Thematic Shift in Translating English Narrative Text into Indonesian

Bernieke Anggita Ristia Damanik

English Department Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Nommensen University Pematangsiantar, Indonesia

berniekedamanik2016@gmail.com

Keywords: Thematic Shift, Translation, Narrative, Text.

Abstract: This research deals with the thematic shift on students’ translating themes. Based on the fact, thematic shifts

which occur in students’ translation are not fully understood. The objective of this research is to find out

whether the change of the thematic shift is found in the translation of narrative text from English into

Indonesian. The research was a qualitative research which analyzes written material. There were nine

narrative texts analyzed as the object of the research selected from English textbook of students. They were

translated from English into Indonesian. The research found that the changing of thematic shift is found in

students’ translating themes. Types of thematic shift emerge from the translation of the theme are unmarked

theme and marked theme. This research sums up that thematic shift is the shortcoming of students.

Furthermore, it proposes that aptitude and knowledge of languages are necessary when the students translate

the text.

1 INTRODUCTION

Translation is an important skill that should be learnt

and mastered by the students. Because mastering

translation will make us easier to understand foreign

language. If the students can not master or can not be

able to translate as well, they will not obtain the

intention of what talks about. According to Catford

(1965:1) says, “Translation is an operation performed

on languages: a process of substituting a text in one

language for a text in another.” Translation is a tool

to deliver meaning from source language (SL) to

target language (TL). To make sure the meaning is

perfectly delivered, a translator must re-construct the

text by translating the words from SL to TL and

arrange the words based on the structures of sentence

in TL so the structures are suitable with TL and there

will be no loss of intention.

In translation there is translation shift. Translation

shift is the change of grammatical position of source

language in its translation into target language. There

are two types of translation shift, they are level shift

and category shift. Translation shift occur in

translation when a change of structure, unit and

system are found in target language. When the

students translate a text from source language into

target language, in their translation will be found

translation shift. For example, when the students

translate this phrase “Beautiful Girl”, it will be

“Perempuan Cantik”. From the example, we can see

that it is structure shift. It is called structure shift

because in English, the word Beautiful as modifier

precedes the word girl as the head. But in Indonesian,

it is different rank, in which the word perempuan as

the head precedes cantik as modifier.

Besides the intention and structure, there is

another thing which should be considered by the

students if they want to create a good translation, that

is the theme of the source text. Theme is the universal

meaning of a story. This is the core of the story

meaning. The theme can be known after reading the

whole story. But in translating, the theme can change

the structure, unit, and system are found in target

language and it can be called thematic shift. Thematic

shift occurs when the theme in source language is

translated into different type of theme and

grammatical functions in the target language. Based

on the background of this research, the problem can

be formulated as following: How is the changing of

the thematic shift that found in students’ translation?

It discusses 2 types of thematic shift that found in

translating English narrative text into Indonesian. In

conducting this research, there are some expert

literatures which support the theories which are

included in this study: Catford (1965), Nida and

Taber (1982). Oirsouw (1984), Newmark (1988),

Eggins (1994), Halliday (1994), Hyland (2004), Ary

(2010), Farrokh(2011).

Damanik, B.

Thematic Shift in Translating English Narrative Text into Indonesian.

DOI: 10.5220/0007161800460052

In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference

on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 46-52

ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2

1.1 Definition of Translation

Catford (1965:20) states that translation is the

replacement of textual material in one language (SL)

by equivalent textual material in another language

(TL). This means that translation will make a text

change its form or structure. When Indonesian text or

sentence is translated into English, both surely have

different structure or form since both of these

languages are distantly different mainly their

families. For example, we have the words “air mata”

in Indonesian, if the two words are translated into

English, it will be “tear.” The liquid which flows

from eyes is called air mata in Indonesian and it

consists of two words. After translating it to English,

it stands alone in one word “tear”. This clearly

explains the change which happens to both of

languages after having translation. It can be

concluded that translation is an attempt to

equivalently transfer meaning from source language

into target language which changes structure or form

of language. Although translation work is trying to

transfer the meaning to TL, it will never be as original

as its source.

