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TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS OF DARK JOKES IN THE SUBTITLE OF JOKER MOVIE 2019 Irfan Azis Invada College of Foreign Language Cirebon, West Java E-mail: [email protected] Received: Abstract Revised: The study focuses on analyzing the translation technique of dark Approved: jokes in the subtitle of Joker movie 2019 that classified as a qualitative descriptive study. The Source of data that the user is taken from the original subtitle of the movie. This study formulated two research questions concerning the form of dark jokes and translation technique in the subtitle of dark jokes. This study applied the theory of Molina and Albir (2002) to analyze the translation technique. The result of this study finds two forms of dark jokes which are dialogue and monologue. Both of form has 6 data of the study. Then, the study found 7 translation techniques that were used in translating dark jokes of the Joker movie 2019 subtitle. Those are adaptation, borrowing, Linguistic Amplification, Linguistic compression, Literal Translation, Modulation, and Reduction. Translation techniques used were 7 linguistic compressions, 7 literal translation, 3 adaptation, 2 borrowings, 2 modulations, 1 linguistic amplification, 1 reduction. Linguistic compression and literal translation are a most applied technique that used in dark jokes of joker movie subtitle.. Keywords: Dark Jokes, Translation Techniques, Joker Movie Introduction The movies from Europe and America usually use English as the language the movies. It cannot be denied, Indonesian people have a reality that they do not understand English fluently. So that could be the obstacle of understanding the story of the movies. The movie is one of the audiovisual media that is used to reflect reality with information that can be consumed in depth. In other words, the genre of movies was relating to the number of similarities such as theme, setting, atmosphere, or others. Movies suggest the use of terms that are inherent in certain characters. Those movies can present a specific, interesting, and significant difference through speech representation or dialogue between characters that play in the movie. One movie related to this case is Joker 2019 with dark humor and reality on the dark side of the world. This movie describes the pain of life through comedy that dark is not always being sad but also it can make people laughing. Movies suggest the use of terms that are inherent in certain characters. Those movies can present a specific, interesting, and significant difference through speech representation or dialogue between characters that play in the movie. One movie related to this case is Joker 2019 with dark humor and reality on the dark side of the world. This movie describes the pain of life through comedy that dark is not always being sad but also it can make people laughing. Joker is a film that was released in 2019 that gives a story about a clown namely Arthur Fleck who wants to be a stand-up comedian. However in the course of his career to become a stand-up comedian, joker faced the pain of reality. His life is full of sadness
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Translation technique analysis of dark jokes in the subtitle of Joker movie 2019
and suffering in the Injustice world. Finally, He failed as a stand-up comedian. But it brought him to descent into insanity inspires a violent counter-cultural revolution against the wealthy in Gotham City. Because of the performance and amazing act of the actors, the joker has received some awards at the Golden Globe Awards. Phoenix as the main actor has won the best actor drama and Hildur Guðnadóttir won Best Original Score. Joker also earned 11 nominations at two ceremonies – the British Academy Film Awards, and the Academy Awards. So, Joker is one of the best films in this category. Because of this, the researcher is interested in whether made this movie so sensational. Especially about the dark content of joker that is dark jokes. What are the forms of dark jokes? What are the translation techniques used for translating dark jokes in the subtitle of a joker? It will be analyzed in this research. The research is focused on the translation technique of subtitle of a dark joke in Joker movie 2019. Jokes are usually short stories or funny words. It plays puns to make laughing or smiling. Making a joke is quite difficult if we do not get used to it. In a joke, there are two parts of the structures. The first is set up, and the second is a punch line. Set up is part of being not funny. Then the fun part is a punch line. A linguist, (Hetzron, 1991)defines a joke as a short humorous piece of oral literature in which the funniness culminates in the final sentence, known as a punch line. There are several categories of jokes, from simple jokes to jokes that use sarcasm. The genre of jokes can be divided by the material as political jokes, observational jokes, dark jokes, and many others. Jokes are usually fun for some people, but they are painful for others. A concrete definition of dark joke stated by (Bucaria, 2008) that the expression dark jokes refer to joke that has as its aim that of making fun of situations usually regarded as tragic, such as death, sickness, disability, and extreme violence, or of the people involved or subject to them. Based on the definition above, this research comes to analyze translation techniques of dark jokes. As a consequence, none of these readily available definitions seemed specific enough to be able to narrow down the idea of a dark joke. Nevertheless, a more concrete definition of dark joke stated by (Bucaria, 2008)that the expression dark jokes refer to joke that has as its aim that of making fun of situations usually regarded as tragic, such as death, sickness, disability, and extreme