on the

way on the land (by car, bus, train, etc.). While the word rendah explains the word riuh, so

riuh rendah means very crowded.

(14) NP (Noun Phrase):

Sepasang mata

Setengah hati

In data number (14), sepasang mata, and setengah hati are the examples of Noun

Phrase. In sepasang mata, the word sepasang is from the combination of pasang and prefix

se-. In here, prefix se- is „one‟ as singular and ‟pasang‟ is a noun. Sepasang explains the

word mata. Therefore, the English translation of sepasang mata is as a pair of clear eyes as

in the data number (18). Similar with sepasang mata, setengah hati is from the combination

of prefix se- is one and the word tengah (numeral) is a noun to classify small thing.

Therefore, setengah hati means not serious.

As I have mentioned before, I found five English collocation patterns that are not listed

by Hill and Bateni. As the examples provided in data number (15) to (19), there are three

patterns that consist of a word such as adjective, noun, and verb because the there is only one

word in the translation of Indonesian collocations.

(15) Adjective:

Clamourous

Flushed

Sorry

18

(16) Noun:

Past

Face

Parents

(17) Verb:

Applauded

(18) NP (Noun Phrase):

A half-hearted

A pair of clear eyes

The key players

(19) VP (Verb Phrase):

Slammed the door

Go to the bathroom

In data number (18), for example the key players, the word key explains the word

players in reffering the players specifically. Therefore, the key players is Noun Phrase. While

Verb Phrase take the verb one step further by comprising the verb, plus the complement,

object, or adverb. As the example provided in data number (19) slammed the door, the word

slammed is the verb and the door is as the object. Whereas go to the bathroom, the word go is

the verb and to the bathroom is as the complement.

Overall, the analysis reveals that the translator translated the collocations according to

the context, and mostly using indirect translation equivalence. If all the collocations were

translated literally, I believe it can lead to readers‟ misunderstandings. I would say that all the

collocations which have been translated into English sounds natural in the target language. I

also found a case where the translator did not translate all the Indonesian version text into

English. There are a lot of sentences that are not translated, but it still covers the core of

story.

19

Table 6. The Structure of Collocations From Indonesian to English

No.

Indonesian

Collocation

pattern

English

collocation

pattern

Example

Indonesian English

1 Adj + Adj N Mabuk darat Sickness

2 Adj + Adj Adj Riuh rendah Clamorous

3 Adj + N NP Sekejap mata Blink of an eye

4 Adj + N Adj Sepanjang hayat Lifelong

5 Adj + N Adj + N Berat hati Heavy hearts

6 N + Adj Adj + N Kabut tipis Thin mist

7 N + Adj Adj Merah padam Flushed

8 N + Adj N Masa lalu Past

9 N + Adj NP Bibit unggul A seed of quality

Angin segar The fresh breeze

10 N + N N + N Puncak gunung Mountain peaks

11 N + N N Raut muka Face

Lembar kertas Pages

Orang tua Parents

Kasih sayang Love

Telapak kaki Heel

Air liur Saliva

Handai tolan Pals

Tengah malam Midnight

Penerimaan tamu Reception

12 N + N NP Pemain inti The key players

Daun pintu Under the door

Isi perut The content of stomach

Sepanjang tahun Throughout the year

13 N + N N + of + N Tumpukan buku Piles of books

13 N + V NP Ujian masuk The entrance exam

14 NP NP Sepasang mata A pair of clear eyes

Setengah hati A half-hearted

Ujung jalan The end of the road

15 V + Adv V + Adv Tidur nyenyak Sleep well

16 V + Adv VP Diam sejenak Went quiet for a moment

17 V + N V + N Menarik hati Draw heart

18 V + N Adj Mohon maaf Sorry

19 V + N V Bertepuk tangan Applauded

20 V + N VP Membanting pintu Slammed the door

Memecah keheningan Broke the silence

Buang air Go to the bathroom

Menarik nafas Take a breath

Menghelas nafas Taking in a deep breath

21 V + N NP Ditiup angin Waves in the wind

22 V + V V + V Belajar mengajar Teaching-learning

Angkat bicara Started speaking

Tidak terasa Before we knew it

20

Conclusion

This study aims to find out how are the Indonesian collocations in Negeri 5 Menara

are translated into the English version The Land of Five Towers. This research is important to

be carried out because collocations are used in everyday life. However, to learn about

collocations is difficult for foreign language learners; even more to translate them.

