Interjections Used in the Novel “The Midnight Library”: Types, Functions, and Translation Strategies

Abstract

Communication, a fundamental part of human existence, enables interaction among individuals through the conception of meaningful information conveyed by language, which represents ideas and emotions. This study seeks to analyze the types and functions of interjection found in the novel “The Midnight Library” along with translation strategies employed in its Indonesian translation “Perpustakaan Tengah Malam”. It employed a descriptive qualitative method, collecting data from both novels as data sources, calculating and categorizing the identified interjections, followed by in-depth elaboration. There were 359 interjections found in the novel. Employing the theory proposed by Ameka in identifying the types of interjections, the novel had 112 Primary Interjections (31%) and 247 Secondary interjections (69%). As for the functions, there were 58 expressive functions, 17 conative functions, and 284 phatic functions. Referring to the Cuenca’s translation strategies, this study identified the translator employed literal translation (56%), translation with dissimilar form but identical meaning (16%), non-interjective structure with similar meaning (6%), translation with different meaning (10%), omission (6%), and addition (6%). The findings indicated that secondary types and phatic functions are predominantly used interjection in the novel, whereas the literal translation strategy is the most dominant strategy used by the translator for translating interjections in its Indonesian translation.