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ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES IN THE ENGLISH


SUBTITLE OF THE MOVIE "KETIKA CINTA BERTASBIH 1"

Mujad Didien Afandi1, Nailul Authar2


1, 2
Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Surabaya, Indonesia
dinosetro74@unusa.ac.id,nailulauthar@unusa.ac.id

Received: September 30, 2021 Revised: October 20, 2021 Accepted: November 2, 2021

ABSTRACT

A mistake in translating a single word may cause thousands of deaths. An unimaginable fact that
mistranslation cost 80.000 lives in Japan in August 1945 proves that translating a text should be
taken into consideration and done carefully. Translating a source language (SL) into a target
language (TL) is problematic and not as simple as only transposing SL into TL because this
activity closely relates to different cultures. Therefore, this study is aimed at analyzing the
translation techniques in the English subtitle of the movie “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1”. This
qualitative study focuses on Molina and Albir’s translation techniques used in the English movie
subtitle. The primary data were collected from the dialogs and the English subtitle and selected
based on the translation problems. Furthermore, the data were analyzed and interpreted
descriptively to identify and explain why and how the translation techniques are used in the
English subtitle. This study found that five translation techniques were used to translate the
dialogs in bahasa Indonesia (SL) into English subtitle (TL). In the subtitle, this study found the use
of adaptation (10 times), transposition (9 times), borrowing (7 times), generalization (3 times) and
compensation (once). Those techniques were applied to solve problems in translation, such as
cultural differences, in equivalence, untranslatability, and grammatical differences. This study
concludes that the techniques proposed by Molina and Albir in 2002 have been a great
contribution in the field of translation. The cultural problems which lead to in equivalence and
untranslatability, as well as grammatical differences are no longer problematic to translators.

Keywords: translation techniques, cultural differences, source language, target language

INTRODUCTION

A mistake in translating a single word may cause thousands of deaths. An


unimaginable fact that mistranslation cost 80.000 lives in Japan in August 1945
proves that translating a text should be taken into consideration and done very
carefully, especially when a translator works on military documents. The New
York Times (1989) cited “Stuart Chase’s argument in his ''Power of Words'' about
the possibility of gross misunderstanding following the issuance of an ultimatum
by Truman, Churchill and Stalin at Potsdam calling for the Japanese to surrender.
Chase said the Japanese responded with the word ''mokusatsu,'' which was
intended to mean in context that they were reserving comment.” The translator
mistakenly translated the word and informed that the Japanese ignored or refused
to surrender. The inaccurate translation finally led to a fatal decision of bombing
Hiroshima with a nuclear weapon in the final year of World War II.
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Translating a language is problematic and not as simple as only


transposing a source language into a target language because this activity closely
relates to different cultures. The fact that approximately 7.000 languages exist in
the world shows that there are cultural differences in all over the world. People
with different nationalities living in different countries generally have different
cultures. Considering that language is always a part of culture, different cultures
are thus followed by different languages. The close relationship between culture
and language makes translation difficult and even gets complicated when a
translator must deal with cultural terms and idiomatic expressions which do not
exist in a target language.
In addition to the complexities of translation, the differences in grammar
among the languages in the world also bring another problem to a translator. For
example, the sentence structure in Arabic language is different from both English
and bahasa Indonesia. Arabic language uses VSO (verb-subject-object), whereas
the two latter languages share the same structure with SVO (subject-verb-object)
word order in their sentences as exemplified in the following Arabic sentence “‫يقرأ‬
‫( ”الكتاب المدرس‬yaqraʼu l-mudarrisu l-kitāba). The sentence starts with a verb
yaqraʼu meaning “to read” in English or “membaca” in bahasa Indonesia, which
is followed by a subject “mudarrisu” (teacher or guru) and an object “kitāba”
(book or buku). The difference in the sentence structure or word order is one of
the issues in translation among other differences in linguistic aspects, such as
noun clauses, compound words, two-word verbs and so forth.
Based on the issues showing the cultural and linguistic differences,
translation requires a deep understanding of both grammar and culture to produce
a good and accurate translation. A translator must have a mastery of the rules used
in languages involved in the activity of translating a text, in spite of the habits of
the people who use them. Therefore, this study is aimed at analyzing the
translation techniques in the English subtitle of the movie “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih
1” adapted from a novel written by Habiburrahman El Shirazy released in 2007.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Previous Study

