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A TRANSLATION ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH PUN IN
THE SERIAL TV “ALLY MACBEAL” SEASON 1-3
Thesis Submitted as a partial fulfillment of requirement For the Under Degree at English Department Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts Sebelas Maret University
By:
Dinar Fitria Rushadi
C 1307504
NON REGURAL PROGRAM OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
2012
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A TRANSLATION ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH PUN IN
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PRONOUNCEMENT
I pronounce that the thesis entitled “A Translation Analysis of English Pun in the
Serial TV Ally MacBeal Season 1-3” is originally made by the researcher. It is not a
plagiarism nor is it made by other people. The things related to other people’s word
are written in quotation and included in the bibliography. If this pronouncement is
proved incorrect in the future, the researcher is ready to take the responsibility.
Surakarta, The pronouncer
Dinar Fitria Rushadi
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MOTTO
Money cannot substitute hard work and cleverness
(::: The Little Rascal:::)
When people are highly motivated it’s easy to accomplish the impossible. But, when they are not motivated, it is difficult to accomplish the easy
(::: R F Kennedy :::)
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DEDICATION
This thesis is dedicated to:
My beloved parents, My brother, Lingga Galang Rushadi
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Alhamdulillahirabbilalamin,
All the praises are to the great creator, Almighty Allah SWT, for His great
blessing. He makes everything that seems impossible to be possible and changes a
thing that seems unfortunate to be fortunate in my life. I sure that without blessing of
The Almighty Allah SWT this thesis cannot done successfully. I, too, would like to
give my sincere gratitude to people in the following list who helping me during the
process of writing this thesis.
1. Drs. Riyadi Santosa. M.Ed,. Ph,D the Dean of Faculty of Letter and Fine Arts,
Sebelas Maret University
2. Drs. S. Budi Waskito, M. Pd, the Head of English Non-Regular Program of
Faculty of Letter and Arts, Sebelas Maret University
3. My biggest thank is aiming to Mrs. Dyah Ayu Nila Khrisna, S. S, M. Hum as
my thesis consultant. Thanks for your kindly assistance and patience during
this long process.
4. Dra. Endang as my academic supervisor, thanks for the helpful advice during
my study in English Department
5. Prof. Drs. M. R. Nababan, M.Ed, M. A, Ph,D, thanks for the advice and
enlightening consultation.
6. Mr. Iman Setiadji, thanks for giving me ideas to do this interesting topic with
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7. Mr. Hans Beutenmuller, thanks for validating my data during your hectic
schedule
8. Big thanks to the three key informants, this research cannot be done without
your help.
9. I have to thanks to my parents for my success. I am nobody without their
uncountable pray and support. I want to say thank to my brother for
manipulating my pic so I finally succeed in getting that “hot seat”. Seize your
dreams accordance to Allah SWT ways.
10. My thank are also aiming for the girls, CC: Annisa Kusuma Jati and Ogy
Rhea my fellas, Octavia Rianawati Tyala Ndoda and Andhin Kusuma
Wardhani, my homemate. Aak Ayi Sopiandi my cowoker.
11. Ary Wibowo thanks for sharing every single part of this life. I hope Allah
SWT always blesses your path.
12. I give my great thank to My ex-housemate Indahnya Mulya, for sharing
everything. We learnt a tons gal. Thanks to Lucky as my old friend and proof
readers for checking my grammar.
13. To my entire friends in English Non-regular: Kupret, Budy, Setyo, Ehud,
Mirror, Santi and so on (who cannot be listed one by one, sorry if your names
are not listed here), your friendly relationship is always kept in the deep down
of my heart.
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14. The administration division of Immigration office Surabaya: Dra Elida M
Sihombing and Dra. Endang Soetrisni thanks for giving a chance to finish this
final project. Mr Eko Budianto, SH., Msi (P2L) thanks to inspiring me what
means of balance life. I believe that whatever I have done are nothing to lose,
Finally, I certainly realize that this thesis is still far being perfect because The
Perfection merely belongs to Allah SWT. I welcome some constructive critics and
advices which may be beneficial for this research or others.
The writer,
Dinar Fitria Rushadi
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE APPROVAL OF THE CONSULTANT ...... i
THE APPROVAL OF THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS ...... ii
PRONOUNCEMENT ...... iii MOTTO ...... iv DEDICATION ...... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... vii LIST OF TABLES ...... viii ABSTRACT ...... ix
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 A. Research Background ...... 1 B. Research Problems ...... 8 C. Research Objectives ...... 8 D. Research Limitation ...... 8
E. Research Benefit ...... 8
F. Thesis Organization ...... 9
CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 11
A. Translation ...... 11
A.1. Definition of Translation ...... 11
A.2. Subtitling ...... 12
A.3. Problem in Subtitling…………………………………………..14
B. Translation Quality Assessment (TQA)…………………………….15
Wordplay or Pun ...... 17
C. 1. Definition of Pun ...... 17
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C.2. Types of Pun ...... 19
C.3. Constraint in Translating Pun ...... 21
C.4. Translation Technique of Pun ...... 24
C. The Short Story of Ally MacBeal ……………………………...... 29
D. Relevant Study……………………………………………………...31
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY ...... 33 A. Research Type and Design ...... 33 B. Data and Source Data ...... 33 C. Sample and Sampling Technique ...... 34 D. Method of Data Collection ...... 35 E. Research Procedure ...... 37
CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS ...... 39 A. Types of Pun ...... 39 A.1. Vertical and Horizontal Pun…………………………………...40 A.1.1. Vertical Pun………………………………….………………41
A.1.2. Horizontal Pun...…………………………………………… 44
A.2. Types of Pun Based on Formal Similiarity ...... 47
A.2.1. Homonymy/ Polysemy ...... 49
A.2.2. Homophony………………………………………………... 54
A.2.3. Paronymy……………………………………………………58
A.2.4. Naming Pun………………………………………………... 62
B. Translation Techniques…………………………………………… 65
B.1. A SL Pun Translated Into Similar TL Pun……….…………...66
B.2. A SL Pun Copied Into TL Pun………………………………...69
B.3. A Pun Translated Into a Non- Pun but Keeping One Sense
Ambiguity Only…………………………………………….... 72
B.4. A Pun Translated Into A Punoid or Pseudo-wordplay Through commit to user xi perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
The Adaptation of Rhetorical Devices Especially Rhyme…….76
C. Accuracy……………………………………………………………78
C.1. Accurate Translation………………………………………….80
C.2. Less accurate Translation……………………………………..82
D. Acceptability………………………………………………………..86 D.1. Acceptable Translation………………………………………87 D.2. Less Acceptable Translation…………………………………89 CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION…………..93 A. Conclusion………………………………………………………...93 B. Recommendation …………………………………………………96
BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX
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LIST OF TABLES
1.1. The number of vertical and horizontal pun in TV series Ally Macbeal.……34
1.2. Types of pun in the source of data………. …………………………………48
1.3. The number of translation techniques used are clearly…………………..….66 1.4. The classification of accurate translation…………. ………………………..79 1.5. The classification of acceptable translation ………………………………...87
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ABSTRACT
Dinar Fitria Rushadi, C 1307504. 2012. A Translation Analysis of English Pun in the TV Serial “Ally MacBeal” Season 1-3. Under Graduate Thesis, Surakarta.
English Department, Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University.
This thesis emphasizes on the phenomenon of pun which is taken from TV series “Ally MacBeal” season 1-3. It is conducted to investigate the types of pun, the translation techniques used by the translator and to rate accuracy and acceptability level. The research objectives are to describe the types of pun, to find out the translation technique applied by translator, and assess the accuracy and acceptability level on the translated pun. Descriptive qualitative research design is used on this research. It means that this research merely describes the fact which is seen on the source of data. In this research, the data are dialogues containing pun which are taken from TV series “Ally MacBeal” season 1-3 by using purposive sampling. In gaining data, researcher employs two methods of data collection, they are content analysis and in depth interview which use questionnaire namely open-ended questionnaire as instrument. In order to get reliable result, those questionnaires, later on, are distributed to the three key informants. From total data 23 (100%), there are 19 data (82, 6%) classified into vertical pun and the rest 4 data (13,4%) are horizontal pun. Meanwhile, based on degree of similarity there are five types of pun: paronymic 15 (65, 21%), homophonic 3 (13,04%), polysemic 2 (8, 75%), nicknaming 2 (8, 75%) and homonymic 1 (4, 35%). In this research, there are four translation techniques applied: a SL pun translated into
a similar TL pun, a SL pun copied into TL pun, a pun translated into a non-pun but keeping one of sense ambiguity only, and a pun translated into a punoid or pseudo- wordplay through the adaptation of rhetorical devices especially rhymes. The result
of open-ended questionnaire to accuracy level shows that mostly of English pun are rendered accurately in Indonesia by average on the point 1.3. There are 13 (56, 52%) accurate translation and 10 (43, 48%) data are less accurate translation. While, open-
ended questionnaire to acceptability level shows that only a few of English pun are translated naturally in Indonesia. The average of acceptability level is on the 1.5
which are 16 (69, 57%) data are less acceptable pun and 7 (30, 43%) data are acceptable pun. The researcher recommends to enrich translator abilities in order to strategies
in translating certain pun. Since this study is taken source of data from audio-visual media, the researcher suggests to conduct other researcher uses printed document
such as: comic, ads and novel as source of data. Change the problem statements are also highly recommended in order to enlarge the scope of this study.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Research Background
In the old period, English – speaking communities regard pun as the lowest
form of humor. In line to this phenomenon, the word pun has been used in English at
least since 1550, as stated by Samuel Johnson disparagingly referred to punning as
the lowest form of humors (taken from www.wikipedia.org/pun.com). In contrast,
Delabatista argues “wordplay is traditionally defined as deliberate communication
strategy, or the result thereof, used with the specific semantic or pragmatic in mind”.
The definition of pun is also quoted from Wikipedia, “A pun or paramosia, is a form
of wordplay that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar sounding words for
humorous or rhetorical effect. Such ambiguity may arise from the intentional misuse
of homophonical, homograpical, polysemic, metonymic or metaphorical language”. It
can be assumed that the definition of pun gives different perspective about pun itself.
In fact, pun is kind of clever and sharp play on the system of language. It lies on the
play of some of linguistic subject matter, such as semantic, pragmatic and phonology.
In a consequence, sometimes, puns will be easily identified by ears and eyes, but
there are also many puns which have implicit meaning on the use of double meaning.
Punning needs more than just awareness, but also a depth knowledge and
experience. Moreover, Farb (1974: 90) states as follows:
All obscene puns have the same underlying construction in that
they consist of two elements. The first element set the stage for the pun by offering seemingly harmless material, such as title of book, commit to user
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The Tiger Revenge. But the second element either is obscene in it self or renders the first element obscene, as in the name of the author of The Tigers Revenge --- Claude Bawls (“clawed balls”).
Pun presents a fact that it is contain two layers of element or more. First is the real
word and second is word with connotation. It makes pun sound ambiguous in first
reading. In recent use, pun hides taboo word beyond innocent meaning. Nowadays,
pun is a life style which turns into a culture. It is not denied that pun becomes one of
interesting phenomena in human society, particularly in English speech community.
Translating pun is not only rendered the message from TL in SL, but also its
translation works beyond communication between different cultures. It deals with the
depth understanding across the language, linguistic system, dialect and culture. As
stated by Riccardi (2000: 65), “in social situation of kind considered translating fill
the task of facilitating the interaction between speakers of different language”.
Moreover, translation also has a task to bridge mutual communication between
speakers of different language. Mutual communication itself may involve more than
just making correct explanation and prediction. It also involves feeling and emotional
sense to translate.
Since translating pun is related to linguistic matter especially semantic and
pragmatic, translating English pun is not common translation. Pun is used either as
humor and innuendo. In translating pun, a translator should be aware and sensitive in
any types of pun. The difficulty in translating pun is to keep the pun accurate and
acceptable in TL, due to the different culture between SL and TL. The important
point in translating pun is always related to the context. It is related to how the
speaker organizes what she/he wants to say in accordance to who, where, when, and commit to user
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what circumstances are. In relation to this research, Graham (in Delabastita, 2002: 25)
states as follows:
Whether phonetic, syntactic, semantic, or pragmatic in kind, the
phenomena of language are intensional. They are descriptions according to rule, so that the real or right form and meaning for a word depend on the grammar. And just as language is relative to
grammar, so grammar is relative to context, in that the real or right grammar for an utterance depends on the context.
Inevitably, the wide range of intensional language becomes challenge of translating
pun. Those matters make pun on danger zone and may affect untranslatable on its
pun. In further explanation related to translation and pun, Delabatista also states that:
However, what makes the case of translating special is that here so many different and usually such conflicting constrain(formal one as well as semantic and pragmatic ones) crowd in on the translator in the narrow textual space of a words that need to prioritize becomes much more acute than in „ordinary translation‟. (Delabastita, 2002: 11)
In recent day, pun exists in the screen such as movie and TV programme.
There are many movies or TV programme (live show, sit-com, ads) exploit pun or
wordplay for many purposes. When wordplay or pun appears in the movie or TV,
subtitling is one of vehicle to bridge the communication. According to Baker:
Subtitles, sometimes referred to as captions are transcription of film or TV dialogue presented simultaneously on the screen. Subtitling usually consists of
one or two lines of an average maximum length 35 characters, which can be placed at the bottom of the picture and are either centered or left-aligned.
Baker. (2001: 245).
Subtitling deals with some requirements which must be considered by subtitling-
translator. Dewi delivers that “…a line should consist 30-35 character or 40
keyboard spaces. A single line subtitle requires at least 2.5 second and maximum 3
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seconds while a double line subtitle requires at least 5 seconds and maximum 6
seconds”. Collection of Unedited Conference Paper .(2005: 106). For some reasons,
subtitling is not easy task to do as it is explained earlier. The more crucial problem in
pun subtitling is the detail called as a frame of reference, like Gotlieb statement,
“With respect to frame of reference, wordplay on television may refer to text-internal
entities (everything which is said, or shown/written on the screen) or text-external
ones (knowledge of people, social events, cultural institutions, etc that the audience
may posses prior to viewing the programme)”. (Gotlieb in Delabastita, 2002: 210-
211). Related to this case, the researcher merely did a research on the text-internal as
a part of frame of reference. Surely, text-external is an inherent part that cannot be
separated and becomes a proof of the existence of wordplay or pun.
Clearly, the use of pun related to this research will be described in the
example below, as follows:
Source language (SL)
Richard Fish : Love. You can't bank on it. It's an unsafe bridge. The onIy
thing you can reaIIy take to the bank: money. Ally Macbeal : PiIes. Richard Fish : Make enough money, everything eIse wiII foIIow. Quote
me. It's a Fishism.
Translated in Target Language (TL) as follows:
Richard Fish : Cinta. Kau tak bisa mengandalkannya. Jembatan yang tak
aman. 1 hal yang bisa kau bawa ke bank hanya uang. Ally Macbeal : Timbunan. Richard Fish : Buat banyak uang, yang lain akan mengikuti. Ingat kata-
kataku itu Fishisme.
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In this scene, Richard, senior coworker gives an skeptical advice to Ally that
love is never trusted. He believes that the only thing which makes people happy is
money. At the first look, the rhyming word bank-river and bank-money may be eye
catching and seems to be a pun, but, in fact it is merely good lines (to further
explanation take a look literature review). The pun here is on the word „Fishism‟. In
this case, Richard plays on his family name which is fish. Fishism is used as if it was
an ideology or belief by adding suffix (–ism) to form the noun, like on the words
fascism, realism and etc. Even, this case also exists in Indonesia, for instance, Oi
(Orang Indonesia) fans of Iwan Fals named their fanaticism into Falsisme that is
derived from Fals and –ism.
Such word of “Fishsm“ is a kind of homophony pun, the two words have
identical sound but have different spelling. It can be seen that the translator keeps the
pun of SL into TL in order to get the same effect of sound from “Fish” and
“Fishism”. Mostly, pun play on the sound called as Homophony pun. Cracking the
meaning of pun without ruin the effect is surely hard task to do. On the homophony
pun, usually, the effect of sound will be lost if it is rendered into another language,
especially language with far family. Thus, the idea to remain the word “Fishism” into
TL is an appropriate way to preserve the pun effect in the TV show point of view. Of
course, the translated pun is accurate since the message and effect of pun is conveyed
well. It is also acceptable in Indonesia as it is stated previously that the phenomenon
also occurs in Indonesia.
