LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 33 THEME EQUIVALENCE AND THEME SHIFT FOUND IN INDONESIAN-ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THESIS ABSTRACTS Yuanita Damayanti Semarang State University ABSTRACT This study analyzes types of themes, theme equivalence, theme shifts in the Indonesian- English translation of thesis abstracts. The data consist of 10 thesis abstracts and their translation into English, taken from Postgraduate Program of Semarang State University from the last two years (2010-2011). The result shows that topical theme dominates the entire texts at 80.16% (198 out of 247) in ST and 79.56% (222 out of 279) in TT. Interpersonal theme is not found both in ST and TT. Most topical themes are in participants, followed by circumstance and process. The textual theme in both texts is adjunct conjunctive. Most of the themes (70.2%) are considered as non shift or equivalent. The theme shift occurrs through three processes: (1) by changing the grammatical function within the theme (11.7%), (2) by adding more themes (14.7%) and (3) by deleting themes (3.4%). It is suggested for a translator to have complete mastery over the grammatical structure of both the SL and TL and also being aware of the notions and application of shifts and equivalence. Keywords: equivalence, shift, theme, transitivity, translation, abstract INTRODUCTION Translation as defined by Newmark (1988:7) is “a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language.” Nida and Taber (1982:12) propose a rather complete definition of translation. According to the two experts, “Translating consisting of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.” The definition proposed by Nida and Taber contain some elements that should be taken into account by a translator in performing his/her task: reproducing the message, equivalence, natural equivalence, closest equivalence, priority on meaning and also style. Meanwhile, Catford (1965:20) also states that translation is the “replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL).” With respect to translation equivalence (TE), Baker (1992:77) used the notion of equivalence for the sake of convenience and it is variously regarded as a necessary condition for translations, an obstacle to a progress in translation studies, or a useful category for describing translation. Translation equivalence should be characterized in terms of a negotiatory 34 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 interaction of all these factors; and these factors can be seen as the integrated condition of TE. These conditions are as follows: vocabulary, structure, texture, sentence meaning as opposed to utterance meaning, language varieties, aesthetic effect, and cognitive effect. All these seven conditions should be taken into account in the process of establishing TE (Lotfipour- Saedi: 1990:390). Based on the notion above, we could see that the “theme equivalence” and “Theme shifts” which are being the focus in this study has something to do with the structure of a clause. Theme equivalence in this case, is defined as the equivalence occurring in the theme position of a clause, where the theme of source text (ST) clause is transformed into the same theme type and grammatical function -seen from the theme and transitivity system- in the target text (TT). On the other hand, theme shift occurs when the theme in ST is translated into different type of theme and grammatical functions in the TT. This assumption is supported by Farrokh (2011:74) who argues that shift occurred when the form in the source language has a new form or different form from the target language. She adds that shift could minimize the inevitable loss of meaning when rendering a text from one language into another language (Farrokh, 2011:79) The possibility of applying systemic functional theory to translation research lies in the fact that translation itself is a meaning-realization process which involves choices of different language resources, while systemic functional grammar provides us with a way of describing lexical and grammatical choices from the system of wording that enables us to see how language is being used to realize meaning (Fang, 2008:286). Theme and rheme are described as a method for structuring information. Theme is the element which serves as the point of departure of the message; it is that which locates and orients the clause within its context, typically contains familiar or „given‟ information which has already been mentioned somewhere in the text, or is familiar from the context. On the other hand, rheme is defined as the remainder of the message, the part in which the theme is developed, typically contains unfamiliar or „new‟ information (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:64; and Eggins, 1994:275). Further, Baker (1992:121) clearly points out two functions of the theme: (1) it acts as a point