cover

COVER

Intermedia 2007

Intermedia 2007 Conference proceedings Edited by Łukasz Bogucki & Krzysztof Kredens

Peter Lang – information regarding the publishing house.

CONTENTS Introduction......................................................................................................... 9 Erik Skuggevik Typological threesome: subtitling, interpretation and voice-over. A study of symbiotic translation types.................................................................................. 11 Laura Puigdomènech, Anna Matamala and Pilar Orero Audio description of films: state of the art and protocol proposal...................... 25 Pierfranca Forchini “Well, uh no. I mean, you know…” Discourse markers in movie conversation........................................................................................................ 45 Silvia Bruti and Elisa Perego Audiovisual genre and the translation of vocatives in interlingual subtitles...... 61 Agnieszka Szarkowska Why are some vocatives not omitted in subtitling? A study based on three selected Polish soaps broadcast on TV Polonia.................................................. 77 Teresa Tomaszkiewicz Areas of untranslatability in audiovisual transfers.............................................. 93 Soledad Zárate Subtitling for deaf children................................................................................. 107 Josélia Neves Music to my eyes... Conveying music in subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing................................................................................................................. 123 Laura Cruz García and Víctor Manuel González Ruiz The Dubbing of TV Advertisements in the Context of Standardised Marketing Strategies........................................................................................... 145 Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin Explicitation of the translation process in translators’ training through production of interlingual subtitles..................................................................... 161

Jonathan Burton The joy of opera: the art and craft of opera subtitling and surtitling.................. 177 Marta Dynel First things first: Problems and strategies in the translation of film titles.......... 187

INTRODUCTION Audiovisual translation is enjoying its heyday at the moment. Numerous monographs and special issues of journals are being supplemented with conferences devoted exclusively to the booming area. It seems, though, that not even that is enough to satisfy the virtually insatiable demands of academics, practitioners, teachers and students of AVT. Translation can no longer be defined as merely rendering a text into another language. What with the rising importance of such notions as for instance intertextuality and localisation, the latter now practically synonymous with translation, the traditional definition needs a thorough revision. AVT, as a relatively recent phenomenon, is a paragon of a novel approach to translating, going beyond the text and making frequent use of technological advances. Such practices as audio description and live subtitling have received little academic attention to date, as they are a product of the 21st century. The Chair of English Language and Applied Linguistics (formerly the Chair of English Language) at Lodz University has had a long tradition of organising translation conferences like the internationally renowned Maastricht - Lodz Duo Colloquium held since 1990, but it was the founding of the Department of Translation Theory and Practice, part of the aforementioned Chair, that has resulted in proliferation of translation events that are now held each year. The first in the series was the Intermedia conference, devoted to aspects of audiovisual translation and conference interpreting, held on April 13-14, 2007, in response to the growing interest in the area and lack of relevant events in Poland. The present volume contains nine papers delivered at that conference and one (by Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin) read at a workshop devoted to teaching translation and interpreting (Łódź, April 4, 2008). There are also two invited contributions, a joint paper by Laura Cruz Garcia and Victor Manuel González and an article by Joselia Neves. The latter, as well as the contribution by Soledad Zarate, represent the area of subtitling for the deaf and hard-of hearing, the former tackling the testing task of conveying music in subtitles, the latter discussing subtitling for deaf children. It should be noted that discussions on this type of intralingual translation are of particular interest, as SDH is not very well known in certain areas of Europe, to name Poland. Interlingual subtitles are discussed by Silvia Bruti and Elisa Perego of Milan as well as Agnieszka Szarkowska from Warsaw; both speakers embark on the problem of translating vocatives. The paper by Pierfranca Forchini (University of Pavia) refers to film dialogues, particularly to discourse markers and their rendition. Jonathan Burton, surtitler at the Royal Opera House in London, discusses opera subtitling and surtitling, a somewhat niche, but profoundly interesting area. Teresa Tomaszkiewicz, based in Poznań, one of the founders of audiovisual translation theory, talks about the ever nagging problem of untranslatability in AVT. Erik Skuggevik of Surrey, UK, discusses a

technique of audiovisual transfer often associated with Poland, viz. voice-over, comparing it to subtitling and, rather interestingly, interpreting. Laura Puigdomènech, Anna Matamala and Pilar Orero (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) discuss a new, but already quite popular type of intralingual translation, catering for the needs of the visually impaired, viz. audio description. The contribution by Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin from the National University of Ireland at Galway tackles interlingual subtitles from the perspective of translation process and translation training. Marta Dynel embarks on the always controversial issue of translating (or very frequently adapting) film titles, discussing strategies and techniques used by translators. Laura Cruz García and Víctor Manuel González Ruiz (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) discuss the dubbing of TV advertisements in the context of standardised marketing strategies Thanks are due to Professor Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Head of the Chair of English Language and Applied Linguistics, for her immense help with both conferences and the present volume. Michał Kornacki, the technical editor, has put in a lot of effort into preparing the volume. Most importantly, however, all the contributors ought to be given credit for their valuable and relevant work. It is hoped that this selection of contributions by academics and practitioners from six European countries will be a significant insight into the current status of the theory and practice of audiovisual transfer. Łukasz Bogucki Krzysztof Kredens Łódź/Birmingham 2009

Erik Skuggevik University of Oslo Norway A TYPOLOGICAL THREESOME: SUBTITLING, INTERPRETATION AND VOICE-OVER. A STUDY OF SYMBIOTIC TRANSLATION TYPES 1. Introduction It is my aim in this paper to present an outline of how subtitling and interpreting, based on my experience with both, have large areas of overlap in technique and function, and that they in fact share so many characteristics that a practitioner of one will find it easier than most to become proficient at the other 1 . Added to these two, the AVT system of the voice-over lektor, consisting of the voice of one person overlaying the toned down soundtrack of the actors on screen, the predominant translation practice on Polish TV, also share the core characteristics of the two formats above. My argument is that these three translation formats are in essence three of a kind when compared to other non-traditional translation practices: all three superimpose their translation on their source text more or less directly, they coexist with the ‘performance’ of that source text, and they are formulated specifically to accommodate it. All these formats also develop in their practitioners an editorial skill that in effect becomes a transferable skill. To get to grips with these issues, it is necessary to clear some analytical space that will facilitate a discussion of these and other multimodal translation formats without the need to compare them with the more traditional paradigms in translation studies, which for the purposes of this essay are little a too restrictive.

1

At the conference in Łodz in 2007, the content of this paper was suggested by its former title; “Double Trouble – shared problems of subtitling and interpreting”. I was aware of the voice-over translation of films performed by the lektor, but in my presentation, based on my largely Scandinavian and British background, only cautious mention was to have been made of this translation type. However, as a direct consequence of exposure to such translation whilst in Poland and since, this essay is written to a wider remit, and its title is somewhat less snappy. Yet the loss of a snappier title is but a small price to pay for the benefits of conferences like Intermedia where scholars and practitioners meet to share and learn from their different experiences.

12

Erik Skuggevik

2. Symbiotic vs. Complete translation A translated text can be translational in its entirety, like most “traditional” translation: literature, poetry, drama, news, legal texts, product descriptions, etc., sometimes referred to as ‘paper translation’ although there is no intrinsic need for paper to be involved of course. These modes are unified, for our purposes, in that as translation they constitute an entire product, and in theory there is a full ST > TT substitution taking place. This means that you may look at a foreign text and if you don’t understand the linguistic code you will have nothing to go on in order to make any inferences as to its message, bar the most general of observations that something might look like a poem, a newspaper report or maybe an academic article. Here we are proposing that there is a field of translation consisting of texts, ranging from technical to artistic translations, that simply have the one thing in common that they are in themselves a complete translation product. The communication model we can use to illustrate this is as basic as they come: ST --------------- [Translator] -------------> TT One can, of course, elaborate on the conditions, priorities, functions and choices that govern translation of these types, and for that there is a long tradition, but in this essay we shall focus on translation that does not make up the entire product. In opposition to the “traditional”, Complete translation type, we may establish that there is an area of translation only partially verbal, which – borrowing from biology – we shall label Symbiotic translation 2 , a fairly wide group that includes all sorts of interesting products that are not included in the category above: Court interpreting Dubbing Opera surtitling Signing for HH Songs

Conference interpreting Voice over Adverts Audiodescription

Cartoon translation Subtitling Graphic stories Video games

All of these formats incorporate communication which is non-verbal as well as verbal, i.e. they can be understood or experienced in some respects even without the language skills needed to comprehend the words. The translations listed above also represent every type of Jakobson’s (1959) tripartite division; 2

The term is chosen for two reasons: Partial translation would risk sounding like incomplete translation, and symbiosis is a relationship which stresses the co-dependent nature of the components.

A typological threesome: Subtitling, Interpretation, Voice-over...

13

intralinguistic, interlinguistic and intersemiotic translation. What these translation activities specifically have in common is that part of the context informing the translation is located outside the translated channel, but still within the product as a whole. Many theoreticians talk about extralinguistic context of course, but discussions are usually focused on a social or political perspective, such as readership questions, geographical or historical lacunas, cultural differences and so on, and these issues apply to all translation, symbiotic types included. As an extension of the simplistic model of Complete translation above, the model for Symbiotic translation, in comparison, might look something like this: ST words --------------[ Translator ]-------------> TT words ST image -----------------------------------------> TT image ST sounds ------------------------------------> TT sounds ST objects ------------------------------> TT objects music, costume, colours, etc. illustrating that communication would still be taking place even without a translator to bridge the linguistic code. A song communicates through music even if you don’t understand the lyrics; a film communicates even if you don’t understand the words or even if you don’t see the picture; opera communicates without translation, a delegate or witness still communicates something through voice and body even without interpretation, a cartoon strip may still give you a comic effect without the meaning of the words, an advert may still have a message even if you don’t get the verbal detail. The idea that audiovisual translation should be treated separately from “traditional” translation is of course not new. Frederic Chaume Varela observes that audiovisual texts are “a distinct genre, different from other genres such as cooking recipes, technical manuals and novels.” (1997: 316). A reluctance to work within existing translation models have led to similar disgruntled observations from other writers on AVT, like Patrick Zabalbeascoa: ...the interlingual type has been regarded as “translation proper”, and hence studies in the field of translation concentrated on monolingual messages and how they should best be rendered into different, supposedly monodialectal, languages to make up a 100% verbal message. Most models of translation are based on this premise. […] Such an approach not only seems to exclude texts that are not purely monolingual, it also implies a view of language that usually only takes verbal signs into consideration” (1997: 328)

We may observe, self-evidently at this stage, that interpreting, subtitling and voice-over have at least one thing in common; they are all examples of what we have termed symbiotic translation. But the intersemiotic exchange that takes

14

Erik Skuggevik

place between different channels opens up for a number of subdivisions capable of differentiating between different forms of symbiotic translation. The first of these is performance. 3. Performance and word in translation What is performance in translation? For the purposes of this essay we are using the term as a subcategory of symbiotic translation, and exclude, for example, the translation of drama, where all the information the translator gets is actually solely based on the words of the original (even if the finished product might well be performed). Performance as a translational term presupposes a recognition that words and performance are two different things. In all audiovisual translation this separation is temporal and the new TT interacts with—at least parts of—the old ST. Lukasz Bogucki, as well as also referring to the shortcomings of traditional translation models, hints at this “performance” when he refers to a filmic “metacoherence”: Thus the concept of text analysis in translation is only partially applicable here. […] One could perhaps speak of “meta-coherence”, that is to say the feature of film dialogue that makes it clear and understandable when coupled with other elements of the filmic message. (2004: 110)

Other writers have underlined similar relationships between the word and its wider context, both oral as well as visual. 4. Accommodating or substituting performance? A translator working on a dubbing script—who may or may not be the person who voices it—will choose sounds, words and content based on the possibilities provided by the original actors’ lip movements, body language, voice intensity, facial expressions etc. In this sense the dubbing translator aims to formulate a translation that can imitate the original’s lip movements and replace core parts of its actual vocal delivery. Given that a dubbed film consists of actors performing the translated voices, the notion of performance is an easy one to associate with this type of translation. Yet performance need not be substituted or imitated to define the translation job, performance can also be accommodated, which is to say that a translation can be governed by its SL performance, without replacing it. In translational terms, performance can be either replicated or accommodated.


15

The three formats we are studying share the same relationship to their (composite) ST, in that all three disconnect the semantic content from the way it is actually delivered. 5. Accommodating performance in voice-over The voice-over discussed in this article is of the type performed by a person referred to as a lektor in Poland, and it is a form of audiovisual translation unfamiliar to most Western translation students and practitioners. Annalisa Sandrelli is quoted by Henrik Gottlieb in “Danish voices, Lithuanian voice-over” (2003), as offering a succinct definition of the voice-over artist’s work: A revoicing technique in which a translation is laid over the barely audible original. The original sound is often heard at the beginning and end of speech, so that the translation will have to be slightly shorter than the original. It is often used in Eastern Europe as a form of dubbing, because it is considerably cheaper than dubbing proper. (p.75)

However, rather than a form of dubbing, I shall argue the this type of voice-over is instead typologically closer to subtitling, overlaying information in a very similar manner. Although it is voiced, it is quite unlike dubbing since it does in fact not aim in the slightest to imitate the performance of the actors. Gottlieb, possibly because he is referring to a specific Lithuanian example in his essay, terms this activity as non-synchronous and relatively unconstrained (2003: 77), yet based on the definition of Sandrelli above, and certainly the practice on Polish television and two feature films studied 3 , it strikes me as very synchronous, and also very constrained, squashed as the lektor’s voice is inside the utterance of the actors, even more so than subtitling. Semiotically the lektor’s revoicing is interesting because, out of the three formats we are looking at, it is the one which the most embodies a separation of the two elements of speech mentioned above; word and performance. Gottlieb rightly stresses the skill required in the delivery of the lektor’s translation, but possibly hits a wrong note when he emphasises the risks associated with a disengaged delivery – “a far cry from the lively intonation used in the most trivial dubbing – the translation as such runs the risk of loosening itself too much from the original dialogue.” (2003: 77-78) No doubt this is a risk, but it is also precisely where the lector’s voice-over must exist, in the dry, “professionalised” tone of voice, pleasant like a children’s story teller, involved but not engaged. He (a woman lektor is virtually unheard of in Poland!) embodies the separation 3

Observations are based on several programmes on Polish TV in April 2007, and on Polish video releases of Pearl Harbor (Touchstone Pictures, 2001) and Gladiator (Universal, 2000).

16

Erik Skuggevik

of performance on the one hand, which is left to be conveyed by the voices and tonal qualities of the film’s original actors, and on the other hand the words which are translated and delivered as unobtrusively as possible by the lektor, both to be experienced in conjunction; translated words with original performance. For that reason it would be misleading to imply that there is an “absence” of performance in the lektor’s job; it is absolutely necessary for the format to work at all that performance is accommodated rather than substituted. The aim is for there to be as little as possible to distract from the way the characters in the film are audibly whispering, shouting, crying or plotting. The viewer/listener is supposed to seamlessly reattach the two when watching the translated film. The dispassionate voice of the lektor in this respect has a parallel in the audio-describer, who must adopt a similar relationship to their subject matter. 6. Accommodating performance in subtitling Contrary to what some scholars outside the field of AVT suppose, 4 a subtitle never replaces the original, even when the original language is entirely incomprehensible to the target audience. As one of my students observed in an essay, elegantly putting the cart before the horse: “many subtitles could be misunderstood without the movie.” If you are watching a foreign movie, the fact is that a translation like “What have you done?” only tells you so much. Coupled with a furious face and an angry voice, the subtitle takes on a more precise meaning, or rather the translation accommodates the performance. The subtitler’s skill hinges at times on an ability to incorporate this on-screen performance and give the audience a symbiotic clarification, maybe to solve a reading-speed problem; by simplifying the verbal component and translating “Are you stupid?” thereby foregrounding the furious man’s delivery and intention. The effect might be the same on the viewer just marginally quicker to comprehend. The writing on the screen both borrows from, and yields to, the messages conveyed by these extra-verbal channels. The fact is that subtitles must be designed to sit comfortably alongside the performance of the actors and also coexist with other emotional effect; music, tempo or visual messages. Subtitles, by being placed on top of the film, should accommodate this performance, and not seek to replace it.

4

For inspiring discussions, yet slightly at odds with more hands-on AVT experience, see Douglas Robinson (1991: 157-159) or Anthony Pym (1992: 67-82)


17

7. Accommodating performance in interpreting Interpretation, in a similar fashion, also accommodates performance, in fact it too should only accommodate and nothing more. You would not expect a court or liaison interpreter to re-enact the delivery of the original, by rendering a translation accompanied by shouting, gesticulating, raised pitch, angry looks and emphatic body language, in an attempt to mirror the speaker. (That a certain ‘acting out’ takes place by booth interpreters not visible to their clients (Viaggio, 1997: 290), is another matter). It is in fact the interpreter’s job to stick to the referential content of any witness he or she interprets, the audience, jury or judge, are expected to recombine the interpreter’s content with the witness’ performance. As with the lektor and subtitler above, the aim is to produce a unity between translated words and the concomitant original performance. 8. Similarities and differences All three formats above accommodate performance in a very similar way and only add a new verbal element, as opposed to, most obviously, dubbing which substitutes both words and oral performance. A incomplete table of how performance would relate to different translation formats, might look like this: Accommodating Substituting performance performance Dubbing X Subtitling X Lektor voice-over X Interpretation X Cartoons * (X) (X) Audiodescription * (X) (X) SDHH * (X) (X) The bottom three need a short note. For a hearing audience SDHH (subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing), and for a seeing audience audiodescription, are additive, but for their intended audiences they are of course not, and therefore they substitute, not all, but elements of performance. Cartoons operate with an illusion of temporality and performance which are accommodated in translation, but the translation also substitutes a graphic performance when it mimics writing style, diacritics, symbols, letter sizes, etc.

18

Erik Skuggevik

9. Condensation and foregrounding Non-symbiotic (complete) translation formats may at times produce condensation, e.g. when a play or story is shortened in translation or when a news story is summarised. However, these decisions to condense are not required by the format per se, but by editorial decisions based on economic, temporal or political considerations. Only a very few translation formats depend on condensation. Interpreting and subtitling are in practice two of them, and as referred to in the definition by Sandrelli above, voice-over also produces shorter versions, allowing the original dialogue some “head and tail” either side of the voice-over translation. Subtitling simply cannot transfer an equivalent volume of speech into writing at times, it would be an impossibility to read a full transcript of the spoken text without also abandoning the activity of actually watching the film, and many writers have discussed the predominance of this characteristic, (Gottlieb (2003:140), Lomheim (1999), Ivarson (1998)), and an interesting analysis of various textual reduction strategies are included in Remael (2003). The interpreter will likewise, due to information overload, repetition, speed and need for clarity, be forced to condense, and in the process to foreground specific information relevant to the remit of the interpreting situation. 10. Editorial talent It is interesting that even very competent general translators are sometimes incapable of writing good subtitles. I know of several who have tried, and given up, voluntarily or more embarrassingly through work-drought. Which must indicate that translation skills are not the only talents needed in subtitling, or indeed interpreting and voice-over translation. The need for condensation wreaks havoc with one’s sense of aesthetics if one is used to translating more literary texts, and the overall pragmatic considerations for the viewer’s attention and focus during the watching of a film, requires a shrewd editorial head for telling the story despite a reduced linguistic volume. As soon as there is an external need to reduce content, then the translator has to engage in an editing process. The issues become pressing of what elements to foreground and which ones to leave out or down-play. In the high octane environment of interpreting, editorial decisions are taken continually, and the visibility of the speaker, and if possible the audience too, are crucial ingredients in this process. Sergio Viaggio, a conference interpreter of 30 years, stresses the importance of the interpreter having access to as much extralinguistic information as possible in this editorial process:


19

[…] even when full verbalization poses no major problem at either the comprehension or elocution side of the interpreter’s task, the speaker’s kinesics allows for a greater economy of delivery in the booth: More often than most interpreters realize, the speaker’s body language has made his own words—and therefore the interpreter’s—redundant. (1997: 287)

Condensation leads, by definition, to reduced volume, but in conjunction with non-verbal information, this may not necessarily lead to reduced information load. This inequality of volume can in fact, albeit not without challenges, be incorporated into an equivalence that is relative, and Anthony Pym (1992:69,76) discusses the possibility of a translational equivalence that is asymmetric yet functionally complete; interesting avenues in audiovisual translation theories and interpreting studies. In my experience the types of editorial skills called for, and honed, in these translation activities share more than a general similarity, they are in fact closely related, both in function and technique. Editorial skills I developed as a subtitler have benefited have benefited my interpreting skills. I would also venture to guess that, compared to an average desk translator, an experienced lektor would fare a great deal better if thrown in at the deep end of an interpreting job, having already honed the skills of condensation and fast prioritising of information. 11. Simultaneity This notion is something that only comes up in translation of multisemiotic texts, given the frequent temporal aspect involved. Subtitling, interpreting and voice-over share similarities here too. In interpreting, even in the confidently named “simultaneous interpreting”, the real translation takes place, as it must, with a time lag to allow the translator to process the information and produce the translation. However, an interpretation situation relies on the assumption that the audience are supposed to match the two up again; the delivery of an utterance is held in the short term memory of the listener to be combined with the information the interpreter gives a few seconds later. In that sense, even if there is no strict synchronicity, there is a feeling of simultaneity despite the time lag. Even if interpreting cannot be simultaneous— it would then be voice-over—it is all the same experienced as such. The lektor is not 100% simultaneous either, chiefly by letting the actor start to speak, then speaking on top of him/her, only to finish a little before the character finishes, at least if the utterance lasts for a couple of seconds or more. In this way the link is made very obvious that the translation is only an aid, the actor is accredited with the real content and is responsible for the dramatic

20

Erik Skuggevik

delivery. Simultaneity is also delayed when there is only a very short phrase spoken, then the lektor in fact delivers his line after the original is finished. Contrary to the Polish practice discussed here, Gottlieb (2003: 81-82) describes Lithuanian voice-over practices that overshoot the original considerably, but it is not obvious whether this method was desirable, or typical of its genre in Lithuania. Subtitles are not entirely simultaneous, but perhaps most out of the three, since the written translation is presented to coincide with the spoken information, and it is up to the viewer to match the two. Subtitles will of course also frequently dwell for a little longer on screen to allow the audience to read at normal speed. All the same, these three formats have as their core function the experience of simultaneity. Even when there is a time lag between the original and the translated version, the translation is formulated to be interpreted in tandem with the original. 12. Other symbiotic translation formats It may be useful to indicate how the notions we are describing, can be applied to some other symbiotic translation types, in addition to the brief remarks made already. Discussions on simultaneity in dubbing usually refer to it in terms of synchronicity, and obviously goes into much greater detail on the micro-level of simultaneity connected to lip-synch dubbing. Other translation formats that display simultaneity are songs and TV-advertising in particular, in all three cases by substituting the original. In audiodescription, simultaneity is desirable, but often compromised by available narrative slots. In so far as requiring editorial skills, audiodescription does not in the traditional sense condense information, but it still has to prioritise it due to the shortage of available slots into which to fit the descriptions. In terms of performance, audiodescription incorporates it to a much lesser extent than the other formats. Visual elements are selected and described for a visually impaired audience and become juxtaposed with other aural communication, yet not primarily for its performative symbiosis, but determined by access to “aural space” in which to fit the extra information. Yet audiodescription is not without the accommodation of performance; for instance the sound of shattering glass may be unintelligible to a non-seeing audience until it is preceded by the information “John picks up a large vase.” Subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, often allows for a greater slack in respect to the precise matching of subtitle to speech, which may or may not be an editorial choice, but often comes about because of different requirements for people who are not dependent on matching audible information to written words, and who may also read more slowly. SDHH will to a greater


21

extent than standard interlingual subtitling also translate aural features, for instance by writing sounds and other explanations “(Gunshots in the distance)”, and using capitals, parenthesis and arrows. At times coloured letters are also used to reflect different voices. These can all be interpreted as substituting aspects of performance. Surtitling for opera is in principle analogues to subtitling, with the extra problems of dealing with live performances, where changes can occur, props may go missing that are referred to in the surtitle, nor is the simultaneity preprogrammed like in a film, but manually managed by surtitle operators during a show. What about comics? Does the translation of these depend on any notions of performance, simultaneity or condensation? In this case the performance is actually represented graphically, and a translation has to accommodate it because the “Performance” communicates some information even when you don’t understand the verbal code. pictures make certain associative demands of the translation to tap into specific registers and expressions that are appropriate to how we interpret the characters and their emotions. The notion of simultaneity in comics is akin to that in interpretation and subtitling. We combine speech bubble, expression and reaction, e.g. in the Nemi cartoon above, as one performative situation, no matter the order of reading it. 13. Conclusion The various paradigms used to evaluate the symbiotic translation examples in this article, are based on a combination of strategies from other disciplines, and as such they do not form a coherent whole. However, the setting aside of a field of study that in category is different from all other “traditional” translation, may well be a liberating move for the analysis of audiovisual translation, and other related disciplines. The models used in translation studies at large are not always appropriate to the multimodal media products that require translation these days. It is possible to see that the three translation products discussed here are in fact similar once they are compared as part of a symbiotic translation field. I believe that performance is a dimension that has a bearing on all symbiotic translation, as has other forms of complementarity. Temporality (simultaneity in this essay) is another factor that determines differences in this field, and condensation unifies all of the three practices we have looked at.

22

Erik Skuggevik

In this essay we have not looked at other symbiotic parameters, yet we could have: implicitation is a core concept in the “off-loading” of verbal content into existing non-verbal content in a film; covert vs. overt translation separates dubbing, cartoons, adverts, songs and video-games from other types; prosodic features like rhythm or rhyme could have been analysed for their translational value in transferring performance to text; metaphoric and metonymic types of condensation could have been exemplified, etc. Yet, practices as different as audio description, signing, sur- and subtitling, video-games and dubbing, as well as the translation of song lyrics, all share considerations that unify them much more closely than if one insists on comparing them analytically to books or other written texts. The study of these exiting translation areas need some new doors opened, and contributions treating this area as a separate field of translation theory will be more than welcome. References Bogucki, Ł. (2004). A Relevance Framework for Constraints on Cinema Subtitling. Łodź, University of Łodź Chaume Varela, F. (1997). “Translating Nonverbal Communication in Dubbing”. In: Poyatos Gottlieb, H. (2003). Screen Translation – Six studies in subtitling, dubbing and voice-over (3rd ed.). Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities University of Copenhagen Ivarson, J. and M. Carroll (1998). Subtitling. Simrishamn, TransEdit Jakobson, R. (1959). “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation”. In Venuti, L. (2004) The Translation Studies Reader (2nd ed.). New York and London, Routledge Jakobson, R. (1959). “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” In Venuti, L. (2004) The Translation Studies Reader (2nd ed.). New York and London, Routledge Poyatos, F. (ed.) (1997). Nonverbal Communication and Translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company Pym, A. (1992). Translation and Text Transfer. Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang Remael, A. (2003). “Mainstream Narrative Film Dialogue and Subtitling”. In Gambier, Y., Screen Translation, special issue of The Translator. Vol. 9:2, Manchester, St. Jerome Publishing Robinson, D. (1991). The Translator’s Turn. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press Viaggio, S. (1997). “Kinesics and the Simultaneous Interpreter”. In Poyatos Zabalbeascoa, P. (1997). “Dubbing and the nonverbal dimension of translation”. In Poyatos


23

Cartoon reproduced by permission: Nemi (c) Lise Myhre, distr. Strand Comics, Oslo, Norway.

24

Erik Skuggevik

Laura Puigdomènech, Anna Matamala and Pilar Orero 1 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Spain AUDIO DESCRIPTION OF FILMS: STATE OF THE ART AND PROTOCOL PROPOSAL In the new Ofcom guidelines (2006) on the provision of television access services, audio description is defined as “a service primarily aimed at enhancing meaning and enjoyment of television services for blind or partially sighted viewers. It comprises a commentary woven around the soundtrack, exploiting pauses to explain on-screen action, describe characters, locations, costumes, body language and facial expressions.” This latest guideline, as with most of the existing guidelines, may be considered as a draft since they all share the wish to standardize and advise in the process of writing an AD, though they still remain vague leaving much to personal decision and taste. This type of intersemiotic transfer is the object of study in this article, where we analyze some of the many existing AD guidelines for films. After the comparative work, we shall focus on the areas which will need further research giving rise to a proposed protocol or guidelines which may be useful for future research and work. 1. Introduction Spain is to date the only country in the world which has a written standard for audio description (AENOR 2005). While countries such as the US or UK have enjoyed Broadcasting Acts 2 which have enforced the inclusion of subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, sign language, and audio description for many years now, none of them have a standard guideline which must be observed. They only have recommendations such as ITC (2000) from Ofcom in the UK 3 , which serves as “guidance as to the how digital programme services should promote the understanding and enjoyment of programmes by sensory impaired people including those who are blind and partially-sighted”. If we look at the Spanish law – Ley General del Audiovisual – which is supposed to regulate media accessibility implementation, we find it does not have any sanctioning power. Nevertheless, the 1

The research and work of this paper has been carried out thanks to the Batista Roca scholarship (2006PBR10023) awarded by the Catalan Government to the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). 2 Go to http://tinyurl.com/laejdw [14/3/2007] for the whole text of the UK Broadcasting Act. 3 For the text go to http://tinyurl.com/lqj2w9 [14/3/2007].

26

Laura Puigdomènech, Anna Matamala and Pilar Orero

mere fact that the Spanish government – and a good number of people – formed a working group to draft some guidelines and passed a national Standard is an important social achievement and a step forward for media accessibility and social integration in a country where people with sight problems have been enjoying a segregation promoted in part by some of its own users association. The draft of the Spanish Standard UNE did not have any academic nor scientific basis, and its content does not help when writing an audio description (Orero 2005 C, Orero and Wharton 2007). With the experience of having to write an AD script and the lax information offered by the Spanish Standard, it has been thought convenient to start a research project which aims at creating an AD protocol for Catalonia, which is the geographical area where we are based and where we have obtained funding. 4 The first steps in the study and the approach to drafting the Catalan protocol are the two issues which will be discussed in this article. 2. Reception of film AD Before entering into a more detailed analysis of the different existing guidelines for AD, one of the issues which should be taken into consideration are the two different modalities of AD: live AD and recorded AD. 2.1. Live Audio Description of Films Though live audio description of films is not a common occurrence, we should take into consideration this possibility (Matamala 2005 and Orero 2006). If the describer had time to prepare the AD, the process of writing and preparing the AD does not change from the work entailed in a recorded AD because in both cases the describer will work from a videotaped or digital copy of the film. The only difference residing in the delivery: the describer (or an independent voiceartist) will read aloud the AD. Nevertheless, reality always beats fiction and the fact is that in the few live representations we have witnessed, the main challenge is to get the timing right. The describer is in the dark cinema and the screen has no time code to be able to follow the annotated descriptions. Hence the voice-artist or describer relies on memory to read aloud the script, and is not given a second chance to achieve synchronisation. If the describer has never seen the film and has to provide an AD live and for the whole audience, the process of creating an AD is similar to the AD of live events with no previous planning (Matamala, forthcoming a), with the risk of the 4

A state of the art of AD in Catalonia can be found in Matamala (forthcoming b)

Audio description of Films: State of the Art and a Protocol Proposal

27

AD treading on some dialogues, and some instances of possible places where an AD could have been delivered but nothing is said: the thrill of live performances. Luckily, films are usually available beforehand and the describer rarely has to confront situations such as the aforementioned. 2.2. Recorded AD of films This will be the normal process of creating an AD and the one we shall focus in this article and in the protocol. This is the situation where the client needs the script of an AD and one or several describers set up to work on it. Once the written script is finished, and depending on the tradition of each country, either the describer himself or a voice artist reads the AD in the silent slots available and the technicians make the final adjustments so as to deliver a finished and recorded product to be included in a DVD, to be broadcast on television or shown in cinemas. 3. Only one? One of the first features we have found in most AD guidelines is that they only take into consideration AD for films, or that little attention has been taken on other forms of AD (opera, live events, ballet, etc.). To put one example of a different type of material to be audio described let’s think of an extreme case such as the AD of an abstract painting, i.e. Rothko’s abstract expressionist (Gratacós 2006, De Coster and Volkmar forthcoming) picture no. 317

Figure 1. Mark Rothko 317

When we are faced with such image, how can it be AD? Should emotions be AD? Is there a certain protocol such as: frame, dimensions, technique, etc.?

28


We believe (Puigdomènech, Matamala and Orero 2007) there can be a general AD protocol with very basic guidelines such as the use of verb tenses or not saying “we see”, but we think that different protocols should be drafted since it is not the same to AD a Picasso painting hung at the Tate, as a Cirque du Soleil representation or Woody Allen’s latest movie. At this early stage of the research we feel that it may be possible to have at least three separate AD protocols, grouped under a general umbrella: − Scenic arts such as theatre, opera, circus, ballet, etc., which are generally performed live, although they can be later broadcast on television. − Films and TV programmes, included in broadcast media such as television, cinema, DVD, which are generally recorded. − Museums and galleries, parks and heritage sites, which contemplats art: abstract and figurative (painting, sculpture, photography, videos, etc.) 4. The most representative guidelines For our research we have gathered four European guidelines: the Spanish Standard; “Audio description for recorded TV; Cinema and DVD Experimental Stylesheet” by Aline Remael (2005); Independent Television Commission (ITC) Guidance on Standards for Audio Description (2000), and Bernd Benecke 5 and Elmar Dosch’s Wenn aus Bildern Worte werden. Durch Audio-Description zum Hörfilm (2004). The choice of these four European ADs is made with the hope that in the near future a common European protocol will be a reality, fostering the exchange of works which have followed common guidelines within the European audiovisual and broadcasting industries. Let’s summarise the main points of each of the previous guidelines. 4.1 The Spanish Standard The Spanish Standard is divided in to three sections: the first looks at the object of the standard and its field of application, such as the many programmes offered on TV or recorded in any format, mentioning the possibility of offering AD for museums, exhibitions, natural parks, etc.; the second part provides definitions of the terms which are related to the production of an AD; and it is in the third section where we find the guidelines for the process of creating an AD and the task of the voice talent is described. In our opinion, the text of the Spanish Standard lacks clarity, and the guidelines are far too general to be of any use. 5

Special thanks to Bernd Benecke for his help and assistance with the translation and comments of his guidelines.


29

4.2. Remael’s proposal This short guideline from Belgium deals –along with the next two guidelines- with films, and TV series’. It has been drafted as a starting point to be used by students when learning to write ADs and its main difference from other guidelines is the section: “Important constitutive elements of the film storystructure”. 4.3. ITC Guidance The British guideline is drafted for films and TV, differentiating the many genres found within TV. Many real life examples are offered, with detailed analysis of ADs, and it includes five sections: − Introduction: the basis for the drafting of the guideline is explained and a short history of AD and the audience for which it’s aimed is also given. − Preparation of script: where the process of a script of an AD writing is explained. − Principles of AD: different linguistic features are explained such as use of present tense, use of adverbs, correct use of names and pronouns and the adjectival descriptions. − Programmes: it presents twelve types of broadcasting possibilities and it describes the main features for each type. − Broadcasting and copyrights for AD. 4.4. The German guidelines The German guide looks at film and TV series. It develops the following issues: what to AD, how much to AD, how to describe the first AD (short period of time for too much information: characters, plot, credits, etc.), how to name the characters, the language to be used, guidelines for the voice artist. The guideline finishes by saying that there seems to be no film which may not lend itself to be AD.

30


5. The thorny issues Analysing the guidelines and putting them into practice when describing some films we have met the following issues where we think more research will be needed: 6 5.1. Vocabulary Though all the guidelines touch upon this issue, when looking at them in detail we find some unresolved areas. According to the Spanish Standard AD (AENOR 2005: 7) the recommendation regarding vocabulary is “The describer has to consult the documentation regarding the work to be AD and the theme which is described, so it is guaranteed that adequate vocabulary is used” 7 . This means that a similar vocabulary and expressions to those used in the film should be used, which as a consequence implies that that if we are watching a film by Quentin Tarantino where swearing and slang is readily available the AD should also follow that style. However, common sense says that the use of such marked vocabulary should be avoided, which was confirmed in some of the abovementioned guidelines. Remael, for example, recommends that “the language should not draw attention to itself”, whereas Benecke and Dosch’s section “What words do I use to describe?” (2004: 24), which deals with vocabulary, style and terminology, says 8 that the vocabulary chosen should match the tone of the film and that you have to avoid a formal, written language as this hinders a lively description following the motion and action of the movie. However, no mention is made to the use of slang or dialects, though after a personal email consultation Benecke mentioned “We normally do not use slang or dialects but you will for example find more comic-style-language in a comedy (A Fish called Wanda, Chicken Run) and we sometimes use regional expressions like the south German “Bub” instead of “Junge” – both for boy – in films which take place in Bavaria or Austria.” The English ITC guidelines when dealing with sex or violence scenes (2000: 33, 34) recommends: “Describing sexually explicit material has to be sensitively handled. […] The describer has to convey the atmosphere and the feeling without descending into crudeness, clinical coldness or undue 6

An initial version of these issues can be found in Orero and Wharton (2007), an article on the AD of the Spanish film Torrente. 7 El audiodescriptor debe consultar la documentación referente al entorno y la temática de la obra que se describe, de forma que se garantice la utilización del vocabulario adecuado. All translations from the Spanish Norm are our own. 8 Die Sprache bzw. die Wortwahl der Beschreibung muss natürlich dem Ton des Films angemessen sein. Das Schriftdeutsch ist meist wenig hilfreich, Film bedeutet Bewegung und wirkliches Leben. Jeder Text, der zu formal oder zu trocken ist, behindert da.


31

sentimentality. […] Scenes of violence require the same level of sensitive consideration.” ITC gives the example given in The Silence of Lambs: Lieutenant Boyle hangs crucified on the cage bars, his stomach cut open, his insides removed

Which can be compared to Torrente 3 when the character goes to his grandmother’s house, and enters through a corridor with no electric light holding a lighter saying: - Fuck, this is greatly improved thanks to the PP, ha, ha, Christ. I’ve just trod in a puddle. Or a rat. Fucking hell… 9

In fact, in this scene “the images are gruesome enough without verbal embellishment” (ITC 2000: 33) so we have agreed that in the new Catalan protocol the vocabulary used for the AD should not be part of the film. This is a key point since the language of AD should be a neutral discourse written to be read aloud and narrated, rather than a description of the film which by its very similitude to the filmic discourse appears at that point of that film. The AD narrative is not an intrinsic part of the film, its plot or characters, and should therefore stand distant from it all. 5.2. Language and Audience We find some guidelines which recommend a language which should be adequate to the audience. In the Spanish Standard we also found the following recommendation (2005: 7): “the information offered must be made to match the audience: children, youth, adults, etc.10 ” As for ITC (2000: 29), it makes reference to children’s programmes pointing out that “where a description is being written specifically for children’s programmes the vocabulary and sentence construction should be suited to the age group for which the programmes are intended”, adding that “the tone of the narration should also reflect the tone of the programme”. Hence at this moment in our research we can say that when doing the AD for children it should be with a very basic vocabulary, register and grammatical complexity. What is not yet clear is if there will be other different ADs for an audience which is not formed by children. 9

Joder!! Como ha mejorao esto con los del PP, jeje, coño! Ya he pisao un charco! O si no una rata! Me cago en…… (Our attempted translation) 10 La información debe ser adecuada al tipo de obra y a las necesidades del público al que se dirige (por ejemplo público infantil, juvenil, adulto).

32


5.3. Terminology Linked to the issue of the choice of vocabulary is that of terminology. In Benecke and Dosch’s second chapter Filmbeschreibung in der Praxis (2004: 13) (“The Practice of AD”), the authors very briefly mention that when looking at the programme for the first time, you should take notes of the advanced knowledge you will need for specific scenes (e.g. on mountaineering) and that you have to start your research based on this summary. The Spanish Standard recommends: “The terminology should be adequate to the genre 11 .” Following this recommendation when describing a film such as The Merchant of Venice (2005) directed by Michael Radford, we should use the same terminology of that used by Shakespeare. Bourne and Jiménez (forthcoming) have made a contrastive analysis of the use of vocabulary in a Spanish and British AD of Stephen Daldry’s The Hours (2002) with the following example and its comment: ‘Virginia vierte agua de un aguamanil en una jofaina y se contempla en el espejo.’ [Virginia pours water from a jug into a basin and contemplates herself in the mirror.]

Here the nouns ‘aguamanil’ and ‘jofaina’ seem markedly old-fashioned against the more familiar jarro and vasija, while the verb ‘contemplarse’ may be regarded as a somewhat elevated alternative to mirarse. As a general rule, however, the lexical resources deployed in the Spanish text suggest a concern to avoid placing excessive cognitive demands on the receiver, whereas the English text seems at times positively challenging in this respect. They offer another example: The woman’s body, face down, is carried by the swift current through swaying reeds along the murky river bed, her gold wedding band glinting on her finger, a shoe slipping off her foot. El cuerpo sumergido de Virginia es arrastrado por la corriente. [The submerged body of Virginia is swept away by the current.]

So for drafting the Catalan protocol, other similar contrastive analysis will be undertaken before arriving at a conclusion which may be also aimed at advertisements similar to those produced for a British audience.

11

Debe utilizarse la terminología específica apropiada para cada obra que se describa.


33

5.4. Music The issue of music begins to appear as soon as the film starts. Credits are usually accompanied by songs with meaningful lyrics. While it is difficult to get any help through the guidelines, Benecke commented in a personal consultation: “We always try to find a middle way, which means leave some parts of the music or the song and use instrumental parts or some lines in between to describe what happens.” Take as example the James Bond theme song in Live and Let Die (1973). Some reference to music can also be found in ITC (2000: 24) in section 4.2, which deals with Musicals and where reads: The main challenge for the describer is where to place the description. Many film songs came from stage shows and are well known and viewers want to listen to them without the describer talking over them. The describer must either try to pre-empt a song with a brief description of a dance or costumes, or, must judge carefully when to intervene and when to stay silent during a song, to cause least offence. The third option is to let the music play and say nothing at all.

Further issues related to music that should be taken into account are the following: − What should be done when a song is heard? − And when the song is in a different language? − And when the song is in a different language and subtitles appear in the screen offering the translation? − And finally when the music is for background and the lyrics have no link to the film, is it simply considered as background noise? The complexity of these issues requires further research before establishing some recommendations, which will have to be taken into account since music is one of the most important elements of a film. This is why we leave the matter open and move into the AD of credits, an issue intimately linked with music. 5.5. Credits Benecke and Dosch do not really go into details about opening titles or credits. They only mention them in passing saying that the beginning of a film is often the hardest part to describe as you have to get a lot of information across 12 . 12

Die Feuerprobe jeder Beschreibung ist der Anfang eines Films. … Am Anfang muss man den Kunstgriff schaffen, alle Räume und alle Personen einzuführen, und trotzdem die Handlung nicht zu vernachlässigen. … Um alle Informationen unterzukriegen, kann man bei älteren Filmen vielfach den Trick nutzen, über einen Teil des Vorspanns zu sprechen. In neuen Werken werden die einführenden Titel aber oft einfach der laufenden Handlung unterlegt, da entfällt so etwas.