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As this study is purposed to investigate the translation techniques used in


the English subtitle of the movie “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1”, reviewing previous
studies in the same field will be an advantage to identify the use of translation
techniques and explain why and how they are used to translate the Indonesian
spoken dialogs into the English subtitle.. Therefore, the following twoprevious
studies are expected to provide the supplemental background of knowledge and
information for conducting this study.
In 2016, Sari Zulfida conducted a study entitled “Translation Methods of
The Translation of Sapardi Djoko Damono’s Poems in English” to identify and
analyze the methods in the translation of Sapardi Djoko Damono’s anthology,
which contains a collection of his poems. However, the writer only analyzed the
titles of the poems. The results showed the use of the translation methods
proposed by Peter Newmark: word-for-word translation (32 titles), literal
translation (78 titles), free translation (9 titles), adaptation translation (1 title),
faithful translation (2 titles) and idiomatic translation (3 titles). However, semantic
translation and communicative translation method were not found in the
translation.
The second previous study entitled “Translation Techniques Analysis of
English-Indonesian Manual Book of Smartfren Andromax” was conducted by
Yosef Luman Christy (2016). In this study, he found eight techniques, namely
adaptation, amplification, pure borrowing, naturalized borrowing, calque,
generalization, literal translation, and description. The manual book containing the
technical terms has minimum cultural terms. Therefore, pure borrowing and
naturalized borrowing were the most dominant techniques found in the translation.
Concerning with the two previous studies, the writer conducts this study to
fill up the research gaps. The first previous study only analyzed the use of
methods in the translation of the poem titles. The second one studied the
translation techniques used in translating a smartphone manual book which has
few cultural terms. Conversely, this study is more challenging because it identifies
and analyzes the use of translation techniques in the English subtitle of an
Indonesian movie with full of cultural terms supported with the contexts which
are quite different and not found in the target language.

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Translation
Translation is an activity of transposing a source language (SL) into a
target language (TL) as in line with Newmark (1988) who defined the term as
rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author
intended the text. The main purpose of translation is therefore to transfer the ideas
of the author to the target readers by using the language they speak. To do this
job, a translator is responsible to produce a comprehensible and accurate
translation to transfer ideas in the source language by using target language as
precisely as possible.
Further, Catford (1978) defined translation as the replacement of textual
material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language
(TL). Translation refers to the activity of transforming a text written in a certain
language into a text written in another language as closely as possible. It means
that a translator must find words, phrases, and sentences from the target language
to substitute the source language accurately.
In this study, the object is the English subtitle of an Indonesian movie,
entitled “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1” adapted from a very popular novel written by
Habiburrahman El Shirazy in 2007. This movie is also targeted for a wider
consumption. Similarly, it is directed to English speakers throughout the world.
Hence, the translator should be able to transfer the messages and ideas through
dialogues spoken in bahasa Indonesia to the English speakers by accurately
translating those dialogues into English to reach equivalent meanings and effects.
However, translators often find problems when doing their jobs. Newmark
(1988) asserted “that the body of knowledge and of assumptions that exists about
translation is tentative, often controversial and fluctuating.” The various
translation methods, strategies, and techniques which overlap to one another
create problems in translation. However, the cultural differences followed by the
existence of thousands of languages with different dialects spoken in the world are
the major problems in translation.

Translation Problems
The close relationship between culture and language brings difficulties in
translation. Nida (2001) proposed the classification of culture by stating that

