Audiovisual Translation (subtitling)

People all over the world, especially young viewers, rely on non-professional subtitles to access audiovisual content. This research investigates the reception of professional and non-professional subtitles among university students with different levels of proficiency in English. Three versions of subtitles were included: the professional DVD subtitles distributed in Spain and two non-professional subtitle versions: one Spanish and the other Latin-American.
An initial survey, which obtained 332 responses, was used to screen the population and test their level of English. For the second stage, which consisted of an eye-tracking experiment and an interview, 52 participants (26 with a low level of English and 26 with a high level of English) had their eyes tracked while they were watching three clips from a popular TV show. Each clip was shown with a different type of professional or non-professional subtitling and participants answered a comprehension questionnaire after each of them.
The findings show that the type of subtitles does not affect the distribution of attention, but the professional subtitles were received with shorter mean fixation durations. The participants’ performance with the professional and the Latin-American non-professional versions were similar and gave better scores than with the Iberian non-professional version.
The eye-tracking measurements show that the level of proficiency in English affects subtitle-reading behavior. The participants with low proficiency had a more standardized behavior and exhibited a high degree of reliance on the subtitles. The highly proficient participants’ behavior has more variation, with some participants depending on the subtitles as much as the other group and other participants with almost no attention to the subtitles. The level of proficiency in the source language and the participants’ perceived effort to read the subtitles were identified to have an effect on their enjoyment of the audiovisual content.
The results from this study show that, from the audience’s perspective, non-professional subtitles can provide results similar to professional subtitles. Additionally, the study shows that the level of proficiency in the source language affects the subtitle-reading behavior and that viewers might have some degree of individual control over subtitle reading.

Sometimes considered marginal to Audiovisual Translation (AVT) 'proper', fan AVT is fast becoming a major area of interest as online technologies dramatically alter the audiovisual mediascape, affecting modes of access and availability, redirecting flows and challenging copyright and intellectual property discourse. Focusing on fan subtitling (fansubbing) yet also touching upon fandubbing and game hacking, this chapter considers fan AVT origins, discursive frameworks such as 'participatory culture', and the ethics of crowdsourcing. it develops a case study of the Viki Global TV platform and proposes that fandom is at the centre of current AVT developments.

The present paper studies diverse procedures related to Venuti " s strategies of domestication and foreignisation in Farsi dubbing and subtitling of the English movie, Warcraft directed by Duncan Jones. The procedures of both domestication and foreignisation were studied and statically analysed for the purpose of exploring the film translation method (dubbing or subtitling) which is closer to target-language-culture and the one which is closer to source-language-culture. In other words it was intended to explore which translation strategy (domestication or foreignisation) dominates dubbing and which one dominates subtitling. The tertiary purpose was to compare the reasons of differences in dubbing versus subtitling on the one hand, and the reasons of differences of the target text from the source text. The statistical analysis revealed that in dubbing, cultural equivalence is the most frequently used procedure (38.26%) apparently for making the movie visible for the public Iranian audience and adjust the movie to cultural considerations. Henceforth, dubbing orients to domestication. However, subtitling, with literal translation as the most frequently used procedure (57.4%), orients to foreignisation. In dubbing of the movie, most differences are related to cultural equivalence (38.26%) and the literal translation (29.56%) is in the next step. An interesting point is that the procedure of calque is neither used in subtitling nor in dubbing. In subtitling, cultural equivalence stands in the second place (17.34) and explanation (9.50%) occupies the third place. Other procedures " frequencies show no meaningful difference. Once implemented on more cases, the findings of this study have the potentialities of generalization to identify the most frequently occurred errors in movie translation industry and henceforth suggesting translation solutions for rendering dubbing and subtitling with more degree of naturalness.

