Subtitling Strategies and Translation Accuracy in the Malay to English Translation of “Ejen Ali: The Movie”

Authors

  • Pavithra Devi Batmanathan Department of English Language and Communication, UCSI University, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • Mansour Amini School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia
  • Bita Naghmeh Abbaspour School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22452/jml.vol32no2.3

Keywords:

accuracy, English, Malay, strategy, subtitle, translation

Abstract

Previous studies on audio-visual translation indicate that there is a gap in the exploration of translation strategies in the Malaysian movie subtitling context and the quality of Malay to English subtitle translations. This study aimed to explore the strategies used in the subtitle translations of the Malaysian movie Ejen Ali: The Movie and evaluate the accuracy level of the translations associated with the identified strategies. Ten translation strategies developed by Gottlieb (1992), and the parameter of “accuracy” was purposefully selected out of the three criteria of the translation quality assessment proposed by Nababan et al., (2012) as the theoretical framework of this study. The three main strategies used in the most accurate translations were “transfer”, “paraphrase”, and “expansion”. The subtitling of this movie was generally found accurate. In most of the accurate translations “transfer” strategy was utilized, whereas “dislocation” was identified in most of the inaccurate translations. Moreover, the findings revealed that there were inaccuracies in the translations which could have been avoided by using other relevant strategies. Gottlieb’s nine of 10 strategies (except transcription) in addition to the nine mixed strategies were identified and described in the process of analysis. 




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Author Biography

Mansour Amini, School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia

Dr Mansour Amini is an interdisciplinary researcher and a senior lecturer from the School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, University of Science Malaysia (USM). He has a B.A. in English Language and Literature, an M.A. in English Language Teaching, and a PhD. in Translation Studies. Formerly, he served as the Head of Research and Postgraduates Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, UCSI University Malaysia. To date, he has published 53  WoS/SCOPUS/Other-indexed peer-reviewed journal articles in Translation, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr Mansour Amini is the principal investigator of several research projects, and has collaborated with many researchers from different countries. He has conducted workshops, seminars, and talks on “Research Methodology” in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Iran, and China. Dr Mansour Amini is a reviewer, editing manager, and editorial board member of several academic journals. He believes research should open people’s eyes, and must have practical implications for the communities and societies. During his fifteen years of teaching experience, he has tried to maintain a constant dialogue between research and teaching practice by implementing and applying the lessons learnt from authentic research outputs into real-life academic contexts and teaching scenarios.

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57203152771  [Scopus Author ID: 57203152771]

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CdHFKG8AAAAJ&hl=en

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mansour-Amini

Web of Science ResearcherID: AAE-1991-2019
Article 3_Subtitling Strategies and Translation Accuracy in the Malay to English Translation of “Ejen Ali: The Movie”

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Published

2022-12-31

How to Cite

Batmanathan, P. D., Amini, M., & Bita Naghmeh Abbaspour. (2022). Subtitling Strategies and Translation Accuracy in the Malay to English Translation of “Ejen Ali: The Movie”. Journal of Modern Languages, 32(2), 37–66. https://doi.org/10.22452/jml.vol32no2.3