violence, or of the people involved or subject to them. Based on the definition above, this research comes to analyze translation techniques of dark jokes. Translation emerged as a solution to solve this problem. Translation always involves two languages, namely the source language (SL) and the target language (TL) with a different language and cultural system. It can be understood as the transfer of a message with the corresponding word equivalent from SL to TL. In general, translations can be divided into several types, but in this study, the author only focuses on one type of translation, namely the translation of subtitles. Larson stated (Larson, 1984) that translation is transferring the meaning of the source language into the receptor language. This delivers the form of the first language to the form of a second language which is being transferred and must be held constant. In the above definition, it can be concluded that translation is the process of diverting messages from the source language with the natural equivalent as close as possible to the target language by paying attention to the language style. Otherwise, Molina and Albir (Molina & Hurtado Albir, 2002) define translation techniques as procedures for analyzing and classifying translation that can be equivalence and applied to various units of language, such as words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. In http://eduvest.greenvest.co.id/indekx.php/edv 22
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their theories, they stated that there are 18 translation techniques used in the translation are adaptation, amplification, borrowing, calque, compensation, description, discursive creation, establish equivalent, generalization, linguistic amplification, linguistic compression, literal translation, modulation, particularization, reduction, substitution, transposition, variation. There are two types of translation movie. The first is dubbing and the second is subtitling. Both types are related to the dialog of the movie. If subtitling is translated by written texts, then dubbing is the translation of the verbal text. In this case, this study focuses on subtitle movies. Dubbing can be defined as the process of recording other people's voices to replace certain sounds. There is changing process that involving source languages and target language. In that process, translation made the point of massage is delivered by audiovisual directly from SL to TL. Subtitles are expected to become a bridge the language and cultural differences. So, the movie can be well understood by the audience. Subtitling is done by translating text in the form of speech or dialogue of the characters from a foreign language (SL) to the target language (TL). Then place it at the bottom, right in the middle of the screen. From that point, this study related to the translation of subtitles in the movie.
Research methods This research is a research of translation which is classified as qualitative descriptive research. Sutopo (Sutopo, 2002) states that in qualitative research, the case studies lead to a detailed and in-depth description of the field of study. In this case, this study describes the form of dark jokes and the translation techniques used in the subtitle of dark jokes in Joker movie 2019. The source of data was taken from the original script of the joker movie for the source language and the original subtitle in the movie for the target language. This study is focused to identify the form of dark jokes and analyze translation techniques of dark jokes in the joker movie 2019. The researcher identified which data source that collected from the original movie subtitles. Then, the researcher divided the data that collected into categories in data or not data of dark jokes that contains in the joker movie 2019. Then this research will collect data, describe it and analyze it. The last step is drawing the conclusion.
Result and Discussion This research aims to analyze the technical translation of dark jokes contains in the Joker movie 2019. The research found 12 data of dark jokes in the movie. Those data were identified by using the dark jokes definition by (Bucaria, 2008). The data of dark jokes form divided into two groups that are dialogue and monologue while the data of technique translation of dark jokes are 7 techniques.
A. Form of Dark Jokes a) Dark Jokes in Dialogue Data of dark jokes in dialogue refers to the form of a joke that contains more than one person involved in the conversation when the joke is delivered by Joker. There are 6 data of dark jokes in dialogue found in Joker movie 2019. The sample of data will be explained below. Code: 001/JM2019/0.06.18
Irfan Azis 23 Translation technique analysis of dark jokes in the subtitle of Joker movie 2019
Dark jokes in Dialogue
Randall : Hay gary, do you know what I always wonder?
Gary : no idea
Randal: do you people call it miniature golf or is it just golf to you? hahahaha
“Do you people call it miniature golf or is it just golf to you?” is a dark joke when this sentence asked people that have a short body. As if the people disability is bullied with the joke. In this context, Randall makes fun of Garry's disability. Making a laugh in disability is the character of dark jokes. (Bucaria, 2008) b) Dark Jokes in Monologue This form of dark jokes is monologue because there is only one person that delivered jokes. Otherwise, the jokes are talking narration or telling the story in the show. Even there was a conversation in the material of jokes if the jokes shown by one person that is a monologue. Jokes are delivered alone. The following data is a dark joke in monologue found in the Joker movie 2019. That will be explained in the tables below. Code: 001/JM2019/0.06.18 Dark jokes in Monologue
Arthur Fleck: [written in notebook] I just hope my death makes more cents then my life.