Source language (SL)
Whipper Cone : Great. And how’s Thing? commit to user
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Richard Fish : Ling. Uh, she’s, she’s good. Whipper Cone : Good. Right….
Translated in Target Language (TL) as follows:
Whipper Cone : Bagaimana dengan, Thing?
Richard Fish : Ling. Dia baik-baik saja. Whipper Cone : Bagus.
In this dialogue, the word “Thing” is a kind of homograph pun. Homograph
refers to the words that have both different meaning and pronunciation but have the
same spelling. It can be seen from this following scene, Whipper is the ex-girlfriend
of Richard Fish. She asks about the condition of Richard‟s girlfriend who her real
name is. In this case, there is an indication that she does not really know who real
name of Richard‟s girl friend is. She addresses Richard‟s girl friend with “Thing”,
because the word is identical to common Chinese family name. The words „Thing”
and “Ting” have the same spelling. Thus, Whipper is making a pun on the addressing
“Ting” into “Thing”. Then Richard corrects it into “Ling”, the correct name of his
girlfriend. Meanwhile, according to The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English
(1969: 885) the word “Thing” means “(n) any possible object of thought including
persons, material objects, events, qualities, circumstances, utterances and acts”.
In the dialogue above, it can be seen that the translators uses borrowing
technique to translate the word “Thing” since he/she transfers the word from the
source language into target language without any modification. This translation is
accurate for it conveys the meaning of SL into TL. It is also acceptable to Indonesia
because Indonesian often use these terms to call someone who has specific character
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(Kribo for a curly person, Ayam in Indonesia or Pithik in Javanese for a person named
Maya). This case is similar with Farb‟s statement about name-calling by children
which is divided into four categories; as follows: 1. Name based on physical
peculiarities. 2. Name based on a pun or parody. 3. Names based on social
relationship. 4. Names based on mental traits. (Farb, 1974: 84). As a consequence, the
audience can easily catch the funny aspect of pun. As mentioned previously, this pun
is a kind of homograph pun. The audience can read the subtitling on the screen, and
then they can easily understand the comparison between SL and TL.
Based on the phenomenon above, the researcher is interested in analyzing the
translation of English pun thoroughly in the dialogue of TV series “Ally MacBeal”. It
is because “Ally MacBeal” is a famous TV serial around the world that contains
English pun. The other reason is how of the translator applies techniques in
translating the English pun are interesting to analyze. Therefore, the researcher wants
to analyze the pun translation quality assessment in TV serial “Ally MacBeal” in term
of accuracy and acceptability.
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B. Problem Statements
The research is aimed to analyze the use of English pun by following problem
statements:
1. What are the techniques applied by the translator in translating
English puns in TV serial entitled “Ally MacBeal” ?
2. How is the translation quality of pun in TV serial entitled “Ally
MacBeal” in terms of accuracy and acceptability?
C. Research Objectives
1. To find out the translation techniques applied by the translator in
translating English puns in TV Serial “Ally MacBeal”.
2. To assess the accuracy and acceptability value of the translation
of English puns in TV Serial “Ally MacBeal”.
D. Research Limitation
To avoid the expansion of the research, the researcher focuses on the any
types of pun. The researcher bounds the research on the translation techniques applied
in translating English pun into Indonesia. Besides, the researcher intends to measure
the translation quality in terms accuracy and acceptability of pun
E. Research Benefit
1. For the audiences, this thesis is expected to help them in understanding the
use of pun in serial TV Ally MacBeal. commit to user
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2. For the students of English Department, this thesis is expected to expand
the knowledge of English pun that is translated into Indonesian.
3. For the translator, the thesis is expected to give additional reference to
produce various and better translation.
4. For other researchers, the thesis is expected to stimulate them in
conducting further research related to English pun translated in Indonesia.
F. Thesis Organization
Chapter I: INTRODUCTION covers of Research Background, Research
Problems, Research Objectives, Research Limitation, Research Benefit and
Thesis Organization.
Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW covers of Definition of Translation, Process
of Translation, Subtitling, Problem in Subtitling, Translation Quality Assessment,
Definition of Pun, Types of Pun, Constraint in Translating Pun, Translation
Techniques of Pun, The Short Story of Ally MacBeal, and Relevant Study.
Chapter III: RESEARCH METODOLOGY consists of Type of Research, Source
of Data, Sample and Sampling Technique, Method of Data Collection, and
Research Procedure.
Chapter IV: DATA ANALYSIS covers of Analysis are employed Translation
Technique and assessed Quality of the Translation in term accuracy and
acceptability.
Chapter V: CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATION.
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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reveals the related theories that are used to finish the research.
The related theories were taken from several sources such as book, thesis,
unpublished journal and internet. In order to broaden the understanding, the
related literature reviews are explained below:
A. Translation
A.1. Definition of Translation
According to Brislin, “translation is a complex process of transferring
thoughts and ideas from one language to another, whether the languages are
written or oral forms “. (1976: 6). Meanwhile, Catford states that “Translation is
an operation performed in language: a process substituting a text in one language
for a text another”. (1965: 1). Moreover, he also defines that “Translation is the
replacement of textual material in one language source language (SL) by
equivalent textual material in another language target language (TL)”.(1965: 6).
In similar way, Kridalaksana defines the term “translation”
(penerjemahan) as “ Pengalihan amanat antar budaya atau antarbahasa dalam
tataran gramatikal dan leksikal dengan maksud, efek, atau judul yang sedapat
mungkin tetap dipertahankan.” (2001: 162). From several definitions of
translation by some experts, it can be seen that translation is a complex activity of
transferring text both written and oral form from one language into another commit to user
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language by using equivalence approach. The process of translating is also
automatically connected with grammatical, lexical and cultural terms as a
language system. Those matters are turned into translation problem, since every
language has its distinctive system.
A.2. Subtitling
According to Hatim and Mason (1990: 2) that, “‟the way is open to a view
of translating which is not restricted to a particular flied…but which can include
such diverse activities as film subtitling and dubbing, simultaneous interpreting,
cartoon translating, abstracting and summarizing etc.” Subtitling is one of Audio-
Visual translation, Gambier (1994: 276). is divided Audio-Visual translation into
ten ways, as follows:
1. Subtitling: of films, commercials, TV series and programs.
2. Subtitling in real time or simultaneous subtitling, for instance live
performance interviews
3. Dubbing (lip-synchronization)
4. Interpreting
5. Voice over
6. Narration
7. Commentary
8. Re-voicing or multilingual broadcasting
9. Surtitles or supratitles : in opera house or theatre
10. Simultaneous translation
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Subtitling also can be defined as the process of providing synchronized caption
for film and television dialogue. (Shuttleworth and Cowie: 1997: 161). In a more
detail, Gotlieb delivers that subtitling usually consists of one or two lines of an
average maximum length of 35 characters, which can be placed at the bottom of
the picture and are either centered or left-aligned. (in Baker 2001: 245).
Meanwhile, He also states that, “subtitling, like any other type of translation can
be defined by two factor semiotic composition and time duration”.(ibid). Semiotic
composition is a translated text which functioned in specific communicative
situation, they are monosemotic, polysemiotic, isosemiotic and diasemiotic. Based
on those types, film and television programme are categorized as polysemiotic and
diasemiotic. That categorizing is consisted four simultaneous channels which need
to be considered, they are (ibid):
1. The verbal auditory channel, including dialogue, background voices, and
sometimes lyric.
2. The non-verbal auditory channel, including music, natural sound and
sound effect.
3. The verbal visual channel, including superimposed titles and written signs
in the screen.
4. And the non verbal visual channel: picture composition and flow.
To sum up those definitions, subtitling is a vehicle that is able to convey
the result of rendered-text in media electronic in order to establish understanding
of audience, especially, to people who do not speak English. Meanwhile, the
distinctive features of subtitling, including, subtitling seen as polysemiotic and
diasemiotic in semiotic composition and time duration are going to be problems in commit to user
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doing subtitling (to further explanation see constraint in translating pun).
Therefore, in recent year, this study wide spread enormously and investigated in
translation study by scholar.
A.3. Problem in Subtitling
Jaskenan (1999: 9) states that the two constraints in audio-visual
translation which different to other translation, are technical and contextual
constraints. Despite of, Gottlieb applies a different terminology on both
constraints, i.e. formal (quantitative) and textual (qualitative) constraints in
subtitling. He explains that, “Textual constraints are those imposed on the subtitles
by the visual context of the film, whereas formal constraints are the space factor (a
maximum of two lines are allowed, with some character each) and the time
factor.” Gottlieb (in Jaskenan, 1999:9). The two constraints of subtitling that are
space and time also turn into problems to the translator. Space refers to a
maximum character which appears on the screen, while time means a time where
subtitling appears, commonly 1 line character needs 3 seconds and 2 lines
character around 5-6 seconds. Those strict boundaries of subtitling are going to be
a problem to translator in terms of analyzing target text and making decision. The
translator needs to be aware and makes right decision in what case he/she should
or not to render SL into TL on the limit time. Therefore, subtitling is a bridge of
successful communication between audience and translator.
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B. Translation Quality Assessment (TQA)
Product of translation is required to fulfill translation quality in which
accurate, acceptable and readable. According to Nababan (1999: 86) “assessment
of translation quality emphasizes on the three points, as follows: 1. Accuracy of
transferring message 2. Accuracy of revealing message 3. Naturalness of
translation product”. Immawati argues that a translation is considered to be
accurate if it rightly conveys the message from source language into target
language. (200: 27). Accuracy means the measurement of correctness. It refers to
how the message of source text is transferred into target language correctly. In no
doubt, the accuracy of the message is primary a matter. In this case, translator
must translate like the source text without deleting or adding something that may
change the original messages
Acceptability refers to how the translation product can be accepted by
target reader. Bell (1997: 167) states that” the target text must be intended to be a
text and accepted as such in order to be utilized in communicative interaction.” It
means that, in translating a text, a translator should not only transfers the message
correctly and accurately, but also observes whether the idea or message will be
accepted by target readers or not. Nida (1974:12) states clearly that the best work
of translation is not like translation. Naturalness is an important aspect in
acceptability. Product of translation must be natural and does not sound awkward,
so that the readers do not feel reading a translation product.
Readability is sure thing to be considered by translator, since translation is
inherent to reading activity. Readability emphasizes on the easiness of reading, so
that the judge is the reader. Richard et al states that “readability.. how easily commit to user
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written materials can be read and understood.” (in Nababan: 1999: 62). While,
Larson says that” a text is readable because it is good writing, that is, it has
pleasing style, a good rhythm, and moves along at an acceptable pace.” (1984:
500). He also adds that formatting matters are affected readability test such as the
size of type, punctuation, spelling, size of margin and space. (ibid). Moreover, the
point of view readability also exists in subtitling named as invisibility of subtitling.
It is clear that easiness of reading is an important aspect to assess readability,
Hakikinen and Itkonen state that “a subtitling should be easy to read and concise
so that the viewer would have time to concentrate on the picture”. (in Jaskanen:
1999: 22). The main point of readability is how the target reader easily read and
understand translation product rendered by translator. In the case of subtitling,
translator should make the audience comfortable in reading the text and seeing the
picture in the same time.
C. Wordplay or Pun
C.1. Definition of Pun
The general definition of wordplay is quoted from Collins English
Dictionary (1995: 1257), Pun (pan) means as:
n. The use of words or phrases to exploit ambiguities and
innuendoes in their meaning, usually for humorous effect: a play on words – An example is: “Ben battle was a soldier bold,
and used to war‟s alarms: But a cannonball took of his legs. So he laid down his arm.” (Thomas Hood). Vb. Puns, punning, punned. 2. (intr) to make puns: possibly from Italian puntiglio
point of detail, wordplay.
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Meanwhile, following to Newmark (1988: 217), pun is playing on the word in
order to arise humorous and laughter, and sometimes having implicit meaning.
Take a look the overview of pun quoted in Newmark, as follows:
One makes a pun by using a word (e.g tit), or two words with
the same sound (piece/peace), or group of words with the same sound (perssonne allitee/ personalite) in their possible
sense, usually for the purpose of arousing laughter or amusement, and sometimes also concentrate meaning.
Newmark puts the term of translation pun on the sort of explanation of his book, it
is signed that translation of pun is marginal importance. Meanwhile, Jing argues
that “punning, on the other hand, is an intentional use of ambiguous nature of
language in order to achieve some especial effect in specific context.” Jing (2010:
84).
Delabatista (1997: 1) states that, “wordplay is traditionally defined as a
deliberate communicative strategy, or the result thereof, used with a specific
semantic or pragmatic effect in mind.” He also gives definition of wordplay as
particular phenomenon (in Jaskanen: 1999: 51, Koponen: 2004: 35, Spanakaki:
2007: 2), he defines that, wordplay as “the general name for the various
phenomenon in which structural feature of the language(s) used are exploit in
order to bring about a communicatively significant confrontation of two (or more)
linguistic structure with more or less similar forms and more or less different
meaning”. Jaskanen (ibid) is going to explain the three points in Delabatista‟s
definition that notice as important thing to mark what wordplay is. First, this
definition emphasize on the likeness linguistic structure of form which are
contrasted to create humor in their different meaning. He lists the various
linguistic structures which can share similar from into types of wordplay, they commit to user
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are: homophony, homograph, homonymy, and paronymy. It is also could be
horizontal or vertical wordplay. (ibid). Second, wordplay as feature of text cannot
stand alone without active context including verbal or situational. Verbal context
are related to the human knowledge and expectation of grammatical and coherent
texts, as well as conventionalized phrases. Situational context in the other hand
would include for example the pictorial element of comics, which gives an
additional meaning to the text. (ibid). Third, it is related to context situation in the
context that somehow difficult to differentiate whether it is accidentally wordplay
or the used of intentional of language to create wordplay. He admits (ibid), that it
is often difficult to determine the intention of author. Hence, the appreciation of
wordplay depends on the audience‟s reading habit, as well as the genre
convention of the text.
In short, wordplay or pun is kind of play on word to achieve specific effect
in mind, usually, by using semantic or pragmatic of linguistic terms to explore the
ambiguities. In this case, pun plays on clash of meaning since it is related to
textual phenomenon in linguistic field. It means that the intentional language
(different meaning) will turn into pun if the situation context is active. Pun is
obviously sharp and brilliant ways, to deliver the idea or way of thinking. The
advantages of pun are used to notice the important thing on the show and as
communicative vehicle to hold audience attention to stay focus on the author idea.
C. 2. Types of Pun
In purpose to seek relevant theories to this research, researcher quoted the
types of wordplay or pun by Delabatista and Vries and Verheij. Delabatista commit to user
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delivers vertical and horizontal of pun, “the two meaning can be presented in the
same utterance (vertical wordplay), or they can be revealed through repetition in
context (horizontal wordplay).” Koponen (2004: 35). In addition, Delabatista (in
Spanakaki: 2001: 4, Koponen: 2004: 35) divided pun based on similarity into four
categories, they are homonymy: identical sound and spelling e.i fish (mammals)
vs. fish (name of character in Ally Macbeal), homophony: identical sound but
different spelling e.i fish vs. fishism, homography: identical spelling but different
meaning e.i thing vs. ling and paronymy: slightly different in both sound and
spelling e.i you only live one (popular proverb) vs. you only die once (pun on the
proverb).
Meanwhile, Offord (in Delabatista: 1997: 233), is mapping Shakespeare‟s
pun into two kinds, they are horizontal and vertical. He defines:
vertical pun involve at least two levels of meaning layered in the pivot that is, the word of phrase that the ambiguity hinges on: the surface (or primary) meaning is the meaning which springs to mind first by arising immediately from the verbal and situational context, while the underlying (or secondary) meaning is the one which ignites the pun.
