Sebuah Kajian Pustaka:

Agustina & Joni: The Subtitling Strategies...

THE SUBTITLING STRATEGIES USED IN INDONESIAN FILM

Noni Agustina1 and Joni2
noni@esaunggul.ac.id dan joni@esaunggul.ac.id

UNIVERSITAS ESA UNGGUL

ABSTRACT

The social phenomena can be represented through film providing images, soundtrack, voice-

over, dance, and some art such as theatrical dan fine art. The Indonesian film played in XXI

since 2017 must have English subtitling because the viewers nowadays are not only

Indonesian people but also foreigner. The film subtitling is challenging because it is different

from the other translation medium. A subtitler requires an appropriate translation strategy.

Thus, this study aims to explore the subtitling strategies used in Indonesian film. The

approach employed was qualitative with content analysis as a research design. The data used

was English subtitling of ‘A Man Called Ahok’ film. The result showed that the dominant

substitiling strategies used were repetition indicating the literal translation and addition

strategy showing more information given. Respectively, transmutation and detraction

strategies are also employed. Former indicated some changes in internal order such as lexical

change, passive to active, etc. The latter showed deletion or condension unnecessary or

inrelevant information. Substitution strategy is the least used in subtitling which it indicates

lack of pharaprasing. This study offers the theoretical and practical contribution on

subtitiling strategies especially from Bahasa Indonesia to English.

Keywords: Film, audiovisual translation, subtitling, translation strategies.

A. INTRODUCTION

Film is equipped by some technology consisting of images, soundtrack, voice-over, dance,

and some art such as theatrical dan fine art. Delabastita (1989) dan Gottlieb (1998) in

Mubenga (2010) urge that film has multisemiotic and multimodal. Mubenga also describes

film as medium comprising vebal and non-verbal information in representing the

information to the viewers. Thus, many generations are still keen on watching the film. The

preliminary research conducted through interviewing one of marketing manager of XXI

cinema Jakarta suggested that the Indonesian film played in XXI since 2017 must have

English subtitling because many foreigners’ viewers watch it in XXI cinema spreading in

Indonesia. The subtitling is very important because it gives the viewers to grab the message

or information of film especially for foreigners. They can follow the story well by

comprehending it.

Subtiling which is part of audiovisual translation develops rapidly because of the

advancement of techology (Munday, 2008). The internet growth contributes to the subtitling

thriving because Mac’s research finding (2009) showed that amateur subtitlers came up to

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ELTIN Journal, Volume 7/II, October 2019

make the foreign movies subtitiling and Japanese animation on internet (Tang, 2014).

Moreover, the demand of Indonesian film subtitiling also contributes to its enhancement.

Some previous studies undertaken by some researchers to scrutinise the subtitling. Tang

(2014) investigated the subtitling strategies conducted by professional and amateur subtitlers

concerning on the cultural representation of Kung-Fu Panda film. It is translated from

English to Mandarin. Mollanazar, Nasrollahi, & Allameh (2017) also focused on the

subtitling strategies on western films which were subtitled into Persian language. Nisaa,

(2011) analysed the technique, method and ideology of film subtitling entitled Beckham

Unwrapped. Kusumastuti (2011) investigated the technique used in dubbing and subtitling

of Dora the Explorer film. Guillot (2010) studied the French thriller by exploring the English

subtitles regarding the linguistic representation and culture. Mcclarty, (2014) explored the

practice of creative subtitiling. From the previous studies, English subtitling from Indonesian

film is under researched. It is important to conduct the research by investigating the subtitling

strategies in Indonesian film context.

B. LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Subtitling

Subtitle is texts written on the screen functioning to adding or substituting the soundtrack or

live performance synchronized of the speech or voice-over uttered by the characters. It

provides the benefits for the viewers. It gives the viewers’ understanding on the story line

(Mollanazar et al., 2017). Similarly, Bogucki (2016) urges that subtitling as part of

audiovisual translation has purpose to message comprehension. Guillot (2010) suggests that

subtitling which is used by foreign films does not only help the viewers to understand the

story but also to explore the different culture. Caimi (2013) also sees that subtitling is also

beneficial for the students as the viewers because it provides the linguistic and cultural

comprehension in formal and informal settings. Price (1983) in Caimi (2013) investigates

English Second Language students watch the subtitled TV program and result shows that

their foreign language or culture acquisition is developed.

Bogucki (2016) urges that subtitling as part of audiovisual translation has some convention

such as the subtitling template, constraints and easy effort for audience to process it.

Karamitroglou in Bogucki (2016) explains some conventions in subtitiling in detail. It must

fit to the spatial parameter and layout which concern on the position of the screen, line

numbers, characters per line, typeface and the color of background. It also focuses on the

temporal parameter such as duration, leading-in and out time. The other elements shoud be

considered by the subtitlers are punctuation, segmentation, omission guidelines, syntax

alteration, the use of taboo or cultural aspects.

2. Strategies Subtitling

Some scholas have some terminologies in translation studies such as procedure, technique,

method, operation and strategies. Chesterman (2005) in Mollanazar et al. (2017) recognizes

them more or less same. In this study concerns on subtitling strategies. Strategies refers to

‘a general way of translating in its basic problem-solving sense as a plan that is implemented

in a given context and is cognitive procedure not linguistic” (Mollanazar et al., 2017).

Agustina & Joni: The Subtitling Strategies...

The subtitling strategies refers to Debalastita’s (1989) theory on ancient rhetoric which

consists of repetitio, adiectio, detractitio, transmutatio and substitutio. Repetitio strategy is

called literal or imitation translation which reproduces or renders the identical manner.

