JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Exploring Chinese Idiomatic Expressions in Malay Subtitles

This study addresses the gap in translating Chinese idiomatic expressions into Malay and explores how such translations impact the quality of subtitles. Despite their cultural and communicative significance, these expressions remain underexplored on global streaming platforms, where linguistic and technical limitations influence translation practices. This study analyses Chinese idiomatic expressions translated into Malay subtitles by categorising the expressions, identifying translation strategies, and assessing quality. A total of 239 expressions from nine Chinese drama series were grouped into five categories: idioms, proverbs, aphorisms, two-part allegorical sayings, and common sayings. Idioms make up the majority of the dataset (83.26%), highlighting the cultural richness of Chinese dialogue. Using Baker’s model, paraphrasing is the most common strategy, followed by omission and the use of idioms with similar meanings but different forms. Pedersen’s FAR model shows high Acceptability (Rater 1: 98.74%, Rater 2: 98.22%) and Functional Equivalence (Rater 1: 76.05%, Rater 2: 82.22%), while Readability scores are lower (Rater 1: 71.23%, Rater 2: 71.03%) due to timing and reading speed issues. The results suggest that subtitling practices prioritise semantic accuracy and fluency, sometimes sacrificing technical constraints. This study emphasises the importance of balancing meaning retention with readability and suggests combining product-based assessment with viewer reception and multimodal analysis.

Translation Strategies and Difficulties in Translating English Idiomatic Expressions

Translation plays an important role in transferring meaning across languages, particularly when translating idiomatic expressions whose meanings cannot be interpreted literally. This study aimed to identify the translation strategies employed by sixth-semester students in translating English idiomatic expressions into Indonesian and to investigate the translation difficulties they encountered. The study employed a descriptive quantitative design involving 24 sixth-semester students of the English Department at UIN Fatmawati Sukarno Bengkulu. The research instrument was a translation test consisting of 15 idiomatic expressions selected from Barack Obama's speech Ignorance is Not a Virtue. The students' translations were analyzed using Baker's (1992) translation strategies, while translation difficulties were classified based on Baker (1992) and Larson (1998). The findings revealed that Translation by Paraphrase was the dominant strategy, accounting for 345 translations (95.83%), followed by Using an Idiom of Similar Meaning but Dissimilar Form with 15 translations (4.17%). No data were categorized as Using an Idiom of Similar Meaning and Form or Translation by Omission. Regarding translation difficulties, Contextual Difficulty was the most dominant category with 161 cases (73.85%), followed by Linguistic Difficulty with 33 cases (15.14%) and Cultural Difficulty with 24 cases (11.01%). The findings indicate that students experienced greater difficulty in interpreting the intended meanings of idiomatic expressions within their communicative contexts than in understanding linguistic or cultural aspects. Furthermore, 218 translations (60.55%) were classified as less accurate and inaccurate, indicating that contextual interpretation substantially influenced translation quality. The study suggests that translation instruction should emphasize contextual interpretation alongside linguistic and cultural competence to improve students' ability to translate idiomatic expressions accurately

JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Translation strategies in the Indonesian subtitles of the Women Talking movie: A study based on Gottlieb’s translation theory

Audio-visual translation (AVT) is an essential part of making films accessible across languages and cultures. However, there are few research on subtitling procedures in films with social and ideological complexity. This study aims at analyzing the types of translation strategies employed in the Indonesian subtitles of “Women Talking” (2022) based on Gottlieb’s classification of translation strategies (1992) as well as investigating the most frequently used translation strategies used in the Indonesian subtitles of the movie. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, a total of 300 of 1,318 subtitle units were purposively selected and analyzed using documentation and qualitative content analysis. The findings showed that 8 out of 10 Gottlieb’s translation strategies were identified that included Transfer, Paraphrase, Condensation, Imitation, Expansion, Deletion, Decimation, and Resignation strategies, while Transcription and Dislocation were absent. Transfer strategy is the most frequently used strategy with 160 occurrences (53.33%), followed by Paraphrase (50 occurrences, 16.67%), Condensation (30 occurrences, 10.00%), Imitation (17 occurences, 5.67%), Expansion (15 occurences, 5.00%), Deletion (15 occurences, 5.00%), Decimation (12 occurences, 4.00%), and Resignation (1 occurence, 0.33%). The prevalent use of Transfer strategy suggests the translator’s preference for retaining the original content via literal translation, but Paraphrase and Condensation were used to address linguistic and technical limits of subtitling. The results indicate that the translation of Indonesian subtitles of Women Talking put semantic correctness at the top of the priority list while still keeping the readability for Indonesian viewers.

The Translation of Body Part Idioms Using Chatgpt: a Comparative Analysis with Official Dictionaries

: In the era of digital transformation and the rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence, the translation of idiomatic expressions has become a crucial benchmark for evaluating the cognitive and linguistic capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs). This paper presents a detailed analysis of research conducted on a corpus of ten English body part idioms taken from the Pioneer B2 textbook used at Singidunum University. The aim of the research was to compare translations generated by the ChatGPT model with solutions from official idiomatic dictionaries, utilising Pavol Kvetko's classification and Mona Baker’s equivalence strategies as the theoretical framework. The analysis encompasses idioms of varying degrees of transparency, ranging from completely opaque to semi-idioms. The study results indicate a 90% accuracy rate in conveying meaning, alongside an unexpectedly high 60% correspondence of keywords in both languages. The research confirms that ChatGPT successfully identifies functional equivalents in the Serbian language, often prioritising the naturalness of expressions over literal translation. This work contributes to the discussion on the role of AI tools as assistants in translation and education, emphasising that while AI shows exceptional dexterity in mapping conceptual fields, human oversight remains essential for the final validation of stylistic nuances. The findings have significant applications for international scientific research, particularly in the domain of applying information technology in foreign language teaching.

Translation Procedures in the Arabic Subtitles of “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania”: A Study of Culturally-Bound Content

Translation is considered the fifth dimension of language, a composite of the other four main language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The translation of culturally laden texts found in movies is an asset that connects cultures and communities by breaking down language barriers. This study attempts to identify and analyze the translation procedures applied to culturally-bound sentences in the Arabic subtitles of the animated movie: Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. The research used a descriptive qualitative method to analyze the Arabic subtitles, and thereafter, classified the translation based on Newmark’s taxonomy of translation procedures. Six translation procedures were identified in this movie: literal translation, paraphrase, compensation, cultural equivalent, shifts/transpositions, and descriptive equivalent. The study's findings indicate that one effective way to convey intended meaning, especially for concepts related to cultures that are foreign to the target audience in the case of movies is through frequent use of literal translation of dialogue. This can only be achieved by employing intensive and precise translation procedures. This research underscores the importance of adopting a flexible and procedurally focused approach to translation to preserve the entertainment and narrative value of the film and accommodate cultural diversity. The study’s findings are likely to be useful to all stakeholders in the field of translation.