He also proposed formula of vertical pun, definitely, it is based on his research on
the Shakespeare play show. In this case, P stands for pivot, A means the surface
meaning (or the contextual element that evokes it) and B is the underlying or
secondary meaning (or the contextual element that evokes it). The four formulas
are: A+B+P, A+P+B, B1+P+A+B2, and P (+A (+B). If vertical pun has one
pivotal term, horizontal pun has two, P1 and P2. Those are A+P1+P2+B, (A+)
P1+P2+B, A+P1+P2 (+B), A+P1+B+P2 and B+P(+A)+P2.(ibid). The use of
bracket signing for there is no explicit clue to the term which enclose in the
bracket. If vertical pun has one pivot, it is different with horizontal pun. Its type commit to user
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has two pivots, P1 and P2. Offord proposed six formulas that investigated on the
Shakespeare‟s play. They are A+P1+P2+B, (A+) P1+P2+B, A+P1+P2 (+B),
(A+) P1+P2 (+B), A+P1+B+P2 and B+P1 (+A) +P2.
According to Vries and Verheij (in Delabatista: 1997: 72-87), there are
three types of wordplay in Hebrew Bible. They are homonymy/polysemy,
paronymy, and naming. In detail, they explain that homonymy is a repetition of
different words with identical surface form, while polysemy is a repetition of the
same word with different meaning. Paronymy is type of wordplay which use word
with a slightly difference in surface form only. Naming pun is used to give person
name based on characteristic in order to amuse the show and sustain interest. The
term of nick naming is also delivered by Farb (1974: 84-85), he categorizes nick
naming to children into four:
1. Name based on physical peculiarities such as deformities, use of
eyeglasses racial characteristic, and so forth. A child may be called Flattop
because he was born with a misshapen skull or, for obvious reasons, Fat
Lips, Gimps, Four Eyes, Peanuts, Fatso, Kinky, and so on.
2. Name based on a pun or parody of the child own name. Children with last
names like Fitts, McClure, Duckworth, and Farb usually find them
converted to Shits, Manure, Fuckworth, and Fart. .
3. Names based on social relationship. Examples are baby used a sibling rival
or Chicken Shits for someone whose courage is questioned by his social
group.
4. Names based on mental traits such as Clunkhead, Dummy, Jerk, and
Smartass. commit to user
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In the TV serial Ally MacBeal, for instance, the character named “Ling”
who is Chinese woman calls into “Thing”. Based on the context situation, she
calls into “Thing” because actually the speaker does not exactly know her name.
Ling is also having a cool, weird, and vicious character, therefore she calls into
“Thing” which indicates that the speaker thinks she is weird or not quite human.
Thus, researcher employs the types of pun from several points of view by an
expert, since those types are related to approach in analyzing the data.
C.3. Constraints in Translating Pun
“Catford distinguishes two types of untranslatability, which he terms
linguistic and cultural. On the linguistic level, untranslatability occurs when there
is no lexical or syntactical substitute in TL for SL item” states Bassnet (2002: 37).
The untranslatability of pun tends to lay on the linguistic matter, because of the
term of pun is inherent with lexis and syntactic, especially in this research the pun
is mostly found in lexis and phrase level. In the deep overview dealing with the
louder issue of the loss of pun, Jing counts the reason of its study. First, pun is in
unsecure position. She (ibid) quoted Redfern statement that says puns is never
secure one. Pun is struggling over the time “between acceptability and rejection,
nonsense and point, decency and obscenity”. Second, she (ibid) states that, “the
translation of puns has always been a hard nut to crack, because the double
meanings of puns are always combined effect of phonological and semantic
features, which can hardly be kept when transplanted into another language,
especially those belonging to different families”. The last point delivered by Jing
is similar to Newmark (1988:127), he states that “pun is more easily translated if commit to user
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they are based on Graeco-latinisms that have near equivalence in the source and
target language…”. As stated above, pun are sometimes seen as the lower form of
humor, especially when there is a taboo word inside pun. The ideas of constraints
in translating pun make sense since it involves linguistic terms as explained
before. It will be more difficult when occur in the language with far families such
as English-Indonesia. Therefore, there are many differences between English and
Indonesia as language with different families cover linguistic terms, phonological
and semantic features.
Besides, Gotltieb (in Delabatista: 1997: 216-223) discusses the possibility
loss of pun in the subtitling. This finding is concluded from investigation on the
Carrot‟s Commercial Breakdown which is subtitled into Danish by BBC. The
three factors influenced the loss of pun in subtitling are described below:
1. Language-specific constraints: the presence of „untranslatable‟
elements in the original which fail to have linguistic counterparts in the
target language.
2. Media-specific constraints: linked with the type of language transfer
used, in this case subtitling.
3. Human constraints: lack of talent, interest, or experience in the
translator, time pressure, lack of incentives, etc.
He adds those points with sort of explanation. The first point is wordplay-
language specific constraints, it refers to when linguistic item cannot substitute
into TL. He says that “Homophony is also considered to language-specific to be
retained in translation, and some language may even offer more cases of commit to user
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homophony than other” (ibid). The main point of him is the use of homophony
that means two words with near sound may possibly sound differently in any
target language (ibid).
Second point emphasizes on the wordplay and media specific constraints
covers audience, technical, a genre specific term, and intersemiotic feedback.
Audience is related to strict boundaries in subtitling that are time and space like
as mentioned before in the general overview of constraint in subtitling.
Meanwhile, media constraint is also called as technical nature, it means the use
of graphics technology to render impossible technically wordplay, as in case
when a wordplay appears through caption only and without verbal messages. A
genre specific term is like wordplay that is used in advertisement or commercial
slogan. Gotllieb advises it is not to be translating, because the aim of producer is
to make more cool approach when attract people with international language
(English). (ibid). Lastly is semiotic feedback, it means the nature polysemiotic in
film (picture, soundplay or music) will influence the audience comprehension, it
could be disambiguation or re-ambiguities on the verbal messages that is in
question. (ibid).
The third point is wordplay and human constraints, Gotlieb (ibid) argues
that ”the human factor always involve, always evasive is crucial in subtitling”.
Besides, he also deliver the commonly cause in losing wordplay is substitution.
Translator sometimes, even, compensates the losing wordplay and creates a new
wordplay in TL. That is good idea, but in fact the new wordplay is less than the
loosing which compensate. From those reasons, it is enough to make translating
wordplay raise fear problems between loss and untranslatability. commit to user
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C. 4. Translation Technique of Pun
Some scholars who concern on study of pun for recent years offer
techniques in translating wordplay or pun to preserve the humor effect in
translation. Veisbergs (in Koponen: 2004: 44) argues that wordplay usually serves
a more important purpose than just embellishment of text. His opinion leads to the
fact that it is more important to preserve the wordplay effect than to use idiomatic
target language. Delabatista ¹ (in Schwarz: 2003: 7, Koponen: 2004: 45, Jing:
2010: 82, Spanakaki: 2001: 4-5) propose some techniques to preserve wordplay in
translation which fit to reveal the problem on this research. The eight techniques
proposed by Delabatista are mentioned bellow:
1. A SL pun translated into a similar TL pun
Schwarz, Koponen, Jing and Spanakaki (ibid) delivers a SL pun
rendered into similar TL pun with more or less of original effect, it is as a
consequent from different language which have different rule of semantic,
pragmatic, and so on.
SL: You only die once
TL: Kau hanya mati sekali
______
¹ Like Schwarz, Spanakaki uses eight strategies,commit to while user Koponen only explains six strategies and He Jing reveals nine strategies proposed by Delabatista
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2. ST pun copied as TT pun
The pun is simply copied into TT with no any change as evoked by
Schwarz, Koponen and Spanakaki.
SL:Exactly. So why choose to bring it in a state known as "Taxachusetts"
TL: Jadi kenapa memilih untuk membawanya ke “Taxachusetts”
3. Omission or “Zero” translation of puns
Schwarz, Koponen, Jing and Spanakaki in the same voice deliver
the lexis, word or phrase of pun from SL which are totally rendering with
„zero‟ or non pun is simply omitted. Gotlieb in Koponen ( 2004: 6)
believes that omission is one reason for the loss of wordplay in translation.
4. A pun translated into a non-pun, maintaining both senses of ambiguity
Jing assumes, a pun which is translated into a non pun could be
deliberately maintaining both sense of its ambiguity. It is aiming to give
bare insight for audiences the two of layers meaning which contain in that
pun.
5. A pun translated into a non-pun, keeping only one sense of ambiguity
The two meaning of pun which is embodied could be translated
into a non pun and only keeping one sense of ambiguity. It means that
translator have prerogative right whether to keep the connotative or
denotative meanings. Jing adopts this technique into new approach what
she called as sacrifice secondary information. commit to user
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TL: That's a Fishism
SL: Itu kiasan
6. A pun translated into a punoid or pseudo-wordplay through the adoption of
rhetorical devices such as repetition, alliteration, rhyme, referential
vagueness, irony and paradox.
SL: Oh, Biscuit/ In my mind, Biscuit became Bun, and Bun, Bunion. Sorry.
TL: Biskuit. Dalam pikiranku biskuit mungkin menjadi roti (bun), roti jadi bunion. Maaf.
Schwarz, Koponen, Jing and Spanakaki agree that pun translated
into a punoid or pseudo-wordplay through the adoption of rhetorical
devices (repetitio, alliteration, referential, rhyme, referential vagueness,
irony, paradox, etc) delivered by Delabatista is an approach aiming to re-
capture the original rhyme into Indonesia. Hence, the effect of ST pun
rendered well in TL.
7. Literal rendering of the pun
Jing delivers literal rendering of pun in her journal, while Schwarz,
Koponen and Spanakaki did not take any attention on it. Literal rendering
of pun into TL means that the terms of pun rendered literally without
consider intensional language which is attracted naturally such as:
semantic, linguistic, pragmatic systems of different language, dialect,
culture and also context of situation. Despite, sometimes literal rendering commit to user
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of pun becomes a reason of loosing effect of pun in TL, in some cases its
technique is able to recapture the effect of pun in TL.
SL: Because you love her. Because there aren‟t “plenty of fish in the
sea.” Sometimes there‟s only one fish. Trust me.
TL: Sebab kurasa kau mencintainya. Orang yang berkata “ banyak ikan di
laut” itu berbohong. Kadang Cuma ada 1 ikan. Percayalah padaku.
8. A non-pun translated into a pun
Translating non pun into a pun simply defines as the way it is,
indeed. Often, translator tends to use this technique in order to hold
audience attention between the shows or to make a sharp point in
transforming writer‟s idea.
9. A pun created out of thin air in the TL
The terms of a pun created out of thin air in the TT refers to the
case when translator prefers to crack and preserve the pun as good as
he/she can in TT by compensating with SL terms. The translator tries more
to create a pun in TL since there is no equivalent component from SL into
TL.
10. A pun explained through editorial techniques like footnotes and forward
Techniques of giving footnotes and forward are only applied
appropriately in written text pun such as comic, fictional novel, magazine
and so on. Translator will commit comment to user on existed pun as a solution to give
perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id28
explanation to the readers. Jing claims, “Normally, the use of footnotes,
endnotes or explanations in parentheses would not only disrupt the
smoothness of the TT, increasing the processing effort of the target reader,
but also, most importantly, destroy the punning effect and fail to match the
writer‟s intention with reader expectation, the key to the success of
translation”. Jing. (2010: 94).
Moreover, Spanakaki (ibid) argues that techniques Pun=Non Pun and
Pun=Zero Pun, as in techniques Non pun á Pun and Zero=Pun, are found as
overlapping, so that the use of this technique can be combined in variety ways.
She also states “As in subtitling, the case of footnote is out of question, the
combination of these technique and especially technique 9 (editorial technique)
are in inadequate and completely irrelevant for the purpose of this study.” (ibid).
Above mentioned explanation is making sense, because the use of
techniques depends on the source of data and data on the research. Technique 9
(editorial technique) may be only proper to translate pun in written text such as
book, comic and magazines. Based on above explanation, from the nine strategies,
researcher considers that she uses the required techniques to analysis the data
only.
D. The Short Story of Ally MacBeal
Ally McBeal is a popular American Television series ran by FOX network
from 1997 to 2002 and created by David E. Kelly and Bill D‟Elia. Television
series of Ally McBeal show is an adult comedy-drama series that focuses on the commit to user
perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id29
personal life and romantic of the main character „Ally McBeal‟ covered in 5
seasons.
This series starred by Calista Flockhart as main character and many others
supporting character such as Gil Bellows, Peter Macnicol, Greg Germann, Lucy
Liu, Jane Krakowski and etc. (www.en.wikipedia.org/allymacbeal.com).
where characters work at. In this case, Cage-Fish and Associates is a firm
which is built by John Cage and Richard Fish. This firm is a unique one, since its
firm employs young lawyers which are humorous, eccentric and sometimes
having dramatic character. Besides, Cage-Fish firm is also figured as a place with
sexual atmosphere symbolizing by the use of unisex bathroom.
This show was very popular in USA and won several awards. They are
Ammy Awards in category Outstanding Comedy Series (1999), Golden Globe
Awards in category Best TV Series-Comedy/Musical (1998-1999), Best
Performance by an Actress in a TV Series-Comedy/Musical Calista Flokhart
(1998) and Screen Actor Guild in category Outstanding Performance by an
Ensemble in a Comedy Series (1999).
Due to sit-com Ally McBeal, the writer quoted statement from Chiaro‟s ²
unpublished journal, she states that:
Similarity, US sitcoms such as Friends, Sex and the City and Ally MacBeal, which are successful in Italy in their dubbed
version, tend to rely on good lines rather than puns. Good lines are sharp and clever remarks which are hard to define in terms of
Verbal English Humor. In other words, while a pun is dependent upon linguistic ambiguity, cultural ambiguity, or a mixture of both, a good line is not.
______
² Chiaro affirms Chicken Run by Dreamworkscommit production to user in 2005 as a movie which thick of pun
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The story comes from Cage-Fish and Associates fictional firm as the place
Chiaro noticed that Ally MacBeal does not contain much pun but tend to use good
line. It is not an easy task to differentiate whether it is a pun or not. Clearly, there
are example for both, good line and pun that are used in sit-com Ally MacBeal in
the following speech:
a. Love, you know you can‟t bank on it. It‟s an unsafe bridge. The only thing
you can really take to the bank: money”.
b. Because you love her. Because there aren't "plenty of fish in the sea.”
Sometimes there's only one fish. Trust me.
In the example A and B, it can be seen that there is one word which emerges
twice in one sentence. It seems the same, but, actually it is not. In the sentence A,
the use of word “bank” indicated as good line, while “fish” on the sentence B is a
pun. Based on the Chiaro‟s statement, pun is related to linguistic and cultural
ambiguity. “Fish” is the name of one character in Ally MacBeal, it is also existing
saying in the society in which “there are plenty of fish in the sea”, and therefore,
it is a pun. In the sentence B, the use of “bank-bridge” Vs “bank-money” are
merely rhyming words to make good line and they have nothing to do with pun.
E. Relevant Study
Relevant study gives a new perspective in seeing the research on pun and
its translation. The result of that study can stand as pivot to the next research.
Thus, the next research of pun forcommit academic to user purpose is better than before. The
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relevant study in this research is a thesis of under degree written by Kurniajati
(2009). In her research entitled “The Translation of Pun in Film Entitled
Madagaskar”, she discussed the type of pun emerging in Madagaskar, analyzed
the techniques and assessed the accuracy level of its Indonesia translation. In
order to reveal the problem statement, this thesis is proposed theories by
Delabatista that found in several unpublished journal. She is going to use that
relevant approaches since it is appropriate to reveal the problem statement of its
research.
The study of pun is concluded that there are two types of pun which
emerge in Madagaskar, e.i. polysemy and paronymy. Three techniques are used to
transfer pun from SL into TL, sort of pun is translated into non pun, pun in the ST
is copied into TT and pun is rendered with other rhetorical devices e.i. rhyme.
From 18 (100%) data, only 3 (15, 79%) data are translated accurately into TT,
while 16 data are not so accurate (84, 21%). In short, most translated puns in this
movie are not transferred so accurate. The techniques of translated pun into non
pun are preferable to use. It means that, there are no various techniques using in
translating pun. Therefore, the writer suggests to improve the awareness and
knowledge of pun for translator, although, preserving effect of pun is a difficult
task.
commit to user
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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Type of Research
In this research, the researcher used descriptive method. Descriptive
method is one of the qualitative research designs. According to Baxter, Hughes
and Tight (1996: 60), “qualitative research is concerned with collecting and
analyzing information in as many forms, chiefly, non numeric, as possible,
smaller number of instances or example, which are seen as being interesting or
illuminating and aims to achieve „depth‟ rather than „breath‟.”