34


Often, more recent movies start with an intensive action scene so there even is no time to describe the characters. With older films, they say, you can use part of the opening titles to already start the description (2004: 22). Benecke’s personal comments to this point were “with credits it’s the same as with music, we try to find the middle way. This means that we must first get the description of what happens and then try to say what is possible of the credits, combine the names of the actors with their names in the film etc. Sometimes it’s not possible to achieve everything and you have to hope for the end.” More information on credits, logos, opening titles, are given in the ITC guidelines (2004: 22): Some opening titles using computer-generated text can move too rapidly for any helpful description to be given. A popular alternative is to provide the viewer with some useful information about the programme, for which there might not be time later. In other cases, the musical theme tune can be enjoyed for its own merit, without any description over it. But with American programme material there may be a contractual obligation to describe the opening logo […]. The opening credits often appear over an important action sequence and it may be necessary to compress them into a shorter space or to read them in advance of their actual appearance on screen, in order to be ready to describe the action as it begins.

After audio describing the film Torrente 3 in Spanish, Orero and Wharton (2007) highlight that the opening credits of this film conveyed a great amount of information, as explained next, posing various challenges to the describer. The elements included in the credits comprise: − Music, composed especially for the film opening credits: the melody was very evocative, and the lyrics formed an integral part of the film. − Credits, the name and surname of the cast were in themselves part of the action which required a description. − The written credits by themselves. − The story which took place within the credits: Torrente and a naked lady appear on and off running against each other, hiding, etc. − A written onomatopoeia. That is at one point a riffle shoots and out comes a little red flag with the word “bang” written on it. Therefore, two possible approaches were feasible, taking into account all the previous elements: (a) to describe what appears on the screen in a synchronised way, alternating the images and the written credits and respecting the lyrics of the song, or (b) to describe only the images respecting the song lyrics and leaving the credits for the end, where they can be read aloud along the end credits. After many doubts and attempts at different drafts a compromise was reached in the film Torrente, in the sense that short descriptions were read during instrumental parts of the song in order to leave the lyrics fully available. In the


35

Catalan protocol we shall look at the many possibilities which we can foresee individual answers for each case. 5.6. Film terminology With regard to film terminology, Benecke and Dosch (2004:25) say 13 that it can be used, but that it should be restricted to those terms that are commonly known (such as ‘flashback’ or ‘black and white'), a position shared by Remael, who suggests to “limit the use of technical film terminology” and “use only the commonly known terms, and sparingly”. Sometimes, filmic techniques used can create a certain atmosphere, so then they should be mentioned. Joe Clark’s agrees and in his webpage we can read: “the director uses filmic techniques with a clear purpose, so not only can they be described, in many instances they have to be described”. After consultation of the ITC guidelines (2004: 6) we find not in the style guide but the introduction: The wide variety of backgrounds among the audience should be taken into account. Some will remember television and film quite clearly and may be familiar with cinematographic terminology. Others will have no experience of the media and may regard the describer merely as a storyteller. To many, expressions like in close-up, pan across, mid-shot, crane-shot etc, may not mean anything but it is important to try to understand why a director has chosen to film a sequence in a particular way and to describe it in terms which will be understood by the majority, if there is room to do so.

13

Sehr sparsam umgehen sollte man … mit filmtechnischen Begriffen. Meist kann und darf man nicht voraussetzen, dass jeder Zuschauende mit diesen Begriffen und ihrer Bedeutung vertraut ist. Außerdem ist in einem Film ja selten der technische Effekt selbst als vielmehr seine Wirkung zu sehen, die muss dann auch beschrieben werden. Szenenwechsel ist zum Beispiel ein Wort, das man immer wieder benutzen möchte, man braucht es aber nicht. Denn einen Szenenwechsel sieht man ja streng genommen nicht, was man sieht ist ein neuer Raum, eine neue Szene, die muss man beschreiben: In der Küche, Wieder auf der Straße etc. Begriffe wie Abblende/Weißblende kann man auch ignorieren, statt dessen lieber: Das Bild wird dunkel, das Bild wird ganz hell. Als Ausnahme von der Regel hat sich zum Beispiel der Ausdruck Zeitlupe etabliert. Nach unserer Erfahrung können auch Sehgeschädigte mit diesem Begriff gut umgehen, zudem lässt sich diese rein filmische Besonderheit auch schwierig umschreiben. Gerne geben wir auch die Information "in schwarz-weiß", weil sich viele nicht von Geburt an Blinde meist noch gut an diese Art Film erinnern und damit ja auch eine bestimmte Atmosphäre erzeugt wird.

36


5.7. How are characters introduced, and when? There is no agreement on this issue, and while the Spanish Standard doesn’t provide any guidelines, Remael recommends to “Identify new characters early on in the film/scene, unless their identity must remain a secret” maintaining synchrony at all costs. We find the guidelines from the ITC (2000: 16) in section 3.3 Giving Additional Information: “Early identification of principle characters allows the viewer 14 to concentrate on the event, but if surprises are intended then they must not be given away.” So it seems the future protocol should have to propose the introduction of characters with names and attributes from the very beginning of the film, when there is no change in the development of plot and the enjoyment of the film, as also pointed out by Benecke and Dosch (2004: 23) 15 . 5.8. Should colours be described? After some research on how to audio describe opera in Catalonia (Matamala 2005, Matamala and Orero forthcoming a, Orero forthcoming b), it was clear that blind people want to have colours audio described. This was confirmed by Benecke “Even people who were born blind know that green means nature, red means fire/emotion, and blue water/sky/freshness. Some difficulties exist with non-natural colours like purple etc. but people who saw once in their life might even know how to deal with that. So colour is important!” However, no guidelines could be found in the Spanish Standard, so we looked at Remael, who writes “However, metaphors (‘a face like thunder’) and colours can be used: blind people live in the world of sighted people and have concepts of what the world around them looks like.” The ITC guidelines (2000: 21) also add: 14

While at first we thought the “viewer” must have been a mistake, Benecke confirmed that “blind and visual impaired people see themselves also as “viewers” of TV or cinema. “I have seen this film with Audio-Description” is what they say and of course they say “Auf Wiedersehen”. 15 Problematisch ist auch die Einführung der Namen der Hauptfiguren. Eigentlich dürfte eine Person ihren Namen erst bekommen, wenn er im Film gefallen ist. Bis dahin bleibt jemand “Der Mann mit dem Hut“, “Die Frau mit dem Hund“ etc. Immer wieder wird es aber Filme geben, die selbst wichtige Personen lange Zeit ohne Namen lassen. Da wird der Beschreiber eingreifen wollen, nicht zuletzt, um sich seine Arbeit für den Rest des Films zu vereinfachen. Auch wir entscheiden uns meistens dazu, wichtigen Personen, die erst spät benannt werden, ihren Namen möglichst früh zu geben. Dafür haben wir uns (etwa in den ersten 10 Minuten des Films) eine Stelle gesucht, an der es neben der Namensnennung auch gleich möglich war, mehr Informationen über die Hauptfigur (also zu Alter, Statur, Haarfarbe etc. siehe oben) unterzubringen.


37

Most visually impaired people have at some time seen colours and either retained the visual memory of colour or can remember the significance and impact of a particular colour. For the majority of people, colours are an important part of the description. People who are blind from birth or from an early age cannot ‘see’ colours but they do understand the significance of a particular colour by its association. They may not ‘see’ green, but the colour of flower stalks, leaves and grass, which people can touch and smell does mean something. Green is fresh, the colour of renewal and nature in spring. Red is the colour of fire and heat, exuberant and overt, blue is more reserved, yellow is the colour of the sun and ripe corn, etc. A person wearing bright colours is making a personality statement, wanting to be seen. Someone else wearing black may be being dramatic, mysterious or sad, depending on the situation. If the grass is brown, it may have been deprived of rain. And so on. Colours have a meaning and should be described.

Therefore, it seems that the future protocol will have to make an explicit reference to the description of colours and foster it. 5.9. Written information: inserts What should be done when any extra information appears as subtitle or a text on the screen? The Spanish Standard (AENOR 2005: 8) recommends that “The script should have all the information given by the occasional subtitles, signposts, credit titles, contracting those which are excessively long for the time allowed 16 ” There is no doubt that the future protocol will have to take into account this issue and will probably coincide with the Spanish Standard, since written information is part of the visuals of the film and the blind and visually impaired need to have access to at least the most relevant ones. 5.10. What should be done when a text appears in the screen in a different language? For example in Torrente 3 newspapers from Europe and US are shown. The headlines are in the original language. Should the headlines be translated and read aloud or just say what they portray: Torrente as international hero.

16

En el guión se debe incluir la información aportada por subtítulos ocasionales, letreros, avisos y títulos de crédito, resumiendo aquellos que sean excesivamente largos cuando el hueco de mensaje sea corto para permitir su audiodescripción literal.

38


No guideline has been found on this topic. If the AD offers a translation of the headlines the result is that AD is more explicit than the film. After all, the person who is watching the film and does not know English cannot understand what is said. In the film analysed by Orero and Wharton (2007), the objective of these frames were to show Torrente as an internationally famous person. Given the lack of time to offer a translation of each headline and to avoid being more explicit than the original film, the solution was the following AD: 01:27:21:00 - 01:27:41:09 The whole screen is a Picture of Torrente, which turns to be the photo of a hero on first page of international papers such as The Times, The New York Times, Le Corriere de la Sera, Le Monde, El Mundo y el Metro which says “Veteran policeman saves the situation” Torrente shakes hands with Rajoy, Zapatero is in the background 17 . Benecke commented “We normally would read the text in that foreign language but this sounds special here. Sometimes in old films they’ve translated the text in the film, made a new shot with German text or give subtitles. That would give us the chance to use this translation. In some rare examples we really did a translation in the AD without having that in the film but that had special reasons and tells you that every rule might need some exceptions.” A related issue is the presence of different languages in the soundtrack: ITC recommends that, if the foreign dialogue has not been subtitled, “the describer should resist the temptation to show off personal knowledge. Translating the spoken lines might be interpreted as spoon-feeding and not what the programme producers intended”. This norm can be applied both to original and dubbed films. However, foreign films subtitled in the target language open up a whole new range of difficulties, since the blind audience cannot access neither the visuals nor the dialogues, which are subtitled. A combination of audio description and audiosubtitling (Veerbrom et al. 2002), as proposed in opera AD (Matamala and Orero forthcoming a, Orero forthcoming b), could be considered a feasible solution.

17

Toda la pantalla es una foto de la cara de Torrente, que se convierte en la foto de la primera plana de periódicos internacionales como héroe: El Times, New York Times, El Corriere de la Sera, Le Monde, El Mundo, y el Metro que dice “Policía veterano salva la situación”. Torrente le da la mano a Rajoy, Zapatero está en el fondo.


39

5.11. Period of sentences Another question is that of the duration of the period in a sentence. Bourne and Jiménez (forthcoming) as already mentioned before have made a contrastive analysis into Spanish and British AD of the same film arriving at this conclusion for the period: In a noticeably high proportion of sentences in the English AD, the report of an action is accompanied by one or more subordinate clauses whose function is to describe another action taking place at the same time. This way of expressing simultaneity relies heavily on connecting words such as as or while: ‘As he starts up the car, she bites her lip.’ Alternatively, if the two actions are carried out by the same person, subordination may be achieved through the use of the present participle: ‘Clarissa, putting ice into a glass, turns away self-consciously.’ The same seems to be the case for Spanish AD where it is quite normal to have very long sentences. While this style is for written language, it is not the case for a colloquial setting in which short sentences are used following Grice’s maxims. Even though writing very long sentences could be viewed as an excellent way to reduce time and get as much information as possible in AD, the language of AD should be both simple and grammatically correct, given the fact that it will be read aloud and the audience will have to understand it at once. This simple style is recommended by both the Spanish Standard and by Benecke and Dosch (2004: 24) 18 , who summarise it in two points: 1) avoid complex sentences even though they might give you the impression you are telling a lot and 2) give only one piece of information per sentence. 6. The structure of the protocol for film Gert Vercauteren has started researching this topic for his PhD thesis, and in his articles (Vercauteren forthcoming, and Remael and Vercauteren forthcoming) he proposes that any guideline should at least discuss the following elements to cover all the possible tasks of a describer: a) the creation of new audio descriptions b) the translation of existing audio descriptions c) the recording of audio descriptions by voice talents d) the technical aspects related to creating audio descriptions 18

Da alle Beschreibungen in die oft sehr kurzen Dialogpausen passen sollen, ist klar, dass auch die Sätze, mit denen beschrieben wird, möglichst kurz sind. Sie müssen aber trotzdem verständlich sein, als goldene Regel gilt hier: Nicht mehr als eine Information pro Satz. Komplizierte Konstruktionen, mit denen man vermeintlich viel rüberkriegt, verwirren nur uns sind auch schlechter zu sprechen.

40


e) the (national) legal requirements related to making audio descriptions At this stage we are developing the first point by analysing opera AD (Puigdomènech, Matamala and Orero, 2007) and film AD, although in the future other scenic arts such as ballet, circus or theatre and other art forms will also be taken into consideration. As for film AD, which is the focus of this article, different questions should be tackled following Vercauteren (forthcoming): What should be described? We should describe all the elements present in a film production, which to a certain extent are similar to those in an opera. We have looked at Greg York’s article (forthcoming) and his guidelines where there is a solid departing point to create a protocol to describe: characters, stage production, props, costumes, make up, lighting, credits, etc. In fact, everything which is present in a film production. When should it be described? In the intervals when there is no dialogue and always trying to anticipate the action. How should it be described? There is a universal agreement in describing certain attributes such as colour, size and texture. Much debate is still continuing regarding the ethnic origin of characters, given the fact that most characters are white and that is a fact. But when this issue gets really muddled is when we have to deal with emotions due to the fact that different traditions adopt different approaches: whilst AD in the USA tend towards an objective depiction of the emotion (for instance, “tears pouring out of the eyes”), others prefer its interpretation (for instance”, “crying” or “sad”). Here we also find the use of language, which although may appear to be a tricky issue, is in fact one problem which could be tackled. While all existing guidelines go for the woolly recommendation that AD should be adapted to the type of representation and audience, we believe ADs are not an integral part of the representation, and we should take into consideration the following issues regarding language: − use of standard language/use of dialects? − syntactic constructions: written language to be read aloud − syntactic order to promote clarity of reception: simple sentences vs. subordinate clauses − logic development of a sentence: (CC) + S + V + (CC) vs. shifting complements − verbal style vs. nominal style − active vs. passive construction


41

− verbal tenses − richness in vocabulary − anaphoric reference: avoidance of ambiguity/clear reference − clear and precise use of language − articles − take into consideration age of audience: children, adolescent, etc. − specific terminology regarding a theme − when reading, how to pronounce foreign words and names − when having to translate, shall names, titles, etc. be translated? As Matamala (2006) highlights, there is no doubt that the describer should have an excellent command of both language and intersemiotic translation. How much should be described? This issue is very much related to Relevance Theory and more research is needed before any guidelines can be issued. “Not too much and not too little”, is what most guidelines recommend, and is common sense thus setting the standard for some years. However, and in-depth research could help us devise the items that help blind and visually impaired people get a better understanding of operas. Finally, we would like to add to these four sections a fifth: What is suitable to be described? Not every audiovisual production can be described. As ITC (2000) comments, “quiz programmes and game shows with tight-worded, almost continuous scripts leave little room for AD. News programmes using constant statistics or text that scrolls across the screen whilst there is no break in speech from presenters also leave no room for AD. An experienced audio describer is best placed to assess whether a particular programme or episode is suitable for AD.” Therefore, regarding opera AD, the describer should assess whether a particular opera is suitable for AD or maybe an audio-introduction would satisfy the blind and visually impaired patrons’ needs. 7. Conclusions While being at a departing point in the creation of an AD protocol for Catalan, some starting points have been established along a variety of areas which will develop alongside ongoing debate and research. We believe that the possible comprehensive approach for films will mean a financially feasible exercise and a reception which will please those with sight problems. We hope that sharing our research we can engage a public awareness and debate which will be beneficial for us all.

42


References AENOR (2005): Norma UNE: 153020. Audiodescripción para personas con discapacidad visual. Requisitos para la audiodescripción y elaboración de audioguías. Madrid: AENOR. Benecke, B. and E. Dosch (2004) Wenn aus Bildern Worte werden. Munich: Bayerischer Rundfunk. Bourne, J. and C. Jiménez (forthcoming) “From the Visual to the Verbal in Two Languages: a Contrastive Analysis of the Audio Description of The Hours in English and Spanish”. In: Pilar, O., Remael, A. and Díaz Cintas, J. (eds.) Media for All. Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description and Sign Language. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Clark, J. “Standard Tecniques in Audio Description”. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/mrgre3 [10-04-2007] De Coster, Karin and Mühleis Volkmar (en prensa): “Inter-sensorial translation: visual art made up by words”. In: Pilar, O., Remael, A. and Díaz Cintas, J. (eds.) Media for All. Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description and Sign Language. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Gratacós, R. (2006) : Otras miradas. Arte y ciegos: tan lejos, tan cerca. Barcelona: Octaedro. ITC (2000) ITC Guidance on Standards on Audio Description. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/lqj2w9 Matamala, Anna (2005): “Live Audio Description in Catalonia”. Translating Today 4: 9-11. Matamala, A. (2006) “La accesibilidad en los medios: aspectos lingüísticos y retos de formación”. In Perez-Amat, R. and Pérez-Ugena, Á. (eds.) Sociedad, integración y televisión en España Madrid: Laberinto: 293- 306. Matamala, A. (forthcoming a) “La audiodescripción en directo”, In: Jiménez, C. (ed.) Traducción y accesibilidad: la subtitulación para sordos y la audiodescripción para ciegos. Berlín: Peter Lang. Matamala, A. (forthcoming b) “Audio Description in Catalonia”. In Translation Watch Quaterly. June 2007. Matamala, A. and P. Orero (forthcoming a ): “Accessible Opera in Catalan: Opera for All”. In: Pilar, O., Remael, A. and Díaz Cintas, J. (eds.) Media for All. Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description and Sign Language. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Ofcom (2006) “Guidelines on the provision of television access services”. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/nla26f Orero, Pilar (2005): “Audio Description: Professional Recognition, Practice and Standards in Spain”. In: Translation Watch Quarterly, Volume 1, Inaugural Issue, 7-18, December 2005, TSI: Melbourne.


43

Orero, P. (2006): “Algunas consideraciones sobre la audiodescripción comercial en España”. In: Algunas consideraciones sobre la audiodescripción comercial.” Ricardo Perez-Amat, R. and Pérez-Ugena, Á. (eds.) Sociedad, integración y televisión en España Madrid: Laberinto: 277-292. Orero, P. and S. Wharton (2007) “The Audio Description of a Spanish Phenomenon: Torrente”. JosTrans 7: 164-178. Puigdomènech, L., Matamala, A. and P. Orero (2007): “The making of a protocol for opera audio description”. Actas del III Congreso AIETI. La Traducción del futuro. Mediación lingüística y cultura en el siglo XXII”. Barcelona: Universidad Pompeu Fabra. Remael, A. (2005). Audio description for recorded TV, Cinema and DVD. An Experimental stylesheet for teaching purposes. Private document. Remael, A. and G. Vercauteren (forthcoming): “Audio describing the exposition phase of films. Teaching students what to choose”. Trans. Vercauteren, G. (forthcoming). “Towards a European Guideline for Audio Description.” In: Pilar, O., Remael, A. and Díaz Cintas, J. (eds.) Media for All. Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description and Sign Language. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

44


Pierfranca Forchini Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan Italy “WELL, UH NO. I MEAN, YOU KNOW…” 1 . DISCOURSE MARKERS IN MOVIE CONVERSATION. 1. Introduction: scope, data and methodology The present article explores the use of you know and I mean in three different conversational domains – spontaneous, non-spontaneous and dubbed and according to two different approaches. The general aim is to highlight the functional nature of discourse markers (henceforth DMs) in order to see the extent to which spontaneous and non-spontaneous conversation differ in this respect and to identify whether the strategies activated in dubbed conversation achieve an equivalent effect. Section 2 offers a panoramic, comparative account of how the literature usually categorizes you know and I mean in spontaneous spoken conversation, focusing on terminology, classification, multi-functionality and utterance position. Section 3 investigates the frequency, pragmatic function and utterance position of you know and I mean in American movie language, exploring similarities and differences between spontaneous and non-spontaneous conversation, while Section 4 analyzes the dubbed Italian realizations of you know and I mean, comparing them to the original occurrences of the American movies. Methodologically speaking, Section 2 reports the state of the art in the literature on spontaneous conversation. Section 3 and 4, instead, are corpus-driven analyses (cf. Francis 1993) that build up “the theory step by step in the presence of the evidence” (Tognini-Bonelli 2001: 17), namely, from the empirical data provided by the corpus. In order to conduct these corpus-driven analyses, the first step was to set up a corpus of American movies and their dubbed Italian versions, because, despite the relatively large amount of available spoken American English (cf. the Bank of English, MICASE, Santa Barbara Corpus, etc.), no corpus proved suitable for my investigation. Moreover, the (tran)scripts which are easily accessible and freely downloadable from the web are, on close inspection, inappropriate, for their transcriptions of speech differ considerably from what is actually said in the movies. To give an example, the total amount of words I transcribed for the movie Shallow Hal is 11,490, whereas the script on the web 2 contains 10,660 words. In 1

2

Quote from the movie Shallow Hal. http://tinyurl.com/man7gn Cf. http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/shallow-hal-script-transcript-paltrow.html

46

Pierfranca Forchini

particular, there are 49 occurrences of you know and 31 of I mean in my transcription, whereas they occur respectively 38 and 23 times in the web script 3 ). Faced with this evidence, I manually transcribed the original and dubbed Italian versions of the movies chosen for analysis 4 , building up a 70,000-word corpus (i.e. nearly 8 hours of movie speech), which I call the American Movie Corpus henceforth AMC. Regarding the analysis of the occurrences of you know and I mean in the AMC 5 I first checked their frequency to see whether and in what kind of movie they appear, and then calculated word-lists to understand the relevance that you know and I mean hold in the corpus in terms of the most frequent 2-grams 6 . Regarding pragmatic functions, I checked the context of you know and I mean by analyzing the semantic field of the utterances they occur with, the kind of function they display, and the overall and specific function they perform according to the position they occupy in the utterance. As for the translation process analysis, I first investigated the frequency and function in context of dubbed you know and I mean and then compared the results to those from the American movie analysis. As a premise, I would like to point out that since the terminology and classification of DMs are particularly problematic (cf. Section 2) and seeking solutions to the problem exceeds the scope of the present paper, I will call you know and I mean DMs on the basis of the fact that they belong to spoken discourse and, presumably, mark something by “focus[ing] on the organization and orientation of the discourse” (Erman 1987:128). This justification may be viewed as rather simplistic; however, it matches a theoretical framework which starts from frequency (i.e. which, for example, checks whether you know and I mean are also present in movie conversation) and ends up by considering the function of the item and the environment within which it occurs (i.e. it analyzes you know and I mean in context in order to see what they mark). Besides, in line with Östman (1981:16), it is worth noting that these expressions may also perform different kinds of functions in different situations and contexts. Consequently, further research on data in context will be needed in order to reach optimal categorization.

3

No distinction between DM and non-DM use has been made for this comparison because occurrences already give enough evidence of the discrepancy. 4 Namely: Mission:I-2 (J. Woo, 2000); Shallow Hal (B. & P. Farrelly, 2001), Ocean's Eleven (S. Soderbergh, 2001); The Matrix Reloaded directed by (A. & L. Wachowsky , 2003) - referred to in the text and Tables as MI-2, SH, O’s 11, and TMR, respectively. 5 The AMC has been processed with Wordsmith Tools software program. 6 N-grams (Fletcher 2003-2006) are also called clusters (Scott and Tribble 2006), sequences of words (Hunston 2006), and phrasal units (Stubbs 2006), etc.

“Well, Uh No. I mean, you know...”

47

2. You know and I mean in spontaneous spoken conversation: state of the art Although numerous studies deal with expressions like you know and I mean, there is little consensus about their terminology, classification and function. Such devices, indeed, are known by a variety of names: pragmatic expressions (Östman 1981), pragmatic particles (Östman 1981), discourse markers (Schiffrin 1987; Fraser 1999), discourse connectives (Blakemore 1992), discourse particles (Aijmer 2002), discourse signaling devices, pragmatic connectives, pragmatic operators (cf. Schourup 1999 for a detailed account), inter alia. Besides, not only have most of the terms used to describe them been objected to (cf. Aijmer 2002), but their classification is also particularly problematic. As an example of this disagreement, Schiffrin (1987) considers both you know and I mean as DMs, whereas Fraser (1999) excludes both of them. Function seems problematic too; however, the disagreement that emerges from the literature on you know and I mean is only apparent: indeed, as I demonstrate in the following paragraphs, a closer look and a wider perspective allows one to interpret the differences in usage as a case of multi-functionality. If the various interpretations suggested by the literature on spontaneous conversation are reorganized, classing together those that make similar statements, you know and I mean may be categorized according to the following functions: − telling/commenting function (both you know and I mean): when you know is claimed to be used “in particular in narrative parts of conversations” (Östman 1981:16), to shift the topic or to add information (Erman 1987), to introduce background information or parenthetic comments (Erman 1987; Macaulay 2000), and as a device which “works basically within the information of the talk” (Schiffrin 1987); and I mean to inform (Erman 1987, Fox Tree and Schrock 2002) and to evaluate (Fox Tree and Schrock 2002, Brinton 2003); − turn-dealing function (both you know and I mean): when you know is described as a turn-taking device (Östman 1981), as a turn-switching marker (Östman 1981), as a turn-yielder (Erman 1987), or as a marker of the end of a syntactic unit/argument (Erman 1987, Macaulay 2000, FoxTree & Schrock 2002); and I mean as a turn-taking device, as a turnyielder, or as a confirmation-seeker (Erman 1987); − emphasizing function (both you know and I mean): when you know is labeled as a booster (Holmes 1997), as an emphasizer (Macaulay 2000, Fox Tree and Schrock 2002), and an attention drawer (Macaulay 2000); and I mean as an emphasizer (Brinton 2003); − clarifying function (both you know and I mean): when you know is considered a strategy to introduce an exemplification or a clarification

48

Pierfranca Forchini

(Erman 1987), to narrow the scope (Erman 1987), to round off the theme (Erman 1987), to repair (Erman 1987), or “to mark a speaker’s upcoming modification of the meaning of his/her prior talk” (Schiffrin 1987); and I mean to be more precise, to explicate (Erman 1987, Brinton 2003) and to correct/reformulate previous utterances (Erman 1987, Fox Tree and Schrock 2002, Brinton 2003); − confirmation seeker (you know): when you know is said to be used to create coherence (Erman 1987, 2001) and to provide a form of rhythmic pattern (Jefferson 1973, Macaulay 2000); − shared knowledge marker (you know) as it is described by Erman (2001); time staller (both you know and I mean): when you know and I mean are used to allow the speaker time to find the most appropriate expression either because (s)he does not know what to say or how to say something. Specifically, you know functions as a verbal filler (Brown 1977), as a pause-filler (Östman 1981), as a fumble (Edmondson 1981), as a clause internal restart (Schourup 1985), as a staller (Erman 1987), or as a mitigator (Östman 1981) to relieve the speaker from being completely committed to the truth value of the proposition in question (Schourup 1985, Erman 2001, Fox Tree and Schrock 2002), as a hedge (Holmes 1997, Erman 2001), as an approximator (Erman 2001), and as a hesitation marker (Erman 1987); and I mean as a mitigator (Erman 1987) to make the speaker less committed (Erman 1987, Fox Tree and Schrock 2002, Brinton 2003), as a softener (Crystal and Davy 1975), as a compromiser (James 1983), as a hesitation marker (Erman 1987), and as a politeness marker (Fox Tree and Schrock 2002, Brinton 2003). Regarding functions in context, as described by Erman (1987), both you know and I mean most frequently occur in utterance mid-position (you know: 84.6%, I mean: 89.3%). In particular, mid position you know functions as a topic shifter or as a turn taking device, whereas mid position I mean works as a device to refer to the previous argument, which, in terms of my functional categorization listed above, means that the telling and turn-dealing are the most frequent functions of you know, and clarifying the most frequent function of I mean in spontaneous spoken conversation. 3. You know and I mean in movie conversation: frequency, function, and utterance position. As illustrated in Table 1, you know and I mean do not seem to be very frequent in movies. In the AMC, you know occurs 89 times, but only 46

49


occurrences are DMs 7 , and I mean occurs only 37 times (all of which are DMs); in terms of a percentage, this means 0,12% of you knows and 0,1% I means in the whole corpus. This low occurrence may be due to three possible causes: a. the corpus may be too small, b. DMs may not occur in movies, c. DMs may occur mostly in comedies (and in this corpus of four genres there is only one comedy, which has the highest number of occurrences). In any case, further research on larger amounts of data must follow the present study. This limitation, due to the small size of the corpus, shows both that research is always in progress and in need of bigger corpora, but also that small corpora can be interesting starting points which may be helpful to test work-in-progress corpora (cf. Sinclair 2004). By looking at Table 1, for instance, it may come to one’s mind that SH, the only comedy in the corpus, may hold the highest percentage of the occurrences because, presumably, comedies give more space to conversation than adventure, thriller and Sci-Fi movies, which contain more action. Therefore, the preliminary findings may lead to hypothesize that devices typical of conversation may be more easily found in comedies, and this may lead to the necessity of enlarging the corpus and considering only two broad types of movie genre - comedy and non-comedy - in order to test the preliminary data. Table 1. You know and I mean in the AMC

YOU KNOW in the American Movie Corpus Movie Shallow Hal Mission: I-2 Ocean’s Eleven The Matrix Reloaded TOT

DM 33 6 6 3 48

Non-DM 16 4 10 11 41

Total 49 10 16 14 89

I MEAN in the American Movie Corpus Movie Shallow Hal Ocean’s Eleven The Matrix Reloaded Mission I-2 7

DM 31 3 3 0

Non-DM 0 0 0 0

Total 31 3 3 0

Literal expressions, as in You know what I'm saying (from SH), are not considered DMs and have been excluded from the present analysis.

50

Pierfranca Forchini

TOT

37

0

37

Interestingly, even though the percentage of you know and I mean is rather low in the AMC, in terms of 2-grams, the discourse marker you know ranks at position 14 and I mean at position 26. This presumably makes their presence important in a corpus which has 3450 2-grams. Their high position may be due again to the presence of a comedy, which, as pointed out before, is more likely to have characteristics typical of spontaneous conversation. In any case, the relatively high position of these two DMs emphasizes the interpersonal function typical of dialog (cf. Halliday 1994). This feature, which makes movie conversation resemble spontaneous conversation, is further confirmed by the presence of other 2-grams such as are you, do you, all right, come on, thank you, etc., which highlight an interpersonal dialogic character. The data from the AMC show that you know and I mean are basically used under two circumstances: either to guide the listener in the interpretation of the utterance or to allow the speaker time to find appropriate words. In particular, when used in the first case, you know and I mean may acquire the following functions 8 (cf. Table 2 below): − telling/commenting function - when used to add information, introduce a new topic or comment, as in examples 1 and 2 (the DMs are in bold and the words illustrating their function in italics in examples 1-6): Kid: Yeah, sure, Link. Hey, you know, next year I'm old enough to join a crew, right. I've been thinking a lot about it and I've made my decision. [TMR] Hal: Yeah. And then – check this out – he does this thing to me where he makes it so I can score better with the ladies. I mean at that time I thought it was a sort of a joke. But this afternoon, the first beautiful woman I saw went for me.

− clarifying function - when used to clarify/explain something (as in example 3), or to justify, repair, reformulate and modify the previous utterance (as in example 4): Mr Shannahan: I need a man around that can give it to me straight, you know, whether the news be good or bad. So I've decided - from now on, you'll be working directly for me. Link: Yes, sir, I will, sir... I mean, I do, sir. [TMR]

− knowledge marker - when used to appeal to knowledge (as in example 5), or to awaken knowledge (as in example 6): Hal: I mean, you know what I’m saying… [SH]

8

When dealing with fuzzy categories, the most evident function has been taken into account.

51

“Well, Uh No. I mean, you know...” Mauricio: Hal, we gotta go to do that thing. You know, at the at the place. [SH]

When used in the second case (i.e. to allow the speaker time to find the most appropriate expression), you know and I mean may be used either as time stallers, namely, as strategies to play for time, or to fill the gap while the speaker seeks the right words, as in the following example (the DMs are in bold and the most appropriate expression is in italics in examples 7 and 8): Rosemary: Uh well yeah. I mean, sure. [SH]

or as a mitigator/hedge to play for time to find the right words, because the speaker does not know what to say or needs to gain time to soften the severity of the situation, as in: Hal: What? I thought we were having a good time. Rosemary: We were. It’s just, you know, Hal, I’m not used to all this. [SH]

Table 2. You know and I mean Functions in the AMC

YOU KNOW FUNCTIONS IN American MOVIE LANGUAGE FUNCTION TELLING FUNCTION CLARYFYING FUNCTION SHARED KNOWLEDGE MARKER TIME STALLER TOTAL

O’s 11 4 0

TMR 2 1

MI2 3 0

SH 13 11

TOT 22 12

2

0

1

3

6

0 6

0 3

0 4

6 33

6 46

I MEAN FUNCTIONS IN American MOVIE LANGUAGE FUNCTION TELLING FUNCTION CLARYFYING FUNCTION SHARED KNOWLEDGE MARKER TIME STALLER TOTAL

O’s 11 2 1

TMR 3 0

MI2 0 0

SH 21 5

TOT 26 6

0

0

0

4

4

0 3

0 3

0 0

1 31

1 37

52

Pierfranca Forchini

However, in spite of this multi-functionality, the data show (cf. Table 2 above) that these two DMs tend to occur with specific functions. In particular, you know mostly occurs with the telling function and I mean with the clarifying function. This recurrent co-occurrence, which I would like to call co-function, recalls Firth’s (1957) and Sinclair’s (1991) concepts of collocation and colligation: as collocation implies the co-occurrence of words, or in Firth’s terms “actual words in habitual company” (Firth 1957), and colligation implies the co-occurrence of grammatical categories (cf. Sinclair 1994), co-function refers to the most common function a word or expression occurs with, or, in a Firthian and Sinclairian way, the functional company a word keeps. Undoubtedly, further research is needed to verify whether co-function is typical of you know and I mean only, whether it covers the whole category of DMs, or whether it is a concept which may be applied to other linguistic categories. Another interesting point which emerges from this frequent co-occurrence is that the functions with which you know and I mean most frequently occur are the telling and clarifying function respectively. In front of the high frequency that has emerged from both the conversational domains analyzed so far, it can be maintained that these functions are key functions to the pragmatics of the two DMs, and that, if so, you know and I mean are closer to their literal (cf. also Schiffrin 1987), rather than non-discourse-marker-like meaning. Indeed, when used with these functions, they somehow recall the semantics of the full verbs to know and to mean, in that, according to the interpretation presented here, the former can be paraphrased with (do) you know what (I am telling you), and the latter with what I mean is. If this is the case, you know and I mean are not grammaticalized, as stated by Chaume 2004 (cf. Chaume 2004 on you know), but, instead, they are pragmaticalized, signaling something which is linked to their literal meaning, but also acquiring some other pragmatic function. Comparing you know and I mean functions in movies to those highlighted in spontaneous spoken conversation (i.e. telling, turn-dealing, emphasizing, clarifying, confirmation seeker, shared knowledge marker, and time staller function), the former turn out to be apparently fewer, since the turn-dealing, the emphasizing, and the confirmation seeker functions of you know have not been found in the AMC (cf. Table 2). However, it may be possible that categories such as the turn-dealing and emphasizing ones are co-present to the other uses of you know and I mean (this multifunctionality is further proof of the pragmaticalization process previously mentioned). In particular, the turn-dealing function can be envisaged every time the DMs are used in initial, mid and final position. Indeed, it is feasible to think that when you know and I mean are used in initial position (whatever the pragmatic function may be), they may also work as turn-taking devices; when used in mid-position they can be used as switching devices (introducing a new topic, cf. you know), for example; and when used in finalposition they mark the end of the utterance. The emphasizing function can be

53


associated with any function of the two DMs analyzed: if you know and I mean are considered devices which co-occur with specific functions, every time they are uttered, they signal, or emphasize, some function. When you know is used with its telling function, co-occurring with new topics, for instance, it emphasizes the new topic: you know is a device to tell the listener that what the speaker is saying is new. In much the same way, when I mean is used to clarify, it emphasizes that the speaker is clarifying something. Theoretically, the same could be claimed for the confirmation seeker function of you know, if used to create coherence and to provide a form of rhythmic pattern as stated by Erman (1987, 2001), Jefferson (1973), and Macaulay (2000); however, I have found no occurrences in the AMC of you know which are DMs with the seeking confirmation function. In fact, this function can be ascribed to non discourse marker you know, as it appears in the following example (you know plus function in bold): You're out of your mind, you know that? [SH]

As illustrated in Table 3 on functions related to utterance position, both you know and I mean occur most in mid position (24 you knows = 52.17%; 23 I means = 62.16%) and also have a rather high percentage of occurrence in initial position (15 you knows = 32.6%; 12 I mean = 32.43%). Interestingly, when you know occurs in initial and mid-position, it is especially used with a telling function, whereas in final position it does not show any preference. As for I mean, when it occurs in initial and mid-position, it is especially used with a clarifying function. It is worth noting that in spite of the highest percentage in mid-position, you know may occur anywhere with any function (except in initial position, when it is used as a shared knowledge marker) and I mean shows more flexibility when used in initial position in that it can be used with any function. In final position, instead, I mean is rare. Table 3. You know and I mean Functions and Utterance Position in the AMC

YOU KNOW FUNCTIONS AND UTTERANCE POSITIONS in the AMC FUNCTION TELLING FUNCTION CLARYFYING FUNCTION SHARED KNOWLEDGE MARKER TIME STALLER TOTAL

INITIAL 9 4

MEDIAL 11 7 4

FINAL 2 1 2

TOTAL 22 12 6

2 15

2 24

2 7

6 46

54

Pierfranca Forchini

I MEAN FUNCTIONS AND UTTERANCE POSITIONS in the AMC FUNCTION TELLING FUNCTION CLARYFYING FUNCTION SHARED KNOWLEDGE MARKER TIME STALLER TOTAL

INITIAL 2 8 1

MEDIAL 2 17

FINAL

TOTAL 4 25 1

1 12

4 23

2 2

7 37

Reconsidering the functional categories found in spoken conversation, what stands out is that regarding utterance position, both you know and I mean have the highest frequency in mid position and that I mean is rare in final position. This is exactly what the movie corpus displays; however, movies also have a rather high percentage of occurrence in initial position, which is a feature that spoken conversation does not display. Another similarity is the kind of function you know and I mean have when they occur in the most frequent utterance position. Specifically, when in mid-position, you know is most frequently used with a telling function, which recalls Erman’s (1987) topic shifter function; whereas when I mean occurs in mid-position, it most frequently has a clarifying function which recalls Erman’s (1987) back to the previous argument function. 4. You know and I mean in dubbing: original vs. dubbed conversation Looking at the occurrences of you know and I mean which have been translated with the same function, and those which have not been translated or have been translated with a different function, there is an evident loss/change in translation (i.e. 61% for both DMs), which is not only quantitative, but also qualitative. Indeed, as illustrated in Table 4, there is not only a different frequency order of functions in the two movie sub-corpora, but dubbing strategies often modify original functions and add something which was not present in the original movie (e.g. the confirmation seeker function of you know, which was absent in the original corpus, becomes the second most frequent function in the dubbed corpus and there is also one a case in which I mean, which never functions as a confirmation seeker either in the original movie corpus or in the literature analyzed, is translated as such). These results, which may appear surprising, broadly confirm those of Chaume (2004: 843):

55

“Well, Uh No. I mean, you know...” In general, there is no one-to-one correspondence between two languages in the field of DMs: most of the time their correlates in the target language have not the same pragmatic meaning, constituting a usual pitfall in translation.

Table 4. You know and I mean Functions in Original Movies (ENG) and in Dubbing (ITA)

YOU KNOW FUNCTIONS IN American MOVIE LANGUAGE FUNCTION TELLING FUNCTION CLARIFYING FUNCTION SHARED KNOWLEDGE MARKER TIME STALLER

ENG 22 12 6

FUNCTION NOT TRANSLATED/LOST TELLING FUNCTION CONFIRMATION SEEKER

ITA 15 10 7

6

6 5 3

TOTAL

46

TIME STALLER CLARIFYING FUNCTION SHARED KNOWLEDGE MARKER TOTAL

46

I MEAN FUNCTIONS IN American MOVIE LANGUAGE FUNCTION TELLING FUNCTION CLARIFYING FUNCTION SHARED KNOWLEDGE MARKER TIME STALLER

ENG 26 6 4

FUNCTION NOT TRANSLATED/LOST TELLING FUNCTION CONFIRMATION SEEKER

ITA 21 11 3

1

1 1 0

TOTAL

37

TIME STALLER CLARIFYING FUNCTION SHARED KNOWLEDGE MARKER TOTAL

37

However, it is interesting that although the dubbed versions present fewer occurrences and a change in function, there is an overall tendency to keep the most frequent function in the dubbed version both at a general and specific level. Indeed, the most frequent overall function of the two DMs in the corpus of original movies is still the most frequent function of the dubbed version corpus. As for specific functions, 6 out of 8 are kept in dubbing: telling, time staller, shared knowledge marker and clarifying you know (even though the latter is

56

Pierfranca Forchini

mostly not translated, when it is, it is kept in the dubbed version); and clarifying and shared knowledge marker I mean. Interestingly, if on the one hand, there is a tendency to keep the original functions of you know, on the other, there is a tendency to translate the different functions of I mean with the most frequent function usually associated with this DM, indeed 3 out of 4 of them are translated with a clarifying function. This may be due to four main factors: 1. the dubber’s deliberate personal choice or misunderstanding; 2. the constraints of the audiovisual mode; 3. the low relevance, on the one hand, that the telling and time staller function of I mean have in the movies (respectively 4 and 6 occurrences in the whole AMC) and the choice to opt for a function which is more significant in terms of presence (but this does not match with point b in the next paragraph); 4. the translation devices most frequently used in Italian, sai 9 (17 occurrences) for you know and voglio dire 10 (10 occurrences) and cioè 11 (6 occurrences) for I mean, may behave differently. By this I mean that one may be more flexible than the other in terms of acquiring functions (e.g. the devices which are usually employed to dub the telling and time staller I mean, namely, cioè and non so se mi spiego 12 , are strictly linked to the literal meaning of the verb and are thus more likely to convey clarification); the veracity of this should, however, be checked with further research in a corpus of Italian spontaneous conversation. This tendency to keep the most frequent function in the dubbed version both at overall and specific level is a strategy to keep things balanced. Other compensating strategies which have emerged from the data are: a. supplying what is missing both at movie and utterance level, when possible (at movie level, by keeping the most frequent function; at utterance level, translating in the next utterance what was not translated in the corresponding dubbed one); b. not translating what has already been expressed somewhere else (for example, the most frequent not translated functions are still the telling and clarifying function, for you know and I mean respectively; this shows that to maintain balance, the loss often involves what is redundant so as to avoid losing unique features); d. employing literal translations of you know and I mean which basically convey the same functions of the two DMs, which, as demonstrated above, preferably occur with functions close to their literal meaning. The last point mentioned, namely, the tendency to use expressions that are literal translations of you know and I mean and which express functions close to their literal meaning, provides initial evidence of cross-contact between the languages involved: when the target and source language share similar features, 9

Literally you know. Literally I want to say (meaning what I want to say is). 11 Literally that is to say. 12 Literally I do not know whether I am making myself clear. 10


57

there is a preference to use them. Furthermore, if the tendency to avoid translating what has already been expressed elsewhere and to avoid “redundant” translation (cf. point b. above) may be considered simplification, we are also in front of evidence of universal features of translation (cf. Baker 1998, Ulrych 1998). 5. Conclusions The data described in Section 2 and the corpus-driven analysis described in Section 3 have shown that spontaneous and non-spontaneous conversation do not differ much as far as the DMs you know and I mean are concerned. Indeed, even though these two markers occur with fewer functions in movie conversation, the most frequent functions, the highest occurrence in utterance mid-position, and the functions linked to utterance positions appear to be the same in the two conversational domains. Also the way you know and I mean are pragmaticalized in movies reflects the data reported in the literature. Besides, the present research has also demonstrated that movie dialog is rich in interpersonal devices, which are typical of spontaneous conversation. The picture which has emerged when comparing original and dubbed DMs has confirmed the general inclination to avoid one-to-one correspondence between two languages, to try to compensate such loss, to use similar features, when the target and source language share them, and to simplify translations. References Aijmer, K. (2002). English Discourse Particles, Evidence from a Corpus. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: Benjamins. Baker, M. (ed.). (1998). Routledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies. London: Routledge. Blakemore, D. (1992). Understanding Utterances. Oxford: Blackwell. Brinton, L. (2003). “I mean: the Rise of a Pragmatic Marker”. Paper presented at GURT 2003. Brown, G. (1977). Listening to Spoken English. London: Longman. Chaume, F. (2004). “Discourse Markers in Audiovisual Translating”. Meta 49: 843-855. Crystal, D. and D. Derek. (1975). Advanced Conversational English. London: Longman. Edmondson, W. (1981). Spoken Discourse: a Model for Analysis. London / New York: Longman.

