Conscientia - Journal on Language, Literature, and Culture

THE REPRESENTATION OF POLITENESS VALUES IN THE SHORT FILM TOPI (TINDAK, TANDUK, SUBASITA) : A SOCIOLINGUISTICS STUDY

Nisa Halisa Hakim — 2025-12-31

Politeness is an essential aspect of social interaction, particularly in Javanese culture, which strongly emphasizes manners and etiquette. The short film TOPI (Tindak, Tanduk, Subasita), produced by Paniradya Kaistimewan Yogyakarta, portrays these cultural values through the language and gestures used by its characters. This study employs a qualitative descriptive method aimed at analyzing the values of politeness represented in the short film TOPI through the dialogues and gestures of its characters, grounded in Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory as the analytical framework.

The analysis identified five positive politeness strategies, one negative politeness strategy, three bald-on-record strategies, and one off-record strategy. These findings demonstrate how language and gestures in the short film reflect Javanese manners within family and community interactions. Furthermore, this study highlights a contemporary phenomenon, how Javanese values are preserved through digital media. Short films published on YouTube serve not only as entertainment but also as a medium for character education, language learning, and a concrete example of the preservation of Javanese culture in the modern era.

Overall, this research underscores the role of audiovisual media in strengthening cultural education and expanding the study of politeness phenomena within a sociolinguistic context.

TRANSLATION ANALYSIS BASED ON A SERIES “FRIENDS (1994): THE ONES WITH THE WHOLE GANG FROM” SEASON 1

Hanifira Hayuwanti — 2025-12-31

This research examines the quality of Indonesian subtitles in the television series Friends (1994), focusing on the episode “The Ones with the Whole Gang” from Season 1. Using a qualitative descriptive approach with content analysis, the research analyzes ten selected subtitle excerpts to identify translation problems and evaluate applied strategies. The analysis is based on Dynamic Equivalence Theory (Nida, 1964), Skopos Theory (Vermeer, 1989), and the functionalist approach to audiovisual translation.

The findings indicate that many subtitles rely on literal translation, resulting in unnatural expressions, inappropriate register, loss of humor, and reduced readability. Additionally, improper handling of nonverbal cues and sentence segmentation negatively affects audience comprehension. Nevertheless, effective use of adaptation and modulation demonstrates the potential for improving subtitle quality. The study concludes that functional, purpose-oriented translation strategies are essential for producing natural, culturally appropriate, and communicative subtitles in audiovisual media.

COPING UNDER OPPRESSION: A LAZARUS AND FOLKMAN ANALYSIS OF JIA’S PSYCHOLOGICAL SURVIVAL IN HYEJIN KIM’S JIA: A NOVEL OF NORTH KOREA

Ontje Manurung — 2025-12-31

This study examines the psychological survival of the protagonist in Jia: A Novel of North Korea by Hyejin Kim through the lens of Lazarus and Folkman’s stress and coping theory. The research aims to identify how Jia tolerates, minimizes, and adapts to the extreme sociopolitical pressures she faces as the daughter of a condemned political figure in a totalitarian regime. Employing a qualitative descriptive method, the study collects data through close reading of the novel—focusing on narration, character interactions, and depictions of surveillance, fear, and danger—supported by secondary sources on coping and psychological resilience. The analysis reveals that Jia consistently employs problem-focused coping through processes such as threat identification, planning, information gathering, evaluating alternatives, selecting viable solutions, and undertaking concrete actions to escape state control. These findings demonstrate that Jia’s strategies are not merely reactive behaviors but deliberate, adaptive responses shaped by continuous cognitive appraisal of risk. The study concludes that Lazarus and Folkman’s framework effectively illuminates how individuals under authoritarian oppression develop strategic psychological mechanisms to maintain agency, emotional stability, and the possibility of freedom.

Keywords: coping, psychological survival, problem-focused

FAMILY EXPECTATIONS IN ELEMENTAL (2023) MOVIE

Achmalia Salma Putri — 2025-12-31

This paper studies family expectations toward their child in the Elemental (2023) movie. Ember as the child is the main character in the film. Her parents consist of Bernie as the father, and Cinder as the mother. The objective of the study is to analyze what are the family expectations toward Ember. The data collection method applied is library research method focused on the scenes, dialogues, and character interactions in the film. The data analysis method employed is descriptive analysis, which aims to identify key themes related to family expectations. A psychological literary approach is used to examine the mental and emotional experiences of the characters. The theory applied in this study include Bowen’s Family Systems Theory, specifically the Family Projection Process stage. The findings show that there are three main family expectations passed down to Ember. First, Ember is expected to be able to continue the family business, which is the fire family shop, the Fireplace. Second, Ember is expected to preserve the family identity, like preserving fire family’s Blue flame, and marrying only fire element people. Third, Ember is expected to be able to control her temper. Those three family expectations have been transferred to Ember through nurturing, training, and preserving family tradition.

SEMANTIC AND COMMUNICATIVE TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES IN THE INDONESIAN SUBTITLE TRANSLATIONOF VENOM: THE LAST DANCE

Aprilian Sukmana Adi Putra — 2025-12-31

This study examines the use of semantic and communicative translation techniques in the Indonesian subtitle translation of the film Venom: The Last Dance. Subtitling, as a form of audio-visual translation, requires translators to balance meaning accuracy with readability under technical constraints such as limited space and timing. This research employs a descriptive qualitative method supported by quantitative frequency analysis. The data consist of 30 subtitle units taken from the English and Indonesian subtitle versions of the film. The data were analysed based on Newmark’s (1988) theory of semantic and communicative translation. The findings reveal that both techniques are applied in the subtitle translation, with communicative translation being more dominant (60%) than semantic translation (40%). Semantic translation is primarily used in dialogues that convey narrative significance and emotional depth, ensuring accuracy and fidelity to the source text. In contrast, communicative translation is frequently employed in informal, idiomatic, and humorous expressions to achieve naturalness and immediate comprehension for the target audience. The study concludes that the balanced application of semantic and communicative translation techniques contributes to effective meaning transfer in film subtitling and highlights the importance of adaptive translation strategies in audio-visual translation.