The Syntax Analysis Of Interrogative Sentence In Indonesian And English

Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008

THE SYNTAX ANALYSIS OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE IN INDONESIAN AND ENGLISH VERSION OF HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

By: Ari Natarina, S.Pd

Translation Studies Linguistics Department Udayana University 2008

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Translation typically has been used to transfer written or spoken SL texts to equivalent written or spoken TL texts. In general, the purpose of translation is to reproduce various kinds of texts—including religious, literary, scientific, and philosophical texts—in another language. Therefore, the texts would be available to wider readers. It is well known that linguistic variation and diversity are the very nature of human language. If language were just a classification for a set of general or universal concepts, it would be easy to translate from an SL to a TL. The concepts of one language may differ radically from the other is true, since each language articulates or organizes their words differently. One of the troublesome problems of translation is the disparity among languages. The bigger the gap between the SL and the TL, the more difficult it will be to transfer the message from the SL to the TL. The degree of variation allowed by the human linguistic capacity can only be understood through the comparison of different grammatical systems. The study of the syntactic diversity offered by dialects of a language helps us to better understand the limits of variation in the structuring of sentences. It is for this reason that the study of variation is necessary. In the framework of transformational-generative grammar (of which government and binding theory and minimalism are recent developments), the structure of a sentence is represented by phrase structure trees, otherwise known as phrase markers or tree diagrams. Such trees provide information about the sentences they represent by showing the hierarchical relations between their component parts. This paper is focused on explicating the grammatical structure of interrogative sentences in English and compared it with the interrogative grammatical structure of Indonesian language. The data are taken from chapter I and II of an English novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is written by J.K.Rowling. The data that is being taken is the interrogative sentences; both direct and indirect speech. It is then analyzed semantically and syntactically by using tree diagrams.

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW 2.1 Theory of Translation There are several definitions about translation. According to Bell (1991) “Translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language.” Further, he discussed about how texts in different languages can be equivalent in different degrees. It can be fully equivalent or partially equivalent based on the different levels of presentation (in respect of context, semantics, grammar, lexis, etc.). Larson (1998) explained that translation consists of transferring the meaning of the source language into the target language. Transferring the meaning can be done by changing the form of the first language to the form of second language by way of semantic meaning. Although the form is changed, the meaning must be held constant. Nida and Taber believe that a translation should be aimed at reproducing the message instead of the similarity between the source language and the target language messages. Although there are so many differences in the ways the translation expert define the word “translation”, they agreed on the basic principles which focus on meaning as the most important consideration. Larson (1998) described a translation continuum ranging from very literal, to literal, to modified literal, to near idiomatic, to idiomatic, and then to unduly free. If a text is translated word-per-word the result will be literal. Whereas a translated text can be called idiomatic if it considers the context of the text and the culture of the source language and the target language, not only focusing on the dictionary meaning of the words, during the translation process. Unduly free translation occurs when the translator modify the text too much, without regarding the structure of the source language text. The mapping of a translation continuum can be seen below.

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 very literal

literal

Modified literal

Inconsistent mixture

Near idiomatic

Idiomatic

Unduly free

Figure 1. Translation continuum The structure of sentence plays an important role in translation. The source language might have similar or different structure with the target language. A translator should be knowledgeable with the structure of both languages in order to be able to produce an idiomatic translation; otherwise it will be resulted in an unduly free translation if he does not put the structure of sentences in both languages into consideration. Sentences can be classified into four different moods, that is the basic reason for their utterance. The types of sentence based on its mood are statements, questions, imperatives, and exclamations. Questions are sometimes said to be in the interrogative mood. There are two kinds of question, namely real question and rhetorical question. Both real and rhetorical have the same interrogative grammatical form, which consist of question mark, question words, and a rise of intonation in the last pitch. However, each serves different purpose. The purpose of a real question is to ask for information (Larson, 1998: p. 259). It requires answer. The intention of a rhetorical question is to give command or to make statement in a more polite way. An example of rhetorical question can be seen below: •

“I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you?”