This research is descriptive qualitative because the data are sentences and
words indicated as pun or word play. The researcher collected the data which are
in form of words, especially the translation variation of English pun or word play
from serial TV „Ally McBeal‟. Later on, the researcher analyzed them and then
drew without formulating hypothesis.
B. Source of Data and Data
Source of data in a research is anything where the data are taken. In this
th research, the source of data is TV serial “Ally MacBeal” season 1-3 by 20
Century Fox Television. It was taken as source of data based on the consideration
that its TV serial is widely broadcasted throughout the world and contains pun.
Unfortunately, the source of data is not well arranged. Some titles in this season
are not provided in VCD rental, in term the whole seller publishes the favorite
titles only. The titles used in this research are Pilot, Compromising, Kiss, Cro commit to user
33 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id34
Magnon, The Real World, They Eat Horse, Don’t They?, Fall Night Out, It’s My
Party, Buried Pleasure , Seeing Green. Heat Wave, Trouble Water, and Change.
As stated by Fraenkel & Wallens, Merriam (in Creswell: 1994: 162) that
“The data that emerge from a qualitative study are descriptive. That is, data are
reported in words (primarily the participant‟s words) or pictures, rather than in
numbers”. In this research, data of the research are pun or wordplay and its
translation in Indonesia. In order to get in depth information about the
phenomenon, the writer also used the result of open-ended questionnaire as data.
The open-ended questionnaires were distributed to three key informants. In line to
key informant, Goetz and LeCompte (in Crabtree and Miller: 1992: 75) states that,
“Key informants are individuals who posses special knowledge, status or
communication skill, who are willing to share their knowledge and skill with
researcher and who have access to perspectives or observations denied the
researcher”.
D. Sample and Sampling technique
Dealing with sample and sampling, Patton (in Crabtree and Miller: 1992:
33) states that qualitative inquiry typically focuses in-depth on relatively small
samples, even single case (n=1), selected purposively. The sample of this research
is pun. To dig in deep information, the writer chose key informant purposively or
based on criterion. The researcher employs some criteria in choosing the key
informant. The key informant is a person who has willingness to participate in
this research. He/she should masters both English and Indonesia well. In addition,
commit to user
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to have a good translation competence, they also must have criteria to be key
informant.
E. Method of Data Collection
In collecting data, the researcher is applied two methods of data collection.
They are content analysis and questionnaire. Hughes and Tight (1996: 186)
defines that “Analysis is meant to be rigorous process, using data that have been
carefully produced and managed. In the end, however, what you produced, it is
your own „document‟, and attempt to persuade your readers of your own
interpretation.”
a. Content Analysis
This technique was started from writing down some important
things explicitly within document, then researcher also revealed the
meaning beyond the word. To collect the data, the researcher watched the
TV serial “Ally McBeal”, read the original script, and then made some
notes on English pun. Later on, the data of English pun were used to
answer the problem statements.
b. In Depth Interview
In this research, the researcher applied in depth interview and used
open-ended questionnaire as instrument. Open ended questionnaire is a
questionnaire in which every single question is given some alternative
answers, but in the end of sheet, there are spaces for respondent to write
the reason of their answers. The researcher applied questionnaire as an
instrument to collect the data about the accuracy and acceptability of the
translation. In this case, the researcher distributed the questionnaires to commit to user
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three key informants who have adequate competence in translation. The
researcher decided to use questionnaire as an instrument to collect the data
since a questionnaire is capable to gather the information. By using scale
questionnaire, it will represent the level of accuracy, as follows:
Scale Description
3 Accurate: the translated pun can deliver or express the message
and effect of SL in the TL pun.
2 Less Accurate: the message and effect of SL pun less convey in
TL pun. The effect of translated pun is distortion.
1 Not Accurate: the translated pun definitely cannot deliver or
express the message and effect of the SL pun.
In addition, the researcher also provides a scale to rate acceptability
level, as follows:
Scale Description
Acceptable: The translated pun is culturally and contextually
1 accepted in TL. It sounds natural and do not feel like translation.
Less Acceptable: The translated pun does not fit culturally and
2 contextually in TL. It sounds few clumsy and feels like
translation. The translated pun is not a pun in TL.
Not Acceptable: The translated pun is not culturally and
3 contextually accepted in TL. It sounds clumsy and feels like
translation. The translated pun even omitted or deleted.
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The open-ended questionnaire in depth interview provides the more
complete information which is important to this research. It is because this
questionnaire not only provide yes or no answers, but also how and why answers.
In order to get in deep information, the key informant is required open-ended
questionnaire to give reason related to the chosen scale. By interviewing the key
informant guided by open-ended questionnaire, the researcher tries to explore key
informant‟s knowledge for finding the answer and revealing the research
problems, in term of accuracy and acceptability of pun in the “Ally McBeal”.
F. Research Procedure
The researcher used research procedures to set up the direction in
conducting the research. The researcher chromatically did each step as follows:
1. Replaying the TV serial entitled „Ally McBeal‟ for several times, while
reading the original script in order to understand deeply the meaning of
English pun.
2. Collecting data
From the first data source, the original movie script and its translation,
the data were collected and written down on cards. The researcher Sorts
the data of pun and gives the data to the key informants. Then, the data
were validated by the key informants whether the sorting data is pun or
not.
3. Encoding the data
The coding of datum is as follows 00 /00.00 / S 00/ Vol. 00/ OT /C /SL:
00 : The number of data
00.00 : The time when the data emerge on the screen commit to user
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S : The abbreviation of season
OT : The abbreviation of original title
C : The abbreviation of character
SL : The abbreviation of source language and TL for target
language.
4. Giving the data to the key informants.
5. Drawing back the data from key informants.
6. Analyzing the data
Analyzing and interpreting the data to answer the problem statements
above:
a) The techniques applied in translating English pun.
b) The accuracy of the translation.
c) The acceptability of the translation
6. Drawing conclusion from the result of the analysis and giving suggestion.
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39
CHAPTER IV
DATA ANALYSIS
Data analysis is the core of the research. In this chapter, the researcher tries to
answer problem statements in the previous chapter by using relevant literature review
as foundation in presenting the finding of this research. The researcher carries on this
data analysis by using theory proposed by experts who are quoted in the literature
review.
In order to make it clearer and more detailed, the researcher divides this
chapter into four sub-chapters. At the beginning, the researcher investigates types of
pun used as data. Then, the result of those finding are used to analyze translation
techniques employed in translating pun. Accuracy and acceptability level assessed by
key informants is going to be analyzed in the last part. In addition, the researcher also
explains the context of situations to support the description of data analysis.
A. TYPES OF PUN
This sub-chapter deals with types of pun, so that all types of pun in TV serial
Ally MacBeal that are taken as data will be described in this sub-chapter. Related to
this issue, Delabatista proposes of pun categorizing into degree of similarity, as
follows: homonymy, homophony, homography and paronymy. Further, pun may
either horizontal or vertical types. (ibid) 1. It can be concluded that a pun possible to
have more than one type, for instance Taxachusetts belongs to horizontal and
1 Ibid page 19 commit to user
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40
paronymy or Thing includes homonymy and also naming. In order to avoid
vagueness, the researcher gives more complete analysis and examples on categories
of puns, later each type mentioned above will be analyzed in these following parts.
A.1. Vertical and Horizontal Pun
From total data 23 (100%), vertical pun flourishes in percentage 82.6% or in
amount 9 data, and only 4 data (13.4%) indicates as horizontal pun. The numbers of
vertical and horizontal pun are presented below:
Table 1.1 The number of vertical and horizontal puns in TV series Ally MacBeal
Types of pun Data Percentage
Vertical 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 19 (82.6%)
13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22
Horizontal 8, 9, 12, 23 4 (13.4%0
Total 23 (100%)
The 19 data use vertical pun referring to the two meaning presence at similar
context and sometimes it pun represent by other characters or beyond context of
situation. Meanwhile, when the both meaning of pun present in the same
sentence/utterance and tend to be visible, it is named as horizontal pun. The types of
pun are found at the rest number of data. Those finding are in line with definition of
both types from Delabatista. (ibid). Similarly, Vries and Verhejj (in Delabatista: commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
41
1997: 68) defines horizontal puns involving formally similar elements that are all
presented in the text. Since those puns involve on double-entendre and/or
intertextual reference vertical puns tend to extremely difficult to be detect. In order
to prove the existence of both types, the researcher also investigates both vertical and
2 horizontal pun through formulas/patterns proposed by Offord .(ibid) .
A.1.1. Vertical Pun
Vertical puns are the most common type of pun found in source of data. Up to
19 data from 23 total data are vertical pun aiming to amuse and sustain the show.
According to Vries and Verhejj (ibid), these types of puns are difficult to detect, in
fact, its type appears tons in source of data. Furthermore, it must be challenging to the
researcher. Due to this case, since along the time Delabatista remind us to be aware
on invisible pun, he says that any pun spread enormously, eye catching, and do not
leave any shadow of doubt as well as their intentional nature and textual relevance.
However, sometimes, ambiguities and verbal echoes may also lay in different
circumstances so that it becomes more subtle to the audience. (1997: 6). It will take
into account when wordplay, sometimes, contains ambiguity in different
circumstances like on the case of vertical wordplay. Obviously, the examples of
vertical puns are presented as in data 1 and 3 in the following speeches:
2 Ibid page 19-20 commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
42
Datum 1/00:34:20/ S. 01 Vol. 01/ P/ AN#1/ SL
Context of situation:
Billy and Ally handle the case of tax faced by National Airlines. At the
scene, they are in the conference to meet the client (AN#1) and discuss that problem.
Billy Thomas: Obviously you can have it in any jurisdiction you choose./ AN# : Exactly. So why choose to bring it in a state known as "Taxachusetts"?/ Billy Thomas : It‟s my feeling that we exploit that mind-set. Massachusetts, and particularly Boston, is very sensitive to being labeled the tax capital of the country. This is a state that proposed taxing professional athletes pro rata.
This is a pun which uses formal similarity of linguistic structures of
compound words namely (paronymy). Taxachusetts derives from “Tax” and
“Massachusetts”. Its pun is supported by the context of situation functioned as
pictorial scene. In this case, the discussion is talking about tax problem faced by
National Airlines. Of course, this is not an accidental wordplay for the reason there is
a response from the hearer, Massachusetts (the true meaning), toward pun made by
punster. It means that there is an agreement between actors to create a pun. Therefore,
this instance is pun on the name of the state in US and the use term of “tax” is to
emphasize on the main issue that Massachusetts is one of state with high taxes in US.
It is classify into vertical pun. The structure of this pun follows the pattern P
3 (+A (+B) the basic formulas offered by Offord (ibid) and the others are A+B+P,
A+P+B, B+P+A, and P +A +B. If the bracket in formula P (+A (+B) means there is
no explicit clue, P +A +B is the opposite, so that formula with no bracket fit to the
3 Ibid page 19 commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
43
data since the clue is explicit. The P (or pivotal term) in this instance is Taxachusetts.
The surface meaning (A), Massachusetts, is activated as hearer‟s response toward its
pun or as a sign that there is a mutual knowledge between punster and hearer. The
layer meaning (B), „Massachusetts as one of state with high taxes‟ can be interpreted
from the statement that Massachusetts and Boston are known as capital tax states in
the US.
Datum 3/ 00:38:41/S 01/ Vol. 01/ P /RF/ SL Context of situation: As a new coworker in Fish-cage firm, Ally has a hard first week since she found her ex-boyfriend who works at same firm is married to somebody else. Knowing problem faced by Ally, when Richard meets Ally in the elevator, he gives an advice to Ally that love is something fragile so we cannot rely on it and the only thing which makes people happy is money as Richard belief, called as fishism.
Richard Fish : Ally, you know, it‟s really none of my business, but well, as senior partner I think I‟m entitled to be avuncular now and then. Love, you know you can’t bank on it. It’s an unsafe bridge. The only thing you can really take to the bank.. money./ Ally MacBeal : Piles…./ Richard Fish : Making a lot of money, everything also follows. Quote me. It's a
Fishism.
The existence of fishism as a pun can be seen from several aspects. First, its
pun comes from linguistic structure with near sound and form (paronymy), by means
fish adding by suffix -ism. Second, the agreement of SL culture which admits fish as
a family name becomes one of consideration. Indeed, the adding “–ism” literally
means indicating a doctrine, system or body of principle and practice: Leninism,
spiritualism. Collins English Dictionary (1995: 818). Lastly, the context of situation
shows that Richard Fish says this saying consciously indicated that the pun of
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44
fishism lies in the context of situation perfectly. Thus, fishism is a pun applied on the
Richard family name which is Fish. It is used to as if it was an ideology or belief by
adding suffix –ism. Since its pun is local reference, the audience may need to
understand more about the characters at Ally MacBeal show and their personal
character. Definitely, those who are going crazy with this show, s/he certainly has to
understand well what is meant by fishism.
A (surface meaning) infer from the saying “Love, you know you can’t bank on
it. It’s an unsafe bridge. The only thing you can really take to the bank, money”
explicitly presents what exactly exists on speaker mind. Its surface structure is
followed by B (layered meaning), ”Making a lot of money, everything also follows”,
it means that the speaker believes if he has a lot of money everything will comes
easily including woman. Fishism roles pivot (P) which refers to the ideology/ belief
of the speaker, named “fishism”. Thus, this instance belongs to vertical pun by using
pattern of A+B+P.
A.1.2. Horizontal Pun
Horizontal pun tends to be easier to investigate. This tendency cause
ambiguous word(s) in horizontal pun is coincided, so that the ambiguous word(s) is
plainly seen, nor if its words clash at one utterance/context of situation. It has been
explained in the previous chapter, the main problem is when pun seems like good
4 lines, particularly, the source of data contains many good lines. Chiaro (ibid) helps
4 Ibid page 26-27 commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
45
to differentiate both of them. As he said that pun always depends on linguistic
ambiguity or cultural ambiguity or mixture of both of them like what is presented in
these following examples.
Datum 12/ 00:12:38/ S 02/ Vol. 01/ TRW/ NP/ SL
Context of situation:
Nelle Poter introduces herself as a new coworker at Fish-Cage firm. When she shakes hand with John Cage, she says that she ever heard his nicknaming which is Bunion. Actually, John‟s nicknaming is Biscuit, so that John corrects it. Considering that mistake, Nelle is pretended by creating triple pun on the words Bun, Bunion, and Biscuit.
John Cage : John cage/ Nelle Poter : Heard about you. The Bunion, right?/ John Cage : Oh, well. . . . Biscuit/ Nelle Poter : Oh, Biscuit. In my mind, Biscuit became Bun, and Bun, Bunion. Sorry.
At the first sight, surely, the use of rhyming words “biscuit”, “bun” and
“bunion‟ as a pun attracts audience‟s attention. Moreover, we may misunderstand by
thinking that this rhyming word is good line, in fact, it belongs to horizontal pun. The
pun is proven by the using of rhyming words as kind of linguistic structure that are
identical in both sound and spelling and related in concept, known as paronymy.
Those words intend to make rhyme of the line, however, the speaker creates a pun to
distinguish the mistake she makes, she really minds to create a pun ingeniously. The
pun is inherent with the context of situation in terms of the conversation occuring
between Nelle (speaker) and John (hearer) who has the “Biscuit” nicknaming.
Besides, there is a possibility that this pun means to satire the John‟s nicknaming,
Biscuit.
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46
Commonly, horizontal pun has two pivots, but, in this instance of horizontal
pun, it has three pivots, they are P1, P2 and P3. Therefore it is named as triple pun.
The pattern used to investigate is modification from the basic formula offered by
Offord. In this case, the researcher modifies the pattern A+P1+P2+B by adding P3
means pivot three, so that the pattern changes into A+P1+P2+P3+B. The three pivots
present on the single sentence and clash contiguity. P1 is biscuit, P2 refers to bun and
followed by P3, bunion. Meanwhile, the surface structure (A) is on the question that
is asking for agreement whether John is nicknaming is really bunion. B (layered
meaning) comes from the word sorry that refers to apology. Either the layered
meaning is triggered by context of situation in which the speaker pretends or denies
that she makes mistake about John‟s nicknaming. In addition, there is an indication
that the speaker does not really know who John‟s nicknaming is.
