The Readability of the Indonesian Translation of English Storybook's Lexis: A Perspective from the Adults Vs. Children Readers

Authors

  • Elysa Hartati

    Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Mercu Buana Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta 55753, Indonesia

    Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia
  • Mangatur R. Nababan

    Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia
  • Riyadi Santosa

    Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia
  • Djatmika

    Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i11.11413
Received: 31 July 2025 | Revised: 15 August 2025 | Accepted: 21 August 2025 | Published Online: 17 October 2025

Abstract

Children's storybook translation requires special attention to the linguistic aspects due to the cognitive development and prior literacy of the target readers. This study aimed to explore how the types of lexis—congruent and incongruent—in the children's storybook translation influences the readability of the text viewed by the dual perspectives; they were adults and children's readers. This research was a case study that employed a qualitative paradigm to explore how the lexis used in translated text affected the readability of the text by incorporating Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as the primary analytical framework, focusing on the translation of lexis from English to Indonesian. This study revealed that the SFL framework could be employed as an approach to investigate the linguistic aspect of the children's storybook translation through the lexicon. By the symbolization process that resulted in congruent and incongruent lexis, this study showed that the children's storybook translator had attempted to reduce the number of incongruent lexis distribution from ST into TT (from 384 to 252). The shifting of incongruent lexis into congruent lexis made the lexis more explicit and concrete in the meaning-making. The integration of SFL with a dual perspective readability assessment contributes an innovation and insights to conduct future relevant research in the translation studies. This study also reinforces the importance of the role of children's literature translators to own not only the linguistic competence but also the developmental sensitivity in translating text to be semantically accurate and cognitively accessible.

Keywords:

Readability; Lexis; Children's Storybook Translation; Adult Experts; Children's Readers

References

[1] Yasin, S.A.R., Romadhony, A., 2023. Building an Elementary Indonesian Textbook Readability Baseline Model. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Advanced Informatics: Concept, Theory and Application (ICAICTA), 7 October 2023, Lombok, Indonesia; pp. 1–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAICTA59291.2023.10389985

[2] Sujatna, E.T.S., Emilia, E., Kurniasih, N., 2022. Readability of PISA-like Reading Texts: A Lesson Learned from Indonesian Teachers. World Journal of English Language. 13(1), 9–18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v13n1p9

[3] Kosiuha, O., 2024. Team translation and other specificities of translating children’s literature in Ukraine: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from English into Ukrainian. Strenae. 25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/130ti

[4] Epstein, B.J., 2012. Translating expressive language in Children’s literature: Problems and solutions. 9783034307. Available: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84924535098&partnerID=40&md5=10446e32736284fd5f05833605851160 (cited 30 July 2025).

[5] Purnomo, Sf.L.A., Untari, L., Purnama, Sf.L.S., et al., 2020. King size or all size: Proposing a typology of amplification translation technique for children picturebook translation. Studies in English Language and Education. 7(2), 558–575. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v7i2.16592

[6] Sujatmiko, Nababan, M.R., Djatmika, et al., 2024. Analyzing Javanese Proverbs Translation in Relay Translation Context. Forum for Linguistic Studies. 7(1), 272–286. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i1.7703

[7] Liang, W., 2007. A Descriptive Study of Translating Children’s Fantasy Fiction. Perspectives. 15(2), 92–105. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050802153830

[8] Pounds, G., 2011. “Foreignizing” or “Domesticating” the Ideology of Parental Control in Translating Stories for Children: Insights from Contrastive Discourse Analysis. Applied Linguistics. 32(3), 277–298. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amq052

[9] Messer, D., Dockrell, J.E., 2006. Children’s Naming and Word-Finding Difficulties: Descriptions and Explanations. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 49(2), 309–324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2006/025)

[10] Hernández De Fuenmayor, P.J., 2023. When Marquis of Tab meets the Christmas trunk. Quaderns. Revista de traducció. 30, 77–83. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/quaderns.100

[11] Riyadi, S., 2003. Social Semiotics: perspectives on language. Pustaka Eureka: Surabaya, Indonesia. (in Indonesian)

