54 Chandler:
entering, angry Yo, paisan Can I talk to you for a sec? Pause Your tailor is a very bad man
Joey : Frankie? Whatre you talking about?
Ross : entering from the bedroom Hey, whats goin on? Pats
Chandler on the shoulder which causes him to jump.
Chandler: Joeys tailor...took advantage of me. Chandler did not deliberately say what happened to him in Frankie’s. He
only said Joeys tailor...took advantage of me. In many regions, something that
deals with sex is taboo. What Chandler said was not confusing, everyone knows that the term implies to something that deals with sex or impolite and
inappropriate manner that Frankie had done to Chandler. According to the findings and the discussions, the researcher implied that
the application of breaking maxims in verbal humor is dominant. Although Flouting is declared to be the type of breaking maxims which has a function to
create humor, but in the study, instead of Flouting, Violating is mostly used. Not only Flouting and Violating, the other three breaking maxims are also found in the
verbal humor on sitcom Friends. This findings are in mutual accord with
Dornerus 2005 and Alvaro 2011 who point out that it is not only violation of maxims that creates verbal humor, but also any failing to observe the maxims can
produce verbal humor.
B. The Acceptability of Indonesian Subtitles of Breaking Maxims in Verbal
Humor on Sitcom Friends
This section is to answer the second problem about the acceptability of the Indonesian subtitles of breaking maxim in verbal humor found on sitcom
Friends.
55 The data were taken from Indonesian subtitles of the three episodes of
Friends season 2, episode 1, episode 3, and episode 7. The Indonesian subtitles were
identified based on the categories of an ideal translation from Larson 1984
. They are three characteristics that categorize a translation to be an ideal translation:
- Accurate A: Accurate in translating the message in TL
- Natural N: The style of translations sounds natural for TL audiences
- Clear C: The forms of language used make the message easy to understand
by TL audiences.
After identifying the subtitles based on the characteristics, they were evaluated whether or not they were acceptable. A translation was categorized both
Ideal and Acceptable I-Acc when it met the three characteristics A, N and C. A translation was categorized as an Acceptable translation Acc if it had at least two
of the three characteristics, either A and N, A and C, or N and C. A translation which only possessed either A, N, or C was categorized as Unacceptable
translations Ucc. For a translation that did not have, any of the characteristic was considered as Failed translations F. The Table 4.2 below illustrates the findings
based on the acceptability of Indonesian subtitles of Friends.
Table 4.2 the Categories of Acceptability of Indonesian subtitles No.
Categories of translation Frequency Percentage
1 Ideal-Acceptable I-ACC
91 62.3
2 Acceptable ACC
33 22.6
3 Unacceptable UCC
12 8.2
4 Failed F
10 6.9
TOTAL 146
100
56 They were 147 statements in English contain verbal humor, which broke
maxims, found in the three episodes of Friends and 146 of them were translated in
Indonesian. Ideal-acceptable translations I-Acc were they that had three characteristics of an ideal translation, A, N, and C. They were 62.3 of the
findings categorized as I-Acc translations. Here is the case:
EXCERPT 3.11 [
Scene: Mr. Heckles’ Apartment, Chandler is in one of Heckles’ old robes and sitting on the couch.]
Joey : Have you been here all night?
Chandler : Look at this. Pictures of all the women that Heckles went out with. Look what he wrote on them. Vivian, too tall. Madge, big
gums. Too loud, too smart, makes noise when she eats. This is, this is me. This is what I do. Im gonna end up alone, just like he
did.
Joey : Chandler, Heckles was a nut case.
Chandler : Our trains are on the same track, ok? Yeah, sure, Im coming up 30 years
behind him, but the stops are all the same. Bitter Town. Aloneville. Hermit Junction
. [Sifat kami sama. Aku memang 30 tahun lebih muda darinya.
Tapi sifat semua sama. Penggerutu, sendirian, hidup membujang.]
The example apparently showed that the translation English SL into Indonesian TL was accurate, natural, and clear. Although Chandler used
idiomatic expression, the translator had translated the message accurately and used natural expressions in Indonesian. The forms of the sentences made the
translation clear for the TL audiences. According to Larson 1984, the translation that has three characteristics A, N, and C was considered as an ideal and
acceptable translation I-Acc. There were 22.6 the acceptable translations Acc in Indonesian subtitles
of Friends. Acc is identified by the existence of two from three characteristics of
57 an ideal translation. The subtitles could only have clear and natural, or accurate
and natural, or accurate and clear. The evidence of Indonesian subtitles which was identified as C and N found in an excerpt of Friends can be seen below:
EXCERPT 1.23 [
Scene: Monica and Rachels, later that day. Monica is now out and about. Monica’s hair is the topic of their conversation]
Monica : Even Mary Tyler Moore wouldve been better. Ross : I like it. I do, I think its a Ten.