Datum 11/ 00:32:53/ S 01/ Vol. 04/ C/ AMB/ SL
Context of situation:
After Whipper known has an affair with Richard‟s client, Richard and Whipper break- up. As an eyewitness who told Richard about Whipper‟s
affair, Ally is feeling guilty when she realizes that they both are falling in love. Thus, Ally asks Richard to gives apologizes and second chance to Whipper.
Ally MacBeal : You have to give her a chance/ Richard Fish : Why?/ Ally MacBeal : Because you love her. Because there aren't "plenty of fish
in the sea.” Sometimes there's only one fish. Trust me.
The saying “there are plenty fish in the sea” is popular in the middle of
society, so it will easy for people to recognize it when changed. The pun plays on the
saying “there are plenty fish in the sea” by making the opposite, “there aren’t plenty commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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fish on the sea” which includes to paronymy. It can be seen on the scene that the
speaker speaks to Richard Fish. The speaker supposes to make a pun consciously as
an ingenious way aiming to an advice toward Richard. Thus, these reasons are
enough to make this data a pun.
This example belongs to horizontal pun with A+ P1+P2 (+B) formula. P1
present on the “there aren’t plenty fish on the sea” as well as P2 which comes from
the phrase “sometimes there is only one fish” are referring to connotation meaning
that there is only one Fish who talk with the speaker at the moment. A and B are not
present explicit. They are hidden neatly beyond context situation so that it is
important to draw the line from previous context situation. As the writer knows,
Whipper (Richard‟s girl friend) introduced in the episode Compromise as well as the
data found. From the whole plot, the author may mean, sometimes, irreplaceable
loved is true on the middle people‟s skeptic question “does true love still exist?”. In
this case, Whipper crazy about Richard and sure he is the right one, despite, in the
others episode finally they broken up.
A.2. Types of Pun Based on Formal Similarity
Meanwhile, based on formal similarity from total 23 data (100%), Paronymy
dominates up to 65.21%, homophony 13.04% is in the second rank followed by
naming pun about 8.75% and polysemy 8.75% which are in equal amount and
homonymy 4.35% in the last position. The percentages and number of types of pun
containing in the source of data are presented in this following table:
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Table 1.2. Types of pun in the source of data
Types of Pun Data Percentage
Paronymy 1, 2,3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 (65.21%)
14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 22
Homophony 7, 19, 23 3 (13.04%)
Polysemy 16, 18 2 (8.75%)
Nick naming 4, 6 2 (8.75%)
Homonymy 13 1 (4.35%)
Total 23 (100%)
.
As shown in the above table, there are five types of pun found in the source of
data. To verify the types of pun, the researcher has to apply both theory proposed by
5 Delabatista and Vreis and Verheij based on the consideration that the source of data
contains types of pun as what they propose. If Delabatista grouped pun into five,
Vreis and Verheij classify three puns. It is because they work in different source of
data. As an adjustment, the researcher also applied the nearest approach by mixing
both theories from Delabatista and Vreis and Verhejj. Types of pun are delivered in
these following descriptions:
5 Ibid page 19 commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
49
A.2.1. Homonymy/ Polysemy
Homonymy and polysemy contribute equal amount on the source of data (two
data for homonymy and two data for polysemy). Thus, researcher is going to analyze
them into one sub-sub chapter. This step is conducted in order to make an easy way
in noticing either it is homonym or polysemy since they are identical
According to Vreis and Verheij (in Delabatista: 1997: 72), the use of
homonymy means the repetition words that have identical surface forms is powerful
type of wordplay. He adds that in some case, sometimes, it is difficult to differentiate
between homonymy and polysemy (the repetition of the same words in different
meaning). In line with Vreis and Verhejj, Pardeta argues that polyvalency or lexical
ambiguity rooted from polysemy and homonymy. (2001: 205). Due to this issue,
Delabatista (1997: 5) gives a solution, he states that,
Thus, according to well known distinction in the literature on wordplay, many pun are either based on homonymy (i.e
different words have an identical form) and polysemy (e.i one
word has different but related sense). This looks very straight forward as a pun classifying criterion until we remember that the distinction between polysemy and homonymy is diachronically
speaking, dynamic one.
His advice offers a solution to see differences between homonym and
polysemy and avoid confusion. In this part, the research presents the finding both of
homonymy and polysemy and explains how it could happen. Check a following
instance which shows the used of homonym on the pun.
commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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Datum 13/ 00:05:03/ S 02/ Vol. 03/ IMP/ EV/ SL
Context of situation:
Elaine introduces her new invention that is condom with logo. Its condom has distinctive tag lines to each person based on his/her character. Elaine gives free samples for her co-workers at Richard-Fish firm such as Ally,
Georgia, John and Richard. On the condom given to Georgia, she punned the phrase “pay the bill” as tag line.
Ally Macbeal: What's going on?/ Georgia Thomas: She's invented customized condoms./ Ally Macbeal: Sorry?/ Elaine Vassal: They're vibrantly colored with sayings on the side./ Billy Thomas: Sayings?/ Elaine Vassal: You read as you unfurl. I made samples for you all. Richard, yours says "Bygones. " I think it's appropriate. John. "Enjoy the moment. " Georgia: "Pay the bill. " I like the "punnage" on that. And mine says, "Come here often? " I'm not sure about the entendre. I don't wanna be vulgar.
This phrase is a pun for some reasons. First, the phrase “pay the bill” used to
two linguistic structures with more or less similar form and more or less different
meaning derived from the word bill. Second, its phrase is a common phrase only,
unless it is supported by the context of situation in which Bill or Billy is the name of
Georgia‟s husband so that its phrase has connotation meaning as a wife who gives
service to her husband. Lastly, the speaker‟s statement that she likes the punned effect
from its phrase is an evident fact the existences of pun.
The pun on the phrase “pay the bill” has similar sounding (homophony) and
spelling (homograph) or both with different meaning, so that it is belong to
homonymy. Ullmann (in Padeta: 2001: 219) defines what homonym is, he declares
that “(i) two words are homonyms if their phonological identity is the result of sound
change. (ii) two words are homonyms if they are spelled differently”. Things commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
51
commonly happen are homonym identical in pronunciation called homophone,
although, they have different spelling. Moreover, such word bill on the above
instance includes homophone (similar pronunciation) and homograph (similar
spelling).
“Bill” pronounced as /„bɪ ӏ/ means naming of Billy Thomas, Georgia
husband, and so it is as (n) money owed for goods or service supplied: an electricity
bill, a written or printed account for statement of money owed such as an account for
food and drink in a restaurant, hotel, etc. Collins English Dictionary (1995: 154).
Those two “bills” are nominal, having similar spelling (homograph), having similar
pronouncing (homophone) but they are different in meaning. Besides different
meaning, the capital letter /b/ notices such word “bill” as naming rooted from “Billy”.
Therefore, homonymy is a good candidate to make humor effect in the pun since it
causes ambiguity on the audience‟s mind.
These following instances will give an overview due to the differences
between homonym and polysemic pun:
Datum 16/ 00: 26: 48/ S 03/ Vol. 01/ BP/ EV/ SL
Context of situation: John plans to have a date with Nelle after work, but, for no reason, he is not
quite confident. During his confusion, John meets Elaine at the unisex bathroom, and then asks Elaine to awakening his spirit on. Elaine agrees to
help John. She acts like doing foreplay by kissing and touching John‟s body, it‟s not enough, she is also whispering sex talk at John‟s ears.
John Cage: Elaine, do you remember what you did for me last week? Could you, uh? / Elaine Vassal: Sure, Mmm. You hot, hot biscuit…mmm. I could fry an egg on you…egg…and you hot, hot sausage… on a hot, hot biscuit…I
look at you, and I see brunch... You hot. Hot biscuit. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
52
When a word has multiple meanings that are related conceptually or
historically, it is said to be polysemaus (pronounced polly-seamus). Fitriani (___: 9).
It is similar to Delabatista (1997: 5) statement that pointed out the meaning of
polysemy word which is diachronically or historically and conceptually related. It is
simple way to help us to out from the shadow of confusion between homonym and
polysemy. Since diachronic refers to dynamic as far as language rapidly changes, a
word may shift. As delivered by Soemarsono, word shifting primary conspicuous
occur in adjective because it tends to be changed as well as the following word.
(2007: 202). The adjective “hot” in this case is also shifting during the journey of the
language. Literally, there are several meanings of hot on the dictionary that are
marked by superscript 1, 2, and so on, in the similar entries and those several
meanings are actually still on related sense.
Hot is polysemy, with meaning having a high temperature, producing burning
sensation to the taste, and fiery: eager: intense: violent: impetuous among others
found in dictionary. Oxford Advanced Learner of Current English (1974: 414). Even,
the meaning of hot which is found in the newest Oxford Advanced Learner of Current
online 8th edition (http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/dictionary/hot)
is broaden. Among other meanings, hot also means sexual excitement. Due to this
phenomenon, if hot (adjective) followed by (noun) biscuit, then hot biscuit is
considered as a noun. It has been mentioned before, biscuit is John‟s nicknaming and
it also means flat, thin, crisp cake of any kind or bread dough baked in small shape.
(ibid: 83). In addition, John‟s nick naming of “The Biscuit” has its own history. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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According to http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/John_Cage_(character), its
name given by his close friend that refers to a chubby child on the icon 6Pillsbury
Doughboy (it is figured as human finger which is rubbing his stomach and giggling
ho ho ho). http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pillsbury_doughboy. Its name also related to
John‟s character who is kind of having less confident and shy man.
. Since biscuit has double meaning and one of it is a form of nicknaming, it
is recognized as perfectly polysemic pun as said by Schroter (in Kurniajati: 2009: 38)
that meaningful names can result in polysemic pun if they express a certain link
between the bearers of the names and some of their characteristics.
The context of situation brings audience‟s mind into more than a single
interpretation, hot biscuit is linked much on sexual connotation as well its literal
meaning, biscuit, that is commonly heated before eaten. When Nelle says that John is
hot biscuit so she seems like seeing him as a brunch, it carries our mind into the real
brunch. However, the scene shows Nelle and John are acting as if doing foreplay,
surely our mind will interpret John is a sexy man that may arouse woman or he is
capable of causing sexual excitement. In fact, hot which means sexy or sexual
excitement now is a common use as informal language in daily conversation.
Datum 18/ 00:09:23: 75/ S 03/ Vol. 03/ HW/ LW/ SL
Context of situation:
Ling makes a confession to Richard that as long as they together, she fakes her orgasm when make love. She does it to let it go soon. Because,
6 According to CD of Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary Seventh Edition, (___: 2007), Pillsbury is a US company that sells a range of biscuit. It is known especially for using the Pillsbury Doughboy in its advertisement. He is a small, fat, white boy called Poppin Fresh who is shy and wears baker‟s cap. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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Ling thinks that Richard only concern with his own satisfaction, so she asks Richard to stop taking Viagra.
RF: So, this is why you, uh, uh, uh ... fake?/ LW: Sweetheart, you and I both know that deep down, you're only interested in your own climax/ So, go off the Viagra/ We live in New England/ Be a Minuteman again/ It's
colonial!
This, too, include polysemy pun. The central issue of polysemic pun is rooted
from the term of minuteman. Related sense to minuteman7 if it linked to colonial
mentioned on dictionary at single superscript that means militant man who is ready to
fight at a minute‟s notice. Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary of Current English
(1974: 539). Nevertheless, according to context of situation minuteman is having
others related sense which can be drawn from such word Viagra. Such word
automatically reminds us that Viagra is a medication used to support men‟s sexual
performance. In this case, the meaning of minuteman is broaden and turned into a
conventional man who has sex without using Viagra. From explanation above,
therefore, it may rather difficult for the audience to recognize the connotative
meaning of minuteman, since the true meaning is inherent closely with the context of
situation. Absolutely, it will be confusing before we know that in the previous scene
Ling fakes her orgasm because she wants Richard go off from Viagra.
A.2.2. Homophony
7 According to htpp://en.wikipedia.org.wiki.minuteman minuteman were existed during the America Revolutionary War, they are equipped and prepared to march at the shortest notice. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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Homophone is a semantic feature identified as word(s) with identical sound
but they have different spelling and meaning. According to Alexia, “there are
interlingual differences on the phonological (sound) and graphemic (writing) level,
here it should bring into mind that identity or near-identity of phonic and graphemic
substance provides the necessary formal basis of wordplay.” (in Delabatista: 2002:
141). In fact, homophonic wordplay often may not be homophone in the receptor
language, particularly as well as in language with far families like English and
Indonesia.
Researcher will reveal the number of data on the table to make sure
homophonic pun is also considered in translation matter because of its distinctive
characteristic. The main issue of homophone are typed in bold in the following
dialogues, they are:
Datum 19/00: 20: 16/ S 03/ Vol. 03/ HW/ WC/ SL
Context of situation: After Richard and Whipper break-up, he has a new girl friend namely
Ling. Ling is a Chinese who live and work at Boston. At one moment, Richard and Ling have a fight because Ling asked him not to use Viagra, until they decide to break-up. During the breaking up time, he meets
Whipper who is in her job duty to fix up Ally‟s case. They both say hello and have private conversation related to their life after breaking up.
WC: Great. And how‟s Thing?/ RF: Ling. Uh, she‟s, she‟s good./ WC: Good. Right….
The important aspect, exactly, stands on the triggering point represented Ling
as a name of Chinese girl. Triggering point plays on the identical linguistic structure,
Thing vs. Ling. However, at this instance, the pivot stands at “Thing” only, hence
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Ling roles as a trigger. Due to the context of situation, there are two tendencies. First,
there is an indication that the speaker does not really know the real name of Ling, so
she calls whom anonymous into “Thing”. It is preferable to the context of situation
since the pictorial effect shows that Richard and Whipper meet at the first time after
their separation. Second, the speaker may know so well who Ling is. As figure in at
scene, Ling is a sexy Chinese woman, curious, arrogant, and weird, thus, the speaker
calls her into „Thing” is to indicate that she is weird. This is based on consideration
that the speaker does not ask apology when she is satiric. No matter which one is the
author‟s way of thinking, therefore, this instance is a pun on Ling (the name of one
character in Ally MacBeal).
“Thing” and “Ling” two expressions spell identically and it causes phonemic
ambiguity. The border of near sound is when there are two vowels /t/ and /l/ spelt in
same way by touching the upper teeth (dental). The word on ambiguity should have
more than a single interpretation. “Thing” probably deals with Chinese surname that
is “Ting”, so the speaker supposed to call “Thing” because she knows that she is a
Chinese, although, she does not grip the real name. On the other hand, according to
The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1969: 885) the word “Thing” /θιη/
means “(n) any possible object of thought including persons, material objects, events,
qualities, circumstances, utterances and acts”. The speaker, therefore, makes a pun on
the name of Ling in order to emphasize on her strange personality. Otherwise, the pun
also can interpret as a nicknaming pun. This is parallel with Farb‟s statement, that
divides name of children into four categories and name based on pun is one of them.
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8 (ibid) . It could be the speaker‟s mind to call Ling in punning by nicknaming it into
„Thing” based on her personality.
Datum 23/ 00:29:47:35/S 03/ Vol. 03/ C/BT/SL
Context of situation: Robin Jones is in trial sued by her coworkers because she is accused sleeping with the boss to get a good position in company. Billy as her lawyer suggests to settle with the opponent, but, she refuses and chose to keep her word/idealism.
BT: I admire you for sticking to your buns ...Guns. I can't believe I said that.
Such word “buns - guns” are homophonic and also recognize as Freudian
slip9. Freud gives an instance of slip of tongue between word taschenmesser (pocket
knife) and tassanmescher (a non-existent German word, whose first constituent,
Tasse means cup). (ibid), Slip of tongue is a kind of contextualized spoonerism,
while spoonerism means confusion of two or more words caused by placing of the
initial sound. In our mind, we may seek the answer for the question of how slip of
tongue includes into pun/wordplay. Related to this question in mind, Toury (in
Delabatista: 272-274) argues that the basic differences between a genuine slip of
tongue and play are placed on the employing and manipulating the principle-
underlying element considered as intention. It seems right since the speaker
normally avoid slip of tongue rather than to produce it.
