An analysis of translation techniques used in English subtitles of Manner of Death

The purpose of this study was to find out the top five translation techniques used in subtitles translation of Manner of Death, which was an amazingly popular Thai Y series that was broadcast on an online platform. The series was translated by an unidentified professional translator. The analysis of the translation techniques was based on the translation techniques of Molina and Albir (2002). The study concentrated on the top five translation techniques in the first and second-last episodes of Manner of Death. After collecting and breaking down the data, the results show that the first and the second-last episodes of the Manner of Death consisted of 787 pairs of dialog and subtitles. Only 783 pairs were selected to present because there were four misunderstandings in English subtitles, and there were seventeen translation techniques found. The frequency of the use of translation techniques in English subtitles was calculated as a percentage of the total and the top five techniques were identified. Molina and Albir’s translation technique theory was used to describe the examples of the top five techniques found in data collection. The source language text and target language text were compared in tables with explanatory comments. The top five translation techniques identified were as follows: (1) linguistic amplification (20.56 percent), (2) linguistic compression (18.77 percent), (3) amplification (8.43 percent), (4) reduction (7.79 percent), and (5) adaptation (6.77 percent). Finally, recommendations for further study are provided.