TABOO WORDS IN THE 8 MILE MOVIE AND THEIR TRANSLATION INTO INDONESIAN
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TABOO WORDS IN THE 8 MILE MOVIE AND THEIR TRANSLATION INTO INDONESIAN
Sang Putu Bangbang Surya
Jurusan Non-Reguler Sastra Inggris Fakultas Sastra Budaya Unud
Abstrak
Makalah ini menganalisa jenis-jenis kata tabu yang digunakan di dalam film Eminem yang berjudul “8 Mile” dan terjemahannya ke dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Hal pertama yang dibahas dalam makalah ini adalah klasifikasi jenis-jenis kata tabu yang terdapat di dalam film. Lalu, penggunaan Euphemisme dalam penerjemahan kata-kata tabu tersebut ke dalam Bahasa Indonesia juga dibahas. Penelitian dilakukan berdasarkan teori penerjemahan oleh Larson (1998) dan Jay (1992). Tidak semua kata-kata tabu dapat diterjemahkan kata per kata. Beberapa ekspresi tabu harus menggunakan Euphemisme dalam penerjemahannya ke dalam Bahasa Indonesia untuk menghindari bahasa yang menyinggung.
Kata kunci: Kata-kata Tabu, Penerjemahan, Euphemisme.
Language is used by human beings in communication to convey their ideas, information, and their feelings. It has an important role in daily life in doing various interactions. Language exists to complete communication both oral and written. People’s movement and development in certain areas are much influenced by the extent of language mastery they have for communicating their desire, need, and feeling to other people in society.
Translation is an integral part in language. Translation consists of transferring the meaning of the source language into the receptor language. This is done by going from the form of the first language to the form of the second language by way of semantic structure. It is meaning which is being transferred and must be held constant. Only the form changes (Larson 1998:3). In movies, there are two types of translating dialogs, they are dubbing and subtitling. This study is concerned with the subtitling method. Subtitling is a process of
translation which translates speech on the soundtrack of the movie into written language. We can see the translation of the text on the lower side of the movie
screen.
Nowadays, many movies published are using taboo words, whether or not they are related to their need in certain context of situation. The taboo words are unique linguistic phenomenon. They are unique since they are not allowed to be spoken in daily conversation, especially the formal one, because they may produce disgust, embarrassment, and social norm violation in the society concerned. Yet, we need them in our linguistic performance to convey our strong emotion as we are angry or swearing, in particular verbal communication. In fact, taboo words are inseparable from our daily life.
A taboo word is a proscription of behavior for a specifiable community of people, for a specified context, at a given place and time (Allan and Burridge 2006:27)
Euphemism is used to avoid the disapproval from the society. It is the replacement of taboo expression by another that is not coarse. A Euphemism is a figurative expression, which is in some ways like metonymy. There is the substitution of one word for another of one expression to another. But, a euphemism is used to avoid an offensive expression, or one that is socially unacceptable, or one that is unpleasant (Larson1998:126)
There are some literatures that will be used, based on previous study; they are Edward BayuTrisna (2009), in his undergraduate thesis entitled “Taboo Words in the Hollywood Movie Pineapple Express and Their Translation into Indonesian”, this study discussed about the translation equivalent of taboo words in the original text and its Indonesian version. Then, Karimi (2008) with the study entitled Equivalence in Translation, from Translation Journal, discussed about to render a satisfactory translation the translator need to be acquainted with phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, idiomatic, religious, and cultural system of both source language an target language to find standard
equivalents, give an explanation, or otherwise convey the author’s intended meaning to the target language audience.
The focus of this study is to analyze taboo words that are used in 8 Mile movie. Taboo words used in the movie 8 Mile are likely used to express the characters’ emotions. They are found in some dialogues that express strong emotions of anger, shocked feelings, dissatisfaction, and fear of something or someone and many others.
The research questions of this writing are as follows:
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1. What types of taboo words are used in 8 Mile and their translation into Indonesian?
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2. Which taboo words in the 8 Mile are affected by the use of Euphemistic language in their translation into Indonesian?
