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Translation of the Culture-Specific Items in Malaysian Children’s Animated Movies Subtitles

Hashim, Siti Nasirah and Mohd Basari, Shahrul Nizam (2022) Translation of the Culture-Specific Items in Malaysian Children’s Animated Movies Subtitles. International Young Scholars Journal of Languages, 5 (2). pp. 26-48. E-ISSN 0128-2573

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Abstract

Throughout the decades, the significant roles of the Audiovisual Translation (AVT) as the vehicle for interpreting the information and aiding the children’s learning process of other cultures through the films have been widely discussed and studied. However, numerous scholars of the translation field agreed that transferring a language mainly one that is heavily influenced by Culture-Specific Items (CSI) proves to be the most complex issue faced by the translators. Most of the studies reported that applying unsuitable translation strategies to translate cultural items has resulted in the lack of consistency, accuracy and less impactful translation. This study identified the types of CSI found in Malaysian children’s movies and the translation strategies for the CSI in the subtitles of Malaysian children’s movies. Using the descriptive research design, this study employed a quantitative approach to reach the findings. The samples used were two Malaysian animated movies namely Geng: Pengembaraan bermula and Keris Siamang Tunggal. With the application of two theories - Nedergaard-Larsen’s (1993) Culture-bound problems in subtitling and Pedersen’s (2011) taxonomy of Extralinguistic Cultural References - the types of CSI and the translation strategies for the CSI were identified quantitatively using content analysis. The findings of this study revealed that all types of CSI such as Society, Culture, Geography and History are present in the samples. As for the translation strategies, it has been found that the translators favored the source language-oriented translation strategies such as Retention and Direct Translation when translating cultural items. In conclusion, the overall translation of the cultural items in the films can be said to be appropriate in terms of the simplicity of the structure and comprehensible usage of vocabularies that can resonate well with the targeted group of viewers for this type of genre, which is children. In addition, the application of various translation strategies showed that the translators did not only intend to give the target audience the accessibility to the source culture but also produce the translation that is able to promote Malaysia's cultural identity as well as its artistic values to the world.

Item Type: Article (Journal)
Uncontrolled Keywords: Audiovisual translation (AVT), Source Language (SL), Target Language (TL), Culture-Specific Item (CSI), translation strategies, Malay animated movies
Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button): Kulliyyah of Languages and Management
Depositing User: Dr Shahrul Nizam Mohd Basari
Date Deposited: 29 Dec 2022 09:47
Last Modified: 29 Dec 2022 09:47
URI: http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/102515

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