This joke is written in a book of jokes in which Arthur Writes jokes that he prefers death. It compares life and death that represented the pain of life in the joker movie. And this joke is included in dark jokes because this joke is written in a book of jokes and the joke is about death. He expects a better situation after his life. That is Tragic. The joke about death is dark jokes.
B. Translation Techniques of Dark Jokes in Joker Movie 2019 Subtitle The research found 7 techniques used by translators in the joker movie 2019. There are 3 adaptations, 2 borrowings, 1 Linguistic Amplifications, 7 Linguistic Compressions, 7 Literal translations, 2 modulations, 1 Reduction. The technique categorization used by (Molina & Hurtado Albir, 2002) is explained in chapter 2. The data of translation techniques are further explained below. a) Adaptation Adaptation is a translation technique where the translator replaces SL with cultural elements that have the same meaning. Those cultural elements should be familiar to the target language. There are 3 adaptations found in the subtitle of dark jokes in the joker movie 2019. This is sample data of dark jokes using the adaptation technique. Code: 001/JM2019/0.06.18
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Source Language Target Language
Arthur Fleck : I just hope my death Arthur Fleck : Kuharap kematianku lebih
makes more cents then my life masuk akal dari kehidupanku
From the table above, the translation of dark joke used adaptation because there is a cultural element that changes in the translation of “makes more cents”. It is translated into “lebih masuk akal” rather than translated become “lebih banyak uang”. There is the adjustment of culture to target language because cents or money is not familiar in imagine of life to the target language. b) Borrowing Borrowing is a translation technique that translators borrow words or expressions from SL. Borrowing is divided into two types that are pure borrowing and naturalized borrowing. In this research, 1 data uses borrowing. More detail is in the table below. Code: A002/JM2019/0.16.58 Source Language Target Language
Randall: hay gary, Do You Know Randall: gary, tau apa yang selalu ku
What I always wonder? pikirkan?
Gary: No idea Gary: tidak
Randall: Do you People call it Randall: orang sepertimu menyebutnya
Miniature Golf or is it just golf to golf miniatur, atau hanya golf?
you? Hahahaha
Hahahaha
From the data above, the translation technique used is borrowing. The type is pure borrowing. It was seen in the table that “Miniature Golf” translated to target language with the same word as “golf miniature”. Although the arrangement of words is different it still borrows a word from the source language. c) Linguistic Amplification Linguistic amplification is a translation technique by adding linguistic elements to the target language. This technique is often used in consecutive oral translation and dubbing. This research found the technique of linguistic amplification in the table below.
Irfan Azis 25 Translation technique analysis of dark jokes in the subtitle of Joker movie 2019
Code: A003/JM2019/0.22.58
Source Language Target Language
Hai, what’s your name? Hai, siapa namamu?
Arthur Arthur
Hai Arthur, you’re really good dancer Hai Arthur, kau penari yang baik
I know, then who is not? Aku tahu, tahu siapa yang tariannya
Him, Duar (Shoot the Gun) buruk? Dia.
Duarr, shot gun
This translation is included in Linguistic amplification because there is an Addition of linguistic elements. That approved in a sentence of “Then who is not?” which translated to “tahu siapa yang tariannya buruk?”. Linguistic amplification is reflected through the addition of “tarian yang buruk” d) Linguistic Compression Linguistic compression is translation techniques that can be applied by the translator in a simultaneous way or the translation of subtitles by synthesizing the linguistic elements in the TL. There is 8 technique of linguistic compression found in data of dark jokes. Code: A002/JM2019/0.16.58 Source language Target language
Randa ll: hay gary, Do You Know What I Randall: gary, tau apa yang selalu ku
always wonder? pikirkan?
Gary: No idea Gary: tidak
Randall: Do you People call it Miniature Randall: orang sepertimu menyebutnya
Golf or is it just golf to you? golf miniatur, atau hanya golf?
