This document presents the thesis proposal of Erna Olofiana Girsang, which examines non-equivalence at the word level when translating the Discovery of North Sumatera Guidebook from Bahasa Indonesia to English. The study aims to identify what types of non-equivalence are found, which types dominate, and why. It discusses relevant translation theories, strategies for dealing with non-equivalence, and previous related research. The study will use content analysis to examine the translations between the source and target languages in the guidebook.

1. Non Equivalence at word level in translating the
Discovery of North Sumatera Guidebook from Bahasa
Indonesia into English
Thesis Proposal
by:
Erna Olofiana Girsang
809112027 / LTBI-B

2. CHAPTER I
1.1 Background of the Study
Language
communic
ation
Guidebook Translation
products
Non Equivalence
translation between
Source Language and
Target language

3. An example of the non equivalence
translation in the guidebook
In the source language, it is written :
“Propinsi Sumatera Utara berada di bagian Barat
Indonesia, terletak pada 1⁰ - 4⁰ LU dan 98⁰ - 100⁰ BT,
sangat strategis dan berada pada jalur pelayaran
Internasional Selat Malaka yang dekat dengan
Singapura, Malaysia dan Thailand.”
In the target language, it is written :
“North Sumatera is located at 1⁰ - 4⁰ North Latitude
and 98⁰ - 100⁰ East Longitude, strategically stretched
along the International Shipping Line of the Malacca
Strait which is close to Singapore, Malaysia and
Thailand.”

4. Translation
Nida (1984) states
that translation consists of
reproducing in the receptor
language the closest natural
equivalent of the source
language message, first in
terms of meaning and
secondly in terms of style
Newmark (1981)
states that translation is a
craft consisting in the attempt
to replace a written message
and or/statement in one
language by the same
message in another language.
Larson (1984) states
that in translating a text, a
translator should reproduce it
which communicates the
same message as the source
language but using the natural
grammatical and lexical
choices of the target language

5. Research Problem
1
• What types of non equivalence at word level
are found in the Discovery of North
Sumatera Guidebook?
2
• What types of non equivalence at word level
are found dominantly in the Discovery of
North Sumatera Guidebook?
3
• Why does the types of non equivalence at
word level occur dominantly in the Discovery
of North Sumatera Guidebook?

6. The Objectives of the study
To find out the
types of non
equivalence at
word level in the
Discovery of
North Sumatera
Guidebook
To find out the
types of non
equivalence at
word level are
dominant in the
Discovery of
North Sumatera
Guidebook
To elaborate the
types of non
equivalence at
word level
which occur
dominantly in
the Discovery of
North Sumatera
Guidebook

7. The scope of the study
Equivalence
at word
level
Pragmatic
equivalence
Grammatical
equivalence
Textual
equivalence
Equivalence
above word
level

8. The
significance of
the study
Theoretically
Enrich the theories of
translation studies
Become a guideline to
overcome the non
equivalence problems
in translation
Practically
Be useful to be a
reference for further
research and tourism
department

9. CHAPTER II
Nita and Taber (1982) state that
translating consists in
reproducing in the receptor
language the closest natural
equivalent of the source language
message
Larson (1998) states that there
are two kinds of translation
namely literal translation and
idiomatic translation
Vinay and Darbelnet state that
there are two methods of
translating namely direct or
literal translation and obligue
translation
Hatim and Munday (2004)
define translation as the
process of transferring a
written text from source
language to target language
Newmark (1988) states
defines translation as
rendering the meaning
of a text into another
languge in the way that
the author intended the
text

10. According to Nida (1986: 60)
“There are no two stone alike, no flowers the same, and no two
people who are identical. Although the structures of the DNA in
the nucleus of their cells may be the same, such persons
nevertheless differ as the result of certain developmental factors.
No two sounds are exactly alike, and even the same person
pronouncing the words will never utter it in an absolutely
identical manner.”

11. Translation equivalence
Theory of
equivalence
Vinay and Darbelnet (2001)
state that equivalence refers
to cases where languages
describe the same situation
by different stylistic or
structural means
Nida and Taber (1982)
say that there are two
different types of
equivalencen namely
formal and dynamic
equivalence
Baker (1992) states that
there are five types of
equivalence namely
equivalence at word level,
above level, textual,
grammatical and
pragmatic equivalence

12. Non Equivalence at word level
Non equivalence at word level means
:
The target language has no direct
equivalence for a word which
occurs in the source text.

13. Common problems of non equivalence
in line with Mona Baker’s theory
1. Culture specific concepts :
The source language word may express a
concept which is totally unknown in the target
language
2. The source language concept is not lexicalized
in the target language
3. The source language word is semantically
complex

14. 4. The source and the target languages make
different distinctions in meaning
5. The target language lacks a superordinate
6. The target language lacks a specific term
7. Differences in physical or interpersonal
perspective
8. Differences in expressive meaning
9. Differences in expressive form
10.Differences in frequency and purpose of using
specific forms
11.The use of loan words in the source text

15. The strategies to tackle the non equivalence
problems according to Baker
1. Translation by a more general word
2. Translation by a more neutral expressive word
3. Translation by cultural substitution
4. Translation using a loan word
5. Translation by paraphrase using a related word
6. Translation by paraphrase using unrelated words
7. Translation by omission
8. Translation by illustration

16. Previous research in line with
equivalence and non equivalence
1. Equivalence vs non equivalence in translating
from Arabic into English (Kashgary,2010) :
Equivalence at the word level is often
extremely difficult to achieve.
2. Equivalence vs non equivalence in economic
translation (Chifane,2012)
She focuses upon the problems arising from
the lack of equivalence at word level

17. 3. Total meaning and equivalence
(Miyanda,2007)
She states that the equivalence is one of the
procedures used in translation
4. Equivalence in Translation (Yinhua,2011)
He states that the equivalence in translation
can only be understood as a kind of similarity
or approzimation

18. Chapter III
Research Design :
This study will use the content analysis as a
research method for the subjective
interpretation of the content of text data
through classification process of coding and
identifying themes of patterns
(Hsieh and Shannon, 2005)

19. Data and Source Data
• The data will be analyzed from the translation
products between source language and target
language in the guidebook
• The guidebook was published in 2011 and
used in three languages namely Indonesian,
English and Mandarin

20. Techique of collecting and analyzing
data
1. Doing a library reasearch
2. Data reduction to select the data which are
non equivalence
3. Editing
4. Selecting
5. Resuming
6. Data display