58

Pierfranca Forchini

Erman, B. (1987). Pragmatic Expressions in English: a Study of You Know, You See, and I Mean in Face-To-Face Conversation. Sweden: Almqvist & Wiksell International. Erman, B. (2001). “Pragmatic markers revisited with a focus on you know in adult and adolescent talk”. Journal of Pragmatics 33: 1337–1359. Firth, J. 1957. Papers in Linguistics, 1934-1951. London: OUP. Fletcher, W. (2003-6). PIE: Phrases in English. [Data-base] http://pie.usna.edu Fox Tree, J. E. and J.C. Schrock. (2002). “Basic meaning of you know and I mean.” Journal of Pragmatics 34: 727– 47. Francis, G. (1993). “A corpus-driven approach to grammar: principles, methods and examples”. In: Baker, M., Francis, G. and Tognini-Bonelli, E. (eds.). Text and Technology. In Honour of John Sinclair. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: Benjamins: 137-156. Fraser, B. (1999). "What are discourse markers?" Journal of Pragmatics 31: 931952. Gregory, M. (1967). “Aspects of varieties differentiation”. Journal of Linguistics 3: 177-98. Halliday, M.A.K. (1994) [1985]. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold. Holmes, J. (1997). “Women, language and identity”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 1: 195–223. Hunston, S. (2006). “Phraseology and System: a contribution to the debate” in Hunston S. and G. Thompson (eds.) System and Corpus: Exploring Connections. London: Equinox. James, A.R. (1983). “Compromisers in English: a cross-disciplinary approach to their interpersonal significance”. Journal of pragmatics 7: 191-206. Jefferson, G. (1973). “A case of precision timing in ordinary conversation”. Semiotica 9: 47–96. Macaulay, R. (2002). “You know, it depends”. Journal of Pragmatics 34: 749– 67. Östman, J.O. (1981). You Know: A Discourse Functional Approach. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Schiffrin, D. (1987). Discourse Markers. Cambridge: CUP. Schourup, L. C. (1985). Common Discourse Particles in English Conversation: like, well, y’know. New York: Garland. Scott, M. and C. Tribble. (2006). Textual Patterns. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: Benjamins. Sinclair, J. (1991). Corpus Concordance Collocation. Oxford: OUP. Sinclair, J. (2004). Trust the Text: Language, Corpus and Discourse. London / New York: Routledge.


59

Stubbs, M. (2006). Quantitative Data on Multi-Word Sequences in English: the Case of Prepositional Phrases. (Paper given at Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Nov. 2006). Tognini-Bonelli, E. (2001). Corpus Linguistics at Work. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: Benjamins. Ulrych, M. (1998). “Locating universal features of translation behaviour through multimedia translation studies”. In: Bollettieri Bosinelli, R. M. (eds.). La Traduzione Multimediale: Quale Traduzione per Quale Testo? Atti del Convegno Internazionale: La Traduzione Multimediale. Bologna: CLUEB.

60

Pierfranca Forchini

Silvia Bruti University of Pisa Elisa Perego University of Trieste Italy THE AUDIOVISUAL GENRE AND TRANSLATION OF VOCATIVES IN INTERLINGUAL SUBTITLES 1. Introduction In this we work set out to investigate the role of the audiovisual genre in the translation of vocatives in interlingual subtitles. By merging the distinct research areas of film genre and audiovisual translation, we would like to shed light on both and evidence their mutual influence 1 . Our investigation is based on a varied sample of English audiovisual products subtitled in Italian. Our data come from four previously used British and American films (cf. Bruti and Perego 2005) – Sliding Doors (P. Howitt, 1998, UK), The Talented Mr Ripley (A. Minghella, 1999, USA-Italy), Shallow Hal (Farrelly Brothers, 2002, USA) and East is East (D. O’Donnel, 1999, UK) – and some new material: a full-length animated feature from Walt Disney Pictures (Bambi, D. Hand, 1942), an action film (Lethal Weapon 4, R. Donner, 1998), an adaptation from a literary masterpiece (Sense and Sensibility, A. Lee, 1996), a popular comedy series (two episodes of Sex and the City, Season 4, “The Agony and the Ex-tasy”, M.P. King, 2001 and “I heart NY”, M.P. King 2002) and an animated series (two episodes of The Simpsons, “Homer in the night”, R. Moore, 1989-90 and “Homer the Moe”, J. Kamerman, 2001-02). Although comedy still predominates, the material is certainly comparatively more assorted and representative. 2. Film genre Genre is a multi-dimensional phenomenon common to all instances of discourse (Neale 2000: 2). Studies on genre aim to explore the range of 1

We would like to thank Yves Gambier for providing us with the stimulus, for which we are most grateful, to work in this direction. His comments on our presentation in Alicante (Spain) during the IV Jornadas de doblaje y subtitulación, Alicante (España) in May 2004 have been particularly challenging and thought-provoking.

62

Silvia Bruti and Elisa Perego

predictable patterns and processes used to produce texts that reflect an intended purpose for an intended audience (see Bhatia 1993 and Swales 1990 among many). Genre analysis therefore comprises a search for the rationale behind specific linguistic or non-linguistic choices, either in mono- or polysemiotic texts: “[f]ilm genres are various forms or identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films that are recurring and have similar, familiar or instantlyrecognizable patterns, syntax, filmic techniques or conventions” (Dirks 2006). On the basis of settings, content and subject matter, themes, period, plot, central narrative events, motifs, styles, structures, situations, recurring icons, stock characters and stars, it is possible to divide film genres into three main categories, namely main film genres proper, sub-genres and non-genres, each comprising a range of labels, as shown in Table 1. Main film genres 2 are the most common and identifiable categories, film sub-genres are more specific partitions within the larger film genre, and non-genre film categories include features that cross-over many traditional film types (Dirks 2006). Table 1. Genre classification (Dirks 2006)

NON-GENRE FILM CATEGORIES

Animated films British films Children/kids/family films Classic films Cult films Documentary films Serial films Sexual/erotic films Silent films

2

FILM GENRES MAIN FILM GENRES

Action Adventure Comedy Crime/gangster Drama Epics/historical Horror Musicals Science fiction War Westerns

FILM SUB-GENRES Biographical films (Biopics) ‘Chick’ flicks (or Gal films) Detective/mystery films Disaster films Fantasy films Film noire ‘Guy’ films Melodramas (or women’s “weepers”) Road films Romance films Sports films

Both attributes or intentions may be referred to in order to define film genres (Tudor 1986: 4). Altman (1986: 31) proposes instead a distinction between semantic and syntactic approaches to genres, the former based on the genre’s building blocks, the latter on the structural sequence.

The audiovisual genre and translation of vocatives in interlingual subtitles

63

Supernatural films Thrillers/suspense films

Since film genres are many and various, it is often challenging to define precisely to which genre a film belongs. Accurate labelling involves serious definitional problems related to the vast number of overlapping traits shared by different products. This eventually resulted in a description of each film as a unique network of traits. In fact, the constant presence of fuzzy features for each product analysed led us to use compound labels to classify each in an accurate way. 3 The generic diversity of the data is represented in Table 2. In our categorization, audiovisual products have been divided according to their major traits. When we use more partitions, we include non-genre and sub-genre labels, as this kind of information is vital for distinguishing the product at stake. Main genres are in bold, and when more labels occur in combination, the first one is the one that best describes the film, even though it does not always correspond to a main genre trait. Table 2. Genre of the films analysed

Old sample

3

East is East

COMEDY/DRAMA > FAMILY

Shallow Hal

Comedy

Sliding Doors

Comedy/drama

The Talented Mr Ripley

DRAMA > MYSTERY & THRILLER

This situation whereby it is not always clear to identify a precise internal hierarchy of traits and to what extent a dominant genre feature is recognisable is at the basis of any film-genre study (Eugeni, Farinotti 2002: 140).

64


Bambi New sample

Lethal Weapon 4 Sense and Sensibility Sex and the City The Simpsons

FULL LENGTH ANIMATION/CHILDREN > ADVENTURE > FANTASY ACTION/ADVENTURE LITERARY ADAPTATION > COMEDY/DRAMA > ROMANCE SERIAL > COMEDY SERIAL ANIMATION/ AMERICAN PRODUCTION > COMEDY

3. Vocatives Vocatives 4 , or linguistic elements of address, are widely exploited in most film dialogues, and have been chosen for the analysis as a representative category of the grammar of conversation (Biber et al. 1999). Vocatives in conversation have three main functions related to their discourse position. They are mainly used to catch the addressee's attention, maintain or reinforce the contact between the speaker and the addressee (Zwicky 1974), and provide meaningful information about the speaker’s social relations and emotive attitude towards the addressee (Huddleston and Pullum 2002). Vocatives that appear at the beginning of an utterance usually fulfil an attentiongetting function, possibly combined with that of identifying the addressee; those that are placed at the end most often contribute to expressing socio-pragmatic meanings which can also accommodate identification of the addressee. On the basis of previous research on the topic, we have selected and searched for 18 types of vocatives (Table 3), trying to cover the area and to distinguish, as finely as possible, between class members. Table 3. Terms of address

Proper names (first) Proper names (last) Familiar forms Diminutives/Nicknames Full names 4

Miranda, Marianne Ripley Russ, Dick, Peg Tommy, Margy Hal Larson, Homer Simpson

The term “vocative” can be considered a synonym of “unbound form of address”, i.e. both pronominal and nominal syntactically free form (Gramley and Pätzold 1992: 288). Hence in this paper “vocative” and “term of address” are meant to be equivalent. For a descriptive account of vocatives see both Davies 1986 and Gramley and Pätzold 1992. Cf. Szarkowska this volume.


Common nouns Kinship terms Titles Title + first name Title + last name Title + common noun Vocational titles Vocational title + last name Vocational title + title Descriptors: generic names Descriptors: modifier(s) + generic Descriptors: endearments Descriptors: insults

65

Virtue Dad, son(s), uncle Mr, Mrs, Miss Sir John Miss Dashwood Mr Impudence Doctor, Captain Reverend Larson Mister Maestro Lads, guys, girls, mate Poor thing, delightful creatures Honey, darling, sweetie Slug, bastard

4. Findings When investigating the transfer of pragmatic meanings in subtitling, one always expects reductions to take place: subtitling is necessarily selective, and if simplification occurs, the connotative, phatic and pragmatic meanings are the first to be jeopardised. Hence, our main research questions are more qualitative than quantitative in nature 5 . We have thus concentrated on whether the translation or non-translation of terms of address can be ascribed to the audiovisual genre, and whether it affects the way vocatives are translated. According to this survey, the audiovisual genre does seem to affect the choice of vocatives in the original version, as well as the extent and way in which they are translated into Italian through the medium of subtitles. The translation of vocatives is firstly linked to their relevance and pragmatic meaning in each film or film scene 6 , which, in turn, is partly determined by genre, in a vicious circle where each term of the argument draws and has repercussions on the other. Some dominant trends, though, can be detected.

5 6

For more details and figures, see Bruti and Perego 2005. The analysis of a first sample of English films with Italian subtitles revealed that whenever possible the function of vocatives tends to be respected with reference to the overall texture of the film, and that subtitles manage to capture some of the pragmatic force of the original version and make the dialogue sound as authentic and effortless as possible. Of course, technical constraints do not always allow the subtitler to be fully faithful to the original, even though a tendency exists not to remove vocatives artlessly (Bruti and Perego 2005). In order to see whether this is somehow linked to the film genre, we started out by establishing the genre of a wider sample of films and the repercussions genre has (if at all) on the translation of vocatives.

66


Comedy, for instance, is “designed to amuse and provoke laughter […] by exaggerating the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters” (Dirks 2006). It therefore abounds in vocatives, most of which are laughterprovoking descriptors (Figure 1) 7 .

East is East Shallow Hal Sliding Doors Sex & the City The Simpsons

S T 87 42 22 11 9 32 18

T T 58 25 9 5 6 25 16

Figure 1. Descriptors in comedies

The number of these descriptive epithets dramatically plummets in the subtitles, thus drawing attention to some considerations of descriptors, which are in fact a very versatile vehicle to describe and evaluate the addressee: “When speakers wish to refer to an individual concrete entity – a person, a creature, a thing or a place – they find that their language offers them a range of possible linguistic units for doing so; most of these are noun phrases. The variety of structural possibilities for noun phrases, together with the range of vocabulary means that even when it comes to picking out a particular item in a given context, a language provides its speakers with a choice of linguistic expressions.” (Allerton 1996: 621)

Thus, speakers select a descriptor on the basis of the addressee’s most outstanding features, his or her role in society, and/or the situation they find themselves in (cf. Allerton 1996: 622). As we observed elsewhere (Bruti and Perego 2005), the creativity of the English language often fails to have a proper counterpart, or any counterpart at all, in Italian. Translational problems arise for example when descriptors are structurally complex and compressed, heavily situation-based (Example 1), and when they belong to a marked subset of language (e.g. diastratic and diaphasic variation). As for the latter case, it is worth noting that descriptors which express social variation in East is East (e.g. freak, fucking gunnet, gobshite, Jimmy little bleeder, you big daft get, you cheecky little bleeder, you daft tute, you pucker/puckers, you whiffer) have no counterpart at all in the Italian

7 Cf. the notion of “marked vocatives” in Szarkowska (this volume). Note that ST stands for “source text” and TT stands for “target text”.


67

subtitles, thus failing to depict the speakers’ socio-economic status that is mirrored in their choice of vocabulary. As far as situation-based vocatives are concerned, English shows an inclination to choose and even forge terms of address to meet functional requirements in a given context (Allerton 1996). In other words, English can easily exploit a given situation and the speaker’s standpoint in the selection of an appropriate referring expression, which may cause translational problems if the target language is more analytical, like Italian. By way of illustration, in Example 1, taken from The Simpsons, no effective counterpart for the evaluative situationbased descriptor coffee-boy 8 occurs in the Italian subtitles.

MOE: Oh, quit your bellyaching, coffee-boy. You’re lucky I let you in here. (Moe fed up with his usual life and with the same old routine of serving drinks, listening to people yakking on and on and never getting even a tip) Subtitle: Oh, piantala con le tue lamentele. / Sei fortunato che ti permetto di restare. Example 1

8

This heavily situation-based term of address cannot work without the visuals. We can infer the meaning of coffee-boy only when this term is fully contextualised, i.e. when we see Barney sitting at Moe’s counter lingering over a cup of coffee (Example 1).

68


The variety of structural possibilities for noun phrases used in English is shown in Table 4 as far as descriptors are concerned, and Table 5 as far as insults are concerned. Table 4. Descriptors (modifier + generic name)

SOURCE TEXT

TARGET TEXT

Telephone tough guy (LW4) You little phoner (LW4) Barkeeper (Sim) Coffee boy (Sim) Liberty bell (Sim) You glass-wipe (Sim)

Il duro del telefono 0 Barista 0 Campanella Vecchio canovaccio

Table 5. Insults

SOURCE TEXT You big daft get (EE) You cheeky twat (EE) You cow worshipping bastards (EE) You mard arse (EE) Viper in my bosom (Sen) You sly thing (Sen) Pint-size (Sim) Mudwhistle (SH) Unibrow (SH) You little warthog (SH) You self-righteous little shit (SH) You drunken eejit (SD) You lazy git (SD) You sad, sad wanker (SD) You useless shagging bastard (SD) That purple fruit thing! (Sim) You dirty teens (Sim)

TARGET TEXT 0 Stronzo Bastardi adoratori di vacche 0 (Quanto sei cretina) 0 (Ho cresciuto una vipera in seno) 0 (Che furbetta!) Tappetto Cicciolo Scimmione Schifoso maiale Arrogante testa di cazzo Ubriaca e suonata Pigrone 0 (Sei un patetico, triste segaiolo) 0 (Sei un farabutto, scopatore, buono a nulla!) Dannato frutto viola! Sporchi ragazzacci


69

Moreover, in Italian the same lexeme translates a variety of ingenious English expressions: the subtitles, in line with universal trends in translation, undergo semantic simplification (cf. Laviosa 1998), occasionally resulting in a lexically weaker and pragmatically less effective Italian version. The same insult (e.g. stonzo) or term of endearment (e.g. tesoro) is used in Italian when English in fact resorts to a wider range of more or less conventional or marked expressions (e.g. slug, cheecky twat, cock) (Table 6). Table 6. Simplification in subtitles

SOURCE TEXT

TARGET TEXT

Insults

Prick (LW4) Asshole (LW4) Fucker (LW4) Fuckface (LW4) Jerk (LW4) Slug (EE) You cheecky twat (EE)

Stronzo

Endearments

Baby (S&C) Honey (S&C, LW, Sim) Darling (TMR, SD, EE) Sweetheart (SD) Love (EE, Sen) Cock (EE)

Tesoro

Terms of address used in the original version can also be imitated or transposed in the subtitles by using an identical expression with equivalent rendering (Gottlieb 1992: 166). In Example 2, taken from the “The Agony and the Ex-tasy”, one of the two episodes of Sex and the City, one of the main characters, Carrie, is walking deeper and deeper into fresh tarmac when some annoyed workers tell her to get off the road and sarcastically call her with a proper name used as an insult. Marilyn Monroe patently functions as an unflattering descriptor and not a term of endearment, contrary to norms of use and expectations. Beside showing an instance of imitation, Example 2 is representative of another common feature of vocatives: it is not always easy to draw a clear boundary between terms of endearment and nicknames on the one hand and terms of endearment and insults on the other. If one takes vocatives at their face value, confining oneself to their literal meaning, Marilyn Monroe should be considered a form of address containing a positive evaluation. Nevertheless, its situational context makes it

70


clear that it is used within a verbal attack and is therefore loaded with irony and sarcasm.

CARRIE (stepping deeper and deeper into the tarmac): Shit! I’m sorry! WORKER: Marilyn Monroe, get off the road! Example 2

We observed that in comedies descriptors in all their forms are the most widely used type of vocatives. Different genres, though, seem to select different vocatives. Animations (Bambi and The Simpsons) are in fact very audiencecentred and the choice of different types of vocatives is thus closely connected with the audience they are meant for. Bambi, which is addressed to young children, has no instances of offensive language or evaluative descriptors in the form of long, information-loaded noun phrases. The storyline is simple, action and music carry on the plot while dialogues are limited to the essential. Despite this, the overall number of vocatives in the original version is high and easy to translate. Immediately after names, kinship terms are second in rank, not unusual in a narrative where importance is attached to strong familiar bonds in the animal world. They are omitted only when repeated to emphasise tension or a climactic moment in the plot, as in one of the most heart-rending scenes in the film, the shooting of Bambi’s mother. In this scene, the little deer calls her repeatedly, with increased pitch, in a crescendo of anguish. The intensity of feeling is entrusted to the images, to the music and to the pitch of the original voice, whose joint effect is quite intense and allows the subtitlers to leave out the double repetition of the vocative (Example 3). It should also be noticed that the frequent occurrence of


71

nouns in Bambi is due to the fact that they play an important role in establishing and reinforcing the identity of the main characters (even more so because many of them are meaningful, e.g. Flower, Thumper, Faline) and are thus almost always retained in the Italian subtitles, where 60 appear out of the original 78.

BAMBI: Mother? Mother? Mother, where are you? Example 3

On the other hand, the language in The Simpsons, which is targeted to a teenager and adult audience, is more varied and complex. A general trend in the expository pattern of the series seems to emerge quite clearly: the most widely used terms of address are proper names. Their frequency helps to identify the main characters, those who are in the limelight, the stars of the series as such, or, at times, the stars of a specific episode (cf. Table 7; in the episode “Homer the Moe”, Moe the barkeeper is the main protagonist and, consequently, the most addressed character after Homer). Table 7. Distribution of proper names in The Simpsons

The Simpsons: Proper names Homer in the night ST TT

Homer the Moe ST TT

72


19 Homer 12 Bart 9 Marge 2 Eugene 1 Barney 1 Mike 1 MOE

13 Homer 8 Bart 6 Marge 2 Eugene 1 Barney 1 Mike 1 MOE

9 MOE 8 Homer 3 Bart 2 Formico 2 Lenny 2 Michael 1 Cecil 1 Dagmar 1 Julian 1 Lisa 1 Marge 1 Shaggy

7 MOE 7 Homer 3 Bart 2 Formico 2 Lenny 1 Michael 1 Cecil 1 Dagmar 1 Julian 1 Lisa 1 Marge 1 Shaggy

What might be interpreted as an overuse of proper names, as if there was no sufficient context to identify the addressees, seems in fact to be dictated by the search for continuity or for cohesive ties to interconnect episodes. Proper names are used and preserved (or non-preserved) in a different way in different genres. In action-adventure films, where physical action and an exciting plot dominate over conversation, proper names, first and last, are chiefly used with the function of attention-getters, and are not regularly present in the subtitles. Most of the exchanges between the constantly interacting protagonists occur in frantic and excited situations. It is exactly in this environment that we have noticed the highest rate of omissions. Language, though, is typically used tongue-in-cheek and drawn on to assert and reinforce the professional and sexual status of characters. Heroes and enemies are proclaimed through language: vocational titles plus last names are used and typically maintained (cf. Captain Riggs/Murtaugh > Capitano Riggs/Murtaugh) to emphasise the positive characters’ authority and role; terms of endearment are used in familiar settings to underline the heroes’ ethical and human nature; insults have a well-established addressee, i.e. the enemy. Although insults are not abundant (22 in the source text and 19 in the target text), they are very strong and nasty, and epitomise the language of conflict. Interestingly, insults and terms of endearment differ from a formal point of view: the former are normally complex noun groups, heavily modified and situationbased (cf. Tables 4 and 5) as opposed to the latter, which appear to have a simpler internal structure and occur in more standardised patterns irrespective of genre (cf. Sense and Sensibility). This does not mean the same extent of creativity in terms of language, but can facilitate translation. Furthermore, no sharp distinction between insults and terms of endearment exists in terms of referents in comedy films such as East is East, Shallow Hal, Sex and the City or The Simpsons, where both types are used either in everyday life and at work, and insults can be used as


73

banter within family or among friends. The use and function of insults in Lethal Weapon 4 shows that the same category of terms of address can have a different meaning, communicative purpose and distribution in different film genres. Insults are hardly present in literary adaptations such as Sense and Sensibility 9 , where conversation is central and vocatives appear with a remarkable frequency (344 in the source text, 131 in the target text). Their choice seems to be determined mainly by the setting, featuring the British society at the time Austen wrote. Even though emotions are part and parcel of the plot of this film, the social conventions of the period that it depicts impose restraint and decorum in expressing them. Hence the infrequent occurrence of generic names and offensive terms. So out of the overall number of vocatives, 166 are titles in various combinations 10 and 116 are names. The fact that both categories can be accessed quite easily through the original soundtrack explains the source text-target text discrepancy in the number of vocatives used. In the subtitles there are only 47 titles and 55 names, but also 19 terms of endearment out of 42. Their heavy reduction is made possible by the fact that since terms of endearment appear to be standardised in pattern, stereotyped and routinised (cf. dear, dearest, my dear(s)/my dear + first name, my dear + title), they can be easily recognised and accessed by a foreign audience. 5. Conclusions Including the audiovisual genre as a variable in the study of translation of vocatives in interlingual subtitles has broadened our research horizons and has allowed us to observe how close a relationship exists between the audiovisual genre itself, the rhetorical and pragmatic choices made by the scriptwriter in the first place, and the translation of some specific linguistic items into subtitles. Vocatives in particular seem to be influenced by the audiovisual genre in terms of type, distribution and frequency in any given audiovisual product, and can themselves function as genre-defining elements (cf. insults in actionadventure films, descriptors in comedies and titles in literary adaptations). Nevertheless, the identifiable patterns of the audiovisual genre can become slightly blurred in subtitles when vocatives do not have adequate renderings. This is particularly so when the speaker-addressee relationship, the speaker’s evaluation of addressee and situation, and the speaker’s social background are 9

Only two examples of derogatory terms (e.g., you sly thing, viper in my bosom) occur, that have been omitted in the translation. This can be explained as a consequence of the fact that in this setting, only in very few relationships a certain degree of intimacy could be reached. 10 Title alone, e.g. Madam; title + last name, e.g. Miss Dashwood; title + first name, e.g. Miss Marianne; vocational title, e.g. Colonel.

74


expressed in the use of a remarkably effective form of address in English, lacking a similarly effective counterpart in Italian. However, when, in spite of heavy omissions, the soundtrack is easily comprehensible, the intentions of the original are not seriously jeopardised. When instead the target audience can only rely on the translated version, a broader gap between the original and the translated text is created, even though, on the whole, subtitlers seem to respect precise functional and communicational criteria. References Allerton, D. J. (1996). “Proper names and definite descriptions with the same reference: A pragmatic choice for language users”. Journal of Pragmatics 25: 621-633. Altman, R. (1986). “A semantic/syntactic approach to film genre”. In Grant, B. K. (ed.) Film Genre Reader III. Austin: University of Texas Press. 27-41. Bathia, V. K. (1993). Analysing Genre. Language Use in professional Settings. London: Longman. Biber D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad S. and E. Finegan (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman. Bruti, S. and E. Perego (2005). “Translating the expressive function in subtitles: the case of vocatives”. In Sanderson, J.D. (ed.) Research on Translation for Subtitling in Spain and Italy. Alicante: Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alicante. 27-48. Davies, E. E. (1986). “English vocatives: A look into their function and form”. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 19: 91-106. Dirks, T. (2006). Film Genres, http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html Eugeni, R. and L. Farinotti (2002). “Introduzione”. In Eugeni, R. and Farinotti, L. (eds.) Territori di confine. Contributi per una cartografia dei generi cinematografici, Numero monografico di Comunicazioni Sociali. Rivista di media, spettacolo e studi culturali 24(2): 137-152. Gottlieb, H. (1992). "Subtitling - a new university discipline". In Dollerup, C. and Loddegaard, A. (eds.) Teaching Translation and Interpreting 1. Training, Talent and Experience. Papers from the First Language International Conference, Elsinore, Denmark, 31 May – 2 June 1991. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 161-170. Gramley, S. and K. M. Pätzold (1992). A Survey of Modern English. London/New York: Routledge. Huddleston, R. and G.K. Pullum (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Laviosa, S. (1998). "Universals of translation". In Baker, M. (ed.) Routledege Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies. London: Routledge. 288-291.


75

Neale, S. (2000). Genre and Hollywood. London: Routledge. Swales, J. (1990). Genre Analysis. English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tudor, A. (1986). “Genre”. In Grant, B.K. (ed.) Film Genre Reader III. Austin: University of Texas Press. 3-11. Zwicky, A. M. (1974). “Hey, whatsyourname!”. In Papers from the Tenth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS 10). 787-801

76


Agnieszka Szarkowska University of Warsaw Poland WHY ARE SOME VOCATIVES NOT OMITTED IN SUBTITLING? A STUDY BASED ON THREE SELECTED POLISH SOAPS BROADCAST ON TV POLONIA. 1. Introduction Subtitling is (in?)famous for high omission rates, i.e. the reduction of the source text in comparison with the target text (see e.g. Bogucki 2004: 18; Gottlieb 1998: 247; Pisarska and Tomaszkiewicz 1996: 193; Tomaszkiewicz 2006: 113). This phenomenon is rightly attributed to a number of constraints (such as spatial or temporal) inherent in this mode of audiovisual translation (AVT) 1 . In this paper I intend to focus on the subtitling of vocatives. However, instead of studying the omission rates of particular types of these forms of address, I examine situations from the opposite end of the spectrum, i.e. those in which the omission technique does not take place. The purpose of the paper is, therefore, to exemplify a number of instances in which vocatives are not omitted and to explain why this is the case. The final part of the paper discusses a curious phenomenon which was observed in the course of research: the addition of vocatives to the target text. The approach adopted in this paper is descriptive: I analyse a parallel corpus, consisting of almost 100,000 words, with a view to examining the translation of vocatives in three selected Polish soap operas (M jak miłość, Klan, and Plebania 2 ) broadcast on TV Polonia with English subtitles. The major 1

Gottlieb (1998: 247) claims that the “average measure of reduction may vary, but in television subtitling the text volume is typically reduced by one third”. Tomaszkiewicz (2006: 113) states that it has been calculated that 30-40% of the original dialogue disappears in subtitling. Pisarska and Tomaszkiewicz (1996: 193) give the same figure. Generally speaking, there is a widespread agreement that subtitling involves considerable reduction. Lomheim (1999: 191) points out, however, that the exact omission rates are difficult to calculate, because while counting and comparing the number of words in the dialogue and in subtitles might seem an objective measurement method, it is in fact not the case, owing to differing lexical structures of the languages. 2 M jak miłość is known in the English version as The Name of Love; Klan as Clan; Plebania as The Parish. Plebania was translated by two different translators: a native speaker of American English (abbreviated as Plebania_R in further sections of the paper), and an Irishman living in Poland (Plebania_B). In the corpus I analyse the translations of both of them with a view to discovering any possible differences in individual translator’s preferences.

78

Agnieszka Szarkowska

methodological tools for this paper will be the concept of audience design, as developed by Allan Bell (1984), and a simplified version of multimodal analysis, as developed by Baldry and Thimbault (2006, see also Taylor 2003). First of all, let us define the major terms used in this paper. 2. Vocatives Forms of address is a broad umbrella term which is here taken to comprise two major types: (1) vocatives and (2) verbal and pronominal forms. First, vocatives are here understood as words or phrases, usually nominal, denoting the addressee(s), used for direct address, standing outside the main body of the clause and being separated from it by intonation. Vocatives are different from verbal and pronominal forms of address, which are part of the main body of the clause. There are two main types of vocatives: calls (sentence (a) below) and addresses (sentence (b) below). The former serve mainly as attention-getters, while the latter maintain and reinforce social relationships. Both can be used to identify the addressee (see Biber et al. 1999). 1. 2.

Kate, are you ok? It’s alright, Kate.

In subtitling, it is vocatives that are often considered optional or superfluous. In further sections I intend to demonstrate in greater detail which types of vocatives tend to remain on screen and why. 3. Communication levels In film language three levels of communication can be differentiated: Level 1: communication between filmic characters on the screen Level 2: communication between the scriptwriter and the audience Level 3: communication between the translator and the target audience. For example, when two characters are on first-name terms, forms of address can be a signal of their familiarity on communication level (1). However, on level (2), the very same forms of address can be used to contribute to the characterisation of the interpersonal relationship between them, or simply to introduce the characters who appear on the screen for the first time. The two first levels need to be consistently combined in translation, i.e. on level (3).

79

Why are some vocatives not omitted in subtitling?

4. Audience design Audience design is a concept developed by Allan Bell (1984) in order to account for stylistic variation on the part of speakers as response to their audiences. According to Bell (1984: 159), audience comprises four types of possible members: addressees, auditors, overhearers and eavesdroppers, depending on whether speakers know of, or expect, the presence of receivers, on whether they are ratified participants, and on whether or not they are addressed directly (see Table 1). Table 1. Hierarchy of attributes and audience roles (after Bell 1984: 160)

Addressee Auditor Overhearer Eavesdropper

Known + + + -

Ratified + + -

Addressed + -

In Bell’s typology, the most important person in the audience is the addressee, “who is known, ratified and addressed” (1984: 159). Auditors are those who are ratified interlocutors in the group and who are known to the speaker; they are present, but not directly addressed. Overhearers are “third parties whom the speaker knows to be there, but who are not ratified participants” (ibidem), whereas “other parties whose presence is unknown” are called eavesdroppers. According to Bell (1984), speakers’ style is influenced mostly by addressees. 5. Multimodal analysis In subtitling, it is not only written text that is important, but also images and the picture flow – which, however, are often disregarded in the translation analysis. One of the new developments in AVT research as regards methodological tools which takes the visual aspect into consideration is the socalled multimodal transcription. Developed by Baldry and Thimbault (2006), multimodal transcription is a toolkit used in the analysis of multimodal texts, such as films. In its original formulation, multimodal transcription is, as its authors put it, a ‘frame-based dissection of texts’. The original method developed by Baldry and Thimbault seems too complex to be applied in its entirety in this paper, so the method used here is a simplified version and it will be referred to as multimodal analysis. The simplified method consists in combining the visual image with a description of action on the screen as well as the dialogue list, its translation and the subtitled target text, all fitted conveniently in the form of a table.

80


Let us now move on to analyze the translation of forms of address. It is vocatives that seem to be excellent candidates to omission as they – unlike verbal and pronominal forms – are not obligatory and stand outside the clause. 6. Omitting vocatives In order to find out how many vocatives were omitted and how many actually made their way to the translated texts, we need to know how many vocatives there were altogether. Therefore, the percentage of appellative words was calculated for both the source text and the target text for each soap (Table 2). Table 2. Vocatives as percentage of running words by soap Corpus POLISH (ST) ENGLISH (TT)

M jak miłość

Klan

Plebania_R

Plebania_B

Average

1.32%

1.72%

2.51%

1.55%

1.78%

0.86%

0.96%

1.88%

1.28%

1.25%

As a result, it turned out that all the three soaps show remarkable resemblance in the sense that all the source texts contain more vocatives than the target texts. Vocatives in the Polish sub-corpus generally comprise approx. 1.8% of the total number of running words, whereas in the English sub-corpus the ratio is much lower and oscillates around 1.25%. This demonstrates that in each soap there certainly was a considerable reduction in the number of vocatives (Table 3). Table 3. Omission rates of vocatives by soap M jak miłość 35%

Klan 45%

Plebania_R 26%

Plebania_B 18%

Average 31%

It can be seen that the highest omission rates can be found in the translation of Klan, while the lowest in Plebania_B. This points to differences in individual preferences and translation techniques between particular translators. On average, however, it turns out that the number of vocatives is lower by one third in the target text in comparison with the source text.

81


7. Calls vs. addresses The next step in our analysis is to differentiate between the two types of vocatives, i.e. calls and addresses, in both the source and the target texts (see the table below). Table 4. Percentage of calls and address in total number of running words

POL ENG

calls 1.23% 0.7%

Klan addresses 0.48% 0.26%

M jak miłość calls addresses 0.74% 0.57% 0.34% 0.52%

Plebania R calls addresses 1.24% 1.27% 0.75% 1.12%

Plebania B calls addresses 0.63% 0.91% 0.51% 0.88%

As far as the source texts are concerned, the data show that in the Polish language, calls are used more frequently than addresses in the case of M jak miłość and Klan, while in Plebania_R they are practically equally numerous. In Plebania_B the ratio is slightly reversed: the number of addresses is higher in the source text. In translation a noticeable optional shift took place: the number of calls was considerably reduced in favour of the number of addresses. For example, in the analysed episodes of M jak miłość, the number of calls was reduced by half, while the number of addresses went down only by a tiny fraction. The only exception to this general observation is Klan, where the percentage of cuts between the two types of appellatives is similar. What is more, a number of calls were moved to the position to addresses. In the corpus calls were turned into addresses 29 times, while the opposite process, i.e. changing addresses into calls, took place only twice. Thus, for example, the Polish utterance: Oleńko, pójdziemy na spacer? [M jak miłość] in the English translation becomes: How about a walk, Olenka? Here are some other examples: Rafał, co się dzieje? What’s going on, Rafal? [M jak miłość] Chłopaki, wpuście mnie, bo na własne oczy chcę zobaczyć to cudo. Let me in, boys, I want to see this gem with my own eyes. [M jak miłość]

82

Agnieszka Szarkowska Zbyszek, przestań! Stop it, Zbyszek! [Plebania_R] Drogie panie, chyba wędlinka w tym domu też się znajdzie? Isn’t there anything more substantial, dear ladies? [Klan] Stary, co ty gadasz? What are you saying, man? [Plebania_R]

In trying to explain the phenomenon of turning calls into addresses, it is useful to refer to corpus research on the distribution of vocatives in the English language (see section 2.2.1. and Biber et al. 1999: 1111). This linguistic item most frequently takes the final position in English: approx. 70% of vocatives follow the linguistic unit to which they are attached, while the remaining 30% are almost equally distributed among vocatives in the initial, medial, and stand-alone positions. What is more, one of the subtitlers himself, stated that it is the final position that he finds most natural for vocatives. 8. Retaining vocatives Although the number of vocatives was reduced in translation by one-third, many of them are in fact retained in subtitling. What is more, the research revealed that vocatives were sometimes added to the target text in the cases when they did not occur in the original. Let us look closely at some scenes and try to decide what prompted the translators to retain the vocatives on the screen. First of all, in trying to explain why a number of vocatives remained on the screen, it is useful to refer to the abovementioned notion of audience design. Vocatives are often retained in subtitles in order to differentiate addressees among other ratified participants (i.e. auditors) present on the screen at the same time. Secondly, vocatives also need to be preserved in translation when they are used in a marked sense, i.e. when the appellative used in a particular scene differs from the usual pattern of address and is important for understanding the flow of discourse and further development of the conversation. To illustrate these two points, let us examine a scene from Plebania. SCENE 1 (PLEBANIA) In this scene Tosiek, a recent widower, is having dinner with his children and Gosia, his late wife’s sister who at the request of dying Sofi, came to stay and

83


help Tosiek’s family. There are eight people altogether at the table (see frame 1 below). N

Visual frame

Action

1

The family are eating dinner in silence.

2

Michał pours some of his soup into Lucyna’s plate.

3

Lucyna gives him a poke. Her aunt’s arm is visible across the shot.

4

A close-up on aunt who reproaches Lucyna.

5

Shot featuring Lucyna and Michał together.

Soundtrack

G: Lucyna, co ty robisz?

L: To on zaczął!

Translation

Lucyna, what are you doing?

He started it!

Subtitle

- Lucyna, what are you doing? - He started it.

84

6


Aunt Gosia tells Michał to eat.

G: Michał, jedz!

Michał, eat! - Michał, eat! - I can’t anymore!

7

Michał protests.

8

Michał pushes Lucyna when she tells Gosia about the sweets.

9

Lucyna takes a deep breath and shouts to her aunt.

1 0

Shot on Tosiek and one of his daughters. Tosiek questions Lucyna angrily, leaning towards her.

M: Już nie mogę!…

I can’t anymore.

G: [off screen] Cukierki przed kolacją? L: Zjadł dwa batoniki…

Sweets before dinner? He ate two chocolate bars!

M: Skarżypyta! L: Mamo, weź go!

Sneak! Mamo, take him!

T: Co... coś ty powiedziała?

What... what did you say?

- Sweets before supper? - He ate two chocolate bars.

- You sneak! - Mum, get him!

85


1 1

1 2

1 3

Lucyna apologises to Gosia, looking sorry. Michał is eating his soup, afraid of looking up

L: Przepraszam ciociu…

I’m sorry, auntie. - I’m sorry, auntie... - It doesn’t matter, my dear...

Close-up at Gosia, smiling.

G: Nic nie szkodzi, kochanie…

It doesn’t matter, darling.

A close-up at Tosiek, shouting.

T: A ty zapomniałaś kto to matka?!

And have you forgotten who your mother is?!

And have you forgotten who your mother is?

At first, the entire family are all eating in silence (frame 1), but then Michał, one of Tosiek’s sons, pours some of his soup into the plate of Lucyna, Tosiek’s daughter (frame 2). In return, Lucyna gives Michał a poke (frame 3), which is noticed by aunt Gosia who breaks the silence and tells Lucyna to stop (frame 4). Because everybody else, apart from Michał and Lucyna, is engaged in eating and looking into their own bowls, Gosia – when rebuking Lucyna – has to make it clear who precisely she is addressing. Therefore, she uses the girl’s first name as a call to attract her attention and to single her out from other ratified recipients. Hence, on communication level (1) Lucyna becomes the addressee, while all the other ratified participants can be classified as auditors. In this way, Bell’s typology concerning audience design comes in useful in proposing an explanatory claim that calls can be retained in subtitles in order to differentiate addressees from auditors. On communication levels (2) and (3), vocatives help the audience infer who is being addressed. The problem of translating vocative forms becomes even more prominent in the case of subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH), where the information concerning the speaker and the addressee cannot be inferred by the audience from the auditory channel, and has to be somehow incorporated in

86


the target text. It would be interesting to compare the vocative rates in the subtitling for hearing audiences with those in SDH. 9. Marked vocatives Apart from the need to differentiate addressees from auditors, vocatives are also retained in subtitling when they are marked. Markedness is here taken to mean a departure from what constitutes the typical and expected pattern of linguistic behaviour in a particular situation. Let us go back to the scene from Plebania presented above to discuss this point. Further on in the scene (frame 8) Gosia inquires whether Michał ate any sweets before dinner, which is eagerly confirmed by Lucyna who informs Gosia that he had two chocolate bars. Michał responds with calling Lucyna a sneak and hitting her arm. Lucyna braces herself and yells: Mum, get him! (frame 9). Here, the vocative is crucial for further development of the conversation. Because the scene takes place only a few weeks after the death of Tosiek’s wife and the children’s mother, bereaved Tosiek is still in despair and is brooding over the past. He is appalled when he hears that this daughter address her aunt as mum. He yells at Lucyna, reminding her who her mother was (frames 10 and 13). Lucyna apologises to Gosia, this time using a more appropriate form of address: auntie (frame 11). By doing this, she acknowledges that her father is right and she conforms to his implied wishes. It is clear now that on communication level (2) the translator had to keep the kinship terms mum and auntie in the subtitles. Otherwise, the entire situation and the resulting anger on Tosiek’s part would have been incomprehensible to the target audience. 10. Telephone conversations Interestingly, vocatives are often retained in subtitles in scenes where characters are talking on the phone. SCENE 2 (KLAN) Monika walks into her restaurant and she takes a call from Majka.