The aim of this bachelor dissertation is briefly described in its title: “Sottotitolazione: analisi teorica, limiti di traduzione e censura cinematografica.”. It works towards a deeper explanation and exhibit of the translational form of subtitling through a look at the fundamental theories and regulations of this type of audiovisual translation. It focuses on differentiating subtitles from all the other forms of translation, making a list of its features and traits, drawn up thanks to the analysis of previous essential works, like the books written by the professor Henrik Gottlieb, who was the first to theorise the nature of writing and translating subtitles. This bachelor thesis is introduced by a paragraph that depicts the current situation of acknowledgement of subtitling and how the developing of modern technologies helped it earning visibility.  In the first chapter, that is the chapter dedicated to theory, together with the definition of what subtitling is, it is presented a clear classification of the various types of subtitling based on translational parameters and edited thanks to Roman Jakobson and his pioneering structural analysis of language, applied to the written form of subtitling translation. In addition to this it explains how subtitles have to abide by some technical and graphic constraints that relate to the appearing of the written text upon a screen, giving also a fair amount of examples of the translation process from English to Italian, both at word and phrase level. The second chapter hinges on the most common set of problems linked to the translation of the subtitles and how to avoid them with linguistic strategies and professionality. The chapter focuses on the greatest priority of subtitiling: writing a target text sufficient enough to convey the message without contaminating the image. It illustrates how the diamesic variation from speech to written generates all these restraints that make subtitling the most challenging translation form of all; the diamesic variation is just one of the three phases which distinguish subtitling, together with interlinguistic translation and text reduction; each one of them creates a new translational dare to solve by means of the practical examples provided throughout the section. The last part of the chapter concentrates on the way of subtitling prosodic features that usually marks the spoken language, as the formal/informal register, speaking style, accent, the intonation of the statements and dialect, using mostly the reduction method, closing on how the translations performed by subtitlers with no mastery of the language may lead to incorrect interpretations of the original soundtrack. The third and last chapter of the dissertation is entirely dedicated to the techniques and influences of subtitling censorship in the cinema and how profanity has a different kind of impact when read rather than heard. It gives a short historic introduction of censorship in Italy and how the norms regarding it are still linked to a framework of thoughts that is of the past: in this way it opens the view to a clearer explanation of the omission process or reformulation of the subtitiles in order to conceal every form of vulgarity. Furthermore the chapter lists the swearwords categorizing them by field of interest: from religiosity, to sexual references and ending up with scatology the chapter tracks the roles and effects of the four-letter words and provides subtitles of dialogues extracted from important movies such as Pulp Fiction or Le Iene, that were heavily manipulated to satisfy Italian culture and audience’s expectations. The movies chosen and previously examined in her book by Fay R. Ledvinka, were all picked because of their vulgar and violent speech that is hardly accepted by the italian ethics: the dissertation demonstrates how the censorship of their subtitles misrepresents the real nature of the characters shown on screen. It appears from the conclusion of the composition that the study itself arises a compact overview of what subtitling is in the world of audiovisual translation and in the reality of the target culture, which is beginning to give a certain credit to this form of translation in order to access every audiovisual product. The categorization of subtitiles has identified three main typologies of subtitiles that are composed following some major linguistic processes, or condensation, text reduction and reformulation that appear unavoidable when writing a subtitle: this leads to an unfortunate loss of some of the elements of the source text from which the translation starts, confirming that to translate is to betray. At the end of the dissertation subtitling stands out as ambiguous, almost as a new form of ibrid language that is written but wants to preserve some features of the spoken language in order to accomodate all the conflicting demands of the products on screen. Every and each of the challenges encoutered by the art of subtitling may be avoided but it is idealistic trying to conceive a perfect match between what is meant in the origin and what will be conveyed to the audience.

Todos conocemos en mayor o menor medida el mundo del cine y la televisión, y sabemos muy bien que existe un mercado de traducción detrás de todo eso en el que se desempeñan miles de profesionales en toda la Argentina y América. ¿Pero cuáles son las áreas de especialización que puede tener un traductor audiovisual? ¿Qué competencias se deben adquirir para dedicarse a esa área de la traducción con máximo profesionalismo? ¿Se puede vivir de la traducción audiovisual? Esta presentación cumplirá con el objetivo de acercarles a los presentes una mirada completa a la actualidad del mercado de la traducción audiovisual y a los requisitos fundamentales que son obligatorios para competir en un mercado que abarca a América Latina en su totalidad.

The paper focuses upon the problem of trans-cultural transfer in subtitling as a type of audiovisual translation. The methodology of the research involves analysis of the key procedures used for translating culture-specific concepts taking into consideration the principles of dynamic equivalence and the restrictions, applied to the text and the translator in the course of subtitling. The author defines these restrictions and argues their nature. Special attention is payed to the challenges of the audiovisual translation determined by specificity of trans-cultural transfer. As the result, the author brings to light the key strategies of subtitling audiovisual products containing culture-specific concepts and historically marked culture-specific slang considering, that audiovisual content is a polycode text. The results can be used in applied and theoretical translation practice, as a guide in subtitling practice, as a tool for teaching audiovisual translation.

The audience's reluctance to wait for the international release of audiovisual products, coupled with the easy access to audiovisual material and subtitling tools on the Internet, has triggered an increase in the production and use of non-professional subtitling. However, up to now, we know little of how people receive the subtitles and how much they understand when watching products with non-professional subtitles. This paper presents the results of a study that explores the audience reception of subtitled TV series using professional and non-professional subtitling. Fifty-two participants were shown three excerpts from The Big Bang Theory with three subtitle versions: the professional version extracted from the Spanish DVD and two non-professional versions produced by two different non-professional subtitling communities. Data were collected through questionnaires, eye-tracking and interviews. The results show that non-professional subtitles do not necessarily affect the audience reception negatively. Further, both eye-tracking and self-reported data yielded interesting insights into audience's reception. Based on the findings, it is possible to say that there are non-professional translations that are as good as their professional counterparts.

Although there are a large number of books and articles on subtitling concentrating on different aspects of the endeavour, less attention seems to be devoted to the subtitling constraints and the possible strategies to be used in film and television series genres. For example, the subtitling of historical drama TV series, which have become very popular and reach a wide audience across the world, is a rarely studied endeavour. The following article is an effort to present a framework for the subtitlers of historical drama in consideration of the constraints of subtitling, as well as the features of the genre itself. Following an introduction about historical distance in translation, the linguistic, cultural and discoursal elements used in the production of the genre, the constraints of subtitling are exemplified with a comparative analysis of a historical drama and its subtitles into English. Particular attention is devoted to the translation strategies used in rendering registers and temporal and geographical varieties of language and, the strategies used to convey military, imperial, religious culture and social stratification. In conclusion, the study hopes to suggest points of practical use for subtitlers, concerning the subtitling of, what is explained in the study as, pseudo historical distance in historical drama and formulating a subtitling metatext

This MA thesis written in 2008 aims to describe the processing of subtitled films using a cognitive-semiotic approach. Several factors that influence the processing of subtitled films are analysed based on an empirical research conducted among high school students in Hungary.