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“culture-loaded words is divided into 5 divisions, namely material culture-loaded


words, social culture-loaded words, religious culture-loaded words, ecological
culture-loaded words and language culture-loaded words.” Most translators have
the same arguments that cultural words are the big problems. He stated that “the
most serious mistakes in translation are not caused by improper expression of
words, but by wrong cultural assumptions.” (Nida, 2001)
Besides, inequivalence indeed becomes the major debatable topic in
translation. Catford (1978) stated that “the central problem of translation-practice
is that of finding TL translation equivalents”. Equivalence refers to the equivalent
level of meaning and style between the source text and the target text. Each
translation experts has his/her own concepts in perceiving equivalence in
translation. In other words, they have different concepts of equivalence. Nida
(1964) asserted that “there are two different types of equivalence, namely formal
equivalence—which in the second edition by Nida and Taber (1982) is referred to
as formal correspondence—and dynamic equivalence”.
Moreover, Nida and Taber (1982) claimed that “formal correspondence
focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content', unlike dynamic
equivalence which is based upon 'the principle of equivalent effect.” Formal
equivalence or formal correspondence focuses on the message itself in which the
target language resembles the source language in its form and content. In contrast,
dynamic equivalence focuses on the function in which the effect of the message in
the source language should bring the similar effect to the target language; thus the
target readers feel as if they are reading the source text. To Nida, the key to a good
translation is the dynamic equivalence because this type of equivalence pays
attention to the naturalness which can create the natural effect as it is found in the
source language.
Newmark agrees with Nida’s theory about the principle of equivalent
effect. Newmark (1988) stated that “it has sometimes been said that the overriding
purpose of any translation should be to achieve 'equivalent effect’, i.e. to produce
the same effect (or one as close as possible) on the readership of the translation as
obtained on the readership of the original.” However, Newmark (1988) also
argued that “'equivalent effect is the desirable result, rather than the aim of any
translation, bearing in mind that it is an unlikely result in two cases: (a) if the
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purpose of the SL text is to affect and the TL translation is to inform (or vice
versa); (b) if there is a pronounced cultural gap between the SL and the TL text.”
Moreover, untranslatability is closely related to inequivalence. In fact,
there are words which cannot be substituted by any words with equivalent
meanings in another language. Similarly, certain words in a source language do
not exist in a target language. For example, the Indonesian word “tempe” has no
equivalent word in English language. The following words are some Indonesian
slangs, “jayus”, “mager”, “gabut”, “jaim”, which also have no equivalent English
words. When finding those slang words, a translator often finds difficulties and
must think extra hard to translate them into English. Robinson (2020) defines
“untranslatability as a property of a text, or of any utterance, in one language, for
which no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language.” This
linguistic phenomenon shows a lexical gap among languages.
To overcome the problem, the creation of a translator is the answer. He or
she must creatively think to find the closest words in the target language for the
untranslatable words. Robinson (2020) also supports the argument by stating that
“transcreation skills are required rather than standard translation in order to
overcome untranslatability.” It means that a translator should translate them
innovatively to find the best words for the untranslatable. Robinson’s
transcreation idea is in line with Newmark (1988) asserting that “there are no
absolutes in translation, everything is conditional, any principle (e.g. accuracy)
may be in opposition to another (e.g. economy) or at least there may be tension
between them.” It means that there is no real equivalent translation.
Another problem in translation is grammatical differences. Languages do
not share the same grammatical rules. Only languages with the same origins may
have the similar grammar, but not exactly the same. As English belongs to the
West Germanic language, the grammar in both languages is similar. Whilst,
bahasa Indonesia and English are quite different in grammar because they do not
come from the same origins, even though they share the same sentence structure.
Both languages uses SVO pattern which begins most of the sentences with
subject, verb, and object.
The major difference between bahasa Indonesia and English is in the noun
phrase. It often brings a problem to students when translating noun phrases. In
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bahasa Indonesia, the key word (the modified word) of a noun phrase should be
come first and the modifier is put behind it, for example: gadis imut, wanita
cantik, and janda muda. In contrast, the construction of English noun phrases is
different in which the key word comes before the modifier, as exemplified in the
following phrases: cute girl, pretty woman, and young widow.