87

Why are some vocatives not omitted in subtitling? N

1

2

Visual frame

Action

Soundtrack

Translation

Subtitle

Monika walks into her restauran t, taking a call on her mobile.

Przepraszam, a kto mówi?

Sorry, and who's speaking?

Sorry, who’s speaking?

She smiles.

Aaa, Majka. Niewyraźnie słyszałam. Co u Ciebie? Jak matura?

Ah, Majka! I didn’t hear you well. How are you? How is your matura exam?

Ah, Majka! I didn’t hear you. How are your exams going?

Since Monika cannot hear well at first, she is explicitly inquiring who is calling (frame 1) and says the caller’s name out loud for the benefit of the audience (frame 2). This is most probably just one of frequent tricks used by the scriptwriter to insert the vocative in the dialogue for the sake of the audience, i.e. on communication level (2). Since the caller is not shown in this scene and the only information about the caller comes from the verbal auditory channel, the translator decided to keep the appellative in the subtitles on communication level (3), so that the target audience know who is calling. The verbal auditory channel makes it known to the audience who is calling whom before it is shown in the visual channel. 11. Idiosyncratic expressions In the course of research it also turned out that vocatives may not undergo omission when they are part and parcel of the idiosyncrasies of particular characters. This observation runs contrary to what is considered to be common occurrence in subtitling, namely the neutralisation of various idiolects and sociolects, characteristic of oral discourse, which was termed by Lambert ‘un style zéro’ (qtd. in Rosa 2001: 216). In Plebania there is one character who uses an idiosyncratic form of address towards his mother. It is Józek, the policeman, who is a typical mummy’s boy. One of the characters in the soap describes him as follows: “He’s a thirty-year-old boy, who lives with his mother. He’s a mammy’s boy. She puts everything under

88


his nose. She’s spoiled him rotten.” Józek addresses his mother as mamcia, which is an uncommon diminutive form of the Polish word ‘mother’. In the soap, his mother, Eugenia Piecuch, is hardly ever referred to with her name 3 , but rather with the form used by her son. To illustrate this point, let us have a closer look at the dialogue below, which is taken from a conversation between Józek, his mother, and Hania, a girl Józek is very fond of (who in further episodes becomes his wife). The scene is meant to be comical, featuring an archetypal conflict in which a character is faced with the choice between the love (and cuisine) of his mother and his wife-to-be. POLISH DIALOGUE

ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Mamcia: Obiad..? U niej..?

Dinner? At her place?

Józek: Obiecałem. M: No a mój obiad..? J: Mamcia, proszę... M: Pieczarkowa... zrazy zawijane... sosik... ziemniaczki... surówka z marcheweczki i jabłuszka... a kompot ze śliwek, twój ulubiony przecież... ... A co ty masz, Haniu? Hania: Rosół.

I promised. And what about my dinner? Mamcia, please. Mushroom soup, rolled zrazy, gravy, carrot and apple salad, and plum kompot, your favourite.

Broth.

M: Rosół...

Broth.

H: I leniwe.

And leniwe.

J: Ja leniwe lubię... mamcia...

I like leniwe, mamcia.

M: Ja wiem, wiem... moje leniwe...! Przecież ty wszystko lubisz, co moje... A wiesz dlaczego..? Dlatego, że ja w to wszystko wkładam serce... i obojętne czy to jest schabowy, czy leniwe,... serce matki..! I to jest najlepsza przyprawa.

I know, I know. My leniwe! You like everything I make. And do you know why? Because I put my heart into everything! No matter whether it’s a pork chop or leniwe, a mother’s heart! And this is the best ingredient.

As can be seen from the dialogue above, the translator 4 decided to retain the form of address in exactly the same form as in the original, i.e. to keep the Polish term mamcia in the English version. According to him (personal communication), it is difficult, if not impossible, to preserve the idiosyncratic meaning of this form of 3

Even on the list of characters on the official website of Plebania (www.plebania.pl) she is referred to as mamcia. 4 The term mamcia does not appear in the episodes translated by the other translator, so it is impossible to establish differences in their approaches.


89

address – which was why he decided to make use of this form consistently with regard to this character. On communication level 1 the vocative form of address mamcia serves to adequately render the relationship between Józek and his mother – that of mummy’s boy. On communication level 2, the vocative is used to give the scene some comical flavour. On communication level 3, the target audience is presented with the source-language oriented vocative form of address to show both for characterisation and comical purposes. 12. Adding vocatives to subtitles As was mentioned above, the research revealed a curious phenomenon: a number of vocative forms of address was added to the target text. This took place particularly in the case of Polish third person verbal forms of address, or when there was a switch from a more formal to a more familiar term of address (similar to vous → tu in French, Sie → du in German, etc.) 5 . A good example of this phenomenon can be found in a dialogue between Hania and Józek from Plebania. By using the pan pronoun with third person verb form, Hania wants to show that she is angry with Józek for his failure to keep the promise to help her. When Józek walks into the grocery store where Hania works, he is greeted with a cold “dobry wieczór” (‘good evening’) instead of a more familiar “cześć” (“hi”). This already signals to Józek that something is wrong, but it is only after Hania addresses him as pan (“sir” in the subtitles) does he realise that things are not going well between the two of them. POLISH DIALOGUE Józek: Cześć, Hania... Hania: Dobry wieczór. Podać coś? J: Może piwo... H: Jedno piwo. Dwa czterdzieści. J: Albo... albo dwa... na myślenie... H: Niech się pan najpierw zdecyduje. J: Pan..? No co ty, kurza twarz..? H: A jak ja mam powiedzieć? J: No jak, no... Józek... H: Józek? Józek to był kiedyś... wtedy kiedy mi pomagał... i był słowny, jak obiecał to dotrzymał... a jak się umówił 5

ENGLISH SUBTITLES Hi, Hania. Good evening. What is it you’d like? A beer, perhaps. One beer. Two zlotys, forty. Or two beers, for the gray cells. Please make up your mind, sir. What’s with the flippin’ ‘sir’? - And how am I to speak to you? - With my name, Józek, of course... Józek? I used to know a Józek. He’d help me... and he’d always keep his word....

Verbal forms of address in the singular in Polish can take two forms: (1) a more familiar second person form which can be accompanied by the second person familiar pronoun ty, and (2) a more formal third person form accompanied by the pronominal form pan for a man and pani for a woman.

90

Agnieszka Szarkowska , to przyszedł... J: Kurza twarz... przecież wiesz, że nie mogłem. H: Jasne... twoje śledztwo..! J: Moja szansa. Mogę złapać zabójcę... Ja. Rozumiesz..? Osobiście..! H: To go jeszcze nie złapałeś..? J: No... niezupełnie... Chyba mi zwiał z gminy, teraz to go kto inny złapie... H: I tak wszystko jedno. J: A mój sukces..? Ja wystawiam, a kto inny ma trofeum... gdzie mój sukces... Zaraz... tobie to wszystko jedno..? H: Cztery złote i osiemdziesiąt groszy J: Ja to myślałem, że... H: Co myślałeś? J: Że ja... no... że my... że my się trochę lubimy..? H: Ty nie lubisz. Ty pracujesz. Cztery osiemdziesiąt. J: Pięć. H: Wydam resztę. J: Nie trzeba. Do widzenia pani. H: Ja też nie potrzebuję..! J: Łaski bez.

- Flipin’ hell.. sure you know I could then... - Sure, your investigation..! My chance. I may catch a murderer. Me. Don’t you understand? Me! And you haven’t caught him yet? Not exactly. He’s scampered, now someone else is going to catch him... Sure it makes no difference. And my success. I deliver him, and someone else gets the glory... Where’s my success. Hold on, does it really not matter to you? 4.80 zlotys. And I thought that... What did you think? Well, that we sort of liked each other. You don’t. You work. 4.80 zlotys. Five. I’ll give you your change. No need. Goodbye, miss.

Józek does not like the form of address he is greeted with, so he instantly expresses his displeasure and voices his protest. The distancing form pan is an obstacle standing on his way to what so far seemed to be a promising beginning of a relationship (“myślałem, że [...] my się trochę lubimy” – ‘I thought that [...] we sort of liked each other’). Józek is trying to explain the situation to Hania, who at the moment is too resentful to listen to his arguments. As a result, he feels offended by her attitude and her lack of interest in matters which are crucial to his future career as a policeman. In the course of the conversation they return to the usual, unmarked, form of address, i.e. first-name terms, but at the end of the scene it is Józek who responds with another marked form, calling Hania pani as if in retaliation for both her linguistic and non-linguistic behaviour. The addition technique was employed by both translators of Plebania, for instance: Proboszcz nie przesadza? Aren’t you exaggerating, father? Później też będzie ładnie, zobaczy mamusia. It’ll be nice later on, too, you’ll see, mom.


91

Słyszy ksiądz jaka mądra? Do you hear her, father? No widzi mamusia? You see, mammy?

The phenomenon of adding vocatives to the target text can be explained with reference to the notions of explicitation and implicitation. On the pronominal and verbal level, Polish forms of address undergo obligatory implicitation when translated into English: both the familiar second person verb form and formal third person verb form in Polish are rendered as second person forms in English (you + verb), thus blurring differences in the ways Polish characters address each other. Therefore, in order to compensate for the loss, i.e. the missing information about the degree of formality inherent in the Polish utterances with a third person verb, a vocative term of address is added to the translated utterance, hence making it more polite than an utterance without it. Since such vocatives do not serve an attention-getting function, but rather indicate social relationships between characters, they appear in subtitles as addresses, and not as calls. The process of adding a vocative to the target text can be seen as optional explicitation, as it results in making more explicit the information that is implied in the source text. 13. Conclusion The goal of this paper was to shed some light on the question that had not been frequently asked by audiovisual translation researchers before: instead of focusing on the omission patterns of vocatives, I looked into the situations in which vocatives tend to remain on screen and tried to answer why this is the case. In arriving at the results and in formulating explanations, I made extensive use of the multimodal analysis, the notion of audience design, and the division into three communication levels characteristic of film language. All the above has led me to the following conclusions: in the corpus analysed here vocatives have generally been retained: − in the case of many ratified participants present on screen to help distinguish the addressee(s) from other ratified participants (communication levels 1, 2 and 3) − in the case of marked forms of address to preserve the flow of discourse (communication levels 1, 2 and 3) − in telephone conversations to signal who is being called (communication levels 2 and 3) − in the case of idiosyncratic expressions to preserve the strategies of characterisation concerning certain protagonists (communication levels 2 and 3)

92


Interestingly, a number of vocatives was added to the target text to compensate for the loss of information encoded in the verbal and pronominal forms of address in the source text. What is more, several calls were moved to the position of addresses, which may demonstrate adherence to the norms of the target language. By no means did I intend to uncover universal patterns of vocative retention rates; my research results are an analysis of a tiny fraction of a wider area and are limited by, inter alia, the genre, the mode of audiovisual translation and the languages undergoing examination as well as the choice of titles included in the corpus. It would be interesting to see whether the similar patterns can be discerned in other languages or genres. References Bell, A. (1984). “Language Style as Audience Design”. In: Language in Society 13(2): 145-204. Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., and E. Finegan (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Harlow: Pearson Education. Bogucki, Ł. (2004). A Relevance Theoretic Framework for Constraints on Cinema Subtitling. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego. Gottlieb, H. (1998). “Subtitling”. In: Baker, M. (ed.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 244-248. Pisarska, A. and T. Tomaszkiewicz (1996). Współczesne tendencje przekładoznawcze. Poznań: Wydawnictwa Naukowe UAM. Rosa, A. A. (2001). “Features of Oral and Written Communication in Subtitling”. In: Gambier, Y. and Gottlieb, H. (eds) (Multi)Media Translation: Concepts, practices, and research. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 213-221. Taylor, Ch. (2003). “Multimodal Transcription in the Analysis, Translation and Subtitling of Italian Films”. In: The Translator 9(2): 191-205. Tomaszkiewicz, T. (2006). Przekład audiowizualny, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

Teresa Tomaszkiewicz University of Adam Mickiewicz, Poznań Poland AREAS OF UNTRANSLATABILITY IN AUDIOVISUAL TRANSFERS 1. Introduction Audiovisual translation, screen translation, intersemiotic translation, translation for the media; this is the whole range of terms for the phenomena that contemporary communication struggles with. It concerns the translation for the purpose of cinema, computer, and television screen. Numerous studies on this field revealed the presence of various technical constraints which the translation practitioner has to face. Many translation techniques depend on a profound analysis of the translated text which, not infrequently, is a dialogue text. The decisions that the translator has to make depend on the conversational analysis, on the difference between information and relational information. Those different methods of organising film dialogues into hierarchy lead to necessary, from the technical point of view, shortenings and source text condensations, which result in different modifications, described in numerous works on this subject. Among others there are: − a simplification of the hierarchical structure of conversation; − a frequent shift, in a certain sequences, from dialogue into monologue; − a removal of many elements typical for the spoken language; − lessening the cohesion within a sentence and between particular sequences; − violation , in some cases, linguistic rules of politeness that can give impression of straightforwardness of the exchanged retorts; − omission of many deictic expressions and the elements expressing subjectivity of opinion, which , as a result, gives the impression of discourse neutrality; − high anchoring of the dialogue texts in the utterance, showed on the screen. Generally, it can be stated that the disposal of many elements, typical of conversational texts and thus belonging to spoken language, results in the rapprochement of the conversational texts to the written ones. However, it cannot be forgotten that a vital role, in conveying the meaning in the cinema, plays the image, constantly accompanying dialogue text. Thanks to the image this phenomenon is, in many cases, neutralized. It has to be emphasised that the

94

Teresa Tomaszkiewicz

criteria the translator has to take into consideration (technical, linguistic, semiologic, cultural, and cognitive) while making translational decisions and assessing the informative role of particular parts of the original are highly heterogeneous. It's not infrequent that those criteria have the ability to accumulate. Despite the close analysis on this level, it is impossible to avoid the phenomena classified by the translation theory as 'untranslatable'. In so far as the text translation struggled with those problems by employing the following well-known techniques: definitional extensions, paraphrases, translator's footnotes etc., the application of those techniques seems to be limited in audiovisual translation. On the other hand, the ubiquitous image can help to solve those problems as well as inhibit the understanding of the meaning. In numerous publications I have tried to classify the translation techniques applied in the cultural elements transfer. (Cf. Tomaszkiewicz, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2006). I shall limit myself here to their brief reminder. I would like to state, however, that the translation attitudes towards the cultural elements present in the feature films are a bit different to the attitudes to those elements present in TV programmes, for instance in daily news. In an excellent analysis of the several hours of the recorded news programmes, Borowczyk (2004) revealed that 80% of cultural information are proper names: toponymes, anthroponyms, the titles of newspapers and periodicals, political parties. She also demonstrated that cases of omission of those elements are very scarce, as they contain essential information from the message sending point of view. However, in most cases, translators apply different techniques that aim to elucidate the sense of a particular culture element, to the foreign receiver, to define which referent is in question. We can observe in the opposite phenomenon, i.e. different kinds of extension, at the cost of other elements. The following techniques are in question. 2. Techniques applied in the cultural elements transfer Omissions - Słuchaj, podobno wystawiacie ten music- - Podobno wystawiacie ten music-hall. hall w Syrenie. Cette opinion majoritaire, seuls quatre candidats l’ont comprise: Christine Boutin, Christine Taubira, Jean SaintJosse, Noël Mamère disent non à l’amnistie en écho à une pétition de la prévention routière. (16.04.02)

Und obwohl dieses Umdenken nun eingesetzt hat, ist es nicht verwunderlich, dass die vier Kandidaten, die sich für eine Amnestie ausgesprochen haben, nicht zu den Spitzenkandidaten gehören.

Areas of untranslatability in audiovisual transfers

95

In the both cases the proper names are ommited because they have not an important meaning for foreign receiver. Direct transfer - Tu habites où ? - A Cergy Village.

- Gdzie mieszkasz ? - W Cergy Village.

Borowczyk (2004 : 59-61) points out that in the TV programmes of this kind direct transfer, according to Delisle (1999) 'report' concerns the names of the cities regions and other administrative units, squares, streets, schools, statues, newspapers or even periodicals. A kind of translation trick is to affix those names, where necessary, with the target language article, e.g. la place du Châtel – die place du Châtel; l’ Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées – die Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées. Another example are proper names, consisting of a proper name and a colloquial expression, that can be translated in such a way that it creates a kind of definition of that name, e.g. le Palais de l’Elysée – Elisian Palaise czy der Elysée-Palast le Centre Georges Pompidou – Georges Pompidou Centre or das Zentrum Georges Pompidou. It is not infrequent that the need for the shortening of the subtitles can lead to a compete evasion of meaning of the particular cultural element. Cornu (1983) mentions the example of this kind, in French: Voir Shakespeare dans le Park,and it is about Central Park in New York, or Il va exposer au Moderne : The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Definitional extension and periphrasis in Sachsen-Anhalt – sur la Saxe-Anhalt, un land de l’Est Ramstein – Ramstein, en Allemagne de Montpellier – im südfranzösischen Montpellier By this type of definitional extension, the geographical position of the names that are toponyms is described. It also refers to anthroponyms: Lionel Jospin a tiré aujourd’hui un trait final sur cinq ans de cohabitation forcée avec Jacques Chirac

Der französische Staatschef Chirac und Premierminister Jospin haben heute einen Schlusstrich unter ihre erzwungene politische Zusammenarbeit gezogen.

96


Despite the fact that toponyms and anthroponyms constitute the bulk of cultural elements, present in the TV news programmes, and usually they require some kind of definitional extension, this procedure is also used in case of political parties, newspapers, periodicals, TV programmes' names as well, e.g. die Zeitung Bild – le journal populaire allemand Bild avec Madame Figaro – mit dem französischen Magazin Madame Figaro chez Canal plus – beim französischen Pay-TV-Sender Canal plus. Definitional periphrasis, according to “Translation Terminology” dictionary it is “the result of amplifying a target text by with a group of words or a phrasal expression that has the equivalent sense in the target language.” (Delisle and al. 1999: 167). Ballard (2001:114) denominates this procedure as substitution, i.e. introduction of a definition (or other explanatory form) into a text, replacing the original term [...] We have to resort to this rule especially in case of acronyms, whose translation may seem vague or even confusing. le RPR – der Neogaullist le FN – der Rechtsextreme der CDU – le parti chrétien-démocrate, or les chrétiens-démocrates Sometimes several acronyms, referring to different political parties sharing similar political views, can be replaced by the summarising periphrasis: les représentants du RPR, de l’UDF et du DL – die Vertreter aller bürgelich-konservativen und liberalen Parteien The three above mentioned parties belong to the central- right and right wing, so the translator denoted them with the term middle-class conservative and liberal. But not only acronyms require some kind of definitional periphrasis. A native receiver of the message possesses the knowledge about certain events, customs, traditions, habits concerning particular society, which a foreign receiver may not be familiar with. By referring to this knowledge of the native message receiver, the sender uses the phrases the true sense of which results from the utterance. They are personal, demonstrative, possessive pronouns, certain expressions of time and place. Damit sowas wie bei der CDU nie mehr Au landemain du scandale qui avait passieren kann, (...) ébranlé en 1999 et 2000 le parti chrétien-démocrate d’Helmut Kohl (...)

Some of translation theoreticians would call this procedure overtranslation, which, generally, is considered to be translation error. Dans les instituts de sondage, comme ici, Die Meinungsforscher rechnen mit rund chez CSA, on parle déjà d’une abstention 30% Stimmenthalung. Das wären 8,5% record de 30%, soit 8,5% de plus qu’en mehr als bei den letzten

97

Areas of untranslatability in audiovisual transfers 95.

Präsidentschaftswahlen Jahren.

vor

sieben

For the French, who were facing presidential elections, the recollection of the year 1995, when the last elections took place, was closely related to that event, which was precisely verbalised in German translation. The reference to the German elections, in French version, was verbalised in the same way: vor dem September

avant les législatives et la désignation du chancelier au mois de septembre

Obviously enough, also possessive pronouns require definitional periphrasis: une tradition bien de chez nous – eine sehr französische Tradition notre histoire - die französische Geschichte The references to this kind of realia is definitely less common in the films based on fiction. As I stated above, they can be omitted in translation or undergo the direct transfer. Equivalence The concept of equivalence , according to Dąmbska –Prokop (2000: 68) is, 'ambiguous and controversial, treated by many theoreticians as one of the most significant [...] questions, being in the scope of interest of translation theory, practice, as well as, didactics.' It could be said that for many researchers it is the focal point of consideration. For others, like Pym (1992) it is a controversial issue, while some researchers completely reject it, for instance Gentzler (1993) or deconstructionists. Since I focus on translation procedures applied in the transfer of cultural elements in audiovisual translation, what I focus on is equivalence in its narrow meaning. I could refer here to the definition in “Translation Terminology” dictionary: “Equivalence is the relation of identity established by ‘translator’ between two translation units whose discourse function is identical or almost identical in their respective languages.” (Delisle and al. 1999: 137). In my works I distinguish: - Equivalence intra source language e.g.. Radcliffe - Harvard and - Equivalence intra target language

98


Terminological equivalence Translator tries to find in the target culture names of the institutions, diploma, organizations that can have similar social functions: Merril Lynch – Bourse et Valeurs – die Börse – Giełda Chutes and Ladder – Jeu de l’oie – Mensch ärgere dich nicht Chińczyk Functional equivalence This time it is about emphasising the functions if the object or phenomenon in a given context, so as to find similar phenomenon, with a similar function in a target culture. rice krispies cookies – macarons maison – domowe ciasteczka - Wzorowe zachowanie. - Tak jak obiecywałem same piątki.

- Prix d’excellence, dis donc. - Je t’avais promis de bonnes notes.

It is a fragment of the dialogue between mother and son when she is reading his school report. It is known that in Poland parents pay attention to two things: the grade for behaviour and, then, the other grades. In France, students are assessed not with 'one to five' scale but 'one to twenty' so the discussion is about good grades and a reward for good attitude. Borowczyk (2004:156-159) gives a series of such functional equivalents present in the TH news programmes: (...) in der neuten hatten wir dann einen anderen Lehrer (...) Il faut (...) convaincre les futurs sixièmes de prendre l’allemand au lieu de prendre l’anglais. Dès le deuxième trimestre de l’année scolaire qui précède l’entrée au collège... La mairie de Marignane Maire de Marigane Das Bundeskriminalamt

En troisième, on a eu un autre prof. (...) (...) muss man sich dafür einsetzen dass die zukunftigen Fünftklasser Deutch statt Englisch wählen. Im ersten Halbjahr der vierten Klasse Im Rathaus Bürgemeister von Marignane La police judiciaire

This procedure is that in the target text some target language element are quoted and it has, to some extent, a similar function in relation to the source culture


99

element. It is not about full equivalence, only about evoking similar associations in the viewer. In the above mentioned examples, in the first three of them we can observe the search for functional equivalence in two educational systems, which are not identical, in France and in Germany. In the two following it is about comparing the civil administration institutions in both countries. However, the studies reveal that this kind of procedure is not frequently used by audiovisual translator, as we deal with realia that is different than the one in the source text. It can be assumed that this technique is a kind of punctual procedure, allowing for, in a relatively condensed way, evoking similar associations by the receiver of translation as by the receiver of the original. Contextual equivalence Sometimes a given notion, referring to cultural phenomena, is replaced by different equivalents, depending on the broader context. However, the aim is always to evoke proper associations, even though, we can discuss only the approximate semantics of source and target notion. Here is the example from the film Peggy Sue got married, in which the term: graduation was, depending on the context, translated by three equivalents: - They married right after graduation - After graduation - Past graduation

- Ils se sont mariés après l’examen - On finit les études secondaires - Après les oraux

Adaptation A borderline between equivalence and adaptation is not easy to draw. Adaptation is an extreme example of equivalence when the source culture element is replaced by, not necessarily equivalent, target culture element. The adaptation techniques are frequently used in translation of film dialogues containing comic elements relating to plays on words. Bartek Wierzbięta, who has translated numerous films such as “Shrek” or „ Astérix and Obélix: Mission Cleopatra”, comments: “All the dialogues must be comprehensible for the polish audience so is not always accurate to stick firmly to the original dialogues. If a play on words is not funny, it needs to be adopted so that it serves its function in Polish reality. The way I have developed my translation skills was my growing awareness of the freedom I have and the freedom I can allow myself for”. (http://dubbing.mega.com.pl/nowa/bw/)

100


Controversial as it may seem, it must be assumed that film belongs to mass culture so the criterion of quality is dictated by commerciality. According to Aleksandra Urbańska (2003) (http://urbanski.terramail.pl/strony/alex1.htm) the trend that is imposed by Wierzbięta caused the situation in which “the technique of polonization has recently gained the name of the desired technique; this technique is expected not only by the audience but also by the producers. [...] Today it is necessary for all the dialogue translators to domesticate original versions of films”. The following are some examples of this procedure: - Employing well-known actors whose voices are recognizable, for instance Cezary Pazura, Jerzy Stuhr and Marek Kondrat. Referring to songs, films, television programmes and stage characters - Ils font quoi, Cléopatre et Césame ? - César. - Césarme.

- Jak myślisz, co robią Kleopatra i Sezam ? - Cezar. - Cezary.

When interspersing dialogue texts with Polish realia of that kind, a translator assimilates polish viewers with film characters and, thus, sets a national tone for a given film. The viewers may feel a bit confused at times, for instance when the following is coming from the screen: Jontek, łap za widły (“Shrek”) or Bracie, oni są wierni jak Czterej Pancerni (“Nowe Szaty Króla”/ “The Emperor`s New Groove”). Numernabis: Dlatego przywiozłem przyjaciół z Galii, jednego czarodzieja, dwóch mężnych wojów, którzy mi pomogą. Tylko, że do tańca trzeba dwojga, tzn. najczęściej, no bo czasem to nie, tylko że wiesz, co to za taniec, tak to każdy sobie może. Referring to a present reality - Y a du monde ! Ça ressemble au mondial du boeuf ! Tous les deux ans à Lutèce on expose les nouveaux boeufs. C’est extraordinaire ! Une grosse manifestation !

Niezły ruch ! Troszkę jak na słowiańskim targu. Słowianie mają takie targi na stadionach, wszystko tam można znaleźć, dosłownie wszystko, niesamowite ! Znajomy był na placówce, to opowiadał.


101

Culinary habits - C’est déjà du bon palais ! - Je pourrais faire des mehnirs-souvenirs. Sphinx ! Sphinx ! - Y a rien a manger. - Jolis ces sphinx.

- Co najmniej M4. - Sfinksy ! Sfinksy ! - No nie wiedziałem, zmienili profil. - Ładna ta Cepelia.

Obviously enough, some meals or dishes need to be domesticated so as to be better associated by an average viewer: Something for younger audience - C’est la potion magique ? - To napój magiczny ? - Non. De la soupe de marrons. - Nie, kalafiorowa. - Et que l’on serve l’apéritif aux - Zabrać ich i rzucić na przekąskę crocodilles. krokodylom ! - J’ai plus d’appétit qu’un barracuda. Ba- Ja osobiście to bym zjadł cokolwiek. rra-cu-da... Pieczone korale..

As I have previously mentioned, in films that are targeted both to younger and older audience, these are both groups that have to be satisfied. The aforesaid famous songs, especially children songs, are being referred to, as well as counting-out rhymes and other nursery rhymes: Vernacular expressions and colloquialisms Mon palais est devenu un champ de ruines! Tirez sur nous si vous êtes des hommes ! On s’en fout ! Bande de Romains ! Toujours là ! Na, na, na, na !

- Mój pałac robi za jakiś poligon ! No i dobra łajdaki, strzelajcie sobie ! I tak mam to gdzieś ! A! Skucha, kucha, zezucha ! A w ogóle macie pryszcze ! Nic mi nie jest !

In the aforementioned films the comic effect has been achieved by means of vernacular language, affective expressions which, not infrequently, contrast with personality or social status of a character uttering them, e.g. Cesar or Cleopatra. the following are the examples: No i bomba ! Spoko !

102


Jak w mordę strzelił ! Widziałem je w akcji, raz, dwa cię wtrążalają ! A te kafeleczki, mucha nie siada ! All those adaptation procedures lead to economical reconstruction of comical effects. To achieve the comic effect, Polish cultural elements are introduced, which may be a better solution than trying to reconstruct the ambiguity or phonetic plays on words very often leading to not reaching the desired effects. Below, there is a fragment of a dialogue translation from F. Veber’s “The Dinner Game”. One of the subtitled versions was made by Best Film and the other by the commission of Canal + in the form of dialogue list which was read by a voice-over: - C’était votre soeur. - Je n’ai pas de soeur. - Je lui ai dit: „Qui est à l’appareil?” et elle ma dit: „Sasseur”. - Il a appelé Marlène ! - C’est pas votre soeur ? - Pas du tout, c’est son nom: Sasseur, Marlène Sasseur.

- Pańska siostra. - Nie mam siostry. - Nie ? Spytałem kto mówi. Jegosiostra, odpowiedziała.

- Pańska kuma. - Nie mam kumy. - Nie ? Spytałem kto mówi. Kuma, odpowiedziała.

- Marlène ! - Nie jest pańską siostrą ? - Ma na nazwisko Marlène Jegosiostra.

- Marlène ! - Nie jest pańską kumą ? - Ma na nazwisko Marlène Kuma.

The demonstrated play on words from the original is based upon two homophones: sa soeur – Sasseur. As regards the former, the translator used a calque from the original but no comic effect was achieved since the name Sasseur sounds natural in French, but the Polish Jegosiostra is quite appalling. As for the latter, it was the lexeme that has been changed but the archaic form kuma, in this context, does not achieve the original comic effect. I have shown this particular example so as to make the reader aware that in the case of translating what is seemingly untranslatable, creativity is superior, but these are all choices of individual translators. Therefore, there is no magic formula for translating plays on words, however, it should not be pessimistically assumed that these effects are doomed. The desired comic effect may be also achieved at the syntactic level. Not infrequently, repetition of the identical structure in two successive sequences seems to be a kind of mockery and leads to achieving the comic effect. It is very often possible to reconstruct such structure in the process of translation but one must not forget that, in audiovisual translation, a translator is constantly under pressure of text condensation, which I have discussed previously and when forced to shorten the message, he is not in a position to accomplish precisely the same effect. F. Ozon’s „8 women” abounds in procedures like that, some of


103

which have been preserved in the translation, and some of which have not. The following are two examples: - Au premier interrogatoire de la police, je serai obligée de dire, ma fille, que vous sortez très souvent le soir, et que tout le monde le sait ! - Au premier interrogatoire de la police, je serai obligée de dire, Madame, que vous sortez très souvent le soir, et que tout le monde l’ignore! - Mais, il y a les lois contre les faux témoignages. - Il y a aussi des lois pour hériter ! - Ah! Ma pauvre Louise, votre parole n’a aucune valeur, vous n’êtes qu’une bonne ! - Hein ! Ma pauvre Pierette, votre parole n’en a pas plus, vous n’ êtes qu’une putain!

- Będę zmuszona donieść policji o twoich nocnych eskapadach. I że wszyscy o nich wiedzą ! - A ja zeznam o pani nocnych wypadach. I że nikt o nich nie wie !

- Na fałszywe zeznania są paragrafy. - Są też paragrafy na spadkobierców ! - Biedna Luiso, słowo pokojówki nie jest warte funta kłaków. - Biedna Pierette, tym mniej warte jest słowo dziwki !

In the first example the maid repeats verbatim all the words uttered by her employer and she only changes the final statement that her night escapades are, indeed, wildly known but her employer’s night escapades are known to none. The idea of this message is transferred but the form is shortened which hampered the achievement of the equal effect of play on words. The second fragment of translation seems to be much better; it is the conversation between the maid and the sister-in-law of her employer in which the latter comments on the maid’s social status with disdain and in return she is called the name of a whore. Intertextuality The next area of untranslatability is the notion of intertextuality. I have analysed the notion on the basis of “8 women”. I base my conclusions on research results of Baranowska (2005) who have organised a kind of questionnaire between French and Polish audience to know if they are able to recognize the effects of the intertextuality in this film. For the director of this film, intertextuality is a kind of a game between the author, i.e. the director and the receiver, i.e. the audience. But this is a very peculiar game which resembles playing blind man’s buff. According to Rabau (2002: 35), some texts leave the receiver awaiting something with no means to explain the effects of intertextual relations. When watching the film, we get the

104


impression of coming close to something very familiar but the impression is neither specified nor easy to identify. The first type of playing with the receiver on the level of intertextual relation is assigning the film to the specific film genre. “8 women” cannot be precisely defined as comedy, crime movie, melodrama or some other film genre, but the receiver recalls all those genres because of the structure of the intrigue, particular scenes or the depiction of typical characters. For someone who knows a lot about films, it is not a difficult problem to face, regardless of the language. The second element of intertextuality in this film is the acting of particular actresses, popular with the readers of French tabloids, in which they refer to their private life or to some famous creations of other famous actresses from wellknown films such as: Jeanne Moreau, Rita Hayworth or Lana Turner. At this point, a Polish viewer is in a much worse position than a French one. A great number of Polish respondents have not understood the purpose of the director. The third element of intertextuality in this film is music and the eight songs interweaving through the plot. The incidental music builds the atmosphere of uncertainty and even fear; it refers to works of Bernard Herrmann who wrote music for Hitchcock's films. Thus, it is a clear reference to a style of a typical crime movie. Moreover, the director has chosen 8 famous French songs which are sung by the characters. According to the survey conducted, although the words are translated, a Polish viewer is not able to name the songs. A great majority of French viewers (90%) answered that they know the songs and a lot of them could remember titles, whereas 14% of Poles said that they know them but they could not say anything precise about them. The result is not surprising. What is surprising, though, is that 70% of French respondents was not amused by this stylistic device and more than half of Polish respondents found them humorous, although they did not know them. These results of the survey may prove instructive for translators. What seems to be untranslatable is not always of crucial importance to the final effect planned by the author. Some elements are lost in the transfer but the whole work may still be comprehensible for the receiver of the translation. As it has been demonstrated in these examples, the areas of untranslatability are comparable as regards both text translation and audiovisual productions. The presence of image may yet help to face such problems. I shall refer to Polish film “Pan Tadeusz”. According to Skibińska (1999), all the names and terms referring to living conditions of the Polish gentry were dealt with in 8 different ways as there have been 8 translations of this Polish national epic. The main problem that Skibińska (op.cit.) indicates is the one with differentiating between various groups of the gentry and it is solved by means of


105

the presence of image which contrasts the way each of the group is dressed, the behaviour of the Count, Soplica or Maciek from Dobrzyn. What is more, all the characters are depicted in the places they live and, thus, Gerwazy shows the viewer around the Horeszko’s family castle where the feast is held and the viewer may see what the typical manor house looked like and what the conditions of the lower gentry from Dobrzyn were. Those characters wear special costumes and behave in accordance with their financial standing. At last, the key concept of “zajazd”/“foray” is to be discussed. Skibińska (1999: 59) points out that Mickiewicz himself, “he was aware that when he was writing his epic poem, this Old Polish legal procedure, strictly connected with customs of noblemen and stemmed from the spirit of civil liberty, is no longer familiar to readers and that is why they deserves an explanation”. The explanation is not there in the film for technical reasons. There is some explanation in the title of the film: “Dernière incrusion en Lituanie”/ “The Last Foray in Lithuania” in which the notion of „forey” means an invasion, but this kind of law making is unknown to French viewers. Nevertheless, the presence of image, moods, cries and swords in their hands give the viewers a kind of background and an idea of what it is about. They participate in the invasion, and thus they can see the attack gradually becoming uncontrolled drinking, triggering the participants’ imprisonment. 3. Conclusion Not all the elements and areas of untranslatability were discussed in this depiction but on the basis of the given examples it may be summed up that although audiovisual translation is often devoid of possibility to explain cultural elements or any other elements which constitute a kind of barrier impending understanding, it may refer to an omnipresent image. This is the way material culture elements of a given period, such as costumes, buildings, customs, may be easier to comprehend thanks to its visualisation. This also refers to scenery or climatic conditions of a particular region. The image can, therefore, fill in the gaps in the receiver’s knowledge concerning his unfamiliarity with a foreign culture. References Ballard, M. (2001). Le nom propre en traduction. Paris: Ophrys. Baranowska, D. (2005). La traduction du comique dans le film de François Ozon – “8 femmes” MA Thesis – Adam Mickiewicz University.

106


Borowczyk, P. (2004). Stratégies des traducteurs audiovisuels face aux réalités socioculturelles sur l’exemple de la télévision ARTE. PhD thesis Adam Mickiewicz University. Dąmbska-Prokop, U. (red.) (2000). Teoria i praktyka tłumaczenia: dzieje i perspektywy. Częstochowa: Edukator. Delisle J., Lee-Jahnke H., and M. Cormier, (1999). Terminologie de la traduction. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Gentzler, E. (1993). Contemporary Translation Theories. London/ New York: Longman. Pym, A. (1992). Translation and Text Transfer. An Essay on the Principles of Intercultural Communication. Frankfurt am Main: Lang. Rabau, S. (2002). L’intertextualité. Paris: Flammarion. Skibińska, E. (1999). Przekład a kultura. Elementy kulturowe we francuskich tłumaczeniach „Pana Tadeusza”. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. Tomaszkiewicz, T. (1993). Les opérations linguistiques qui sous-tendent le processus de sous-titrage des films. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM. Tomaszkiewicz, T. (1998). Traduction dans les mass-médias” in: Puppel, S. Scripta Manent, Poznań: Wydawnictwo Wydziału Neofilologii UAM : 229242. Tomaszkiewicz, T. (1999). Texte et image dans les communications aux masses. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM. Tomaszkiewicz, T. (2003). “Traduction des références culturelles dans les films sous-titrés“. In: Lüsenbrink H.-J. and Walter K.P. Interkulturelle Medienanalyse. St. Ingbert: Röhrig Universitätsverlag : 190-211. Tomaszkiewicz, T. (2004) Terminologia tłumaczenia. (red.) Delisle J., LeeJahnke H. and C.Cormier M. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM. Tomaszkiewicz, T. (2006) Przekład audiowizualny. Warszawa: PWN.

Soledad Zárate Roehampton University United Kingdom SUBTITLING FOR DEAF CHILDREN 1. Introduction Subtitling is an essential functional and didactic tool for deaf children. At present, the five main British national channels 1 subtitle from 72% to 95% of the broadcast programmes, with targets set at 80% and above (BBC at 100%) for 2008 (Ofcom, 2006b). This paper offers a descriptive analysis of how the subtitling of children’s programmes is performed on British television. By considering research conducted in Audiovisual Translation (AVT) and mainly in Deaf Studies, an understanding of the audience is reached and questions concerning the actual practice are raised and discussed. 2. The analysis In Britain, Ofcom (2006b), in accordance with the Communication Act 2003, regulates the targets that broadcasters are to meet in terms of subtitled programmes, but the actual subtitling practice is not regulated. The ITC Guidance on Standards for Subtitling (Ofcom, 1999) sets a number of recommendations that are adhered to by all the subtitling companies’ in-house style guides. The corpus includes programmes addressed at children of different ages, subtitled by different companies. Table 1. List of programmes

1

Programme

Channel

Subtitling

Mona the Vampire

BBC1

Nickelodeon, schoolchildren BBC Broadcast

Arthur

BBC2

ITFC, Subtext

Maya and Miguel

BBC2

Red Bee Media 6-11

BBC1, BBC2, Channel 4, Five, ITV.

Audience

schoolchildren

108

Soledad Zárate

Sponge Bob Square Pants CITV

ITFC

schoolchildren

Louie

CITV

ITFC

pre-school

Inuk

Channel 4

Red Bee Media (young) schoolchildren

The Hoobs

Channel 4

Intelfax

3-5

Ebb and Flo

Five

IMS

2-5

Funky Valley

Five

IMS

2-6

The first difficulty I came across when choosing the programmes was the lack of information about who the intended audience was. This information was taken from the official sites for Maya and Miguel, Arthur, Mona the Vampire, The Hoobs, and Louie, or provided by the broadcaster – i.e. Five. For Sponge Bob Square Pants and Inuk the group age was deduced. Some of the elements examined such as speaker’s identification, sound effects, and typographical cues relate specifically to the needs of a deaf audience and are part and parcel of subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH). Some others areas – segmentation, editing, spelling, reading speed – are also shared by subtitling aimed at a hearing audience. 3. Speakers’ identification In SDH, it is not always necessarily self-evident who is speaking, hence the need to identify speakers. The two main techniques companies resort to the use of colour and positioning. 2 Some cartoons combine both techniques, and the use of colour is sometimes maximised to include two speakers in one same line. Positioning can sometimes result in undesired effects, e.g. speaker’s mouth and titles being obscured by the subtitle. 4. Sound effects In subtitling for the hearing audience sound effects do not require to be visually represented since they can be heard in the soundtrack. In SDH, 2

Labelling is not commonly used, except as an indicator of two or more speakers talking simultaneously (e.g. BOTH, ALL).

109

Subtitling for deaf children

though, sound effects are very important and can be essential in understanding the plot. They can either be described by statements in form of labels (often accompanied by qualifying adjectives and adverbs) or can be phonetically reproduced in the form of onomatopoeias. In the programmes considered, they tend to be described by gerunds (barking), nouns (doorbell), verbs (laughs), nouns and verbs (they babble). Considering the young age of our audience and the nature of the programmes (i.e. cartoons), onomatopoeic sound effects could be more amusing and could certainly help the child to better follow the “mood” of the programme. However, it is arguable whether deaf children would be able to associate onomatopoeias to sounds. In Funky Valley, IMS dispels all doubts by using onomatopoeias that clearly suggest the sounds that they describe. They are not phonetic transcriptions, but lexical items that are nouns and verbs: cock crows, cow moos, sheep baas, pig oinks, chicken clucks. Children will be eventually able to understand the meaning (of the verb and the noun) and therefore expand their vocabulary. It is an explanatory and simple technique with a clear didactic purpose. 5. Typographical cues Punctuation for subtitling does not necessarily need to be treated in a separate way since the punctuation rules of the English language apply to all written forms. What is interesting, however, is to observe how typographical features are used and moulded to convey all those aspects perceptible through hearing (i.e. intonation, accents, pauses, interruptions, singing). In this respect, dashes together with the repetition of some letters are used to denote lengthened sounds: Table 2. The Hoobs, Intelfax

# Wha–a–at? Wha–a– at? 3 Upper case has a twofold function. It can be used as an indicator of stressed intonation or loud speech, as in the following two examples: Table 3. Mona the Vampire, BBC Broadcast

That’s totally ridiculous. It was OBVIOUSLY the whirling void. 3

The hash sign (#) is the symbol conventionally used for songs in analogue television, i.e. teletext.

