CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION - An Analysis Of The Translation Of Colloquial Expression In The Wild Child Movie
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A. Research Background Entertainment is one of human needs which is important because people need
entertainment and enjoyment to reduce their stress. Along with many other means of entertainment, one among the most popular ones is film, which now has become a common entertainment in human life. Consequently, Indonesian cinemas and televisions show many foreign films that use English as the language. This condition has created problems for those who do not understand English, therefore movies with foreign language will be equipped with translation at the bottom of the screen to help the target audience understand the stories and avoid misunderstanding.
The translation provided in movies is commonly termed as “subtitle”. Matsumoto (2003:14) explains that:
Subtitles play an important role in the programs. Subtitle gives information to the viewers and, at the same times, shares the cultural differences. Translation for screen is translation of culture and it reflection of the knowledge, creativity, and imagination of translation.
However, subtitle does not always merely deal with word spoken by the character but also serves as a bridge to understand the cultural context of the source language.
Consequently, the translator should understand and be more sensitive about the cultural aspect of the source language.
In subtitling, the translator deals with various kinds of language including both formal and informal ones. In the latter case, the translator might also find sentences or phrases containing colloquial expression. Manser (2006:190) states that:
Informal language is usually defined as the language of ordinary or casual conversation, that is, a conversation between people who know each other and feel relatively unconstrained so that they do not have to be on their best behavior, linguistically speaking. In such circumstances, it is perfectly natural and right to use colloquial words and expressions and contractions and to take occasional liberties with grammar.
From the statement above it can be inferred that colloquial expression is a word or phrase which commonly appears in informal conversation among friends or colleagues. Informal language itself tends to describe relax atmosphere among the users and sometimes does not obey the grammatical rules. Translating colloquial expression might be a problematic matter for the translator because colloquial expression often contains expressions relatively uncommon for the non-native speakers.
It is mentioned in The Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial
Expressions that, "Unlike Standard English, few slang or colloquial expressions are
standardized in spelling or punctuation." If the movie translator is not aware of this colloquial expressions and style, because only a few colloquial expressions are standardized in spelling and punctuation, he/she will find him/herself difficult in translating this kind of language. To make this thing clear, some examples of colloquial expressions found in the film Wild Child will be presented below.
Example 1: Source Text: Mrs. Kingsley: I gave your father my word that I'd try and help you, but I’ll be honest, you're making it awfully difficult.
TargetText: Mrs. Kingsley: Aku berjanji kepada ayahmu akan mencoba membantumu, tapi jujur saja, kau membuat ini menjadi sulit.
The utterance above happens when Mrs. Kingsley tells Poppy that the chaos she does at the prom puts her (Mrs. Kingsley) in a difficult position. Mrs. Kingsley feels that as a headmaster it is her duty to expel Poppy from Abbey Mount School while on the other hand she has promised to Poppy's father that she will make Poppy behave better by teaching her at the Abbey Mount School. Therefore, Mrs. Kingsley thinks that she needs to give an advice to Poppy, so Poppy will understand her position and behave herself.
The word awfully belongs to Colloquial expressions in the form of singular word. The meaning of awfully is “very or very much”. Colloquial expression word
awfully is used by Mrs. Kingsley to emphasize the word difficult, to show that the
problem caused by Poppy puts her in a very difficult situation. In the subtitle, the colloquial expression word awfully is not translated therefore the deeper meaning of the utterance cannot be felt by the audience depending their understanding on the subtitle.
Example 2: Source Text : MATRON : How dare you? No mufti for a week.
POPPY : Fine. Mufti may be your thing, lady, but it sure ain't mine. I'll be gone by then.
MATRON : Two Sundays detention. For the whole dorm.
Target Text: MATRON : Beraninya kau? Dilarang memakai mufti selama satu minggu.
POPPY : Baiklah. Kau mungkin suka mufti, tapi aku tidak. Satu minggu lagi aku akan pergi.
MATRON : Hukuman hari minggu dua kali. untuk seluruh siswi di kamar ini.
This scene depicts the situation in which Matron asks her students to give their mobile phones to her because of the Abbey Mount school regulation. However, Poppy disobeys it. Matron then gives punishment to Poppy by not allowing her to wear her casual clothes (mufti) for a week. Poppy does not care the punishment, in fact she even tries to threaten Matron that she will leave the school in a week. As the result, Matron gives more punishments to Poppy and her room mates.
In this example, the speaker gives punishment to all students who occupy the room. The word dorm in the dialogue belongs to colloquial expression in the form of clipped word. However, dorm in the dialogue is translated into
”siswi di kamar ini” even though the particular word does not literally means “siswi di kamar ini”. The translator employs translation using common word of similar expressive meaning but dissimilar referential meaning technique. This technique is applied in order to transfer the meaning and to maintain the naturalness of the dialogue so that the readers may get the meaning and will not feel awkward reading the translation. As stated in the context, the speaker gives punishment to all students who occupy the room therefore the translation is still accurate and acceptable.
With the story tells about teenagers’ life, the movie Wild Child contains numerous uses of colloquial expression. It is even more interesting that the main character of the movie is an American teenager studying in England, where she experiences difficulties dealing with British colloquial expressions. Such natures of the movie demand an accurate and acceptable subtitle, unless it will be impossible for the audience to comprehend and enjoy the story. The phenomenon motivate the writer to conduct a research on the accuracy and acceptability of the translations of colloquial expressions in the movie Wild Child.
B. Research Limitation
Research limitation is needed to give a focus to this research. The researcher makes limitation concerning the data and the analysis mainly based on Partdrige (1991:262) who mentions that colloquial expression can be in the form of singular words, clipped words, short picturesque word for technical term, contractions and verb-adverb combination.
Due to the translation of colloquial expression in the form of contractions is less varied, the researcher will analyze only the translation of the colloquial expression in the form of single word, clipped word, short picturesque words for technical terms and verb adverb combinations in the dialogue of the movie Wild
Child . The expression can be a word or phrases. In order to distinguish which words
are colloquial expressions, the writer refers to Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (
the New International Student’s Edition). Hereby the writer limits this research on
the accuracy and acceptability of the Indonesian translation of the colloquial expressions in the movie Wild Child.
C. Problem Statements
Based on the research background, the researcher proposes three problem statements as follows:
1. What types of colloquial expression appear in the movie? 2.
What are the techniques used by the translator to translate the colloquial
3. How is the effect of the technique used on the quality of translation in terms of accuracy and acceptability?
D. Research Objectives 1. To identify and describe the kinds of colloquial expression appear in the movie.
2. To identify and describe the translation technique used by the translator to translate colloquial expression in the movie.
3. To describe the effect of the technique used on the quality of translation in terms of accuracy and acceptability.
E. Research Benefit
The researcher expects that this research will be beneficial for: 1. English Department Students
The results of this research will be useful for the English Department students in developing their knowledge about translating English colloquial expressions into Indonesian. In addition, students can have a better understanding about the techniques in translating colloquial expressions of a film.
2. Other Researchers
This research is expected to provide more information about the study of translation, and this thesis can be used as a reference for the upcoming research by analyzing colloquial expressions using different research data or analyzing colloquial expressions using different expert ’s opinions which cover the recent development of colloquial expressions.