THE ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATION METHODS AND PROCEDURES IN FACEBOOK :A Study Of Translation Methods And Procedures In Facebook Web Pages.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The first chapter is Introduction. This chapter discusses the background of research,

research questions, aims of study, research methodology, significance of the study, clarification

of the key terms, and organization of the paper.

1. 1 Background of Research

In current modern world, globalization influences many countries including Indonesia.

One element that is very important in global age is communication, and undeniably language is

always important to communicate. Today, in order to communicate with others effectively, in

global community people have to master particular languages, especially English. English is the

language which is mostly used by global community. However, some people cannot use and

understand English well. Therefore, doing translation is one of the solutions to overcome the

language and cultural barrier. In addition, it also increases cultural understanding among nations

all over the world.

By using internet, people all around the world can easily find out the latest information

and news. Furthermore, people are able to socialize and make new friends thru internet. The

technology is globally used by people around the world and mostly written in English. Therefore,

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translator has to figure out the ways to make a good translation since a translated text must

convey a constant message from its source text.

According to Newmark (1988:5), translation is defined as ‘rendering the meaning of a

text into another language in the way the author intended the text’. Translation plays an

important role for people who do not understand a foreign language, in this case English. For

example, there are many English texts translated into Indonesian in forms of novel, science book,

newspaper, and even article in the internet. The translated versions of the texts will make people

easily understand what the texts are about. By translating the text from source language to target

language, people now can get information without much difficulty. They can understand the

contents of particular texts just by reading its translation.

Regarding the considerations above, the aim of the translation process is to transfer

messages from source language to target language clearly, accurately, and naturally. Therefore,

to produce a good translation, there are several strategies to be a good translator. To make a

correct translation, a translator must understand the appropriate methods in translating the text

well. In his book, A Textbook of Translation (1988:45), Newmark defines the translation

methods as processes which emphasize in the relation between source language (SL) and target

language (TL). As there are many types of text, more than one strategy will be needed in the

translation process. For example, strategies that are used in translating literary text will be

different from the strategies that are used in translating informative text such as newspaper and

journal. Furthermore, the method used in translating text in the printed media will be different

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In this study, the researcher chooses Facebook website as the object of the research. In

these recent years, Facebook becomes a popular social networking that connects people around

the world, and it has been translated into many languages, including Bahasa Indonesia. In

January 2012, Indonesia already had 41,777,240 Facebook users and it was ranked at 2ndposition

of the top ten Facebook-users countries in the world and the first position in South East Asia

(www.checkfacebook.com). Nevertheless, since the website has numerous lines of texts, the

researcher will limit the research to analyze the translation of sentences and phrases of the

official pages in the web pages. Also, the research will focus on its translation methods and

procedures in translating sentences and phrases in the web pages of Facebook.

Facebook is a huge website that consists of many web pages. Therefore, the researcher

limited the research into the translation of sentences and phrases in the following pages: Account

Settings page, Activity Log page, Advertise on Facebook page, Basic Information page, Contact

Information page, Create a Page page, Education and Work page, Find Friends page, Friends and

Family page, General Account Settings page, Help Centre page, Home page, Payments page,

Privacy Settings page, Profile page, Profile Picture page, Request page, Security Settings page,

Sports page, and Welcome page. The analyzed pages were the first pages of each menu.

The procedures of the research are divided into two steps. The first is data collection. To

collect the data, the researcher saved the transcripts of Facebook web pages both in English and

in Indonesian versions. Then, the researcher read and compared the English and Indonesian

Facebook pages. Next, all sentences and phrases in the selected pages were listed and

categorized. After that, the researcher distributed a purposive sampling method to get the

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The next step is data analysis. The researcher investigated the methods and procedures

used in translating Facebook web pages by using the data collected in purposive sampling. The

researcher then classified the data based on the Facebook pages and made a table for the

collected data. In the last step, the data were interpreted to draw conclusions.

1. 2 Research Questions

This study is carried out to analyze the following research questions:

1. Which translation methods are used in translating 20 selected pages in Facebook

website?

2. Which translation procedures are used in translating phrases in 20 selected pages in

Facebook website?