of orientation by connecting back to previous stretches of discourse and thereby maintaining a coherent point of view, and (2) it acts as a point of departure by connecting forward and contributing to the development of later stretches. Meanwhile, rheme is the goal of discourse. It is the most important elements in the structure of the clause as a message because it represents the very information that the speaker wants to convey to the hearer. It is the rheme that LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 35 fulfils the communicative purpose of the utterance. According to Gerot and Wignell (1994: 104-108), the theme can be divided into: (1) Ideational or topical Theme, (2) Interpersonal theme and (3) textual theme. Topical theme is functioning as the point of orientation for the experiential meanings of the clause and contains a realization of the experiential representation – a participant, a process of a circumstance (Wang, 2009:5 and Fontaine and Kodratoff, 2003:4). Interpersonal Theme includes elements that reflect the kind of interaction taking place among speakers (e. g. maybe, obviously) and is often functioning to code the speaker‟s or writer‟s personal judgment on meaning (Wang, 2009:5 and Fontaine and Kodratoff, 2003:4). The constituents which can function as interpersonal Themes are the unfused finite, in interrogatives structures, and all four categories of modal adjuncts: mood, vocative, polarity and comment (Eggins, 1994:278). Textual themes almost always constitute the first part of the theme, coming before any interpersonal themes. It functions to relate the meaning of the particular clause to other parts of the text (Wang, 2009:5). Further, these elements do not express any interpersonal or experiential meaning, but they are doing important cohesive work in relating the clause to its context. The two main types of textual elements which can get to be theme are continuity adjuncts and conjunctive adjuncts (Eggins, 1994:281). While clause do frequently begin with a single transitivity constituent acting as Theme, it is also possible to get either interpersonal or textual elements in thematic position. In addition to theme and rheme, it is also important to consider the transitivity. According to Eggins (1994:229), in analyzing transitivity system, it is concerned with describing three aspects of the clause: (1) process, (2) participant, and (2) circumstance. The process represents the happening or event the clause is on about, whether it is a matter of a ‘happening’, ‘doing’, ‘saying’, ‘being’, ‘having’, etc. Halliday in Gerot and Wignell (1994:54) assert that there are indeed seven different process types; they are material, behavioral, mental, verbal, relational, existential, and meteorological. Participants represent things or people involved in carrying out the process or things or people affected by process. Participants are realized by nominal groups (group of words which serve as subject or complement). According to But et al. (2001:52 – 66) a participant can be a person, a place, or an object (this is the notion of “thingness”). Circumstance is any peace of circumstantial information about the process within its own clause. Circumstances are realized by adverbial groups, prepositional phrases and even by nominal group. Circumstances answer such questions as when, where, why, how, 36 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 how many and as what (But et al., 2001:64 – 70). Moreover, Gerot and Wignell (1994:52 – 53) state that circumstances are divided into seven kinds, they are: (1) Time (temporal), (2) Place (spatial), (3) Manner, (4) Cause, (5) Accompaniment, (6) Matter, and (7) Role. As part of the requirements of the thesis in Postgraduate Program of Semarang State University, an abstract must be written in both Indonesian and English. According to Kies (2005), an abstract is a summary that highlights the major points of the works and outlines the significant detail. Cooley and Lewkowicz in Paltridge and Starfield (2007:155) give a more detailed definition about abstract. Furthermore, Kies (2005) argues that an abstracts informs the reader of six bits of information about the piece of writing. They are (1) purpose, (2) scope, (3) method, (4) results, (5) recommendations and (6) conclusion. The fact that the thesis is written in Indonesian, then translated into English, it is important to examine the equivalence of the abstract in Indonesian and in English. Given this fact, this study focuses on analyzing the theme equivalence and theme shifts found in the Indonesian-English translation of thesis‟ abstracts. Specifically, this study investigates types of theme, thematic equivalence, and the theme shifts in the translation of thesis abstracts from Indonesian to English. METHODS This study belongs to a descriptive qualitative research. As suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994:1) that