ABSTRACT

Ita Rosita. 2024. The Language of Film: Swear and Taboo Words Subtitling In “Jakarta Vs Everybody” Movie. Undergraduate Thesis. Surakarta: English Department. Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Sebelas Maret University.

This study analyzes the translation of swear and taboo words in “Jakarta vs Everybody” movie. The purposes of this study are to define the category of swear and taboo words, to identify the subtitling strategies of swear and taboo words, to describe the shifting of swear and taboo words caused by the using of the subtitling strategies and to assess the subtitle quality of swear and taboo words found in the “Jakarta vs Everybody” movie. The data were determined with total sampling and collected through content analysis and focus group discussion. The data included utterances containing swear and taboo words and their translations. The data were analyzed by using descriptive qualitative with the help of raters particularly in the translation quality assessment. The results of this research show that there are six categories of swear and taboo words found, namely: animal term (46%), thing term (20%), part of body term (12%), State term (10%), activity term (8%) and profession term (4%). In translating swear and taboo words in “Jakarta vs Everybody” movie, five subtitling strategies were found independently. They are official equivalent (40%), substitution (38%), omission (16%), generalization (4%), and retention (2%). There three subtitling strategies that caused shifts in swear and taboo words. They are substitution, omission, and generalization. The official equivalent and retention did not cause any shift. The total scores of errors in subtitle quality in term of functional equivalent and acceptability is 5.5 points. Despite some errors in functional equivalence and acceptability, overall comprehension remains clear, highlighting the importance of balancing linguistic fidelity with cultural sensitivity in subtitling.