CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1. Subtitling
According to Baker and Saldanha, subtitling is counted as the audiovisual
translation. They divide translation into four types; literary translation, audiovisual
translation, scientific translation and technical
translation.http://books.google.co.id/books/about/Routledge_Encyclopedia_of_Trans
lation_St.htmlid=eXsDckV5GuMC&redir_esc=y/ (Accessed on January 10th 2014)
Literary translation is the translation of the literary works.Scientific
translation is the translation of the terms in the field of science and technology of all
kinds. Technical translation is a type of specialized translation involving the
guides, etc.). Audiovisual is the translation of any material in audio, visual or
audiovisual format. The four major aspects that are included in this section are
subtitling, dubbing, software localization and multimedia, and audio description
(Luyken, 1991:153–165).
Subtitle as a branch of audiovisual translation is textual versions of the dialog
or commentary in films, television programs, video games, usually displayed at the
bottom of the screen.They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a
foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or
without additional information to help viewers who are deaf and hard-of-hearing to
follow the dialog, or people who cannot understand the spoken dialogue or the
2.2. Types of Subtitling
Gottlieb (quoted by Baker, 1992:247) distinguishes subtitling into two types;
intralingual subtitling and interlingual subtitling.
Intralingual subtitling is a vertical, in the sense that involves taking speech
down in writing, changing mode but not language. This includes
• Subtitling of domestic programmes for the deaf and the hard of hearing
• Subtitling of foreign-language programmes for the language learners.
Interlingual subtitling is a diagonal, in the sense that the subtitler crosses over
from speech in one language to writing in another, thus there is the changing in mode
and the language.
2.3. Subtitle Rules
William (2002:7-10) lists some rules in making standard subtitle for a movie
screen:
a. Subtitles must be on screen for long enough to be read by a deaf or hard-of-
hearing viewer who will also be trying to take in other visual information at the
same time.
(1) A short and familiar word or phrase - 1.12 to 2 seconds.
e.g.: Hello .
or: Excuse me.
(2) Up to half a line - 2 to 2.12 seconds.
or: See you tomorrow.
(3) One line - 2.12 to 3 seconds.
e.g.:How long will it take us to go home?
or:He´s got a real headache.
(4) One line and a little bit - 3.12 seconds.
e.g.: How long will it take Johanna to go
home?
(5) Up to one and a half lines - 4 to 4.12 seconds.
e.g.: It is important to tell her about
the decision we made.
(6) Two lines - 5 to 6 seconds.
e.g.: I think it would be a very good idea
to keep dangerous dogs on a leash.
(7) Two lines and a little bit - 6.12 seconds.
e.g.: How long will it take the whole cast
to come home by taxi to Duals, North
Dyfed?
(8) Two and a half lines - 7 seconds.
e.g.: The best thing about going abroad is
the British weather .
(9) Three lines - 7.12 to 8 seconds.
e.g.: What will the City do about the Tory
Government´s humiliating defeat
in the House of Commons last night?
b. In both live and pre-recorded subtitling, timings are intended to be flexible. The
standard timings shown in the Appendix are intended to provide general
guidelines.
c. It is crucial that subtitles are displayed for a sufficient length of time for
viewers to read them. The subtitle presentation rate for pre-recorded
programmes should not normally exceed 140 words per minute. In exceptional
circumstances, for example in the case of add-ons, the higher rate of 180 words
per minute is permitted.
d. To ensure both legibility and readability, the maximum for subtitle text should
be roughly 32 or 34 characters per line.
e. Lines should be broken at logical points. The ideal line-break will be at a piece
of punctuation like a full stop, comma or dash. If the break has to be elsewhere
in the sentence, avoid splitting the following parts of speech.
f. Good line-breaks are extremely important because they make the process of
reading and understanding far easier. However, it is not always possible to
produce good line-breaks as well as well-edited text and good timing. Where
these constraints are mutually exclusive, then well edited text and timing are
g. If the text will fit on one line, do not rearrange it on to two lines. One line takes
less time to read than two short lines and it causes less disruption to the picture.
Similarly, do not rearrange two lines of text on to three lines, unless there is a
very bad line-break between lines 1 and 2.
2.4. Strategies of Translation
According to Gottlieb (1994:294), “The goal of adequacy- and even less
equivalence is not always reached in any type of translation”. To assess the quality of
a specific subtitling, the rendering of each segment of verbal film must be analyzed
with regard to stylistic and semantic value. Based on his experience as a television
subtitler, he has devised ten strategies which are used by subtitlers. Those are :
a. Transfer
Transfer is a strategy of translation which there is no additional
explanation or modifying of view, because the subtitler translates the
dialogue by literal word. In addition, the usage of this strategy also maintains
the structure of the original text.