qualitative research does not focus on numeral or statistics but give much attention to how deep the researcher‟s knowledge is toward the interaction among concepts which are being learnt. Such data are considered a source of well-grounded, rich descriptions and explanations of processes in identifiable local contexts. The findings from qualitative studies have an “undeniability” quality. In addition, Cresswell (1994:145) stated that qualitative research is descriptive when the researcher is interested in process, meaning, and understanding gained through words or picture. As a consequence of the great number research abstracts found in the Postgraduate Program of Semarang State University, the number of data used in this study is limited to only 10 thesis abstracts written in Indonesia and 10 of their English translated version. They are from the latest 2 years (2010 – 2011) and come from different field of studies. The units of analysis in this reasearch are clauses. Every clause found in both English and Indonesian thesis‟ abstracts will be analyzed to observe the theme equivalence and theme shift. The data are analyzed qualitatively by taking the following steps: collecting the theses abstracts written in Indonesian and their English translation, dividing all the data into LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 37 clauses, rewriting and labeling the parts of the clauses in terms of the Theme-Rheme system along with their grammatical function, contrasting the clauses, tabulating the frequency, identifying theme equivalence and theme shift, Identifying the process of thematic shift from ST to TT, and drawing conclusion. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Types of Theme Based on the analysis, it is found that of the 192 clauses in Source Text (ST) and 201 clauses in the Target Text (TT), there are total 247 Theme used in the Source Text (ST) and 278 Theme used in the Target Text (TT). The dominant type of Theme is topical Theme either in ST and TT. The textual Theme is also found in both ST and TT, but there is no interpersonal Theme found. The topical Theme lies in three grammatical functions of Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) analysis. They are as Participant, Circumstances and Process. The textual Theme mainly functions as Adjunct Conjunctive. From 247 Theme used in the Source Text (ST), 199 of them or 81% are Topical Theme, while the rest are textual Theme with total 48 or 19%. Topical Theme in ST is dominantly in grammatical function of Participant (80%) either as subject, object, or complement. Other than dominant Participant grammatical function, topical Theme is also found in Circumstance grammatical function (17%) and followed by Process grammatical function (3%) as the least frequent. Meanwhile, all textual Theme found in ST are in Adjunct Conjunctive grammatical function, with total 48 themes. If topical Theme is found most frequent in ST, the same thing happens to the dominant Theme in TT. Topical Theme employs 80% (223) of the total Theme in TT. The rest with 20% occupation of the total Theme or 57 are Textual Theme. Same with ST, the ST, most of the topical Theme in TT are in Participant grammatical function (87,4%), followed by Circumstance grammatical function (12,1%) and then Process grammatical function (0,5%) as the least frequent. Textual Theme found in ST is in Adjunct Conjunctive grammatical function, with total 57 themes. In both ST and TT, the topical Theme is mostly dominated by Participant grammatical function due to the process it owns. This translation is deal with the academic work, in which the translated texts are thesis‟s abstract. The translator should communicate the whole content of their works in a condensed short text but it contains thorough information, and the most important thing that he or she is able to transfer the intended message of the abstract‟s writer naturally and acceptable. The dominant Processes found are relational process, mental process and material process. Most of the relational processes are intensifying. An intensive relational process involves establishing a 38 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 relationship between two terms, where the relationship is expressed by the verb be or a synonym (Eggins: 1994:256). The most Participant in this process are as Carrier, in which most of the clauses in this process is not reversible. This means that there is no passive form of the clause. In material process, the role of participant as an Actor functions as the doer of the action in the process it owns. It is stated that Actor should do something or something (Goal) should be conducted. Clauses in this process which fronted Actor in the Theme position are therefore in active form. On the contrary, if Goal is placed in the Theme position, the clauses should be in passive form. The mental process found in both ST and TT