AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATION SHIFTS AND ACCEPTABILITY OF SLANG EXPRESSIONS IN THE INDONESIA SUBTITLES OF KSI’s YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Pasha Krisna Mulya. English for Business and Professional Communication Study Program. The Acceptability of Slang Expression Translation in the Indonesian Subtitles of KSI YouTube Videos.

This study investigates the acceptability of slang expression translations found in the Indonesian subtitles of selected KSI YouTube videos. The research aims to identify the types of slang expressions, analyze the translation shifts applied in the translation process, and evaluate the acceptability of the translated slang expressions. This study employs a descriptive qualitative method. The data were collected through content analysis from selected KSI YouTube videos published between November 2025 and March 2026. The theories used in this study include slang classification proposed by Allan and Burridge (2006), translation shift theory proposed by Catford (1965), and translation quality assessment proposed by Nababan et al. (2012).

The findings reveal that there are 75 slang expressions identified in the data, consisting of several slang types, namely fresh and creative, imitative, flippant, clipping, acronym, blending, and compounding. In translating these expressions, various translation shifts were applied, including structure shift, class shift, unit shift, intra-system shift, and level shift. The results of the acceptability assessment indicate that most of the translated slang expressions are categorized as acceptable. This finding suggests that the Indonesian subtitles successfully convey the intended meaning of the source language while maintaining naturalness and conformity with Indonesian linguistic norms. The use of appropriate translation shifts also contributes to producing acceptable translations that can be easily understood by the target audience.

Keywords: Slang Expression, Translation Shift, Acceptability, Audiovisual Translation, Subtitle, YouTube.