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3. Aims of Pre Study
Generally, the aims of this study are to describe the types of taboo words in English which are usually used by people and to describe the function or the purpose of using them. Specifically, the aims of this study based on the problems above are as follows:
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1. To describe the types of taboo words which are used in the 8 Mile and their translation into Indonesian.
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2. To describe which taboo words in the 8 Mile are affected by the use of euphemistic language in their translation into Indonesian.
The data of taboo words analyzed in this study were taken from the Hollywood movie 8 Mile. 8 Mile is an American hip-hop drama film directed by Curtis Hanson, written by Scott Silver and starring Eminem, MekhiPhifer, Brittany Murphy, and Kim Basinger. The film was released on November 8, 2002.
The method of collecting data was by collecting the English script of the movie through its English subtitle. Then, the taboo words were collected through
note taking. After that, the taboo words were classified into the ten types of taboo words by assorting them into tables. Lastly, the words were translated and the ones using Euphemism were explained more.
The collected data were qualitatively analyzed based on the theoretical framework, with the purpose of describing the various types of taboo words and their translation result into Indonesian.
In this study, the English and Indonesian taboo words from the movie were firstly identified. After that, they were categorized based on a theory in the theoretical framework. Then, the data were presented in tables. Next, the analysis results of the data were presented descriptively and qualitative analysis was also used in finding the total number of the taboo words in the movie. This method of analyzing the data is related to statistics and numbers. The purpose of this method is to test the existing hypothesis.
Taboo words found in the 8 Mile movie have been classified into ten types of taboo words based on The Jay’s classifications of taboo words. Jay (1992:2-9) classified taboo words into ten types, which are: Cursing, Profanity, Blasphemy, Taboo, Obscenity, Vulgarity, Slang, Epithets, Insults and Slurs, and Scatology.
The intent of cursing is to invoke harm on another person using certainwords or phrases. These words are imbued with power granted to them mainly through religious or social demarcation. In other words, certain institutions like religion, have made point to note that there exist in a language set of special words. A religious may sound like: ‘Damnyou!’; ‘Goddamn you!’. Cursing could also be non-religious but still wishes wants to harm the target person, as in: ‘Eat shit and die!’ or ‘I hope you break your neck!’.
Profanity is based on a religious distinction. To be profane means to be seculer or behaving out. To be profane means to be ignorant of the words in a
religious belief, which seeks not to denigrate God, religion or holy affairs but would be based more on ignorance of or indifference to these matters. These might be something like: ‘Jesus Christ, I’m hungry!; ‘For the love of Christ, get out of here!’.
Blasphemy is an attack on religion or religious doctrine. While propanity is related to the secular or indifference (to religion), Blasphemy aims directly at the church. These verbal assaults would take form of using the Lord’s name in vain or cursing the deities. As the church lost power over its people in this century, therefore blasphemy has lost its impactas an insult. The expressions are particularly offensive to the very devout but may be humorous to the nonbeliever: ‘Screw the Pope!’; ‘Shit what it says in the bible!’.
A taboo operates to suppress or inhibit certain behavior, thought, or in this case, speech. Different cultures, in order to preserve social order, use taboos to control individuals within the groups. The function of taboo is to prohibit the behavior of speaker and preserve social cohesion. The focus is on the speaker’s behavior, some examples are: ‘dick’; ‘screw’; ‘piss’; etc.\
Obscene words are considered the most offensive and reraly, if ever, used in public places. Obscenities are pointedly sexual in nature. They do not necessarily have to be so. This kind of expression is indecent. Most of the time, it is offensive and repulsive. Obscenity as used here is`a legal term. The function of obscenity laws is to protect the listeners from the restriction words, and to use the word obscene means that it cannot be use freely. It is subject to restriction and to use such speech is too risk sanctioning from the courts. Obscenity functions to protect listeners from harmful language. Obscenity laws control the content of books and the content of broadcasts. Words that most commonly gain universal restriction include such words as, ‘Fuck’; ‘Motherfucker’; ‘Cunt’; ‘Tist’.
