REMODELLING LINGUISTIC RULES FOR ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT TRANSLATION: A REVIEW OF FORMAL CORRESPONDENCE AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE WEDHATAMA TRANSLATION = REMODELLING LINGUISTIC RULES FOR ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT TRANSLATION: A REVIEW OF FORMAL CORRESPONDENCE AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE WEDHATAMA TRANSLATION

The linguistic theory provides a basis for translation practice, especially in determining formal equivalence. In several discussions, Catford’s linguistic theory has been highlighted in the reflection of the unit, class, intra-system, and structural shifts. However, the discussion regarding the shortcomings of his theory and its impacts on certain textual materials is rarely found.
This article discusses the potential revisitation of Catford’s linguistic theory based on the translation product of an ancient cultural manuscript. A descriptive approach is deployed to analyze the impacts of the theory in three scopes, including the equivalence quantification, co-occurrence of translation and transference, and extension to morphemic shifts. Objective data were collected through the extraction of a Javanese literary textual resource, Serat Wedhatama, which was composed by KGPAA Mangkunegara IV in the 1870s and was translated into English by Stuart Robson in 1990. The inclusion of Serat Wedhatama represents an attempt to promote the ethnic language understood well by the researcher as the data source. It is concluded that formal correspondence should not be merely perceived within the same textual disposition in generating textual equivalence, but rather be adjusted to the respective languages’ features.
An extensive finding provides a remodelling attempt, asserting that category shifts of translation can also occur asymmetrically between categories, such as unit-to-structure shifts that divert the arrangement of phrases in the source text into the arrangement of sentences in the target text due to the absence of equivalent expressions, semantic alteration, and aesthetics modification. The study suggests calling for more research on the development of linguistic theories of translation by elucidating cross-cultural understanding based on the structural variations of the two languages.

Keywords : cultural translation; formal correspondence; morphemic shift; transference; translation equivalence