The Translation of English Politeness Marker in Giving Invitation into Indonesian: Does It Influence the Illocution?

Abstract

The utterance of invitation is sometimes used to show a polite attitude to others. However it is rarely attracted linguists’ attention compared to other type utterances. Politeness strategies in invitation are not only appear in real conversation but also in literary works. In the translation of politeness markers, translators are influence with the cultural situation. Thus it raises a question how translators deal with politeness marker in giving invitation for intercultural context. This paper aims at investigating the translation of politeness markers in giving invitation used by the main characters in the novel Deception Point written in English by Dan Brown. Data were the utterances of invitation made by main characters in the novel Deception Point as source text and its two Indonesian translation versions as target texts. Data were taken by document analysis and focus group discussion in classifying the translation techniques. Then, data were analyzed by using speech act theory and felicity condition. The result show that 1) there are only four main characters who give invitation due to the felicity conditions of invitation, 2) bald on record, positive, and negative politeness strategies are used by the characters in mitigating the invitation utterances, 3) there are some changes in the illocution in translation caused by the implementation of translation technique to the politeness marker. It is suggested to use established equivalence technique in translating politeness marker to build mutual understanding and avoid modulation since it may change the illocution of the utterances.