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Chapter 11. English films vs Italian films

A comparative analysis via the Pavia Corpus of Film Dialogue and the WordSmith Tools
  • Raffaele Zago
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Reassessing Dubbing
This chapter is in the book Reassessing Dubbing

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to address issues of comparability between English and Italian film dialogues. A comparison is drawn between dispersed words and n-grams extracted from the original English component, from the dubbed Italian component and from the original Italian component of the Pavia Corpus of Film Dialogue (Freddi and Pavesi 2009a; Pavesi et al. 2014; Zago 2018) via the WordSmith Tools software (Scott 2011). Besides identifying cross-linguistic dimensions of comparability between non-translated films, the paper examines the linguistic profile of dubbed Italian films against the background of both the language of original English films – the source texts – and the language of original Italian films. The findings suggest that film dialogue is a cross-linguistically stable register driven by the need to represent orality as well as by diegetic concerns.

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to address issues of comparability between English and Italian film dialogues. A comparison is drawn between dispersed words and n-grams extracted from the original English component, from the dubbed Italian component and from the original Italian component of the Pavia Corpus of Film Dialogue (Freddi and Pavesi 2009a; Pavesi et al. 2014; Zago 2018) via the WordSmith Tools software (Scott 2011). Besides identifying cross-linguistic dimensions of comparability between non-translated films, the paper examines the linguistic profile of dubbed Italian films against the background of both the language of original English films – the source texts – and the language of original Italian films. The findings suggest that film dialogue is a cross-linguistically stable register driven by the need to represent orality as well as by diegetic concerns.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. The dubbing revolution 1
  4. Part I. Historical approaches
  5. Chapter 1. Undoing dubbing 17
  6. Chapter 2. When the Thief of Bagdad tried to steal the show 41
  7. Chapter 3. Locked into dubbing 63
  8. Chapter 4. Auteur dubbing 79
  9. Part II. New trends in dubbing research and practice
  10. Chapter 5. Audiovisual translation in the age of digital transformation 103
  11. Chapter 6. Are we all together across languages? 125
  12. Chapter 7. Fandubbing across time and space 145
  13. Chapter 8. To Europe with love 169
  14. Part III. The linguistics of dubbing
  15. Chapter 9. More than words can say 191
  16. Chapter 10. Representing orality through questions in original and translated film dialogue 211
  17. Chapter 11. English films vs Italian films 229
  18. Part IV. Identity construction in dubbing
  19. Chapter 12. Sleeping with the fishes 245
  20. Chapter 13. Constructing youth identities in dubbed movies 263
  21. General Index 281
  22. Name Index 283
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.148.11zag

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. The dubbing revolution 1
  4. Part I. Historical approaches
  5. Chapter 1. Undoing dubbing 17
  6. Chapter 2. When the Thief of Bagdad tried to steal the show 41
  7. Chapter 3. Locked into dubbing 63
  8. Chapter 4. Auteur dubbing 79
  9. Part II. New trends in dubbing research and practice
  10. Chapter 5. Audiovisual translation in the age of digital transformation 103
  11. Chapter 6. Are we all together across languages? 125
  12. Chapter 7. Fandubbing across time and space 145
  13. Chapter 8. To Europe with love 169
  14. Part III. The linguistics of dubbing
  15. Chapter 9. More than words can say 191
  16. Chapter 10. Representing orality through questions in original and translated film dialogue 211
  17. Chapter 11. English films vs Italian films 229
  18. Part IV. Identity construction in dubbing
  19. Chapter 12. Sleeping with the fishes 245
  20. Chapter 13. Constructing youth identities in dubbed movies 263
  21. General Index 281
  22. Name Index 283
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