A Translation Study on Speech Acts Violating Politeness Maxim in Gerald’s Game Novel

Abstract

This study focuses on how the speech acts violating politeness maxim in a novel titled Gerald’s Game are translated from English into Bahasa Indonesia. Therefore, this study has three main objectives: (1) to find out the types of speech act which could accommodate the violation of politeness maxim, (2) to find out the translation techniques used to translate the speech acts (3) to find out the impact of the translation technique toward the shift in the speech acts. This study adopted a descriptive qualitative method. The data are limited to speech acts violating politeness maxim from the English and Bahasa Indonesia version of Gerald's Game novel. The compiled data will be validated through Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and analyzed using the document analysis technique. All data will be categorized based on the type of illocutionary point, and then the translation technique will be analyzed. This study shows that there are 4 types of speech acts violating the politeness maxim: assertive, directive, expressive, and commissive. There are 16 different translation techniques used to translate the speech acts violating the politeness maxim. Among the translation technique, the application of the reduction technique causes a shift in the illocutionary point. The speech act is shifted from an expressive type into an assertive type. More considerations are needed before using the reduction technique to translate speech acts violating the politeness maxim.