Investigating norms in interlingual subtitling: a systemic functional perspective

Abstract

This article is about the investigation of norms in interlingual subtitling from a systemic functional perspective. For this purpose, it is divided into three main sections. The first section discusses some challenges that subtitlers face in film translation. The second section reviews briefly the literature on norms in audiovisual translation (AVT). In the light of this review, the last section proposes the adoption of Michael Halliday's (1994) systemic theory that views language as both communication and a social semiotic system as a viable theory for the analysis of the source text (ST) and the target text (TT) as well as the investigation and discovery of norms in interlingual subtitling. On the basis of a few examples analysed to show how the theory works, this last section first describes the advantages of using the systemic theory. Then, it investigates translational shifts, proposes some norms in terms of normative pronouncements, and concludes the article by providing some suggestions for further research.