Translation Methods and Techniques


Translation method and technique are the two terms that are mistakenly
used interchangeably. Those two terms are quite different. Molina and Albir
(2002) asserted that “a distinction should be made between translation method,
that is part of the process, a global choice that affects the whole translation, and
translation techniques that describe the result and affect smaller sections of the
translation.” In addition, “translation method refers to the way a particular
translation process is carried out in terms of the translator’s objective, i.e., a global
option that affects the whole text.” (Molina and Albir, 2002) To simplify,
translation method is the umbrella word for translation technique which refers to
the entire process of translation. On the other hand, translation technique deals
with how a translator translates each part of a text.
Nida (2002), identified “four translation methods, namely: interpretative-
communicative (translation of the sense), literal (linguistic transcodification), free
(modification of semiotic and communicative categories) and philological
(academic or critical translation).” Since this study focuses on analyzing the
translation techniques, the writer finds not necessary to include the detailed
explanation about those methods.
Molina and Albir (2002) and Nida (2002) proposed eighteen techniques
that a translator can use to translate a source language to a target language. The
translation techniques are as follows: (1) adaptation, (2) amplification, (3)
borrowing, (4) calque, (5) compensation, (6) description, (7) discursive creation,
(8) established equivalent, (9) generalization, (10) linguistic amplification, (11)
linguistic compression, (12) literal translation, (13) modulation, (14)
particularization, (15) reduction, (16) substitution, (17) transposition, and (18)
variation.

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MATERIALS AND METHODS

The focus of this study was to identify and explain how the translation
techniques are used in the movie English subtitle. The writer found out that
qualitative study is the most appropriate design to conduct this study. It is in line
with the claim made by Creswell (2012) that in qualitative research, “the inquirer
seeks to gather information on a single concept—a central phenomenon”, then
explores the translation techniques as the central phenomenon of this study.
Moreover, Creswell (2012) asserted that “the researcher seeks a deep
understanding of the views of one group or single individuals.” Aimed at
providing an understanding, this qualitative study enables the writer to conduct
data analysis and provide detailed explanations about how the translation
techniques are used in the movie subtitle.
Creswell (2012) stated that “the qualitative researcher seeks to explore and
understand one single phenomenon, and to do so requires considering all of the
multiple external forces that shape this phenomenon. To give a deep
understanding of the use of the translation techniques in the movie subtitle, this
study reveals why and how those techniques are used to provide accurate
translation of the movie subtitle. By wrapping this study using qualitative design,
this study can effectively and efficiently expose the contributing factors in
translation, such as the contexts and the socio-cultural aspects which deal with the
use of the translation techniques.
Since this is a qualitative study, the data appeared in the form of words,
phrases, and sentences which were transcribed from the spoken dialogues in
bahasa Indonesia and the English subtitle. The data were obtained from the movie
“Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1” accessible on a Youtube channel in the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzdPpUO92U0.
While watching the movie, the writer focused not only on the dialogs
spoken in bahasa Indonesia but also on the English subtitle provided in the movie.
The spoken dialogs were transcribed and the English subtitle was taken into notes
to facilitate the data analysis. Those data were then presented in a table.
The collected data were selected by using criteria which deal with the
predefined translation problems. This study only selected the data which matched

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the problems, namely cultural differences, inequivalence, untranslatability, and


grammatical differences.
After collecting the data, the next step to be conducted was data analysis
as the main stage of the study. Data analysis was divided into several steps
described as follows:
1. Reading the data from the spoken dialogs in the source language (bahasa
Indonesia) and the data from the English subtitle in the target language
(English)
2. Selecting and classifying the data in a table based on the translation techniques
3. Identifying and analyzing the translation techniques found in the English
subtitle
4. Providing explanations why and how the techniques are used in the English
subtitle
5. Drawing the conclusion.

RESULT

In the English subtitle of the movie “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1”, this study
found that the translator used various techniques to render bahasa Indonesia as the
source language (SL) into English as the target language (TL). The following
table describes the use of various translation techniques in the English subtitle of
the movie, namely adaptation, transposition, borrowing, generalization and
compensation.

NO SOURCE TARGET LANGUAGE TRANSLATION CODE


LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES AND
(English Subtitle)
(Indonesian
TIME OF
Spoken Dialogs)
OCCURE
NCE

1 Mas Azam Bro Azam Adaptation Datum 1


(05.53)

2 Mbak El Sis El Adaptation Datum 2

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(05.56)

3 Aku masih harus I still have to work. Generalization Datum 3


mengawal acara. (06.04)

4 Aku sampai I’ve called you 27 Compensation Datum 4


ngebel 27 kali ke times to your room, but (07.03)
kamarnya mas no answer.
Azam, tapi nggak
diangkat-angkat.