1. 3 Aims of Study

Principally, this study is conducted to investigate the translation methods used in

translating sentences in Facebook website. Furthermore, it identifies the procedures used in

translating phrases in Facebook website. Eventually, the analysis enables further researchers to

have references on translating sentences and phrases in Facebook. The results of this research

will be useful to improve the quality of English translators or students interested in translating

on-line texts.

1. 4 Research Methodology

In this study, the researcher uses descriptive and qualitative methods. According to

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phenomena by presenting, analyzing, and interpreting data. In addition, Fraenkel and Wallen

(1993:380) states that qualitative research is understood as a research study that investigates the

quality of relationships, activities, situations, or materials. Therefore, the researcher assumes that

it is appropriate to apply the descriptive qualitative approach to disclose and to comprehend the

methods and procedures in translating Facebook web pages.

1. 5 Significance of the Study

The analysis of translation methods and procedures in the Facebook website is expected

to be a useful source and reference for the readers to identify problems in translation and its

solution that can be a model in translation process. The researcher hopes that the result of the

research can bring some benefits to English as second language learners who want to learn

translation and use this paper as their source and reference.

1. 6 Clarification of the Key Terms

Facebook : a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook,

Inc. Users can add friends, send them messages, and update their personal

profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks

organized by workplace, school, or college.

(http://wikipedia.org)

Internet : an international computer network connecting other networks and computers

from companies, universities, etc.

(Oxford Dictionary, 2005)

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Website : a place connected to the internet, where a company or an organization, or an

individual person, puts information.

1. 7 Organization of the Paper

The chapter of this research is organized into five chapters as follows:

Chapter I

This chapter contains introduction, which discusses the background of the research,

research questions, aims of study, research methodology, significance of the study, clarification

of the key terms, and organization of the paper.

Chapter II

It contains literature review, which serves as a basis for investigating the research

problem.

Chapter III

It contains the methodology of the study that discuss the steps and the procedures of the

research, the analysis tools, and the reasons for choosing the procedures.

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Chapter IV

This chapter reports the results of the study.

Chapter V

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology of the research. The chapter contains of research

design, object of the research, data source, techniques of collecting data, and technique of

analyzing data.

3.1 Research Design

The researcher employed a descriptive and qualitative method as the method of the

research. The descriptive and qualitative methods are considered to be relevant to the research

because the research involves the collection and analysis of the data for the purpose of

explaining the existing occurrence. Fraenkel and Wallen (1993:380) states, “The qualitative

research is a research study that investigates the quality of relationships, activities, situations, or

materials.” Therefore, this method is considered to be relevant to this research because it can be

used to understand and to interpret the existing occurrence on the object of the research.

There are five characteristics of qualitative research according to Fraenkel and Wallen

(1993):

1. The natural setting is the direct source of data, and the researcher is the key instrument in

qualitative research.

2. Qualitative data is collected in the form of words or pictures rather than numbers.

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5. How people make sense out of their lives is a major concern to qualitative researchers.

According to Maxwell (cited in Pratama, 2006:32-33) there are five purposes of qualitative

research:

1. Understanding the meaning of the participants in the study, the events, situations, and

actions involved with and the accounts of their life and experiences.

2. Understanding the particular context within which are participants’ acts and the

influences that this context has on their actions.

3. Identifying unanticipated phenomenon and influence and generating new grounded

theories.

4. Understanding the process by which events and actions take place.

5. Developing casual explanations.

The researcher assumes that descriptive qualitative method is relevant to this research. In

addition, the researcher identified the translation methods and procedures in Facebook by

collecting the phrases and categorizing them by their types.

3.2 Object of the Research

The data used in this research were the translation of Facebook web pages saved on

March 8th 2012. In January 2012, Indonesia already had 41,777,240 Facebook users and it was

ranked at 2nd position of the top ten Facebook-user countries in the world and the first position in

South East Asia (www.checkfacebook.com). The results of this research will be useful to improve

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3.3 Data Source

The object of this research was Facebook web pages, and the researcher limited the pages

into 20 pages. The analyzed pages were Account Settings page, Activity Log page, Advertise on

Facebook page, Basic Information page, Contact Information page, Create a Page page,

Education and Work page, Find Friends page, Friends and Family page, General Account

Settings page, Help Centre page, Home page, Payments page, Privacy Settings page, Profile

page, Profile Picture page, Request page, Security Settings page, Sports page, and Welcome

page. The analyzed pages were the first pages of each menu.

