Battle of mechanics has become second nature for a lot of gamers. Those who can fully exploit the game mechanics are the ones likely to become top global. However, the ability to use mechanics is not only important in gaming, but also in many other things, including translation.
Before we continue, it is important to note that in Indonesian gamer lingo, the word ‘mechanics’ is often called ‘mekanik’ – as in the Indonesian gaming jargon ‘adu mekanik’ (battle of mechanics).
The problem is, and this is what most Indonesian do not realize, based on the Great Indonesian Dictionary (Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia/KBBI), the word ‘mekanik’ means ‘ahli mesin’ or ‘an expert of machinery’ as in a person who repairs and maintains machinery. In short, lots of Indonesian confuse the word ‘mekanik’ as the equivalent of ‘mechanics’ while actually in Indonesian it is the equivalent of ‘mechanic’.
So, what is the correct equivalent? The more precise one should be ‘mekanika’ which means ‘the knowledge or science of machinery’. Thus, in the context of games, the correct term should be ‘adu mekanika’, battling by using the knowledge about how the game works. While in the context of translation, what should be considered is mekanika bahasa or language mechanics, something that deals with how language works.
American Translators Association (ATA) sees language mechanics ability as one of the essential indicators to decide whether a translator making a mistake or not. In other words, language mechanics is used to assessing a translation result.
Language mechanics refers to the conformity of the translation to the target language (TL) style guide. Error in TL mechanics occurs when the translator clearly violates the rules that determine the “correctness” of writing in TL (ATA, 2021).
Language mechanics is not the ability to retain ideas in the source language (SL) or good writing skills, but a skill focusing on writing sentences, paragraphs, and entire texts, including punctuation.
ATA proposes at least 7 categories of errors to assess a translation’s language mechanics, which are (1) grammar, (2) syntax, (3) word form/part of speech, (4) spelling/character, (5) capitalization, (6) diacritical mark/accent, and (7) punctuation.
At first glance, we can see that almost all of these categories of mechanical errors are closely related to Indonesian grammar and the language rules in Ejaan yang Disempurnakan (EYD) that apply to the Indonesian language. Therefore, we need to review the appropriate use of these 7 categories to assess English to Indonesian translation.
1. Grammar
Grammar is often called morphosyntax, a combination of morphology and syntax. Despite the broad scope of morphosyntax, the ATA focuses the grammatical category on subject-verb agreement and inflection. Below is an example of a translation included in the category of grammatical errors.
EN : The complexity of the problem arose from the lack of the system’s flexibility.
ID : Kompleksitas masalah yang timbul dari sistem yang kurang fleksibel.*
Kompleksitas masalah timbul dari sistem yang kurang fleksibel.
The asterisked Indonesian translation above is incorrect because it is not a sentence. It only contains a noun phrase that has the potential to be the subject, but there is not any predicate existed. Compare it with the correct translation example below it which has a predicate of ‘timbul’.
2. Syntax
Syntax is an area of grammar dealing with the arrangement of words, including their inflection, showing the interrelation of meanings in a sentence (Matthews, 1981). In line with it, the syntax is treated as a subcategory of grammar in the ATA translation scoring framework.
This category includes the change of structure, parallelism, word order, and run-on structure. An example of English-to-Indonesian translation related to this category is presented below.
EN : It is an enjoyable and supportive work environment.
ID : Lingkungan kerja di tempat itu menyenangkan dan suportif.*
Lingkungan kerja di tempat itu menyenangkan dan saling mendukung.
The asterisked translation above is incorrect because it does not conform to parallelism. The word ‘menyenangkan’ is a verb, while ‘suportif’ is an adjective. To be parallel, the meanings of both words need to be written in a word with a similar part of speech. The correct translation would be ‘menyenangkan dan saling mendukung’ since ‘menyenangkan’ and ‘mendukung’ are both verb.
3. Word Form or Part of Speech
Word forms are word variations derived from the same root word, while part of speech is a class of words sharing similar formal behavior. Thus, both are related to inflection and derivation.
Inflection is a word change but maintains the same part of speech, while derivation is a word change resulting in a different part of speech. In Indonesian, both are closely linked to the proper use of affixes. Here are examples of inflection and derivation.
Inflection:
un- + popular (adj.) = unpopular (adj.)
Derivation:
popular (adj.) + -ity = popularity (noun)
However, inflection and derivation are correlated with morphology and syntax so it is natural that the ATA places them in the subcategory of grammar.
Error in word form or part of speech category occurs when there is a translated word that has an equivalent base word, but its word form or part of speech is incorrect. Word form or part of speech error in translating English to Indonesian can be found in the following example.