Adiectio strategy refers to the adding phrase, clause, sentence, expression, etc in order to

give more important information. It does not mean alter the original or source language

significantly. Detraction strategy is used to delete, decimate or condense the phrase, clause,

sentence, expression, etc because of some consideration such as spatial and temporal

limitation. Transmutatio strategy is used to render in some changes such as lexical changes,

active to passtive or vice versa, negative to positive, etc. Substitutio strategy is used to

modify or paraphrase which alter phrase, clause, sentence, expression from the source text.

Substitutio strategy commonly occurs in idioms, proverbs or saying.

C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research method used was content analysis with qualitative approach. The sources data

was “A Man Called Ahok” film. It was played in November 2018 and in 4 days it reached

five hundred thousand viewers. It was also watched by one million viewers. It was

controversial film because some of Indonesian citizen thought that it brought political issues

or political campaign but some of them considered it delivered the moral value such as

emphaty, honesty, hard-working, kindness, and so on. The data analysed were Indonesian

voice-over and English subtitling.

The research procedures undertaken were visiting the production house and giving the

consent form, watching the film, transcribing the Indonesian dan Kek voice-over, rewriting

the English subtitle and some Indonesian subtitle if the character uttered Kek language,

analysing the voice-over and subtitling by applying Delabastita’s theories on ancient rhetoric

(repetitio, adiectio, detractio, transmutatio and substitutio) and interpreting the findings and

taking the conclusion.

D. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

From the interview undertaken to the producer, the Enlgish subtitiling was made by a

professional subtitler. It was found 961 data consisting of phrase, clause or sentences uttered

by the characters. The subtitling strategies occurrence was different (table 1). The most

dominant strategies used was repetitio. Its frequency was 632. It indicated that film used

literal translation so the subtitler just imitated the source text to target text. It could be seen

in the excerpts below:

[Ahok] Voice over: Papa

Subtitle: Papa

[Ahok] Voice over: Rumah sakit?
Subtitle: Hospital?

[Ahok] Voice over: Gratis

Subtitle: Free of charge

ELTIN Journal, Volume 7/II, October 2019

Then, the following strategy was adiectio which came up 112 times. The subtitler tended to

add more information for the viewers so they comprehended the story. The underlined

phrases ‘the people’ and ‘goals’ were the additional information given. For detailed

instances were as follows:

[Ahok] Voice over: di kampung Gantung, Belitung Timur

Subtitle: by the people of Gantung village in East Belitung.

[Ahok] Voice over: Tapi kita bisa memilih mimpi kita

Subtitle: However, we can determine our goals and dreams.

The subtitler also applied transmutatio strategies but the frequency was not more than

repetitio and adiectio, only 97. It occurred in pronoun changes and active-passive or vice

versa. The excerpt was as follows:

[Ahok] Voice over: Urang-urang di kampungku mengenalnya sebagai Tauke

Subtitle: In the village he was also known as “Tauke”

The excerpt showed that there was change from active to passive. Urang-urang means

people or villagers. People or villagers were subject which did an action ‘knew’ (active

voice) but in subtitling, it was changed into passive voice.

Detractio strategy did not occurr frequently which it was 73 times. The subtitler reduced or

diminished some irrelevant or uncessary information. It could be happened because of

temporal and space restriction. The instances were as follows:

[Ahok] Voice over: Tentu kalua ajak Bapak, Ibu melakukan aksi seperti itu

Subtitle: ...if you continue.

[Civil servant staff] Voice over: Ini pak Kim Nam.Saye bawa dokumen. Pak Kim Nam

harus tanda tangan

Subtitle: You need to sign the contract for the project.

The least strategy used was subtitio. Its occurrence was 47 times. The less subtitio use

indicated lack of paraphrasing process in rendering the message. It was used mostly for

rendering idioms, proverbs or saying. The strategy could be seen in the excerpt as follows:

[Ahok’s Dad] Voice over: Oknum-oknum itu benar-benar merepotkan

Subtitle: Those people are getting on my nerves.

The findings were not fully similar to the research conducted by Mollanazar et al. (2017).

They found that the dominant strategy used was repetitio (1495 occurrence). Respectively,

the other strategies were detractio (601), transmutatio (416), adiectio (358) and substitutio

(301). They showed detraction was used after repetitio because they urged that temporal and

spatial restriction influenced their way to render. On the other words, it fitted to the

subtitiling convention in terms of subtitling template Bogucki (2016).

Agustina & Joni: The Subtitling Strategies...

This study did not only find English subtitling but also some Indonesian subtitling. It

happened because some characters spoke Kek language (Mandarin language variation) and

Belitung language. The Belitung language sounds similar to Bahasa Indonesia such as urang-

urang (Belitung language) represented orang-orang (Bahasa Indonesia). It was found 31

utterances of Kek language. The instance was as follows:

[Civil servant staff] Voice over: Ni hao

Subtitle: Apa kabar?

How are you?

Table 1. Subtitling strategies of “A Man Called Ahok” film

Strategy Frequency

Repetitio 632

Adiectio 112

Detractio 73

Transmutatio 97

Substitutio 47

Total 961

E. CONCLUSION

The subtitiling which is part of audiovisual translation had different strategies. Based on

Debalastita’s (1989) theory on ancient rhetoric, the subtitling stragies comprise repetitio,

adiectio, detractitio, transmutatio and substitutio. In ‘A Man Callled Ahok’ film, the

subtitiling strategies have different occurrence. The most dominant ones are repetitio and

adictio. Then respectively the others are detraction, transmutation and substitution. The other

finding shows Indonesian subtitling also comes up because some Kek language is spoken.

Some characters not only speak Bahasa Indonesia but also Kek and Belitung language as

their mother tongue. It is found 31 utterances of Kek language.

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