Subtitling Strategies Research Articles

Translating Wang Xiaoshuai: From Third Front to Cultural Revolution

Since the turn of the century, there has been an upturn of cultural production about the Third Front (1964-80) within China, yet mainstream knowledge of this military-industrial project and former state secret remains limited, particularly outside of China. This article examines the English-language reception of Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Third Front trilogy” of films, arguing that – despite the moniker – reviewers have tended to marginalise the Third Front and focus instead on the Cultural Revolution proper (1966-68), creating a slippage between these two distinct events. This “translation” of campaign time has occurred because of English-language reviewers’ assumptions about the Mao era and how it should be depicted by Chinese artists, as well as a Chinese-English subtitling strategy in one film that anticipates and encourages these same assumptions about the Mao era. Moreover, despite generally adopting a critical tone towards the CCP, film reviewers have reproduced – and propagated – the judgement of the 1981 Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of the Party since the Founding of the PRC that the Cultural Revolution was “ten years of turmoil”. Consequently, not only do these reviewers enfold the Third Front into the Cultural Revolution, they also homogenise the complexities of the Cultural Revolution. In doing so, film reviewers unwittingly provide the Party with useful assistance in globally disseminating and maintaining its version of PRC history, as well as hindering the emergence of alternative accounts of the Mao era.

THE SUBTITLE STRATEGY OF SLANG TRANSLATION IN 21 JUMP STREET MOVIE FAN SUBTITLES

Abstract Slang is one of the aspects of languages that requires experience and knowledge. Some of the slang is not only for delivering certain meaning but also for identifying or expressing the speaker. Slang also appears in the subtitles of the film. Related to this case, this research aims (1) to describe types of slang that is found in 21 Jump Street movie by Original Film, (2) to describe what subtitle strategies that the subtitler used to translate the slang in 21 Jump Street movie by Original Film, and (3) to describe the relationship between the most widely used subtitling strategies and the type of slang that dominantly appears in 21 Jump Street movie. This research is descriptive qualitative research and the expert is involved in the case to validate the data analysis. There were 145 data collected. 21 data are categorized as "Group- and subject-restriction", 2 data as "Secrecy and Privacy", 67 data as "Informality and Debasement", and 55 data as "Vulgarity and Obscenity." The most common category is the "Informality and Debasement" category. On the second analysis, of these 145 data, the strategy mostly used by the subtitler or translator is the "paraphrase" strategy with a total of 57 data. The type of slang that is mostly found which is "Informality and Debasement" is most dominantly translated using the "paraphrase" strategy. This suggests that slang representing intimacy and informality cannot be translated into the same form and way as the source language. The informality here can mean that the characters in this film see the people around them as close people or even to make strangers closer. The strategy used also influences the meaning contained. Some of them need to be translated not synthetically in order to convey the meaning of the slang.

A descriptive study on Chinese-English subtitling of extralinguistic culture-bound references in Empresses in the Palace

Abstract The American version of Empresses in the Palace (《甄嬛传》) can be seen as a representative example of Chinese-to-English subtitled ancient costume drama, and an effective source of study as to how Extralinguistic Culture-bound References (ECRs) (Pedersen, 2005, 2011) in the source-language subtitles can emphasize and embody the essence of ancient Chinese culture. Based on Pedersen’s (2005, 2011) theory of the Transculturality level of ECRs and through statistical as well as textual analysis, this paper aims to conduct a descriptive study of extralinguistic culture-bound references (ECRs) in Empresses in the Palace and the Chinese-English subtitling strategies of the ECRs. It found that Monocultural ECRs account for a substantial proportion of the ECRs, with eight ECR domains covered, and that the Source Language (SL)-oriented Strategies as well as Substitution are the foremost translation strategies adopted for rendering Monocultural ECRs. Eventually, based on textual analysis of the Monocultural ECRs rendered by the SL-oriented Strategies and Substitution, from the perspective of the target audience’s plot interpretation of the drama, this paper concludes that an obvious disadvantage as a result of the Monocultural ECR’s interlingual subtitling in Empresses in the Palace is that the plot revealed in the target-language subtitles becomes logically incoherent.