8 Ibid page 20-21 9 Slip of tongue was studied by Sigmund Freud in his Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens, originally published in 1901. Toury (in Delabatista: 1997: 272) commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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In this instance, buns /bʌ n/ and guns /gʌ n/ have identical sound, but, spelt in
different way in which /b/ is bilabial and /g/ is spelt by air between velar.
Meanwhile, Freudian slip means an instance when a speaker unintentionally says
something contrary to what was intended and which seems to reveal his true thought.
Oxford Advanced Learner‟s of Current English (1974: 345). At this case, actually,
the speaker intends to say “I admire you for sticking to one‟s gun”, which is known
as idiomatic expression. The idiomatic expression sticking to one‟s gun refers to an
informal refusal to compromise or change, despite criticism.
www.oxfordadvancelearnerdictionary.com/dictionary/gun. Before saying what it is
intended, the speaker had slip of tongue which is bun. Bun itself contains taboo
word, according to (ibid: 112), bun is a small round cake containing currant, (slang)
the two side of person bottom.
Regarding to its phenomena, certainly, the context of situation is able to be
supportive. It shows at the scene, Robin Jones is very sexy and beautiful woman
with a “nymph” nicknaming. What happens is when the speaker wants to say that he
admires the spirit on struggling her dignity, his lips even says that he admires the
bun as what exactly thought in speaker‟s mind. Probably in the speaker‟s brain, he
really admires her beauty.
A.2.3. Paronymy
The highest number of pun is achieved through paronymy 15 (65, 21%) which
means more than a half of total data are 23. This fact leads into Vries and Verheij
opinion that, although, paronymy is weaker than in homonymy. However, it is still commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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strong enough for the two related words to be co-related in the mind of the listener
or reader. (in Delabatista: 1997: 76). Paronymy itself is the use of word that is
slightly different in the surface structure e.i both sound and spelling, so that
paronymy can be both near homophone and homograph.
Fifteen data counts as paronymy and most of them includes into vertical pun.
The phenomenon takes into account in this research. Since, researcher finds that the
use of vertical and paronymy as pun dominated by compounded noun (datum
number 1, 2, 5, 10, 17, 20, 21, and 22 are counted as compounded noun), then
followed by the misuse of certain phrases or proverbs (in datum 3, 8, 11, 12, and 15)
and the use of hierarchy rhyming word which are applied in the datum number 9 and
14. Several numbers apply similar pun but translator renders them differently for
instance “fishsm” emerges in several times that rendered in Indonesia into
“fishisme”, “kiasan”, “ficisme”, and “fishisisme”. In order to give an obvious frame,
the following instance shows the use of paronymy (slightly different in both sound
and spelling), starting by revealing the context situation, the core of paronimic pun is
typed in bold to notice.
Datum 10/ 00:15:26:60/ S 02/ vol. 01/ TRW/ RF/ SL
Context of situation: As a new coworker at Fish-Cage firm Nelle asks Richard what the
ideology of the company is. Then Richard explains that his firm is leading to individual need in motivating good performance at work environment.
NP: What about the firm's ideology?/ RF: Selfishism/ Everyone's looking to get ahead, they get ahead. I set an example.
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Based on researcher‟s investigation, at least, there are eight data which use
compounded words as devices to achieve pun effect. One of them is “selfishism”.
“Selfishism” is the core of paronymic pun since its word is slightly different on the
surface both sound and spelling even the phenomenon happening is similar to what
turns out on the “fishism” (on the page 33). Similar to “fishism”, “selfishism” is
derived from selfish and suffix –ism which points out that “selfishism” is a kind of
doctrine or practice.
“Selfish” pronounced as /‟seӏfɪʃ/ referring to adjective to show a chiefly
thinking of or interested in one‟s own need/welfare, Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary of Current English (1974: 773) while suffix –ism is added to specify an
ideology/ belief or main stream of thought. Thus, the idea of “selfishims” can means
as ideology or the thought/belief to be selfish to reach welfare. To maintain the pun,
the indicator shows that, the speaker intends to deliver the Fish-Cage firm ideology
similar to Fish ideology.
Datum 16/442/ 00:31:55/ S 02/ Vol. 02/ TEH/ AMB/ SL
Context of situation: Ally works at Ling‟s case who sues Harold Wick, radio announcer,
because his sexiest language that influenced working-environment. As team of Ling lawyer, Ally prohibites to have any private communication.
At one moment, Harold invites Ally on his show as guess star. She knows well the consequences if she takes it, but she breaks the rule and goes to Harold show.
EV: You could get creamed/ AMB: You only die once.
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“You only die once” is rooted from one of popular proverb “you only live
once” with merely change the word “live‟ with “die”. It can be seen that, the
differences between those words are only on the “live” and “die” which known as
antonyms. Basically, those phrases have similar purpose, but, they are conveyed in
the different words, both phrases deliver the meaning implicitly that we live then die
once on the lifetime, therefore, take the challenge we meet or never ever. Since this
phrase is a little different, but, they have similar goal/meaning with the original, it
belongs to into paronymic pun
Datum 20/346/ 00:29:34:32 / S 02/ Vol. 03/ IMP/ RF/ SL
Context of situation:
At Ally party, a hot discussion linked with the role of man and woman happens during dinnertime. Richard delivers his opinion, in his mind relationship between man and woman is only sex oriented without a deep feeling.
RF: Simple: men and women. Friction. That's it? Friction? Friction, friction, orgasm. Fishism.
As well as horizontal pun on the datum 12, in this pun the author uses
hierarchy-rhyming word. Meanwhile, the difference is on the relation between those
related words. The relation of words on datum 12 is on similar concept within words,
while on the instance above the use of rhyming words based on related sense. In this
case punster intends to describe that the relation within man and woman is merely sex
orientation, later it is conveyed through hierarchy rhyming words friction, orgasm
and fishism. Hierarchy itself means that those rhyming words arrange with grades
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from lowest to highest. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English
(1974: 403). Literally, “friction” refers to rubbing of something against another (ibid:
345), while “orgasm” stand for the climax for sexual excitement (ibid: 592), and
“fishism” is an ideology/ a mainstream coined by Richard Fish. The scene show that
Richard is a lot into money, he prefers to believe in his own ability rather than love
and considers love is merely sex-oriented relationship. Concerning the rhyming
between “friction”, “orgasm”, and “fishism” ended by consonants /n/ and /m/ which
are in near phonetic. Thus, this datum is classified into paronymic pun by using
hierarchy-rhyming words.
A.2. 4. Naming Pun
There are 2 (8.75%) data of aiming to reveal obvious character of certain
person or used to sustain the audience interest during the show. Watson (in
Delabatista, 2002: 84). Often, a proper name gives to someone which is based on
his/her physical condition or his/her physical traits in order to make any satire. It is in
line with Farb who categorizes children names into four types and one of them is
children name based on pun. Despite, naming pun applied by adult is commonly
more subtle than children. In the case of children‟s insult by using verbal strategies is
memorable their adult life. It means the painful effect felt in his/her past is carried
into his/her adult life. Farb (1974: 84).
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Datum 5/00:13:13/ S 01. Vol. 02/ CM/ EV/ SL
Context of situation:
Ally dates a model at sculpting class who has big penis, Glen. This news are heard by Ally‟s coworkers, Georgia, Renee and Nelle. They are
enthusiast to discuss about it. Knowing his friend‟s enthusiasm, Billy asks them what happened with Ally. Then, Elaine says that Ally date with Long John Silver, despite, she never meet Glen yet. She calls him “John Long Silver” based on physical characteristic he has.
Billy Thomas : Hey, what's going on?/ Georgia Thomas : Nothing./ Elaine Vassal : Ally's dating Long John Silver./ Georgia Thomas : Elaine./ Billy Thomas : Look at you all. Can I ask you something? Does size matter?/ Ally, Georgia, Elaine : No/ Renee Radick : All I need/ Billy Thomas : So, Bigger is better/ Ally and Georgia : No/ Elaine Vassal : Of course not/ Billy Thomas: Bunch of school gals
As said by Farb, the insult spoken by adult is harder to reveal than the insult
spoken by children since adult commonly use ambiguity word. In this instance, the
core of pun is inherent with “Long John Silver”10. In the SL, “Long John Silver”
recognizes as a figure of pirate with peg leg and parrot namely Flint. Nowadays, it
becomes popular culture in SL. For instance there is a franchise of fast food
restaurant namely Long John Silver in US. Besides, Disney animated fiction film
entitled „Treasure Planet‟ is adapted from “Treasure Island” and the rock band
“Jefferson Airplane” released their album into Long John Silver.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_John_Silver. From definition Long John Silver
and example of its pop culture, “Long John Silver” tends to have connotative
10 According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_John_Silver, Long John Silver is an antagonist figure of pirates in the Robert Stevenson‟s novel, Treasure Island. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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meaning as strong or powerful legend. Similarly, the scene shows that Glen in his
last twentieth with a good body and health, mature and an adventurer.
From those explanations, it can be interpreted that although the speaker does
not really know Glen looks like to whether he has a big penis or not, but, rumor has
it. Therefore, she calls him into Long John Silver to hide taboo word behind it. The
naming of “Long John Silver” plays on physical characteristic he has considered a big
penis. To support this pun, the pictorial effect illustrates hearer‟s responses that is
shown during the dialogue the response stated by Thomas as a woman is
representative. Thus, this pun is perfectly tied on the context of situation by playing
on the literal meaning of Long John Silver.
Datum 9/308/ 00:19:34,253/ S 01/ Vol. 04/ C/ AMB/ SL
Context of situation:
Because feeling guilty for Fish-Cone separation, Ally wants to meet Whipper to bring their together again, but she has no idea where she can find Whipper. She asks Billy for it and she completely shocks when she knows that Whipper is judge who can be met in the courtroom. In her
opinion, the name of Whipper sounds informal to judge‟s name.
AMB: It shouldn‟t be legal to be a judge with a name like Whipper
The context of situation carries our mind into query why person named
Whipper is not legal to a judge name. Researcher does not find the meaning of
Whipper as superscript in the dictionary, she only can find it on the online dictionary
as we know noun is commonly formed by adding suffix –er. The exactly relation
between Whipper and judge is known since they have any related sense. Whipper is
rooted from whip that means length of cord or strip of leather used to fasten horse or
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punishing people. Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary of Current English (1974:
980). According to validator, the term of Whipper actually does not exist as a formal
noun but informally the word means someone who uses a whip or someone who
whips people. The related sense is that both judge and Whipper are intended to
punish if judge is someone who decides on what punishment is meted out to criminal,
while Whipper is someone who uses whip to punish either cattle or people. Therefore,
the author giving a proper name of Whipper based on her profession is to keep
audience‟s eyes still open and stay up what will happen next.
B. Translation Techniques
Translation of pun is very risky since pun is linked to formal similarity
especially phonemic and graphemic which is different if it is translated into language
with different family like on English-Indonesia. Concerning this phenomenon, in this
sub-chapter, researcher is going to reveal the translation techniques used by translator
in rendering English pun into Indonesia especially in the source of data “Ally
MacBeal TV series”. Researcher has analyzed and found that there are five
techniques applied, they are a SL pun translated into a similar TL pun, a SL pun
copied into TL pun, a pun translated into a non-pun but keeping one sense ambiguity
only, a pun translated into a punoid or pseudo-wordplay through the adaptation of
rhetorical devices especially rhyme and omission of translated pun. The translation
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techniques used by translator and the number of data of each techniques are clearly
shown in this following table
Table 1.3. The number of translation techniques used by translator
No Translation Technique Data Percentage
1 A SL pun translated into a similar TL 2, 3, 11, 17, 30.43 %
. pun 20, 21, 22
2 A SL pun copied into TL pun 1, 4, 6, 7, 18, 26.08 %
19
3 A pun translated into a non-pun but
. keeping one sense ambiguity only 5, 8, 10, 12, 34.79 %
13, 15,16, 23
4 A pun translated into a punoid or
pseudo-wordplay through the 9, 14 8.70 %
adaptation of rhetorical devices
especially rhyme
Total 23 100%
B.1. A SL Pun Translated into a Similar TL Pun
Untranslatability of pun has been heard since a long time ago. This makes
translation of pun is scary. The untranslatability is seen from its unordinary case
because pun translation is closely related to linguistic matter and cultural-bound. As
well as House‟s statement that untranslatability wordplay seems too strong, because commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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of system between two languages are incommensurable to the point of making an
adequate of puns from one language to other is impossible but there are some cases of
puns that have been translated successfully and creatively. (in Delabatista: 68: 1997).
Thus, puns and its translation undeniably must be challenging matter to the translator.
Based on the result of researcher investigation, up to (7) 30.43 % SL pun from total
data (23) 100% are retained into TL pun. They all belongs to paronymy. To get
similar pun in TL whether it is accurate/acceptable or not, researcher finds that
translator intended to translate SL pun and later on, adjusts its pun based on SL
culture that is represented on this following instances.
In this following part, “fishism” emerges several times in the source of data
and translates in varied way. Of course, this phenomenon is an interesting discussion
in translation studies.
Example 1:
(dat. 2:23) Richard Fish: Quote me. It‟s a Fishsm. (SL)
Richard Fish: Ingat kata-kataku itu fishsme. (TL)
(dat. 17: 23) Richard Fish: Ally, please. Lasting happiness only comes with
money…fishsm. Uh, for contemporary well-being. Viagra. (SL) Richard Fish: Ally sudahlah. Kebahagiaan abadi hanya dengan uang, Fisisisme. Untuk sementara ini. Viagra. (TL)
(dat. 20:23)
Whipper: Do you think you‟re fooling me with these Fishisms, Richard? (SL) Whipper: Kau pikir kau bisa menipuku dengan ficisme ini, Richard?
(TL)
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(dat. 21:23) Richard Fish: Love is finite. Only misery last forever. Uhh, Fishism. (SL)
Richard Fish: Cinta itu terbatas. Hanya penderitaan yang abadi. Ficisme. (TL)
(dat. 22:23) Whipper: Another Fishism? (SL)
Whipper: Ficisme lagi? (TL)
In these instances, translator employs the technique translated SL pun into a
TL pun. At the first impression, it seems that the translator is not consistent in
translating pun of “fishism”, but, it needs more deep investigation to answer its query.
In the datum 2 and 17 it could be seen that fishism turns into fishisme, where
translator adjusts suffix –ism into –isme that preferable linguistically and culturally in
Indonesia since it tends to a belief/practice. If on the datum 17 the translator
capitalizes vowel /f/ and mistype fishisme into fisisisme, on the datum 2, s/he notices
fishism as an important thing by capitalizing letter /f/.
In the datum 20, 21, and 22, the translator takes different decisions and
translates fishism into ficisme. Without interviewing the translator, the researcher
does not really know by what considerations s/he translates fishism into ficisme.
Unfortunately, translator gives less attention on the use of capital letter, on the datum
20 s/he does not capitalize /f/ in ficisme and capitalize it on the datum 21 and 22.
Example 2:
(dat. 11:23)
Ally MacBeal: You only die one (SL) Ally MacBeal: Kau hanya mati sekali (TL)
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As we seen in this example, translator translates the pun on “you only die
once” into “kau hanya mati sekali”. Although, it seems that translator applies literal
technique to render its pun, the effect and meaning between SL pun and its translation
is similar. Only by reading subtitling on the screen, the audiences effortlessly
distinguish that “kau hanya mati sekali” vs. “kau hanya hidup sekali” in target
language.
B.2. A SL pun Copied into TL Pun
Like the two sides of coin, these techniques have advantages and
disadvantages. The advantages of using this technique is to remain and keep the pun
in TL, especially if its pun is homophonic, it is because sometimes two words which
sound alike in certain language may become different in other languages. Gotlieb (in
Delabatista: 2002: 217). In the other hand, the consequence that should be taken that
the audiences may not really recognize the pun since SL pun is possibly not so
acceptable in TL culture.
There are six (26.08%) of puns from total data 23 (100%) translated by
copying into TL. They consist of two homophonic pun two naming, a polysemic pun
and a paronymic pun. Researcher finds that translator tends to use this technique
when dealing with naming or proper names since the whole puns mentioned above
include to naming or proper names with connotative beyond as well as presented on
the following instances.
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Example 1:
(dat. 7: 23) Renee: Last night this guy tongue-waggled Gipper / Ally: Whipper (SL) Renee: Semalam pria ini bermain lidah dengan glipper/ Ally: Whipper.
