Analysis of Translation of Language Play in Roald Dahl's 'The BFG'.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

The BFG adalah salah satu novel anak yang dikarang oleh Roald Dahl dan

diterjemahkan dalam bahasa Indonesia yang bercerita tentang kehidupan para raksasa yang senang menculik dan memakan anak kecil. Tetapi ada satu raksasa yang bernama BFG yang baik hati dan berbeda dari raksasa lainnya. BFG berteman

dengan seorang anak perempuan bernama Sophie. Dalam percakapan mereka, BFG seringkali mengucapkan kata-kata yang tidak lazim. Dalam tugas akhir ini, kata-kata tersebut dikategorikan sebagai permainan bahasa atau language play. Novel The BFG ini sudah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia. Saya tertarik untuk menganalisis bagaimana permainan bahasa dalam novel ini diterjemahkan.

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Maranatha Christian University Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa mayoritas fitur-fitur linguistik yang digunakan dalam bahasa Inggris adalah Morfologi dan dalam bahasa Indonesia adalah Semantik. Ditemukan juga bahwa pada sebagian besar data penerjemah tetap menjaga bentuk dan arti dari language play tersebut. Efek yang dimunculkan dengan penggunaan permainan bahasa berhubungan dengan penggambaran tokoh raksasa dalam buku tersebut. Selain itu, penggunaan language play dalam buku

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2.3.1.2 Reduplication ... 16

CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATION OF LANGUAGE PLAY

IN ROALD

DAHL’S

THE BFG

………..._{. 18}

Data 1 ………. 18

Data 2 ………. 21

Data 3 ………..………... 24

Data 4 ………... 26

Data 5 ………. 29

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ... 32

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 36

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LIST OF SYMBOLS:

Affixation



Blending

+

Morpheme metathesis



Near-homophone



Pseudo homophone



Orthography



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APPENDICES

Linguistic Element

English Indonesian Translation

Data Language

Play

Data Language Play Form Sense

Yes No

Morphology Upgoing bubbles is a catasterous disast

rophe! (53)

Blending Gelembung yang ke atas adalah

busibah

mencana! _{( page}

64)

Blending; a near

homophone and a pseudo homophone

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Element

English Indonesian Translation

Data Language Play Data Language Play Sense Form

Yes No

Morphology They is careful not to

be skiddlingoff to the same country too

often (65)

Blending Mereka berhati-hati

agar tidak terlalu sering

berjingkat-jengkit ke Negara yang sama (77)

Compounding and

near homophone

x 

Semantic We is doing this lovely

bit of buckswashling

both together (76).

Morpheme Metathesis Kita akan melakukan

kegemboran ini bersama-sama (90).

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Language is ‘the medium of communication. It is “a system of sounds and

words to communicate” (Hornby 862). Based on Longman Dictionary of the English Language in Crystal’s book, language is used “for communicating ideas or feelings” (Crystal 2). Therefore, language is very important in our life because

it is used by people to communicate with others.

As we know, the English language is the international language that is

used by most people in the world. Because of that, many books are written in the

English language. However, since not every book reader understands English,

some books are translated into other languages. Yet, sometimes it is not easy to

make an accurate translation because no two languages are totally equivalent.

Therefore, sometimes the content of the original text is different from the content

of the translation.

When a text has some special features like rhyming words or figures of

speech, the process of translation becomes more difficult. In linguistics, those

special features are called language play. I am interested in doing research on

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focuses on playing with language by manipulating some linguistic features to create funny effects or enjoyment for people. “Manipulating” means “we take some linguistic features – such as a word, a phrase, a sentence, a part of a word, a group of sounds, a series of letters – and making it do things it does not

normally do. We are in effect, bending and breaking the rules of the language”

(Crystal 1). This manipulation of language makes translation more difficult as the translator must pay attention not only to the meaning of the text but also its linguistic form.

I am interested in finding out how language play in one language is translated into another language. Therefore, the topic of my thesis is Translation of language play from the English novel into the Indonesian novel. I choose a novel, specifically those for children, because children novels are usually more imaginative not only in the story but also the characters. Therefore, sometimes authors create language play to make the imagination seem real, the story more amusing or make humor.