Jakobson in Bassnett (2002:23) distinguishes

translation in three types :

1. Intralingual translation or rewording is an

interpretation of verbal signs by means of other

signs in the same language.

2. Interlingual translation or translation proper is

an interpretation of verbal signs by means of

some other language.

3. Intersemiotic translation or transmutation is an

interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs

of nonverbal sign systems.

1.2 Translation Shift

Translation shift occur in translation when a change

of structure, unit and system are found in target

language. It means that the changes happen among

the ranks of sentence, clause and group of word.

Catford (1965:73) defines translation shifts as the

departures from formal correspondence in the process

of going from SL to TL. He further categorized

translation shift into two types; they are level shift and

category shift.

1.3 Level Shift

Level shift occurs when an item at one linguistic level

in SL has its translation equivalent at different level

in TL (Catford, 1965:73). The only possible level

shift in translation is the shift from grammar to lexis

and vice versa. This case can be found among English

and Bahasa Indonesia in which have different

linguistic level. To make this explanation clearer, it

can be described with the example as following.

English (SL) : He is eating a noodle soup.

Indonesian (TL) : Dia sedang makan mie rebus.

1.4 Category Shift

Catford (1965:76) states category shift refers to some

shifts which share a particular feature - departures

from formal correspondence in translation. Category

shift is divided into four types namely structure shift,

class shift, unit shift, and intra-system shift.

1.5 Structure Shift

This shift appears if there is a formal correspondence

between SL and TL. Indonesian and English, for

instance, both of these languages have formal

correspondence which will have structure shift when

translation is done from Indonesian into English and

vice versa. This can be presented in the following

example.

English (SL) : Beautiful girl.

Indonesian (TL) : Gadis cantik.

1.6 Class Shift

Class shift occur when the translation equivalent of a

SL item is a member of a different class from the

original item. This means that class function to define

the role of certain word in structure of a sentence,

clause and phrase. With this definition, we can

account that class shift occurs when class of member

in SL is translated into different class of member in

TL. This can be presented in the following example.

English (SL) : They insist on higher wages.

Indonesian (TL) : Mereka menuntut kenaikan

gaji.

1.7 Unit Shift

Unit shift will change the rank of source language in

target language. Unit shift possibly change sentence

to clause and clause to phrase. Unit shift occasionally

alter the larger rank into lower rank and vice versa.

This can be exemplifies as following

English (SL) : My father is very nice.

Indonesian (TL) : Ayahku sangat baik.

Thematic Shift in Translating English Narrative Text into Indonesian

1.8 Intra System Shift

Intra system shift is departures from formal

correspondence where one system in the SL has its

translation equivalent in a different non-

corresponding system in the TL. Intra system shift

occur internally within a system. For example,

English has the article such as a/an and the where the

use of them will be affected by the concord. English

has also the singular and plural terms which affect

verbal form in sentence.

For example :

English (SL) : He ever said to Amin, his

classmate, that he didn’t have a

bravery to speak English because

of those factors.

Indonesian (TL) : Dia pernah mengatakan kepada

Amin, teman sekelasnya, bahwa

dia tidak memiliki keberanian

untuk berbicara bahasa Inggris

karena banyak faktor.

1.9 Thematic Shift

Thematic shift occurs when the theme in SL is

translated into different type of theme and

grammatical functions in the TL. According to

Farrokh (in Yuanita Damayanti, 2012:34) shift

occurred when the form in the source language has a

new form or different form from the target language.

She adds that shift could minimize the inevitable loss

of meaning when rendering a text from one language

into another language. The thematic shift occurs

through three processes:

1. Shift by changing the grammatical function of

the theme

2. Shift by adding one or more themes

3. Shift by deleting one or more themes in the

translated text.