This study intends to address the following questions from the perspective of audiovisual translation studies: how can extraverbal elements of multimodal texts be represented within subtitling? What strategies can be implemented to facilitate the interlinguistic mediation of feature films subtitled into English from non-European languages without significant phenomena of anchoring and redundancy?

Keywords: audiovisual translation, intersemiotic specification, semiotic cohesion, Japanese-Italian interlinguistic subtitling, source text and target text intercultural relation.

This thesis is a contribution towards the subtitling practice of audiovisual programmes for deaf children. It starts by offering an overview of relevant research on Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing (SDH), conducted both in the UK and abroad. A descriptive and comprehensive study on how children’s programmes broadcast in British television are subtitled for deaf children constitutes the starting point of the project. In an attempt to gain an understanding on how deaf children read subtitles, the linguistic difficulties encountered in the acquisition of a spoken language as well as their reading characteristics are examined. In doing so, contributions from both Deaf Studies and Audiovisual Translation are considered. Deaf children are placed in their social context and the different types of hearing loss, prelingual and postlingual deafness, and cochlear implantation are discussed. Education for the deaf is also tackled, encompassing the history, philosophies and current trends. The ultimate aim of the project is to contribute to the subtitling practice of deaf children by conducting empirical analysis. Hands-on research is conducted with a group of deaf children recruited from a mainstream school. Case studies are used in the piloting leading to the main experiment, which consists of exploring techniques to enhance word recognition and content comprehension. The findings of the main experiment, analysed using statistics, and the children's feedback, obtained orally at the end of the main activity and presented in a narrative form, are discussed as a contribution towards future research.

Cristina Plaza Lara: Integración de la competencia instrumental-profesional en el aula de traducción. ISBN 978-3-7329-0309-2 Susanne J. Jekat / Heike Elisabeth Jüngst / Klaus Schubert / Claudia Villiger (Hg.): Sprache barrierefrei gestalten. Perspektiven aus der Angewandten Linguistik. Spitzl (Hg.): (Neu-)Kompositionen. Aspekte transkultureller Translationswissenschaft. ISBN 978-3-7329-0306-1 Ursula Gross-Dinter (Hg.): Dolmetschen 3.0 -Einblicke in einen Beruf im Wandel. Hartwig Kalverkämper (Hg.): Fachkommunikation im Fokus -Paradigmen, Positionen, Perspektiven. ISBN 978-3-7329-0214-9 Maria Mushchinina: Sprachverwendung und Normvorstellung in der Fachkommunikation. ISBN 978-3-7329-0293-4 Anja Centeno García: Textarbeit in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Lehre.

Psycholinguistic investigations of translated audiovisual products have been conducted since at least the 1980s. These mainly concerned the role of subtitles in the processing of language in the context of language acquisition, literacy, and education. This article provides an overview of some of the most productive lines of research from a psycholinguistic angle in audiovisual translation (AVT), focussing on studies that investigated the positive effects of subtitles on language performance, but also on a growing body of behavioural research on the cognitive processing of the language of subtitles. The article evaluates a number of methodologies in some of the most prominent studies on the processing of subtitles, primarily making use of eye tracking, and then provides some thoughts on future directions in psycholinguistic studies on the processing of the language of AVT.

The television subtitling market suffers from a shortage of professionals, as has been attested by twelve years of personal experience in the industry. The purpose of this research was to investigate the reasons behind this shortage and suggest the basis for implementing a course program on subtitling for TV from a descriptive and polysystemic perspective on translation and a poststructuralist view on education. The proposal presented was based on a list of competencies and abilities every subtitle translator must develop, elaborated from interviews with important actors in the translation for subtitles polysystem, and on the analysis of the norms, constraints and control mechanisms with which the subtitler must deal in his or her professional capacity. The considerations brought forth contemplate methodological and content issues and tackle the peculiarities of subtitling, aiming to offer an alternative to the emphasis on training rather than on education which is usually associated with most courses currently available. Thus, this dissertation intends to guarantee a greater interchange between university and industry, which should bring about benefits for both.

En el presente trabajo se analiza de forma crítica la traducción para doblaje y subtitulado del inglés al español de la película Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them (Yates, 2016). El objetivo es estudiar los problemas que surgen en la traducción de textos audiovisuales de gran repercusión mediática y en donde la labor del traductor está condicionada por las decisiones tomadas por otros mediadores a lo largo de una serie de libros y películas que le preceden. Se han clasificado y descrito los principales problemas a los que se enfrentó la traductora tomando como base la taxonomía de Nord (1991). Asimismo, se han valorado las soluciones aportadas y se han ofrecido propuestas de mejora en los casos en los que no nos parecían apropiadas.

