The question as to how translators deal with new coinages in the Harry Potter novels in the transfer of the meaning of the source language into the receptor language has instigated my curiosity towards the treatment of the coinages in the Indonesian versions. The coinages must have provided some unique problems of lexical equivalents to translators, since the definition of the words are not yet entered into any English dictionaries.
The research has been carried out with the objectives to give a better understanding of the word-formations of the new coinages in the novels and their Indonesian versions and to know the strategies that can be used to translate the coinages. For the theoretical framework, Bauer's (1983), Pyles and Algeo's (1993), Aitchison's (1994) and Fromkin and Rodman's (2003) concepts of word-formations have been employed. In addition, Larson's (1984) and Bell's (1991) theories about types of translations has been picked up as the base to recognize the strategies of the translations. Furthermore, Larson's (1984) criterion of a good translation has been used to analyze the accuracy, clearness, and naturalness of the translations.
The sample data consist of sixteen borrowing coinages and thirty-four translated coinages from the four volumes of Harry Potter novels. The selected coinages have been analyzed in order to ascertain their word-formations and then have been compared with their Indonesian versions. The analysis has revealed the extent of accuracy, clearness, and naturalness of the Indonesian translations of the coinages and the appropriateness of the borrowed coinages. The analysis has also investigated the factors that give rise to why there are coinages which could not be accurately, clearly, and naturally translated.
The research has come up with the following results. In terms of the appropriateness of borrowed coinages, ten coinages (63%) were appropriately borrowed and six coinages (37%) were not properly borrowed. With regard to the accuracy and naturalness of the translations, nineteen coinages (56%) were already correctly rendered and fifteen coinages (44%) were not accurately, clearly, or naturally translated. With respect to the types of translations used, nineteen coinages (56%) were translated using the literal translations and fifteen coinages (44%) were rendered using the free translations. |