In my thesis, I take the data from a children’s novel entitled The BFG _by

Roald Dahl. I use this novel because Roald Dahl is a very famous author from England and many of his works are translated into the Indonesian language. The BFG_{is about giants who kidnap children in the night and eat them. But there is}

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versions. So I will analyze how the translator translates the language play. Furthermore, I will find whether how the translator can keep both of the sense and the form or neither the sense nor the form or either sense or form.

The theory that I use in my research are theory of language play by David Crystal. I will also use linguistic theories which are related to my analysis. The most linguistic theories that I used are are theories of morphology. I decide to focus on morphology because the morphological process is the most outstanding process used in the book. I use the theory of morphology by Deterding & Poedjosoedarmo and O’Grady which relates to affixation, blending, and also compounding. Besides morphology, I also use the theory of semantics that deals with homophone, near-homophone, pseudo homophone and morpheme metathesis. To analyze the language play in the Indonesian translation, I use the theory of the Indonesian morphology and semantics. Furthermore, I use the theory of translation by Hatim & Munday and Newmark to analyze the translation of language play found in the data.

I believe the topic is significant to discuss because it can enrich the

readers’ knowledge about language play, linguistic processes, and how they are translated. I hope that my thesis can help the people who intend to be translators in learning some methods and examples about the translation of the language play from English into Indonesian.

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Statement of the Problem

In the thesis I would like to discuss the following problems:

1. What are the linguistic processes used in the language play in both the English and Indonesian versions of The BFG_?

2. Which does the translator keep in translating the language play; the sense, form, both of the sense and the form or neither of them?

3. How does the translation give a different effect of the language play compared to the effect of the language play in the English version?

Purpose of the Study

In the thesis I would like to show:

1. The linguistic processes that used in creating the language play in both the English and Indonesian version of The BFG_.

2. How the translator keeps both of the sense and the form or else only the sense or the form in translating the language play.

3. How the translation give a different effect of language play compared to the effect of the language play in the English version.

Methods of Research

In analyzing the data, I first read the novel entitled The BFG_{. Then I}

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Organization of Thesis

This thesis consists of four chapters. It begins with Chapter One which is the Introduction consisting of the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Methods of Research, and Organization of the Thesis.

Next is Chapter Two, the Theoretical Framework, which explains the theories used in this thesis. It is followed by Chapter Three, which contains the analysis of the language plays in the novel entitled The BFG_{and the analysis of}

the translation from English into Indonesian language.

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I would like to draw the conclusion about the translation of

language play in the children book entitled The BFG_{by Roald Dahl. I analyze}

only five data which contain of the language play and relates with the morphology

and semantic features. It is because the morphological process in the language

play of this novel is the most outstanding process and has many variations which

can make my analysis more various. Besides, the semantic features in the

language play of this novel is used to give the certain effects such as creating

humor, making pleasant sound and making the story more imaginative.

After analyzing the data, I conclude that in the creation of language play in

the English version, morphological process is more applied than semantic

features. In the English version, the mostly used morphological process is

blending which can be found in data 1, 2, and 4. The other data use affixation

process, which can be found in data 2 and 3; and orthography which is found in

data 3. There are only two data that use Semantic features which are a near

homophone and a pseudo-homophone in data 2 and morpheme metathesis in

data 5.

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Maranatha Christian University On the other hand, the language play in the Indonesian translation mostly

is playing with Semantic features. We can see in the Indonesian translation, the

mostly used semantic feature is near homophones which can be found in data 1,

2, 3, 4. Another semantic feature is pseudo-homophone which can be found in

data 1 and 2. Furthermore, the rest of the data use morphological processes

which are blending in data 2, reduplication in data 3, and an affixation in data 5.

Concerning the translation of language play, in most of the data the

words. Actually, the translator has to choose whether she has to keep the sense

or the form. On the other hand, the translator chooses to keep the form rather

than the sense of language play to maintain the exits of the language play in

Indonesian translation. And in data 3, the translator keeps only the sense of

language play and not the form because the translator wants to make easier for

the reader to catch the meaning itself without making incongruity words.

After analyzing the language play, I find that mostly, the effect of using

language play in the English version is to form the opinion that the giant likes to

exaggerate things when speaking which is found in data 1, 2, 3, and 4. Another

effect of using language play is to describe that the giant is uneducated which is

found in data 4, 5 and the last is to make a pleasant sound for the readers which

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Maranatha Christian University version is to describe that the giant is uneducated and it can be seen in all the

data. Besides, there is an additional effect which is to make a pleasant sound for

the readers which can be seen in data 1 and 2.