EN : The anarchist movement may be viewed as a mean for social change.
ID : Gerakan anarkis tersebut mungkin dilihat sebagai sarana perubahan sosial.*
Gerakan anarkistis tersebut mungkin dianggap sebagai sarana perubahan sosial.
The asterisked translation is incorrect because the word ‘anarchist’ is translated to ‘anarkis’. The word ‘anarchist’ (adjective) means ‘related to anarchy’, while ‘anarkis’ (noun) means ‘a person who commits anarchy’. Therefore, the correct translation should be ‘anarkistis’ (adjective).
4.Spelling or Characters for Non-Alphabetic Languages
Spelling is associated with the letter of a word. The spelling correctness depends on some factors, such as style guide, standardization, and consistency.
On the other hand, there is a category of characters of the letter for languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, such as Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, Myanmar, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Hindi, Tamil, Russia, Ukraine, Arabic, etc.
Furthermore, the ATA explains that in some cases, errors in this category can be shifted to capitalization and diacritical marks categories since they are more detailed. An example of a spelling error in translation is as follows.
EN : The intensity of rainfall affects the water level of that dam.
ID : Intensitas curah hujan mempengaruhi tinggi air di bendungan itu.*
Intensitas curah hujan memengaruhi ketinggian air di bendungan tersebut.
The asterisked translation above is incorrect since there is a word with non-standard spelling. Attention to standardization needs to be emphasized in the word ‘mempengaruhi’.
The word ‘mempengaruhi’ comes from a base word ‘pengaruh’ with ‘me-’ as a prefix. In most cases, there is an ellipsis of the initial letter of ‘p’ in a base word when it has ‘me-’ as the prefix and that prefix can change into its allomorph. In this case, the base word ‘pengaruh’ gets the prefix ‘me-’ and then becomes ‘memengaruhi’. Thus, the correct spelling is ‘memengaruhi’, not ‘mempengaruhi’.
5. Capitalization
As the name suggests, the capitalization category is concerned with the proper writing of capital letters. Proper capitalization certainly adapts to the rules in the TL. Below are examples of capitalization errors in translation.
EN : She asked you to come to the meeting this afternoon.
ID : Ia menyuruh anda hadir di rapat itu siang nanti.*
Ia menyuruh Anda hadir di rapat itu siang nanti.
The asterisked translation is incorrect due to the presence of the word ‘anda’ with a lowercase initial letter. According to the fifth edition of Ejaan Indonesia yang Disempurnakan (EYD V), the word ‘Anda’ has to be written with a capital initial letter.
6. Diacritical Marks or Accents
Diacritical marks or accents are marks located above or below letters or characters that usually serve to mark emphasis, tone, or accent. This kind of mark is not used in Indonesian. Examples of languages that use these marks are Javanese, Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Swedish, etc.
7. Punctuation
Punctuation is a sign used to separate elements or explain meaning in a writing. Furthermore, ATA explains that improper paragraph writing can also be included in this category. In addition, if the punctuation creates ambiguity or a shift in meaning, the error does not fall under this category and does not even belong to mechanical ability, but to meaning transfer ability.
An example of punctuation error in English to Indonesian translation is as follows.
EN : I submitted the assignment near the deadline while my friends submitted it two days ago.
ID : Saya mengumpulkan tugas itu saat hampir tenggat waktu sedangkan teman saya mengumpulkannya dua hari lalu.*
Saya mengumpulkan tugas itu saat hampir tenggat waktu, sedangkan teman saya mengumpulkannya dua hari lalu.
The asterisked translation is incorrect because there is not any comma (,) before the word ‘sedangkan’. According to EYD V, a comma needs to appear before the conjunction ‘sedangkan’ which shows a meaning of opposition.
From the above explanation, there are at least 6 categories that can be used as references in evaluating English to Indonesian translation, which are grammar, syntax, word form/part of speech, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
One thing to bear in mind is that those categories only consider the mechanics of language. There are still 2 other aspects, the meaning transfer and writing aspects, which have their own categories.
References:
American Translation Association. 2021. Explanation of Error Categories. accessed from
https://www.atanet.org/certification/how-the-exam-is-graded/error-categories/
https://ejaan.kemdikbud.go.id/eyd/penggunaan-huruf/huruf-kapital/
https://ejaan.kemdikbud.go.id/eyd/penggunaan-tanda-baca/tanda-koma/
https://kbbi.kemdikbud.go.id/entri/mekanik
https://kbbi.kemdikbud.go.id/entri/mekanika
Matthews, P. H. 1981. Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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