Análisis de la subtitulación de referentes culturales:
Una indagación en los entresijos de la traducción audiovisual a través del ejemplo concreto de la traducción de los subtítulos de una película llena de referentes culturales ajenos a la cultura destino como es el caso de Easy A (traducida en España como Rumores y Mentiras).

In China, foreign films and TV series may be translated by two different groups: professionals or non-professionals (otherwise known as fansubbers). The versions produced by professionals (prosub) and the version produced by fansubbers (fansub) are characterised by interesting differences due to the different constraints under which they operate. Fansub is subject to the scrutiny of audience members who emphasise the accuracy of the subtitles, whereas professional subtitling usually occurs under scrutiny and examination by the authorities, resulting in translations deemed “inaccurate” by fansubbers and other audience members. Nevertheless, fansubbers themselves may produce similar “inaccurate” translations due to self-censorship. From a sociological perspective, this chapter endeavours to understand the conflict between Chinese fansubbers’ pursuit of accuracy and their self-censorship. To achieve this goal, the author has conducted a comparative analysis of different and similar translation approaches adopted by fansubbers and professional subtitlers to deal with political censorship and taboo words in subtitles. The comparison was then juxtaposed with interviews with these translators and online discussions of their approaches to translation. This research reveals that Chinese fansubbers, though emphasising translation accuracy, may unconsciously compromise it by practising self-censorship under the influence of their moral and political ideology.


Zhengguo HE

The research project aims to investigate a form of language variation (as represented in fiction) defined here as 'disorderly speech' (DIS). It refers to the representation of linguistic output of a character supposedly temporarily affected by a number of factors, such as drug or alcohol consumption, lack of sleep, or psychological instability. To this end, I analyse examples of fictional drug-affected speech drawn from the film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998, Gilliam), and its translation into Spanish. The phenomenon is approached considering Mayoral’s thesis on the translation of language variation (1999), Bleichenbacher’s analysis of multilingualism (2008), and Corrius and Zabalbeascoa’s L3 model (2011). The methodology involves identifying linguistic phenomena used in the film to portray a character’s condition that would give rise to some sort of DIS, comparing them with the solutions chosen in the dubbed version as well as the subtitles of the DVD edition to render it, and proposing translation solutions of my own. The results of the study show a partial loss of the disorderly speech effect in the official translations, which could be avoided by transcending the current conventions of the industry and applying the models and strategies proposed by the author.

This research presents a picture of audiences’ patterns of engagement with internationally subtitled media in Hamilton, New Zealand. Utilising an audience reception framework to investigate audiences’ interactions with, and evaluations of subtitled media, this research unites the disciplines of Audio Visual Translation and Screen and Media Studies in a specific locale, with an emphasis on the reception of audio visual translated media. Findings in this research also provide a discussion of the wider contexts of audience reception in New Zealand, by investigating local subtitled media in relation to media accessibility processes found in the distinctive cultural landscape of New Zealand. Ultimately, this research finds the situation in New Zealand regarding audiences and the reception of both local English and Māori language media, as well as international subtitled media, exhibits complex polarisations in both the local translation industry production and audience attitudes towards bilingual media. In contrast to this, is the proliferation of international media with subtitles, which is appreciated by Hamilton residents since it provides diverse, accessible, and enjoyable content through a variety of media platforms.

The present paper continues a previous study in the field of audiovisual translation and deals with the description of subtitling in Romania. The article aims to present a more comprehensive overview of the subtitling for television in Romania. The paper consists of a brief analysis of the TV subtitled genres focussing on the investigation of the types of subtitles, working languages, and subtitling features. It intends to provide relevant information about the subtitling practices in Romania that would be useful to AVT students, researchers, and translators.

El año 2003 supuso en España un punto de inflexión en la estandarización de los subtítulos para sordos al publicarse la norma UNE 153010:2003 Subtitulado para personas sordas y personas con discapacidad auditiva. Subtitulado a través del teletexto, elaborada por la Asociación Española de Normalización y Certificación (AENOR). Casi una década después, en 2012, esta norma es anulada y sustituida por la norma UNE 153010:2012. Subtitulado para personas sordas y personas con discapacidad auditiva, que, con un carácter más general, contempla todos los escenarios de la comunicación audiovisual y tiene como objetivo establecer unos requisitos mínimos de calidad y homogeneidad en el subtitulado para personas sordas y personas con discapacidad auditiva. A través de un estudio contrastivo entre ambas normas observaremos los avances que se han llevado a cabo y destacaremos aquellos aspectos más relevantes que debe tener en cuenta el subtitulador como creador de contenidos audiovisuales accesibles, consciente de que la finalidad de su trabajo es la eliminación de barreras, en este camino hacia la igualdad de oportunidades para este colectivo. Palabras clave: traducción audiovisual; subtitulado para sordos; accesibilidad; norma UNE 153010

Abstract
In Spain, 2003 marked a turning point in the standardization of subtitling for the deaf with the publication of the UNE norm 153010:2003 "Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing. Subtitling by tele text", developed by the Spanish Association of Normalization and Certification (AENOR). Nearly a decade later, in 2012, this norm was replaced with the UNE norm 153010:2012 "Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing" which, with a more general character, contemplates the full range of possible scenarios for audiovisual communication and aims to establish basic requirements in quality and homogeneity in the subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing. Through a comparative study of both norms, we will outline the advances that have been carried out within the field of subtitling. We will emphasize the essential aspects that a subtitler must bear in mind-as a creator of audiovisual accessible content-by being aware that the ultimate purpose of their work is the elimination of barriers in the way towards the realization of equality of opportunities for the members of the deaf community.

