Many translators often face some problems in translating English euphemism into
Indonesian because it is difficult to be translated. The main purpose of this research is to
analyze the Indonesian translations of English euphemisms on sex and bodily functions. The
data of this research are ten English articles of Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health magazines
from May, 2013 to February, 2014 and its Indonesian version from the same magazines.
There are three research questions discussed in this thesis: (1) What are the equivalent of
English euphemisms on sex and bodily functions? (2) What does L1 readers think of the
translation of euphemisms from English to Indonesian? And (3) What translation strategies
are used by Indonesian writers to render English euphemisms into Indonesian?
There are several steps taken for answering the research questions above. First, I
collected the data from the ten articles chosen. There are 113 samples of euphemisms found in
the articles. The 113 samples of euphemisms were then classified into thirteen types of
euphemisms proposed by Ayto, 1994. The study found that from those 113 samples of
euphemisms there were only four types of euphemisms: (1) assorted sins and non-indictable
offences (e.g. booze), (2) Sex (e.g. P in the V action), (3) the body and its parts (e.g. cojones),
and (4) bodily functions and secretions (e.g. nature calls).
As to the strategy to translate euphemisms, the study shows that the translators mostly
try to find the equivalent in the Indonesian euphemisms, for instance ‘stuff down there’
became area intim. The translators also translate the euphemisms literally and use a plain
language because some of the English euphemisms are too complicated for the Indonesian
readers. Additionally, some English euphemisms are not replaced. Finally, the translators also
omit the English euphemisms in their translation.
Therefore, the study concludes that most English euphemisms on sex and bodily
functions are translatable without any changes in the meaning. Additionally, the translation of
the euphemisms is understandable and do not affect the readers’ perspectives. |