[12] Hartati, E., Nababan, M.R., Santosa, R., et al., 2024. Translating English Children’s Storybook into Indonesian Context: How should the nominal groups be translated?. In: Rarastesa, Z., Gajjala, R., Isam, H., et al. (Eds.), Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research. Atlantis Press SARL: Paris, France. pp. 529–544. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-321-4_39

[13] Valero Cuadra, P., Marcelo Wirnitzer, G., Pérez Vicente, N., 2022. Pasado, presente y futuro de la traducción de literatura infantil y juvenil. MonTI. Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación. (14), 8–29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2022.14.01

[14] Sharoff, S., 2005. The communicative potential of verbs of “away-from” motion in English, German and Russian. Functions of Language. 12(2), 205–240. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.12.2.04sha

[15] Fontaine, L., 2017. On prepositions and particles: a case for lexical representation in systemic functional linguistics. WORD. 63(2), 115–135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.2017.1309029

[16] Riyadi, S., 2011. Discourse Logic: analysis of conjunctive relationships using systemic functional linguistics approach. Universitas Sebelas Maret: Surabaya, Indonesia. (in Indonesian)

[17] Thi, T.-L., Na, Y., Choi, I., et al., 2022. Revealing differential importance of word categories in spoken sentence comprehension using phoneme-related representation. Journal of Integrative Neuroscience. 21(1), 29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31083/j.jin2101029

[18] Shi, R., 2005. EARLY SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES IN INFANTS’ LANGUAGE. In: Cohen, H., Lefebvre, C. (Eds.). Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science. Elsevier: Oxford, UK. pp. 481–495. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008044612-7/50076-7

[19] María Gutiérrez, R., 2015. Transitivity in Spanish: An exploratory study from the systemic functional approach. Revista signos. 48(88), 223–249. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-09342015000200004

[20] Luo, Z., Wu, S., 2015. Semantic Wave of Grammatical Metaphor: Dialogue between SFL and LCT. Journal of Language Teaching and Research. 6(5), 993–998. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0605.11

[21] Zhou, J., Gao, Y., 2022. A corpus-based study of grammatical post-metaphorical expressions. Journal of World Languages. 7(2), 247–282. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2020-0018

[22] Guo, Z., 2022. Reflections on Readability of Children’s Literature Translation. International Journal of Education and Humanities. 2(2), 26–27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54097/ijeh.v2i2.280

[23] Siffrinn, N., Gebhard, M., 2024. Disciplinary Discourses and Second Language Literacies. In: Paltridge, B., Prior, M.T. (Eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Discourse, 1st ed. Routledge: New York, NY, USA. pp. 51–63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003177579-6

[24] Wang, T., 2017. INTERPRETING THE READABILITY IN SIMPLIFIED EDITIONS OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE FROM A THEMATIC PERSPECTIVE: A CASE STUDY ON ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics. 7(1), 201–205. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i1.6876

[25] Cavallaro, C.J., Sembiante, S.F., 2021. Facilitating culturally sustaining, functional literacy practices in a middle school ESOL reading program: a design-based research study. Language and Education. 35(2), 160–179. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2020.1775244

[26] Pacheco-Costa, A., Guzmán-Simón, F., 2020. Developing Multimodal Narrative Genres in Childhood: An Analysis of Pupils’ Written Texts Based on Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory. Education Sciences. 10(11), 342. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10110342

[27] Liu, Y., 2022. Readability and adaptation of children’s literary works from the perspective of ideational grammatical metaphor. Journal of World Languages. 7(2), 334–354. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0020

[28] Men, D., Ganapathy, M., 2023. Investigating Expectancy Norms of English-Chinese Translation of Children’s Literature in China. 3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies. 29(2), 85–100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2023-2902-07

[29] Imperial, J.M., Ong, E., 2020. Exploring Hybrid Linguistic Feature Sets to Measure Filipino Text Readability. In Proceedings of the 2020 International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP), 4 December 2020, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; pp. 175–180. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/IALP51396.2020.9310473

[30] Nababan, M., Nuraeni, A., Sumardiono., 2012. Developing a Translation Quality Assessment Model. Kajian Linguistik dan Sastra. 24(1), 39–57, 2012. Available from: https://journals.ums.ac.id/KLS/article/view/101?utm_(cited 30 July 2025). (in Indonesian)