(14)

Although the sentence above may look like real question, it is not a question that requires answer. It implies threat to whom the question is intended. In translation, problems usually occur in translating rhetorical question as it might be needed to be translated into another form of sentence such as imperative or statement. As for the real question, the translator could find the appropriate form of asking for the same information in the receptor language. 2.2 The Structure of Interrogative Sentences in English 2.2.1 Yes/No Questions

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 Yes/no questions are questions that can be answered simply by yes or no. To turn a core sentence into a yes/no question, you have to move a part of the main verb to the front of the sentence (Morenberg, 1997: p.97). If the main verb contains a modal, HAVE, or BE, then it should be moved to the front. If the sentence has no modal, HAVE, or BE, then DO should be added in the front of the sentence, in order to make a yes/no question. According to Morenberg (1997) the disjunction, or the movement of the modal, HAVE, or BE, does not change any functional relationship. For example: •

“Is my return, my rise to power, not the very thing they professed to desire for so many years?”

•

(17)

Does Skeeter really feel that four short weeks have been enough to gain a full picture of Dumbledore’s long and extraordinary life?(29)

If we change the sentence back into the core sentence, we can see that the subject, the predicate, the direct object, and the object complement remain in exactly the same relationship. •

My return, my rise to power, is not the very thing they professed to desire for so many years.

•

Skeeter really feels that four short weeks have been enough to gain a full picture of Dumbledore’s long and extraordinary life.

2.2.2 Wh-Questions To make a core sentence into a Wh-questions, a noun phrase has to be replaced by an interrogative pronoun (what, who, or whom) or an adverb phrase has to be replaced by an interrogative pro-adverb (when, why, how, how often). And sometimes a determiner is replaced by whose, which, or what. Generally, after a noun phrase, determiner, or adverb phrase has been replaced, the replacement should be put in the beginning of the sentence. The disjunction also requires the movement of modal, HAVE, or BE. If the core sentence does not contain auxiliary element, the auxiliary DO can be added to the sentence to make it into a Wh-question. An illustration of making interrogative sentence from core sentence can be seen below: •

You see this when you look in the mirror.

 “What do you see when you look in the mirror?” (25)

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 ‘This’ is a noun phrase, therefore it should be replaced by an interrogative pronoun ‘what’. The main verb ‘see’ does not contain auxiliary element, therefore ‘do’ must be added after the interrogative pronoun. •

The man tipped to be the Minister of Magic was content to remain a mere headmaster because of this.

 Why was the man tipped to be the Minister of Magic content to remain a mere headmaster? (26) The adverbial phrase ‘because of this’ is replaced by a pro-adverb ‘why’ because it is asking for a reason. The verb BE (was) is moved to follow the pro-adverb ‘why’. 2.3 The Structure of Interrogative Sentences in Indonesian 2.3.1 Yes/No Questions The grammatical structure of yes/no questions has no difference with the grammatical structure of statements. However, it is spoken with interrogative intonation, marked by a rise in the final pitch, and written with a final question mark (Sneddon, 1996). Sometimes, it can be made overtly interrogative by placing apa or apakah before it. The word apa and apakah in this sense do not have lexical function but it only act as a signal that what follows is a question. Therefore it can be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence. These words are called a question marker. It is different with interrogative pronoun apa. For example: -

Apa kamu bekerja? What you work? (Are you working?)

-

Kamu kerja apa? You work what? (What do you do?)

The word apa in the first sentence can be omitted, whereas in the second sentence it can not be omitted, as it will change the meaning of the sentence, because it is the object of the verb. If question marker does not occur, -kah can be attached to another word, usually the predicate center, to indicate the construction is question. The word that –kah is being attached to is usually placed first in the sentence. If the predicate centre is a phrase, for instance an adjective or locative phrase, or if the phrase contains

