CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY No context is value-free. Academic disciplines promote particular ways of observing, dissecting, measuring, interpreting, and otherwise making sense of the phenomena under investigation. One s decisions may emerge within or resistant to these disciplinary structures. One s decisions also derive from one s research goals, which are seldom acknowledged in research reports but which meaningfully affect the design, process, and outcome of a study. (Markham, 2006) This chapter includes the procedures of the research deeply used by the writer consists of method of the research, object of the research, research questions, data collection and data analysis technique. In the next chapter, the writer will present finding and disscussion of this study. 3.1 Method of the Research In http://www.languages.ait.ac.th/el21meth.htm, method is how the results were achieved: explanation of how data was collected/ generated or the explanation of how data was analyzed or explanation of methodological problems and their solutions or effects. The method of the research of the study will conduct using the qualitative research which seeks out the why, not the how of its topic through the analysis of unstructured information. It doesn t just rely on statistics or numbers, which are the domain of quantitative researchers. From the statement above the writer conclude that qualitative research is about exploring issues, understanding phenomena and answering questions. Any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification is defined as qualitative research (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). 31
Gill Ereaut defines qualitative research by the following figure: Qualitative research has multiple focal points Gill Ereaut, director Linguistic landscape, UK What people say the knowledge they have what they understand Mean, need or desire emotional drivers, Figure 1.2 Qualitative Research has multiple focal points conscious, and unconscious researching the psyche What people do the actions they take and what they see themselves doing researching meaningful behaviour Culture cultural forces and meaning system researching shared meanings, norms, and codes (taken from http://www.qsrinternational.com/what-is-qualitative-research.aspx) One aim of the qualitative research is to help us understand how people feel and why they feel as they do. It is concerned with collecting in-depth information asking questions such as why do you say that? In addition, Alwasilah (2002:111) writes that in the qualitative research, context or local situation are determining the meaning of an event. The data is soundless if it does not consider the context. In addition to the explanation of qualitative research above, Robert Bogdan and Sari Knopp Biklen (1992) in Frankel and Wallen (1993:380-381) describe five features that characterize qualitative research as follows: 32
a. The natural setting is the direct source of data, and the researcher is the key instrument in qualitative research. Qualitative researchers go directly to the particular setting in which they are interested to observe and collect their data. As Bogdan and Biklen point out, qualitative researchers go to the particular setting of the interest because they are concerned with context they feel that activities can be understood in the actual settings in which they occur. b. Qualitative data are collected in the form or words or pictures rather than numbers. The kinds of data collected in qualitative research include interview transcripts, field notes, photographs, audio recordings, videotapes, diaries, personal comments, memos, official records, textbook passages, and anything else that can convey the actual words or actions of people. c. Qualitative researchers are concerned with process as well as product. Qualitative researchers are especially interested in how things occur. Hence they are likely to observe how people interact with each other; how certain kinds of questions are answered; the meanings that people give to certain words and actions; how people s attitudes are translated into actions; how students seem to be affected by a teacher s manner, or gestures, or comments; and the like. d. Qualitative researchers tend to analyze their data inductively. 33
As Bogdan and Biklen suggest, qualitative researchers are not putting together a puzzle whose picture they already know. They are constructing a picture that takes shape as they collect and examine the parts. e. How people make sense out of their lives is a major concern to qualitative researchers. A special interest of qualitative researchers lies in the perspectives of the subjects of a study. Qualitative researchers want to know what the participants in a study are thinking and why they think what they do. Assumptions, motives, reasons, goals and values all are of interest and likely to be the focus of the researcher s questions. Moreover, according to Maxwell (1996) in Alwasilah (2002:107-109), there are five characteristics of qualitative research: Understanding the meaning of the participants in the study, the events, situations, and actions involved with and the accounts of their life and experiences. Understanding the particular context within which the participants act and the influence that this context has on their actions. Identifying unanticipated phenomena and influences, and generating new grounded theories. Understanding the process by which events and actions take place. Developing causal explanations. 34