The study attempted the analysis of the Italian dubbing and subtitles of the animated film Monsters, Inc., released in 2001 by Disney Pixar and directed by Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich and David Silverman. The paper is divided into three sections-each one regarding a (extra) linguistic issue. The first one focuses on cultural-specific references (CSRs), which are considered one of the hardest aspects in all types of translation. Dialects and registers are analysed in the second section, while the third one deals with typical phenomena of the spoken language-such as question tags, vocatives and modes of address. For each section, a brief theoretical frame is provided to build the basis to discuss the examples taken from the film (original and dubbed/subtitled version). In addition, the degree of influence (or difference) between the two versions is considered, and some translation strategies are outlined according to the examples shown.

This thesis describes the development of foreign language strategies (subtitling, dubbing, voice-over) in cinematography and describes same-language subtitling. This subtitling will be split in subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) and in same-language subtitling for foreign language learning. This thesis mainly deals with the impact of these subtitles for improving the own linguistic competence in a foreign language.

In the past, the working conditions of audiovisual translators in general, and subtitlers in particular, have tended to be veiled in mystery, with very few works written on the topic. In the case of subtitling, this is mainly because the majority of subtitlers tend to work on a freelance basis. Since contractors work alone, independently and very frequently in isolation, it is difficult for outsiders to gain an understanding of their profession and working conditions. This has also restricted the circulation of information among the professionals themselves. In order to present a clearer picture of the working environment in which subtitlers operate, as well as an overview of the realities defining the interlingual subtitling industry, an online survey was distributed among subtitlers across the world.

RESUMEN: Este artículo analiza la subtitulación cinematográfica desde un punto de vista traductológico pero también intercultural, centrándose en el caso concreto de los festivales de cine. A diferencia del cine comercial hollywoodense que vemos en televisión o en DVD, las películas proyectadas en otros espacios de exhibición como los festivales de cine internacionales provienen en muchos casos de países lejanos con lenguas minoritarias. La traducción fílmica debería servir aquí para tender puentes entre las diferentes culturas. Sin embargo, si la lengua original de la película es una minoritaria y la lengua meta es diferente del inglés se usa el inglés como lengua puente (pivot language). Esto resulta en la pérdida de referentes culturales en la traducción final y en la distorsión de la imagen que la audiencia de los festivales de cine se construye de la cultura extranjera. El objetivo principal de este estudio es realizar, a través de una serie de entrevistas a expertos y profesionales, una primera aproximación a un campo apenas explorado en el ámbito académico para, finalmente, proponer una relación de medidas orientadas a la optimización de la subtitulación en el cine. ABSTRACT: This paper analyses film subtitling from the point of view of translation and interculturality in the particular case of film festivals. Far from mainstream Hollywood cinema, many films shown at international film festivals come from remote countries where minority languages are spoken. Building bridges of understanding among cultures should be one of the main goals of film translation. However, as English is used as a pivot language in those cases when the source is a minority language and the target is another language different from English, cultural references are many times lost in the final translation. " A pivot language is an intermediary language, usually English, used in the master list for the preparation of multilingual subtitles of films shot originally in lesser-known languages, e.g. Subtitles in English for a film in Farsi used for the translation of the film into French or Italian. " (Díaz-Cintas 2007: 250). The aim of this study is to analyse this type of film translation both from an academic and from a professional point of view, to finally propose a series of measures that lead to its optimization.

The present work is the study of humorous instances in the subtitling of the movie Lisbela, in DVD, with subtitles in English and Spanish. Using Raskin and Attardo’s General Theory of Verbal Humor (ROSAS, 2003), Reiss and Vermeer’s Scope Theory (ROSAS, 2003) and Jorge Díaz-Cintas’ (2007) definition of translation practices for subtitling as the theoretical frame to identify and analyze the translation choices in the film, the study aims at describing the types of humor and translation strategies, as well as showing potential linguistic and/or cultural gains and/or conflicts in the humorous excerpts of the movie. The challenges of the translator would be to make the linguistic-cultural choices, which demand creativity, and establish priorities that could minimize possible translation conflicts.

Offensive and taboo language presents a challenge for subtitlers, given the impact that it can have on an audience, particularly in its written form (Díaz Cintas 2001b). The present paper contains a descriptive analysis of the subtitling of offensive and taboo language, mainly from English into Spanish, from a translational, linguistic and technical point of view. Based on three of Quentin Tarantino's films -Reservoir Dogs ), Pulp Fiction (1994 and Inglourious Basterds (2009) -, particular attention is paid to the way in which these terms and expressions were subtitled for the benefit of a Spanish audience. By using a multi-strategy design in which mostly quantitative and some qualitative data are combined, the main goal of the paper is to look into the way this type of language was subtitled in these films, thereby enabling other scholars to use this same methodology when undertaking research on similar projects, in the same or in different language combinations.