The translator used two theory equivalence in translating collocations. Based on Gutt‟s

theory, the translator mostly translated the Indonesian collocations to English using indirect

translational equivalence. In addition, as mentioned by Hill, Bateni, and Achmad there are

only 7 Indonesian collocation patterns, and 6 English collocation patterns. However, not all

the structure of the English translation are the same as Indonesian collocation patterns.

However, this study still has limitations. The first limitation is the number of the data

(n=45). Bigger number of the data will be more beneficial for the reliability of the further

studies. The second limitation is on the time allocation. There is limit of time for me doing

the research. Therefore, having the time allocation which is longer than the time in this

present study will be more valuable.

Hopefully this study will help teachers to be more aware of collocation that produced

by the students since translating collocation is one of the important ability that students

should have. Teachers should pay attention on the collocations in the teaching-learning

process by adding exercise that focus explicitly on lexical phrase. The teachers should

notice which words go together when giving out a new reading. They should develop their

activities that enable students to discover collocations themselves, then storing the

collocations by keeping a lexical notebook. Besides that, teachers also increase knowledge of

the students while giving feedback on the students‟ error.

Finally, the writer has analyzed only 45 collocations of the novel. The writer would

like to suggest further studies are needed with the larger data. The writer uses Indonesian as

21

the source text and has translated it into English. So for the next researchers, it is

recommended that they also conduct a research of translation of collocations from English to

Indonesian.

Acknowledgement

First and foremost, I would like to express my special appreciation to Allah SWT who

always besides me, strengthens me, inspires me for everything in my life. This thesis would

not have been possible without the valuable guidance from my supervisor, Ibu M. Ch. Eko

Setyarini, M.Hum. Thank you so much for my thesis examiner, Ibu Lany Kristono, M.Hum

for the feedback for my thesis improvement. My big gratitude also goes to my father, Drs.

Sumarno, and my mother, Suratmi, for their worthy advice and encouragement to keep me on

track. To my brothers Adan, Adit, and Jati for the spirit they always give for me. Thank you

so much for my companion in arms – ED‟ers 08, especially to Damaris, Mayang, Tyas, Vitus,

and Daniel. Thanks for the joy and your kindness my friends. Last, but not least, many thanks

to Ricky Berlian for the care, motivation, big support and happiness. Thanks for supporting

me all the time.

22

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24

Appendix 1

Table 3. Collocations included in direct translational equivalence

Data Indonesian English translation

1 Sepasang mata A pair of clear eyes

2 Membanting pintu Slammed the door

3 Menarik hati Draw (my) heart

4 Memecah keheningan Broke the silence

5 Berat hati Heavy hearts

6 Setengah hati A half-hearted

7 Puncak gunung Mountain peaks

8 Isi perut The content of stomach

9 Kabut tipis Thin mist

10 Ujung jalan The end of the road

11 Belajar mengajar Teaching-learning

12 Tumpukan buku Piles of books

13 Sepanjang tahun Throughout the year

14 Ujian masuk The entrance exam

25

Appendix 2

Table 4. Collocations included in indirect translational equivalence

Data Indonesian English translation

1 Masa lalu Past

2 Orang tua Parents

3 Diam sejenak Went quiet for a moment

4 Menarik nafas Take a breath

5 Bibit unggul A seed of quality

6 Menghela nafas Taking in a deep breath

7 Sekejap mata Blink of an eye

8 Kasih sayang Love

9 Telapak kaki Heel

10 Buang air Go to the bathroom

11 Daun pintu Under the door

12 Angkat bicara Started speaking

13 Sepanjang hayat Lifelong

14 Handai tolan Pals

15 Bertepuk tangan Applauded

16 Riuh rendah Clamorous

17 Mabuk darat Sickness

18 Merah padam Flushed

19 Tidur nyenyak Sleep well

20 Air liur Saliva

21 Mohon maaf Sorry

22 Raut muka Face

23 Ditiup angin Waves in the wind

24 Angin segar The fresh breeze

25 Penerimaan tamu Reception

26 Lembar kertas Pages

27 Pemain inti The key players

28 Tidak terasa Before we knew it

29 Tengah malam Midnight