Example: Monte: I Need a drink
Monte: Aku butuh sebuah minuman
This subtitling uses transfer strategy. There is no addition or deletion
in that phrase. The subtitler translates the dialogue literally. “I need a drink”
which is translated “Aku butuh sebuah minuman” and it is very similar in the
syntax and meaning. Transfer strategy is used in this the process of
b. Expansion
Expansion is used when the original text (SL) requires an additional
explanation in translation because of some cultural nuance are not retrievable
in TL.Linguistic element such as repetition is intentionally to be condensed.
Example: Clown: Whatever you need
Clown: Apapun yang kau butuhkan
The phrase “Whatever you need” is translated into “Apapun yang kau
butuhkan ”. The explanation word is purposively added by the subtitlerto
clarify the dialogue.
c. Paraphrase
Paraphrase is used when the subtitler does not use the same
syntactical rules in subtitling the dialogue. In other words, using this strategy
the subtitler changes the structures of the subtitle and makes it easier to
understand and readable by the audience.
Example: Monte: She’s black-hearted whore and i’m done with her.
Monte: Dia pelacur berhati jahat dan aku sudah tak peduli
dengannya.
The use of paraphrase strategy could be seen on “black- hearted” which
was translated into “berhati jahat”. “black hearted” which was a figurative
language meaning “disposed to doing or wishing evil” or “without any moral
quality orgoodness”, and black was close to the dark and evil world so the
d. Condensation
Condensation is a translation to make the text brief to miss
unneccesary utterance by using the shorter utterance, but it does not lose the
message. Sometimes pragmatic effect can be lost by using condensation
strategy. Therefore, the real aim of the text must be conveyed.
Example: Monte: Ah, I don't believe I will.
Monte: Aku takkan bisa.
On the subtitle above, it could be seen clearly that the subtitler uses
condensation strategy, if it is translated into word-to-word the sentence
structure in TL, the meaning is the same as SL text.
e. Decimation
Decimation is used to translate when the actors are quarrelling with
the fast speaking. So, the translator is also to condense the utterance because
the utterances have difficulty to be absorbed quickly from unstructured
written text.
Example: Monte: You're not, by any chance, referring to Spot, are you?
Monte: Maksud anda Spot?
The phrase “You’re not, by any chance, referring to Spot, are you?”
was translated “Maksud anda spot?” It is not translated word-to-word
because it was represented by “are you?” which in TL could be translated
“maksud anda?”.
f. Imitation
Imitationis re-writing the word of the original text. Imitation is
newspaper, and the tittle of untranslated literary works, names of company
and instituitions, addresses, etc.
Example: Charlotte: Did your Jubal McLaws ever love a woman?
Charlotte: Apa Jubal Mclaws pernah jatuh cinta?
“Jubal McLaws” was a name of a character in a story; therefore,
thesubtitler did not have to translate it.
g. Transcription
Transcription is used in the case where a term is unusual even in the
source text as the text uses the third language, or nonsense language.
Example: Monte: Railroad Pinkertons are hot on our trail, amigo
Monte: Jalur kereta Pinkertons sasaran kita, teman
Transcription strategy is used in translating the dialogue. It could be
seen in word “amigo” which was translated into “teman”. The word “amigo”
was a third language which was a Spanish word meaning friend.
h. Dislocation
Dislocationis an adopted translation when the original employs some
sort of special effect as it is found a silly song in cartoon film, where the
translation of the effect is more important than the content.
Example : The soundtrack of Dora The Explore Cartoon
Source Language Target Language
If there is a place you got to go
I’m the one you need to know
Kalau kau mencari tempat
I’m the map
If there is a place you got to get
I can get you there I bet
I’m the map
Aku peta
Kalau kau mencari lokasi
Akulah yang kau cari
Aku peta
i. Deletion
Deletion refers to the elimination of parts of a text which this term
carryless semantic meaning; therefore, it can be deleted without changing the
informationto the audience.
Example: Charlotte: That’s enough
Charlotte: Cukup
The sentence “that’s enough” into “cukup”. The word “that’s” in this
term carryless semantic meaning; therefore, it can be deleted without
changing the informationto the audience.
j. Resignation
Resignation is used to describe the strategy adopted when there is no
translation solution can be found and meaning is inevitably lost.