5 Aku sampai I’ve called you 27 Adaptation Datum 5


ngebel 27 kali ke times to your room, but (07.03)
kamarnya mas no answer.
Azam, tapi nggak
diangkat-angkat.

6 Ada yang perlu I’ve important thing to Transposition Datum 6


kita bicarain… talk to Bro Azzam involves moving (07.08)
hal penting from one
grammatical
category to another
without changing
the meaning of the
text.

7 Mbak El sudah Sis El, have you Pure Borrowing Datum 7


sholat? sholat? (07.11)

8 Sambal khas Yogya’ special sambal Pure Borrowing Datum 8


Yogya (08.12)

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9 Dikit pak Ali … Just a few will make Adaptation Datum 9


biar lebih mantap. more delicious. (09.15)

10 Enaknya makan More delicious if we Adaptation Datum 10


pakai “pulukan” eat by hand (09.59)

11 Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Pure Borrowing Datum 11


(11.51)

12 Ana yakin antum I’m really sure you will Adaptation Datum 12
bisa menjadi be a great guy. (12.05)
entrepreneur yang
hebat.

13 Ana yakin antum I’m really sure you will Generalization Datum 13
bisa menjadi be a great guy. (12.05)
entrepreneur yang
hebat

14 Syukurlah Lucky you Adaptation Datum 14


(12.43)

15 Hampir semua I almost knew all Transposition Datum 15


mahasiswa Kairo Indonesian students in (15.11)
asli Indonesia Kairo
…saya kenal

16 Solehah Soleehah Naturalized Datum 16


Borrowing (15.38)

17 Saya pikir yang I think she deserves Transposition Datum 17


cocok sama dia you (15.55)
tuh sampeyan ini
mas Azzam

18 Dia langganan He is my tempe Pure Borrowing Datum 18


tempe saya subscriber (16.32)

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19 Kita cari Let’s buy food Generalization Datum 19


ta’meyya abilbeit (17.06)
(a typical Cairo
food)

20 Terbayang- Her face is always in Transposition Datum 20


bayang terus my mind. (44.05)
wajah dia

21 Toko buku Darut Where’s Darut Tauziah Transposition Datum 21


Tuaziah dimana bookstore? (48.52)
ya?

22 Surat-surat Important papers Adaptation Datum 22


penting (50.21)

23 Itu di kulkas ada There are fruits in the Transposition Datum 23


buah refrigerator (53.32)

24 Kamu tahu … You know ... he paid Transposition Datum 24


ongkos rumah all the cost of care at (53.46)
sakit itu dia juga the hospital yesterday
yang nanggung.

25 Makasih ya Bang Thanks Bro Adaptation Datum 25


(54.18)

26 Dari seluruh Hafiz is the master of Transposition Datum 26


orang Palembang all Palembang people (54.21)
yang ada di in making Pempek
Mesir, dialah
jagonya.

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27 Hafiz nih pandai Hafiz is the master of Pure Borrowing Datum 27


sekali bikin all Palempang people (54.21)
pempek. Dari in making pempek
seluruh orang
Palembang yang
ada di Mesir,
dialah jagonya

28 Sinetron yang Where’s the latest soap Transposition Datum 28


terbaru opera shooting? (01.25.06)
shootingnya
dimana, Mbak?

29 Para ulama The ulamas Pure Borrowing Datum 29


(01.46.22)

30 Tidak pernah …never been co-wife Adaptation Datum 30


dimadu (01.49.18)

Table 1. Translation Techniques in the English Subtitle

DISCUSSION

As seen in Table 1, this study describes the use of five translation


techniques in the English subtitle of the movie “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1”. The
most frequent technique used by the translator is adaptation, whereas
compensation technique is the least used. The detail use of the techniques is
described as follows: the first technique, called adaptation, was used 10 times.
Transposition technique appeared 9 times. The translator used pure borrowing
technique 7 times, whereas generalization technique was used 3 times. The last
technique was compensation which was the least used (once) by the translator to
render the movie dialogs spoken in bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) into
English.

