24 kinetic and isochronic synchrony into the bargain. Besides, the dubbers of films
have to give intonation and pace properly.
4. Translation of Verbal Humor
Humor affects individuals from different cultures differently Chile, 1999. That is the reason why humor is culture-specific, and difficult to translate. Chiaro
2006 mentions that verbal humor on screen is the most challenging subject to translate. Translating humor has its own difficulties. The biggest challenge in
translating humor is to keep the meaning and to provoke the same effect of humor. There are several methods used in translation. Newmark 1988:45
mentions eight translation methods, which are put in the diagram V below:
SL emphasis TL emphasis
Word for word translation Adaptation
Literal translation Free translation
Faithful translation Idiomatic translation
Semantic translation Communicative translation
The methods provided can be used by any translators. However, in translating humor from televisions, subtitlers or translators frequently use their
instinct rather than the real guidelines. When they face problems related to cultural matters, they have to find the solution to produce acceptable translations
for TL audiences. The goal in translating humor is to make the TL audiences feel the sense of humor maximally as the SL audiences do. As Newmark 1988:46
states, “It has sometimes been said that the overriding purpose of any translation should be to achieve equivalent effect.”
25 A successful translation can be seen from audiences’ perspective and it is
varied. In general, Larson 1984 says that the successful of translation depends on how close it is to the ideal translation. Despite audiences’ perspective, he has
criteria of an ideal translation: -
Accurate A: Reproducing the same meaning of conversation from SL to TL -
Natural N: Using natural expressions with appropriate kind of texts occurs in TL
- Clear C: Expressing all aspects of translations on acceptable forms and clear
meanings, so that it is understandable for TL audiences.
5. Sitcom
A situational comedy or sitcom is a good subject to study verbal humor on screen. According to Berger 1992:71-72, sitcoms usually focus on the dialogue
and it has only few movements and mostly takes place indoors. The characters in sitcom have their own humor styles. There are also
laugh tracks that are played to encourage the audience to laugh. The laugh tracks are also to indicate the verbal
humor in this study. Friends is a well-known American TV-sitcom in all over the world. In
Indonesia, this sitcom was aired in the late 90s and early 2000. Nowadays, Friends can only be seen through a channel on a cable TV, Star World. The
popularity and the natural conversation in Friends make this sitcom more
interesting to study. Moreover, the humor in Friends is mostly expressed verbally
26 rather than visually, so there is a bunch of linguistic fields to study based on one
sitcom, Friends.
B. Theoretical Framework
The theory of Pragmatics is put to analyze conversations in scripts and subtitles of a sitcom. Three theories of pragmatics such as, Grice’s Cooperative
Principle Maxims, Non-observance maxims, and implicature are used to answer the first problem. Firstly, the verbal humor is chosen which one is breaking the
Griece’s Maxims of conversation Grice, 1989. Secondly, the broking maxims in verbal humor are classified into five types of Breaking Maxims Thomas, 1995;
Dornerus, 2005. Thirdly, in order to see the meaning on humor, the theory of implicature is applied.
Theory of verbal humor Attardo, 1994 is used to strengthen the researcher’s classifications on conversations in the sitcom. Besides that, theory of
verbal humor is also used to see the translation of verbal humor into Indonesian. The factors that influence the translation of verbal humor became the references
for researcher to compare the translation from SL to TL. Theory of Audio-Visual Translation is the most appropriate theory in
analyzing subtitles Orero, 2004. Theory of testing translation Larson, 1984 is used to value the products of Indonesian subtitles in sitcom
Friends. The characteristics of an ideal translation could be known using this theory. This
theory becomes the most important part in answering the second problem.
