Name : Muhammad Faisal

Reg. No. : 1610732012

Theory and Practice of Translation

Translation Techniques
There are seven translation techniques proposed by Vinay and Darbelnetin 1958:

A. Borrowing

Borrowing is a technique to bring the entire form of the source language into the
target language. It is usually used when the target language lacks of its lexicon. For
example, the western media borrowed ‘sputnik’ from Russian before they call it satellite.
Another reason to consider borrowing is to create a stylistic effect. For example, the word
‘café’ is borrowed to retain the exotic flavor of café itself. “Shade of specificity” is
commonly considered in borrowing. For example, the word ‘mascara’ is borrowed and
used directly without creating another word to describe the same thing. However,
borrowing is not easy as it sounds. Some other factors such as national identity, power,
and colonization may obstruct this technique to be apllied in translation.

B. Calque

Calque is a technique to conduct a literal translation at the level of phrase. The

most common example for this technique is the word ’Skyscraper’. In Bahasa Indonesia,
the word becomes pencakar langit which is done by literal translation. The word ‘Blue
Print’ is also an example of Calque. We can find the word translated in Indonesia as cetak
biru. More examples include Grass roots (akar rumput), pen name (nama pena), and open
book (buka buku). In addition, calques often come from newspaper article or original
literature.

C. Literal Translation

This technique can only be used when the source language and the target language
has the same grammatical structure. For example, the sentence “you make me happy” can
be translated in literal way resulting “kamu membuatku bahagia”. However, this
 technique is considered as “degree zero of translation” and must be avoided when literal
translation:

1. create another meaning;

2. Meaningless
3. Is structurally impossible;
4. Does not correspond with target-language metalinguistics;
5. Have a target language correspondence but not at the same language level.

D. Transposition

Transposition is one of the techniques dealing with grammatical changes. It is the

technique where parts of speech change their sequence or order in a phrase, clause, or
sentence when they are translated. For example, the words “new book” can be translated
to “buku baru” with changed grammatical structure. This technique is used to maintain
the accuracy, naturalness, and communicativeness of a language. It also consists of
replacement of a word class by another word class without changing the meaning. For
example, the sentence “the economy did not stop growing” can be translated to “the
economy grew steadily”.

E. Modulation

Modulation is defined as variety of message obtained by changing point of view.

It involves various forms such as metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche. It takes place
between abstract and concrete terms. For example, the word ‘kerajaan’ can be translated
to “the crown” or the word “Washington” can be used to refer the U.S. government.
However, this technique requires extensive knowledge of the target language which is
subtle and precarious. For example, the sentence ”She is very generous” can be translated
to “She has a heart of gold”.

F. Equivalence

Equivalence is a technique of idioms translation when two languages refer to the

same situation in totally different forms. In this technique, translators have to understand
 the meaning of particular idiom and look for the equivalent idiom that is used in the same
context. For example, the sentence “he bought a real pig in a poke when he got that
house” can be translated to “Dia membeli rumah itu bagaikan membeli kucing dalam
karung”. Both of the examples use two different idioms with two equivalent meaning.

G. Adaptation

Adaptation is the last technique in translation and it can also be considered as last
resort. This technique can only be used then the target language has a culture that does
not experience or relate to the message of the source language. For example, the sentence
“she is as white as snow” should be translated to “Dia seputih susu” because snow is not
common in Indonesia. Therefore, the word ‘susu’ is adapted to resemble snow as the
meaning of white substance.