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 time marker, modal or negative, -kah can attach to the final word of the phrase, the whole phrase then placed in the beginning of the question. i.e. Bekerjakah kamu? Work you? (Are you working?) Sangat pintarkah dia? Really clever he? (Is he really clever?) Bukan can be also attached to a statement to turn it into a question. It corresponds to a sentence tag with BE, HAVE, or DO in English. Bukan is placed in the beginning of the sentence if –kah is being attached to it. e.g. Bukankah itu ayahmu? Isn’t that your father? or That is your father, isn’t it? 2.3.2 Specific Questions Specific questions require specific information. It contains a question word or interrogative, corresponding to one of the ‘wh-‘ words in English (Sneddon, 1996). INDONESIAN ENGLISH apa what Siapa who (di/ke/dari) mana where (at / to / from) (yang) mana which kapan when bagaimana how berapa How much/many kenapa, mengapa why Siapa and apa are interrogative pronouns. Apa can modifies a noun, meaning ‘what’. Siapa is an independent phrase if it does not follow a noun and it is a possessive, meaning ‘whose’, if it follows a noun. Both words can follow preposition and it can not be separated from a preceding preposition. Apa and siapa cannot occur as subject of a passive clause. The construction will be changed to an identifying clause where the question word, followed by yang, becomes the predicate. Mana means ‘where’ when it follows a locative preposition and it can not be separated from preposition. It means ‘which’, if it follows ‘yang’.

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 Berapa precedes a noun as an indefinite number meaning ‘how many’. It means ‘which, what’ if it follows a noun that refers to something belonging to a series in which the members are distinguished by a number. Question words of time, reason and manner usually like kapan, bagaimana, mengapa, occur first in the clause. In specific question –kah attaches to the question word, which comes first in the cluse. If the question word is part of a phrase, the whole phrase occur first, with –kah attached to the last word of the phrase. If siapa or apa occur as object of an active verb, -kah can not be attached to it, unless the question word occur first in an identifying clause.

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008

CHAPTER III THE ANALYSIS OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE STRUCTURE IN ENGLISH AND INDONESIAN The data is taken from chapter 1 and 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which is translated into Indonesian. There are 34 interrogative sentences in all (see Appendix), however only some will be analyzed. The structure of the sentence of both languages will be discussed in this chapter. It will be compared to see the similarity and difference between English and Indonesian language structure and also to figure out whether there are any lost or gain of meaning during the translation process. Some of the sentences do not have the structure of an interrogative sentence, as it is in form of informal conversation, e.g: Sentence 13. “Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?” "Kau pikir aku akan memberikan tongkatku, Lucius? Tongkatku?" The structure of this sentence in English is a statement structure, however the intonation rise at the final of the sentence which indicates a questions. It is a rhetorical question where the speaker showed his cynicism toward the hearer by asking question that does not need an answer. In Indonesian, the structure of the sentence is question structure, as the structure of a statement and question in Indonesian is similar. Other sentences have the structure of an interrogative sentence. For examples: Sentence 5. “Where are they going to hide the boy next?” "Dimana anak itu akan disembunyikan nantinya?” There is no structure difference of this sentence in both languages. The sentence can be translated literally and still make sense. The question word ‘where’ is translated into ‘di mana’. Mana is always preceded by a preposition. ‘Di’ is chosen to precede 9

Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 ‘mana’ in this sentence because it is asking about the place where the boy will be hidden at. ‘Going to’ here indicates future, therefore it is translated into the conjunction ‘akan’ which indicates future in Indonesian.

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 S NP: Subj

VP:Pred AdvManner MV

VP

BE

PrepP NP:DObj

Noun

Verb

Verb

Det

Noun Adv

going to

hide

the

boy

ARE Where are

they

next?

S NP:Subj

VP:Pred NP

NP

MV Prep N

N

Det

Conj

V:Passive

Adv.Time di mana

Di mana

anak

itu

akan

disembunyikan

nantinya?

Sentence 8. “Have I not spoken to you about keeping our prisoner quiet?” "Bukankah aku sudah menyuruhmu untuk membuat tawanan kita tetap diam?" This is a kind of rhetorical question. The speaker real intention is to give order to the hearer, not to ask for information. There is loss and gain in the process of translating this sentence into Indonesian. The word ‘bukankah’ is added to indicate that it is a negative sentence in replacement of ‘tidak’ (the equivalent of ‘not’). The word ‘bukan’ is used as a sentence tag, which is used to seek confirmation. The question

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 marker ‘apa’ is not added in this sentence because –kah is already attached to the word ‘bukan’. S NP:Subj

VP: Pred NP PP VP AdjP MV V

NP

Aux N

neg

PastPart

ProN Prep

PresPart PossP

not

spoken to

you

keeping

N

Adj

have Have I

about

our prisoners quiet?

