An Analysis on Translation and Translating: Sfl Language Metafunctions in the Translations of Student and Professional Translators

Abstract

The involvement of linguistic theories in translation studies in recent years has become more and more obvious since they can replace translator intuition to solve translation problems and provides an opportunity to explore the best translation practice. One of THE linguistics theories concerning meaning is systemic functional linguistics (SFL) which views grammar as a series of options for the expression of meaning. Most translation studies involving SFL theories were conducted on translation products. The research reported here focuses on the translation process as well as translation product using an SFL metafunction theory involving student and professional translators. In particular, this research aims at: (i) investigating how student translators and professional translators manage their time in the process of translating; (ii) finding out how student translators and professional translators take pauses in the translating; (iii) finding out what the student translators and professional translators’ shifts are in terms of transitivity, mood, and theme elements in the translation process; and (iv) designing a model of translation from English (SL) to Bahasa Indonesia (TL) using an SFL metafunction theory. The methodological approach employed here is qualitative making use of the technique of interactive model of analysis in which a total of four student and professional translators are engaged. The text employed is a 230 word long history text. The readability of the source text is measured using the SMOG readability formula and the data were collected using integrated problem and decision reports (IPDRs), a retrospective questionnaire, Translog, and Camtasia. The data were analyzed using think aloud protocols (TAPs) and interactive model of data analysis. Based on the data analysis, it was found that (1) the Students spent most of their time in a drafting-phase, while the Professionals spent most of their time in a post-drafting phase; in addition, the Students’ average speed in translation process was 4 words per minute (wpm), while the Professionals’ speed was 6 wpm; (2) the Students used pauses to solve (i) the problems related to finding the right equivalent for the ST words or terms and (ii) the difficulties encountered in encoding their understanding in the TL, while the Professionals used pauses (i) to ensure that their TT is natural and (ii) corresponded to the grammar rules of the TL; (3) the metafunction shifts done by the Students focused on the forms, while Professionals focused on meanings; (4) the findings of this research suggest a model of translation process using an SFL language metafunction theory.