110

Soledad Zárate Table 4. Maya and Miguel, Red Bee Media

LEAVE ME ALONE, FATHER! Exclamation and question marks are used with three different functions. Besides their standard usage to show surprise or to question, the exclamation mark within brackets expresses sarcasm or irony, whereas the question mark followed by the exclamation mark (and not the reverse) indicates bewilderment: Table 5. Arthur, Subtext

Great(!) A stolen toy in my room. Thanks a lot, Buster(!) Table 6. Maya and Miguel, Red Bee Media

Excuse me?! Three suspension dots (…) are used to indicate pauses or interruptions, as per English grammar rules. Two dots (..) are used to introduce a second sentence that follows a brief pause. Table 7. Mona the Vampire, BBC Broadcast

No she’s not! ..Are you? If the two clauses are uttered by the same speaker and appear in the same subtitle, as in the case above, the use of two dots is perhaps superfluous and certainly not very aesthetically pleasing. The hesitation is also conveyed by the image and can be reinforced by placing the two sentences in different lines. The ITC guidelines suggest different uses for single and double quotes: single quotes are to be used when the speech comes from a character that is normally visible on-screen but at the moment of the delivery is off-screen or from a narrator that is always off-screen, and double quotes when the speech comes from a device (radio, speaker) or is a quotation. Generally, subtitlers adhere to this use of single quotes, with the exception of Funky Valley, a narrated cartoon where no indicator of off-screen voice is used and typographical cues are kept as close to punctuation rules as possible. This strategy ensures consistency between conventional writing and subtitles. Some choices (in Mona the Vampire, BBC Broadcast) deviate from the ITC guidelines, and single quotes, instead

111


of double, are used for mechanical speech. It is interesting to note how different conventions can produce patterns that differ from the ones readers are used to see in print, e.g. indirect speech appears within single quotes and two dots are used to covey a pause: Table 8. The Hoobs, Intelfax

It’s no good. ‘..said Andy Hand.’ 6. Segmentation Segmentation or line breaking is mainly constrained by the number of characters available per line. The criteria that ideally should guide subtitlers in their segmentation choices are summed up by Ivarsson and Carroll (1998: 77), “lines should be divided in such a way that words intimately connected by logic, semantics or grammar are written on the same line wherever possible”. In other words, article/noun, pronoun/verb, conjunction/clause, preposition/relative phrase should not be split if at all possible. As a general guidance, the ITC recommends that line breaks follow natural linguistic breaks. Priority should be given to linguistic considerations over geometric ones, although the geometry of the subtitle is not just an aesthetic matter, it is also related to eye movement and ultimately aims at smoothing the reading process. Several instances of debatable segmentation were found. Each example is followed by a suggested alternative segmentation: Table 9. Louie, ITFC

TV solution I know somebody who could be your friend. Tickbirds and rhinoceroses are inseparable. So now, who wants to start skating first? Oh, there you are. Hello there, friends.

Alternative segmentation [I know somebody who could be your friend.] [Tickbirds and rhinoceroses are inseparable.] [So now, who wants To start skating first?] [Oh, there you are. Hello there, friends.]

112

Soledad Zárate

Another point worth attention is the number of lines employed. The ITC recommends a maximum of two lines and exceptionally three providing that the image is not obscured by the text. In some programmes (The Hoobs, Inuk), four lines are used. Four lines are more likely to obscure the image and it can also be discouraging for a young child to have such long text on screen. One of the subtitling company approached explained that segmentation is not as much a priority as it used to be due to time and cost constraints. 7. Editing Editing, another aspect that concerns both SDH and subtitling for the hearing audience, is much more discussed in SDH than it is in subtitling for the hearing audience, where it seems to be more of an accepted issue. Some deaf viewers feel that verbatim subtitles guarantee fuller access to broadcast material. However, I would like to argue that in our case this argument is irrelevant as our audience is young and would inevitably benefit from edited subtitles. Baker (1985: 15) carried out a study with deaf children and found out that edited versions were better comprehended than quasi-verbatim ones. The term editing here covers both omissions and paraphrasing. The ITC guidance recommends simplicity of subtitles for children below the age of 11 and therefore omission seems to be the favoured technique. By omitting words, the length of sentences and the reading speed can be reduced. Ivarsson and Carroll (1998: 86) consider omission to be a better technique, as it is less intrusive and less irritating for those able to lip-read. Paraphrasing is recommended only when none of the information can be disregarded. Ivarsson and Carroll (ibid: 87) also point out that omissions might require paraphrasing to a certain extent. The programmes considered for this research adopt both techniques. The following are examples of omissions: Table 10. Arthur, ITFC

Francine and I have a (better) 4 story. Table 11. Funky Valley, IMS

“You have to remember,” said Hoot, (there are two ends to a rainbow.) 4 Omissions are here reported in brackets within the subtitles.

113

Subtitling for deaf children Table 12. Mona the Vampire, Nickelodeon UK

(It looks like) the flea circus has come to town (and put up their tent on Fang). Omissions can lead to inconsistency when image and subtitles do not coincide. In the following example, “this” refers to the pen that the character is holding up: Table 13. Mona the Vampire, BBC Broadcast

He talked about a Japanese restaurant he’d just lunched at. (Then he bought this pen and left.) Inconsistency also concerns speech in the form of question/answer, where, for instance, the question is left unanswered: Table 14. Inuk, Red Bee Media

Where did he come from? (He was separated from the herd during the blizzard) He’ll never make it through the winter by himself. In Funky Valley lip-reading is not an issue because the narrator is off-screen, whereas in Mona the Vampire, where the speech is delivered by the on-screen character, omissions are more obvious to the viewer and the style could therefore be perceived as “editorialising” (Baker and Newell, 1980: 99), rather than faithful to the soundtrack. However, bearing in mind that our audience is very young, issues related to the effectiveness of the subtitles and their comprehension should be prioritised. This view is supported by Baker (1985: 15), who carried out a study with deaf children and concluded that edited versions were better comprehended than quasi-verbatim ones. Having looked at examples of omission, it is now interesting to observe how paraphrasing is performed. The reformulated subtitles are followed by the soundtrack version, reported within brackets:

114

Soledad Zárate Table 15. Arthur, Subtext

I hope there’s some left. (I hope they are not sold out.) 5 Table 16. Mona the Vampire, Nickelodeon UK

Keep watching for mutations. (Keep your eyes open for mutations.) Table 17. Arthur, ITFC

This day is so boring. (This is the boringest day ever.) This last subtitle shows a case of grammar and lexis being normalised, a choice that affects characterisation by not conveying the witty talk. This choice, which is likely to have been dictated by time constraints, could however be appropriate as young deaf children who are in the process of learning a spoken language might find this use confusing. Ebb and Flo, Funky Valley and Louie are aimed at a younger audience and therefore the speech rate is slower than in the others, hence editing is usually not required. A crucial aspect that needs to be discussed at this stage is the introduction of new vocabulary in subtitles. The ITC guidelines suggest omission over change of difficult words. Baker (1985: 17) argues that “access” also means introducing new words. He recommends that this is done through simple constructions, by relying on the context or, if necessary, by explaining the meaning beforehand. Additional reading time should also be allowed. Sometimes, subtilers opt for verbatim subtitles and leave words that might not be particular easy to read, such as “bamboozled” in Sponge Bob Square Pants. This strategy can have a didactic function and help children expand their vocabulary. The opposite strategy, noted in Arthur, simplifies vocabulary and replaces words such as “cholesterol” and “health conscious” with “fat” and “healthy”:

5

The actual speech is reported in brackets.

115

Subtitling for deaf children Table 18. Arthur, ITFC

You were too high in fat! Evil aliens are still healthy! (It appears that you were too high in cholesterol for them, Arthur. These aliens, though evil, must be health conscious.) What? I’m high in fat? (What do you mean I’m high in cholesterol?)

8. Spelling In the programmes aimed at older children non-standard language is sometimes used. The subtitles generally reflect this informal use of language in the spelling of words (e.g. gotcha, kinda, ‘em, fella, cos, phew). By using this strategy, the subtitles try to reflect the pronunciation and accent. However, it would be interesting to study whether readability is in any way affected considering the lack of familiarity that children supposedly have with contracted forms. As already mentioned, subtitles, besides being functional and transmitting what is being conveyed by the soundtrack, also improve children’s reading abilities and help them build up their vocabulary. Most of these lexical forms are colloquial expressions that can be found in any dictionary of the English language, but it is not an easy task for a child to recognise them in a written form. The subtitler can either stay faithful to the soundtrack and reproduce these words in their written form (as in the examples above) or opt for a standardisation of the language used (e.g. “fellow” instead of “fella”, “because” instead of “cos", and so on). The second option would certainly favour readability but there would be no indication of colloquial intonations and mannerisms. 9. Reading speed One of the main issues in this field is that there is not a settled reading speed for children’s programmes. The review published by Ofcom (2006a: 37) recommends speeds lower than 140-180 wpm. The wide gap between the two rates allows a degree of flexibility that affects considerably the reading speed.

116

Soledad Zárate

Moreover, the guidance does not specify a lower maximum speed for children’s programmes, but advises broadcasters to exercise common sense. 6 Of course the reading speed is closely linked to the delivery of the speech. Programmes aimed at very young children, such as Ebb and Flo, Funky Valley, and Louie, generally present a more acceptable and lower reading rate because the speech rate is slower too. However, the subtitle rates found in the programmes analysed here tend to go beyond the recommendations and accelerate the reading speed. A very noticeable feature that occurs throughout the episodes of The Hoobs and Inuk is a serious problem with complete subtitles coming up and staying on screen for a mere one, two or three frames 7 . It can only be assumed that this is due to a technical fault and that the subtitlers did not intend to have such an unreadable speed. However, this is a very frequent pattern of the subtitles, especially in The Hoobs, and raises the issue of whether appropriate revision was carried out before broadcasting. 10. The audience As in other translation settings, knowing and understanding the audience’s needs and abilities is of paramount importance. I would argue that the production of subtitles will prove to be successful only if the audience’s reading characteristics are taken into account. At present children cannot choose a subtitle file that corresponds to their age or reading abilities. Subtitlers are challenged to produce one set of subtitles that responds well to a varied group of children of different ages, different degrees of hearing loss and different reading abilities. Thinking of our audience, the first question that comes up is: do deaf children have spoken English as their first language? The answer to this question is not at all straightforward. Hearing children acquire the spoken language naturally through exposure and the auditory system is essential in the process. Do deaf children acquire British Sign Language (BSL) instead? In the UK, 5-10% of deaf children have deaf parents and learn BSL naturally from their parents (BBC, n. d.). The rest of them learn it while at school or in contact with other deaf children (Kyle et al., 2005: 7), in which case, BSL is an acquired second language. Marschark et al. (2002: 111) draw the attention on the fact that deaf children of non-signing hearing parents do not have full access to “the language of their world” during the critical ages of language acquisition. Conrad (1979: 5) 6

For details on reading speed, consult Ofcom (2005). The research considered ages above 16 years old and did not provide any specific information about subtitling for schoolchildren, hence the lack of relevance for this specific paper and the urgent need for a proper study on children’s needs with a particular focus on reading speeds. www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/subt/ 7 24 frames equal one second.


117

points out that deaf children entering regular school are “without a mothertongue” and their mother-tongue will be eventually chosen by the school. Gregory (1976: 8) studied deaf children aged 2 to 5 years in the process of acquiring language and found out that 57% communicated exclusively through gestures, but in the forms of miming and pointing rather than signing. 28% of the mothers said they communicated with their child by talking, 30% by gesturing, and the remaining by combining the two. Regardless of whether or not deaf children have BSL as their mother-tongue, these findings suggest that most deaf children’s natural language would be a signed language. Given that deaf children use subtitles as a visual aid to understand the programme, the first step is to understand what their reading skills are. According to Adams (quoted in Padden and Ramsey, 1998: 32) the results reached by very young children who are beginning to read will depend on their abilities to name letters quickly and accurately, and to associate sounds with letters. Comprehension involves the decoding process and, ultimately, the understanding of words. This approach suggests that reading difficulties arise when children fail to segment the spoken word in smaller units. A different view is expressed by Simpson et al. (1992) who having conducted surveys on deaf children aged 7 years and above, with hearing losses between 50dB and 128dB in the better ear, argue that their reading comprehension scores are higher than their reading accuracy scores, a conclusion that suggests that language is only one of the factors involved in comprehension. In terms of vocabulary, Silverman-Dresner and Guilfoyle (quoted in Paul, 2001: 379) conducted an extensive study on deaf children aged 7 to 17 and concluded that deaf children have a quantitatively reduced vocabulary knowledge compared to their hearing peers. Notwithstanding this, Marschark (1993: 213) encourages the introduction of new words as a way to expand children’s vocabulary. Likewise, Limbrick (1992: 309) argues that the relationship between language and reading is bidirectional, i.e. exposing children to print, signs and oral language, helps them develop their language and reading. Some research has also been carried out in the AVT field. Koolstra et al. (1997) studied television’s impact on children’s comprehension and while they concluded that television has a negative effect on reading comprehension, they argued (ibid.: 132), in line with Neuman and Koskinen (1992), that “one subskill of reading comprehension, vocabulary, may profit from watching subtitled programs”. They added that decoding skills are also improved as children are given an opportunity to practice word recognition (ibid.: 133). Cartoons tend to play with figurative language, ranging from alliterations (especially in The Hoobs) to metaphors, similes, onomatopoeias and idioms. Language and image normally interact in the construction of figurative expressions. Walker et al. (1998: 89) point out that recreational reading – where cartoons’ subtitles can be included – favours an understanding of figurative

118

Soledad Zárate

language. Research carried out by Page and Houck (quoted in Paul and Quigley, 1984: 128) and Luetke-Stahlman (1998: 249) generally suggests that figurative language is understood if introduced with sufficient contextual information, a view that is contrasted by Marschark (1993: 217). In cartoons, language and image normally interact in the construction of figurative expressions and the image certainly plays an important role in providing contextual information. Considering that deaf children are very visually aware, the role played by the picture should not be underestimated and children should be exposed to figurative expressions, especially if supported by images. Further research is however needed in this area. Gormley and McGill-Franzen (quoted in Paul and Quigley, 1984: 122) argue that deaf students are more likely to comprehend syntactic structures in discourse rather than in single sentences. This of course does not favour subtitles. Moreover, the development of syntax is closely related to short-term memory (Paul and Quigley, 1984: 118). Lichtenstein (1985) has supplied evidence of deaf children’s verbal short-term memory deficits. As a result, deaf children have difficulties in understanding complex syntactic constructions, which are more likely to require short-term retention of verbal information (Perfetti and Goldman, quoted in Marschark, 1993: 219). Interestingly, Ewoldt (quoted in Paul and Quigley, 1984: 130) conducted a study on four prelingually deaf children aged 6 to 16 years old and found that students bypassed syntax and moved to meaning. Paul and Quigley (1984: 130) point out that reading theories agree that a top-down approach is typical of beginning readers and poor readers that are unaware of bottom-up processing strategies. He concludes that children who apply a top-down approach seem to get a general idea rather than understanding the text. Walker et al. (1998: 89) argue that comprehension is not ensured by an understanding of textual variables, since a comprehension of inferential meanings is also required. According to this view, deaf children have poor inferential abilities and unable to draw inferences from neither verbal nor nonverbal contextual information (Marschark, 1993: 219). In contrast, Ewoldt et al. (1992), who conducted a study with older children (13 to 17 year-olds), argue that visual displays facilitate comprehension of content area texts. They add that children tend to remember well-organised texts and, interestingly, mention that underlined, bold, and italicised texts are also useful in this respect. The research carried out on British deaf children within the AVT field is rather limited. Other countries have done even less than Britain or nothing at all. The ITC Guidance on Standards for Subtitling (Ofcom, 1999) sums up the main findings, almost entirely relying on details from the Handbook for Television Subtitlers (Baker et al., 1984), hence on research conducted over twenty years ago. The handbook is of a general nature and only includes one short section on subtitling for deaf children. The investigations were focused on the effectiveness


119

of subtitling strategies with children that were in secondary schools for the deaf. Comprehension was tested at various language levels and reading speeds. In brief, Baker et al.’s (1984) recommendations are: subtitling at a rate of 60 wpm (against the 140-180 wpm reading speed recommended by Ofcom), using simple language and introducing new words in a sensible way (by embedding them in familiar material or by providing contextual information). The ITC guidance has one section specifically devoted to children where particular attention is required for subtitling of programmes targeted at children under the age of 11. The main recommendations are: synchronicity between voice and subtitles, omission over reformulation, simplified grammatical structures, and sensible introduction of difficult words. The guidance was updated to include later research. Gregory and Sancho-Aldridge (1996) conducted a research project on deaf children’s comprehension of subtitled television programmes. They considered three age groups (5-7, 8-11 and 12-16) and presented them with subtitled material at three levels of complexity (complex/broadcast, simple/simplified and basic). The simplified level resulted as the one that provided children with the greatest source of information (ibid: 7). Complex or broadcast subtitles proved to be suitable for the oldest group only. The youngest group had difficulties in following the subtitles and could only pick up isolated words, which can lead to a sense of frustration. Exposure to subtitles was recommended to help them improve their literacy. A review of the guidance was published (Ofcom, 2006) in which no major changes have been remarked. 11. Conclusions This study has shown that despite having a high rate of British broadcast programmes subtitled (from 72% to 95% depending on channels), the subtitling practice for deaf children in the UK is very much left to common sense. Subtitling companies seem to adhere to the ITC guidelines, which not being prescriptive, leave space to a variety of styles. The guidelines are based on research mainly carried out in the early eighties (with the exception of Gregory and SanchoAldridge’s research project which dates back to 1996), hence proves to be out-ofdate. For instance, reading speed, one of the aspects tackled by Baker et al (1984), has certainly changed over the last twenty years as lifestyles have. Exposure to television, computers and other audiovisual devices has certainly increased. Education for deaf children has also changed, inevitably affecting the way deaf children develop their abilities. Another crucial point is that research up to date has been based exclusively on teletext (analogue television) and the potential of digital television – which allows greater flexibility, the use of a wider range of colours and of a myriad of fonts – has never been taken into account.

120

Soledad Zárate

Research carried out in Deaf Studies has been included in this paper as it certainly helps to delineate patterns that characterise our audience, despite the fact that most research has been carried out on conventional, which is a different task from reading subtitles on screen. The differences go beyond reading speed to include the disappearance of the immediate linguistic context, the communicative value of images and, in more general terms, the nature of the medium. Comprehension, in our case, depends on understanding the audiovisual product rather than mere textual information. Traditionally, research in Deaf Studies and AVT has developed independently and this paper by taking an interdisciplinary approach attempts to bridge the gap between the two fields. It is clear that more empirical research is needed in AVT to better understand the needs of deaf children and a good starting point is the much more extensive information supplied by Deaf Studies. To conclude, I would like to point out some of the elements that need to be addressed and further researched. Deaf children will make use of visual hints and their abilities should not be underestimated. With this in mind, how should speakers be identified? Should a single way be implemented throughout a programme of different ways depending on different contexts? It would be interesting to look at how colours work when assigned to the main characters throughout the episodes. Choosing the colour by matching it to the characters’ tshirts or hair could help the viewers to immediately associate the subtitles to the speakers. In terms of segmentation, maybe line-breaks should be used to reinforce the switch from one character to the other. Another important element is the textual representation of sound effects. Should onomatopoeias or descriptive labels be used? Should both strategies be implemented within one programme, or would this be too disruptive and confusing? The pros and cons of using onomatopoeias have been identified. How feasible it is to adopt the technique used in Funky Valley, where onomatopoeias are not just phonetic transcriptions of sounds? Editing is another main element. Vocabulary, figurative expressions, syntax and discourse have all been carefully examined in Deaf Studies. Taking these findings into account can only prove beneficial to our audience. From a subtitling perspective, it can be added that since there is a switch from the oral to the written mode, certain features typical of oral discourse, such as repetitions, hesitations, fillers, redundancy, can maybe be partially omitted. The use of nonstandard spellings may not be ideal if the audience is very young. Should standard forms be recommended for young age groups and non-standard forms be introduced at a later stage? Should teenagers be exposed to non-standard speech patterns (as typical of their age and identity)? Deaf children being very visually aware, it would be interesting to explore further how to use typographical cues in a consistent way. Should they be in line with the existing punctuation rules? Would it be confusing if typographical cues were to be used in a way that slightly differs from the use it is made in print?


121

These are just some of the questions that need to be addressed and empirically researched in AVT and, more specifically, in the subtitling for deaf children field. References Baker, R. G., Lambourne, A. D. and G. Rowston (1984). Handbook for Television Subtitlers (revised edition). Winchester: I.B.A. Engineering Division. Baker, R. G. (1985). “Subtitling Television for Deaf Children”. Media in Education Research. University of Southampton: Department of Teaching Media. No. 3. BBC (n. d.) British Sign Language. http://tinyurl.com/myta4f [26-08-2006] Conrad, R., (1979). The Deaf Schoolchild: Language and Cognitive Function. London and New York: Harper and Row. De Linde, Z., and N. Kay (1999). The Semiotics of Subtitling. Manchester: St. Jerome. Ewoldt, C., Israeilite, N. and R. Dodds (1992). “The Ability of Deaf Students to Understand Text. A Comparison of the Perceptions of Teachers and Students”. American Annals of the Deaf. No. 137, 351-361. Gregory, S., (1976). The Deaf Child and His Family. London: Allen and Unwin. Gregory, S. and J. Sancho-Aldridge (1996). Dial 888: Subtitling for Deaf Children. London: ITC. Ivarsson, J. and M. Carroll (1998). Subtitling. Simrishamn: TransEdit. Kyle, J., Reilly, A. M., Allsop, L., Clar, M. and A. Dury (2005). Investigation of Access to Public Services in Scotland using British Sign Language. 24th May. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive Social Research. http://tinyurl.com/lh9cyl [1109-2006] Koolstra, C. M., Van der Voort, T. H. A. and Van der Kamp, L. J. T. (1997). “Television’s Impact on Children’s Reading Comprehension and Decoding Skills: A 3-Year Panel Study”. Reading Research Quarterly. 32 (2), 128-152. Lichtenstein, E. (1985). “Deaf Working Memory Processes and English Language Skills.” In: Martin, D. S. (ed.), Cognition, Education and Deafness: Directions for Research and Instruction. Washington: Gallaudet College Press. 111-114. Limbrick, E. A., McNaughton, S. and M. M. Clay (1992). “Time Engaged in Reading. A Critical Factor in Reading Achievement”. American Annals of the Deaf, No. 137, 309-314. Luetke-Stahlamn, B. (1998). Language Issues in Deaf Education. Hillsboro: Butte Publications. Marschark, M. (1993). Psychological Development of Deaf Children. New York: Oxford University Press.

122

Soledad Zárate

Marschark, M., Lang, H. G. and J. A. Albertini (2002). Educating Deaf Students: From Research to Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. Neuman, S. B. and P. Koskinen (1992). “Captioned Television as Comprehensible Input: Effects of Incidental Word Learning from Context”. Reading Research Quarterly. 27(1), 94–106. NDCS (2006). Response to “Television Access Services: Review of the Code and Guidance”. http://tinyurl.com/3djdbp [22-08-2006] Ofcom (1999). ITC Guidance on Standards for Subtitling. February. http://tinyurl.com/ccqg4p [21-06-2007] Ofcom (2006a). Television Access Services. Review of the Code and Guidance. March. http://tinyurl.com/mnaa5b [11-09-2006] Ofcom (2006b). Code on Television Access Services. September. http://tinyurl.com/knozk8 [21-06-2007] Padden, C., and C. Ramsey (1998). “Reading Ability in Signing Deaf Children”. Topics in Language Disorders. No. 18 (4), 30-46. Paul, P. V. and S. P. Quigley (1984). Language and Deafness. San Diego: College-Hill Press. Paul, P. V., (2001). Language and Deafness. 3rd edition. San Diego: Singular Thomson Learning. RNID (2006). Response to “Television Access Services: Review of the Code and Guidance”. http://tinyurl.com/njh39a [22-08-2006] Simpson, P. A., Harrison, D. R. and A. Stuart (1992). “The Reading Abilities of a Population of Hearing-Impaired Children”. Journal of the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf. No. 16, 47-53. Walker, L., Munro, J. and F. W. Rickards (1998). “Literal and Inferential Reading Comprehension of Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing”. The Volta Review. Vol. 100 (2), 87-103.

Josélia Neves Instituto Politécnico de Leiria Portugal MUSIC TO MY EYES... CONVEYING MUSIC IN SUBTITLING FOR THE DEAF AND THE HARD OF HEARING Anybody watching the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Paralympic games or a concert by the percussionist Evelyn Glennie, the Japanese pop star Ayumi Hamasaki or by the opera singer Janine Roebuck will agree that music can be and IS part of the lives of many deaf people around the world. A rapid incursion into the Deaf world will show that music is far more important in the lives of d/Deaf people than it is given credit for. Music can be “heard” in numerous ways and medical and sociological reports (Sandberg 1954; Gouge 1990; Darrow 1993; Sacks 1990) prove that the world of the d/Deaf is all but silent. It is far more vibrant than that of many hearing people because sound is perceived in intensity through all the senses in amplified versions of what hearers take in mainly through their auditory apparatus. Laborit (1998: 17) describes her kinaesthetic view of music in the following way: “Music is a rainbow of vibrant colours. It’s a language beyond words. It’s universal. The most beautiful form of art that exists. It’s capable of making the human body physically vibrate.” The “auditory nature” of such vibrations has been scientifically proven by assistant professor of radiology at the University of Washington, Dr. Dean Shibata, who testifies (in University of Washington 2001) that: Deaf people sense vibration in the part of the brain that other people use for hearing – which helps explain how deaf musicians can sense music, and how deaf people can enjoy concerts and other musical events. These findings suggest that the experience deaf people have when ‘feeling’ music is similar to the experience other people have when hearing music. The perception of the musical vibrations by the deaf is likely every bit as real as the equivalent sounds, since they are ultimately processed in the same part of the brain.

The ability that deaf people have to process music places it at advantage in relation to speech. It is often found that people who cannot hear speech can hear music because most musical instruments fall into the low tone frequencies that are easier to pick up than the higher tone frequencies used in speech. Petit (2003), who works with music in deaf education, carries this forward by ascertaining that “of the two main elements of music, melody and rhythm, they [deaf children] could perfectly understand the second, in other words, they could have access to

124

Josélia Neves

50% of music and, if we consider that in some cultures rhythm in itself is an artistic expression, there is a large field for doing music work with deaf students”. This ability that deaf people have to pick up the sound of music physically would be, in itself, reason enough for all those working in the sphere of accessibility services for deaf people, and subtitlers in particular, to pay special attention to the conveyance of music. There are, however, other strong reasons to push this issue further: Music is more than something you process at a given moment. Music plays an important role in landmarking significant experiences and spaces in people’s lives. Songs and melodies have a shared life which goes beyond their compositional existence. Like other people, deaf and particularly late deafened people continue to “hear” music relating it to previous experiences. Burke (2008) testifies just this: When I am much older, if I ever hear music in my ear, it probably will be "Do, re, mi." That's the song that stuck with me throughout childhood, from Sound of Music. Older people who lose their hearing (as opposed to those of us who have been deaf our whole life), commonly experience the sensation of hearing music in their ears, usually songs/music that they remember from earlier in life.

Recalling music may mean remembering its lyrics, its tempo or melody, or simply the context in which it was experienced. Film is frequently the context that carries memorable music, as happens in the case above. Classics such as Dr. Jivago (1965), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or Chariots of Fire (1981), only to mention a few, have lived in time much due to their ear catching musical scores making it obvious that sound, and music in particular, is one of the most important elements in filmmaking. According to Blandford et al. (2001: 156) the primary function of music in films is to provide emotional support to the story, a notion that is shared by Kivy (1997: 322) who underlines that “music warms the emotional climate.” Taking on a different perspective Gorbman (1987: 2-3) considers that “music taps deeply in cultural codes, giving it rich cultural associations and potential meaning, a ‘veritable language’ that can contribute significantly to a film’s overall meaning”. Monaco (1977: 182) sums up the issue by addressing the whole of the sound track as one and talks of the compositional interplay of sound in movies by saying that “it makes no difference whether we are dealing with speech, music, or environmental sound: all three are at times variously parallel or counterpunctual, actual or commentative, synchronous or asynchronous”, and it is in this interplay that filmic meaning grows beyond the images and the whole becomes artistically expressive. All said, one might place music among the richest of filmic codes and among those that deserve special interpretative skills both on the part of movie watchers and particularly on that of linguists working in the field. In the context

Music to my eyes...

125

of subtitling, and in order to proceed with linguistic transfer of acoustic messages, translators will need to be sensitive to this interplay between images, speech, sound and music to be able to decode their inherent messages and to find adequate and expressive solutions to convey such sensations verbally. In so doing they will be aiming at the best translation possible, which, to quote Forster (1958: 6), “fulfils the same purpose in the new language as the original did in the language in which it was written”. If we are to transpose this notion to the context of sound, and to that of music in particular, subtitles will need to serve the purpose of the acoustic component of the audiovisual text in all its effects. Although it may be difficult to find words that fully convey the expressive force of sound, the translator working on SDH should try to produce equivalent narrative and aesthetic effects that will be meaningful to people who might have never perceived sound before. But most important of all, translators will need to see how these elements interact with the rest of the cinematic codes, explicitly or implicitly modifying the whole that is more than the sum of speech, images and sound. They must listen to every nuance and decode every message so that intentional effects may be conveyed as fully as possible. By finding different, yet equivalent solutions to render the acoustic messages in the original text, translators will need also to find a way to make such information blend in naturally with the visual component of the still present original text, whilst guaranteeing that all that is written in the subtitles makes sense, and is thus relevant, to their receivers. In SDH this balance is hard to achieve. Translating contextually occurring sound and music into written language will demand transcoding expertise that will pull the translator between the intended meaning of the acoustic messages, their function in the text and the effect any rendering may produce on the d/Deaf viewer. The achievement of what Nida calls a “natural rendering” (2000 [1964]: 136) will be a difficult aim, particularly because relevance is receptor bound, and most translators doing SDH seldom truly understand their receivers’ socio-cultural context. Nida (ibid.) clarifies what is expected of such “natural” renderings by saying that they “must fit (1) the receptor language and culture as a whole, (2) the context of the particular message, and (3) the receptor-language audience”. The whole focus is definitely on the way the receivers perceive the message and much less on the way that message resembles the original. Taking all the above said about the importance of music in people’s lives and its importance in the making of audiovisual texts, and of films in particular, is it clear that, when addressing the issue of subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing (SDH) it should deserve special attention. All scholars and professionals in the field justify the inclusion of information about sound effects and music in SDH on the premise that, otherwise, people with deafness would miss out on important aural information. All guidelines and codes of good practice contain recommendations to this effect. However, careful analyses of actual subtitles on

126

Josélia Neves

screen show that the issue is complex and only partially tackled. Theoretical works on SDH echo such complexity by only touching upon the matter without going into specificities. On the whole, what might be inferred is that translators and scholars of translation are more aware of the transfer that occurs at a linguistic level than at a semiotic level. They also know that the transcoding of acoustic signs, and music in particular, into visual (verbal or iconic) signs calls for specific interpretative skills that need to be developed. Further to translating words, translators will need to interpret what goes unsaid and can only be perceived. Like poetry, sound and music need to be felt in order to be translated and, once felt, they need to be understood as distinct signs that must be re-codified into visual signs suggesting equivalent effects. Given that translators working on SDH need to spell out what they perceive in subliminal ways, the translation process that takes sound effects and music into subtitles might be seen as an instance of exegetic translation which Hervey and Higgins (1992: 50) consider to be a “style of translation in which the TT expresses and explains additional details that are not explicitly conveyed in the ST”, or in other words one in which “the TT is, at the same time, an expansion and explanation of the contents of the ST”. As happens with the rest of sound effects, choices need to be made on how to convey music in the form of subtitles. Here too, guidelines and actual practice show that even when the topic is explicitly addressed on paper, the actual presentation of information on screen is less systematic. 1. Codes and Conventions The analysis of 15 in-house guidelines used in various countries and for different media (cinema, TV and DVD markets) (Neves 2005) shows that music is systematically included as one of the elements to be conveyed in subtitles. Most of the indications, however, pertain to technical parameters such as colour, font type, positioning or format. A parallel analysis of the conventions used in different media and in different European countries also shows that, in practise, music is only hinted at in subtitles. One might summarise common practice in half a dozen conventions. Most of the times, information about music is reduced to a minimum and most of the labels provided are simple references to the presence of music.

127

Music to my eyes...

Figure 1. Label about rhythm (TVE2 – Spain)

Figure 2. Label indicating singing (TV3 – Spain)

At times, thematic pieces are identified as such and it is sometimes found that lyrics are included, particularly in the case of musicals or when explicitly relevant to the plot.

Figure 3. Identification of theme music (ITV1 – UK)

Figure 4. Lyrics (BBC2 – UK)

One of the recommendations recurrent in guidelines is the inclusion of a symbol to indicate the existence of relevant music. Many subtitling systems do not allow for the inclusion of musical notes [] or [♪] as suggested in guidelines so it is common to find a sharp sign [#] introducing information about music or song lyrics. In less frequent occasions, full identification or a short explanatory notes are to be found:

128

Josélia Neves

Figure 5. Detailed information about music (SIC ( MA) – Portugal)

Figure 6. Type of music (with comment) (SIC [MA] – Portugal)

The question remains: “how much is, in fact, being given in these almost telegraphic subtitles, and what else might be done to convey music to d/Deaf viewers?” 2. A tentative proposal for a new approach to subtitling music A utopian (even if technically possible) approach to the matter might envisage offering multi-sensorial solutions for the conveyance of film sound and music to cinema goers, among which deaf viewers will be naturally included. 4D cinema will certainly have the means to transfer acoustic messages into multisensory codes, banking on technical devices to produce multiple sensations (through seat movement, vibration, the manipulation of seat temperature and overall atmospheric conditions, among others). Such solutions, however promising, are way beyond the possibilities available in democratic media, such as television and the DVD, even in their most advanced formats. It may be true that the new technologies used in advanced iDTV or Blu-ray DVDs may offer a new array of technical solutions that may be used to advantage to improve present subtitling standards, however, these will be of little use if those providing accessibility services to deaf viewers do not grasp the full significance of music in order to transfer it into whatever technical means might be available. Technology alone will not respond if those providing the service do not have a clear understanding of the role(s) that sound and music play in the audiovisual text and/or do not master intersemiotic translation techniques that can be adequately activated in non-acoustic conveyance of acoustic messages. Building on what was posited for the training of subtitlers working in SDH on the need to understand the meaning of sound in film (Neves 2008), and if we are to

Music to my eyes...

129

concentrate on the conveyance of music through subtitles, it might be useful to return to what filmmakers make of music. Sonnenschein (2001: 155) neatly categorises music in film into four functions: − Emotional Signifier – takes us into the make-believe world of film. It allows us to sense the invisible and inaudible, the spiritual and the emotional processes of the characters portrayed. − Continuity – a sense of continuity is maintained when music is played over spacially discontinuous shots. − Narrative cueing – music helps the audience orient to the setting, characters, and narrative events, providing a particular point of view. − Narrative unity – music can aid in the formal unity of the film by employing repetition, variation, and counterpoint, thus supporting the narrative as well. If subtitlers keep these aspects – emotional significance, role in the continuity, narrative cueing (time, space, viewpoint) and narrative unity – in mind whilst analysing film and writing up subtitles, perhaps they will come up with richer subtitles that will help deaf viewers “see” music and direct their attention to specific features or even enhance their selective/residual hearing ability(ies). If they also take into account that music can create a convincing atmosphere of time and place and if they find a way to convey those explicitly or implicitly suggested landmarks, they may be contributing towards promoting a different kind of “hearing”, one imbedded in knowledge and culture. This is by no means an easy task. It implies that subtitlers have acquired highly proficient listening skills and have also developed music decoding knowledge that are still not seen as vital in subtitler training programmes and only come naturally to the few subtitlers who might have personal musical skills or education. Music plays such an important role in film that one might wonder why it hasn’t gained special interest among more translators and scholars working in the field. The answer might be found in the fact that apparently music falls outside the sphere of language or that one will need specialised knowledge or skills to approach it. Both beliefs are not quite true. All translators really need is to put some effort into understanding the role that music plays in the work they are subtitling and while other multi-sensorial solutions are not widely available, finding words to convey it whenever it is obviously relevant to the plot. 3. DéJà Vu’s 8 minute opening sequence A practical example of what has just been said might be had in the analysis of the 8 minute long opening sequence of Tony Scott’s crime thriller DéJà Vu (2006), in which Denzel Washington plays the part of Doug Carlin, an ATF

130

Josélia Neves

Agent, who is brought in to investigate an explosion on a ferry boat that took the lives of hundreds of soldiers and their families. The film is built around Doug Carlin’s attempt to unravel the crime and avoid the tragedy by going back and forward in time thanks to a secret intelligence device. This complex time paradox give the film a science fiction dimension intertwining four different timelines in what is a rather complex and unnerving narrative. Despite the discrepant reviews, which range from qualifying the film as very good to very poor, it is certainly an example of how music and sound effects have contributed towards building this complex narrative. The opening sequence is minutely orchestrated to provide (hearing) viewers with a number of narratives which are greatly built on sound, and music in particular, which plays an interesting game with the visual cues. A close analysis of this sequence, as it comes in the DVD format, using English SDH, allows one to put all the theoretical formulations set forward in this paper into focus. If we are to watch the sequence with the sound track off, we start off by seeing the opening credits, first an animated presentation of the logo of Touchstone Pictures, then that of Bruckheimer Films, that the audio describer says to be “a view of the road ahead of my vehicle travelling at speed down a desert road. The scene goes into reverse then repeats itself. Lightning strikes a tree by the roadside and the tree comes into leaf.” The film itself then begins with the opening credits intertwining with the opening scenes. The first 4 minutes are a succession of images depicting what appears to be a joyous moment with young people celebrating, soldiers going on board the Algiers Ferry, either as groups of merry young lads or with their girlfriends or families. The atmosphere appears to be light-hearted and energetic and quite celebratory. Even the images in slow motion seem to help us dwell on the joy of those boarding the boat. We are given a view of the harbour and the boat through various angles and even though the two parts of the boat (the upper deck with the people and the lower deck with the cars) are shown, everything seems to converge towards the excitement of starting off on a regular trip. A first hint of disruption comes when a little girl lets her doll fall into agitated waters, but even that is played down by the rest of the images showing the excitement of all those on board. Images create a counter punctual effect when the camera cuts between the upper and the lower deck. However, only the ferry hand’s facial expression shows some signs of concern. As had happened with the doll’s episode minutes before, this too is played down by the joyous atmosphere that comes with the brass band playing and the overall playful and relaxed atmosphere that is given from the deck above. The event of something being wrong is hinted at when we are given close ups of the key hanging in the truck to which the ferry hand had been attracted and that of a missing number plate. The space that goes between the close-up of explosives and the explosion itself is just enough for the viewer not to be caught by surprise when the boat gets blown into pieces. Events are shown sequentially

Music to my eyes...

131

and there is no real sense of crescendo even if tension does build up a little as we follow the movements in the deck below. The minute that follows the explosion is filled with visual tension which seems to be broken with the arrival of the ATF Agent that is shown with close camera shots in opposition to the scenes around him that are mainly shown in medium to long shots. The camera soon takes on the agent’s viewpoint as it scrutinizes the disaster area. Emotional intensity is given through a number of slow motion sequences that seem to be driven by the main character’s thoughts. If we are now to go through the same initial 8 minutes using sound alone, we are given quite a different story. The opening sequence of DéJà Vu is strongly held together by two pieces of original scores, “Algiers Ferry” (3:06) and “The Aftermath” (4:30), composed and conducted by Harry Gregson-Williams, which are intersected, at times, by another two pieces, the traditional “The Saints Go Marching In” and The Beach Boy’s “Don’t Worry Baby”. The quality of the original pieces is sad and romantic with a slightly noirish edge. Initially a gentle piano sound breaks the silence and a few high pitched woman vocals interact with it while almost indistinct crowd noises make their way into the soundscape. The rhythm picks up to give way to the sound of a foghorn which is followed by a rhythmic even if unsteady thumping, resembling a subdued heartbeat. Various sound effects interact with the music suggesting a geographical setting that involves the hustle and bustle of a busy place where people, cars and seagulls and a ship convene. There aren’t many speech lines in the first 3 minutes (initially a man’s voice saying “let’s get these boys to the party” and later a child screaming “mama”). The sudden introduction of a jazzy “When the Saints Go Marching In" breaks the down tone atmosphere and gives it a hearty lift that is then taken up by a radio broadcast introducing the 1964 pop song “Don’t Cry Baby” by The Beach Boys. The next minute is a coming and going between these two songs with an odd line of speech. An explosion comes in after an insistent ticking noise and silences all music. The minute that follows is inhabited by sound effects that speak of peril and anguish and sounds of sea and rain. The next theme, “The Aftermath”, creeps in underlining the sounds of a disaster zone written with screams, sirens, choppers and people’s cries. The music picks up the previously heard drumming heartbeat sound and languid strings produce a mournful atmosphere. The music is sombre even if rhythmic and blends in with the sound effects (e.g. a cell phone ringing) as if underlining them with a tragic tone. If yet another exercise is to be done, where the images are followed with SDH alone, little is added to the visual cues through the 17 subtitles that appear during these initial 8 minutes. Deaf people watching will basically receive the additional information of the speech lines, which are all in tone with the images, and the odd subtitle on major sound effects. All that is given about the music is the title of the two well known songs “When the Saints come Marching in” and “Don’t Worry Baby”.

132

Josélia Neves

By addressing the film through image or through sound alone, one may think these are two totally different stories. At least as far as the initial 4 minutes are concerned image and sound tell of different tales. If we bring together all the parts together and read them in their interplay, we will come up with a somewhat new tale. Sound effects and image seem to play the “telltale” game in which one underlines the other and both, synchronously, speak of the same thing. Where the equation changes is when we include the musical score(s) and match them against both the images and the sound effects. There we might find a case of what Sonnenschein (2001: 156) calls “anempatheic music” in which the music almost ironically contradicts what is seen on screen. Quite a lot has been written about Gregson-Williams’ scores in Déjà Vu. A review in itunes (http://ax.itunes.apple.com) reads: His implementation of great ambient violins and synth sounds, and combining it with his signature percussions and catchy sound effects make him an artist who stands out on his own. You can feel the tension of each song, and if you have seen the film, remember the intensity and moods that each seen [sic] brings.

