Translating Conceptual Metaphor from English into Indonesian: a case study of translating economics textbooks

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the application of conceptual metaphors in economics textbooks and what translation strategies translators employ in order to cope with the problems of translating those categories of conceptual metaphors and/or types of metaphors from English into Indonesian. Investigation is based on: (1) a cognitive approach, (2) a corpus-based approach, (3) a comparative model and (4) a theory of translation strategies. The research is conducted on the basis of a qualitative method, particularly a textual analysis in the form of a case study. An analysis of translation as a product is done on the basis of a parallel corpus (data) taken from three English textbooks on economics (the source text subcorpus) and their translations into Indonesian (the target text subcorpus) translated by three translators and published respectively by three local publishers. The use of metaphorical/linguistic expressions in the study corpus is identified by using WordSmith Tools version 5.0. Two research findings are as follows: (1) nineteen types of metaphors are found in the source text subcorpus representing the three categories of conceptual metaphors: eleven types of structural metaphors, seven types of ontological metaphors and one type of orientational metaphor; the frequencies reflect the source text writers’ preference for explaining those economic concepts, theories, arguments and realities; (2) in order to deal with the problems of translating conceptual metaphors, translators use three major translation methods (i.e. literal translation, faithful translation and semantic translation) based on a number of metaphor translation procedures and translation techniques identified. This translation phenomenon indicates that they adopt the ideology of foreignizing strategy when translating conceptual metaphors in economics textbook from English into Indonesian. These findings to some extent are closely linked to other research findings in translation studies in the sense that the translation of economics textbooks as one type of specific text (genre) with an informative function also tends to maintain the characteristics, forms and meanings of the source language in the target text, rather than the target language. This phenomenon again reveals the three translation methods and the translation ideology adopted (i.e. foreignisation). However, the communicative method and the ideology of domesticating strategy (domestication) which gives more emphasis on the target language are also adopted by the translators. In other words, the translators seem to be quite open to the two binary ideologies of translation. To sum up, this research strongly supports other relevant research concerning the theory of conceptual metaphor (cognitive approaches) and the theory of translation strategies which consists of ideology of translation, translation methods, translation procedures and translation techniques.