An Annotated Translation of Idioms in The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy, The Chisholm Trail, 1871 by Walter Dean Myers

Abstract

The purposes of this study are to find the suitable strategy to translate idioms in the novel The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy, the Chisholm Trail, 1871 and to explain why the translator used those strategies. The strategy used in this research is the strategy of translating idioms by Mona Baker, i,e (1) using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form and (2) translation by paraphrase. Idiom is an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements. Idioms often become a problem for translator when translating text from source language to target language. In this research, the translator found ten idioms. From the data of idioms that have been translated and analyzed, the translator mostly using strategy of translating idiom by paraphrase, this is the very common way to translate idioms when there is no counterpart in target language. This study is able to provide more references on difficulty on translating idioms and strategies to translate it in order to give further information for someone who look for the same research.