This comment encapsulates exactly what Gregson-Williams’ music brings to the film, “tension, intensity and mood”, which are heightened with the counter punctual effect the well known songs (“When the Saints come Marching in” and “Don’t Worry Baby”) bring to the movie. In other words, it might make sense to see how each of the music pieces relates to the image and sound effects at each point and how they interact among themselves. A detailed look at the way music is used in this film in relation to image (described in the audio description) and sound effects and even to the SDH subtitles provided in the DVD version (see appendix) shows how little was taken into account when making the film accessible to deaf viewers and how much more could be done to convey a little more of the narrative value its music has. The reference to music we are given in subtitles 3, 8 and 10 seem rather insufficient if we take the following into account: Music is present in the film even before the first image appears. In fact, the theme music interacts with the short animation which leads to the logo of Bruckheimer Films even before the narrative begins. The music draws the animation into the film as a visual metaphor encapsulating the time bending experience the film is all about. The first piano notes to be heard are light but sad and sets the film off on a sombre note. The mood is dark and tragic right from the start and seems totally out of character when heard against the bright, happy images. From the very beginning hearing viewers know that there is something not quite right in the whole visual setting. This, deaf viewers cannot pick up because all the visual cues are telling a happy story. Here and in other places in the film, it could be useful to drop a subtitle or two hinting at the mood the

Music to my eyes...

133

counter punctual music brings to the film. Every time the music varies to change the mood, this should be equally given, as is the case of the thumping heart-beatlike rhythm that comes as the visuals move in a crescendo highlighting people’s joy. Not mentioning the initial score at all leaves deaf viewers with yet another vacuum: the introduction of “When the Saints come Marching In” has no real impact. It is in synch with the image and only adds the cultural element, which is not that strong. Even though it is underlining the American spirit that is obviously present in the soldiers and sailors we see in the pictures, it is in tone with the context for most brass bands will play this song. The subtitler does well in introducing the subtitle when the song comes on but then there is no other reference to it when it comes back again and interacts with the Beach Boys’ song in the cat and mouse chase between bliss in the upper deck and near disaster in the lower deck. The game that Scott makes with these two popular songs also goes unseen to deaf viewers. Initially, “When the Saints come Marching In” is the top deck song. It is merry, patriotic in its jazzy gait. Initially, too “Don’t Worry Baby” is the bottom deck song. Cutting between them means going above and below in the parallel narratives that are taking place in the ferry. But slowly the music from below takes over and keeps on playing while the images shown are from above. At that stage, the lyrics become perfectly audible and even front staged to the point when they ironically match the picture of a baby yawning in the arms of a veteran soldier. It is clear to hearers that danger lurks from below even if the song speaks of “fun, sun and auto parts” as Panfile (n/d) puts it in his analysis of “Don’t Worry Baby”. The two narratives are about to become one and hearers know it, mainly because the music is telling them so. Here again, with very few subtitles that are given, deaf viewers cannot perceive this implicit narrative. Perhaps, in this case, it would help to have the subtitles with the lyrics of the Beach Boys’ song. The third part of this introductory sequence picks up anew on the film’s original theme score. “The Aftermath” picks up from where the “Algier’s Ferry” left off. It may have lost the sweet tones of the piano and the woman’s vocals to be found in the first piece but it has grown in tension and in insight. Particularly after Doug comes on screen, the music highlights the main character’s feelings. In this part of the film it underlines emotions. Again, it establishes mood. Here however it has lost the counter punctual effect it had at the beginning. It is in synch with the visual cues in that it speaks of the same tragedy only it displaces it from its reality and embodies it with a personal an emotional atmosphere. Even when the mobile phone in a dead body bag rings, Doug has difficulty in breaking free from his emotional reverie and this we know because the music is telling us so. Having said all this and in an attempt to offer a fuller account of the musical force in the opening sequence of Scott’s film, I have now proposed a new set of

134

Josélia Neves

subtitles without touching the ones that have been offered on the DVD that served the purpose of this reflection (see appendix for cross referencing). (♪ soft piano notes) (♪ sad piano with woman’s vocals) (♪ tension mounts) (LAUGHING AND CHEERING) (♪ drums mark heartbeat tempo) (FOGHORN SOUNDS) (♪ rhythm accelerates) (♪ music grows in intensity) Can’t believe it. They’re right on time. Let’s get these boys to their party. (♪ sad music covers voices) Mama! (BAND PLAYING WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN) MAN ON RADIO: It’s 10:48 on Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras. Now let’s go back in time to 1964. The Beach Boys on 105.3FM, the heart of New Orleans. (♪ Back to THE SAINTS) (DON’T WORRY BABY PLAYING ON RADIO) (♪ Back to THE SAINTS) Okay. Take it out wide. Give the pig some room. (DON’T WORRY BABY PLAYING ON RADIO) (♪ Back to THE SAINTS) [♪] Well it's been building up inside of me [♪] For oh I don't know how long [♪] I don't know why but I keep thinking [♪] Something's bound to go wrong [♪ ] Don’t worry Baby [♪ ] Everything will turn out all right

135

Music to my eyes...

(BEEPING) (SCREAMING) (♪ sad mood) (♪ moaning strings and grave drums) (SIRENS WAILING) My daughter’s on that ferry. Please. Please. Oh, God, my daughter! (♪ drums in a heartbeat rhythm) (CELL PHONE RINGS) (♪ sad emotional atmosphere) (music breaks) Do the other side? (♪ music returns, energetic yet grave) This is no more than an academic exercise. The solutions proposed may prove to be less adequate when actually placed on film. Conventions such as colour codes, font types and positioning would necessarily need to be revised and subtitle cueing would also need to be addressed with care. However, I truly believe it is worth trying to capture and to put into words all that music has to say through its multiple codes. It is no easy chore to convey all these subtleties through written subtitles. They always seem out of character and bulky, particularly when they appear in upper-case letters sprawling across the top of the screen. Perhaps SDH should consider refining its conventions when it comes to conveying music. As we have them today, subtitles are still mainly verbal. Visual codes such as font and colour changes, positioning or the inclusion of odd signs, are certainly poor solutions to convey the richness of film music. Technology and software developers have still not exploited synesthesia to the full to come up with easy-to-use solutions that might convey sound through non-acoustic codes. It has long been understood that humans have the ability to call up different senses to gain access to the world around them and as Sachs (2007: 193) puts it, “nowadays synesthesia is understood to be a sensory phenomenon as well as a conceptual reality, ‘a union of ideas rather than sensations’”. If we are to take this further and draw from all that has been said and done about conveying sound and music through other media (Isac Newton’s Opticks dating back to 1704 already related sound frequencies to light refraction in his metaphorical colour music wheel, for instance) perhaps we can come up with a solution that might conjure deaf people’s synesthetic abilities to bring music to them just in the same way that “the look, the feel, the taste, and the crunch of a Granny Smith apple all go together”

136

Josélia Neves

Sacks (ibid.: 194). After all, still as Sachs (ibid.: 177) points out, “there are no less than eighteen densely packed columns on ‘Colour and Music’ in The Oxford Companion to Music” and there are a number of interesting studies on how music is synesthetically related to colour and even to taste (e.g. research by Gian Beeli, Michaela Esslen and Lutz Jäncke) or even with light, shape and position (e.g. research by Sue B.) 1 . Even if still read as utopian, who knows if some time in the future, subtitles will take on completely new shapes and will find a way to convey the wealth of meaning(s) music brings to life in general and to films in particular. While this is still not available to all, deaf viewers will certainly benefit from subtitles that carry speech, sound effects and music, even if only in the form of descriptive, explanatory or interpretative tags. Deaf viewers may continue to demand verbatim or near-verbatim subtitles of the dialogue exchanges in films, but will necessarily need to trust the subtitlers’ expertise when it comes to decoding music and finding the means to convey all the hidden meanings that are often only felt by hearers. Making subliminal messages explicit is no easy task, but it is definitely worth the effort because all music is there for a reason. References Blandford, S. et al. (2001). The Film Studies Dictionary. London: Arnold. Burke, J. (2008). “Music in the ear”. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/myhyrh [712-2008] Cytowic, R. (n/d). Synesthesia rhymes with “anesthesia”. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/lrmjpr [7-12-2008] Darrow, A. A. (1993). “The role of music in deaf culture: Implications for music education”. In Journal of Research in Music Education, 41(2), 93-110. Forster, L. (1958). “Translation: An introduction”. In: A. H. Smith (ed). Aspects of Translation: Studies in Communication 2. London: Secker and Warburg, 128. Gorbman, C. (1987). Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. London: Indiana University Press, Bloomington, and British Film Institute. Gouge, P. (1990). “Music and profoundly deaf students”. British Journal of Music Education, 7(3), 279-281. Hervey, S. and I. Higgins (1992). A Course in Translation Method: French to English. London: Routledge.

1

See Paul Harrison’s (http://tinyurl.com/muj9gl) and Angela Meder and Andreas Mengel (http://tinyurl.com/n8dnpp) webpages for numerous links on the issue.

Music to my eyes...

137

Kivy, P. (1997). “Music in the movies: A philosophical enquiry”. In: Allen, Richard and Murray Smith (eds). Film Theory and Philosophy. Oxford: Claredon Press, 308-328. Laborit, E. (1998). The Cry of the Gull. Washington: Gallaudet University Press. Monaco, J. (1981). How to Read a Film. The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Neves, J. (2005). Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-ofHearing. University of Surrey-Roehampton: PhD Dissertation Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/na33eo Neves, J. (2008). “Training in subtitling for the d/Deaf and the hard of hearing”. In: Díaz Cintas (ed). The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation. Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp.171-189. Nida, E. (2000) (1964). “Principles of correspondence”. In: Venuti, L. (ed). The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge, 126-140. Panfile, G. (n/d). Mind of Brian 9: Don't Worry Baby. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/m9cmln [8-12-2008] Petit, B. C. (2003). “Music for Deaf persons”. Disability World, 20, SeptemberOctober. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/me3kyh [8-12-2008] Sacks, O.(1990). Seeing Voices. A Journey into the World of the Deaf. New York: Harper Perennial. Sacks , O. (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. New York: Knopf. Sandberg, M. W. (1954). Rhythms and music for the deaf and hard of hearing. Volta Review, 56(6), 255-256. University Of Washington (2001). “Brains Of Deaf People Rewire To "Hear" Music”. ScienceDaily (November 28). Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/m5undg. [8-12-2008] Filmography Chariots of Fire (1981) Dir. Hugh Hudson UK DèJá Vu ( 2006) Dir. Tony Scott USA Dr. Jivago (1965) Dir. David Lean USA

138

Josélia Neves

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Dir. Stanley Kubrick USA Appendix Audio-description A flash of orange light breaks an orb suspended in darkness. The light recedes then repeats the action. The logo of touchstone pictures. (a) A view of the road ahead of my vehicle travelling at speed down a desert road. The scene goes into reverse, then repeats itself. Lightning strikes a tree by the roadside and the tree comes into leaf. The logo of Bruckheimer Films Captions: Touchstone pictures and Jerry Bruckhelmer Films Present a Scott Free production (pause) A film by Tony Scott Some women wave and smile as buses dischargelarge numbers of US sailors at a ferryboat. The men all seem in high spirits. Denzell Washington The sailors and a few soldiers all rush up a walkway into a ferry boat The sign outside reads “Algiers” De Jà Vú An aerial view of the port

Image / Sound / Music interaction

Subtitles (English SDH)

Musical notes of opening theme

Subtitles (new subtitles) (♪ soft piano notes)

Initially just a few piano notes

Then a few vocals – high pitched woman’s voice

(♪ sad piano with woman’s vocals)

Background music becomes more prominent – tense / woman’s vocals Stronger than voices

(♪ tension mounts)

Bus hooting as it comes into screen Crowd Cheers (indistinct and muffled) Music underpinning (whining – piano and vocals ) A few missing beats Change in tempo (beats) Strings (viola?)

1.(LAUGHING AND CHEERING)

(LAUGHING AND CHEERING)

(♪ drums mark heartbeat tempo)

139

Music to my eyes... in the banks of the Mississipy.

tempo rhythmic beats almost like a heartbeat. Music continues Car and motorbike engines

On board the ferry, the captain blows the horn. Val Kilmer More excited sailors rush off the buses and run upstairs into the port.

2. (FOGHORN SOUNDS) Music beat in tone with the images (some synchrony)

(FOGHORN SOUNDS)

(♪ rhythm accelerates)

Paula Patton A group of sailors pose for a photo with their wives and girlfriends. Bruce Greenwood A couple of excited seaman high five. Adam Goldberg Vehicles start to drive onto the ferry. Matt Craven A group of motorcyclists ride onto the car deck. The captain blows the ship’s horn once again.

Car and motorbike engines Music continues (counter punctual)

Elden Henson and Jim Caviezel Change in mood – music (more rounded) A navel officer carries his young daughter on his shoulders, his smiling partner walking beside him.

(♪ music grows in intensity)

Cheers and laughter Music continues

Erika Alexander, Rich Hutchman and Brian Howe The ferry captain checks his watch (on screen captain) Can’t believe it.

3. Can’t believe it. They’re right

Can’t believe it. They’re right on

140

A woman does a head count of some children on the ferry. Casting by Denise Chamian, csa Billy Hopkins, csa Kerry Barden, csa SuzanneCrowley, csa The officer’s daughter drops her doll over the side of the ferry.

Josélia Neves They’re right on time. Let’s get these boys to their party. (sailors cheering in the background) Only musical score – crowd sounds muffled

on time.

time.

4. Let’s get these boys to their party.

Let’s get these boys to their party. (♪ sad music covers voices)

(on screen girl cries) Mama! Music continues but becomes more tense Sea rushing

5. Mama!

Mama!

Band starts to play

6. (BAND PLAYING WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN)

(BAND PLAYING WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN)

7. MAN ON RADIO: It’s 10:48 on Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras. 8. Now let’s go

MAN ON RADIO: It’s 10:48 on Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras. Now let’s go

The doll splashes into the churning water of the Mississippi as the ferry pulls away from the dock. Music supervisor: Bob Badami Music composed by Harry Gergson-Williams Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick Edited by Chris Lebenzon, ace On deck the sailors all cram up for a free tickets to something Production designer: Chris Seagers Director of Photography: Paul Cameron asc

Change in music

141

Music to my eyes... while voice speaks over radio

A deck hand on the car deck of the ferry goes to investigate which of the vehicles has its radio on. Up on deck one of the sailors plays with the children.

The Saints come marching in

back in time to 1964. The Beach Boys on 105.3FM, the heart of New Orleans.

(♪ Back to THE SAINTS)

11. (DON’T WORRY BABY PLAYING ON RADIO)

On the car deck the deckhand approaches a 4x4 On the shore a brass band plays under a banner reading “Mardi Gras welcomes the crew of the U.S.S.Nimitz Katrina only made us stronger!” A huge container ship ploughs along the waterway.

back in time to 1964. 9. The Beach Boys on 105.3FM, 10. the heart of New Orleans.

(DON’T WORRY BABY PLAYING ON RADIO)

Change to Don’t Worry Baby

Then to When the Saints

(♪ Back to THE SAINTS)

The ferry captain

Captain speaks in the background we hear the brass band. The captain pulls the foghorn. Band music continues

12. Okay. Take it out wide. Give the pig some room.

Okay. Take it out wide. Give the pig some room.

The ferry adjusts its position on the channel to let the big container ship pass.

Music in the car takes a central position

13. (DON’T WORRY BABY PLAYING ON RADIO)

The deck hand peers into the 4x4’s window and sees the keys dangling in the car’s ignition

With the cut to the band, the saints

(DON’T WORRY BABY PLAYING ON RADIO) (♪ Back to THE SAINTS)

Executive producers: Mike Stenson, Chad Oman, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio Barry Waldman Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer

142

The deckhand tries the door of the 4x4 and finds it’s locked Written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio

On deck the officer, his partner and their daughter share a joke. Directed by Tony Scott The deckhand walks around the 4x4 and notices its rear licence plate is missing.

Josélia Neves With the cut back to the deckhand, back to Don’t worry Baby, which continues even when the band appears playing on screen. The lyrics become obvious. While the music keeps playing there are various cuts between the upper deck where the people are and the car deck where the deckhand is checking on the car that has no number plate.

On deck a toddler snoozes in the arms of an elderly veteran

Lyrics “Don’t worry baby…” come to the fore

The deckhand looks in through the 4x4’s back window . He sees it’s packed full with explosives

(can barely hear the ticking sound)

[♪] Well it's been building up inside of me [♪] for oh I don't know how long

[♪] I don't know why but I keep thinking [♪]something's bound to go wrong [♪ ]Don’t worry Baby [♪ ] Everything will turn out all right 14. (BEEPING)

(BEEPING)

15. (SCREAMING)

(SCREAMING)

Huge explosion The 4x4 explodes and a huge fireball rips through the ferry. Sailors and civilians are blown out of the stricken boat, many of them on fire as a vast mushroom of flames and smoke rises into the air. People plunge into the water. A blazing sailor falls into the river along with a number of vehicles from the car deck. Some survivors begin to swim to safety as the ferry starts to go down. The blazing hulk gradually sinking beneath the surface

Various sound effects playing with external and underwater sounds (underlining visual cues)

Music seeps in conveying a tragic atmosphere. Moaning strings, with grave drums

(♪ sad mood)

143

Music to my eyes... of the water. On shore the emergency services start to deal with the injured. People are ferried on gurneys to a waiting fleet of ambulances. Police struggle to cope with anxious crowds of relatives and onlookers. Doug Carlin, a black guy in his mid-forties drives a dark Collet Nissan up to the police line. His car has a “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives” sticker in the window. Doug gets out of the car and takes in the scene. A news helicopter circles overhead. Doug clamps his hands over his face for a minute as he walks on.

punctuating a slow tempo while the images show the coming and going of the disaster zone.

Music heightens as Denzel Washington comes on-screen stepping out of a car Music continues and mingles with sound effects (sirens and helicopter)

16. (SIRENS WAILING)

17. My daughter’s on that ferry. Please. Please. 18. Oh, God, my daughter!

An elderly couple talks to a police officer

Doug walks towards the river passing a steady stream of walking wounded and others on stretchers coming the other way. Down on the Quayside the dead are being laid out. Out in the channel a small floatela of small emergency service vessels drive back and forward over the spot the ferry went down. Fire and police choppers wheel in the air above the boats

(♪ moaning strings and grave drums)

Music’s tempo increases while images are shown in slow motion

Music gains relevance as Denzel Washington scrutinizes the disaster area

(SIRENS WAILING)

My daughter’s on that ferry. Please. Please. Oh, God, my daughter! (♪ drums in a heartbeat rhythm)

19.(CELL PHONE RINGS) (subtitle appears before the sound is actually heard)

(CELL PHONE RINGS)

144 Doug looks over at a long line of corpses and body bags to his left. He walks over to them taking off his sunglasses off as he does so. He checks his mobile phone and realises that the ringing is coming from one of the body bags. Doug looks out at the river. Later he is on one of the boats as it circles in the channel searching for survivors. It’s now raining heavily and Doug wears an overcoat and a baseball cap against the weather.

Doug watches as a diver swims to a dead sailor. The dead man is pulled aboard a motor launch

Dough looks thoughtfully at …

Josélia Neves

Music and phone ringing interact (underlying the gravity of the moment over the urgency of the phone call)

(♪ sad emotional atmosphere)

Sound effects of helicopters and boats in movement (music breaks)

(music breaks)

Music comes back but now with a new instrument (a wooden xelophone?) far more energetic (music takes on Denzel Washington’s thoughts – gives us point of view)

Do the other side? 20. Do the other side?

(♪ music returns, energetic yet grave)

Laura Cruz García Víctor Manuel González Ruiz Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Spain THE DUBBING OF TV ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF STANDARDISED MARKETING STRATEGIES 1. Introduction The term “audiovisual translation” usually evokes the rendering into a target language of a foreign film, TV show or documentary. This preconception seems consistent with the fact that most research carried out in this field has been devoted to the study of these audiovisual texts. Moreover, the focus on the discourse of cinema and television has been made explicit by some of the labels assigned to this practice by translation scholars, among which we find the following expressions: film dubbing (Fodor, 1976), film translation (SnellHornby, 1988), film and TV translation (Delabastita, 1989), traducción cinematográfica (Hurtado Albir, 1994/95), or traducción fílmica (Díaz Cintas, 1997). However, other audiovisual text types such as the varied discourse of advertising or computer games, are gradually reaching a higher status as objects of research within this area due to their ever-growing commercial interest. In such a diverse scenario then, the following designations would be more adequate if we are to refer to a wide enough sphere of study: constrained translation (Titford, 1982), traducción subordinada (Mayoral Asensio et al., 1986), screen translation (Mason, 1989), audiovisual translation (Luyken et al., 1991), media translation (Eguíluz et al., 1994), or multimedia translation (Gambier and Gottlieb, 2001) 1 . In this context, we will look at a text type which is even more frequently seen on television than films and shows, and which has started to draw some attention among translation scholars: the TV advertisement 2 . It is a fact that today television is the preferred means of mass communication as far as the advertising of products is concerned. In the same way as films and TV series, TV spots journey through the world as a reflection of the expansion of global products and brands. These audiovisual texts travel around the different national markets with the intention of communicating a uniform message, and with the ultimate goal of 1

Chaume Varela (2004:30) presents a thorough list of the different names given to this area of translation throughout the years. 2 For the sake of brevity and clarity, the following terms will be used to refer to the text type under study: advertisement, advert, ad, spot and commercial.

146

Maurizio Gotti

making people from social contexts as diverse as those of the US, Spain and China, for instance, buy and use the same lipstick brand or the same fragrance, no matter where they have been produced. This is particularly true in the case of multinational companies whose marketing activity relies on standardisation strategies. With regard to the translation of TV advertisements, the most common language transfer methods used are subtitling and dubbing, depending on the country or the language community where they will be broadcast. In terms of professional behaviour, while translators working on films, TV shows and documentaries tend to conform to a set of principles which are generally accepted, the translation of advertising seems, in principle, not to follow any common guidelines. And this is a fact which, in turn, will have an influence on the role of the translators of these texts, whose work, as we suggest in this paper, may only be studied on a company-by-company basis (or even on a brand-by-brand basis). Taking all the above elements into consideration, this paper aims to describe the strategies employed by the translators/adapters of two English-language TV adverts into Spanish. These spots, which were dubbed for broadcast on Spanish television, feature two consumer products from L’Oréal, a multinational company which expands into new territories by using standardised marketing procedures. By means of the comparison between the source and the target texts, we will show that, even though the images remain practically untouched in the dubbed spots, the linguistic content of the original adverts is dramatically changed in the Spanish versions, thus suggesting that the standardisation focuses on the visual element, while the linguistic text is adapted to the sensibilities and idiosyncrasies of the target consumers. In fact, we will find that, irrespective of the distance between the words in the original and the translated adverts, the target versions under study fulfil the primary communicative function of advertising discourse, which will be briefly described in the following section. 2. Advertising and translation In order to understand the specificity of the task and process of translating audiovisual advertising, it is necessary to define advertising, at least in general terms. According to experts on advertising and on advertising discourse (e.g., Dyer, 1996; Cook, 1992; Ferraz Martínez, 1993, Martín Armario, 1980; Block De Behar, 1992), advertising is a social, economic and cultural phenomenon which materialises in texts that are characterised by a special use of language, and which aim to persuade the addressee or target audience to act in different ways (e.g., from giving up smoking to buying the latest mobile phone technology). The different responses expected from the target audience will greatly depend on the type of advertising dealt with. Dyer (1996) classifies advertising into five different types: (a) commercial consumer advertising; (b) trade and

Legal discourse in multilingual and multicultural contexts

147

technical advertisements; (c) prestige, business and financial advertising; (d) classified ads; and (e) government and charity advertising. But her analysis centres on commercial consumer advertising as “perhaps the kind most visible in our society” and also because it “commands more expenditure, space and professional skill than any other type and is directed towards a mass audience” (ibid. 1996: 3). This is the type of advertising which our sample spots belong to, since their aim is to sell cosmetic products. So the expected or desired response of the receivers to the advertising message is buying the product being promoted. Advertising constitutes a complete communication act, produced at a certain time and place, where an addresser (the producer, the company, or the advertising agency) addresses a message (the advertising text) to an addressee (the target group of potential consumers) using a certain channel of communication (e.g., television, radio, magazines, billboards, the Internet). As a well-defined text type, people’s expectations with respect to these texts can also be defined according to a series of parameters including age, gender, social status, level of income, training and nationality, among others; that is, according to aspects related to their social and cultural background which are to be measured and determined through market research. But the key issue lies in the fact that the main purpose of advertising is to persuade, a goal which corresponds to Bühler’s (1934) appellative function of language, and to Jakobson’s (1960) conative function. It is this persuasive nature, and consequently the importance of the addressee in the advertising texts, which makes them more user-oriented than any other text type. According to Hervey and Higgins (1992), the user-orientedness is emphasised in those texts of a persuasive nature whose aim is not to sell themselves, but to sell other things and promote attitudes or behaviour styles. Although, in general, receiver-oriented texts have as common features their attempt to attract and keep the audience’s attention, the fact that they directly address people, and their intention to produce a certain effect on them, advertising is the type of discourse which most clearly shows this orientation: “the determining influence of translation-for-a-purpose is nowhere more strongly felt than in translating consumer-oriented texts” (Hervey and Higgins 1992: 173). This means that both linguistic and non-linguistic resources are employed with the goal of convincing the audience to behave in a particular way (e.g., buying the product or service being promoted, or becoming aware of a social problem), regardless of the type of advertising and the medium used. In this sense, advertising discourse presents a characteristic style and makes use of a series of recurrent morpho-syntactical, lexical and graphic features whose purpose is to attract the receivers’ attention and make them act as desired by the addresser. Broadly speaking, advertising discourse is generally informal and

148

Maurizio Gotti

brief 3 ; as a reflection of this, it primarily employs short, simple sentences. The use of subordinate clauses tends to be limited to conditionals, followed by comparatives and consecutives, since juxtaposition is preferred to the use of explicit connectors. As Cook (1992: 154) points out, conjunctions are “notoriously absurd in ads”, because, whenever they are made explicit, they appear in ways that would be unacceptable in normal language. The abundance of juxtaposed sentences inevitably reduces the number of occurrences of conjunctions in their normal role. Besides, ellipsis is very common in advertising discourse, and is also a typical feature of face-to-face communication 4 , since it creates an atmosphere of proximity and intimacy. Imperative clauses are also frequent, and, according to Myers (1994), create a personal effect. Likewise, the use of questions and exclamations establishes a direct link with the addressee. Parallelism and deviation in syntactical structures are commonly used to attract the receiver’s attention and to emphasise either the qualities of the product or of values associated with it. As far as the use of personal pronouns in advertising is concerned, the second person pronoun you (and its equivalent Spanish forms) makes a direct appeal to the addressee, while the first person singular is normally employed by a fictional character within the advert. The first person plural is also sometimes used to imply the inclusion of the addressee, the addresser, the advertiser and the product in the same context. Finally, third person pronouns, singular and plural, tend to refer to outsiders, that is to say, people who do not use or have not used the product being promoted, and are, for this reason, excluded from the fictional world of the ad. With regard to the occurrence of verbs and nouns, these are often employed in ways that would be atypical in everday language use. The predominance of noun structures is another common feature of the advertising discourse, which tends to present a high concentration of nouns, often in apposition, and an unusually low density of verbs. When translating advertising, all of the aforementioned characteristics 5 must be borne in mind if translators are to adequately convey the intended message and, thus, reach the intended aim. Besides, we cannot forget that the whole decisionmaking process in translating is conditioned by the addressee of the target version and, therefore, by his or her social and cultural context. In this respect, Valdés Rodríguez (2000: 272) states:

3

An in-depth description of the features of advertising texts can be found in Cook (1992), Ferraz Martínez (1993), Myers (1994), and Dyer (1996), among others. 4 As Cook (1992:172) points out, “lack of extensive ellipsis implies formality, social distance, or a lack of shared knowledge. This also applies to explicit connectives”. 5 The features briefly described here apply, at least, to such a discourse type in English and Spanish.


149

[…] since the aim is to sell a product or promote a service, the emphasis is always given to the persuasive effect the text should have. The selection and the presentation of the various elements both of the source and of the target text depend on how attractive and convincing the advertisement is for its receivers. Thus, the receiver is the main factor influencing the production and the translation of the ad.

At this stage, it is relevant to consider the skills needed by the person who faces the task of translating advertising. According to Cruz García (2004), such a translator should have a thorough knowledge of (a) the two languages involved in the translation; (b) commercial and marketing principles (advertising in particular); (c) the cultures in contact; (d) the product being advertised; (e) the conventions which rule the advertising discourse in both languages and cultures; and (f) special languages (terminology), depending on the type of product which is being advertised. In addition to this, creative qualities should be a prerequisite for any successful translator of adverts 6 . As early as 1972, after analysing the difficulties imposed by the translation of this type of discourse, Boivineau (1972) stated that this task is more to do with writing (i.e., with creating a new text as though no previous source text existed) than with translating. In fact, the translator –or adapter, in his words– becomes a seller. In this respect, the difficulties increase when we deal with advertising texts whose translation is not only conditioned by their linguistic features, textual conventions or the target cultural and social system, but also by the restrictions of a complex channel of communication like television, where images in motion and sound are integral parts of the message. That is, when we face the translation of audiovisual advertising. 3. Audiovisual texts, audiovisual translation Since this study deals with TV advertisements, we will refer to audiovisual translation, in a narrow sense, as the translation of a text which combines images and sound in order to convey a particular advertising message. In a more comprehensive fashion, Chaume Varela (2004) defines the audiovisual text as follows: a text which is transmitted through two communication channels (acoustic and visual), and whose meaning is built from the combination and interaction of different codes, not only the linguistic code; as regards the media through which it is transmitted, these are also varied (e.g., cinema screen, TV, personal computer, video and DVD reader). 6

According to Boivineau (1972: 12), these qualities consist of the sensitivity and intuition that allow the translator discover those elements of the source text that can cause a negative reaction on the part of the addressee.

150

Maurizio Gotti

Audiovisual translation is thus a type of translation which deals with audiovisual texts (as defined above) and which covers a variety of translation modes, dubbing, subtitling and voice-over being among the most popular. These modes are characterised by technical constraints to which the translator must adapt. In this area of translation, the professional must consider the information which, coming from the different codes, is transmitted both acoustically and visually, and attempt to make the final product believable to the recipient, primarily by following a set of established conventions. Additionally, audiovisual translation requires tight cooperation between the translator and other professionals involved in the process of production and distribution of a given audiovisual product. As regards audiovisual advertising, although several language transfer modes are applied to the translation of spots (subtitling, dubbing, transfer, voiceover and the creation of a completely new text being among the most common), we will focus on dubbing since it is by far the most commonly-used mode of translation in the Spanish context for imported audiovisual products (according to Chaume Varela (2004), they account for more than 90% of all imports), and because the samples which we will analyse in this paper are translations from English made for the Spanish market. According to Agost Canós (1999), dubbing consists of the replacement of a given original soundtrack by another. But the process is not that simple. In fact, in Martínez’s words (2004: 3), the text delivered by the translator “will serve as the starting point for a lengthy and complex process during which the text will pass through many hands and operations, which may be more or less respectful of the original translation”. The script is first translated, and then adapted and synchronised; subsequently, the text is divided into takes and interpreted by actors, under the supervision of the dubbing director and sometimes following the recommendations of a linguistic consultant (if there is one) (Chaume Varela, 2004). Since synchronisation is of paramount importance in reaching the quality needed to meet the audience’s expectations, we should pay some attention to the three types of synchronisation between the original soundtrack and the translated one, as described by Agost Canós (1999): (1) content synchronisation, which implies the coherence between the original content and that of the dubbed version; (2) visual synchronisation, between the lip movements of the actors and the speech (or sound) recorded in the translated soundtrack; and (3) character synchronisation, which requires that the voice of the dubbing actor suit the physical appearance and the gestures and expressions of the character being dubbed. When dubbing spots, as when dubbing films, lip-synchronisation plays a fundamental role in the creation of a natural and therefore acceptable target version. Thus, after the submission of a literal translation of the source TV advert,


151

the translator, or an adapter (a figure which, ideally, should be the same as the translator) needs to have the ability to perfectly match the lip movements of the characters with the new speech and solve the time differences imposed by the two languages in contact. After such a long and complex process, it is reasonable to think that the final version will differ to a certain extent from the original one, since modifications will be carried out. As Martínez (2004: 5) states, “audiovisual translation is, probably, the discipline in which the text undergoes most change from start to finish. All the stages of the process involve manipulation to some extent of the text submitted by the translator”. She refers, especially, to the phases of proofreading and synchronisation. The alterations made at these stages, according to this author, “sometimes may be necessary and sometimes not particularly so”. She also highlights the fact that, in general, neither the proof-reader nor the synchroniser understand the language of the source text. If, as we said above, any target text undergoes a number of changes in the dubbing process, dubbed spots are likely to be subjected to even more modifications. This is so since three powerful forces come into play: the source text, the addressee’s expectations and the ultimate purpose of advertising (i.e., to persuade). In the case of TV adverts as opposed to other audiovisual texts, the last two elements are the predominant factors. In this sense, Cómitre Narváez (2009) refers to “deliberate manipulation” in order to, on the one hand, maintain the persuasive aim and, on the other hand, make the dubbed spot acceptable in the target culture. 5. An analysis of two TV adverts from L’Oréal cosmetics Since the spots we have chosen for the purposes of this work belong to advertising campaigns by L’Oréal, it is important to look at the company itself as well as at their transnational marketing strategies. L’Oréal is a multinational company which was established in France in 1909 and whose business focuses on cosmetics and beauty products for both men and women. According to L’Oréal sources, the aim of the corporation is “to tap into all beauty aspirations and meet the needs of all consumers, whatever their income or expectations” (L’Oréal 2009: 73). Among other strategies to further this purpose, L’Oréal has engaged in a geographical expansion by means of which its brands have been made available to customers in 130 countries in all five continents. In this sense, the company seems proud to state that, “in the space of a century, the small French firm has gone from internationalisation to globalisation”; and, subsequently, it claims that “L’Oréal is now able to deliver products that meet the needs of the whole world” (ibid.: 11).

152

Maurizio Gotti

As an overall strategy, most of the marketing-mix elements developed by the company (e.g., brand name, advertising and promotion, product, packaging) are the same for both traditional and new markets. This means that L’Oréal favours the standardisation approach as far as marketing and communication are concerned, even though it also shows subtle signs of adaptation to the idiosyncrasies of each market (Sánchez Pérez 2006: 263). In particular, in terms of advertising and promotion, the campaigns launched by L’Oréal for most of its core range of products (e.g., Garnier, L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, Lancôme) consist of a common set of advertisements which feature world-famous celebrities and which are dubbed into the languages of the different countries. For instance, the British and Spanish audiences saw the TV adverts for Glam Shine from L’Oréal (with actress Scarlett Johansson) and L’Oréal Perfect Slim (with TV star Eva Longoria), which are analysed in this paper, in almost the same edited version, the major difference between them being the language used by the dubbed voice of the model in question and the voice-over present throughout the spots. As a result of this transnational approach, L’Oréal is apparently able to maintain a similar image for all its brands wherever they are sold. However, Harris and Attour (2003), after reviewing a number of prior studies on the international advertising practices of multinational companies, claim that, in the cases of firms like L’Oréal, the implementation of total standardisation is rare, and that “’standardisation’ is a flexible policy, one that can be adapted to a range of circumstances and differing market conditions” (ibid.: 167). Regarding L’Oréal, this is especially true in the marketing policies adopted by the company for markets located in Asia or Africa, where, though brand names remain untouched, ethnic differences demand a distinct approach (e.g., by employing local celebrities). A similar process of adjustment to a new system will also be found in the TV adverts under study in this paper, in which images remain the same across countries (standardisation), but where the linguistic content is modified in order to become acceptable for the target consumers (adaptation). In this regard, L’Oréal advertising campaigns constitute a highly relevant corpus of study for scholars who are interested in the cultural constraints of translation, as well as for those intrigued by the interaction of image, sound and varied cultural settings 7 . Here, we will briefly analyse two TV adverts created for this company in 2006 by a well-known international advertising agency, McCann Erikson, both of them featuring a cosmetic consumer product as well as a celebrity of world fame. In the two spots, sets of a futuristic and minimalist nature serve as the glamorous and idyllic background for the stylised shots of the different parts of the female models’ bodies, as well as for the close-ups of the 7

Cómitre Narváez (2009) also uses spots by L’Oréal to show the way deliberate manipulation takes place in the translation of advertising.


153

product in question. Both TV adverts also include a dual linguistic content: (a) an oral text voiced by each of the celebrities featured and by a male narrator whose voice-over reveals the excellent qualities of the cosmetics; and (b) a series of captions reminding the audience of the brand which is being advertised, and highlighting its merits. In Tables 1 and 3 below, we will transcribe the oral texts which are heard in the source version and the Spanish version of the two spots, respectively. In addition, Tables 2 and 4 contain the set of captions which appear in these adverts 8 . In the cases under study, virtually the same edition of the spot was broadcast in the source and target languages, with their respective soundtracks, together with the short number of captions overimposed on the images, being the only elements which were altered in the process of translation. Table 1. Transcript of the oral text in the source and target versions of the TV advert for Glam Shine from L’Oréal 9

English-language version (Scarlett Johansson) (a) Transform your lips with mirrorshine. (Male voice-over) (b) New Glam Shine from L’Oréal Paris. (c) Its unique and new heart-shaped wand bursts with moisturising gloss. (d) It smooths and sweeps on liquid crystal shine. (e) Glamourous, moisturised, mirrorshine. (f) Indulge in a new Crystals collection. (g) New Glam Shine from L’Oréal. (h) With the unique heart-shaped 8

Spanish-language version 10 (Scarlett Johansson’s dubbed voice) (a’) Convierte tus labios en un espejo. (Dubbed male voice) (b’) Nuevo Glam Shine de L’Oréal. (c’) Ábrelo y descubre la máxima hidratación con su corazón aplicador. (d’) Luego viste tus labios con brillo de cristal líquido. (e’) Cae en la tentación del volumen glamour. (f’) Déjate seducir por el brillo espejo. (g’) Nuevo Glam Shine Crystals de L’Oréal.

Given the focus of this paper (i.e., dubbing in advertising), these captions will not be discussed here, but are included as supplementary information, particularly taking into account the relevance of the interaction of different codes in audiovisual communication. 9 In the transcript, each entry represents an independent utterance within the advert. The letter before each entry is only for reference. 10 Literal translation into English of the Spanish version: (a’) Make your lips become a mirror; (b’) New Glam Shine from L’Oréal; (c’) Open it and discover maximum moisturising with its heartshaped wand; (d’) Then dress up your lips with liquid crystal shine; (e’) Give in to the temptation of glamour volume; (f’) Let the mirror shine charm you; (g’) New Glam Shine Crystals from L’Oréal; (h’) Make your world shine; (i’) Because you are worth it.

154

Maurizio Gotti

wand. (Scarlett Johansson) (i) Ready to make the world shine? (j) Because you are worth it.

(Scarlett Johansson’s dubbed voice) (h’) Haz que tu mundo brille. (i’) Porque tú lo vales.

Table 2. Written captions in the source and target versions of the TV advert for Glam Shine from L’Oréal 11

English-language version Spanish-language version (a) Scarlett Johansson (a’) Scarlett Johansson para L’Oréal (b) New Glam Shine L’Oréal Paris Paris (c) Heart-Shaped Wand (b’) Nuevo Glam Shine L’Oréal Paris (d) Liquid Crystal Shine (e) Mirror Shine (c’) Nuevo aplicador alisador (f) L’Oréal Paris New Glam Shine (d’) Textura Cristal Líquido Crystals (e’) Volumen Glamour (g) www.lorealparis.com (f’) L’Oréal Paris Nuevo Glam Shine Crystals (g’) www.lorealparis.es

In the source text which is transcribed in Table 1, we observe the recurrence of the linguistic features which, as described in section 2 of this paper, are characteristic of the discourse of advertising. For example, imperative forms and the second person singular pronoun you are used by Scarlett Johansson who, by using such resources, directly appeals to the viewers. Furthermore, the text abounds in nouns in apposition, and occurrences of questions, ellipsis and informal language can also be found. With the exception of the use of questions, these features are also present in the dubbed version of the advert. When comparing the two versions, we can see that the message has been considerably modified, but still preserving the appellative function and adapting the discourse to Spanish textual conventions (which, as we said in section 2, are rather similar to those of English ads). This deviation from the words of the source text notwithstanding, the dubbed rendering never departs from the semantic field of the original version in a dramatic manner; in fact, the former works as a somewhat arbitrary rephrasing of the latter, picking up the same terms in both languages to describe the product (e.g., mirror/espejo, shine/brillo, liquid crystal/cristal líquido). These alterations are not as significant as those carried out in the second example below.

11

In the table, each entry contains the caption or captions occurring or co-occurring at a given time within the advert. The letter before each entry is only for reference.


155

Table 3. Transcript of the oral text in the source and target versions of the TV advert for L’Oréal Perfect Slim

English-language version Spanish-language version 12 (Eva Longoria) (Eva Longoria’s dubbed voice) (a) Girls, wanna get tough on those (a’) La celulitis, aunque la combatas, problem areas? siempre termina por reaparecer. (b) I’m talking legs and bums. (Male voice-over) (Dubbed male voice-over) (c) New L’Oréal Perfect Slim. (b’) Revolución (d) The worldwide No. 1 has a new (c’) Perfect Slim Día y Noche. (d’) La única fórmula antiacumulación formula. (e) It’s designed to target problem areas. de L’Oréal. (f) Skin looks smoother and feels firmer. (e’) Reduce la celulitis y limita la (g) Award-winning Perfect Slim from reaparición de la piel de naranja. L’Oréal Paris. (f’) Cintura y muslos se afinan. (g’) Los resultados permanecen un mes después. (Eva Longoria) (Eva Longoria’s dubbed voice) (h) It gets my vote. (h’) Comienza ya tu operación bikini. (i) You’re worth it. (Dubbed male voice-over) (i’) Elije al nº 1. (j’) Nuevo Perfect Slim de L’Oréal Paris. (Eva Longoria’s dubbed voice-over) (k’) Porque tú lo vales. Table 4. Written captions in the source and target versions of the TV advert for L’Oréal Perfect Slim

English-language version (a) Eva Longoria (b) L’Oréal Paris New Perfect Slim (c) Worldwide No. 1 12

Spanish-language version (a’) Eva Longoria para L’Oréal Paris (b’) L’Oréal Paris (c’) Anti-Acumulación

Literal translation into English of the Spanish version: (a’) Cellulite, although you combat it, always ends up reappearing; (b’) Revolution; (c’) Perfect Slim Day and Night; (d’) The only antiaccumulation formula from L’Oréal; (e’) It reduces cellulite and partially prevents orange peel skin from reappearing; (f’) Waist and thighs get thinner; (g’) The results are still there a month later; (h’) Start now with your bikini operation; (i’) Choose the No. 1; (j’) New Perfect Slim from L’Oréal Paris; (k’) Because you are worth it.