[Aku suka potongannya. Sungguh. Kukira ini nilainya 10.] The sentence
I think is a Ten implied that Monica’s hair looked like Doodly Moore in movie
Ten, but this movie was not familiar for most of Indonesian audiences. To avoid confusion and to maintain the sense of humor, the
translator replaced the title of the movie Ten with number ten. So the translation
became Kukira ini nilainya 10. Although the translation was not accurate, for
Indonesian, this translation was acceptable because it was natural and clear. The replacement of the name of the movie did not change the sense of humor because
in Indonesia it is still considered as a teasing. Larson 1984 called a translation that only has natural and clear characteristics as inaccurate translation.
Indonesian subtitles which were identified as A and N were frequently found in the excerpts in Friends. One of the examples is shown in the excerpt
below: EXCERPT 1.22
[Scene: Monica and Rachels apartment, Rachel and Joey talk when Chandler is entering the room. He is angry because of Joey’s tailor,
Frankie, took advantage of him when he measured Chandler’s leg] Joey
: No way. Ive been going to the guy for 12 years. Chandler : Oh come on He said he was going to do my inseam, and he
ran his hand up my leg, and then, there was definite...
58 Ross
: What? Chandler : Cupping.
Joey
: Thats how they do pants First they go up one side, they move it over, then they go up the other side, they move it
back, and then they do the
rear.
[ Cara mengukur celana memang begitu Pertama mengukur di
satu sisi, lalu pindah kebagian lain. Lalu sisi lainnya, pindah ke belakang dan bagian bokongmu.]
The translation above was accurate in translating the message and natural in using the Indonesian expressions. However, the translation was not clear
enough to be understood by the TL audiences who do not know the source language. In original text,
First they go up one side, they move it over, then they go up the other side, they move it back, and then they do the rear, it was
composed with only one long sentence. The translator tried to divide the sentence into two separated sentences that unfortunately made the translation unclear.
Moreover, the words ‘it’ in the original text were not translated and it made the translation implied different meaning but still acceptable.
1Pertama mengukur di satu sisi, lalu pindah kebagian lain. 2Lalu sisi lainnya, pindah ke belakang dan
bagian bokongmu
.
Larson 1984 called a translation that only has accurate and natural characteristics as unclear translations.
The other combination of acceptable translations in Indonesian subtitles is accurate and clear. Here is the evidence of the case:
EXCERPT 7.18 [
Scene: Chandler and Joeys, Joey is watching a rabbi play an electric guitar on TV.]
Phoebe : entering Hey Joey.
Joey : Hey Pheebs.
Phoebe : How come youre watching a rabbi play electric guitar? Joey
: I cant find the remote.
[ Aku tak menemukan kendali jauhnya.]
59
The Indonesian subtitles of the sentence in bold-typed was considered accurate and clear, but the words
the remote were translated in Indonesian to be kendali jauhnya. The phrase kendali jauh in translating the word remote was
unnatural but it was acceptable. In Indonesia, the thing to control a machine or in this case TV from a distance is commonly known as
remote, as in English, instead of
kendali jauh. Larson 1984 called the translation that only has accurate and clear characteristics as unnatural translation.
When a translation only has one of the three characteristics, it is classified as an Unacceptable translation Ucc. The translation has either accurate, or
natural, or clear Larson, 1984. From the data, there were found 8.2 cases of Ucc in the subtitles of sitcom
Friends. There were two cases of Ucc provided to be discussed. The one is a dialogue that is accurate in translating the meaning, but
it is neither natural nor clear. The other one is the one that is natural, but inaccurate and unclear. The cases of unacceptable translations were provided and
discussed on the following paragraphs:
EXCERPT 7.1 [
Scene: Monica and Rachels apartment. Everyone is sitting at the couches, Chandler enters.]
Chandler : Okay, what is it about me? Do I not look fun enough? Is there something. . . repellent. . . about me?
Rachel : So, how was the party?
Chandler : Well it couldnt have been worse. A woman literally passed through me. Okay, so what is it, am I hideously unattractive?