Theme and rheme are described as a method for

structuring information. According to Halliday

(1994:37) theme is “the element which serves as the

point of departure of the message; it is that with which

the clause is concerned. The remainder of the

message, the part in which the theme is developed, is

called the rheme”. Rheme is the most important

elements in the structure of the clause as a message

because it represents the very information that the

speaker wants to convey to the hearer. For examples

of this theme + rheme structure:

Table 1: Theme and Rheme.

Theme

Rheme

The duke

has given my aunt that

teapot

My aunt

has been given that teapot

by the duke

That teapot

the duke has given to my

aunt

In a declarative clause, the typical pattern is one

in which theme is conflated with subject. For

example: The duke has given my aunt that teapot,

where The duke is both subject and theme. Halliday

(1994:44) states that unmarked theme is “a theme on

to subject. The subject is the element that is chosen as

theme unless there is good reason for choosing

something else. And marked theme is a theme that is

something other than the subject. The most usual

form of marked theme is an adverbial group, example

today, suddenly, somewhat distracttedly, or

prepositional phrase, example at night, in the corner,

without much hope, functioning as adjunct in the

clause”. Example of unmarked theme:

Table 2: Unmarked Theme.

Unmarked Theme

Marked Theme

You can’t store protein

Protein you can store

Thus you can’t store

protein

Thus protein you can’t

store

In the same way you can’t

store protein

In the same way protein

you can’t store

According to Halliday (1994:53), the theme can

be divided into:

1. Textual theme

2. Interpersonal theme

3. Experiental (topical theme)

1.10 Textual Theme

According to Halliday (1994:53) textual theme is

“any combination of continuative, structural and

conjunctive in that order. A continuative is one of a

small set of discourse signallers, yes, no, well, oh,

now, which signal that a new move is beginning: a

response, in dialogue, or a move to the next point if

the same speaker is continuing. A structural theme is

any of the obligatorily thematic elements. A

conjunctive theme is one of the conjunctive

adjuncts”. Textual theme almost always constitute the

first part of the theme, coming before any

interpersonal theme. It functions to relate the meaning

of the particular clause to other parts of the text.

Further, these elements do not express any

CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology

Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

interpersonal or experiential meaning, but they are

doing important cohesive work in relating the clause

to its context.

For example: On the other hand maybe on a week-

day it would be less crowded.

From the example above, we can see that the textual

theme of the sentence is “on the other hand”.

1.11 Interpersonal Theme

According to Halliday (1994:53) interpersonal theme

is ”any combination of vocative, modal, and mood-

marking. A vocative is any item, typically a personal

name, used to address; it may come more or less

anywhere in the clause, and is thematic if preceding

the topical theme. A modal theme is any of the modal

adjuncts, whenever it occurs preceding the topical

theme. A mood-marking theme is a finite verbal

operator, if preceding the topical theme; or a WH-

interrogative when not preceded by another

experiental element”.

Interpersonal theme includes elements that reflect

the kind of interaction taking place among speakers

and is often functioning to code the speaker’s or

writer’s personal judgment on meaning. Eggins

(1994:278) also states the constituents which can

function as interpersonal themes are the unfused

finite, in interrogative structure, and all four

categories of modal adjuncts: mood, vocative,

polarity and comment.

For example:

So why worry.

From the example, we can see that the

interpersonal theme is “why”.

1.12 Experiental (Topical Theme)

The experiental (topical theme) is part of the rheme.

According to Halliday (1994:52) topical theme is ”the

role as a representation, the clause sets up a model of

human experience, in terms of processes that take

place around us and inside us. The processes are

construed by the grammar in terms of three

components:

1. The process itself

2. The participants in that process, like the Actor

and Goal

3. Any circumstantial factors such as time or place.

The theme of a clause ends with the first

constituent that is either participant, circumstance, or

process”.

Participants represent things or people involved in

carrying out the process or things or people affected

by process. Participants are realized by nominal

groups (group of words which serve as subject or

complement). Circumstance is any peace of

circumstantial information about the process within

its own clause. Circumstance is realized by adverbial

groups, prepositional phrases and even by nominal

group. Circumstance answers such questions as

when, where, why, how, how many, and as what.

For example:

Please doctor don’t give me any more of that nasty

medicine.

