Subtitles are text derived from either a transcript or screenplay of the dialog or commentary in films, television programs, video games, and the like, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen, but can also be at the top of the screen if there is already text at the bottom of the screen. Subtitling, one of the underresearched topics in translation studies, is a challenging task faced by many restrictions that compel subtitlers to use specific strategies to enhance the quality of the subtitles. Subtitling process research the process of subtitling. The term itself, with all the existing varieties cultural words newmark, 1988. Mutra 2005 challenges of multidimensional translation. In his introduction to topics in audiovisual translation, philip orero claims that subtitling calls for an enourmous variety of skills x. Unlike other forms of written translation, subtitling does not allow at hand solutions for the untranslatable terms. In contrast, subtitling is an example of a foreignising strategy since it stresses the foreign nature of a film and it is a sourceculturebound translation. The starting point, however, will be a brief introduction to the history of subtitling5 by way of tracing the dubbing vs. Thus, it is a translation that has restrictions and certain criteria which directly affect the final result. Moreover, the words subtitles andor captions are very rarely to be found in the indexes of handbooks or bibliographies on the cinema. Ssf files are dissimilar from the simple text code of other popular plain text file formats. This means that subtitling could involve a good amount of paraphrasing.
The author discusses strategies available to the subtitlers confronted with such phenomena in films. Larsen culture bound problems in subtitling free download as pdf file. Subtitling cultural specificity from english to chinese. The power of film translation by zenzka artliterary.
Subtitling involves attraction as field of investigation so much for the sciences. The final step is the output of the appropriate files needed to create the final deliverables. In short, cinemas cultural diversity presents translators with a world of challenges. The basic format of the subtitle should follow the following. Other problems of translating cultural references include the emotive words, which need to be. It can serve as a good foundation for understanding problems that arise in subtitling practise especially those problems that are culturebound and for reflecting on problems that occur as part of any translation practice. Translating such culture bound terms is challenging on all levels. The last ice age began to wane about 18,000 years ago. Durham etheses issues in the subtitling and dubbing. Subtitling norms for television is readable and well argued and avoids jargon. When a subtitler encounters an ecr in a st, she has several strategies at. In subtitling, as in all forms of interlingual transfer, this may cause problems in rendering culturespecific or languagespecific elements. Subtitling cultural specificity from english to chinese dayan liu chongqing jiaotong university school of foreign languages no. Texts, translation and subtitling in theory, and in denmark henrik gottlieb, university of copenhagen general outline the aim of this paper is to focus systematically on the many faces of translation, part i, and to give special attention to one of these faces.
However, the challenge is higher when it comes to subtitling. This focus or limitation on certain aspects of translation is expected to help the researcher to have a deeper understanding on translation technique and to help the watcher figure out the story of the movie and understand the meaning of the lyrics. In subtitling, as in all forms of interlingual transfer, this may cause problems in rendering culture. In the light of an examination of the generic features of audiovisual translation and of the particular cultural constraints inherent in translation for arabicspeaking. When culturebound elements are dis cussed in relation to translation, the term will often refer to the nonlinguistic sphere, to different phenomena or events that exist in the source language culture. Strategies used for translating culturebound elements.
Subtitling an issue of speed 4 but, under observation, respondents did not easily distinguish between the different subtitling speeds of the programme clips shown to them, especially between 160 and 180 words per minute. Subtitling definition of subtitling by the free dictionary. The next chapter will discuss in detail how humour can be translated and as humour is very culturebased, various techniques will also be discussed in order to overcome any potential difficulty in the. Visual subtitling performs the perfect film translation and subtitling successfully. This introduction to subtitling has been written by the mondo agit agency subtitling is a type of audiovisual translation that has its own specifications, rules and criteria. Indicates the strategies used by subtitlers when confronted by these phenomena. A printed translation of foreignlanguage dialogue shown at the bottom of the screen, as in a film or a television broadcast. Introduction this paper is a preliminary work that comes from the interest aroused in subtitling as a conveying element and as cultural transfer content. There are many technical problems in subtitling such as the average reading. Im a student of translation studies and i need some information about strategies applied for translating culturebound elements. Handson exercises will include the editing of existing subtitles as well as the creation of new ones. Subtitling is also a relevant field of research because of the technical problems that are involved, many of which will be discussed later on. The limitations you have in the process of subtitling.