Humour has been discussed from various perspectives over the years. When attempting to define it, philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists and linguists alike seem to come up with a similar conclusion: providing a complete, all encompassing definition of humour is an impossible task. Although universal in its nature, humour is deeply culture-specific and has constituted one of the main points of interest for Translation Studies scholars in the past decades, due to its role in establishing the position of the translator as a mediator between cultures, as well as to the many challenges it brings to the translation process.
This study aims at analyzing a few aspects related to the translation of humour in a specific text type, namely the audiovisual text, by focussing on stand-up comedy, a type of audiovisual product that is extremely rich in culture-bound references.

Key words: humour, stand-up comedy, audiovisual translation, subtitler, culture-bound references.

Jorge Díaz-Cintas is a Reader in Translation and the Director of the Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS) at University College London. He is the author of numerous articles and books on audiovisual translation, including Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling (with Aline Remael, 2007), Theory and Practice of Subtitling (2003), Media for All (coeditor, 2007), The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation (editor, 2008), New Trends in Audiovisual Translation (editor, 2009), Audiovisual Translation: Language Transfer on Screen (co-editor, 2009), and New Insights into Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility (co-edited, 2010). He was the president of the ESIST (European Association for Studies in Screen Translation) from 2002 to 2010 and is now codirecting it. He combines his teaching with professional translation and interpretation. He is a member of the research groups TransMedia and Trama. He also works as a freelance translator and interpreter and, since 2010, he has been the Chief Editor of the Peter Lang series New Trends in Translation Studies. He is an expert board member of the EU LIND-Web project.

This paper examines the use of euphemisation as a politeness strategy in subtitling English audiovisual material into Arabic. It draws on core concepts of Brown and Levinson‟s theory of politeness (1987), such as the notion of face, face-threatening acts and redressive strategies, to explain subtitlers‟ choices in rendering sequences which are potentially offensive to an Arab audience. The study sets out to examine the extent to which a modified and extended model of euphemisation as a strategic output of politeness can be productively applied in the field of audiovisual translation, and specifically to subtitling from English into Arabic. This new and more eclectic model of euphemisation draws mainly on two existing models developed outside politeness theory, by Williams (1975) and Warren (1992). To account for euphemistic expressions identified in Arabic subtitles of Friends and not covered by the categories proposed in Williams and Warren‟s studies, two further categories are introduced, namely, semantic misrepresentation and omission. The model has proved helpful in capturing recurrent strategies of euphemisation employed by Arab subtitlers in dealing with a range of face-threatening acts, especially sexual references and utterances related to certain distasteful topics such as death, disease and bodily functions.

This paper investigates online film subtitles as a separate register of communication from a quantitative perspective. Subtitles from films in English and other languages translated into English are compared with registers of spoken and written communication represented by large corpora of British and American English. A series of quantitative analyses based of n-gram frequencies demonstrate that subtitles are not fundamentally different from other registers of English and that they represent a close approximation of British and American informal conversations. However, it is shown that the subtitles are different from the conversations with regard to several functional characteristics, which are typical of the language of scripted dialogues in films and TV series in general. Namely, the language of subtitles is more emotional and dynamic, but less spontaneous, vague and narrative than that of normally occurring conversations. The paper also compares subtitles in original English and subtitles translated from other languages and detects variation that can be explained by differences in communicative styles.

This workshop will introduce students and professionals to the world of Cloud-Subtitling. It will take place in the university computer class. Max 25 students can participate.

In a mere ten years, awesome technological advancements have transformed the audiovisual translation landscape beyond belief, nearly zeroing traditional long waiting periods and accelerating localisation workflows that have now become faster than light.

The first part of the workshop will shed light on the state of the art of subtitling technology, the evolution of cloud-based technology and localisation workflows worldwide in order to understand how the current epochal changes in the way we produce and consume audiovisual products on a global scale will affect the lives of professional subtitlers and the future of the subtitling professions in the years to come. A discussion will follow on the opportunities and potentials offered by cloud-based subtitling technology as opposed to traditional software programs.

The second part of the workshop will be devoted to practical Cloud-Subtitling tasks. By the end of the workshop, you will be able to cloud-subtitle your localisation project and will have a general understanding of cloud-based subtitling technology. A list of useful websites and other sources of information will be given to all the participants and some time will be left at the end for questions.

The paper focuses upon the problem of trans-cultural transfer in subtitling as a type of audiovisual translation. The methodology of the research involves analysis of the key procedures used for translating culture-specific concepts taking into consideration the principles of dynamic equivalence and the restrictions, applied to the text and the translator in the course of subtitling. The author defines these restrictions and argues their nature. Special attention is payed to the challenges of the audiovisual translation determined by specificity of trans-cultural transfer. As the result, the author brings to light the key strategies of subtitling audiovisual products containing culture-specific concepts and historically marked culture-specific slang considering, that audiovisual content is a polycode text. The results can be used in applied and theoretical translation practice, as a guide in subtitling practice, as a tool for teaching audiovisual translation.