Strategies and creativity used by fansubbers in subtitling 'Hot and Young Seoul Trip X NCT Life' to overcome language barriers

This research focuses on the subtitling strategies and creative subtitling used in translating the Korean variety show Hot and Young Seoul Trip X NCT LIFE (2018) into Indonesian and the impact of fan subtitles to overcome language barriers. In order to draw more understanding, qualitative content analysis was applied to describe the subtitling strategies and creative subtitling used by the fansubbers in producing Indonesian subtitles. An online survey was conducted to determine the impact of the subtitling from the fans' perspective. The research findings on subtitling strategies were obtained from 1599 data and showed that there were eight strategies applied in this research. Amid those strategies, transfer with 1434 data found is the most used strategy, followed by imitation, dislocation, expansion, paraphrase, transcription, condensation, and deletion. Then, the creative subtitling used in the work using different colors, fonts, and punctuation that is influenced by field (topic), tenor (relationship), and mode (circumstances). The online survey results prescribe that the subtitles of the fan help the audience overcome language barriers by producing translated audiovisual content into their language. Therefore, the fansubbers' decision to combine subtitling strategies and creative subtitling helps the foreign audiences overcome language barriers

Problems in Subtitling Cultural-Bound Expressions in “Theeb” Movie: A Case Study

Subtitling is a challenging task making subtitlers use precise strategies to improve the quality of the subtitles. This paper aims at identifying the subtitling strategies employed in subtitling the culture-bound terms in the Jordanian movie entitled “Theeb” and assessing the translation of such culture-bound terms. The dialect used in this movie is the Bedouin Jordanian Arabic. So, the translator faced two dilemmas: (1) Understanding the Bedouin Jordanian-Arabic dialect and understanding the dimensions and features of this distinguished culture. (2) Translating this work, which is loaded with cultural expressions, into English. Furthermore, the study deals with the issue of overcoming the difficulties faced by translation of Arabic-language audiovisual dialogues into English. To achieve the purpose of this study, the data was collected from the movie "Theeb" and then analyzed. The results show that not all the subtitling strategies were used. Those left unused were dislocation, condensation, decimation, and resignation strategies. Hence, this article critically evaluates this subtitling, exposing pitfalls and offering more efficient renderings in a practical context.

On norms and taboo

Abstract Within Audiovisual Translation Studies, many studies have been dedicated to the subtitling of taboo words. Most of this research has been restricted to quantitative and qualitative data about translation strategies, with comparably less attention given to translation norms. As norms cannot be directly observed, their investigation raises methodological challenges for empirical studies. This paper proposes a model for the investigation of translation norms by triangulating data on observed regularities in the English to Portuguese subtitling of taboo words in a corpus of movies broadcast on Portuguese FTA (free-to-air, open-signal) television between 2001 and 2015, with questionnaire data on subtitlers’ attitudes towards the subtitling of taboo words on television. The results enable the identification of the most frequent subtitling strategies, their possible motivations, and the relevance of two contextual variables (time period and channel typology). Using the results, a (potential) norm regarding the subtitling of taboo words in Portugal is formulated. However, some of the data, both textual and extratextual, raise the question of whether there is also a competing norm at play.

Subtitling Strategies of Swear Words in Deadpool One & Deadpool Two Film

Subtitles has always been seen as a savior by a lot of people because it breaks all language barriers and made various films and series to be more understandable and watchable. However, the act of subtitling is not as easy as other people think. There are so many restraints in subtitling. One of those restrains is cultural differences in translating swear words. This research aims to obtain data concerning the subtitling strategies of swear words that are found in the subtitles of Deadpool One and Deadpool Two films. The descriptive qualitative method is employed because this research relies on the data obtained from subtitles, which are non-numerical data, and the data analysis will be served descriptively. The results of this research show that according to Gottlieb's (1992) theory, the subtitlers for Deadpool One and Deadpool Two used six different subtitling strategies in each film. The subtitler in Deadpool One tends to use the paraphrase and deletion strategies, followed by condensation, decimation, and transfer, with expansion being the least employed. The subtitler in Deadpool Two, on the other hand, employs deletion as the most used strategy. The subtitler's next most used strategies are paraphrase, condensation, decimation, and transfer; the least commonly employed strategy is expansion.