Adaptation Technique

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In this study, adaptation is the most frequent technique used in the English
subtitle because this technique provides solutions to translation problems dealing
with cultural differences between the source language (SL) and the target
language (TL). Molina and Albir (2002: 500) claimed that adaptation refers to
replacing a cultural element in a SL text with the one originating from TL culture
to make the translation of the original more familiar in the TL. The technique that
refers to cultural substitution or cultural equivalent is a cultural element which
replaces the original text with one that is better suited to the culture of the target
language. Adaptation technique appears in the following data.

Datum1:
SL: Mas Azzam
TL: Bro Azzam

Datum 2:
SL: Mbak El
TL: Sis El

Datum 12:
SL: Ana yakin antum bisa menjadi entrepreneur yang hebat.
TL: I’m really sure you will be a great guy.

Datum 25:
SL: Makasih ya Bang
TL: Thanks Bro

As a product of eastern culture, bahasa Indonesia provides the degree of


politeness to address older people or respect someone. As described in Datum 1,
Datum 2, and Datum 3, the cultural words mas, mbak, and bang have no
equivalent translation in the target language because English users normally call
one’s name without any titles. This creates inequivalence and untranslatability
problems. Thus, the translator used adaptation technique to maintain the
politeness by using the terms “bro” and “sis”.
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Adaptation also appears in Datum 5 in which Indonesian people usually


use the verb mengangkat telepon to answer a telephone call. Instead of using the
phrase to pick the phone, the translator used the phrase no answer. Both of the
phrases have the same ideas. Therefore, they are still equivalent in meaning.

Datum 5:
SL: Aku sampai ngebel 27 kali ke kamarnya mas Azam, tapi nggak
diangkat-angkat.
TL: I’ve called you 27 times to your room, but no answer.

In Datum 9, 10, 14, and 22, the translator has to create a new situation that
can be considered as being equivalent when translating the Indonesian word
mantap into delicious because English users do not commonly use the word
steady to describe the taste of food. The translator transformed the word mantap
into “delicious” to maintain the context, and thus provides a good understanding.
Whilst in Datum 10, the Indonesian word pulukan is best translated into the
phrase “by hand” to maintain the equivalence between SL and TL.

Datum 9:
SL: Dikit pak Ali … biar lebih mantap.
TL: Just a few will make more delicious.

Datum 10:
SL: Enaknya makan pakai “pulukan”
TL: More delicious if we eat by hand

Datum 14:
SL: Syukurlah
TL: Lucky you

Datum 22:
SL: Surat-surat penting
TL: Important papers
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Hatim & Munday (2004: 151), adaptation is used in those cases where
the type of situation being referred to by the SL message is unknown in the TL
culture. Since untranslatability problem occurs in Datum 30 in which the
Indonesian term dimadu in the context of polyginy does not exist in English, the
use of “co-wife” is appropriate and provides an equivalent meaning. The term
dimadu refers to the husband’s practice of marrying two or more wives.

Transposition Technique
Molina & Albir (2002: 511) argued that transposition as changing the
grammatical category. Concerning with the grammatical differences between SL
and TL, transposition technique can be applied to translate bahasa Indonesia into
English by changing the structure of sentences in TL without changing the
meaning. In “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1”, transposition technique appears 9 times
in Datum 6, 15, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, and 28 as exemplified below:

Datum 6:
SL: Ada yang perlu kita bicarain… hal penting.
TL: I’ve important thing to talk to Bro Azzam.

Datum 15:
SL: Hampir semua mahasiswa Kairo asli Indonesia …saya kenal.
TL: I almost knew all Indonesian students in Kairo.

In Datum 6, a change in structure of the sentence in TL is clearly identified


by observing the position of the phrase “important thing”. Conversely, the
Indonesian phrase (hal penting) is put at the end of the utterance in SL. This
translation technique makes the English subtitle flow well, and thus provides
better understanding for English users who watch the movie. Moreover, the data
in Datum 15 as well as 17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, and 28 also illustrate a change in the
structure of the sentence in TL. The spoken language through dialogs in the movie
does not follow the grammar. However, it sounds natural in conversational
communication.
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Besides, the noun phrase formation in bahasa Indonesia seen in Datum 6 is


different from English. In bahasa Indonesia, the keyword always precedes the
modifier as appears in the phrase hal penting. On the other hand, the modifier
always precedes the keyword in English as exemplified in the phrase “important
thing”. In this case, a difference of positioning nouns in SL and TL is obvious.
Hence, to make the translation result easier to understand, a translator can use
transposition technique.

