Idiomatic Wordplay Types of Worplay in The Lego Movie
Emmet has special power as he is known as an average construction worker in Lego universe. Surver Dave, one of the citizen of Lego universe, which is also
Emmet’s friend, does not know Emmet even they have talked earlier in the morning. When Surver Dave is asked about Emmet, he says he knows him like
‘zippy-zap’. The phrase ‘zippy-zap’ becomes an idiomatic expression because it has an
individual meaning and it is kind of an informal expression. Although there is no actual meaning in the phrase, but ‘zippy-zap’ still can be categorized into
idiomatic expression because it has individual meaning by the speaker. The phrase ‘zippy-zap’ comes from the word ‘zip’ and ‘zap’ which are actually
onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is the literary device relies on words imitating the sound that they made. Sometimes the speaker uses the words in order to convey
the sound or things they are describing. In this term, the speaker uses ‘zipyy-zap’ because he wants to represent how he knows Emmet. Surver Dave does not know
Emmet in person, but he only knows him only from other people’s talks. The translator only translated the literal meaning of the idiomatic
expression in this case. Consequently, the idiom is lost in the target text. A good translation for this wordplay would be one that represents the idiomatic
expression and literal meaning. ‘Sepintas sesaat’ could be an alternative translation for this wordplay because it can also be interpreted idiomatically and
literally in Bahasa Indonesia. More interestingly, when translated into English ‘sepintas sesaat’ means ‘at a glance’; it is also an idiomatic expression, which has
more or less the same meaning with‘zippy-zap’.
The example above shows how the idiomatic wordplay appears as a phrase in a sentence. Actually, an idiomatic expression is not always appearing as a
phrase in this research. The example below shows that idiomatic expression can be found in a sentence.
ST Actor on TV Show: Honey? Where are my pants?
Director: And cut President Business: Hilarious. That never gets old.
Actor on TV Show: It does not. TT
Aktor TV show: Sayang, dimana celanaku? Sutradara: Dan potong
Presiden Bisnis: Sangat bagus. Itu tidak akan bertambah tua. Aktor TV show: Tidak.
Datum number 13 ‘Where are My Pants?’ is a TV show made by Lord Business’ company in
Lego universe in order to entertain the citizens. This TV show is favorited by many citizens because it contains humorous jokes and people seem never get
bored with the TV show even it has showed for many times. This scene is taken when the actor of the TV show has done recording the show. At the end of the
show, the actor does the closing greeting, and the director says ‘cut’ to give a hint that the show was over. Suddenly, President Business comes and gives a standing
applause by saying ‘that never gets old’ to the actor. In other word, President Business wants to say that the TV show will never get boring and the existence of
the TV show will last forever. ‘That never gets old’ said President Business covers an idiomatic
expression in a sentence. ‘Never gets old’ is a common idiomatic expression
among people with English as a native language. It is derived from ‘never grow old’ for people, and ‘never gets old’ for things. The phrase represents things that
are ageless or things that will exist forever. The idiomatic expression is translated into ‘itu tidak akan betambah tua’.
The technique used by the translator to translate the idiomatic expression is WP →NON WP. It means that the translator does not give a wordplay effect to the
target text even heshe has delivered the message of the sentence. This causes the double meaning of ‘that never gets old’ is lost in the target text because in Bahasa
Indonesia ‘itu tidak akan bertambah tua’only refers to the literal meaning of ‘that never gets old’. Nonetheless, referring to the fact that it is almost impossible to
find an Indonesian idiom that can be interpreted intwo ways and suits with the context of the conversation, this loss of wordplay misunderstandable.
Moreover, the idiomatic expression can be translated literally to the target text and the style of wordplay can still recreate. It also can give a humorous effect
if seen from source text and target text. Another example of the idiomatic wordplay showed in the datum below.
ST Vitruvius: Why are my pants cold and wet?
Wyldstyle: Ew Vitruvius: Uh...
Unikitty: The walls are crying Benny: Were falling apart at the sea
TT Vitruvius: Mengapa celanaku dingin dan basah?
Wyldstyle: euh Vitruvius: Uh...
Unikitty: Dindingnya menangis. Benny: Kita akan menuju dasar laut.
Datum number 30 Emmet and the Master Builders are in a ship on the way to Lord Business’
office. They go by a ship which emergency made after Bad Cop came destroying them. In the ship, they make a discussion to make a strategy in order to enter Lord
Business’ office. This conversation happens when they are in the middle of the sea, suddenly the water seep to inside of the ship. The first person that realized
this thing was Vitruvius, he feels that his pant is wet. Therefore, Unikitty see that the water is about to enter the ship and they will be sinked. Before the water
entered the ship, she says ‘the walls are crying’ which means she gives a clue to the whole people in the ship. Therefore, Benny says that they will be falling apart
to the sea and they had to save themselves before the ship sinked. Unikitty gives a different way to express her reaction when seeing a
sudden emergency situation. She uses an idiomatic expression by saying ‘the walls are crying’ to represent such situation that she just saw. Actually, this
sentence is not wordplay if it relates to other situation. However, because Unikitty wants to describe such situation, this sentence becomes an idiomatic wordplay. It
can be happened because what makes the sentence became idiomatic is the situation itself. The idiomatic expression said by Unikitty represents the water that
came across the wall and entered their ship. In other word, the ship is about to sinking and wrecked. The walls are getting wet because the water damped the
wall before entering inside of the ship. Thus, if it is translated to other language not only Bahasa Indonesia, the target text will have the same meaning as the
source text.
Looking from different perspective, the way Unikitty says the idiomatic expression gives a humorous effect. The way she says ‘the walls are crying’ gives
a humorous effect to the audience because she used a creative way to repesent something in a serious situation. Actually, she could only said ‘the water is about
coming to the ship’ instead of saying ‘the walls are crying’. Thus, in order to break a serious situation in the ship, she said ‘the walls are crying’ also to give a
humorous effect to the audience. When it is translated into Bahasa Indonesia, the translator gave a literal
meaning in the target text. The sentence is translated into ‘dindingnya menangis’. Although the translator gave a literal meaning in translating the wordplay, the
wordplay itself is still appearing in the target text. In terms of meaning, the sentence is still understandable by the audience because the audience can still get
the message of the target text. Thus, the technique of the translation used by the translator is WP WP because the translator can give the meaning of the
sentence in the target text and also can still recreate the wordplay that found in the target text.