156

Maurizio Gotti

(d’) Adipo-StopTM (d) Mass category unit sales, 18 countries, to June’05 (e’) 1 Mes después (e) used in combination with (f’) L’Oréal Paris massage Perfect Slim, nº 1 en anticelulíticos (f) L’Oréal Paris New Perfect Slim Programa Perfect Slim con AdipoWinner 2005 InStyle Best Beauty StopTM Buys *Fuente Nielsen: Total Ventas (g) L’Oréal Paris Volumen y Valor TAM Jun.’05 (g’) L’Oréal Paris www.tucuerpoloreal.com

In the voiced source text, again, we find that the model, Eva Longoria, addresses women directly, and uses a rather informal style (e.g., contractions such as wanna, I’m, it’s and you’re; the omission of the auxiliary verb and the subject in the initial question; or the deletion of the preposition about in I’m talking legs and bums). Besides, the vocabulary field is related to parts of the body in a direct (legs, bums, skin) or indirect (problem areas) fashion. Regarding the translated version, a number of noteworthy changes should be commented on. To start with, there is a considerable distance between the source version and the Spanish rendering as far as the literal textual content is concerned. For instance, the words referring to the parts of the body which need to be cared for according to the source advert (legs and bums) have been replaced with the Spanish terms for waist (cintura) and thighs (muslos). In the case of legs, the Spanish version uses a word referring to just a portion of them (i.e., thighs); but, with respect to bums, all mention of this part of the body has disappeared from the Spanish version. In fact, it has been replaced with a reference to parts which border the buttocks (i.e., thighs and waist). Should we think that Spanish women do not care for this part of their bodies? Definitely not, but advertisers seem to think that they should not be talked about in public. Likewise, the focus of the message in the Spanish text appears to be the problems that these body areas may suffer, in particular, cellulite and orange peel skin, which are concealed under a generic problem areas in the source spot. Again, the advertising agency may have considered that, by expressly alluding to these physical flaws, the product would be felt more relevant by Spanish women worried about their appearance. Finally, it should be remarked that, among other significant additions, the target version includes a fairly loaded cultural element which is highly significant for Spanish women, that is, the reference to the operación bikini, a very popular phrase which hints at the effort to get thinner (and fit in the two-piece swimsuit) before starting the summer vacation period. Together with these changes, there are other alterations affecting, on the one hand, the speech entries of both the model and the voice-over, and, on the other hand, some of the images featured in the spot. Regarding the former aspect,


157

television, as a communication medium, allows modifications which not only affect the linguistic content but also the way in which the discourse is organised and visualised, in the sense that the voice-over (whether the narrator’s or the main character’s) can be placed any time provided that the main character is not speaking on screen. In this case, the variation in the number of entries between the original version and the dubbed one has been made possible, at least in part, by slight differences in the edition of the two versions of the advert. With respect to the modification of some of the images in the spot, it must be said that these changes are consistent with the alterations regarding the linguistic content. For example, in a scene where the model touches her thigh with both hands, the Spanish version features a magnifying glass-like square highlighting the area where cellulite usually appears. At this moment in the advert, the male voice-over, together with a pair of related captions, introduces apparently scientific terms, such as Anti-Acumulación and Adipo-StopTM, which are nowhere to be seen or heard in the English version. This pseudoscientific style, consistent with the need for reliable and tested products in order to address particular physical “defects”, is not pursued in the source text, where the discourse is based on familiar, everyday language. 6. Conclusions We have analysed two TV adverts in order to show the extent to which this text type may be altered for the sake of acceptability and the ultimate function of advertising (i.e., to persuade consumers). Further research should be devoted to a larger corpus of spots to find out whether this happens only in L’Oréal marketing campaigns, whether it is a common characteristic in multinational companies which opt for a standardisation approach, or even whether it is a general tendency in transnational advertising today. In any case, these spots illustrate the way in which ads are adapted to audiences (that is, to their cultural and social needs), irrespective of the means of communication used. The functionalist approach in translation is evident in the case of these TV adverts– the function, or purpose, overrides the attention to the literal content of the source text. In the spots under study, on the one hand, almost the same images have been used in the source and target versions as a reflection of the standardisation strategy put into practice by the multinational L’Oréal. On the other hand, however, the linguistic code has been overtly manipulated as a sign of adaptation to the target viewers’ expectations and needs. The examples proposed may be a step closer to the answer to Guidére’s (2003) question: how can we sell a standardised product to different local consumers? But a question still remains: is the translation of advertising a question of translation strategies on the part of the translator, or of marketing

158

Maurizio Gotti

decisions on the part of the advertisers? In general, the literature about the process of translating adverts depicts the translator as an assistant professional who helps the other members of the team understand the source text whenever the latter do not speak the language, and who, in general, is in charge only of the first draft of a promotional target text. As far as audiovisual advertising is concerned, it seems clear that a translator is only a member of a large interdisciplinary human team whose main objective is to determine what the addressee needs to see in order to be persuaded to buy. References Agost Canós, R. (1999). Traducción y doblaje: palabras, voces e imágenes. Barcelona: Ariel. Block de Behar, L. (1992). El lenguaje de la publicidad. 4ª ed. Madrid: Siglo XXI Editores. Boivineau, R. (1972). “L’A.B.C. de l’adaptation publicitaire”. In: Meta. Journal des Traducteurs. 17,1, 5-28. Bühler, K. (1934). Sprachtheorie. Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache. [Das Organon-Modell]. Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer. Chaume Varela, F. (2004). Cine y traducción. Madrid: Cátedra. Cómitre Narváez, I. (2009). “Doblaje audiovisual y publicidad. Reflexiones en torno al concepto de manipulación”. In: Translation Journal, 13, 3, http://translationjournal.net/journal/49doblaje.htm Cook, G. (1992). The Discourse of Advertising. New York: Routledge. Cruz García, Laura (2004). “Características diferenciales de la traducción publicitaria. El papel del traductor de anuncios”. In: Lorenzo, L., and A. Pereira (eds.). Traducción subordinada III: traducción y publicidad. Vigo: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Vigo, 17-28. Delabastita, D. (1989). “Translation and Mass-Communication: Film and TV Translation as Evidence of Cultural Dynamics”. In: Babel, 35.4, 193-218. Díaz Cintas, J. (1997). El subtitulado en tanto que modalidad de traducción fílmica dentro del marco teórico de los Estudios sobre Traducción (doctoral dissertation). Valencia: Universitat de Valencia. Dyer, G. (1996). Advertising as Communication. London/New York: Routledge. Eguíluz, F., Merino, R., Olsen, V., Pajares, E. and J. M. Santamaría (1994). Trasvases culturales: literatura, cine, traducción. Vitoria: Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea. Ferraz Martínez, A. (1993). El lenguaje de la publicidad. Madrid: Arco Libros. Fodor, I. (1976). Film Dubbing: Phonetic, Semiotic, Esthetic and Psychological Aspects. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.


159

Gambier, Y. and H. Gottlieb (2001). (Multi) Media Translation: Concepts, Practices, and Research. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Guidère, M. (2003). The Translation of Advertisements: from Adaptation to Localization. In: http://www.translationdirectory.com/article60.htm (10 October 2009). Harris, G. and S. Attour (2003). “The international advertising practices of multinational companies. A content analysis study.” In: European Journal of Marketing, 37, 1/2, 154-168. Hervey, S. and I. Higgins (1992). Thinking Translation. A course in translation method: French to English. London/New York: Routledge. Hurtado Albir, A. (1994/1995). “Modalidades y tipos de traducción”. En: Vasos Comunicantes, 4, 19-27. Jakobson R. (1960). “Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics”. In: Sebeok, T. (ed.). Style in Language. L’Oréal (2009). L’Oréal 2008 Annual Report (English translation). In: http://www.loreal-finance.com (15 October 2009). Luyken, G.M., Herbst, T., Langham-Brown, J., Reid, H. and H. Spinhof (1991). Overcoming Language Barriers in Television: Dubbing and Subtitling for the European Audience. Manchester: European Institute for the Media. Martín Armario, E. (1980). La gestión publicitaria. Madrid: Pirámide. Martínez, X. (2004). “Film dubbing. Its process and translation”. In: Orero, P. (ed.). Topics in Audiovisual Translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 3-9. Mason, I. (1989). “Speaker meaning and reader meaning: preserving coherence in Screen Translating”. In: Kólmel R. and J. Payne (eds.). Babel. the cultural and Linguistic Barriers between Nations. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 13-24. Mayoral Asensio, R., Kelly, D., and N. Gallardo (1986). “Concepto de traducción subordinada (cómic, cine, canción, publicidad). Perspectivas no lingüísticas de la Traducción”. In: Fernández, F. (ed.). Pasado, presente y futuro de la lingüística aplicada: Actas del III Congreso Nacional de Lingüística Aplicada. Valencia: Universitat de Valencia, 95-106. Myers, G. (1994). Words in Ads. London: Edward Arnold. Sánchez Pérez, M. (coord.) (2006). Casos de marketing y estrategia. Barcelona: UOC. Snell-Hornby, M. (1988). Translation Studies. An Integral Approach. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Titford, C. (1982). “Subtitling - Constrained Translation”. In: Lebende Sprachen, 37, 113-116. Valdés Rodríguez, C. (2000). “Reception Factors in Multimedia Translation: The Case of Advertisements”. In: Chesterman, A., Gallardo, N. and Y. Gambier

160

Maurizio Gotti

(eds.). Translation in Context. Selected Contributions from the EST Congress, Granada 1998. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 271-280.

Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin National University of Ireland, Galway Ireland EXPLICITATION OF THE TRANSLATION PROCESS IN TRANSLATORS’ TRAINING THROUGH PRODUCTION OF INTERLINGUAL SUBTITLES Audiovisual translation can still be considered a relatively new discipline, but interest in this field is growing and research on subtitling, in particular, is becoming quite extensive. Research on the pedagogical implications of the use of subtitling in language teaching, however, has traditionally focussed mainly on the effects of ready-captioned material on learners’ reading and listening abilities and, less often, on oral skills. In recent years, a number of contributions have also explored the usefulness of audiovisual translation in foreign language curricula and an increasing number of translator training degree courses across Europe now include subtitling modules. This paper investigates the usefulness of production of subtitles in translators’ training and proposes a framework for their inclusion within advanced translation programmes. I will discuss a trial conducted to evaluate the production of subtitles in relation to the development and fine-tuning of translation skills in advanced language learners and will conclude that production of subtitles plays a significant role in translators’ training and aids their understanding of the translation process. Production of subtitles as part of translators’ training is still relatively new, but an increasing number of postgraduate translation programmes across Europe now include subtitling modules. This is certainly due to the influence of market forces and the increased demand for localised audiovisual products (cinema/TV productions, videogames, websites etc.). Even markets which traditionally favoured home-made or anglophone products are now showing the emergence of a new trend: “since the start of 2004, 23 subtitled films have taken more than £1 million in Britain, according to the UK Film Council. In the 1990s, only nine foreign-language films crossed the £1 million mark”. 1 In the United States a new on-demand channel, Eurocinema, has been created specifically to target viewers interested in watching subtitled films. Whilst the need to equip students with meaningful and up-to-date professional qualifications is obviously a strong consideration, didactic interest in audiovisual translation (AVT) is often linked to research into new, effective and 1

“Foreign films no longer lost in translation”, Times online, 17th August 2007, Retrieved from http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk [13-07-2008].

162

Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin

poignant teaching methods and resources. This has led to the publication of a number of contributions (Rundle 2000; Williams and Thorne 2000; Hadzilacos, Papadakis and Sokoli 2004) which explore the usefulness of AVT in FL teaching and to the development of software programmes like Learning via Subtitling (LvS), created by a consortium of third level institutions coordinated by the Hellenic Open University. 2 Interesting studies are also beginning to emerge on the pedagogical implications of subtitling in translation classes. In particular, Kiraly sees authentic 3 task-based projects such as production of subtitles as an alternative to the more traditional instructional approach in which teachers correct work done independently by students (Kiraly 2005). Kiraly argues, convincingly, that this approach presents translation as a “desituated process” where “rather than maintaining the natural complexity of professional translational activity as a social, inter-cultural and interpretive process, the specific function of the classroom is to decontextualize and disembody the learning process” (2005: online). Although Kiraly focuses mainly on the value of multi-dimensional learning experiences and authenticity in task-based translation projects, his casestudy of a subtitling project with a class of advanced learners clearly shows the potential of AVT and team work in translators’ training. Other translational contexts can certainly be imagined, which when used in conjunction with authenticity or semi-authenticity, team work and a task-based approach can lead to similar results, but subtitling has an added valuable dimension. The creation and physical embedding of subtitles links two separate verbal systems (that of the Source Text and that of the Target Text) to the same visual input and requires a shift from the oral to the written code. The involvement of both the visual and the verbal codes has cognitive implications. Paivio’s dual-coding theory explains cognition as a process of dynamic associations of verbal and non-verbal representations (1969; 1986). Paivio postulates the existence of two independent systems which make up human cognition: the verbal system which deals with and stores linguistic information, and the non-verbal system which deals with and stores imagery. Associations and 2

Retrieved from http://levis.cti.gr/ [13-07-2008]. LvS is a language learning tool and as such, it differs from professional or semi-professional subtitling software programmes in a number of ways, most notably in that it allows for provision of feedback from both students and teachers. An analytical overview of LvS can be found in Sokoli, S. “Learning via Subtitling (LvS). A tool for the creation of foreign language learning activities based on film subtitling”, in Multidimensional translation: Audioviual translation scenarios, M. Carroll, H. Gerzymisch-Arbogast, S. Nauert (eds), Saarbrücken: ATRC, 2007, 66-73. 3 Kiraly defines authentic project work as ‘collaborative undertaking of complete translation projects for real clients’ (2005: online). Whilst desirable, this level of authenticity is not always practical or possible. I suggest that simulated environments, where students are divided into groups replicating the client-translator relationships, can be an acceptable compromise in a class situation.

Explicitation of the translation process in translators’ training…

163

interrelations between the two create a dual-coding situation which enhances memory. Could it be then that in a learning environment explicit recourse to such associations – as required by subtitling – aids the creation of a mental model, a necessary step before actual translation can take place? I would suggest that id does. Indeed, in an article outlining the cognitive principles of the pedagogical use of multimedia, Moreno and Mayer show that “mixed modality [auditory + visual] presentations are superior to the most integrated text and visual presentations, consistent with Paivio’s theory that when learners can concurrently hold words in auditory working memory and pictures in visual working memory, they are better able to devote attentional resources to building connections between them” (1999: 366). Translation students’ “attentional resources” need to be devoted to “building connections” between two communication systems and, in the case of subtitling, develop a mental mapping network linking imagery to the two distinct verbal systems of L1 and L2. Moreno and Mayer’s article does not specifically refer to foreign language teaching. However, on the basis of Kiraly’s case study and my own pilot courses I believe that audiovisual translation in the form of subtitling emphasises the cognitive process required for mediating the message from the ST to the TT because it requires students to confront, evaluate and employ contingent translation strategies in order to build the necessary connections among L1, L2 and the imagery system. This means that students must form a mental model of the translation process. Kiraly writes that “by observing translators, both nonprofessional and professional, in the socially-situated praxis of authentic translation work, we can acquire a privileged view of the nature of the translation process” (2005: online). I would add that even in non-authentic task-based subtitling projects, learners have the opportunity to observe themselves and their peers and therefore gain an insight of the translation process. In this paper I will discuss a pilot course held at National University of Ireland Galway. It involved 7 postgraduate students in 2006-07, training as translators and interpreters. The level was C1-C2 and the group included 2 native Italian speakers. Average age: 24.5. None of the students had ever attempted subtitling before. The trial was repeated in 2007-08 with two more postgraduate students, native English speakers, also C1-C2 and training as translators and interpreters, average age 22, yielding similar results. I was interested in whether aspects of the subtitling process could be significant for translator training and how the awareness of these aspects could impact on a trainee translator’s understanding of the translation process. My objectives in the use of subtitles in translators’ training were fine-tuning of translation skills, development of critical thinking, learning to take distance from word per word translation, concentration on semantic units. This pilot course on subtitling ran for a total of 10 contact hours (two hours per week for five weeks), although students also worked independently

164


outside class hours. 4 They were divided into two groups of 4 and 3 postgraduates respectively and each group contained an Italian native speaker. Students worked with LvS first, to familiarise themselves with subtitling techniques, then with DivXLand Media Subtitler, a freely available semi-professional subtitling software programme. In the first instance, an outline of the module had to be defined. Perego sees the process of subtitling as consisting of three simultaneous stages: 1) Transfer from oral to written code 2) Transfer from L1 to L2 (the translation) 3) Reduction of the text (2003: 65) Clearly, trainee translators are not in a position to approach these three stages simultaneously; a more structured organisation was therefore required. Ian Roffe chronicles a pioneering project initiated at the University of Wales Lampeter in 1989, when a Training Centre for Subtitling in Translation was established. The course programme was articulated in five distinct phases, as follows: 1) Translation of script 2) Preparation of a script 3) Entry of subtitle text and display parameters 4) Synchronisation 5) Review and Editing (1993: 24) Taking into consideration the time constraints on my courses, I opted for a similar, if reduced, structure: 1) Translation of script 2) Entry and adaptation of translated script (creation of subtitles) 3) Synchronisation and Editing However, I felt that translation of the script had to proceed from a systematic and analytical approach to a source text which relied on several semiotic systems in order to convey meaning. Trying to create a framework for subtitling in translators’ training, I decided to follow and adapt Christopher Taylor’s system for multimodal transcription (2003), which in turn is based on Thibault’s grid (2000). Multimodal transcription provides a methodology for the deconstruction of audiovisual texts, which are broken down into single frames of varying length and then analysed according to a number of semiotic descriptors. The length of the still frames depends on the type of audiovisual text being analysed, with slow-moving documentaries, for example, allowing for longer 4

The 10 hours dedicated to this particular project included presentation of norms and technical parameters normally applied to subtitling, but did not include theoretical translation studies. A separate semester-long theoretical module was available to students and, in addition, issues relating to audiovisual translation and subtitling in particular were covered under a different programme. All students were enrolled in the MA in Advanced Language Skills (Italian) at National University of Ireland, Galway.


165

stills. This frame by frame analysis is then built into a more comprehensive study of shots and phases/subphases of the text. This methodological tool for filmic analysis is particularly useful when applied to subtitling in an educational context, because ‘a study of the multimodal text in its entirety provides a basis for making reasoned choices in translating the verbal element of the text’(Taylor: 192). Professional subtitlers seldom have the time to carry out such an in-depth analysis of the text, but in advanced translation classes, it helps students to appreciate the multidimensional nature of film discourse and the several signifying codes it relies on in order to convey meaning. In turn, this leads them to consider the communication act as a whole rather than concentrating on single words or items. Indeed Thibault’s grid includes a column for metafunctional interpretation, which, incorporated in a translation course, can offer a structure for reflection not only on how meaning is created and developed in the film, but also on how the translation reflects such creation and development. Taylor’s grid for multimodal transcription is a slightly reduced version of Thibauld’s and is extremely effective in class contexts. Taylor breaks down the analysis of each frame into four key elements and replaces the metafunctional column with a column for subtitles “based on a global interpretation of all the semiotic modalities present in the text”(Taylor: 194): • Visual image • Kinetic action • Soundtrack • Subtitle Visual image includes camera position (CP), horizontal/vertical perspective (HP/VP) visual focus (VF), distance of shot (D), visually salient items (VS), visual collocation (VC), colours (CR) and coding orientation (CO, for example natural versus oniric or surreal frames). During my own trial, I further simplified the grid, because of time constraints within my pilot course and also so as not to overload students. I must stress however, that my simplification was dictated purely by practical considerations. I decided to dispense with perspective, distance and colours. These elements are, of course, important constituents of meaning as they can carry strong cultural orientation. Colours in particular are often culture-specific and research on their presence in films and how they impact on audiovisual translation would be extremely interesting. I decided instead to re-include a metafunctional interpretation column in the grid, which serves as space for observation and reflection on the adequacy of the proposed subtitles, in terms of adherence to the development of meaning in the source audiovisual text (SaT) and for other comments (although, in practice, this was done mainly orally because of lack of

166


time). This proved to be a good solution for a course not intended to train professional subtitlers but designed to enhance translation skills. The process was divided into three phases: 1) Deconstruction of the semantic structure of SaT, 2) Reconstruction of the semantic structure of SaT through FL subtitles 3) Analysis of phase 2. While the first and second phase were based on a simplification of Taylor’s grid, as outlined, the third phase adapts Frederic Chaumes’s “framework of analysis based on signifying codes of film language” (2004: 16). The semantic web of an audiovisual text is made up of a number of different signifying codes, of which, as Chuame observes, only the linguistic code can be manipulated by the translator. Understanding of these codes, however, allows translators to reflect critically on translation strategies and choices. From a didactic perspective, I found this to be a very useful step in self-evaluation and peer-evaluation of subtitles created. Chaume identifies the following ten codes, some more relevant to dubbing than subtitling: linguistic, paralinguistic, musical mode and special effects, sound arrangement, iconographic, photographic, planning, mobility, graphic, syntactic. Again, I simplified Chaume’s framework and asked students to concentrate on issues relating to the linguistic, paralinguistic (i.e. volume of voice, pauses, etc.) iconographic (particularly images not mentioned in the dialogue but important for transmission of meaning) and mobility code (i.e. proxemic and kinetic elements which could determine, for example, whose lines are subtitled first when many characters are speaking at once). Not all codes were analysed in all scenes, however the availability of a reference grid served to sensitise students to aspects which may otherwise be overlooked. In the end my three-phased model appeared as follows: Table 1. Three-phased model

Phase 1 Visual input

Kinesic Soundtrack action (including (CP, VF, dialogue) VS, VC)

Phase 2 subtitles

Phase 3 Reflection: linguistic code paralinguistic code musical code iconographic code mobility code


167

Applied to a range of different film genres this model can be the starting point for a comparative analysis of their characteristics, which will then inform the translator’s choices in relation to register, language etc. Indeed, an academic module on subtitling should include reflections on film dialogue and its narrative function as well as a study of the linguistic peculiarities of at least some genres and the differences among them 5 . My choice of film scenes was dictated, instead, by linguistic and technical considerations, i.e. speed of speech, number of people involved in the dialogue, amount of overlapping sentences. Whilst this pragmatic approach works well from a practical point of view, in fact it limits the potential of the course and its benefits in relation to what I have called fine-tuning of translation skills and development of critical thinking. We started with the opening scene from an Italian film by Gabriele Salvatores: Nirvana, 2000. This scene is a monologue by an off-campus voice. The text was translated in class. Subsequently, the translated text was entered into a software programme and synchronised with the video material. The aim of this short course was not, obviously, to train professional subtitlers, but to improve translation skills in advanced language learners. Less emphasis was therefore put on exact synchronisation of text and other technical aspects than would otherwise be necessary. A number of semi-professional subtitling tools are freely available on the Internet. I particularly like the clarity of interface in DivXLand Media Subtitler, so in class we used this software, with which it is possible to create a .txt file with the script and then import it into the Subtitler. Line breaks can be added and the finished product is quite professional. Some students also used Subtitle Workshop, which seemed to allow for easier embedding of subtitles into DVDs. However, as all students were new to this technique, we began with a straightforward, non-professional tool, included in the Sanako multimedia language laboratory package. Lines of text are typed in a window on the screen and synchronised by clicking on start/end time or by manually entering the time value. Subtitles created appear in a yellow, intrusive area at the bottom of the screen and lines cannot be centred or realigned in any way. In order to split the text into two lines it was necessary to manually enter enough spaces for the text to roll onto the second line. However basic, this system proved to be a very good starting point and a gentle introduction to the complexities of the subtitling process. The ease of use allowed students to concentrate on discourse analysis and translation issues rather than exact synchronisation. It was immediately obvious that several captions were too long and a degree of syntactical restructuring was necessary in order for the 5

For an analysis of film dialogue in educational contexts see Remael, A. A place for film dialogue analysis in subtitling courses, in Topics in Audiovisual Translation, P. Orero (ed), Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamin, 2004, 104-126.

168


subtitled text to coincide with the characters’ mouth articulation (one of the mobility codes listed by Chaume). The length of the caption is of course inversely proportional to the speed of the audio. When the voice picked up speed, and when dialogues involved overlapping lines, the necessity for such restructuring became increasingly more obvious and more challenging. This initial exercise also highlighted the importance of paralinguistic codes in the translation of audiovisual texts: the fixed font did not allow students to indicate that the voice was offcampus by means of typographical conventions (the use of italics, for example), which students were very quick to point out during both trials. Following this warm-up exercise, students were introduced to Aprile, by Nanni Moretti (1998) a film about Moretti himself trying to make a documentary on the political campaign for the 1996 Italian general elections, while being constantly distracted by the imminent birth of his son. The film is interspersed with cultural references, as political parties and personalities are seen and heard on television and continued reference is made to Italian political life and history. Translating humour and other culture-specific elements in an environment where explanatory notes are not an option, presented a major challenge, but the multimedial transcription grid offered support. For example, in Aprile, as the country prepares for the 1996 elections, Moretti decides to film a demonstration commemorating Italy’s liberation from Fascism. The musical code immediately clarifies for Italian audiences the political connotation of the demonstration, as the crowd chant ‘bandiera nera votiamo no. Bandiera rossa votiamo sì’. Flagging the musical code in the reflection column alerted students to the need to introduce subtitles in the frame. Italics were used to diversify from dialogue: Black flag, no. Red flag, yes. In another scene, the camera focuses on a close-up of Moretti buying a disproportionate number of magazines and newspapers for his research in preparation for the documentary he will never finish. Most of the titles will be well known to Italian audiences, who would detect humour in the range and diversity of titles requested. In addition, the opening words “Salve. Salute. Come stai?” give the impression that Moretti is actually greeting somebody, while he is in fact just asking for magazines at a newspaper kiosk. Reflecting on the linguistic code, students decided that the titles should be left in Italian and that the comic effect would still be conveyed by the shift in camera angle, detected in Phase 1 under VF and VS, which abandons the close up and moves behind Moretti, showing the amount of magazines he is piling up under his arm. Some students also commented that foreign audiences are likely to recognise “salute” and possibly even “come stai?” and therefore appreciate the play on words at the beginning of the scene. Chaume observes that a model of analysis (...) should have the objective of focusing the object under study by using systematic approaches […]. Furthermore, if we wish the model to be useful in the teaching of


169

translation, it should be able to a) show translators the tools (translation strategies and techniques) with which they will be able to confront their task, and b) reduce to a minimum the need for improvisation, but not for creativity. (2004: 13, my italics).

In this case, study of the camera angle in the deconstruction phase allowed students to make an informed decision on how to deal with culture-specific humour. A similar decision was reached in the scene that follows, rich in iconographic codes. Moretti has cut clippings from all the newspapers and magazines he has just bought and has covered the entire floor of a rather large room with them. Some titles are clearly legible. However, students decided that they were not carrying meaning linked to the dialogue or to the development of the plot and left them untranslated, thereby consciously avoiding that domestication of otherness so common in subtitling (and often present in other forms of translation too). As the film progresses, Moretti becomes more and more disinterested in the political documentary and more and more immersed in his own family life, which he has difficulty separating from his professional commitments. His relationship with other family members (his wife, his mother and, eventually, his son) forms a thick subplot, parallel in importance to the main storyline. Sitting at their kitchen table, Moretti and his wife, Silvia, spend much time trying to decide a name for the new baby and as they work at restricting the list of possible names, the phone rings and Moretti’s mother is on the line. The scene that follows is a truly delightful domestic cameo. I report hereafter the analysis done in class. The scene clip is 2.09 minutes long. We imported into Windows Movie Maker, which automatically divided it into eleven clips (visual input) of varying duration, ranging from 2 to 24 seconds. We further divided longer clips into 2 or three shorter ones. In his multimodal transcription analysis of La vita è bella, Taylor breaks down a scene from the film to 1-second frames (2003: 195). Whilst this makes for a much more accurate analysis of the SaT, I found that in a course not specifically designed for professional subtitlers, longer AV input was acceptable and, in fact, worked quite well. An example is given below:

170

Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin Table 2. Example of longer AV input

Phase 1 Visual input

Kinesic action CP: static VF: Moretti > wife VS: Moretti, telephone. VC: home, kitchen

Soundtrack (Moretti) Niente, Silvia dice Al Pacino diventa sempre più bello...

Phase 2 subtitles No, nothing. Silvia says Pacino gets more and more handsome...

Phase 3 Reflection linguistic code: in Italian Al Pacino, in English Pacino is enough paralinguistic code: insertion of 3 dots to indicate pause musical code: absent iconographic code: no interference with dialogue. mobility code: Moretti switches from talking on the phone to his mother and talking to his wife

CP: static e sempre and shorter linguistic code: VF: più basso. and shorter. humour / Moretti > resentment wife paralinguistic VS: code Moretti, musical code telephone iconographic VC: home, code kitchen mobility code Advanced learners already possess a considerable degree of socio-cultural and pragmatic competence, but this is consciously re-examined and therefore improved upon when dealing with a message which is made up of verbal and non


171

verbal elements, of visual and acoustic context. As Kramsch points out, linguistic structures are only “one system of signs among many that people use to give meaning to their environment. Other signs include not only gestures, facial expressions, body movements, verbal and non-verbal sounds, and proxemics, but also cultural artifacts such as traffic noise and folk music, pictures and billboards, and landscapes and city maps” (1999: 32). All this information cannot be lost in subtitling. The time and space constraints students are confronted with, force them to concentrate on the message, on semantic units, rather than on single utterances. The evidence presented here shows that subtitling enhances translation skills by forcing students to analyse complex syntactical structures, break them down and transpose them in simplified but equally meaningful format. Hatim and Mason remark that the subtitler is often required to make difficult choices which can result in some loss of meaning in favour of coherence and readability of the text (2000: 435). In a pedagogical context, the availability of a model of analysis helps students to reflect on these choices and consider just how much meaning is appropriate to lose and indeed if it is appropriate to lose any at all. It also helps students decide how much non-linguistic signifying codes contribute to the delivery of meaning and how they aid comprehension therefore reducing the need for domestication of the linguistic code. Nornes observes that “the peculiar challenges posed by subtitles […] are variations of the difficulties in any translation, and in a sense are analogous to the problems confronted by the translator of poetry” (Nornes 1999: 18). In this perspective, the inclusion of subtitling in translators’ training aids critical understanding of the translation process, provides criteria of analysis and links that analysis to translations strategies. In addition, during the transfer from oral to written language, prosodic features disappear (intonation, accent, tone of voice) and typographical conventions are the only tool available to the translator in order to minimise the loss of style and avoid falling into a forcefully uniform, flat style. “Features of speech which are in any way non-standard tend to be eliminated. Lambert speaks of ‘un style zero’ and Goris, comparing using variation in subtitling and dubbing, observes that, in the latter, social dialect is under-represented in terms of prosodic features of speech but quite well represented lexically; in subtitling, on the other hand, neither prosodic features nor variant lexis appear to be represented” (Hatim and Mason: 431). However, perhaps the most obvious challenge for a subtitler is the need for reduction, which leads to quantitative and qualitative changes: simplification of vocabulary, simplification of syntax, deletion of words or short sentences, and so on. At the same time the translation process itself acquires transparency as students gradually abandon the source text and work on manipulating the target text, refining and synthesising their output until it satisfies the necessary parameters, while still conveying the original message. Indeed, during this project, students became very actively involved in discussions on the degree of manipulation a sentence can undergo before its original meaning is

172


altered or lost. As Hatim and Mason remark, the subtitler is called to make difficult choices often resulting in some loss of meaning in favour of coherence and readability of the text (2000: 435). Reflecting on their choices and just how much meaning is appropriate to loose was certainly significant for the professional development of the students, who were asked to codify –according to Gottliebs’ model – what they felt where their obvious departures from the source, as exemplified in the following table: Table 3. Loss of meaning example

Extras, (Gervais:

Translation

Subtitles

2005)

(El Ariss 2007: 13)

(Ibid: 37)

Episode Three, First Series. What’s the point in Perché conciarsi a questo Perché conciarsi a questo getting all tarted up modo

se

non

riesco modo

se

non

appaio

like this if you’ re not neanche ad apparire nella neanche nella scena? even going to make it scena? to the scene?

(CONDENSATION)

(TRANSFER)

Translating humour, slang, or other culture-specific elements, in an environment where explanatory notes are out of the question, caused major difficulties. Yet, students were not prepared to fall into “un style zero” and became acutely aware of the difficulties of matching the language of subtitles to the characters on screen. The following dialogue, taken from Manuale d’amore (Veronesi: 2005), a film mainly spoken in Roman slang, takes place between two young Italian adults who use expressions typical of their age and geographical location. ST Sì, però stai calma, ok? Stai calma, va bene? Pace.


173

Quello che voglio è solo che quando finisci con questi nipponici mi concedi un’ora del tuo tempo. Basta, solo questo. Guarda, tu non mi piaci, va bene? È chiaro? Te ne vai ora? No! Ma perché sei così pesante? Sei pesantissimo! Ok, ho un’idea. Facciamo così: io t’aspetto qua. Aspetto che finisci di lavorare, così appena finisci ce ne andiamo insieme. No! Qui non aspetti, te ne vai subito. Allora dove ci vediamo? Ti prego, dimmi dove ci vediamo! Guarda, vabbè, facciamo così: ci vediamo davanti a casa mia alle cinque e mezza. Però vattene ora. Vado subito. Anzi, vado adesso così se finisci di lavorare prima io sono già là. The following translation by Sinéad Geoghegan (2007: 57) attempts to recreate the socio-linguistic atmosphere of the original by using Hiberno-English subtitles. The issue of preservation of the foreign element of the film was discussed and awareness was raised to the fact that the replacement of cultural references present in the ST with cultural references proper of the TL increases the distance between ST and TT. The translator, however, made the conscious choice of introducing this regional variant of English to reflect the characters’ age and lively discussion. TT Yeah, but calm down okay? Relax all right? Chill. I’d just like an hour of your time when you’re done with the Japanese. That’s all. Look, I don’t fancy you, okay? Get it? Can you get lost now? No! Why are you so full on? You’re really heavy going. Okay, I have an idea. This is what we’ll do. I’ll wait here until you finish work and then we’ll head off together. No. You are not waiting here. Off with you, now! So where will I see you? I beg you. Tell me where I’ll see you. Alright so, see you in front of my house at half five. But clear off now, thanks. I’m gone. Actually I’ll go now, that way if you finish work earlier, I’ll be there. Okay? Bell identifies five types of knowledge which make up translation competence: SL knowledge, text-related knowledge, TL knowledge, real-world knowledge and contrastive knowledge (1991: 36). I believe these trials show that the structured use of subtitling in translators’ training can yield very positive results because it enhances all these types of knowledge and helps develop what

174


Faber calls “contrastive analysis”, an analysis “done by pupils as FL learners themselves, to gain linguistic awareness of the contrasts and similarities holding between the structure of the MT [mother tongue] and the FL” (1998: 9). References Bell, R. (1991). Translation and Translating, London: Longman. Chaume, F. (2004). “Film Studies and Translation Studies: Two Disciplines at Stake in Audiovisual Translation”. META, 49(1), 12-24. El Ariss, W. (2007). Extras: Subtitles and Translation. Episode 3, First Series. MA thesis. National University of Ireland, Galway. Unpublished. Faber, P. (1998), Translation Competence and Language Awareness. Language Awareness, 7(1), 9-21. Geoghegan, S. (2007). Manuale d’amore. Translation and subtitling. MA thesis. National University of Ireland, Galway. Unpublished. Hadzilacos, T., Papadakis, S. and S. Sokoli (2004). “Learner’s Version of a Professional Environment: Film Subtitling as an ICTE Tool for Foreign Language Learning.” In Richards, G. (ed.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2004. Chesapeake, VA: AACE, 680-685. Hatim, B. And I. Mason (2000). ”Politeness in screen translating.” In Venuti, L. (ed) The translation studies reader. London and New York: Routledge, 430445. Kiraly, D. (2005). “Project-based learning: a case for situated translation.” Meta, 50(4), 1098-1111. Retrieved from: http://tinyurl.com/oeabl7 Kramsch, C. (1999). “Teaching text and context through multimedia.” Language Learning and Technology, 2(2), 31-42. Moreno, R. and Mayer, R.E. (1999). “Cognitive Principles of Multimedia Learning: The Role of Modality and Contiguity” Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(2), 358-368. Neves, J. (2004). ”Language awarenss through training in subtitling.” In Topic in Audiovisual Translation, Orero, P. (ed). Amsterdam: John Benjamin, 127-139. Paivio, A. (1969). “Mental Imagery in Associative Learning and Memory.” Psychological Review, 76(3), 241-263. --- (1986), Mental representations: a dual coding approach, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Perego, E. (2003). “Evidence of Explicitation in Subtitling: Towards a Categorization.” Across Languages and Cultures, 4(1), 63-88. Roffe, I. (1993). “Subtitling Training for Translators: from Concept to European Extension.” Journal of European Industrial Training, 17 (10), 22-27.


175

Rundle, C. (2000). “Using Subtitles to Teach Translation”, in La traduzione multimediale: Quale traduzione per quale testo? Bollettieri Bosinelli, R.M., Heiss, C. and Soffritti, M. (eds). Bologna: CLUEB,167-181 Taylor, C. (2003). “Multimodal Transcription in the Analysis, Translation and Subtitling of Italian Films”, The Translator, 9/2, 191-205. Thibault, P. (2000). “The Multimodal Transcription of a Television Advertisement: Theory and Practice”, in Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age, Campobasso: Palladino Editore, 311-385. Films and TV productions: Gervais, R (2005), Extras. (Episode Three, First Series), BBC. Moretti, N. (1998), Aprile. Salvatores, G. (2000), Nirvana. Veronesi, G. (2005), Manuale d’amore.

176


Jonathan Burton The Royal Opera House, London United Kingdom

THE JOY OF OPERA: THE ART AND CRAFT OF OPERA SUBTITLING AND SURTITLING

1. Introduction 1.1 Definitions SUB-titles are translated text displayed below the image, as on a cinema or television screen; SUR-titles are displayed above the stage, in live opera or theatre performances (some opera companies refer to these as ‘supertitles’). Subtitling and surtitling involve differing requirements and techniques. 1.2. Why do we need surtitles? The argument in favour of some form of translation as an aid to comprehension is amusingly set out by Joseph Addison, writing in The Spectator as early as 1712 or thereabouts (quoted in Marek, 1957: 567-569): It is my design in this paper to deliver down to posterity a faithful account of the Italian Opera, and of the gradual progress which it has made upon the English stage: For there is no question but our great-grandchildren will be very curious to know the reason why their forefathers used to sit together like an audience of foreigners in their own country, and to hear whole plays acted before them in a tongue which they did not understand. [...] We no longer understand the language of our own stage; insomuch that I have often been afraid, when I have seen our Italian performers chattering in the vehemence of action, that they have been calling us names, and abusing us among themselves [...] In the meantime I cannot forbear thinking how naturally an historian, who writes two or three hundred years hence, and does not know the taste of his wise forefathers, will make the following reflection, “In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Italian tongue was so well understood in England, that operas were acted on the public stage in that language”.

So nothing much has changed in nearly 300 years of opera-going!