Borrowing Technique
Molina & Albir (2002: 499) stated that borrowing as a word taken directly
from another language. This technique is divided into two types: pure borrowing
and naturalized borrowing. To use pure borrowing technique, a translator only
borrows the term used in SL and re-uses it in TL without using any modifications
at all. In contrast, a translator can apply naturalized borrowing technique by
modifying the spelling or the pronunciation.
The use of pure borrowing technique appears in Datum 7, 8, 11, 18, 27,
and 29. In Datum 7, the term sholat which is derived from Arabic language was
not translated into the word “prayer”. Instead, the translator used pure borrowing
to avoid confusion between the worshiping activities of Muslim prayer, namely
salat and du’a. Salat and du’a are two different terms. Salat is an activity of
worshipping Allah that must be compulsorily performed five times a day by a
Muslim, whereas du’a is an activity of invocation, or requesting/asking help from
Allah. Therefore, the translator does not transpose the term sholat.
Datum 11 contains the word alhamdulillah that literally means “praise be
to Allah”. In English, it is commonly translated into “thank God”. In this case, the
translator once again used pure borrowing technique by keeping the same word in
the English subtitle. Since the movie is intended to wrap the story in Islam
teachings, using the same word “alhamdulillah” is one of the ways to share the
Islamic term.
In Datum 8, the Indonesian food called sambal is the typical Indonesian
chili-based sauce that does not exist in English culture. However, it is not actually
like sauce western people used to eat. It is a cultural term that has no equivalent
term in TL. Hence, it is best translated by using pure borrowing technique without
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making any changes. Similarly, pure borrowing is the solution to avoid


misleading meaning.
On the other hand, Datum 16 illustrates the use of naturalized borrowing
by modifying the spelling. Instead of using the same exact term by using pure
borrowing technique, the term “solehah” was modified by doubling the vowel “e”
to fit the spelling rules in TL. The minor spelling modification will not cause any
misunderstanding because both terms “solehah” and soleehah have only a slight
difference.
Datum 7:
SL: Mbak El sudah sholat?
TL: Sis El, have you sholat?

Datum 8:
SL: Sambal khas Yogya
TL: Yogya’ special sambal

Datum 11:
SL: Alhamdulilah
TL: Alhamdulillah

Datum 16:
SL: Solehah
TL: Soleehah

Generalization Technique
When TL has no equivalent term to translate specific terms in SL, a
translator can use generalization technique. The cultural differences lead to
translation problems, such as inequivalence and untranslatability. In
generalization technique, the use of hypernyms or superordinate terms to
generalize the meaning and make the meaning more acceptable and
comprehensible is possible. It is in line with the claim made by Molina & Albir
(2002: 510) who defined generalization as using a more general or neutral term in

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the target language. This study found the use of generalization in Datum 3, 13,
and 19 as presented below.

Datum 3:
SL: Aku masih harus mengawal acara.
TL: I still have to work.

Datum 13:
SL: Ana yakin antum bisa menjadi entrepreneur yang hebat.
TL: I’m really sure you will be a great guy.

Datum 19:
SL: Kita cari ta’meyya abilbeit (a typical Cairo food).
TL: Let’s buy food.

Datum 3, 13, and 19 exemplify the use of generalization in translation. The


sentences in SL using specific terms (“mengawal acara”, “entrepreneur”, and
“ta’meyya abilbeit”) are rendered in English by using more general term to
simplify the meaning. For example, a typical Cairo food, named ta’meyya abilbeit
is translated into food in general. Yet, the results obtained by the use of
generalization technique cause the semantic meanings to lose because the
meanings are not equivalent. Despite the inequivalence in meaning, this technique
is applicable in free translation method usually applied in translating movies and
songs.

