An Analysis of Translation Procedures of Japanese Manga into Malay from a Social Semiotic Multimodal Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/nvts.2020.10Keywords:
factor, manga translation, mode, semiotic resource, social semiotic multimodal approach, translation procedureAbstract
This research examines the translation procedures of Japanese manga into Malay translations published by three publishing companies in Malaysia in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, and the underlying factors of the selection of the translation procedures. The integrated theoretical framework adopted in this study includes the social semiotic multimodal approach proposed by Bezemer and Kress (2016), the manga theory by Natsume (1997), and the comic/manga theory by McCloud (2006), as well as Kaindl’s (1999) translation procedures. The corpus consists of 16 Japanese manga and 16 Malay translations published in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. In addition, interviews and questionnaire survey were conducted with six translators and an editor as respondents. All data were analysed using qualitative content analysis method. The findings show that the manga translation procedures adopted in Malaysia reveal the inclination towards the procedures that fully utilised the modes and semiotic resources, hence 44 of these procedures were identified. Besides that, 28 translation procedures that do not fully utilise modes and semiotic resources were also identified. The agency among the manga authors and the translators/publishing companies shows some differences. The manga authors develop meaning with all existing semiotic sources and they also expand the meaning potential of the existing semiotic resources for diverse presentation of meaning in manga. In contrast, the translators/publishing companies pay more attention to the mode of writing which exists in various forms of speech bubbles. The meaning potential of the existing semiotic resources is rarely expanded for use in translation. Nevertheless, the translations published in 2010s show an increase in awareness to develop the meaning potential of existing semiotic resources for a more complete message delivery. The factors underlying the selection of translation procedures that have been identified in this study are the government policy, the policy of the publishing companies in Malaysia, the policy of the publishing companies in Japan and the requirements of the original authors, editor, target readers, social and cultural changes, language and space constraints, technology development, and the interpretation and evaluation of the translators. The study also found the semiotic changes (transformation, transduction and their derivatives) and the interactions between modes that have been identified in this study are suitable to be utilised to monitor the transfer of meaning in the target text. Finally, the findings also indicate that social semiotic multimodal approach can be utilised in translation studies with a combination of theories in relevant disciplines to explore new knowledge in future.