(TL)
(dat. 19:23)
Whipper: Great. And how‟s Thing?/ Richard: Ling. (SL) Whipper : baik. Bagaimana dengan Thing?/ Richard: Ling. (TL)
On the homophonic pun, translator decides to copy SL pun Gipper-Whipper
and Thing-Ling without any modification in TL. This decision probably takes for
some reasons, it is not only based on the fact that the puns are homophone but also
the translator‟s awareness to recognize that those terms above are also related to
naming pun or proper names with connotative meaning. Gipper is rooted from gyp
as proper name giving to someone who cheats on. Besides, Thing is defined as pun
of Chinese family name “Ting”, possibly that the speaker does not really know
whom the real name of “Ling”, name or naming based on Ling characteristic which
is figured out as a weird girl. Meanwhile, an error typing Glipper can get audiences
into misunderstanding; it should be Gipper without vowel /l/.
Example 2:
(dat.4:23)
Elaine: Ally dating Long John Silver. (SL) Elaine: Ally berkencan dengan Long John Silver. (TL)
(dat.6:23)
Ally: it souldn‟t be legal to be a judge with a name like Whipper (SL)
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Ally: Seharusnya tak boleh ada hakim dengan nama seperti Whipper. (TL)
Since Ally MacBeal is segmented to urban and highly educated audiences, it
may be effortless to audiences in recognizing those naming pun. Long John Silver
does not only refers to a name of a popular pirate character, but, also a name giving to
a man who a has big penis since the context of situation is represented without
vagueness the meaning of proper name, Whipper can be recognized by English
learners or user, while, and the others may find difficulties to comprehend what
Whipper means. Both names are naming pun with connotative meaning beyond. It
can be seen that translator settles on both of SL naming pun in source of data through
copying into TL.
Example 3:
(dat. 1:23)
AN #1: Exactly. So why choose to bring it in a state known as Taxachusetts.
(SL) AN#1: Jadi kenapa memilih untuk membawanya ke Taxachusetts. (TL)
From total fifteen paronymy in source of data, only one is translated by
copying/borrowing strategy. For a reason that this pun is cultural-bond, the translator
prefers to keep a TL pun into SL. As explained in the previous part, Taxachusetts is
pun on the name of town “Massachusetts” which is known as town with excursive
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taxes so that the pun of Taxachusetts has no a proper equivalence with similar sense
in TL culture.
Example 4:
(dat. 18:23)
Ling: Sweetheart, you and I both know that deep down, you're only interested in your own climax/ So, go off the Viagra/ We live in New England/ Be a Minuteman again/ It's colonial! (TL)
Ling: Sayang kita berdua tahu kau hanya mementingkan kepuasanmu sendiri. Jadi jangan minum Viagra. Kita hidup di New England jadilah Minute man lagi seperti jaman kolonial. (SL)
Similar to previous datum, on the pun of “minuteman” translator also directly
copies its pun into SL. Besides, its pun is a naming pun with connotative meaning
beyond, the term of “minuteman” is also cultural bound which is closely related to
American history. Copying TL pun into SL is done because there is no
correspondence toward the term of “minuteman” on the SL. Certainly, unambiguous
context of situation shown on the scene will assist the audience into author‟s idea
when Ling states that she wants to Richard to off the Viagra.
B.3. A Pun Translated Into Non-Pun but Keeping One Sense of Ambiguity
Only
Pun is an intentional use of ambiguous nature of language aimed to achieve
special effect in certain context. Jing (2010: 84). But, sometimes, it is hard to keep all
senses in a pun since pun always contains more than one senses. When it happens
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during translation process, translator can employ strategy keeping one sense of
ambiguity which is embodied on the pun. Basically, this technique is similar to
strategy that proposed by Jing, that is “sacrifice secondary information”. She (ibid)
argues that when the two meanings embodied in the pun are not equal importance or
both meanings are indispensable conveyed as writer intention, the translator could
adopt strategy of scarifying of the secondary information based on his/her assessment
in specific context and the accessibility of the preserved information in the cognitive
environment of target reader. From total data used, eight data (34.79%) are translated
by using this technique, five are paronymic, two are homonymic and one is
homophonic pun. Here are some examples:
Example 1:
(dat.5:23)
Fish: That‟s a Fishism (SL) Fish: Itu kiasan (TL)
Unlike the previous instance, where Fishism is going to render by using TL
pun into Fishisme, in this instance, translating pun into non-pun and keeping one of
ambiguity of sense only is preferable to use. It has been explained in the previous part
that Fishism is has a related sense with belief/ideology/practice by Fish‟s way of life.
Example 2:
(dat. 8:23)
Ally: Because you love her. Because there aren‟t “plenty fish in the sea”. Sometimes there’s only one fish. Trust me. (SL)
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Ally: Sebab kurasa kau mencintainya. Orang yang berkata “banyak ikan di laut” itu berbohong. Kadang Cuma ada 1 ikan. Percayalah padaku.(TL)
Pun on the proverb “there are plenty fish in sea, but sometimes there is only
one fish” has a double meaning beyond. This pun refers to a popular proverb which
means that life is about choices including in seeking a soul mate. Opposed with first
interpretation, based on the context of situation, this pun means that there is no one
like Richard Fish, even if so many men around Whipper‟s live. To tackle this pun,
translator prefers to crack the surface meaning only and leave the layered meaning
neatly behind on the audience‟s understanding and mind with some efforts to catch it.
Example 3:
(dat.13:23)
Elaine: " Georgia: "Pay the bill. " I like the "punnage" on that (SL) Elaine: Georgia, “lunasi tagihan”. Aku suka dampaknya. (TL)
In this instance, Bill has two meanings; Georgia‟s husband is namely Billy or
Bill, while, Bill also refers to a written or printed account for drink and food at
restaurant (it has been explained on the homonymy pun at page 40) but translator
prefers to emphasize on the literal meaning only which is Bill as an electronic
payment. Thus, such phrase “pay the bill” is translated into “lunasi tagihan” in
Indonesia. In fact, the real meaning of “bill” may be easily detected when we check
the context of situation, where at that scene Elaine gives free samples of condom with
logo for all co-workers and her pronouncement that she likes the effect from its pun.
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Example 4:
(16:23)
SL: Sure. Mmmm you hot, hot biscuit…mmm. I could fry an egg on you…egg…and you hot, hot sausage…on a hot, hot biscuit. I look at you
and I see a brunch. You hot. Hot biscuit. (SL)
TL: Tentu. Kau biskuit yang panas. Aku bisa menggoreng telur di
badanmu. Telur dan sosismu yang panas, di atas biskuit yang panas. Aku menatapmu dan ku lihat makan siang. (TL)
Despite, biscuit has two meaning which refers to John‟s nick naming and
small flat thin crisp cake. Such conversation, in the context of situation contains tons
of taboo words. It is also supported by context of situation where is John asked Elaine
to treat him like doing foreplay. To handle pun hot biscuit, translator prefers to
maintain its literal meaning only and avoid the layered meaning beyond, this decision
taken based on the topic of conversation only without seeing the context if situation.
Therefore, pun on the “hot biscuit” is rendered into “biskuit yang panas” that keeps
taboo sense behind its phrase away.
On this underneath homophonic pun, the core of pun “bun-gun” contains of
idiomatic expression. Although, the translator decides to keep its literal meaning, in
fact, the existence of its idiomatic expression is failed.
Example 5:
(dat. 23:23)
Billy Thomas: I admire you for sticking to your buns…Guns. I can‟t believe I said that. (SL) Billy Thomas: Aku mengagumimu karena membela tubuhmu. Dirimu.
(TL)
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Not only known as idiomatic expression, but its pun also involve on the slip
of tongue that is certainly intended by the speaker known as Freudian slip. Definitely,
it is not an easy task to do when those things embed on the one core of homophonic
pun. As we can see, however, the translator decides to render the terms “bun-gun”
based on its literal meaning disregarding his/her mind on the either the pun as
idiomatic expression or Freudian slip. Clearly, the translator renders “buns-guns” into
tubuhmu-dirimu in Indonesia by sacrificing an idiomatic expression to stick to your
guns as a basic consideration. However, literal meaning has similar sense with the
idiomatic expression meaning. In this case, idiomatic expression sometimes is not
translated as it is said in TL. Since, literally, the phrase cannot render the messages,
the translator is required to comprehend it beyond words. Therefore, h/she normalizes
the idiomatic expression into his/her words in TL which is considered more
acceptable to the target readers than its literal meaning.
B.4. A Pun Translated into A Punoid or Pseudo-wordplay Through The
Adaptation of Rhetorical Devices Especially Rhyme.
In brief, Spanakaki (2007:4) explains that, pun translated into related
theoretical devices means pun rendered with another or punoid including to
repetition, alliteration, rhyme, referential vagueness, irony, paradox, and etc which
aims to recapture the effect of SL pun in the TL. There are two puns (8.69%) from
total data translated into punoid or pseudo-wordplay through the adaptation devices
especially rhyme, and they both are paronymy. Yes, its pun is trouble-free to detect.
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Nevertheless, the trouble comes if its translation product cannot prevent the rhyme in
SL, check these following instances visibly to see the phenomenon.
Example 1:
(dat. 9:23) Nelle: Oh, Biscuit. In my mind, Biscuit became Bun, and Bun, Bunion.
Sorry. (SL)
Nelle: Biskuit. Dalam pikiranku biskuit mungkin menjadi roti (bun), roti menjadi bunion. Maaf. (TL)
On this rhyming pun, translator tries to remain the SL rhyme in TL, s/he does
not translate such word ”bunion” and gives an additional explanation in the bracket
for the word “bun” to get similar rhyming effect. This strategy may be taken when
such word “biscuit” has identical sounding and spelling in Indonesia, “biskuit”.
Despite both such words “bun” and “bunion” are totally different in sounding and
spelling, even it seems that they are not closely bound up together in similar sense.
Regrettably, the word “bunion” is blur since there is no additional information what
bunion is and why those word are related. For a reason helping audience, it is
important to add explanation in the bracket to such word “bunion” so that the
relations between those words are understandable to the audience.
Example 2:
(dat: 14:23)
Fish: Simple: men and women. Friction./ That's it? / Friction? Friction, friction, orgasm. Fishism. (SL)
Fish: Sederhana. Pria dan wanita. Friksi. / Itu saja? Friksi/ Friksi, friksi, friksi, orgasme, fishisme. (TL)
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If the previous example is different in both spelling and sound, while
phenomenon on the rhyming words friction, orgasm, and fishism are possible. It
means in Indonesia such words “friction”, “orgasm”, and “fishims” is near sounding
by ending vocal /i/ for “friction” and suffix /-isme/ for “orgasm” and “fishism”. As
we can see, translator decides to translate and adapts the entire rhyming words into
Indonesia, therefore, the translator is able to maintain two important things including
its rhyming words rhyme and one root of sense.
C. Accuracy
In this sub chapter, researcher investigates accuracy level of translation pun
into target language. As well as mentioned on the previous chapter, the researcher
employs open-ended questionnaire to gain information from three key informants. In
order to make it easier to notice, the researcher makes an abbreviation, they are K1 to
key informant 1, K2 to key informant 2, and K3 to key informant 3. Open-ended
questionnaire are able to measure the accuracy level and gather information related to
the chosen scale in the same time. Dealing with accuracy level, researcher employs
this following scale:
1. Accurate: if the translation can deliver or express the message in the TL
pun.
2. Less accurate: if the message of SL pun is less conveyed in translation.
There is a message distortion.
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3. Not accurate: if the translation definitely cannot deliver or express the
message of SL pun.
Further, the results of open-ended questionnaire done by three key informants
are calculated to get the mean score. The mean point is applied to classify data into
the following category:
a. Accurate Translation
If it consists of the data of which the point is 1.0
b. Less accurate Translation
If it consists of the data of which the point is 1.9 up to 2.9
c. Not accurate Translation
If it consists of the data of which the point is 3.
The result shows that the average of accuracy level is on the point 1.3, it
means translation of pun is less accurate. Moreover, the following table shows
classification translation of pun, as follows
Table. 1.4. The classification of accurate translation
Categories Data Percentage
Accurate Translation 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 (56.52 %)
14, 16, 17, 18, 19
Less Accurate 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 20, 10 (43.48 % )
21, 22, 23
Not accurate ------
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It can be seen that accurate translation is up to 56.52 % (13), the rest is less
accurate translation 43.48 % (10) and there is no data which is classified into
inaccurate translation.
C.1. Accurate Translation
There are 13 data which belong to accurate translation. In this case, the three
key informants agree to give score 1 since translation of pun above can deliver or
express SL message/meaning into TL. Here are the examples:
Example 1:
(dat. 1:23)
AN #1: Exactly. So why choose to bring it in a state known as Taxachusetts. (SL) AN#1: Jadi kenapa memilih untuk membawanya ke Taxachusetts. (TL)
Translator employs borrowing technique or copied SL pun into TL pun in
translating this pun, so that in term of meaning, the pun is definitely accurate both
form and messages since borrowing technique always assure accuracy of translation.
This pun also transfers the SL culture into TL as the way it is said in TL culture or
with no changes because there is no equal correspondence in TL.
Example 2:
(dat. 2:23) Richard Fish: Quote me. It‟s a Fishism. (SL) Richard Fish: Ingat kata-kataku itu fishisme. (TL)
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According to K1, this example is quite successful translation by employing a
SL pun translated into a similar TL pun. In this case, the translator conveys the
message of SL pun and naturalizes it as TL culture. Thus, the term of –ism which
refers to ideology or practice is translated into –isme and keep the sense of fishism
which is pointed out on kind of belief/ideology.
Example 3:
(dat. 9:23) Nelle: Oh, Biscuit. In my mind, Biscuit became Bun, and Bun, Bunion. Sorry. (SL)
Nelle: Biskuit. Dalam pikiranku biskuit mungkin menjadi roti (bun), roti menjadi bunion. Maaf. (TL)
This example is a successful effort of the translator in preserving the rhyming
words into TL pun. The additional information which is on the bracket is useful to
lead audience‟s understanding/knowledge in term of related sense between those
words. This translation is accurate since it conveys the meaning/messages of SL pun
including preserving the original rhyme. The writer suggests that in order to show
related concept between those words it much better to add the meaning of „bunion‟ on
the bracket, so that, it should be : Biskuit. Dalam pikiranku biskuit mungkin menjadi
roti (bun), roti menjadi infeksi (bunion). Maaf.
Example 4:
(dat. 11:23) Ally MacBeal: You only die one (SL) Ally MacBeal: Kau hanya mati sekali (TL)
It is such kind of accurate translation when the pun on the proverb “ You only
die once” is rendered into “kau hanya mati sekali”. Definitely, the messages/meaning
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of SL pun is effectively conveyed through its translation product as shown in the
context of situation. Based on the context of situation, this proverb is coined to refer
to take chances.
Example 5:
(16:23) SL: Sure. Mmmm you hot, hot biscuit…mmm. I could fry an egg on you…egg…and you hot, hot sausage…on a hot, hot biscuit. I look at you and I see a brunch. You hot. Hot biscuit. (SL)
TL: Tentu. Kau biskuit yang panas. Aku bisa menggoreng telur di badanmu. Telur dan sosismu yang panas, di atas biskuit yang panas. Aku menatapmu dan ku lihat makan siang. (TL)
Based on the explanation in the previous sub chapter (page 43), the term of
„biscuit‟ is very cultural bound, therefore, it is kind of risky translation. In this
instance, preserving literal meaning/message of pun is preferable for the translator.
As shown in the context of situation, John and Elaine seems to do foreplay, whereas,
he only asks her to awakening his confidence on. Both „panas‟ and „seksi‟ is accurate
in TL to substitute „hot‟ in SL than the others meaning and so its translation product
fits to the context of situation.
C.2. Less Accurate Translation
Example 1:
(dat. 3: 23)
Renee: It looked supernatural (SL)
Renee : Kelihatannya supranatural (TL)
In this case, K1 scores 1, while, K2 and K3 gives 3 to its translation. If K1
argues that there is no problem by rendering „supernatural‟ into „supranatural‟, K2 commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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and K3 agrees that the term of supernatural in English is so much different compared
to “supranatural” in Indonesia. They believe that translator should preserve the term
of “supernatural”, because, the main idea stands on word “super”. In fact, according
to Oxford Pocket Leaner‟s Dictionary (416: 1991), supernatural refers to something
magical which law or science cannot explain. Meanwhile, super refers to adjective of
informal language which means excellent. (ibid). Contextually, therefore, the term of
„super‟ on the word „supernatural‟ is used to emphasize that the thing talking by
speaker is outstanding or having excellent size.
