ANALYSIS OF IDIOM LOSS AND GAIN AND TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN THE NOVEL DIARY OF A WIMPY KID

This study analyzes the translation of idiomatic expressions in Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney and its Indonesian translation Diari si Bocah Tengil. The research aims to identify the types of idioms found in the novel, the translation strategies used in rendering them into Indonesian, and the resulting translational outcomes in the target text. Using a qualitative content analysis method, 114 idiomatic expressions were classified based on Fernando's (1996) framework, analyzed through Baker's (2018) translation strategies, and categorized according to Newmark's (1988) translational outcomes. A loss and gain coding scheme was applied across the data as a diagnostic instrument to illuminate the consequences of the translator's choices. The findings show that pure idioms dominate the corpus with 64 occurrences (56.14%), followed by semi-idioms (28.95%) and literal idioms (14.91%). Paraphrase emerges as the most frequent strategy with 105 occurrences (92.11%), producing non-idiomatic expression as the dominant outcome (78.07%). The loss and gain coding reveals that loss of idiomaticity is consistently accompanied by gain of clarity, indicating that the translator's disposition prioritizes intelligibility for the target reader over the preservation of figurative texture, with paraphrase functioning as a mechanism whose output is structurally oriented toward accessible meaning.