An Analysis of category shifts in the Geostorm movie

Abstract

In social life, if people can speak in many languages it will be sufficient. But in
translation it is different. It is not enough when a translator just changes the word from source
language (SL) into target language (TL). Translation is the process of transferring the data or
message from SL into TL. It is not only just changing word by word by using dictionary but
there some elements that people have to know before doing translation. Usually, people find the
translation process in novels, songs, movies, or even poems. In this research, the researcher
focused on translation of a movie. Movie is one of the entertainment objects. by watching
movies audiences can get some inspiration or something new from the movies. Geostorm is one
of the interesting subjects to be analyzed in terms of translation of category shifts. Therefore, the
purposes of this research are to examine the kinds of category shifts and also examine the
influences of category shifts in equivalence of the meaning of the source language and target
language.
According to Catford (1978: 73), shift is the departure from formal correspondence in the
process of translating from SL into TL. Translation shift has two main types, namely level shifts
and category shifts. According to Catford (1965: 76), there are four types of category shifts:
there are structural shifts, unit shifts, class shifts, and intra-system shifts. According to Nida and
Taber (1982), there are two types of equality namely formal equivalence and dynamic
equivalence. Formal equivalence focuses on the content and meaning of the message itself, both
in form and content. And, dynamic equivalence is based on "the principle of equal effects.
Where, the degree of equivalent meaning is the comparison of texts in various languages which
include the theory of equality.
This research used the qualitative research methods. The qualitative method was used
because this research focused on the observation data and the possible reasons how category
shifts happen in the process of translation. The research procedures used were collecting the
data, analyzing the data that is translation shifts from Geostorm movie, giving explanations, and
drawing the conclusions. The source data of this research is an American science fiction disaster
movie, Geostorm.
The results of this research were devided into two parts. The first is the researcher found
four categories of category shift namely structure shift, class shift, unit shift, and intra-system
shift. All shifts that researcher found is not in the same frequency, they have their own number.
The researcher found 70 cases from 51 data of all shift occurred in Geostorm movie and its
subtitle. Based on the researcher analysis, unit shift is the highest frequency occurred in the
translation of the subtitle of Geostorm movie, with the 27 cases out of all 70 cases. The second is
the category shifts and the researcher also found all of that types and sub types. Based on the
analysis, complete meaning is the highest frequency with 25 cases out of all 68 cases.
Keyword: translation shift, category shift, degrees of meaning equivalent.