Translation methods in political speeches: a case study of english translation of president

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Muhammad Ersan Pamungkas, 
Translation Methods in Political Speeches
Paradigma Jurnal Kajian Budaya Vol. 10 No. 2 (2020): 132–146
© Fakultas Ilmu Pengetahuan Budaya, Universitas Indonesia
TRANSLATION METHODS IN POLITICAL SPEECHES:
A CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF PRESIDENT 
JOKO WIDODO’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS
Muhammad Ersan Pamungkas
Sekretariat Kabinet RI; [e-mail]
DOI: DOI: 10.17510/paradigma.v10i2.289
ABSTRACT
Translating political speeches poses its own challenges and difficulties, with one of the 
reasons being the fact that political speeches have their own unique features. Translation 
of political speech is also arguably still underresearched in translation studies. It is for 
this reason that this paper seeks to investigate translation method(s) that can be used 
to translate political speeches. The data source of this paper is the English translation 
of an inaugural address of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo produced by a professional 
Australian translator. The speech was translated from Indonesian as the source 
language (SL) to English as the target language (TL). Appropriate translation methods 
are obviously needed to produce a higher quality political speech translation. This 
research applies the concept of translation methods proposed by Newmark (1988). This 
is a qualitative research with a comparative conceptual method. Results show that the 
translation methods adopted when translating the inaugural address are semantic and 
communicative translation methods. Semantic translation method is the most dominant 
one, followed by communicative translation method. Semantic translation method was 
used to translate the body part of the speech, while communicative translation method 
was used to translate the opening part and the closing part of the speech. These two 
methods are considered appropriate for translating this political speech.