[31] Madolo, Y., 2017. A critical review of two translated isiXhosa children’s texts. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. 35(4), 357–364. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2017.1405730

[32] Madolo, Y., 2021. Pertinent issues in translation of children’s literature. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. 39(4), 375–389. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2021.1974903

[33] Keizer, E., 2007. The English Noun Phrase: The Nature of Linguistic Categorization, 1st ed. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511627699

[34] Börjars, K., Delsing, L.-O., 2008. Introduction: The syntax of nominals and noun phrases. Nordic Journal of Linguistics. 31(2), 129–134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S033258650800190X

[35] Leiva Salum, N., 2025. The use of logical metaphors to construct causality in Spanish. Logos: Revista de Lingüística, Filosofía y Literatura. 34(2), 679–705. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15443/RL3430

[36] Oteíza, T., Castro, C., Pinuer, C., 2021. Graduating political crisis and violence in the discourse of history: The role of Spanish suffixes. Discourse Studies. 23(3), 296–323. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445620982107

[37] Dalpanagioti, T., 2022. Motivated patterns of phrasal verbs and learner’s dictionaries. Lexis. (19). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/lexis.6186

[38] Huwari, I.F., Erkir, S., Alwreikat, E.A., et al., 2025. Understanding the semantics of phrasal verbs. International Journal of Innovative Research and Scientific Studies. 8(2), 4299–4307. DOI: https://doi.org/10.53894/ijirss.v8i2.6302

[39] Rodríguez-Puente, P., 2012. The Development of Non-compositional Meanings in Phrasal Verbs: A Corpus-based Study. English Studies. 93(1), 71–90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2011.638453

[40] Halliday, M.A.K., Matthiessen, C.M.I.M., 2014. Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar, 4th ed. Routledge: London, UK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203431269

[41] Christie, F., Derewianka, B., 2008. School Discourse: Learning to Write Across the Years of Schooling. Continuum: London, UK.

[42] Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., et al., 2012. Using Functional Grammar: an explorer’s guide, 3rd ed. Palgrave Macmillan: South Yarra, Australia.

[43] House, J., 2014. Translation Quality Assessment. Routledge: London, UK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315752839

[44] Piaget, J., 1973. To Understand Is to Invent: The Future of Education. Grossman Publishers: New York, NY, USA. pp. 3–37.

[45] Gibbons, P., 2015. Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning : teaching English language learners in the mainstream classroom, 2nd ed. Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH, USA.

[46] Nation, I.S.P., 2001. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

[47] Perfetti, C., Stafura, J., 2014. Word Knowledge in a Theory of Reading Comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading. 18(1), 22–37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2013.827687

[48] Jimenez, S.R., Saylor, M.M., 2017. Preschoolers’ word learning and story comprehension during shared book reading. Cognitive Development. 44, 57–68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2017.08.011

[49] Newmark, P., 1988. A Textbook Of Translation, 1st ed. Prentice Hall: London, UK.

[50] Baker, M., 2018. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation, 3rd ed. Routledge: New York, NY, USA. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315619187

[51] Hu, X., Tian, L., 2023. Transediting of Children’s Literature in the Age of Technology. In: González-González, C.S., Fernández-Manjón, B., Li, F., et al. (Eds.). Learning Technologies and Systems, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer International Publishing: Cham, Switzerland. pp. 433–444. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33023-0_41

[52] Afzali, K., Hosseinzadeh, F., 2015. Norms and ideological implications of translating children’s literature into Farsi. New Voices in Translation Studies. 13(1), 1–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14456/nvts.2015.11

[53] Kruger, H., 2013. Child and adult readers’ processing of foreign elements in translated South African picturebooks: An eye-tracking study. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies. 25(2), 180–227. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/target.25.2.03kru

Downloads

How to Cite

Hartati, E., R. Nababan, M., Santosa, R., & Djatmika. (2025). The Readability of the Indonesian Translation of English Storybook’s Lexis: A Perspective from the Adults Vs. Children Readers. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(11), 227–242. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i11.11413

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 11 (November 2025): In progress

Article Type

Article

License

Copyright © 2025 Elysa Hartati, Mangatur R. Nababan, Riyadi Santosa, Djatmika

Creative Commons License

This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.