"This article discusses the pedagogical relevance of
a research project into professional subtitling practices in Italy
which is coordinated by the author at the University of Bologna.
The key feature of this initiative relates to its collaborative dynamics: research is carried out by students writing their final
dissertations, working together as a team and pooling their
resources and findings. The author contends that taking part in
this collective enquiry-based experience is as important for the
students as the actual results of their investigation and discusses in detail the pedagogical benefits of this approach. The article begins by describing the inception stages of the project, conceived as an attempt to capitalize on the traditionally high weighting of the final dissertation within Italian degree programmes − and hence on the important amount of effort that students are likely to put into it. After describing the pedagogical and research tools used in the project, the paper goes on to present the results achieved in the first 2-3 years of the project’s life; illustrate how the students’ work has influenced the author’s teaching practices as a subtitler trainer; and evaluate the implications of this experience for translator training in general."

Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on Translation No.4 May, 2015     
                                                                                                                                                                      Pp. 6-21





Towards a Model of Euphemisation in Arabic Subtitling

Amer Samed Al-Adwan
Translation and Interpreting Institute
Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha-Qatar




Abstract
This paper examines the use of euphemisation as a politeness strategy in subtitling English audiovisual material into Arabic. It draws on core concepts of Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness (1987), such as the notion of face, face-threatening acts and redressive strategies, to explain subtitlers’ choices in rendering sequences which are potentially offensive to an Arab audience. The study sets out to examine the extent to which a modified and extended model of euphemisation as a strategic output of politeness can be productively applied in the field of audiovisual translation, and specifically to subtitling from English into Arabic. This new and more eclectic model of euphemisation draws mainly on two existing models developed outside politeness theory, by Williams (1975) and Warren (1992). To account for euphemistic expressions identified in Arabic subtitles of Friends and not covered by the categories proposed in Williams and Warren’s studies, two further categories are introduced, namely, semantic misrepresentation and omission. The model has proved helpful in capturing recurrent strategies of euphemisation employed by Arab subtitlers in dealing with a range of face-threatening acts, especially sexual references and utterances related to certain distasteful topics such as death, disease and bodily functions. 

Keywords: Audiovisual Translation, Euphemisation, Politeness, Subtitling, The Arabic Language

Inspired by the belief that cognitive and pragmatic models of communication and discourse processing offer great potential for the study of Audiovisual Translation (AVT), this paper will review such models and discuss their contribution to conceptualising the three inter-related sub-processes underlying all forms of AVT: the comprehension of the multimodal discourse by the translator; the translation of selected elements of this discourse; and the comprehension of the newly formed multimodal discourse by the target audience. The focus will be on two models, Relevance Theory, which presents the most comprehensive pragmatic model of communication and Mental Model Theory, which underlies cognitive models of discourse processing. The two approaches will be used to discuss and question common perceptions of AVT as being ‘constrained’ and ‘partial’ translation.

Tesi di laurea magistrale corso di laurea in Traduzione Specialistica e Interpretazione di conferenza - Università degli Studi di Trieste con relatore prof. Marco Rucci.
Analisi del sottotitolaggio del documentario cileno "Lemebel" (2019), della regista Joanna Reposi Garibaldi. La tesi parte da una panoramica teorica della traduzione audiovisiva in generale e del sottotitolaggio in particolare, tracciando un parallelo fra norme teoriche e esigenze pratiche del mondo del lavoro. Si passa poi a un'analisi linguistica dettagliata della variante cilena dello spagnolo e all'analisi testuale, morfosintattica e lessicale del parlato in "Lemebel", capitoli in cui si discutono anche le scelte traduttive più ardue.

Audio description (AD) has established itself as a media access service for blind and partially sighted people across a range of countries, for different media and types of audiovisual performance (e.g. film, TV, theatre, opera). In countries such as the UK and Spain, legislation has been implemented for the provision of AD on TV, and the European Parliament has requested that AD for digital TV be monitored in projects such as DTV4ALL (www.psp-dtv4all.org) in order to be able to develop adequate European accessibility policies. One of the drawbacks is that in their current form, AD services largely leave the visually impaired community excluded from access to foreign-language audiovisual products when they are subtitled rather than dubbed. To overcome this problem, audio subtitling (AST) has emerged as a solution. This article will characterise audio subtitling as a modality of audiovisual localisation which is positioned at the interface between subtitling, audio description and voice-over. It will argue that audio subtitles need to be delivered in combination with audio description and will analyse, systematise and exemplify the current practice of audio description with audio subtitling using commercially available DVDs.

El presente trabajo está dedicado a una forma de variación lingüística que, probablemente debido a su naturaleza variable y transitoria, parece haber sido ignorada en los estudios de traducción: el lenguaje alterado. He acuñado este término para referirme al lenguaje afectado por múltiples factores, como el consumo de drogas o alcohol, la falta de sueño, el estado psicológico del hablante, etc., durante un periodo de tiempo limitado. Creo que su estudio aplicado a la traducción en general y al campo audiovisual en particular puede ser revelador a nivel teórico y útil para los traductores profesionales que se enfrenten a textos marcados por la presencia de este tipo de lenguaje. Mi investigación se centra en el análisis detallado de los diálogos de la película “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, basada en la novela homónima de Hunter S. Thompson, y de su traducción para el doblaje y la subtitulación.