178

Jonathan Burton

2. Subtitling and surtitling 2.1. History of subtitles for opera Subtitles for opera on film have been around almost as long as cinema itself, since the early years of the twentieth century, beginning with ‘intertitles’ in silent film excerpts from operas. (For details of the various technologies, see Ivarsson and Carroll 1998: 9-19.) On television, the first subtitles for opera in the early 1970s consisted of a series of caption boards placed in front of a camera and superimposed on the television picture. This cumbersome arrangement was superseded by experiments with automated electric typewriters, and eventually by the familiar electronic systems in use today (including Teletext, used on the shortlived LaserDisc format). For video or DVD, titles can be cued to timecode with an accuracy of a single frame (1/25 or 1/30 of a second), and software can provide useful information, such as whether a title is flashed up too quickly to be read at a specified reading speed; this is important in opera, as the pace of sung text can be much faster (or slower) than the speed of normal conversation. 2.2. History of live surtitles This is not well documented; reputedly the first live titles in an opera house were in Beijing in 1983 (these were neither sub- nor sur-titles, as they were in Chinese and therefore displayed vertically at the side of the stage), although there are reports of live surtitling (in Danish) in Copenhagen before this date. English surtitles were first used in Toronto, Canada, in 1984; in England, they appeared experimentally at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1986, and were soon taken up by other organisations (Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North, various seasonal and touring companies). Controversially, English National Opera has recently introduced surtitles, even though its company policy is to perform all its operas in English. 2.3. Hardware and software for surtitles Various systems are currently in use, with no widely or internationally agreed ‘standard’ system; each type of surtitling package has advantages and disadvantages. Titles can be projected on a screen, either from slides or electronically via a digital projector, or with presentation software such as PowerPoint™; there are various types of LED screens (i.e. a matrix of illuminated dots), some of which have refinements such as variable brightness, fading, and colour options; and most recently there are ‘seatback’ screens, like those found in airliners, which display the titles on a small screen below eye-level on the back of the seat in front of the user. These were pioneered at the Metropolitan Opera in

The Joy of Opera: the Art and Craft of Opera Subtitling and Surtitling

179

New York, and are now used in Vienna, Barcelona and several other opera houses around the world. They have the advantages of multi-language possibility, directionality (ideally being visible only to the individual user), and the option to be switched off if the audience member does not wish to have titles at all. 2.4. Arguments for and against the use of surtitles for live opera performances In the early days of surtitling, there was much debate as to whether surtitles were necessary or desirable; opera critics and stage directors tended to be opposed to them, audiences mostly in favour. That battle has now largely been won, with only a few critics and directors resolutely against the idea. In the eighteenth century – before electric lighting with dimmers – the more well-to-do members of the opera audience would have invested in a printed libretto with translation, which they would follow during the performance with the house lights up; this is perhaps the nearest equivalent to modern surtitling. Our approach to watching opera has changed in recent decades; we are no longer content just to appreciate the lovely sound of the voices and let the opera wash over us. We now live in a text-dominated society, and audiences expect to know in detail what words are being sung, as they would for the dialogue in a subtitled foreign film; no longer do we sit in the dark for hours at a time, listening to whole acts of Wagner or Richard Strauss with only the vaguest idea of what is actually going on. Surtitles are now therefore considered a necessity (and there will be complaints if they are absent). The approach of opera directors has changed too; with surtitles, the director knows that we will be aware of the meaning of what is being sung, and he (or she) will be less tempted to fill the stage with superfluous action or comic ‘business’ just to keep our attention from wandering. David Pountney, former Director of Productions at English National Opera, once famously compared surtitles to ‘a prophylactic [i.e. condom] between the opera and the audience’; but what are the alternatives? We cannot now sit in the dark and try to follow a printed libretto. Critics hope that we will do our homework, and study the opera text in advance before coming to the theatre; but it would hardly be possible to remember all the words in detail at each point in the action. One alternative is to sing the opera in translation, in the language of the audience; this is a viable policy, followed at English National Opera and (until recently at least) in many German and Italian opera houses – not to mention here in Łódź, where there is currently an ambitious season of operas, all sung in Polish. However, this raises many problems, specifically the difficulty of arriving at a singing translation which follows the composer’s musical line and phrasing, is comfortable to sing (with appropriate vowels on high notes, for instance), and is

180

Jonathan Burton

also an accurate rendering of the original text; these questions are fascinating, but beyond the scope of this paper. One point of contention is the advisability or otherwise of surtitling an opera in the language in which it is being sung; The Royal Opera now provides English surtitles for operas sung in English, as a matter of company policy – for the benefit of “members of the audience who rely on surtitles because of hearing problems, or for whom English is a foreign language” (Royal Opera, 2002); but there is still some opposition to this, particularly from singers and directors, who feel that it is an insult to the clarity of diction of the singers. (The director of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Deborah Warner, requested that English surtitles should not be used at the first few performances; on the opening night there were 47 complaints from the audience about the lack of surtitles, but none at all when they were subsequently reinstated.) Conversely, some composers specifically ask for English surtitles, knowing that the sung words will be difficult to hear; two recent examples are Harrison Birtwistle for his opera Gawain (Royal Opera, 2000 revival), and John Adams for El Niño (London performances, 2000). Even for older works in English (such as Handel’s Semele), it may be a good idea to provide surtitles, since the poetic, archaic and sometimes convoluted language of the libretto may be difficult to disentangle by ear but comprehensible when laid out on the screen. Same-language surtitling presents its own problems, since it will be obvious to an audience if the sung words are not reproduced exactly; omission, simplification or précis will need extra care. 3. Surtitling at the Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, has used a variety of systems, starting with Kodak™ carousels each containing a limited number of 35mm slides. The disadvantages of this system are that the slides are prepared in advance (by an outside supplier), so re-editing of the text is impossible; and that even with three projectors and three carousels, only a limited number of titles can be used in each act of an opera, before the carousels can be changed during the intermission. Also, with such a cumbersome system, the possibility of something going wrong in performance is considerable. The Royal Opera House now uses a custom-tailored digital system (Diamond Credit ROH, by Courtyard Electronics Limited), projecting electronically-generated titles via a digital video projector on to a suspended screen above the proscenium. This is backed up by a limited number of ‘seatback’ screens, relaying the basic surtitle text to areas at the back and sides of the auditorium which do not have a view of the main surtitle screen. Texts (supplied by ourselves or commissioned from a specialist translator, who will be a musician as well as a linguist) are prepared and edited on PCs in the Surtitle Office elsewhere in the building, and then downloaded via the company’s


181

internal IT network to the computer in the Surtitle Operators’ Box, situated behind a window at the back of the Balcony (with a limited view of the stage, but with TV monitors showing the stage picture and the conductor). The Surtitle Operator cues the titles from a marked-up musical score during the performance; the output signal is relayed to the digital projector, high up at the back of the Amphitheatre, and via a separate computerised system to the seatback screens. The Diamond Credit software has great flexibility in the programming of parameters such as luminance and speed of fade (in and out) for each title, and individual letter spacing (kerning) for legibility – an important consideration when the projected letters are a foot (30cm) high. However, the system can only show white lettering on a dark screen; there is no facility for coloured text. There is no multi-language capability (only one language can be projected); if the seatback installation were extended to cover all the seats in the auditorium, this would become a possibility, although the logistical problems would be great. 4. Writing titles for opera 4.1. Source texts Many opera libretti are based on existing plays or novels, so it may help to consult the original source works – Beaumarchais, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Schiller, Racine, Oscar Wilde... – though there may be little of the original left. Sometimes the motivations or relationships of the characters may be clearer in the source work than in the libretto as set by the composer, thus aiding the surtitler’s task. It is also vital to obtain the correct version of the musical score in use for a particular production. Many operas exist in more than one original version, or in conflicting modern editions (Bizet’s Carmen is notorious in this respect); sometimes a director or conductor may exhume an unfamiliar version, or an extra aria, even for a well-known Mozart or Verdi opera. There may be variant readings in different versions of the score, in which the alteration of even a single word may change the sense of a line; or the director may have taken things into his (or her) own hands, and changed the sung text where it conflicts with the production ‘concept’. There may well be cuts and other rewritings, particularly in recitative (rapid sung dialogue between vocal numbers) or spoken dialogue. 4.2. Conventions Each opera company evolves its own ‘house style’ for surtitle texts, but – as with TV and cinema subtitling – there is general agreement on most conventions of layout and punctuation. (For reference, Ivarsson and Carroll 1998 cannot be bettered as a fount of wisdom based on a lifetime’s experience!) The pacing of the

182

Jonathan Burton

surtitles should be kept slow and simple, to avoid distracting the audience. Changes of title should come at musically logical points, when the audience will automatically look up expecting to see a new title. If a text contains much repetition, the title can be left up for a long period if necessary, or unobtrusively repeated later. Self-explanatory greetings, expostulations or lamentations can often be left untitled. Fast exchanges should be combined, simplified, or omitted; if it is too quick to cue, it will be too quick to read. ‘Punch lines’ or vital dramatic revelations should not be anticipated: lines may be split, delayed or faded up slowly, so that the audience does not read the information before it has been sung. Simultaneous lines in ensembles (duets, trios, quartets, quintets...) will require care in deciding which parts are audible or important; this may become apparent only during rehearsals. 4.3. Linguistic flavour Opera libretti tend towards the flowery, archaic and poetic in their vocabulary and grammatical formulations. This is particularly a problem in the operas of Richard Wagner, with their long and cumbersome sentence structures in convoluted German. The titler should try to reduce subordinate clauses to simple sentences, and simplify grammar and vocabulary, keeping to clear modern vernacular unless there are exceptional circumstances. The aim is transparency: we are trying to convey what is being said, not how it is being said – the singer is doing that for us. Slang, expletives and colourful language should be treated with care; for example, nineteenth-century Italian opera is notoriously well endowed with words for ‘bad man’ or ‘transgressor’ (empio, traditore, infido, barbaro, misero, cattivo, rio, mostro, sciagurato...), for which English is hard pressed for equivalents. It is better to play safe and just use ‘he’, rather than alarm or puzzle the spectator with variations on ‘wretch’, ‘villain’ or even ‘bastard’. When the libretto is based on a well-known text, such as a Shakespeare play, the titler must decide whether to quote the familiar lines. Generally, however, the libretto will be so divergent from its literary source that it is wiser to ignore the original altogether. (For example, Ambroise Thomas’s opera Hamlet does contain the line Être ou ne pas être?, but almost nothing else from Shakespeare’s text.) 4.4. Dealing with opera directors and their ‘input’ Before rehearsals start, copies of our surtitle texts are sent out to the (stage) director, his/her assistants, music staff and language coaches; their feedback is noted and referred back to the translator, and changes made to the titles (if we agree with their comments!). We watch rehearsals and note any necessary minor alterations (for example "Here I stand” when the singer is sitting down, or “She’s


183

over there in a red hat” when the character is wearing something completely different). Directors can have very firm ideas of their own about what they want the surtitles to say, so we may be faced with acerbic messages or frosty meetings. Some directors seem genuinely not to know the original text in detail, or think they can contradict it without being noticed; hence tact may be required in dealing with inconsistencies between the surtitle text and what is seen on stage, as we try to find a suitably vague compromise wording (or, at worst, omit some text altogether). 4.5. Pitfalls A problem with live surtitles is that an audience of perhaps two thousand opera-goers will be quick to laugh at anything they find amusing, whether intentional or not. A notorious instance appeared in the surtitles for Puccini’s Tosca at an American opera house; the jealous Tosca is asking Cavaradossi to change the colour of the eyes in a portrait he is painting, and says “Ma fa gli occhi neri” – usually translated as “But make the eyes dark”, but on this occasion rendered too literally as “Give her black eyes”, to the great amusement of the audience. One should not add one’s own jokes that are not in the original text (although all titlers are at times severely tempted). The ideal is a joke which is suggested by the libretto and does not therefore contradict the spirit of the original. There is a classic opportunity in Rossini’s comedy, La Cenerentola; Don Magnifico is dictating a decree, and turns to his eager scribes with the words ‘No, put it in capitals’ (Questo in maiuscole... Bestie! maiuscole) – so the next surtitle obligingly appears as I, DON MAGNIFICO, DUKE, BARON, ETC., ETC., HEREBY DECREE...

– which never fails to raise a huge laugh, although it is implied in the libretto. 4.6. Historical research Some operas have exotic or obscure settings which require some historical research in order to establish the correct spelling of unfamiliar names and places, or even to determine what exactly is going on; if the titler does not understand the text to be translated, then the audience certainly will not. One example is Adriana Lecouvreur, an opera by the late nineteenth-century Italian composer Francesco Cilèa, which has a libretto derived from a French play originally written for Sarah Bernhardt. The characters are based on historical figures: the actress Adrienne Lecouvreur, and her lover, a Polish nobleman named Maurice, Count of Saxony

184

Jonathan Burton

(or Maurice Saxe), who appears in the opera as Maurizio, Conte di Sassonia. At one point in the opera, Maurizio is asked to recount his exploits in “Curlandìa” and “the attack on Mitau”; many hours of sitting in libraries delving in encyclopaedias (in pre-Internet days) finally revealed that Courland (“Curlandìa”) is present-day Lithuania, whose ancient capital was indeed not Vilnius but Mitau. The subtitle text of Maurizio’s recitation begins as follows: The Russian, Menshikov, was ordered to trap me in my palace It was an army against a handful, fifteen to one But like Charles XII at Benderey, I could count neither friends nor enemies...

Already, in these three titles, we have a sheaf of problems: who was Menshikov, and how is he spelt? Is “an army against a handful” some kind of proverbial saying? Who was “Carlo duodecimo” and where was ‘Benderà’ (as the names appear in the Italian libretto), and what was he doing there? (Charles XII was a Swedish king [1682-1718], held captive in exile at Bender or Benderey in Bessarabian Turkey in 1708; he defeated not only a Russian army but also Augustus II of Poland and Saxony, so Maurizio, the Polish ‘Count of Saxony’, would have known what he was talking about.) Is “I could count neither friends nor enemies” another famous historical quotation? And so it goes on. All these problems are very minor, and should not be evident to the audience; but failure to deal with them may result in inaccuracies or ‘howlers’ in the titles. 5. Conclusion The subtitling of opera on television, video and DVD, and latterly the surtitling of live opera in the theatre, are disciplines which have come into being only in the last few decades; they have developed rapidly, both in sophistication of hardware and software, and in subtlety of application. A correct and sensitive approach to the translating of operatic texts will involve considerations and problems not found in other forms of subtitling; finding successful solutions can be hard work, but can also be satisfying. The titling of opera is not only a craft, but also an art – and of course a joy.


185

References Ivarsson, J., and M. Carroll(1998). Subtitling. Simrishamn: TransEdit HB. Marek, G.R. (ed.) (1957). The World Treasury of Grand Opera: Its Triumphs, Trials and Great Personalities. New York: Harper and Brothers. Royal Opera, The (2002). Sophie’s Choice (programme). London: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Limited.

186

Jonathan Burton

Marta Dynel University of Lodz Poland FIRST THINGS FIRST: PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES IN THE TRANSLATION OF FILM TITLES 1. Introduction The film title performs a representative function and can be deemed as a metonymic representation of the whole motion picture, whose content and features are captured in one word or phrase. Accordingly, the title is one of the factors determining whether or not audiences will become interested in a film, want to find some information about it, and watch it eventually. A claim could be ventured that a film title resembles an advertising slogan of a product and will bear its typical features. Therefore, apart from being somehow contextually relevant to the film it represents, a title ought to be formally and semantically attractive. Typically, a title manifests brevity and may exploit various attentioncapturing linguistic mechanisms, such as an idiom or any of the various types of wordplay. Many a title also operates on allusion or metaphor, which act as riddles resolved only by those who do watch a given movie. Thanks to its formal and semantic intricacy, a title is meant to be not only conspicuous but also memorable, thereby earning popularity among audiences. On the whole, the introduction of a title is the first step in the processes of a film’s release (and reception), a step which may provoke social, marketing and economic repercussions. Owing to the phenomenon of cultural globalisation, films, and their titles likewise, need to be translated from the source language (SL) into the target language (TL). The majority of contemporary film productions derive from English-speaking countries, the USA being in the lead as regards the number of annual releases. It can be expected that presupposing a worldwide interest in their productions, authors title their films avoiding any culture-specific elements to avert potential problems in cross-cultural communication. However, languagespecific linguistic forms which pose difficulty in translation into the TL, are inevitable inasmuch as they account for the formal attractiveness of titles. Modern translation studies are preoccupied with functional considerations and the equivalence of the effect exerted upon the source and the target audiences (e.g. Toury 1980, Neubert and Shreve 1992). Therefore, successful translation involves recreating in the TL text those features of the SL text which enable the latter to function for a purpose envisaged by the author of the original text. In the case of film titles, it is not always the recipient’s acknowledgment of the

188

Marta Dynel

informative value, i.e. the semantic content, that is the most significant. Admittedly, what appears to be of more crucial importance is the retention of the attractive and memorable form, as well as the title’s relevance to the film. Often translators encounter linguistic constraints, which demand a considerable degree of creativity on their part. Translators’ efforts are very often assessed not only on the basis of the TL version. This is the result of the intercultural exchange and the flow of information from foreign countries into Poland (the target culture discussed in this article) and the fact that the SL titles are widely available thanks to film magazines and even reviews published in weekly TV and cinema supplements accompanying daily newspapers. As a result, the Polish, as long as they have rudimentary knowledge of English, are likely to be familiar with the original title of a film about which they are reading and can assess the work of the translator, unfortunately sometimes in the person of a distributor. It is an open secret that due to logistic regulations, it is sometimes distributors that are responsible for title translation in Poland. Whether they ask for help and use professional translators’ expertise remains a mystery. The translation of film titles is by no means an easy or uncreative task. Arguably, given the elusiveness of translation techniques in this sphere, very little scholarly work has been done in the field, while the articles which do exist do not appear to manifest any rigid methodology of analysis. The studies are mostly qualitative analyses of examples, dictated by chosen parameters, e.g. the film genre (Berezowski 2004), exotication vs. domestication (Jarniewicz 2000), or are discursive essays (e.g. Rudolf 2000). The present article aims to discuss problems consisting primarily in linguistic issues which translators may have to cope with when deciding upon the TL counterparts of film titles and the types of solutions they adopt. Problems and translation ploys are distinguished and discussed on the basis of examples of English film titles rendered in Polish. The qualitative analysis is conducted on a sample taken from the corpus of over 700 film titles generated from the data of a Polish website devoted to films, filmweb.pl, where titles in both the languages are provided. The corpus does not include the cases of literal translation, relatively unproblematic as it is. The analysis presents the most recurrent problems (puns and other wordplay, lack of semantic equivalent, lexico-syntactic problems, proper names and target-culture factors). It must be highlighted that the categories proposed are a representative sample but are by no means claimed to exhaust the list of all potential linguistic mechanisms or problems occurring in SL (English) and the TL (Polish) titles. The explanation of a film title and the translation thereof will sometimes necessitate a very succinct presentation of the plot. Also, to facilitate the perusal process, literal translations of the Polish versions are provided in brackets. Since they are meant to be the mirror reflections of the Polish versions, they are often awkward or simply linguistically wrong in English.

First things first: Problems and strategies in the translation of film titles

189

Also, it must be emphasised that although evaluative comments are inevitable, they are made not to criticise the translation but to compare the effects generated by both title forms in the light of qualities of a “good” film title, which should exhibit several features, the pivotal ones being conspicuousness, intriguing value, memorability and relevance to the film’s content matter. 2. Puns and other wordplay Puns are linguistic formulations hinged on lexical ambiguity (primarily consequent upon polysemy, homonymy or homophony) which gives rise to (prototypically) two independent interpretations of the text (see e.g. Attardo 1994, Ritchie 2004, Dynel 2009, and references therein). Although puns are analysed predominantly as humour phenomena, in the case of film titles they are not necessarily genuinely funny but certainly witty, since they hinge on the juxtapositions of two relevant meanings conveyed by means of one surface structure. Obviously, the audience can appreciate the relevance only after they have watched the film. Even beforehand, however, they can acknowledge the formal attractiveness of such titles. Apart from puns, other types of wordplay, witty exploitation of the exact surface structure (cf. Dynel 2009), can be found in titles, such as phrasemic distortions (cf. Veisbergs 1997, Dynel 2009) or sound repetition, the most prominent case of which is alliteration (Nash 1985, Alexander 1997, Nilsen and Nilsen 1978, Crystal 1998). Those and many other forms of wordplay considerably complicate the translation process aimed at achieving a similar effect in the TL (Chiaro 1992; Delabastita 1996, 1997) and they immanently entail the strategy of substitution, whose formulations are innumerable. The following subsections exemplify the translation techniques employed in the TL. 2.1. TL pun Flushed Away – Wpuszczony w Kanał (i.e. let into a sewer/idiomatically: let into trouble) Undoubtedly, the most successful, thanks to its similarity to the ST, rendition of puns in the TL entails finding an equivalent pun, especially if similar meanings are conveyed. The above example is the title of the film about a pet mouse that had many troubles but also adventures, having been flushed down in a toilet. Both the language versions of the pun convey the meaning of being thrown into sewerage. Also, each contributes another relevant meaning, i.e. being affected by strong emotions (English) or being in a quandary (Polish).

190

Marta Dynel

2.2. Pun importation with the addition of a punning paraphrase The Ladykillers – Ladykillers, Czyli Zabójczy Kwintet (i.e. Ladykillers, i.e. stunning/deadly quintet) The original title of the black comedy is a pun pivoting on punning relexicalisation (Partington 2006), and thus the literal and idiomatic readings of the word, aptly summarising the plot. Accordingly, the film is about bank robbers who, while preparing the raid from a house nearby, pretend to be musicians and resolve to kill the landlady when their secret is revealed. Perhaps because of the easy availability of the title even to non-native speakers of English, the original punning title was retained but also paraphrased with a very well suited pun contributing two relevant meanings. 2.3. Pun importation. C.R.A.Z.Y. – C.R.A.Z.Y. Importation appears to be the sole choice in this case, since, apart from its conspicuousness and memorability, the original pun hinges on a threefold interpretation germane to the film. The basic denotation of the word, viz. “mad or foolish” is available also to non-native speakers of English with very little knowledge of the language. “Crazy” is also the title of the song, the leitmotif in the film. Thirdly, the word is also the acronym of five characters’ names. 2.4. Punning borrowing Saving Grace – Joint Venture This peculiar TL rendition of the original pun rests on a lexicalised borrowing denoting a type of company, which embraces another meaning, i.e. a marihuana cigarette. The term “joint venture” adequately represents the story of a woman called Grace, who saves herself and her dignity (cf. the original pun) and makes good her late husband’s debts by establishing a plantation of marihuana. 2.5. Allusive pun Reality Bites – Orbitowanie Bez Cukru (i.e. orbiting without sugar) The film “Reality Bites” presents the existence of a few young people facing biting problems typical of the young generation. Some parts of the film coincide with real-life footage recorded by one of the characters. The original pun


191

in the title hinges on reading the second element as either a noun or a verb, leading to two meanings “excerpts of reality” or “reality is painful”, respectively. The wordplay in Polish, however, is built upon the allusion to “Orbit”, a brand of a sugar-free chewing gum, which might be understood as the symbol of the young, and the metaphorical interpretation of the verb “orbitować” (“to orbit”). No cosmic associations can be found in the film. Therefore, in the context of the plot, it should perhaps be creatively interpreted as “to wander around purposelessly”. 2.6 Pun and rhyming Wag the dog – Fakty i Akty (i.e. facts and nudes/acts) The original title, an allusion to the saying “the tail is wagging the dog” was substituted for a rhyming phrase intertwined with the polysemous word, one of whose meanings is relevant to the film theme. Both the chunks of the Polish title aptly present the plot, which revolves around the work of spin doctors, who publicise a war fallacy to divert public attention from a compromising sexual affair of the president-to-be. 2.7. Alliteration and rhyming High Fidelity – Przeboje i Podboje (i.e. hits and conquers) The film “High Fidelity” is about a music shop owner, a music fanatic, who is wavering over remaining faithful to his fiancée, which is implied by the twofold interpretation of the original title. The Polish title is most relevant to the plot, but loses the pun in favour of sound repetition. It is strange that such a translation ploy should have been chosen, because the same English title of Nick Hornby’s book on which the film was based was translated as a pun, “Wierność w Stereo” (i.e. fidelity in stereo), which conveys the ambiguity of the original, i.e. referring to a character trait vs. hi-fi equipment. 2.8. Allusion Shark Tale – Rybki z Ferajny (i.e. the little fish from a bunch) The homophonic pun in the title of the cartoon about a shark is rendered via an allusion to “Chłopcy z Ferajny” (i.e. boys from a mob), the Polish translation of “Goodfellas”. Although the allusive title only vaguely refers to the plot of the cartoon, it is certainly attractive. Unfortunately, a question arises whether this attractiveness and wittiness can actually be appreciated by the young target

192

Marta Dynel

audience. 2.9. Paradox Laws of Attraction – Pozew o Miłość (i.e. a summons for love) Attention-provoking as the paradoxical Polish title may be, it is entirely divergent from the original pun, which captures the plot about two lawyers, who compete in court but fall in love with each other, against all odds. What is surprising, the English pun might have been easily formed in Polish via literal translation, only with the change of the noun from plural into singular (prawo przyciągania) to carry the same effect as the English pun. In addition, such a translation would bear a third interpretation, i.e. “the law of gravity”, not associated with the film but certainly raising the formal attractiveness of the title. 2.10. No-wordplay substitution Hoodwinked – Czerwony Kapturek – Prawdziwa Historia (i.e. Little Red Riding Hood – A true story) Arguably, the least creative and attractive are TL translations which do not rely on any wordplay. In the example above, the punning English title is anchored in a lexical item which describes a pivot of the plot, and if decomposed into “hood winked”, reveals another relevant meaning, viz. “the protagonist made a telling eye signal”. The Polish title may be an adequate synopsis of the plot but is almost entirely devoid of formal attractiveness. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – Porachunki (i.e. getting even) Similar is the case of the pun couched in the distortion of the idiom “lock stock and barrel”, which, as a result, suggests various events and the use of weapons. The Polish lexeme used instead relevantly presents the content matter but loses the formal appeal of the original title. 2.11. One meaning of the pun Snatch – Przekręt (i.e. the con) Another technique of rendering a pun into the TL is conveying only one of the meanings of a polysemous or homonymous title. This is the case of “snatch”, whose Polish translation fails to capture the aspect of “grabbing”, which is also relevant to the film. The translation loses upon the lack of polysemy but is still


193

attractive given the colloquialism. Dirty Harry – Brudny Harry (i.e. not washed Harry) Sting – Żądło (i.e. a sharp organ used as a weapon by insects) Unfortunately, there are also notorious cases of misguided translations of film titles originally hinging on the polysemy of words, but with only one relevant interpretation. Accordingly, “dirty” means “not clean” or “unpleasant”, while “sting” means “sharp organ used as a weapon by insects’ or “con”, the latter meanings being the intended ones. The Polish versions of the two titles above convey the inappropriate meanings of the polysemous words, which must have been wrongly chosen and translated into Polish by people oblivious to the plots of the two films and/or with little knowledge of English. 3. Lexemes with no adequate semantic equivalents Film titles often rely on interest-provoking vocabulary units which do not have exact counterparts in the TL. It is particularly idioms that function as conspicuous titles. Unfortunately, most often they are doomed to loss in translation due to their inter-linguistic incompatibility. Moreover, single words in titles can also be problematic in the translation process in the light of their register or connotations. It is also worth mentioning that some titles operate on creative metaphors resembling riddles, which audiences can solve, having familiarised themselves with the films (Jarniewicz 2000). 3.1. Wordplay Substitution with verbal play appears to be one of the most commendable techniques of translating problematic lexemes, since it guarantees the formal attractiveness of the translated version. Obviously, such a technique inherently entails the use of a different lexeme, and thus a semantic change. The Whole Nine Yards – Jak ugryźć 10 milionów (i.e. how to bite 10 million) The Whole Ten Yards – Jak ugryźć 10 milionów 2 (i.e. how to bite 10 million 2) Given that the English idiom, (“the whole of something, including everything connected”) does not have a Polish equivalent, the title was substituted

194

Marta Dynel

for an informal verbalisation centring on an unconventional use of the Polish verb “ugryźć” in the sense of “snatching”. The TL title can additionally be perceived as a pun, as the basic lexical meaning of verb alludes to the profession (a dentist) of one of the protagonists. The original title of the sequel is wordplay, a distortion of the idiom, bringing to mind the first movie and suggesting even greater extremities of the plot. The Polish translation of this title was focused on consistence, rather than additional wordplay or relevance to the plot, so that the film would be recognisable as a sequel. The Full Monty – Goło i Wesoło (i.e. Nakedly and happily) Another untranslatable idiom (“going the whole way”) was substituted for a rhyming phrase, which wittily represents the plot. Accordingly, the comedy is about a few ordinary men who, in order to make a living, resolve to establish a striptease group. Something’s Gotta Give – Lepiej Późno Niż Później (i.e. better late than later) Yet another colloquial idiom (“a situation will be resolved somehow, it cannot remain a stalemate forever”) was rendered in the TL via an eye-catching word repetition, which may be regarded as a distortion of a Polish saying, “lepiej późno niż wcale” (i.e. better late than never). It is also noteworthy that the two versions of the title convey a similar meaning, implying a long decision-making process in which the characters are involved. The Bandits – Włamanie na Śniadanie (i.e. a burglary for breakfast) Admittedly, it is only because of stylistic reasons that the film title above was not rendered in the TL with its direct equivalent “bandyci”. This Polish word carries pejorative connotations and might have ill-informed the potential audience, suggesting that the film is about brutal perpetrators, while the plot revolves around the misdeeds of two amiable burglars who commit crimes in the morning, which the rhyming title in Polish wittily and relevantly indicates. The Eternal Sunshine on a Spotless Mind – Zakochany Bez Pamięci (i.e. in love without memory/in love head over heels) The long title is a quote from Alexander Pope and can been seen in the first shot of the film. It functions as a metaphor, whose meaning can be grasped only in the light of the whole movie. Due to its length, the phrase would sound


195

particularly clumsy in Polish, especially that the word “spotless” does not appear to have an exact counterpart. The idiom-based pun used instead is most felicitous, given that both the meanings are relevant to the subject matter of the film. The film is about a man who is deeply in love but is abandoned by his girlfriend, desensitised to him as she is. Match Point – Wszystko Gra (i.e. literally: everything plays/everything is a game/everything is ok) The metaphorical title refers primarily not to the point in a game of tennis but rather to a quirk of fate that has a heavy impact on the future events in the characters’ lives. Since the Polish equivalent used in sport commentaries (“piłka meczowa”, i.e. “match ball”) would not perform the metaphorical function, it was substituted for a pun, whose meanings adequately refer to the film. The only common denominator the Polish rendition has with the original title is the allusion to sport, which the protagonists indeed play. 3.2. Lexical substitution and semantic change Hard Candy – Pułapka (i.e. Trap) Owing to the inexistence of an equivalent of the slang term for a “child molested via the Internet”, the title was formulated by dint of an entirely different lexeme, which, unfortunately, appears to be less intriguing than the original title. The Departed – Infiltracja (Infiltration) As Polish appears to be lacking in a euphemism pertaining to “the deceased”, the TL title is formed by an enigmatic term, its meaning being initially difficult to appreciate. In both the versions, the nature of the title-film correspondence can be only appreciated by those who watch the film. Cider House Rules – Wbrew Regułom (i.e. against rules) “Cider House Rules”, originally the title of a novel by John Irving, is a complex metaphor the viewers need to interpret on their own, knowing that the film embraces the motif of illegal abortion. The lexeme “cider house”, used metaphorically, does not have a Polish equivalent and may even be regarded as a culture-dependent element. The Polish translation of the film title is relatively inconspicuous and hardly engaging. It is also noteworthy that title of the book was earlier rendered as a pun, “Regulamin Tłoczni Win” (i.e. the rules of the wine

196

Marta Dynel

press/the rules of the sins’ press), one of whose meanings refers to the original title, while the other most aptly presents the content matter. 3.3. Importation Importing the original version of the title may ostensibly emerge as the least judicious decision on the part of the translator. However, it is actually a very wise one, given that films are released in Poland with a considerable delay, by which time potential recipients will have heard from the media about the most popular, or at least the best advertised, productions. Therefore, as Jarniewicz (2000) notes, titles are frequently imported without any forced domestication. It is thus not always the linguistic untranslatability but sociological and marketing factors that determine title importation. American Beauty – American Beauty Although the title might be literally translated into Polish, the wellestablished status of the Oscar-winner must have endorsed the decision to retain the title in the unchanged form. Pulp Fiction – Pulp Fiction The lexeme in the title above lacks a Polish equivalent, but the foreign form appears to have been perfectly absorbed by the Polish language and culture. It should be observed that importation is also motivated by the fact that the term appears and is explained in the film. “Pulp Fiction” opens with a dictionary definition of the term used as the title. On the other hand, importation as a translation strategy may not be the best choice if films (such as the two below) do not win enough popularity to be perceived as the so-called cult movies. (Obviously, there are movie zealots who will be familiar with all the titles. However, an informal survey conduced among over 90 students testified that while almost all knew the other three titles discussed earlier, hardly anybody was acquainted with these two.) In such cases, transported titles do not perform the distinguishing and descriptive functions. Frantic – Frantic Malice – Malice 3.4. Importation with addition Sometimes translators decide to retain the original title and add a relevant


197

description or literal translation, as a result of which cross-linguistic pleonastic constructions come into being. Clerks – Clerks – Sprzedawcy (i.e. Clerks – Clerks) Speed – Speed. Niebezpieczna Szybkość ( i.e. Speed. Dangerous speed) The two titles are translatable but the choice to retain the original version coupled with an addition must have bee governed by the popularity of the foreign title. Jarhead – Jarhead: Żołnierz Piechoty Morskiej (i.e. Jarhead, the marine) “Jarhead”, a navy-jargon synonym for “a marine”, keeps reverberating throughout the film dialogues but does not have an exact Polish counterpart. Therefore, the translator must have seen fit to retain the term in the title but also to support it with an explanation granting the target audience a full understanding of the title. Ocean’s Eleven – Ocean’s Eleven – Ryzykowna Gra (i.e. Ocean’s Eleven – The Risky game) The retention of the original title in this case was dictated not only by the popularity of the film but also by the fact that the title includes the surname of the protagonist (see section 6), who set up a mob of 11 members to rob a casino. Also, the Polish addition is very useful because it reveals some information about the nature of the film. 4. Lexico-syntactic problems Beside titles containing purely lexical problems, there are also those manifesting syntactic complexity, which cannot be rendered as such in the TL and provoke lexical changes in the translated versions. 4.1. Lexical substitution My Best Friend’s Wedding – Mój Chłopak Się Żeni (i.e. my boyfriend is getting married) The rendition of the genitive construction in Polish would have led to linguistic awkwardness. Therefore, the active verb construction was created

198

Marta Dynel

instead. Also, the translator exchanged “best friend” for “boyfriend” to make the title sound more provocative, otherwise not diverting from the semantics of the original title. Lost in Translation – Między Słowami (i.e. between words/in overtones) Similarly, the literal translation of passive participle would not have yielded a formulation suitable for a film title. Instead, the Polish version was realised via an idiom, which conveys the idea of implicit communication. Although the two versions of the title appear to be different, if not contradictory, both entail the communication process in its two aspects relevant to the film about two frustrated people, who forge a peculiar relationship during their stay in a foreign country. 4.2. Lexical substitution with semantic change The Inside Man – Plan Doskonały (i.e. a plan perfect) The Polish language is certainly not as syntactically flexible as English and does not allow for the use of a noun in lieu of an adjective. Therefore, the original title was substituted for another collocation, which also encapsulates the main idea of a plot, the account of an artful bank robbery. Dirty Dancing – Wirujący Seks (i.e. swirling sex) The original title above embraces a gerund, whose literal translation would sound clumsy in Polish, which is why it had to be avoided. The second problem was the ambiguous lexeme „dirty” with its sexual connotations. The Polish version, however, unnecessarily hyperbolises those connotations, in consequence of which the adjective fails to convey the idea of dancing, as it should do. Jarniewicz (2000) hypothesises that the only parameter that came into play in this case of translation was of marketing nature, given the human’s pursuit of sensation. Paradoxically, the translation may have deterred the target audience from watching the film and granted the title the status of one of the most notorious instances in the Polish history of film title translation. 5. Proper names Protagonists’ names and surnames as well as place names must necessarily be retained in unchanged forms in the translations of film dialogues. They are also generally rendered via importation in titles, inherently foreignising the text (Venuti 1995) but retaining the naturalness of the original cultural context, of which the viewers are aware. Additionally, proper names generally remain unchanged irrespective of whether they are existing ones, with which the


199

audiences may be familiar; or non-existent ones, which may sound exotic even in the TL. 5.1.Importation Fargo – Fargo Notting Hill – Notting Hill K-Pax – K-Pax Jackie Brown – Jackie Brown G.I. Jane – G.I. Jane Johnny Mnemonic – Johnny Mnemonic As the final example of the set above shows, TL audiences unacquainted with the SL may be deprived of some semantic content if such is conveyed via a deliberately coined name. This is why translators may sometimes choose to rid the title of the eponymous surname in favour of a different verbalisation which will convey an understandable meaning, as the example below shows. 5.2. Wordplay Flintstones – Między Nami Jaskiniowcami (i.e. among us cavemen) The denotation of the punning surname (“flint” and “stones”) would not be appreciated by the young Polish recipient. This is why the translator decided to substitute the meaningful surname (but only in the title) for a rhyming expression, which informs the recipient about the film’s content matter. 5.3. Lexical substitution The Life of David Gale – Życie za Życie (i.e. life for life) The SL title above includes the name of the protagonist, but his name is not a cross-culturally known, even if the film seems to have been widely appreciated. Therefore, the Polish version manifests domestication (Venuti 1995) as the original formulation was substituted for a semantically different one, which, contrary to the latter, wittily presents the theme of the film, i.e. the issue of death penalty.

200

Marta Dynel

One Night at McCool’s – O Czym Marzą Faceci (i.e. what men dream about) Similar is the case of the place name (denoting the pub where the action begins and finishes) appearing in the title. Apart from the fact that the English genitive construction would sound awkward if translated into Polish, the place name is not as crucial as to be necessarily included in the title. The Polish title is intriguing and captures in a nutshell the main topic of the film. 6. Target culture’s factor The final section of this analysis focuses on cultural factors germane not to the formulation of original titles, but to the method by means of which those are rendered into the TL in view of contextual factors. 6.1. existing title Boys Don’t Cry – Nie Czas na Łzy (i.e. not the time for tears) Even if not difficult to create, the literal translation of the title was not chosen. If it had been, it would have coincided with a title of another film released in Poland (“Chłopaki Nie Płaczą”). Therefore, the title was rendered with a different phrase, semantically similar but formally different. 6.2. Title doubles There do exist, however, Polish title doubles. Accordingly, new title translations coincide with already existing titles. Titles with double denotations appear not to fulfil one of the primary functions, which is to differentiate the film. In most cases of the TL titles, one is the exact equivalent of the SL version, while the other is lexical substation conveyed by a different formulation. Admittedly, most understandable is the situation when the double comes into being because of the literal translation of the second (more recent) film title, which unfortunately coincides with a title earlier translated via substitution. The translators of the older titles cannot have predicted such doubles to occur, while the translators of the new releases wish the titles to conform to the SL titles, perhaps on the grounds that those are currently popular also with the TL audiences. Guilty As Sin (1993)/The Devil’s Advocate (1997) – Adwokat Diabła (i.e. the devil’s advocate)


201

The Faculty (1998)/They (2002) – Oni (i.e. they) Solitaire for 2 (1995)/The 6th Sense (1999) – Szósty Zmysł (i.e. the sixth sense) On the other hand, the translation via substitution may give rise to a double coinciding with an earlier title, translated literally. Such a translation strategy might be deemed as the consequence of sheer negligence. The example below is, however, excusable thanks to the lapse of years between the two releases, and hence the likelihood that the first film will have been forgotten. Tattoo (1981)/In the Cut (2003) – Tatuaż (i.e. the tattoo) Most surprisingly, one Polish formulation can even correspond to two titles in English, with neither of them being literally translated. Such a phenomenon can only be regarded as the result of translators’ negligence. For Love of the Game (1999)/Bounce (2000) – Gra o Miłość (i.e. the game for love) 6.3. Sequel-related problems Die Hard – Szklana Pułapka (i.e. the glass trap) Die Hard 2 – Szklana Pułapka 2 (i.e. the glass trap 2) Die Hard: With a Vengeance – Szklana Pułapka 3 (i.e. the glass trap 3) Live Free or Die Hard – Szklana Pułapka 4.0 (i.e. the glass trap 4.0) The untranslatable lexeme constituting the title of the first film from the series was substituted for an entirely different lexeme, albeit relevant to the film plot. Unfortunately, the success of the film and the sequels were not expected at that time, which later led to a major difficulty. It was only the parameter of film recognition that drove the translators to retain the title in the three consecutive sequels, despite its irrelevance to the three plots. The sole change introduced was the addition of the dot and the zero in the latest title to signal the computer-related topic. On the other hand, sometimes linguistic constraints can be skilfully omitted, even if the original title was not rendered via literal translation, as is the case of the example below. Thanks to apt vocabulary choice, the Polish translations maintain the logical sequencing of the original titles. Analyze This – Depresja Gangstera (i.e. the gangster’s depression) Analyze That – Nawrót Depresji Gangstera (i.e. the regression of the

202

Marta Dynel

gangster’s depression) 6.4. TL allusion It can also happens that translators render original titles by alluding to already existing film titles in order to convey associations with the former or simply to boost the attractiveness of the new titles. Fierce Creatures – Lemur Zwany Rollo (i.e. Lemur called Rollo) Inasmuch as the comedy “Fierce Creatures” featured many of the actors who had earlier played in the very popular movie entitled “A Fish called Wanda”, translated literally as “Rybka Zwana Wandą”, the translator decided to liken the titles in the TL, as if the second film were a sequel. Nota bene, the lemur is not the main focus of the film but the title is indeed attractive not only because it relies on the allusion to the earlier film but also because it embraces the „l” vs. „r” tongue twister. Colour Me Kubrick: A True... ish Story – Być Jak Stanley Kubrick (i.e. being like Stanely Kubrick) Although the original title of the film cannot be rendered literally into the TL due to linguistic constraints, the translator appears to have found a way round this difficulty by referring to another film. The anchoring idea was that John Malkovich plays the main protagonists in both the films. The TL version is thus relevant to the storyline and brings to mind an earlier title of another film, even if entirely different, “Być jak John Malkovich” (i.e. being like John Malkovich), the translation of “Being John Malkovich”. Sliding Doors – Przypadkowa Dziewczyna (i.e. coincidental girl) The TL title my initially sound awkward given the unconventionality or even malformation of the collocation in Polish. However, it may be read as an allusion to an acknowledged Polish film “Przypadek” (i.e. coincidence), performing an informative function about the film content. Indeed, the plot of the American movie very much resembles the earlier Polish one in that each presents alternative plots determined by a single change in the protagonist’s action.


203

7. Conclusion There appear to be no arbitrary rules determining adequate translation of film titles. The choice of a particular translation technique (e.g. substitution, importation or addition) is only of secondary importance to the global aim, which is to render the title conspicuous, witty and memorable. The most successful translations manifest the level of formal and semantic attractiveness similar to the original title, which does not invariably entail the conveyance of the semantic content or the application of same linguistic means as in the SL. The analysis above aimed to testify that the most frequent technique employed is substitution, which can be carried out in a wide variety of ways. Translators, therefore, enjoy a lot of freedom and may exploit their creativity as long as they take into account several parameters, both linguistic and social, before they decide what title will best advertise a particular film. Ideally, by the time translators have formed the TL titles, they ought to have familiarised themselves with the movies they are working on to derive inspiration. From film translators’ perspective, first things should actually come last. References Attardo, S. (1994). Linguistic Theories of Humor. New York: Mouton. Berezowski, L. (2004). ‘skąd się biorą polskie tytuły amerykańskich filmów?” O. Kubińska and Kubiński, W. (eds) (2004). Przekładając Nieprzekładalne. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, 313-323. Chiaro, D. (1992). The Language of Jokes: Analysing Verbal Play. London: Routledge. Crystal, D. (1998). Language Play. London: Penguin. Delabastita, D. (1996). “Introduction”. The Translator 2 (2), 127-139. Delabastita, D. (1997). “Introduction.” D. Delabastita (ed) (1997). Traductio. Essays on Punning and Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing and P. U. de Namur, 1-22. Dynel, M. (2009). Humorous Garden-Paths: A Pragmatic-Cognitive Study. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Jarniewicz, J. (2000). “Przekład tytułów: między egzotyką a adaptacją”. Kubińska, O., Kubański, W. Wolański, W. and T. (eds). Przekładając Nieprzekładalne. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, 477-483. Nash, W. (1985). The Language of Humor: Style and Technique in Comic Discourse. London: Longman. Neubert, A. and G. Shreve (1992). Translation as Text. Kent and London: Kent State University Press.

204

Marta Dynel

Nilsen, D. and A. P. Nilsen (1978) Language Play: An Introduction to Linguistics. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Partington, A. (2006). The Linguistics of Laughter. A Corpus-assisted Study of Laughter-talk. Oxon: Routledge. Ritchie, G. (2004). The linguistic analysis of jokes. London, England: Routledge. Rudolf, K. (2000). “O przekładalności tytułów”. Kubińska, O., Kubański, W. and Wolański, T. (eds). Przekładając Nieprzekładalne. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego. 487-489. Toury, G. (1980). In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv University. Veisbergs, A. (1997). “The contextual use of idioms, wordplay and translation.” Delabastita, D. (ed). Traductio. Essays on Punning and Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing and P. U. de Namur, 155–176. Venuti, L. (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility. London: Routledge.

In our media saturated world, Audiovisual Translation (AVT) is becoming one of the more dynamic areas in academic exchanges. Intermedia 2007 comes out at a perfect time to meet the growing interest in this field. The book offers a general and up-to-date overview of the wider discipline of AVT, including practices such as accessibility to the media. The innovative and exciting articles by well-known authors offer a comprehensive selection of topics for discussion and reflection that will appeal to students, lecturers, researchers and professionals alike, and indeed to anyone concerned about the way in which translation is carried out in the audiovisual media. Definitely an asset to the field of AVT! I wholeheartedly recommend its reading. Jorge Diaz-Cintas