3.4 Techniques of Collecting Data

In this study, the researcher employed some techniques of data collection. They are as

follows:

1. The researcher saved the transcript of English and Indonesian versions of Facebook

webpages on March 8th 2012.

2. The researcher observed and compared the English and the Indonesian versions.

3. The researcher collected and listed the phrases of each page on Facebook web pages.

4. The researcher categorized the phrases based on each type.

5. The researcher identified the English and Indonesian versions.

6. The researcher compared the English and Indonesian versions.

3.5 Techniques of Analyzing Data

The data of this research are 20 pages of Facebook website. The data was classified by a

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translation methods and phrases for translation procedures. The researcher identified the

translation methods and procedures applied in translating each sentence and phrase by using

translation theory by Newmark (1988). The methods and procedures commonly used in

translating the phrases and sentences then were calculated. Below are the examples of the

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1. Analysis of translation methods Profile Picture Page

Profile Picture page is a page where the members can select or change their

profile picture, which will be displayed on Facebook Home Page.

No. English version Indonesian version

1. You can also visit your privacy settings to adjust other settings.

Anda juga dapat mengunjungi pengaturan privasi untuk menyesuaikan pengaturan lain.

Based on the data above, the source language (English version) is translated within literal

translation. In literal translation method, the SL grammatical constructions are converted to their

nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly and out of context. This

sentence is categorized as declarative sentence, and translated by using literal translation.

2. Analysis of translation procedures

No. English version Indonesian version

1. Profile picture Foto profil

2. Edit thumbnail Sunting foto mini

Based on point number 1, the source language is translated into couplets. Couplets,

triplets, and quadruplets combine two, three, or four procedures for distributing the single

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translation procedures. On point number 2, the source language is also translated into couplets.

“Edit thumbnail” becomes Sunting foto mini is couplets that combines literal and transposition

translation procedures. There are two kinds of phrases in this page that are noun phrase and verb

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

The main point to be discussed in this chapter is the conclusion taken from the result of the research and suggestions for the further study based on the research.

5.1 Conclusion

This research is carried out to analyze 1) which translation methods are used in

translating 20 selected pages in Facebook website, and 2) which translation procedures are used

in translating phrases in 20 selected pages in Facebook website. This research applies

Newmark’s theory of translation methods and procedures.

Based on the analysis, this study has successfully answered the research questions. The

researcher concludes that there are five kinds of translation methods used in translating 20

selected Facebook pages. The methods are faithful translation method (39.53%), literal

translation method (27.91%), communicative translation method (16.28%), word-for-word

method (13.95%), and free translation method (2.33%). The most frequently used method in

translating sentences in 20 selected Facebook pages is word-for-word method. It can be

concluded, that sentences translation in Facebook is reproduced by the precise contextual

meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structure. It transfers

cultural words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical deviation from SL norms in

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indicates that the translation of Facebook attempts to avoid many mistakes in delivering the

message from the source language.

The researcher also found that there are eight kinds of procedure translation. They are

couplets translation procedure (51.37%), literal translation procedure (26.71%), shift translation

procedure (10.96%), paraphrase translation procedure (3.42%), recognized translation procedure

(3.42%), naturalization translation procedure (2.05%), through-translation procedure (1.37%),

and reduction translation procedure (0.7%). The most frequently used procedure in translating

phrases in 20 selected Facebook pages is Couplets. The combination of two, three, or four

procedures in translating phrase is used to attain the equivalent meaning in the target language.

5.2 Suggestion

The researcher has some suggestion which are hopefully used to others research:

1. The researcher realizes the importance of applying what the student have learned in

academic setting to the real world. The researcher expects that English department will

consider exploring more in the translating field.

2. To do the translation, the translator should understand the proper translation methods and

procedures, therefore the translation can be done as accurately as possible.

3. This research is only focusing on translation methods and procedures. For further

research, the researcher suggests that there is another object that can be explored in

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(www.checkfacebook.com)

(www.chrunchbase.com)