STRATEGIES AND EQUIVALENCE OF WORDPLAY TRANSLATIONS OF ROALD DAHL’S CHILDREN BOOKS

Abstract

This study focuses on the strategies and equivalence of wordplay translations of Roald Dahl’s books for children into Indonesian. The data were collected from the English and Indonesian versions of seven Dahl’s books using observation method with note taking technique. 203 instances of wordplay were found and then were classified based on Delabastita’s (1993) typology of wordplay and translation strategies. Three key informants were asked to rate the degree of translation equivalence as the secondary data for analysis support. The result shows that there are nine wordplay types found in Dahl’s books with wordplays based on morphological structure are in the highest rank (31.53%). It is closely followed by alliteration (30.54%), homonymy (11.33%), misuse of idiom/expression (10.84%), paronymy (5.92%), spoonerism (4.43%), homophony and polysemy (2.46%), and wordplay based on syntactical ambiguity (0.49%). It was also found that wordplays in Dahl’s books for children serve two functions: to produce humorous effect and break taboo. The translation strategy which was mostly used is wordplay to non-wordplay strategy (35.46%). 37.44% of wordplay instances were successfully translated into Indonesian with the same meaning and function as in the source text. In 46.30% of wordplay instances, the translators chose to preserve either the meaning or the function only. Meanwhile 14.29% of wordplays are not equivalent both in meaning and function. 1.97% of wordplays were not translated or simply omitted by the translators. Key words: translation, wordplay, translation strategies, equivalence