S VP:Pred NP:DObj PP:Comp VP N

MV NP Neg

NP

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AdjP

Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 ProN Adv

V

N

Prep

V

N

PossN

Adv Adj Bukankah

Bukankah aku kita

sudah menyuruhmu untuk membuat

tetap diam?

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tahanan

Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 Sentence 20. “Will you babysit the cubs?” “Apakah kau akan merawat anaknya itu?” S NP:Subj

VP:Pred

MV:Future NP: DObj modal N

V

Det

N

babysit

the

cubs?

WILL Will

you S

NP: Subj

VP: Pred MV

QuesMarker

ProN Conj

Apakah

akan merawat

kau

NP V

N anak nya

PossP Det itu?

The word ‘will’ indicates future. In Indonesian it is translated to ‘akan’. However, in Indonesian the word ‘akan’ is part of the main verb. The word ‘will’ is replaced by question marker ‘apakah’ instead. The word ‘akan’ can actually be placed in the beginning of the sentence if ‘–kah’ is attached to it. The direct object ‘the cubs’ is translated into ‘anaknya itu’. Cub means the baby of animal from the cat family. However Indonesian

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 language does not have specific word like that. ‘Anak’ can be used to refer to any baby, either animals or human. ‘The’ is a determiner that points at a particular thing that they already know which. There is no such kind of determiner in Indonesian, therefore possessive pronoun ‘nya’ and demonstrative ‘itu’ need to be added to show which one they are talking about. Sentence 22. “Do you recognize our guest, Severus?” asked Voldemort. "Apa kau mengenali tamu kita, Severus?” tanya Voldemort. S NP:Subj

VP: Pred

MV

NP:DObj

Aux Noun

Verb

PossP Noun PropN

DO Do

you

recognize

our

guest, Severus?

S NP:Subj Question

VP:Pred MV

NP:DObj

Marker ProN Apa

kau

V

N

ProN

mengenali

tamu

kita,

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Severus?

Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 This is a yes/no question. It can be seen from the structure where DO is added in the beginning of the sentence. In the Indonesian translation, a question marker ‘apa’ is also added. The word ‘apa’ is not an interrogative pronoun because it has no lexical function and can be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence. There is no loss or gain in the meaning of the sentence as it can be translated literally.

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008 Sentence 28. How did Dumbledore really meet his end? Bagaimana Dumbledore meninggal? S NP:Subj

VP:Pred MV

PropN

Adv

NP: DObj

Aux

V

AdvManner

PossP N

DO How

did

Dumbledore really

meet

his

end?

S NP:Subj PropN Bagaimana

VP:Pred V

adv.manner

Dumbledore meninggal?

This is a specific question. There are many losses in translating this sentence as it can not be translated literally into Indonesian. The meaning of ‘meet his end’ in this sentence is death. Therefore the verb ‘meet’ which is a transitive verb and the noun phrase ‘his end’ is translated into one intransitive verb in Indonesia that is ‘meninggal’. So the sentence in Indonesian consist only the subject and the predicate, but it does not have an object.

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008

CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION Translation has always been an interesting subject to study. It requires vast knowledge in the source language and target language, either in its meaning (semantics), structure (syntax), and culture. This paper is focused on the analysis of interrogative sentence structure in English and Indonesian. From the comparative analysis done in the previous chapter about interrogative sentences in English and Indonesian, it can be seen that both languages have similarity and differences in its grammatical structure. The similarities are both languages have two types of interrogative sentence, namely yes/no questions and specific questions (wh-questions), it has rise in the final pitch, and it uses question marker. While the difference is that in Indonesian yes/no questions, the grammatical structure of an interrogative sentence is not different with the grammatical structure of a statement. Whereas in English, the modal, HAVE, or BE should be moved to the beginning of the sentence. By knowing the similarities and differences in the grammatical structure of interrogative sentences, it is hoped that an idiomatic translation can be produced.

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Ari Natarina S.Pd - Post-Graduate Study Linguistics Department Udayana University - 2008

REFERENCES Larson, M.L. (1998). Meaning-based translation: a guide to cross-language equivalence (2nd edition). Maryland: University Press of America Morenberg, Max. (1997). Doing Grammar (2nd edition). New York: Oxford University Press Sneddon, J.N. (1996). Indonesian Reference: Grammar. New South Wales: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd.

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