A descriptive method is used in presenting the data. According to Myers (2002), in communicating or generating the data, the researcher must make the process of the study accessible and write descriptively so tacit knowledge may best be communicated through the use of rich, thick descriptions. According to Gay (1976), descriptive method is a method used to involve collection of data in order to test hypothesis or to answer questions concerning the current status of the subject of the study. The purpose of descriptive research is to describe the nature of situation as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the causes of particular phenomena (Travers, 1978). Descriptive research may also help to point out the extent of a problem and indicate how serious and widespread it is. Descriptive method would systematically and factually describe and illustrate the characteristics of and the connection between the phenomena studied (Gay 1987). Based on the explanation from the experts, descriptive qualitative method is considered to be relevant to this study since it dealt with idiomatic expressions in the subtitle film entitled Confessions of a Shopaholic by Jerry Bruckheimen as a single case which was analyzed and described. Therefore, the finding of the study can only be generalized on a specific limit which used textual analysis. 3.2 The object of the study The object of this study is a drama film which is taken from the DVD entitled Confessions of a Shopaholic directed by Jerry Bruckheimer. In doing this research, the writer took the data from the script dialogue which consists of many idiomatic expressions inside. This movie tells us about a woman named 35
Rebecca who can t live without shopping, until she has 12 credit cards to fill her desire to shop. For her, shop and mall are the best place which can make her world seems better. The problem appears when she couldn t handle her debt from the credit cards so that she has to think deeply how to face her days with debt collector chasing her behind. Unfortunately the office where she works as a journalist has bankrupt, so she has to work very hard to find a new job. During her search to find a better job, accidentally she met a guy who gave her a job and slowly made her fall in love. Any kind of problems are accompanying her through her new life until she realized about her life. By the end of the story, Rebecca finally can survive, and she can live as a normal woman. 3.3 Research Questions The research is aimed at finding out the answers to the research questions proposed earlier in Chapter I. They are: 1. What are types of idioms mostly found in the Confessions of a Shopaholic movie? 2. What are the procedures of translation employed by the translator in translating the idiomatic expressions in Confessions of a Shopaholic movie? 3. How good are the translated versions of the dialogues which have idiomatic expressions found in the subtitle? If not well enough, what are the more appropriate translation procedures that should be employed by Sukair as the translator in translating the dialogues? 36
3.4. Data Analysis Technique As explained in chapter two, the writer has classified the data found into translation procedures offered by Newmark. The writer has categorized the data into six types of idiom based on Hockett (1958:310-318) types of idioms. In conducting this research, some steps are taken in collecting the data; those steps are as follows: 1. Watching the DVD of Confessions of a Shopaholic. The researcher watched the DVD of Confessions of a Shopaholic several times in order to see the connection between the film s dialogue and the subtitling script. The researcher believes that watching the film several times is an important process to understand the whole conversation and it becomes the basic step before analyzing the methods of translation. 2. Making the English movie script from the film dialogue. This step is conducted by the researcher in order to obtain the textual data for this research. 3. Reading the script of DVD of Confessions of a Shopaholic. In this step, the researcher reads and compares every dialogue in the original script of the film with the English-Indonesia subtitle to determine the procedures of translation that is used by translator. It is also done to search out the types of idioms based on Hockett (1958) classifications of idioms. 4. Analyzing, classifying, and describing the usage of idiomatic expression on subtitle of Confessions of a Shopaholic. 37
In this step, the researcher will analyze, classify and describe the usage of idiomatic expression found in the movie into the procedures of translation offered by Newmark (1988) and types of idioms based on Hockett (1958) types of idioms. 3.5 Data Presentation In the process of analyzing the data, the writer abbreviates each type of idiom and translation methods into tables as described below. Table 1.1 Types of Idioms (Hockett 1958:310-318) Types of Idioms Substitute Proper Names Abbreviation English Phrasal Compounds Figures of Speech Slang Abbreviation S PN A EPC FS SL Table 1.2 Translation Procedure (Newmark 1988:81-93) Translation Procedures Transference Literal Naturalization Cultural Equivalent Functional Equivalent Descriptive Equivalent Abbreviation T L N CE FE DE 38
Synonymy Through-Translation Shift or Transposition Modulation Reduction and Expansion Recognized Translation Compensation Componential Analysis Translation Label Paraphrase Couplets Notes, Additions, Glosses S TT ST M R/E RT C CA TL P Cp NAG 39