Subtitling Strategies Used in The Meg Movie Texts

The objective of this study is to explain the reason of utilizing subtitling strategies in The Meg movie texts. The research methodology used in the research is qualitative research design. The data were analyzed by using interactive model of qualitative data management and analysis namely data collection, data condensation, data display and verification and conclusion. The findings of this study revealed that the reasons of translator used subtitling strategies in The Meg Movie Texts consisted of historical circumstances, traditions and the strategy to which is accustomed for both the source and the target viewer. The conclusion that the strategy to which is accustomed for both the source and the target viewer as the focused on translator reason used subtitling strategies in The Meg movie texts.Keywords: Movie, Subtitles, Subtitling Strategies, Translation, Texts

Interpretation Strategies and Interpretation Performance in Interlingual and Bilingual Subtitling: A Case of Iranian BA Translation Students

The researchers in Interpreting Studies have underrated the importance of interpretation strategies in interpretation courses at the university level in the Iranian context. As a mixed-method study, the present study mainly aimed at discovering the subtitling strategies used in interlingual subtitling and bilingual subtitling by translation students. The researchers selected 30 homogeneous students majoring in Translation Studies which were divided into two experimental groups. During the treatment phase, the researchers worked with each group's students on subtitling strategies on a comedy film, following Peterson's (2005) strategies. The results of the post-tests confirmed that there was a significant difference for interlingual subtitling since the students’ scores increased significantly from the mean score of 24.53 to the mean score of 27.66 as well as for bilingual subtitling since the students’ scores increased significantly from the mean score of 22.80 to the mean score of 27.13. However, the results revealed no significant difference in students' interpretation scores for interlingual and bilingual subjects. The results of the interviews also supported the effectiveness of audio-visual activities on oral translation. Translation students should pay attention to how they foster their interpreting competence and find the type of subtitling that is more beneficial.

Netflix's No-censorship Policy in Subtitling Taboo Language from English into Arabic

This paper aims at examining the Arabic subtitles currently used in Netflix, particularly in instances that include taboo language. Because Netflix has a no-censorship policy, identifying the different subtitling strategies that translators working for Netflix have applied, as well as determining whether they are different from those identified as the norm in subtitling taboo language into Arabic, such as omission and euphemism are important questions to be answered in this study. Subtitling strategies applied are identified and analysed while the current subtitling strategies for extralinguistic cultural references (ECRs) are used as a starting point to establish a new, modified taxonomy that represents subtitling taboo language in the two languages and cultures under analysis. The data suggest that two prominent modifications of the current subtitling strategies are needed, which are euphemism and shift in register. The audiovisual material examined in this study consists of five Netflix programs from different genres, in which taboo content and language are abundant. The subtitles of these shows are extracted in order to compile a small parallel corpus to be analysed both qualitatively and quantitively. The results indicate that a variety of subtitling strategies are used to render taboo language into Arabic on Netflix shows, which is different from previous norms that commonly used omission and other forms of euphemising taboo language. Another important result is that nearly half of the taboo language instances are still euphemised despite the no-censorship policy.

Subtitles in virtual reality: Guidelines for the integration of subtitles in 360º content

Immersive content has become a popular medium for storytelling. This type of content is typically accessed via a head-mounted visual display within which the viewer is located at the center of the action with the freedom to look around and explore the scene. The criteria for subtitle position for immersive media still need to be defined. Guiding mechanisms are necessary for circumstances in which the speakers are not visible and viewers, lacking an audio cue, require visual information to guide them through the virtual scene. The aim of this reception study is to compare different subtitling strategies: always-visible position to fixed-position and arrows to radar. To do this, feedback on preferences, immersion (using the ipq questionnaire) and head movements was gathered from 40 participants (20 hearing and 20 hard of hearing). Results show that always-visible subtitles with arrows are the preferred option. Always-visible and arrows achieved higher scores in the ipq questionnaire than fixed-position and radar. Head-movement patterns show that participants move more freely when the subtitles are always-visible than when they are in a fixed position, meaning that with always-visible subtitles the experience is more realistic, because the viewers do not feel constrained by the implementation of subtitles.

