Errors Typology by Haru Deliana Dewi

1. Based on the table and the figure above, the most common errors found in the projects
are GRAMMATICAL ERRORS. These errors include singular-plural and countable-
uncountable errors (e.g., a lot of book), incorrect tenses, incorrect articles, incorrect
prepositions, incorrect connectors, problems with subject-verb agreement (e.g., ‘he
study’), and problems with active-passive voice.

2. The second most common errors are USAGE ERRORS, including awkward
expressions, incorrect words or expressions, unclear expressions, and inappropriate
expressions. An example of this incorrect usage is the expression ‘the number of
unemployment,’ which should be ‘the number of unemployed’ or ‘unemployment
rate.’

3. The third most common errors are OMISSION ERRORS which occur when there are
expressions, sentences, words, articles, and prepositions missing or not translated into
the target text. For instance, in a dependent clause ‘….of the area in which RSBI
located,’ there is a verb (‘is’) missing, so it should be ‘in which RSBI is located.’ These
kinds of errors reflect the fact that the students are translating into their Language B.
One might anticipate in a future study involving translation into Indonesian from
English that there might be fewer target language grammatical and stylistic errors.

4. The fourth most common errors found are INCORRECT PUNCTUATIONS. For
example, in English we must use a comma for the number above a thousand, such as
1,200, and not a period (e.g., 1.200) as in Indonesian.

5. The fifth most common errors are WORD FORM ERRORS that involve incorrect
forms of a word. For example, a word should be a verb, but it is written in a noun form
(e.g., ‘to strength’ instead of ‘to strengthen’).

6. The sixth most common errors are SYNTAX ERRORS which include run-on-sentences
and incorrect sentence structure. For example, in a dependent clause ‘…if Indonesian
values to be instilled,’ this clause has no subject and no verb, and it is more like a phrase
than a clause.

7. The seventh most common errors are ADDITION ERRORS that happen when there
are unnecessary expressions, sentences, words, articles, prepositions added to the
translation, and when there are redundants. For instance, in the title ‘News about the
high cost of school’s tuition,’ the expression ‘cost of’ is redundant based on the source
text because there is ‘school’s tuition,’ so it should be ‘News about the high school’s
tuition.’
8. The eight most common errors are TERMINOLOGY ERRORS. For example is the
incorrect full form for the abbreviation EUROSTAT. The correct expansion for
EUROSTAT is Statistical Office of European Communities; however, several
respondents wrote ‘European Union Statistic’s Agency’ or ‘Europe Statistic
Commission Office.’

9. The ninth most common errors are SPELLING ERRORS INVOLVING INCORRECT
SPELLING. For instance, the word ‘language’ was written ‘languange’ by one of the
respondents, the word ‘quite’ was written ‘quiet,’ or the word ‘economist’ was written
‘ekonomist.’

10. The tenth most common errors are MISTRANSLATION OR MISUNDERSTANDING

ERRORS which reflect the change of the meaning or the introduction of different
meanings in the target text from the source text. For example, in the source text of the
pilot projects, it is mentioned that ‘for this month the unemployment rate reached
12.2%, while in the previous month it was 10%, so the increase is 2.2%.’ However,
several respondents misunderstood the text, and they translated that ‘the increase was
10% from the previous month.’

11. The eleventh most common errors are CAPITALIZATION ERRORS. These errors
mean that a letter (usually the first letter) in a word should be in a capital letter, but it
is not, or the other way around. For instance, one of the respondents wrote: ‘however,
it was….’ The word ‘however’ is located at the beginning of a sentence, so it should be
‘However, it was….’ The next error types are the ones which do not frequently occur
or only appear few times.

12. The twelfth most common errors or the third least common errors ARE
FAITHFULNESS OR LITERALNESS ERRORS that refer to the expressions in the
target text being translated very close to the meaning and to the structure of the
expressions in the source text, so the translation becomes awkward or the meaning is
not transferred correctly. For example, the expression ‘17 Euro users’ is a literal
translation from the Indonesian source text, while the appropriate translation should be
‘17 Euro country users.’

13. The second least common errors are AMBIGUITY ERRORS that include words and
expressions having ambigious or unclear meanings. For instance, the sentence ‘the
lowest number of unemployment is Austria with 4.9%’ is confusing, as it should be
‘Austria has the lowest number of unemployed with 4.9%.’

14. The least common errors are WORD ORDER ERRORS that involve putting a word or
an expression in an uncommon or inappropriate location in a sentence, although it might
not interrupt the meaning of the whole sentence or the entire target text. For instance, a
time phrase ‘in April 2013’ was put in the middle of a sentence, while it should be at
the end of the sentence.