A Comparative Study of the Indonesian Relative Pronoun "Yang" and Its English Equivalents

Abstract

This study is motivated by the limited research on the equivalence of relative pronouns between Indonesian and English, despite its significant impact on translation accuracy, language teaching, and intercultural communication. The study aims to explore the equivalence of the Indonesian relative pronoun "yang" and identify its corresponding forms in English through a comparative linguistic analysis. The research adopts a qualitative design, with a sample of 30 bilingual texts (Indonesian–English) selected through purposive sampling. Data was collected using document analysis and analyzed through contrastive linguistic techniques, focusing on syntactic structure, usage context, and semantic function. The findings reveal that "yang" in Indonesian can be represented by various English forms such as who, which, that, or sometimes omitted, depending on the grammatical role and clause type. These results align with the research objectives and challenge the notion of one-to-one equivalence in translation. The study concludes that understanding the contextual function of "yang" is critical for accurate translation and language instruction. The implications encompass theoretical contributions to contrastive grammar studies and practical recommendations for translators and language educators to emphasize functional equivalence rather than literal substitution. Additionally, this study identifies future research opportunities on the treatment of other Indonesian pronouns and their translation into multiple target languages.