From the example above, we can see the topical

theme of the sentence is the word “give”.

1.13 Narrative Text

Narrative text is a story with complication or

problematic events and it tries to find the resolutions

to solve the problems. An important part of narrative

text is the narrative mode, the set of methods used to

communicate the narrative through a process

narration.

2 METHODS

The method of this research is qualitative research.

Subject of this research are students at translation

class at the third semester which consist of 29

students. The researcher chooses Translation Class as

the subject of research because the students in class

like in learning English but still more students have

the low ability in English. Object of this research is

the difficulties faced by the students in thematic shift

in translating English narrative text into Indonesian.

There are 9 different narrative texts which will be

translated from English into Indonesian. The texts

was taken from English textbook of students. The

English textbook namely The World 2 comprises 124

pages which is written by F.A. Soeprapto & Mariana

Darwis and published by Yudhistira. These texts

generally consist of simple and compound sentences.

Each text consists of 3-5 paragraphs.

The techniques of collecting data that the

researcher did are:

1. The researcher gives 9 different texts to 29

students.

2. The researcher asks the students to translate the

text into Indonesian and find the theme of the

text.

3. The researcher collects the data.

Thematic Shift in Translating English Narrative Text into Indonesian

2.1 Technique of Analyzing Data

1. After the data has been collected, the researcher

chooses 13 data randomly.

2. The researcher analyzes the theme of each text

in students’ translation.

3 DATA ANALYSIS

Table 3: Data Analysis.

Data

Source Language

Target Language

Thematic Shift

Ket

Theme

Rheme

Theme

Rheme

Marked

Unmarked

1. A frog that got

greedy and

consequently

A frog

that got greedy

and

consequently

Seekor

katak

yang serakah

dan kena

akibatnya



2. A man who not

grateful his live,

and wanted to live

forever

A man

who not grateful

his live, and

wanted to live

forever

Laki-laki

yang tidak

mensyukuri

hidupnya, dan

ingin hidup

selamanya



3. The man who

feared to dying.

The man

who feared to

dying

Lelaki

yang takut pada

kematian



4. The farmer

failed to pulled the

beet.

The

farmer

failed to pulled

the beet

Seorang

petani

yang gagal

mencabut buah

bit



5. The fox kind.

The fox

Kind

Si rubah

yang baik hati



6. The daughter of

the King and

queen that spoiled

and finally she

disappeared into

the sea because

her arrogance.

The

daughter

of the

King

and

queen

that

spoiled

and finally she

disappeared into

the sea because

her arrogance

Anak dari

raja dan

ratu yang

manja

dan akhirnya

dia tenggelam

ke dalam laut

karena

keangkuhannya



7. Sarah expelled

with her mother

andshe hid in a big

melon and she met

with Prince and

they marry and

they live happily.

8. The child from

the king and the

queen that spoiled

and finally she

disappeared

because her

arrogance and

finally the people

know penyusuk

beach.

Sarah

The

child

from the

King

and the

Queen

expelled with

her mother and

she hid in a big

melon and she

met with Prince

and they marry

and they live

happily

that spoiled and

finally she

disappeared

because her

arrogance and

finally the

people know

penyusuk beach

Sarah

Anak dari

seorang

ratu dan

raja

yang diusir oleh

ibu tirinya dan

ia bersembunyi

di peternakan

melon dan

ketika itu ia

berjumpa

dengan

pangeran dan

mereka menikah

dan hidup

bahagia

yang manja dan

akhirnya ia pun

menghilang

karena

keangkuhannya

dan akhirnya

orang mengenal

pantai penyusuk



CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology

Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

9. The kind duck

always to give of

any kind to

someone if she

can.

10. True love can

not be separated.

11. The little

mouse who hold

his words.

12. When the

Princess was

arrested by a

terrible dragon

and saved by

Thomas just the

poorest boy.