The nature and art of subtitling also addresses this subject with great clarity. With many years of experience and a wide range of clients, we developed a translation and subtitling process, which guarantees not only the highest accuracy and reliability, but also fast turnaround times without affecting our competitive pricing. It is the subtitlers job to spot the production and translate and write the subtitles in the foreign language required. This study investigates the problems that translators tend to face in the subtitling and dubbing of englishlanguage films and television programmes into arabic and suggests solutions for these problems. The paper employs the taxonomy designed by pedersen 2011 for culture specific item translation from english into lithuanian analyzed in the subtitles of the australian tv reality show my kitchen rules. Nedergaardlarsen on culture bound problems in subtitling. Extralinguistic culturebound reference ecr, with particular focus on subtitling. Discusses the difficulty in rendering culturespecific or languagespecific elements in film subtitled translations of dialogue. The present study investigates issues in the subtitling of humour in the american sitcom, seinfeld. Culturebound problems culturebound problems are often mentioned and described, both in literature on subtitling and on translation in general. Problems that translators face when they subtitle culturally. European languages and beyond moves in both of these directions and transcends the borders of the european languages to which the series is primarily though not exclusively addressed, to open itself up to a confrontation and reflection on other languages and cultures. Above 180wpm respondents were more likely to find the subtitles too fast, and more difficult to follow. Abstract this study investigates the problems that translators tend to face in the subtitling and dubbing of englishlanguage films and television programmes into arabic and suggests solutions for these problems.
Interlingual subtitling is a type of language transfer in which the translation, that is the subtitles, do not replace the original source text st, but rather, both are present in synchrony in the subtitled version. Ive read on the internet that the bestknown investigation was made by. A model is proposed, wherein all strategies available to the subtitler are listed. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written. The close interrelation between language and culture in interlingual subtitling may raise problems, or. Rendering culture specific items in an audiovisual format is currently one of the most topical issues in translation research.
Although the existing classifications of the culturebound words are quite numerous for example, newmark, 1988. Diaz cintas and remael 2007 use the expression culture bound terms to refer to cultural references. It is clear that translated material can be domesticated or foreignised to different extents, and hence be placed somewhere along the domesticationforeignisation continuum. The effects of substituting cultural references in subtitling. Code of good subtitling practice subtitle spotting and translation. These are retention, specification, direct translation, generalization, substitution, omission or. For a long time there was very little literature on subtitling. In the scandinavian subtitles project, some 2500 source text st ecrs of interest have been extracted, giving more than 5000 examples of translation solutions. Bibliography of subtitling and related subjects for a long. Whether you are a subtitler eager to compare notes with a colleague, a viewer curious about what goes on behind the scenes before the subtitles you need reach your living room, a student writing a thesis on some aspect of this very influential type of translation or.
Ocelot isabel comitre narvaez university of malaga 1. That file is then archived for future reformats or transcripts. It invites reflection on the connection and relationship between culture, language, subtitling and ideological transfer. The study also identifies the subtitling strategies used by arab translators to solve the technical, linguistic and cultural problems of translating humour in seinfeld, and it uncovers the. The first thing to do before exploring the world of subtitling is to understand that this type of translation belongs to subordinate translation. The process of subtitling the phases you must follow. Students will be expected to comment on their work with respect to problems and chosen solutions. Some examples of the extent of usage of dubbing and subtitling respectively. In the light of an examination of the generic features of audiovisual translation and of the particular cultural constraints inherent in. A secondary, usually explanatory title, as of a literary work. Issues and strategies of subtitling cultural references. Vlahov, florin, 1980, they are not necessarily relevant in terms of the subtitled transfer, which, however, could benefit significantly from one particular distinction.
Like the srt, this format is text based with a particular syntax. The data make it possible to explore the different stages of the subtitling process and the time spent on each task, and to compare the techniques used by subtitling trainees and professionals when they face translation problems. In addition to learning to use subtitling and other software, students will be introduced to manual techniques where appropriate. That brings about some dubbing in countries subtitling is the predominant alternative. Subtitling dubbing sweden subtitling subtitling table over the common use of subtitling and dubbing, respectively. With the movie script in hand, time codes are inserted and the dialogues are given to our translators who create perfect translated dialogues in accordance with the culture of the target language people successfully localizing the content as much as possible.
The quality of live subtitling improving the viewer experience 1 section 1. Subtitling, as all other types of audiovisual translation, has always been influenced by cultural factors, and in turn subtitles have influenced their target readers. Subtitlers must always work with a copy of the production and, if possible, a dialogue list and glossary of atypical words and special references. Using process methods to study subtitling david orregocarmona1, lukasz stanislaw dutka2, agnieszka szarkowska2 1 university of the free state, south africa 2 institute of applied linguistics, university of warsaw first south african interuniversity translation and interpreting conference. Issues of culture specific item translation in subtitling.