Love in Translation: Analyzing Chapman’s Five Love Languages and Cultural Adaptation in Irish Wish
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26740/nld.v6n1.p16-28Keywords:
Love languages, Movie translation, Cultural adaptation, Subtitling, Media localizationAbstract
Romantic films play a pivotal role in shaping global perceptions of love, yet little is known about how emotional expressions are adapted across cultures through translation. This study explores the intersection of Chapman’s Five Love Languages and translation strategies in the Indonesian subtitling of Irish Wish. Using a qualitative case study, 110 dialogues were purposively sampled from the official Netflix subtitles. Dialogues were classified into love language categories (Chapman, 2009) and analyzed through Molina and Albir’s (2002) translation framework. AntConc software assisted in text pattern identification, while expert validation ensured coding reliability. Findings reveal Words of Affirmation (75.45%) as the most dominant love language, followed by Acts of Service (15.45%), with minimal presence of Gifts, Quality Time, and Physical Touch. Literal translation, modulation, and established equivalents emerged as the most frequently applied strategies, supported by selective use of adaptation, reduction, and borrowing to maintain emotional nuance. The study highlights how translators balance linguistic fidelity and cultural resonance, ensuring emotional authenticity in Indonesian contexts. By integrating relationship psychology with translation studies, this research contributes to media localization scholarship and underscores the importance of culturally adaptive subtitling for cross-cultural empathy.
Downloads
References
Arbain, A. (2020). Translating subtitles of becoming Jane Film: A pragmatic approach. Langkawi: Journal of The Association for Arabic and English, 6(1), 17–28. https://doi.org/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31332/lkw.v6i1.1766
Arbain, A. (2023a). An Expression of Fear Realized in the Form of Sentences in the “Stranger Things” Movie. IJELTAL (Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics), 7(2), 277–288. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.21093/ijeltal.v7i2.1358
Arbain, A. (2023b). An Expression of Fear Realized in the Form of Sentences in the “Stranger Things” Movie. IJELTAL (Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics), 7(2), 277–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.21093/ijeltal.v7i2.1356
Arbain, A. (2023c). Translation techniques used and its shift in Stranger Things movie. JEES (Journal of English Educators Society), 8(2). https://doi.org/10.21070/jees.v8i2.1758
Baker, M. (2018). In other words: A coursebook on translation (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Bunt, S., & Hazelwood, Z. (2017). Walking the walk, talking the talk: Love languages, self-regulation, and relationship satisfaction. Personal Relationships, 24(2), 280–290. https://doi.org/10.1111/PERE.12182
Chapman, G. (2009). The five love languages singles Edition. Moody Publishers.
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Das, E. (2022). Touched by Tragedy: Mortality Salience of Loved Ones Increases Narrative Processing of Tragic Movies with Meaningful Endings. Journal of Media Psychology, 34(6), 323–333. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000329
Díaz Cintas, J., & Remael, A. (2021). Subtitling: Concepts and practices (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Driesmans, K., Vandenbosch, L., & Eggermont, S. (2016). True love lasts forever: the influence of a popular teenage movie on Belgian girls’ romantic beliefs. Journal of Children and Media, 10(3), 304–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2016.1157501
Feng, H., & Luo, X. (2022). Boy’s love drama exposure and attitudes toward same-sex relationships: Applying a moderated mediation model in the Chinese context. Chinese Journal of Communication, 16(2), 168–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2022.2153890
Haris, M., Upreti, A., Kurtaran, M., Ginter, F., Lafond, S., & Azimi, S. (2022). Identifying gender bias in blockbuster movies through the lens of machine learning. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01576-3
House, J. (2015). Translation quality assessment: Past and present. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315760460
Klocker, N., & Stanes, E. R. (2013). ‘Reel love’ across ethnic boundaries? The extent and significance of inter-ethnic intimacy in Australian cinema. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36(12), 2035–2054. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.675080
Molina, L., & Albir, H. (2002). Translation techniques revisited: A dynamic and functionalist approach. Meta: Journal Des Traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal, 47(4), 498–512. https://doi.org/10.7202/008033ar
Mostova, O., Stolarski, M., & Matthews, G. (2022). I love the way you love me: Responding to partner’s love language preferences boosts satisfaction in romantic heterosexual couples. PLOS ONE, 17(6), e0269429. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269429
Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Pett, R., Lozano, P. A., & Varga, S. (2022). Revisiting the Languages of Love: An Empirical Test of the Validity Assumptions Underlying Chapman’s (2015) Five Love Languages Typology. Communication Reports, 36(1), 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/08934215.2022.2113549
Pujol-Tubau, M., & Guinot, L. S. (2022). Secondary Characters Coloring the Complex Cultural Atmosphere in Unorthodox: Multilingualism and Its Translation in Watering Screen Landscapes. Między Oryginałem a Przekładem, 28(1/55), 55–72. https://doi.org/10.12797/MOaP.28.2022.55.03
Quintard, V., Jouffe, S., Hommel, B., Bouquet, C. A., & Bouquet, C. A. (2021). Embodied self-other overlap in romantic love: a review and integrative perspective. Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung, 85(3), 899–914. https://doi.org/10.1007/S00426-020-01301-8
Sasaki, E., Overall, N. C., Reis, H. T., Righetti, F., Chang, V. T., Low, R. S. T., Henderson, A. M. E., McRae, C., Cross, E. J., Jayamaha, S. D., Maniaci, M. R., & Reid, C. J.-A. (2023). Feeling loved as a strong link in relationship interactions: Partners who feel loved may buffer destructive behavior by actors who feel unloved. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000419.supp
Tricarico, P. (2022). The Story of Us: Older and Younger Couples’ Language Use and Emotional Responses to Jointly Told Relationship Narratives. Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 77(12), 2192–2201. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbac080
Venuti, L. (2017). The translator’s invisibility: A history of translation (3rd ed.). Routledge
Wang, G. (2021). Genre-based approach in business translation teaching. Review of Educational Theory, 4(2), 16. https://doi.org/10.30564/ret.v4i2.3019
Williams, M. (2013). A holistic-componential model for assessing translation student performance and competency. Mutatis Mutandis: Revista Latinoamericana de Traducción, 6(2), 419–443.
Yan, R., Feng, T., & Zare, S. (2024). A Cognitive Study on Politeness Intention Processing and Its Association with Pragmatic Failure in Cross-Cultural Communication. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 47(3), 481–497. https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2024-0306
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Abstract views: 52
,
PDF Downloads: 3