13.Forever love

The

kind

duck

True

love

The

little

mouse

When

the

Princess

Forever

always to give of

any kind to

someone if she

can

can not be

separated

who hold his

words

was arrested by

a terrible dragon

and saved by

Thomas just the

poorest boy

Love

Bebek

yang baik

Cinta

sejati

Tikus kecil

Putri

Cinta

yang selalu

memberikan apa

yang mampu ia

beri kepada

seseorang

yang tak bisa

dipisahkan

yang memegang

perkataannya

yang diculik

oleh naga yang

mengerikan dan

diselamatkan

oleh Thomas

yang hanya

seorang anak

miskin

sampai mati



Marked

→Unma

rked

Marked

→Unma

rked

Percentage

(15,38%)

( 84,61%)

(15,38%)

3.1 Findings

Having analyzed data of the research, it has yielded

findings that thematic shift is found in translation of

students’ theme. It found two types of thematic shift

in students’ translation. The thematic shift that is

found are unmarked and marked theme.

3.2 Unmarked Theme

The first type is unmarked theme which is found in

11 data analyzed with the percentage are 84,61%.

Unmarked theme is the most predominant which has

been discovered in students’ theme. Students success

to construct meaning of the sentences when it is

translating text from English into Indonesian. The

students’ success is associated with the true meaning

among words in a sentence which construct a true

pattern in Indonesian. In 11 data, there is no the

changing of the unmarked theme. The unmarked

theme in Source Language is also the unmarked

theme in Target Language. There are not the changing

from unmarked theme to marked theme that found in

data analyzed.

3.3 Marked Theme

The second type is marked theme which is found in 2

data analyzed with the percentage are 15,38%.

Marked theme occur when students render each word

in a sentence which in fact the meaning that should be

transferred. Translating each word of a sentence

consequently makes unnecessary words appear in

target language. In the data 12 and 13 for instance

have indicated the occurrence of marked theme. In the

data 12 and 13 also there are the thematic shift that

found. The changing of the theme can be seen in the

Source Language : When the Princess that changed

become Putri in Target Language. In data 13 also, the

theme in Source Language is Forever that changed

become cinta in Target Language. The data show that

there are the changing of the theme; that are from

marked theme to unmarked theme that influences

meaning of words and the existence of words. The

changing from marked theme to unmarked theme are

found in 2 data with the percentage are 15,38%.

3.4 Discussion

This research yields that thematic shift is found in

translation of students’ theme. The findings function

to clarify thematic shift which emerge from students

when they are translating a text such as narrative. This

is all clearly discussed in the analysis of the data in

Thematic Shift in Translating English Narrative Text into Indonesian

which exemplifies and explains how thematic shift

between source language and target language appear

and inevitably change the meaning that ought to be

conveyed. Types of thematic shift found in this

inquiry advocate people including students who have

been very much relying on thematic shift. This is

worth to know things have been discovered in this

research in order to obtain a better understanding

about thematic shift which is expected to elucidate

how students’ theme makes shift and how students

should avoid such shift happens. By looking at the

findings, it states that the shift from marked theme to

unmarked theme is predominant which comes up in

the data. This is able to points out and takes into

account that thematic shift tends to have problem

from marked theme to unmarked theme which means

to require more attention put upon this matter.

4 CONCLUSIONS

This research will be apt to bring out an obscure idea

without a succinct conclusion which is expected to

straight state the main point, significance, new

insight, and also limitation of this research. Thus, this

research can be sum up as following:

1. It is inevitably denied that thematic shift is

found when translating narrative text from

English into Indonesian. Of the problem

discussed in this research, it is expected to

proffer breakthrough for the multitude. This

research eventually has analyzed and proved

that thematic shift significantly distort meaning

from Source Language into Target Language.

2. This research is same as other researches which

invariably have limitation. This scientific paper

has limitation for focusing only diminutive data

which diminish other discoveries of types of

thematic shift. Besides, this analysis is only

conducted to find out and analyze types of

thematic shift in students’ themes without

discovering things which underlie the cause of

shift. However, all these deficiencies can be

improved by conducting another research which

pay attention to these weaknesses.

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CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology

Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education