A comparison of Disney+ subtitles and ChatGPT-generated Indonesian translations of swear and taboo expressions
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Abstract
Although generative artificial intelligence translation (GenAIT) has increasingly become popular in the field of translation, earlier studies have not yet specifically explored GenAI’s translation performance in rendering taboo language. To address this gap, this study evaluated the translation strategies of ChatGPT-generated translations with professional human translation-produced subtitles obtained from Disney+ in rendering English swear words and taboo expressions into Indonesian. Drawing upon a comparative qualitative research design, this study examined two movies based on four main categories: Taboo to Taboo, Euphemism, Taboo to Non-Taboo, and Deletion. The findings revealed that Disney+ displayed greater cultural sensitivity to cultural norms, while ChatGPT favored retaining the offensive tone of taboo expressions through direct and literal translations. The most commonly used strategy by Disney+ was Deletion, whereas ChatGPT most frequently employed Taboo to Taboo. These results highlight the limitations of GenAIT in handling highly culturally bound expressions. Finally, the iterative prompting analysis had limited influence on ChatGPT’s translation strategies in handling of taboo expressions. This suggested that prompt refinement alone remained largely insufficient, underscoring the crucial role of human interventions in translation workflows. This study, therefore, proposed a human-in-the-loop workflow. Following the findings, pedagogical implications are also proposed for translation education.
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