TRANSLATION ANALYSIS ON PHRASAL VERBS IN “A MAN CALLED OTTO” MOVIE SUBTITLES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24252/elite.v13i1.64959Keywords:
audiovisual translation, phrasal verbs, pragmatic equivalence, subtitles, translation strategiesAbstract
This study examines the translation of English phrasal verbs in the Indonesian subtitles of the movie A Man Called Otto, which can be found on the Prime Video site. This is a descriptive qualitative study, exploring how idiomatic phrasal verbs are translated within the linguistic and technical constraints of audiovisual media. The data were collected by comparing the original dialogue with the Indonesian subtitles, and phrasal verbs were identified based on their formal structure as multi-word verb constructions and their contextual meanings in the film dialogue. A total of 153 phrasal verb samples were found and analyzed in terms of Molina and Albir's (2002) taxonomy of translation techniques, as well as the theory of pragmatic equivalence developed by Baker's (1992) theory of pragmatic equivalence to evaluate the preservation of meaning, emotional tone, and communicative intent. As the findings indicate, the most commonly used strategies are modulation and literal translation, omission and adaptation, which allow translators to maintain practical meaning and emotional tone despite the constraints of space and time. This study emphasizes the translation of phrasal verbs in modern emotional meanings, a relatively under-researched area of subtitling. These findings are applicable to understanding translation strategies during audiovisual presentations and offer practical uses for improving the naturalness and communicative quality of subtitle translations into Indonesian.
Downloads
References
Abu-rayyash, H., & Lacruz, I. (2025). Through the Eyes of the Viewer: The Cognitive Load of LLM-Generated vs. Professional Arabic Subtitles. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 18(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/jemr18040029
Ahonen, T. (2024). Subtitling Without Context: How Does the Lack of Pictures and Sounds Affect the Translation of an Audiovisual Text? Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 7(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.47476/jat.v7i1.2024. 276
Ali, S. W. (2024). Subtitle Translation from a Multimodal Perspective: Text and Visual Integration in Animated Film. International Journal of English Education and Linguistics, 06(02), 230–239. https://doi.org/10.33650/ijoeel.v6i2.9612
Alohaidb, S., & Altuwairesh, N. (2023). Subtitling Strategies of Verbal-Visual Components in The Social Dilemma. International Journal of English Linguistics, 13(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v13n1p1
Alonso-Bacigalupe, L., & Romero-Fresco, P. (2024). Interlingual live subtitling: the crossroads between translation, interpreting and accessibility. Universal Access in the Information Society, 23(2), 533–543. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-023-01032-8
Arbain. (2020). Translating Subtitles of Becoming Jane Film: A Pragmatic Approach. Langkawi Journal, 6(1), 17–28. https://doi.org/10.31332/lkw.v6i1.1766
Asrima, & Nur, S. (2023). Subtitling Strategies from English to Indonesian in The Imitation Game Movie by Lebah Ganteng. Leksema: Jurnal Bahasa Dan Sastra, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.22515/ljbs.v8i1.6452
Azzahra, H., & Hilman, E. H. (2025). Techniques Used in Translation Phrasal Verbs in The Subtitle of “The Devil Wears Prada.” Professional Journal of English Education, 8(1), 60–66. https://journal.ikipsiliwangi.ac.id/index.php/project/article/view/25028%0A
Baker, M. (1992). In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation (1st Edition). Routledge.
Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course. In Heinle & Heinle Publishers (2nd Editio, Vol. 34, Issue 2).
Cintas, J. D., & Anderman, G. (2009). Audiovisual Translation: Language Transfer on Screen. In Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234581
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approach. In Research and Biostatistics for Nurses. SAGE. https://doi.org/10.5005/jp/books/13016_6
Gottlieb, H. (2004). Subtitles and international anglification. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 3(1), 219–230. https://doi.org/10.35360/njes.32
Hagström, H., & Pedersen, J. (2022). Subtitles in the 2020s: The Influence of Machine Translation. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 5(1), 207–225. https://doi.org/10.47476/jat.v5i1.2022. 195
Hanivah, N., Rozi, F., & Haryanti, R. P. (2024). Accuracy, Acceptability and Readability in the Translation of The Hounds of Baskerville Movie Subtitle. English Education Journal, 14(2), 252–261. https://doi.org/10.15294/y4xpez69
Hoffmann, T. (2023). Ad hoc Screen Translation in Soviet Estonian Film Clubs: Negotiating Boundaries. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 6(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.47476/jat.v6i1.2023. 129
Matuate, V. A. (2025). Subtitling As a Translation Assignment: Evaluating Accuracy, Acceptability, and Readability in Indonesian-English Translations Vitha. BLESS, 5(1), 17–28. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.66003/bless.v5i1.10489
McCarthy, M., & O’Dell, F. (2004). English Phrasal Verbs in Use. Cambridge University Press.
Molina, L., & Albir, A. H. (2002). Translation Techniques Revisited: A Dynamic and Functionalist Approach. Meta, 47(4), 498–512. https://doi.org/10.7202/008033ar
Newmark, P. (1988). A Textbook of Translation. Prentice Hall.
Perego, E., & Missier, F. Del. (2010). The Cognitive Effectiveness of Subtitle Processing. Media Psychology, 13(3), 243–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2010.502873
Taufik, A. (2022). Devising a Marking Criteria for the Assessment of Audiovisual Translation Products in an Academic Context. Journal of English Language and Culture, 12(2), 72–83. https://doi.org/10.30813/jelc.v12i2.3237
Tuominen, T. (2025). User-centred Subtitling: Usability as an Assessment and Process Framework for Interlingual Subtitles. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 8(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.47476/jat.v8i1.2025. 379
Yuliani, S. Y., Al Farisi, M. Z., & Supriadi, R. (2025). Multimodal-Pragmatic Analysis of Arabic–Indonesian Subtitle Translation in the Animated Film Muhsin and Mahasin: The Episode “The Danger of Boasting.” 8(2), 234–252. https://doi.org/10.32332/38581305
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Luthfiyyah, Sigit Haryanto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Once an article was published in the journal, the author(s) are:
granted to the journal right licensed under Creative Commons License Attribution that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship.
permitted to publish their work online in third parties as it can lead wider dissemination of the work.
continue to be the copyright owner and allow the journal to publish the article with the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
receiving a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) of the work.