FRENCH SUBTITLING STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES USED IN INDONESIAN FILM MARLINA SI PEMBUNUH DALAM EMPAT BABAK

This qualitative research aims to describe the use of subtitling strategies and techniques in Indonesian film Marlina si Pembunuh dalam Empat Babak due to spatial constraints. The corpus consists of Indonesian audio script of the movie and its French subtitle. The theoretical framework is based on Gottlieb’s ten strategies of subtitling, and Carmitroglou’s, Carroll and Ivarsson’s codes of subtitling. The results indicate that out of ten strategies, one strategy, transcription, is not applicable to the corpus. The most common strategies are transfer, then condensation. Transfer is used to translate simple phrases, while condensation is used to translate dialogs with unimportant utterances. It is concluded that the genre of Marlina has a crucial role in the variation of used strategies. The dialogs in Marlina are short and fast tempo. Therefore, in order to create good subtitles, the use of those strategies become essentials for translators.

Audio subtitling: dubbing and voice-over effects and their impact on user experience

ABSTRACT This article reports the outcome of an experiment in which 42 Spanish blind and partially sighted participants were exposed to two diverging audio subtitling strategies: audio subtitles with a voice-over effect and audio subtitles with a dubbing effect. Data on the users’ emotional responses were collected through a tactile and simplified version of the SAM questionnaire and psychophysiological recordings of electrodermal activity and heart rate. The results obtained from both methods do not show statistically significant differences between the two effects. However, results from the questionnaire proved that emotions were induced in the participants calling for more research on the topic and with the application of such methods.

THE SUBTITLING STRATEGIES USED IN INDONESIAN FILM

The social phenomena can be represented through film providing images, soundtrack, voice- over, dance, and some art such as theatrical dan fine art. The Indonesian film played in XXI since 2017 must have English subtitling because the viewers nowadays are not only Indonesian people but also foreigner. The film subtitling is challenging because it is different from the other translation medium. A subtitler requires an appropriate translation strategy. Thus, this study aims to explore the subtitling strategies used in Indonesian film. The approach employed was qualitative with content analysis as a research design. The data used was English subtitling of ‘A Man Called Ahok’ film. The result showed that the dominant substitiling strategies used were repetition indicating the literal translation and addition strategy showing more information given. Respectively, transmutation and detraction strategies are also employed. Former indicated some changes in internal order such as lexical change, passive to active, etc. The latter showed deletion or condension unnecessary or inrelevant information. Substitution strategy is the least used in subtitling which it indicates lack of pharaprasing. This study offers the theoretical and practical contribution on subtitiling strategies especially from Bahasa Indonesia to English. Keywords : Film, audiovisual translation, subtitling, translation strategies.

Pubg Fansubtitle: Strategies and Translation Acceptability

This study analysed the subtitling strategies and the acceptability of Indonesian fan subtitle in PewDiePie PUBG video entitled I WON!!!. There were ten subtitling strategies appearing in the subtitle: Transfer (40.9%), taming (22.3%), deletion (11.3%), expansion (7.9%), paraphrase (5.8%), condensation (2.7%), imitation (2.7%), resignation (1.2%), transcription (0.6%), and decimation (0.6%). The researcher also found four translation acceptability degrees in the subtitle: Ideal-acceptable (80,2%), acceptable (3,7%), unacceptable (9.8%), and failed (6.4%). Therefore, the Indonesian subtitle of I WON!!! is considered as acceptable translation because 83.9% of the translations are acceptable and the effective subtitling strategy to make acceptable translation is transfer.

