Semantic errors in the subtitle translation of TED Talk “How Books Can Open Your Mind”
Abstract
Motivated by an increasing reliance on subtitles among audiences who may not fully grasp the source language of movies and videos, this study explores subtitle translation, as subtitles have an essential function in facilitating comprehension among audiences. Here, the study focuses on a TED Talk video titled “How Books Can Open Your Mind”. The purpose is to examine the effects of translation errors in subtitles. The study employed a descriptive qualitative method, involving several viewings of the video to attain a comprehensive knowledge of the context. Errors were then identified, categorized, and analyzed using relevant literature and references, including the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI). Findings reveal that the identified errors consisted of semantic changes, singular nominal forms, reduction, misinterpretation errors, amplification, and the use of uncommon words. Of these errors, semantic changes were the most frequent, followed by reductions and uncommon words. This study hopes to discover these translation problems in order to better support subtitle translators as well as enhance the viewing experience of target-language audiences in the years to come.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Aisyiah, S. N. (2023). An analysis of reduction technique applied on the interrogative sentences and its impact on the translation quality in the movie subtitle of National Treasure 2: Book of Secret. Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, dan Studi Amerika, 29(2), 59-63. doi: 10.20961/jbssa.v29i2.80401.
Akidah, M. A. (2013). Phonological and semantic change in language borrowing: The case of Arabic words borrowed into Kaswahili. International Journal of Education and Research, 1(4), 1-20.
Anderson, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in education: A review of existing literature. International Social Science Review, 93(1), 1-13.
Baker, M. (2018). In other words: A coursebook on translation (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Bu, L. (2013, February). How books can open your mind [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_bu_how_books_can_open_your_mind
Camelia, & Wahyuningsih, N. S. (2023). An error analysis of English-Indonesian subtitle translation in Avengers: Endgame. Jurnal Bahasa Asing LIA, 4(1), 12-32.
Díaz-Cintas, J., & Remael, A. (2014). Audiovisual translation: Subtitling. Routledge.
Efendi, D. (2020). Penerjemahan teks subtitle film strategi dan kualitas (1st Ed.). Deepublish.
Fahrurrozi, & Wicaksono, A. (2017). Sekilas tentang Bahasa Indonesia: Catatan mengenai kebijakan bahasa, kaidah ejaan, pembelajaran sastra, penerjemahan, dan BIPA (Edisi Revisi). Penerbit Garudhawa.
Farahzad, F. (1992). Testing achievement in translation classes. In C. Dollerup & A. Loddegaard (Ed.), Teaching Translation and Interpreting: Training Talent and Experience. Papers from the First Language International Conference, Elsinore, Denmark, 1991 (pp. 271-278). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Georgakopoulou, P. (2009). Subtitling for the DVD industry. In J. Díaz-Cintas & G. Anderman (Eds.), Audiovisual translation: Language transfer on screen (pp. 21–35). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234581_2
Gottlieb, H. (2020). Echoes of English: Anglicisms in minor speech communities – With special focus on Danish and Afrikaans. Peter Lang.
Guk Guk, S. A. R., Pratiwi, A. S., & Batubara, A. A. H. (2025). Investigating semantic errors in English to Indonesian translations: A case study of DeepL translator. LINGUISTICA, 14(2), 93-99. https://doi.org/10.24114/jalu.v14i2.65047
Hellrich, J. (2019). Word embeddings: reliability & semantic change (Vol. 347). IOS Press.
Indriawati, E. D., Rasyid, M. N. A., & Syukur, H. (2023). Translation accuracy of translation shift and method found in selected TED Talks subtitles (English into Indonesian). Journal of Islamic Culture and Literature (JICeL), 2(2), 23-36.
Iskandar, F. (2016). Translation accuracy of English idiomatic expression into Indonesian in “Big Hero 6” film subtitle by Lebah Ganteng. Buletin Al-Turas, 22(2), 353-375.
Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI). (n.d.). Paling. Retrieved November 26, 2024, from: https://kbbi.eb.id/paling
Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI). (n.d.). Teladan. Retrieved November 26, 2024, from https://kbbi.web.id/teladan
Karakanta, A., & Orrego-Carmona, D. (2023). Subtitling in transition: The case of TED Talks. In I. Lacruz (Ed.), Translation in transition: Human and machine intelligence (pp. 130-156). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Kruger, J. L., Doherty, S., & Soto-Sanfiel, M. T. (2017). Original language subtitles: Their effects on the native and foreign viewer. Comunicar, 25(50), 23-32.
Magfiroh, S., & Kheryadi. (2021). An analysis of translation error that occurs among English foreign language students. STAIRS: English Language Education Journal, 2(2), 1-9. doi: 10.21009/stairs.2.2.1
Malenova, E. D. (2015). Translating subtitles – Translating cultures. Journal of Siberian Federal University, 12(8), 2891-2900. doi: 10.17516/1997-1370-2015-8-12-2891-2900.
Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation. Prentice Hall.
Nikolic, K. (2021). Quality control of subtitles. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 4(3), 66-68.
Pauzan, H. (2021). Complete English grammar. PT Cipta Gadhing Artha.
Putri, D. K. (2022). The impact of translation techniques on the translation quality in The White Lady’s subtitle. Jurnal Bahasa Sastra dan Studi Amerika, 28(2), 9-19. doi: 10.20961/jbssa.v28i2.51476
Rahayu, E. M. (2021). Analyzing the translation of Indonesian cultural terms in novel ‘Tarian Bumi’ translated into ‘Earth Dance’. IJLECR (International Journal of Language Education and Cultural Review), 7(2), 151–161. https://doi.org/10.21009/IJLECR.072.14
Sutaji, T. N. A. P. (2024). Kesalahan terjemahan dalam teks alih bahasa Inggris-Indonesia serial original Netflix: The Queen’s Gambit. Madani: Jurnal Ilmiah Multidisiplin, 2(9), 39-46. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.13761520
Stehling, D. (2013). Semantic change in the early modern English period: Latin influences on the English language. Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag).
Trisnawati, I. K., & Bahri, S. (2017). Strategi penerjemahan teks bahasa Inggris ke bahasa Indonesia calon mahasiswa magister dalam ujian masuk program pascasarjana UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. Getsempena English Education Journal, 4(2), 84-100.
Putra, P. P. (2017). Penerjemahan Bahasa Inggris-Indonesia: Teori dan praktik. Japarudin (Ed.). Pustaka Pelajar.
Voita, E., Sennrich, R., & Titov, I. (2019). Context-aware monolingual repair for neural machine translation. In Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing and the 9th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (EMNLP-IJCNLP) (pp. 877-886). Association for Computational Linguistics.
Yao, G. (2022). Evaluation of machine translation in English-Chinese automatic subtitiling of TED Talks. Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, 1(01). 2834-5207. doi: 10.56968/mlll.vli01.68
Yektaeikarin Mohammad, A. (2013). Understanding of TED as an alternative media (Master’s thesis, Khazar University). ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. (31312744).
Zhang, S. (2023). An analysis of subtitling translation in TED Talks from the perspective of Skopos Theory. In Proceeding of the 2023 2nd International Conference on Sport Science, Education and Social Development (SSESD 2023) (pp. 65-72). Atlantis Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37598/accentia.v5i1.2346
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.