En este trabajo expondremos las principales dificultades que se presentan al traducir términos jurídicos en subtítulos de películas y series. A diferencia de otros ámbitos de la traducción, en el subtitulado no se puede disponer de explicaciones para aquellos términos en los que no existe una correspondencia directa en nuestro idioma. Por ello, resulta de especial importancia desarrollar estrategias de traducción que permitan mantener la fidelidad del texto original y, al mismo tiempo, logren respetar las convenciones que rigen en el subtitulado, tales como la restricción de caracteres o la exigencia del español neutro, que es cada vez más generalizada.  Para explicar dichas estrategias, tomaremos como ejemplo ciertos términos del ámbito del derecho penal, civil y procesal, así como algunos en materia de contratos. También evaluaremos las traducciones de dichos términos en películas y series para determinar si lograron trasmitir el significado original.

https://ciccre.uvt.ro/sites/default/files/qr/qr_iii_2_cristina_varga.pdf

Developing our previous research in the field, the present paper approaches the evolution of LL virtual platforms. It explores the concepts of computer assisted learning (CALL), LL virtual platforms, and its influence in a language classroom in a multicultural and multilingual context. The goal of our paper is to provide information about the advantages of using Clipflair virtual platform. Clipflair is an innovative open platform which allows the users to learn different languages trough subtitling and dubbing of movie fragments. The platform offers support and learning materials in 15 languages. The main focus of our presentation is illustrating the advantages of using Clipflair in romance language learning (French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Portuguése, and Catalan).

RESUMEN El trasvase de los juegos de palabras es uno de los aspectos más complejos y que más debates ha generado en el ámbito de los estudios de traducción. Este procedimiento reviste tal dificultad que ciertos autores dudan que sea posible siquiera obtener un grado de equivalencia aceptable como para considerar posible su traducción (Pujol Tubau, 2005). Además, resulta más complicado si cabe en un producto audiovisual, en el que existen «códigos de significación que operan simultáneamente en la producción de sentido» (Chaume Varela, 2004). En el caso del subtitulado, habría que añadir también otras dificultades derivadas de las limitaciones espaciales y de número de caracteres por segundo (Mayoral Asensio, 1997). No obstante, debido al auge del consumo de materiales audiovisuales en los últimos años, especialmente vinculado a la aparición y popularización de las plataformas de reproducción multimedia y al fenómeno fansub en internet (Muñoz López y Antón Martínez, 2017), el estudio de la traducción de juegos de palabras está más de actualidad que nunca. En este trabajo, clasificaremos los juegos de palabras presentes en la primera temporada de la serie Brooklyn 99 (Goor y Schur, 2013) y analizaremos las estrategias de traducción empleadas para su trasvase en dos de las traducciones para subtitulado al español: la versión de Netflix y una versión fansub. PALABRAS CLAVE: juegos de palabras, traducción audiovisual, subtitulado, fansub.

As we progress into the digital age, text is experiencing a resurgence and reshaping as blogging, tweeting and phone messaging establish new textual forms and frameworks. At the same time, an intrusive layer of text, obviously added in post, has started to feature on mainstream screen media-from the running subtitles of TV news broadcasts to the creative portrayals of mobile phone texting on film and TV dramas. In this paper, I examine the free-floating text used in BBC series Sherlock (2010-). While commentators laud this series for the novel way it integrates text into its narrative, aesthetic and characterisation, it requires eye tracking to unpack the cognitive implications involved. Through recourse to eye tracking data on image and textual processing, I revisit distinctions between reading and viewing, attraction and distraction, while addressing a range of issues relating to eye bias, media access and multimodal redundancy effects. Link: https://refractory-journal.com/dwyer/

Este estudio parte de la premisa de que, del mismo modo que el comportamiento, la expresión facial y el lenguaje corporal de una persona pueden actuar de indicios a la hora de reconocer si se encuentra bajo los efectos de alguna sustancia (alcohol, drogas,
etc.), la alteración también se puede apreciar en su forma de hablar. Extrapolada a la ficción audiovisual, esta premisa me ha llevado a identificar un abanico de casos de lo que he denominado lenguaje alterado (Parra López, 2014). Mientras que la alteración resulta incontrolable para el personaje, siempre es deliberada por parte del autor y a menudo desempeña una función narrativa, retórica, estilística o caracterizadora en el texto que requiere la consideración del traductor. A juzgar por el escaso trato que ha recibido en los ámbitos de la lingüística y la traducción, uno podría considerar el lenguaje alterado como un fenómeno periférico, tan peculiar como excepcional. Sin embargo, estudios sobre el tratamiento del alcohol y las drogas en el cine nos demuestran todo lo contrario. Mi ponencia se centra en el análisis de este fenómeno en numerosas películas de habla inglesa, como Leaving Las Vegas (Cazès, Fischer, Stewart, y Figgis, 1995), Almost Famous (Bryce, Crowe, y Crowe, 2000) o The Big Lebowski (Coen y Coen, 1998), y de sus versiones dobladas y subtituladas al español. Lejos de criticar las soluciones de traducción adoptadas, el objetivo es describir la variedad de formas y niveles en los que se manifiesta la alteración en las tres versiones analizadas y despertar la conciencia y el interés de académicos y traductores en esta particular forma de variación lingüística.