O Papel da Tradução Intersemiótica para a Legendagem de Séries: Analisando as falas de Lady Violet na 1T de Downton Abbey

Buscando contribuir para as práticas de legendagem, este artigo é um recorte de uma pesquisa desenvolvida no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguagem e Ensino da Universidade Federal de Campina Grande. O estudo analisa a influência da Tradução Intersemiótica sobre a legendagem de falas da personagem Lady Violet Crawley, na série Downton Abbey. Como referencial teórico, utilizamos discussões sobre Tradução Intersemiótica de Plaza (2013), Jakobson (2000) e Frías (2011); de Semiótica de Pignatari (2004) e Pierce (2005); de legendagem por Georgakopoulou (2009), Betz (2009) e Skuggevik (2009); além de estudos sobre a face e expressões faciais como sistema de sinais de Ekman e Friesen (2003) e Darwin (1872), entre outros. Este estudo se insere dentro dos Estudos de Tradução de Multimídia (WILLIAMS; CHESTERMAN, 2002), sendo orientado pelo produto. Os resultados indicam que a tradução intersemiótica gera legendas que são influenciadas, compensadas e/ou complementadas pelo não-verbal em reflexão de estratégias de legendagem que respeitam o quadro semiótico da obra.

Subtitling of culture-bound terms: strategies and quality assessment

Subtitling, one of the under-researched topics in translation studies, is a challenging task faced by many restrictions that compel subtitlers to use specific strategies to enhance the quality of the subtitles. In relation to this, this study aimed to identify the subtitling strategies adopted in subtitling the culture-bound terms in the American movie entitled ‘The American Pie’, and to assess the quality of the translation of these terms. For this purpose, the data was collected from the movie and qualitatively analyzed using Pedersen's (2005, 2011) typology and Pedersen's (2017) quality assessment model. The results of the study showed that most of the strategies proposed by Pedersen were used. It was also found that some other translation strategies were used in the subtitles. Two new subtitling strategies were identified by the author, viz., using euphemistic expressions and using formal language to render informal language. The quality assessment showed that most subtitles are of a good quality, as in few cases there were some serious errors or problems.

Translation of Colloquialisms in the Arabic-into-English Subtitled Film, The Dupes

This study attempts to investigate the difficulties and problems that subtitlers may encounter in subtitling colloquial expressions from Arabic into English. To achieve the main objectives of the study, some authentic examples have been obtained from the subtitled film The Dupes and analyzed linguistically and translationally in order to identify the subtitling inaccuracies, to highlight the subtitling strategies used by the film's subtitler, and to draw other workable subtitling solutions for dealing with colloquialisms or slang language. Analysis isolates three major problems relevant to subtitling Arabic colloquial expressions into English: (1) some colloquialisms, especially those reflecting religious overtones, have been missubtitled, (2) some colloquialisms have been totally dropped out from subtitling (i.e. zero-subtitling), (3) and in subtitling certain colloquialisms, a considerable subtitling loss has occurred. Finally, to resolve such recalcitrant problems and difficulties, the study, in its concluding part, suggests some other practical subtitling mechanisms, other than the ones that have been adopted by the film's subtitler.

Film, dialects and subtitles: an analytical framework for the study of non-standard varieties in subtitling

ABSTRACTIn this article we will propose a framework of multimodal analysis for the study of the translation of linguistic varieties in subtitled audiovisual products. Three dimensions are suggested – textual, diegetic and sociocultural. This will offer tools to identify: (a) the linguistic varieties; (b) how they were recreated in both the source text and the target text; (c) the communicative function they fulfil and how they are multimodally erected; (d) the impact of specific translation strategies and, finally, (e) the possible social mediating factors behind the translator’s decisions. We hope to highlight the need to go beyond the analysis of the spoken mode and to examine the impact of the subtitling strategies both in their multimodal and broader filmic and sociocultural contexts.

Explicitation in Translation: A Case of Screen Translation

Explicitation is a method of clarifying into the TT what is implicit in the ST. Blum-Kluka (1986) formulated explicitation hypothesis and regarded explicitation as a translation universal, i.e. a feature that is mainly existed in the translated texts. So, the present study considers expliciation in screen/film translation, and tries to investigate the most frequent explicitation type and subtitling strategies used by the Persian subtitlers. To achieve the goals of the study, the three original English films subtitled into Persian language were selected and the first 20 minutes of them was studied and compared with their Persian equivalents through sentence-by-sentence comparison. The subtitling strategies were identified and their percentage was calculated. The findings indicated that translation-inherent explicitation was used mostly in subtitling, and expansion was the most frequent subtitling strategy employed by the Persian subtitlers in subtitling English original films into Persian.