Hahahaha Hahahaha
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Some linguistic elements are not translated to TL because the translation technique used is linguistic compression. From the data above, the sentence Such as, “is it just golf to you?”. The word “to you is not translated in TL. The translation did compress some words to be shorter in the subtitle. So that is easier to understand to the point. e) Literal Translation The literal translation is the word for word translation technique. In literal translation, one word in the source language is not always translated into one word in the target language. This research found 9 Literal translations in the dark joke of Joker movie 2019 subtitles. The following data below is a literal translation. Code: A003/JM2019/0.22.58
Source Language Target Language
Hai, what’s your name? Hai, siapa namamu?
Arthur Arthur
Hai Arthur, you’re really good dancer Hai Arthur, kau penari yang baik
I know, then who is not? Aku tahu, tahu siapa yang tariannya
Him, Duar (Shoot the Gun) buruk? Dia.
Duarr, shot gun
This data revealed a technique of literal translation. It is indicated with the translation of word by word whether is in the structure of form or meaning of the word. That is seen in the sentence “Hai, what’ your name?” that translated to “Hai, siapa namamu?”. It is word translated to word from SL to TL. f) Modulation Modulation is a translation technique where the translator changes the point of view, focus, or cognitive categories concerning the source text. Changes in perspective can be lexical or structural. The sample of data will be explained in the table below. Code: A005/JM2019/0.37.17 Source Language Target Language Mirror man: Is that part of your act, Mirror man: bagian dari pertunjukan arthie? barumu? If your dancing doesn’t do the trik. Jika tarianmu tidak bagus, kau akan You’re just gonna shoot yourself? menembak dirimu? Hahaha Hahaha
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Translation technique analysis of dark jokes in the subtitle of Joker movie 2019
The data above is included a modulation technique which indicated in “your dancing doesn’t do the trick”. “doesn’t do the trick” is not translated to “tidak bagus”. It is changed the point of view in the relation of source language while the point of “trick” did not translate in the same meaning. g) Reduction The reduction is a translation technique that condenses source language text information into the target language. The finding data is explained in the table below. Code: A006/JM2019/0.42.15 Source Language Target Language
Tv guy: I think… I think most women Tv guy : Banyak wanita memandang seks
look at sex like buying a car. You know, sepeti membeli mobil. Contohnya, “apakah
like, “Can I see myself in this long ini unutk jangka panjang? Apakah aman?
term? Is it safe? Is it reliable? Could it Bisa diandalkan? Bisakah membunuhku?
kill me? Hahaha
Hahaha Banyak pria memandang seks seperti
Most guys, we look at sex like parking a parkir mobil. Kita katakan “ itu ada
car. We’re like “there’s a spot. There’s tempatnya, ada tempat lagi, itu bagus. Aku
another spot. That would work. Oh, I harus bayar? Baiklah. Difabel? Semoga
have to pay? Never mind. tidak ada yang lihat
Handicapped? I hope no one sees this.
Data showed that the translation technique used is reduced because some words are removed from the source language. The words removed to a target language such as “I think.. I think”. It is a reduction.
Conclusion The researcher concludes that there are 2 forms of dark jokes in the Joker movie 2019. Those are dialogue and monologue. Dialogue forms that found are 6 data and monologue forms also 6 data. Then, this research found 7 translation techniques that were used to translate dark jokes in the Joker movie 2019. Those techniques are 7 linguistic compressions, 7 literal translation,3 adaptation, 2 borrowings, 2 modulations, 1 linguistic amplification, 1 reduction. The techniques that are most used in translating dark jokes are linguistic
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compression and literal translation. The use of linguistic compression makes subtitles more concise but effective and efficient. It is necessary to be done because the space of subtitles is limited. Then, a literal translation is used because the word of the source language is not much different from the target language.
References Bucaria, Chiara. (2008). Dubbing dark humour: A case study in audiovisual translation. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 4(2), 215–240. Hetzron, Robert. (1991). On the structure of punchlines. HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research. Larson, Mildred L. (1984). Meaning-based translation: A guide to cross-language equivalence (Vol. 366). University press of America Lanham, MD. Molina, Lucía, & Hurtado Albir, Amparo. (2002). Translation techniques revisited: A dynamic and functionalist approach. Meta: Journal Des Traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal, 47(4), 498–512. Sutopo, Heribertus B. (2002). Metodologi penelitian kualitatif. Surakarta: sebelas maret university press.
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