Some common problems in translation are the absence of equivalent word in target language and unnatural, if not inaccurate, literal translation. In choosing a suitable equivalent, various factors need to be considered. This study aims to examine the problems of non-equivalence in the translation of procurement terminologies from English into Indonesian and the translation strategies used to deal with the problems.
This study was conducted by first interviewing the study participants to collect the Source-language procurement terminologies and the problems they encountered. Secondly, the meaning of the SL terms was unpacked by consulting various procurement resources and dictionaries. Then, the terminologies, the definition of the terminologies, and the problems encountered by the translators were analyzed based on Baker (2011), Vinay and Darbelnet (2004), and Newmark (1988) to explore the problems of non-equivalence in the translation of procurement terminologies from English into Indonesian. As for identifying the translation strategies employed by the translators to deal with the problems, the SL terminologies and the translation were put in a table and analyzed based on the translation strategies suggested by Baker (2011), Vinay and Darbelnet (2004), and Newmark (1988).
Based on the interview results, the problems encountered by the translators in the translation of procurement terminologies from English into Indonesian were non-equivalence problems at word level, unacceptable literal translation, and no standard equivalent acronyms in Indonesian. Specifically, the non-equivalence problems at word level were the source-language concept not lexicalized in TL, semantically-complex SL terminologies, the lack of a general term in TL, and the distinction in meaning between SL and TL. With regard to unacceptable literal translation, the literal translation is not within the same register, has no meaning, gives different meaning, does not have a corresponding expression within the metalinguistic experience of the target language.
After identifying the translation strategies used by the translators, most of the translation strategies were used in conformity with the suggested translation strategies by Baker (2011) and Newmark (1988), for example paraphrasing was used for translating English procurement terminologies of which the concept is known in Indonesian, but not lexicalized. This study also found results contradicting the suggested strategies, such as the use of loan word plus explanation instead of paraphrase to translate semantically-complex procurement terminologies with its own advantages and disadvantages. These results confirmed that proper use of translation strategies dealing with non-equivalence problems in the translation of procurement terminologies depends on various factors, such as the translator’s linguistic competence, knowledge of the subject matter, purpose of text, and the target readers. |