Vulgarity means the language of the common person, ‘the person street’, or the unsophisticated, un-socialized, under-educated. It does not serve any particular need or function beyond the normal communications demands of the common human. Vulgarism is not necessarily obscene or taboo; they just reflect the crudeness of street language. These words may be considered vulgar: ‘Kiss my ass!; ‘Up yours!.
Slang is vocabulary that is develoved in certain sub-groups (teenagers, musicians, soldier, drug users/athletes) for ease of communication. The slang code serves to identity members of the group, while misuse or ignorance of it identifies non-members, which may be especially important in illegal translations. Sometimes slang terms become popular and are used in standard language, putting on sub-groups members to invent a new code. Some examples of slang terms are: ‘pimp’; ‘dweeb’ or ‘cupcakes’.
Epithets are brief but forceful bursts of emotional language. They are more powerful in presentation (loudness or duration) and in offensiveness than other type of cursing,for example, jocking. The epithet is uttered from frustration, as when you hit your hand with hammer. It may also mark a sense of hostility, as when someone crowds in front of you in a supermarket check-out-line. Examples of epithets would be: ‘Shit!’; ‘Damn!’; ‘Hell!’; ‘Fuck you!’; ‘Goddamn it!’.
Insults and slurs are verbal attack on other people. These words are spoken to harm other people by the word alone. Slurs may be racial, ethnic or social which denote the physical mental or psychological qualities of the target and are commonly heard on the school playground. Some insults use of animal imagery,
such as: ‘pig’; ‘dog’; ‘son of bitch’, or are based on social deviation like: ‘whore’; ‘bastard’; ‘homo’; ‘fag’; ‘queer’. While children’s insults are commonly based on abnormal physical, psychological or social characteristics: fatty, dumb, wimp, four eyes, blabber mouth. Examples of ethnic and racial slurs are: ‘nigger’; ‘dingo’; ‘chink’; ‘grease ball’; ‘Pollack’.
Scatological terms refer to human waste products or processes. Such terms are among the early words that children hear and use when they are toilet trained. Americans have a great desire in changing childish terms rather than using standardized terms or those of scientific origin. Scatological insults are common among children. Since scatological references are about faces and elimination, they appear as: ‘poo-poo’; ‘ka-ka’; ‘poop’; ‘piss’; ‘crap’; ‘turd’.
6. Conclusion
There were 394 taboo words which were identified. The 394 words were classified into 10 types of taboo words proposed by Jay (1992). Not all of the taboo words from the movie could be translated lexically and denotatively. Some of them were also translated connotatively, idiomatically and by using Euphemism. It depended on the situation and condition in terminating the goal of translating process.
The use of Euphemistic language in translating some inappropriate words in the movie is important. Some words might show disgust, embarrassment, and social norm violation in the society concerned, in this case Indonesian. The words should not be translated literally to avoid such expressions from the people who watch the movie. There are 12 expressions in the movie which oblige the translator to use Euphemistic language in translating them. The translator has successfully applied the euphemism in translating those 12 expressions into Indonesian in order to make them more appropriate and less offensive.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alan, Keith and Burridge, Kate. 2006. Forbidden Words: Taboo Words and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Catford, J.C. 1974. A Linguistics Theory of Translation.London: OxfordUniversity Press.
Hornby, A.S. 1995. Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Fifth Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jay, Timothy. 1992. Cursing in America: A Psychological Study of Dirty Language in The Courts, in TheSchoolyards and on The Street. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Jay, Timothy. 2009. The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
Larson, Mildred L. 1998. Meaning-Based Translation ‘A Guide to CrossLanguage Equivalence’.Second Edition. New York – Oxford: University Press of America.
Lotfolah, Karimi. 2006. “Equivalence in Translation”. Translation Journal.Volume 10.Number 1. Available from:
http://accurapid.com/journal35equiv.html
Trisna, Edward Bayu. 2009. Taboo Words in the Hollywood Movie Pineapple Express and Their Translation into Indonesian. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis. Denpasar: Udayana University.
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