AN ANALYSIS OF THE CULTURALLY-BOUND EXPRESSIONS IN THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION VERSION OF AHMAD TOHARI’S

Abstract:This study aims at identifying the culturally-bound expressions in the English translation version of Ahmad Tohari’s Ronggeng Dukuh Parukin terms of techniques to translate the culturally-bound expressions and their meaning equivalence.This study uses a qualitative approach. The objects of this study are culturally-bound expressions in the form of words, phrases and clauses. The researcher becomes the primary instrument of this study. The secondary instrument is data sheets. In translating the culturally-bound expressions, the translator uses five techniques to solve the cultural gap between the source and target languages. The techniques can bridge the cultural gap. The untranslatable expression is one of the problems in translation process. Because of the untranslatable expressions, the translator cannot find the appropriate equivalent terms. As the consequence, the author’s message is not fully transferred and target reader cannot accept it completely. One of the untranslatable expressions is culturally bound-expression. Newmark (1998: 94) divides cultural language into two i.e. universal and personal languages. The words die, live, star, swim, mirror and table are universal language. Meanwhile, the words monsoon, steppe, dacha, and tagliatelle are cultural words. There will be a problem in translating cultural words due to the cultural gap or distance between the source and target languages. Further, Newmark (1998: 95) says that most cultural words are easy to detect, since they are associated with a particular language and cannot be literally translated where literal translation would distort the meaning. From Newmark’s explanation it is clear that cultural word is a word in particular language that brings cultural value which does not exist or differ from other languages. When a cultural word is translated, it is possible that the cultural value will change. Furthermore, Baker (1992: 21) provides another term to mention cultural words. She uses culture-specific concept instead of cultural word. It is explained that the source language word may express a concept which is totally unknown i