In my opinion, the author of this novel makes use many of language play

in his book with the purpose to give a clearer description of the giant’s

characteristics to the readers. As giants have a much bigger size than humans,

there are the uses of blended words with similar meaning in the language play. I

conclude this is to show that the giant’s characteristics that their bodies are

bigger and double of human so he likes to exaggerate things when speaking

through the use of blending and reduplication. Furthermore, the giant is

uneducated so he does many mistakes when speaking. This characteristic is

created by using wrong affixation, morpheme metathesis, and near homophone.

Besides, the author tries to create a good atmosphere by making a pleasant

sound in the language play so the readers will enjoy reading the book. The author

creates that effect by using an alliteration, an assonance that are created from

using a near homophone, a pseudo-homophone and an orthography. By using

language play, the different worlds between humans and giants are made clear.

Besides to make pleasant sound for the reader and convey the giant’s

characteristics, the other effect of the language play is to create humor for the

readers. It happens when we read the language play in the book; we will find that

the words actually not exist in the vocabulary. Being acquainted with the

language, we can know what the words refer to, or what the words should be.

Therefore, it makes us as the readers laugh because there is incongruity in the

use of words which the author used to create language play.

I know that there are other aspects of linguistic features which can be

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Maranatha Christian University semantic features. There are some phonological and syntactic features shown in

the book which can be further analyzed. Therefore, I would like to suggest to the

others if they want to do further research, I suggest to analyze the language play

by using the phonological process and syntactic features.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References:

Ali, Faidal Rahman. English Grammar Completed Edition. Yogyakarta: Pustaka

Widyatama, 2010.

Cook, Guy. Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: University Press. 2000

Crystal, David. Language Play. England: Penguin Books, 1998.

Dahl, Road. Raksasa Besar yang Baik. Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama,

2010.

Dahl, Road. The BFG. England: Puffin Books, 1984.

Deterding, David H., Poedjosoedarmo, Gloria R. The Grammar of English

Morphology and Syntax for English Teachers in Southeast Asia. Singapore:

Prentice Hall, 2001.

Hatim, Basil, Munday, Jeremy. Translation an Advanced Resource Book. Oxon:

Routledge, 2004.

Hornby, A S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. New York: Oxford

University Press, 2005.

Leech, Geoffrey. An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage. Indonesia: Gelatik,

1990.

Nash, Walter. The Language of Humour. New York: Longman Inc. 1985

Newmark, Peter. Approaches to Translation. England: Pergamon Press Ltd,

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O’Grady, William, Michael Dobrovolsky, and Francis Katamba. Contemporary

Linguistics: An Introduction. Essex: Longman (Pearson Education Limited),

1997.

Stewart, JR, Thomas W, Nathan Vaillete. Language Files Materials for an

Introduction to Language & Linguistics. Ohio: The Ohio State University

Press Columbus. 2001

Tanto, Trisnowati. Implikasi Pragmatis Dari Permainan Bahasa Dalam Fiksi

Berbahasa Inggris Untuk Anak-Anak. Indonesia: Universitas Padjajaran,

2010.

Tim Penyusun Kamus Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa. “Kamus

Besar Bahasa Indonesia”. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka, 1989.

Tim Redaksi Ayahbunda. “Perkembangan Bahasa dan Bicara”. Dari A sampai Z

tentang PERKEMBANGAN ANAK Buku Pegangan untuk Pasangan Muda.

Jakarta: PT. Gaya Favorit Pres, 1992. Print.

Wijana, I Dewa Putu. Kartun: Studi Tentang Permainan Bahasa. Jogjakarta:

Ombak, 2003.

Electronic Publications:

Lanin, Ivan. “Rangkuman Tata Bahasa Indonesia.” 17. Web. 9 Juli 2010.

Nordquist, Richard. “Near-homophone”. Web. 2010.

Nordquist, Richard. “Orthography”. Web. 2010.

Nordquist, Richard. “Pseudo homophone”. Web. 2010.

Nur Azizah, Siti. “Bahasa”. Kompasiana. 22 Agustus 2012.

Putri, Dini Amanda. “Tata Bahasa”. Web. 2009.