Translation Shift, Grammatical
Correspondence and Modulation as Basic
Procedures
Translation shift a concept that dealt with the work
of Catford (1965). Larson (1984) called mismatch
of structure. Newmark (1988) concept of
transposition. Modulation is used for the change of
meaning which occur in translation.
There are three points in translation shift:
1. Formal Correspondence
2. Translation Shift
3. Modulation of Meaning
Formal Correspondence
Formal correspondence is any grammatical category in
the TL which can be said to occupy the same position in
the system of the target language (TL) as the given
source language category in the SL system. Halliday
(1985) recognizes five units which constitute ranks in
English:
1. Sentence
2. Clause
3. Group or Phrase
4. Word
5. Morpheme
I have gone to the market
I have gone to the market and bought some
apples.
The big house
House
Beautiful
In English, a predicate is always realized in a
sentence as a verb or a verbal group, as in “My
father is a teacher”. However, for this kind of
sentence in Indonesian, the predicate would be
realized as a noun, as in “Ayah saya guru”, where
guru ‘teacher’ is the predicate.
One-to-one Correspondence is found particularly
for concrete noun such as, “book”, “tree”, “sky”,
would correspondence to the words “buku”,
“pohon”, “langit” in Indonesian.
Translation Shift
When we translate a word into phrase, we can see that
the shift occurs because there is no correspondence
for the word “adept” in Indonesian, is translated into
phrase ‘sangat terampil’ (very skillful).
Catford (1965) categorizes shifts into :
level shift and category shift.
Level shift means a shift from grammar to lexis
(Catford, 1965:73). In case, a grammatical unit (e.g.
noun, affixes, etc) in English has a lexical unit in
Indonesian as its translation equivalent.
1. John has gone shopping
John sudah pergi berbelanja
2. Nenekpun makan apel
Even grandmother ate that apple
When a word in English is translated into Indonesian
and there is no correspondence of form between SL
and TL is called category shift.
Within the group of “category shift” there are:
1. Structure shift  the blue scarf is expensive
2. Class-shift medical student
3. Unit-shift Pink
4. Intra-system shift  a pair of trousers
Modulation of Meaning
Newmark (1978:89) stated that modulation of meaning is
useful for analyzing perspective and nuances of meaning
in translation, and it is used when the the TL rejects
literal translation.
1. Negated contrary
2. Part for the whole
3. Active for passive
4. Free modulation
Word Classes and Its Identifications
The girl and the boy are good friends, but they have
different hobbies.
How can you be so indifferent to the suffering of the
children?
I wonder why he always comes late to work.
The late president was honored for his struggle against
apartheid.
He was late to the concert last night.
Lately, the performance of the company has improved.
He always works hard.
He is a hard worker.
The man can hardly read without spectacles.
Her face was white and clean.
He will face the challenge with great care.
The people argued about the increased tax.
The increase in the number of students is expected
to double next year.
The quality of the products has gradually increased.
She closes her eyes as he kisses her cheeks
Jame’s office is close to the town hall.
The airport occupies a lot of space.
The satellite will be launched to orbit in outer
space for ten years.
He took a bucket from the well.
She hasn’t been well lately.