Compensation Technique
The translation technique lastly discussed in this study is compensation
technique which appear only once in the English subtitle, especially in Datum 4.
Molina & Albir (2002: 500) stated that compensation takes place when an item of
information or a stylistic effect from the ST (source text) that cannot be
reproduced in the same place in the TT (target text) is introduced elsewhere in the
TT (target text). In relation with untranslatability problem, compensation

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technique is applied to translate terms that cannot be translated, yet their nuances
are expressed somewhere else within the text.

Datum 4:
SL: Aku sampai ngebel 27 kali ke kamarnya mas Azam, tapi nggak
diangkat-angkat.
TL: I’ve called you 27 times to your room, but no answer.

In English, the pronoun “you” is used to address the partner in speaking,


whereas there are informal and formal versions in French (tu and vous), in
German (du and sie) and in Spanish (tú and usted). To maintain the politeness,
Indonesian culture also provides the degree of formality which is expressed in
several ways, but not present in English.
To maintain politeness, an Indonesian girl is not supposed to use the
pronoun “you” to address a boy whom she does not know very well. Instead, the
use of mas followed by the name is more acceptable to maintain the politeness as
exemplified in Datum 4. Conversely, English users do not assume the use of
“you” by a girl to address a boy as something impolite. In other words, it is
common and acceptable. Hence, a translator has freedom to replace elements that
are inherent in SL with items that are native to TL when using compensation
technique. However, a translator who uses compensation technique must have a
deeper knowledge of the source and target languages, as well as the ability to have
a higher level of understanding that goes beyond literal translation.

CONCLUSION

As the demands on translation services are increasing, a translator needs to


consider problems in translation. The study is aimed at identifying the translation
techniques applied in the English subtitle of the well-known Indonesian movie
released in 2009 “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1” and explaining the reasons why the
translator used the techniques as well as explaining the implementation of those
translation techniques.
This study finds five translation techniques in the English subtitle. Those
are adaptation, transposition, borrowing, generalization, and compensation.
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Adaptation technique is dominantly used (10 times) in the English subtitle


because the movie is full of Indonesian cultural terms. Transposition is also
frequently used (9 times) because of the grammatical differences between the
source language (bahasa Indonesia) and the target language (English). Borrowing
technique appears 7 times, whereas generalization technique occurs 3 times. The
last technique is compensation which is only used once.
This study also exposes some common problems in the field of translation,
such as cultural differences, inequivalence, untranslatability, and grammatical
differences. Unarguably, the cultural differences cause other problems in
translation, namely inequivalence, untranslatability, and grammatical differences.
The source language and the target language come from different cultures which
definitely make translation activity more challenging because many terms in the
source language have no equivalent meaning in the target language, thus leading
to untranslatability. Moreover, the grammatical differences also make translation
more complicated.
The five translation techniques written earlier are applied in different ways
to solve the problems in translation. First, adaptation technique, which refers to
the cultural substitution or cultural equivalent, is a technique used to solve
problems dealing with cultural elements. It is used by replacing the source
language with one that is better suited to the culture of the target language.
Second, transposition is used to fill the gaps resulting from grammatical
differences in both languages. Third, borrowing is the solution when certain terms
are not translatable. Next, generalization is used to simplify the meanings.
Finally, compensation is used by involving the stylistics effects in the target
language.

This study has been set to the limitation of using Molina and Albir’s
translation techniques used to analyze the English subtitle of the movie "Ketika
Cinta Bertasbih 1". Therefore, it is recommended for future researchers to
conduct further studies using other techniques proposed by other experts in the
field of translation. Moreover, the movie as the object of this study also provides
limited techniques involved in translating spoken language into the English
subtitle. Thus, more studies should be conducted to analyze the translation
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techniques in other movies which are full of cultural elements and more
challenging problems in translation.

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How to Cite (APA style):

Didien, Mujad. (2021,November). Analysis of Translation Techniques in The English Subtitle


of the Movie "Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1". Exposure: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris,
10(2), 358-380. https://journal.unismuh.ac.id/index.php/exposure/article/view/6105

Volume 10 (2) November 2021, page 358-380


Copyright ©2021, ISSN: 2252-7818 E-ISSN: 2502-3543

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