Phoebe : No, you are not, you are very attractive. You know what, I
go through the
exact same thing. Every time I put on a little weight, I start questioning everything.
[ Bukan begitu. Kau menarik sekali. Aku juga mengalami hal
yang sama. Tiap kali berat badanku bertambah, aku mulai menanyai apa saja.]
60 The translation of Phoebes’ statement in excerpt 7.1 was accurate, but
unfortunately, the choice of the expression aku mulai menanyai apa saja
was unnatural and it made the translation was unclear. That factor made the translation
above was unacceptable. The word menanyai should be replaced with
menanyakan to make it more understandable. EXCERPT 1.10
[ Scene: Monica and Rachels apartment, Chandler is entering the room]
Chandler : Hi. Anybody know a good tailor? Joey
: Needs some clothes altered? Chandler : No, no, Im just looking for a man to draw on me with chalk.
Joey : Why dont you go see Frankie? My familys been goin to him
forever. He did my first suit when I was 15. No wait, 16. No, scuse me, 15. All right, when was 1990?
[ Ia yang buat setelan jas pertamaku saat usiaku 15 tahun.
Bukan, 16. Maaf, lima belas. Apa sudah 19 tahun?] The last sentence of the source text,
All right, when was 1990?, was not accurately translated
Apa sudah 19 tahun? and it aroused confusion for the TL audiences. Although the translator had been using a natural expression, it was still
unclear. The word sudah in the sentence Apa sudah 19 tahun?, might be better to
be replaced by the word saat which is in English means when to make it clearer.
The example of a translation that only had clear characteristic was not found in the data. The researcher inferred that there is no translation considered as
clear if it is inaccurate and unnatural. The clearness of the translation depends on the accuracy and naturalness of the translation.
There is still one case which is called Failed translation F. A translation that does not have any characteristic on an ideal translation is identified as F. In
61 this study, there were only 6.9 cases identified as F. The evidence can be seen
below:
EXCERPT 1.5 [Scene:
Monica and Rachels apartment, everyone includes Julie are in the room in awkward situation. Ross and Julie, who do not know what is
happening, start enthusiastically telling their experience in China, everyone listens but Rachel]
Monica : This is amazing. I mean, how, how did this happen? Julie : Well, Ross and I were in grad school together.
Ross
: But we havent seen each other since then. Well I land in China, guess whos in charge of the dig.
Rachel : Julie Julie, isnt that great? I mean, isnt that just kick-you- in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck fantastic
?
[ Julie Hebat, kan? Itu seperti selangkangan kita ditendang dan
leher kita diludahi.] Rachel’s long expression was translated inaccurately, unnaturally, and
unclearly for TL audiences. In SL, the expression implied a positive expression, fantastic. In TL, the expression Itu seperti selangkangan kita ditendang dan leher
kita diludahi in Indonesia is considered as taboo or inappropriate words instead of an expression which meaning is
fantastic. Based on the discussion, more than 80 of the data showed that the
Indonesian subtitles found on sitcom Friends are acceptable. They have at least two of the three characteristics of an ideal translation: accurate, natural, and clear.
Despite the number of acceptable translations, there are still few translations considered as unacceptable and failed. These unsuccessful translations are
because of the choice of words that are used to translate the SL expressions. It shows that, translators need to pay attention more to the expressions from SL such
as idioms, slang words, jargon, and phrases when translating them into Indonesian or other TLs.
62
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS
This last chapter is divided into three parts. The first one is conclusions, the second one is recommendations, and the last one is implications. The
conclusions are to sum up the findings of the discussions of the study. The content of the conclusions are the answers of the two problem formulations. The
recommendations are aimed to give suggestions to the readers regarding the problems in this study. The implications are about how the study is implicated in
English language teaching.
A. Conclusions
The conclusions refer to the research findings and discussions in accordance with the research problems of this study. First, the finding showed that
the five breaking maxims: flouting, violating, opting out, infringing, and suspending are applied in the creation of verbal humor on sitcom
Friends. Although flouting the maxims is to create humor, but in this study, violating the
maxims was applied more frequently than other non-observance maxims and in the second place was flouting the maxims. Opting out the maxims was the least
type of breaking maxims applied in creating verbal humors in sitcom Friends.
With regard to the second problem, it was revealed that most of Indonesian subtitles of breaking maxims in verbal humor on sitcom
Friends were acceptable. They had at least two of the three characteristics of an ideal translation from