involves mental reaction about thoughts, feelings and reaction. The most Participant in this process are as Senser, yet few of them also found in Phenomenon in the case of passive form. Meanwhile, the textual Theme is dominated mainly by Adjunct Conjunctive. In abstract writing, usually it requires steps and actions as well as clarifies and states a condition. In most cases, the steps and actions are conducted by the same Participant. Thus, Adjunct Conjunctive is added to correlate the clause with its subordinates. Theme Equivalence and Theme Shift The Theme equivalence is achieved when the Theme of Source Text (ST) is translated into the same Theme type and grammatical function of Target Text (TT) clause. Meanwhile, theme shift occurred when the Theme of ST is different from Theme in TT, in a way that they are not in the same type and grammatical functions. Example: 5A. Akan tetapi program akselerasi di SMPN 3 Pati ini banyak menyita waktu anak untuk kegiatan belajar Akan tetapi program akselerasi di SMPN 3 Pati ini banyak menyita waktu anak untuk kegiatan belajar Adj. conj Actor Pr: material Goal Textual Topical RHEME THEME 5B. However, the acceleration program in State Junior High School 3 of Pati requires the students to spend a lot of time to study, However the acceleration program in State Junior High School 3 of Pati requires the students to spend a lot of time to study, LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 39 Adj. conj Actor Pr: material Goal Textual Topical RHEME THEME (Taken from abstract 9) As seen in the above example, Theme in clause 5A consists of textual Theme in adjunct conjunctive grammatical function, and actor as the topical Theme. These Themes do not receive any change when they are translated into clause 5B. So, they Theme remain in the same type and grammatical functions. The process involved in the Rheme position is also the same that is material process. Further, we can say that the thematic equivalence is achieved in clause 5A and its corresponding clause (5B). 19A. (2) manajemen bermain anak kelas akselerasi SMPN 3 Pati dilakukan hanya pada waktu liburan ,vaktu senggang dikarenakan untuk setiap harinya mereka banyak menghabiskan waktu untuk belajar dan hampir tidak mempunyai waktu untuk bermain. manajemen bermain anak kelas akselerasi SMPN 3 Pati dilakukan hanya pada waktu liburan, waktu senggang. dikarenakan untuk setiap harinya mereka banyak menghabiskan waktu untuk belajar dan hampir tidak mempunyai waktu untuk bermain. Goal Pr: material Circ: time Circ: cause Topical RHEME THEME 19B. (2) The students of the acceleration program manage their playing time during their holidays or free time because every day they spend most of their time to study and do not have time to play. (Taken from abstract 9) Meanwhile in clause 19A, goal is acted as the topical Theme and the actor is not written or implied. Whereas the process involved in those clauses is material process. Clauses in ST are then transformed to active form in 19B. The processes in those three clauses remain the same. Since they are stated in active The students of the acceleration program manage their playing time during their holidays or free time. because every day they spend most of their time to study and do not have time to play. Actor Pr: material Goal Circ: extent Circ: cause Topical RHEME THEME 40 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 form, Actor is needed to be placed as topical Theme instead of Goal. Thus, we can say that there is a shift –changing Theme from actor to goal- in clause 19A to 19B. 6A. dan mengakibatkan anak merasa tidak mempunyai waktu bermain yang cukup. dan mengakibatkan anak merasa tidak mempunyai waktu bermain yang cukup. Adj. conj Pr: mental Phenomenon Textual RHEME THEME 6B. so they do not have enough time to play so they do not have enough time to play Adj. conj Token Pr: possession Value Textual Topical RHEME THEME (Taken from abstract 9) 9A. bahwa secara simultan pengelolaan laboratorium dan kompetensi laboran berpengaruh signifikan terhadap kualitas pelayanan laboratorium, bahwa secara simultan pengelolaan laboratorium dan kompetensi laboran berpengaruh signifikan terhadap kualitas pelayanan laboratorium, Adj. conj Circ: manner Senser Pr: mental Circ: manner Circ: location Textual Topical Topical RHEME THEME 9B. that the management of laboratories and laboratory assistant competence influence simultaneously on the quality of laboratory services, that the management of laboratories and laboratory assistant competence influence simultaneously on the quality of laboratory services Adj. conj Senser Pr: mental Circ: manner Circ: location Textual Topical RHEME THEME (Taken from abstract 5) LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 41 In the above example, Clause 6A has only one Theme, namely textual Theme. But when it is translated into clause 6B, one more Theme is added in order to make