Example 2:
(dat.5:23)
Fish: That‟s a Fishism (SL) Fish: Itu kiasan (TL)
Both K1 and K3 scores 2 to this translation product. Meanwhile, K2 scores 3
which means its translation product is inaccurate. K1 suggests to remain the term of
“fishism” into “fishisme”. When its pun translated into “kiasan” the effect of pun is
totally lost since the translation is too broad (hyponym). They claim that it would be
much better to render the pun into “fishisme” regarding to consistency in translation
and mostly of readers know what “fishism” means. The scene shows utterance said
by Fish toward Elaine is used to reveal his point of view about marriage.
Example 3:
(dat. 8:23)
Ally: Because you love her. Because there aren‟t “plenty fish in the sea”.
Sometimes there’s only one fish. Trust me. (SL)
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Ally: Sebab kurasa kau mencintainya. Orang yang berkata “banyak ikan di laut” itu berbohong. Kadang Cuma ada 1 ikan. Percayalah padaku.(TL)
According to K3‟s opinion, this translation of pun conveys the message
accurately. In contrast, K1 and K2 state that its translation is less accurate in term of
the context of situation. The context of situation shows that the speaker implicitly
suggests Richard Fish to fight his love, therefore, fish uses in the idiomatic expression
referring to Richard Fish. According to K1 the translation should be: sebab kurasa
kau mencintainya. Orang yang berkata “ tidak banyak orang seperti Richard di
dunia ini”. “bahkan mungkin seorang saja”. Percayalah padaku. Considering that
the audience may find difficulties in understanding its pun translation, the writer
prefers to transfer it into “sebab kurasa kau mencintainya. Orang yang berkata “
banyak ikan (Fish) di laut” itu berbohong. Kadang Cuma ada 1 ikan (Fish).
Percayalah padaku, at least the audience remains the pun then.
Example 4:
(dat.13:23)
Elaine: " Georgia: "Pay the bill. " I like the "punnage" on that (SL)
Elaine: Georgia, “lunasi tagihan”. Aku suka dampaknya. (TL)
There is a different opinion between key informants related to translation of
pun in this datum, K1 undoubtedly claims this data is accurate. Meanwhile, K2 scores
3 which means inaccurate and K3 classifies the translation into less accurate. They
both assume that although the translator is successful in transferring the
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meaning/massage, the effect of pun does no longer exist in TL. Besides, translator
gives much attention precisely on the acceptability of its translation. K2 argues that
the translation should be: Georgia, “lunasi Bill/ tagihan”, aku suka dampaknya so
that the pun on the Bill is delivered well to the target readers.
Example 5:
(dat. 23:23)
Billy Thomas: I admire you for sticking to your buns…Guns. I can‟t believe I said that. (SL) Billy Thomas: Aku mengagumimu karena membela tubuhmu. Dirimu. (TL)
Both K2 and K3 score 2 to this translation of pun, but, K1 marks 1 because its
translation is related to the context of situation. The main reason why K2 and K3
classifies this translation into less accurate is the SL pun translated into non-pun in
TL since the core of pun points out on the homophonic words. Surely, it is such
difficult duty to keep the homophonic effect and a whole message/meaning of its pun
at the same time. As stated in the previous part that homophonic pun is often lost in
TL especially to those languages with far families such as Indonesia and English. In
the writer‟s opinion, the translation should be: aku mengagumimu karena membela
tubuhmu. Harga dirimu, because, the term of gun which come from the idiom
„sticking to one gun‟ nearly equivalent to „harga diri‟.
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D. Acceptability
Investigating acceptability level of translation becomes a center of discussion in
this last part. By employing similar open-ended questionnaire, the researcher gains
more information from three key informants. Here is the scale used to measure
acceptability level:
1. Acceptable: if the translated pun is culturally, grammatically and contextually
accepted in TL. It sounds natural and does not feel like translation.
2. Less acceptable: if the translated pun does not fit culturally, grammatically and
contextually in TL. It sounds few clumsy and feels like translation. The
translated pun is also uncommonly used in TL.
3. Not Acceptable: if the translated pun is not culturally, grammatically and
contextually accepted in TL. It sounds clumsy
The mean of data pointed on the 1.5 is categorized into acceptable, since it is
near to 1.9 as border point between acceptable and less acceptable. However, the
average 1.5 leads to a fact that less acceptable translation is much more than
acceptable translation. Check this following table to see the classification of
acceptable translation:
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Table. 1.5.The classification of acceptable translation
Categories Data Percentage
Acceptable Translation 2, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 7 (30.43%)
Less Acceptable 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 16 (69.57 % )
11, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,
23
Not Acceptable ------
The amount of less acceptable translation dominates the result of the research,
it is about 16 (69.57%) classified into less acceptable translation and 7 data (30.43%)
belongs to acceptable translation. Meanwhile, not acceptable translation is not found.
D.1. Acceptable Translation
In this following examples, all key informants agree to give score 1, it means
the translation of puns are accepted in TL culture, fits to the context of situation and
sounds so natural. Check these following instances will verify the phenomena:
Example 1:
(dat. 2:23) Richard Fish: Quote me. It‟s a Fishism. (SL) Richard Fish: Ingat kata-kataku itu fishisme. (TL)
This datum does not only count as an accurate translation, but also belongs to
acceptable translation. According to K1, translator employs naturalized borrowing in
translating the pun, so that the result tends to be acceptable in the TL culture and the commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id
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context of situation. Similarly, K2 states that the term of fishisme has been
naturalized in spelling and pronouncing. Thus, its translation product feels so natural
and does not sound awkward.
Example 2:
(dat. 8:23)
Ally: Because you love her. Because there aren‟t “plenty fish in the sea”. Sometimes there’s only one fish. Trust me. (SL)
Ally: Sebab kurasa kau mencintainya. Orang yang berkata “banyak ikan di laut” itu berbohong. Kadang Cuma ada 1 ikan. Percayalah padaku.(TL)
Despite this datum is classified into less accurate translation, the example above
belongs to acceptable translation. It is because the idiomatic expression of there are
plenty fish in the sea translated into banyak ikan di laut sounds familiar to
Indonesians. In this case, although, another meaning of fish (a person‟s name) is
unidentifiable this translation of pun remains acceptable.
Example 3:
(dat.13:23)
Elaine: " Georgia: "Pay the bill. " I like the "punnage" on that (SL) Elaine: Georgia, “lunasi tagihan”. Aku suka dampaknya. (TL)
In the above example, the effect of pun is lost and there is a distortion on the
original meaning, but, its translation is acceptable in TL. Since translator renders it
literally, its translation fits to TL culture, grammar, and the context of situation.
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Example 4:
(dat. 15: 23) John Cage: When Ally went on that talk show, she looked at me and said, “You only die once”. (SL)
John Cage: Saat Ally tampil di acara bincang itu, ia memandangkudan
berkata hidup hanya sekali. (TL)
In line with previous example, this translation is acceptable to Indonesians
because it fits to all requirements of acceptability. Thus, its translation is familiar to
audiences and there is no effort for the audiences to identify that the phrase is a pun
on the popular idiomatic expression.
Example 5:
(16:23) SL: Sure. Mmmm you hot, hot biscuit…mmm. I could fry an egg on you…egg…and you hot, hot sausage…on a hot, hot biscuit. I look at you and I see a brunch. You hot. Hot biscuit. (SL)
TL: Tentu. Kau biskuit yang panas. Aku bisa menggoreng telur di badanmu. Telur dan sosismu yang panas, di atas biskuit yang panas. Aku menatapmu dan ku lihat makan siang. (TL)
Besides count as accurate translation, this example also categorizes into
acceptable translation with similar reason to previous example.
D.2. Less Acceptable Translation
A translation is considered to be less acceptable translation because of
unsynchronized SL and TL culture, grammar and context of situation. The
phenomena are identified into following examples:
Example 1:
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(dat. 6: 23)
Ally MacBeal: It shouldn‟t be legal to be a judge with name like
Whipper. (SL) Ally MacBeal: Seharusnya tak boleh jadi hakim dengan nama seperti
Whipper. (TL)
K1 and K2 scores 3. In different point of view, K3 claims this datum into
acceptable translation. Both K1 and K2 argue that there is no equivalent in TL to such
word as Whipper. In addition, K2 thinks that it is unacceptable linguistically and
culturally to TL readers. Meanwhile, K3 decides to give score 1 by assuming that
Whipper is well accepted in TL culture, because the readers of this TV show is high
educated people. The writer rather to say that in order to remain the sense of
untranslatable pun, sometimes, scarifying acceptable aspect in translation requirement
is the only way translator can do and decision to keep the original pun by direct
copying or transferred its pun into Indonesia is a prerogative right of translator. In
this case, the translator chooses to keep the term of Whipper as pun in TL. As
consequence, its translation is less acceptable
Example 2:
(dat. 10: 23)
Richard Fish: Selfishism (SL) Ricard Fish : Diri sendiri (TL)
Both of K1 and K2 agree that the readers linguistically, culturally and
contextually accept this translation, in spite of K3 does not agree with them. In which
she scores 2 for this datum, in others words, it belongs to less acceptable translation
since she thought that its translation is little bit awkward.
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Example 3:
(dat.4:23)
Elaine: Ally dating Long John Silver. (SL) Elaine: Ally berkencan dengan Long John Silver. (TL)
Score 3 is given by K1 based on consideration that it is not linguistically and
culturally recognized in TL. Meanwhile, K2 and K3 scores 1 which means acceptable
to its translation. In this case, K2 and K3 have similar opinion that there is a
possibility the readers recognizes well “Long John Silver” is, since its character is
one of antagonist in popular novel namely Treasure Island. Thus, they argue that
keeping the term of “Long John Silver” is acceptable in TL culture and the context of
situation actively contributes for it.
Example 4:
(dat. 11:23) Ally MacBeal: You only die one (SL) Ally MacBeal: Kau hanya mati sekali (TL)
In this case, K1 scores 2 which means less accurate, he argues that culturally
it is less recognizable, therefore, in the TL the translation should be : kau hidup hanya
sekali. K2 and K3 state that it is acceptable translation by assuming mostly of
audiences comprehend its pun playing on the popular idiomatic expression “hidup
hanya sekali”.
Example 5:
(dat. 21:23) Richard Fish: Love is finite. Only misery last forever. Uhh, Fishism. (SL) Richard Fish: Cinta itu terbatas. Hanya penderitaan yang abadi. Ficisme.
(TL)
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K1 and K2 agrees to give score 1 to this translation. According to K1, there is a
possibility that translator points out on the character of Fish which is childish.
Contextually, it shows that Fish is typical man who prefers to run rather than to face
the fact. Since, the translator applies borrowing naturalized technique, definitely, it is
considered to be an acceptable translation. Nevertheless, K3 claims that the
translation includes less acceptable translation. According to her, it is important to
pay attention on the consistency of translation.
In fact, translation requirements such as accuracy, acceptability, and readability
are definitely have a strong connection with techniques used. The use of copying TL
pun into SL pun tends to be effective in producing accurate translation product.
Translating TL pun into SL pun is expected to produce an accurate translation, but
sometimes the pun could be loss as well as occurs in rendering the SL pun by rhymes
device and keeping of one sense of ambiguity pun only. Acceptability requirement
shows that mostly SL pun which is copied into TL pun is not culturally accepted by
the audiences. The techniques translating SL pun into TL pun, keeping one of
ambiguity only in pun translation and transferring SL pun by using rhyme to TL pun
seems to failure effort in conveying the message to the audiences, although in some
cases those techniques are naturally transferred the message.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
A. Conclusion
From the result of investigation, researcher can gain the conclusion. In relation with translation techniques, there are five techniques found in the source of
data such as SL pun translated into a similar TL pun, a SL pun copied into TL pun, a
pun translated into a non-pun but keeping one sense ambiguity only, a pun translated
into a punoid or pseudo-wordplay through the adaptation of rhetorical devices
especially rhymes. Of total data 100 % (23), five paronymics, two homonymics, and
one homophonic are translated into non-pun by using the technique of keeping one
sense of ambiguity only, which is in amount up to 34.79 % (8) . Meanwhile, 30.43 %
(7) data are translated by using an SL pun translated into a similar TL pun technique
and they belong to paronymic pun. There are six data (26, 08%) employed copied SL
pun into TL pun, in which, homophonic, naming, and polysemic pun are contributed
in the same amount. The two paronymic in percentage 8.70% contain rhymes inside
the pun is translated into punoid or pseudo-wordplay through the adaptation devices
especially rhymes.
Basically, there is no particular pattern in translating TL pun into a non-pun
by keeping one of sense ambiguity only, therefore, its technique is used to translate
paronymic, homophonic, and homonymic pun. Nevertheless, rendering SL pun into a
similar TL pun is applied if its pun has equivalent in TL whether it is proverb or
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general terms forming. Copied SL pun into TL pun tends to be used to translate
naming pun, homophonic pun aims to remain the sound and polysemic pun which
contains cultural bound, while, translated pun into punoid or pseudo-wordplay
through adaptation rhymes is useful to preserve the rhyme on the TL pun.
Concerning to accuracy level, the average of accuracy level is on the point
1.3. Based on category of average made by researcher, it is belong to accurate
translation. Of total data 100 % (23), the accurate translation is up to 56.52 % (13),
while, 43.48 % (10) is identified as less accurate translation, and there is no data
classified into inaccurate translation. In this research, there are four techniques
contributing on the accurate translation e.i copying SL pun into TL pun, translated SL
pun into TL pun, translated pun by using adaptation rhymes into TL pun, and keeping
the one ambiguity sense only of SL pun into TL non-pun. In detail, the contribution
of each technique is kind of hierarchy, in which, copying SL pun into TL pun on the
homophonic, paronymic and naming pun gives enormous contribution to accurate
translation, followed by the three paronymic puns are successfully translated into TL
pun, the use of adaptation rhymes of SL pun into TL pun on the two data which
contain rhymes work very well, and keeping one sense of ambiguity of SL pun into
TL non-pun only is employed to translate homonymic pun. Meanwhile, translated SL
pun into similar TL pun on the paronymic pun and keeping one sense of ambiguity
only on the paronymic and homophonic non-pun is not quite succeed strategy in
maintaining the message/meaning of SL pun into TL.
Concerning to acceptability level, the acceptability level is on the average 1.5
which means acceptable translation. The point 1.5 is on the middle of border between commit to user
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acceptable and less acceptable level so that its average is leading to the fact that the
amount of less translation is much more than acceptable translation. In this case, less
acceptable translation dominate in the 69.57 % percentage (16), the rest is about
30.43% (7) is less acceptable translation, and no acceptable translation exist. In this
research, the SL pun is translated by keeping one sense of ambiguity only into non-
pun tends to be acceptable in TL. Since translator literally translated the SL pun into
TL pun, his/her translation is well recognized by audiences, although, the
meaning/message is not successfully conveyed. Translated SL pun into similar TL
pun and the use of adaptation techniques especially rhymes device also contributes
into acceptable translation in the case of paronymic pun. Although, the used of
borrowing/ copying technique is assurance of the accuracy of translation, its
translation is less acceptable to TL culture because the audience may do not recognize
well the borrowing/copying terms. In contrast with previous fact, there are some
cases of less acceptable translation on the paronymic SL pun which is translated into
similar TL pun. Lastly, the pun on the rhyming-paronimic pun is not quite accepted
by audience.
B. Recommendation
Based on researcher’s investigation, researcher gives recommendation to the
translator that s/he certainly needs to enrich his/her knowledge about theory of pun
including the types of pun and strategies to translate certain pun. Definitely, the
translation’s knowledge strongly supports to produce qualify translation that is
accurate, acceptable and readable for the target readers. commit to user
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To the other students or researchers, it is suggested to conduct a research
related to pun with more various source of data especially source of data which is
taken from printed document such as comics, novel, ads, and so on. Enhancing the
problem statements are highly recommended, since this research does not measure
readability scale of pun translation in Indonesia.
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