the clause more acceptable in TT, since in English, all clauses should have a subject. Thus, the additional Theme “they” as Token is functioned as a subject or topical Theme. On the other hand, clause 9A owns three Themes as adjunct conjunctive, circumstance of manner and senser. But in its translated clause (9B) the Theme decrease into two, functions as adjunct conjunctive and senser while circumstance of manner is moved to the Rheme position. In other word, we can say that it is deleted from the Theme position. Table 2.1: The Theme Equivalence and Theme Shifts Distribution Abstract Non-shifted Theme Shifted Theme Additional Theme Deletion of Theme 1 27 3 4 - 2 10 5 6 - 3 16 4 2 - 4 27 - 7 - 5 17 1 2 1 6 16 2 2 1 7 31 3 3 2 8 19 1 7 1 9 20 10 5 2 10 22 5 5 3 Total 205 34 43 10 Percentage 70.2 % 11.7 % 14.7 % 3.4 % The table above shows that the theme equivalence, in this case is represented by the number of non-shifted theme is recorded more frequent than the theme shift. It is at 70.2%. Meanwhile, the theme shift found in the translation can be divided into three processes, namely (1) shift by changing the grammatical function within the Theme (shifted Theme), (2) shift by adding one or more Themes, and (3) shift by deleting one or more Themes in the translated texts. There are 34 or 11.7% non-shifted Themes, 43 or 14.7% additional Theme and 10 Themes were deleted (3.4%). Considering shift happens to the translated abstracts, it can be seen that the meaning equivalence as the goal of the translator is still achieved. Shifts happened to the translated abstracts are mostly caused by the different grammatical form of the target language text. The notion of equivalence and shift is undoubtedly one of the most problematic and controversial areas in the field of translation theory. This study is aimed at 42 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 analyzing the Theme equivalence and Theme shift in the Indonesia-English translation of thesis‟ abstracts. As we know that equivalence and shifts in translation have a very board definition. Thus, this study is expected to give insight on the concept of equivalence and shifts in translation study. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion Based on the finding of the analysis, there are two types of Theme found: topical or ideational Theme and textual Theme. Interpersonal Theme was not found either in Source Text (ST) or Target Text (TT). Topical theme dominates the entire texts at 80.16% (198 out of 247) in ST and 79.56% (222 out of 279) in TT. Most topical themes are in participants, followed by circumstance and process grammatical function. As participant grammatical function, most common topical themes are carrier, actor, goal and senser. In TT, the process and circumstance shares the second common topical theme after participant grammatical function that dominates the text. The textual theme in both texts is adjunct conjunctive functions that correlates clause with the same theme sense. Most clauses are in material and relational process. As the process is mostly in actions and events, it needs participants to conduct such intended actions and events. Theme equivalence is recorded more frequent than the theme shift. It is at 70.2%. The Theme equivalence occurred when themes in ST are translated into the same Theme types (topical, interpersonal or textual) and in the same grammatical functions –participant, process, and circumstances- in TT. On the other hand, the theme shift found in the abstract translation can be divided into three processes: (1) shift by changing the grammatical function of the theme, (2) shift by adding one or more themes, and (3) shift by deleting one or more themes in the translated texts. There are 34 Themes or 11.7% were changed into different type and grammatical function, 43 Themes or 14.7% were considered as additional Theme and 10 Themes were deleted (3.4%). Suggestion Theoretically, linguistics researchers, English learner and translator especially in higher education are expected to conduct further study and may use the findings of this research as their supported reference to analyze another dimension of translation equivalence or shifts which may occur in a translated work which can present a wider perspective on the analysis. Practically, for translator, it is mostly recommended it is necessary for a translator for having complete mastery over the grammatical structure of both the Source Language (SL) and Target Language (TL), and also being aware of the notions and application of translation shifts and equivalence. Pedagogically, as noted previously, the LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VII/1 October 2012 43 shifts in translation is an unavoidable matter in translating. Consequently a translator should always pay attention to such shifts in order not to change the meaning. 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