Spoken language in film dubbing: Target language norms, interference and translational routines
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Maria Pavesi
Abstract
One main feature which distinguishes film translation from other translation types is the need to produce a text which quite closely mimics spoken language. To which degree this is achieved and, more feasibly, which features are involved in doing so deserve in-depth investigation. Taking a small corpus of American and British films translated into Italian, a quantitative analysis of selected instances of spoken Italian associated with the constraints and situational factors of faceto-face communication has been carried out. The results suggest that major syntactic features of spontaneous spoken Italian tend at present to be reproduced in Italian film dubbing from English, with some features being systematically chosen as privileged carriers of orality. At least in some language areas and in the period investigated, dubbed language appears to result from the interaction of target language norms, which play the most significant role, source language interference, to a restricted extent, and formulaic language, a feature that has been widely recognized as typical of the language of audiovisual translation.
Abstract
One main feature which distinguishes film translation from other translation types is the need to produce a text which quite closely mimics spoken language. To which degree this is achieved and, more feasibly, which features are involved in doing so deserve in-depth investigation. Taking a small corpus of American and British films translated into Italian, a quantitative analysis of selected instances of spoken Italian associated with the constraints and situational factors of faceto-face communication has been carried out. The results suggest that major syntactic features of spontaneous spoken Italian tend at present to be reproduced in Italian film dubbing from English, with some features being systematically chosen as privileged carriers of orality. At least in some language areas and in the period investigated, dubbed language appears to result from the interaction of target language norms, which play the most significant role, source language interference, to a restricted extent, and formulaic language, a feature that has been widely recognized as typical of the language of audiovisual translation.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction: Audiovisual translation comes of age 1
- Recent developments and challenges in audiovisual translation research 11
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Part 1. Electronic databases and corpora
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ICT approaches
- Forlixt 1 – The Forlì Corpus of Screen Translation: Exploring macrostructures 37
- Forlixt 1 – The Forlì Corpus of Screen Translation: Exploring microstructures 51
- New tools for translators: INTCA, an electronic dictionary of interjections 63
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Linguistic approaches
- Spoken language in film dubbing: Target language norms, interference and translational routines 79
- High felicity: A speech act approach to quality assessment in subtitling 101
- Inserts in modern script-writing and their translation into Spanish 117
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Part 2. Perception and quality
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Empirical approaches
- The perception of dubbese: An Italian study 135
- Acceptance of the norm or suspension of disbelief? The case of formulaic language in dubbese 149
- Measuring the perception of the screen translation of Un Posto al Sole : A cross-cultural study 165
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Cultural and psycholinguistic approaches
- Taming teen-language: The adaptation of Buffyspeak into Italian 183
- From darkness to light in subtitling 197
- Subtitles and line-breaks: Towards improved readability 211
-
Socio-economic approaches
- The localization of promotional discourse on the internet 227
- Issues of quality in screen translation: Problems and solutions 241
- References 257
- Filmography 285
- Index 289
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction: Audiovisual translation comes of age 1
- Recent developments and challenges in audiovisual translation research 11
-
Part 1. Electronic databases and corpora
-
ICT approaches
- Forlixt 1 – The Forlì Corpus of Screen Translation: Exploring macrostructures 37
- Forlixt 1 – The Forlì Corpus of Screen Translation: Exploring microstructures 51
- New tools for translators: INTCA, an electronic dictionary of interjections 63
-
Linguistic approaches
- Spoken language in film dubbing: Target language norms, interference and translational routines 79
- High felicity: A speech act approach to quality assessment in subtitling 101
- Inserts in modern script-writing and their translation into Spanish 117
-
Part 2. Perception and quality
-
Empirical approaches
- The perception of dubbese: An Italian study 135
- Acceptance of the norm or suspension of disbelief? The case of formulaic language in dubbese 149
- Measuring the perception of the screen translation of Un Posto al Sole : A cross-cultural study 165
-
Cultural and psycholinguistic approaches
- Taming teen-language: The adaptation of Buffyspeak into Italian 183
- From darkness to light in subtitling 197
- Subtitles and line-breaks: Towards improved readability 211
-
Socio-economic approaches
- The localization of promotional discourse on the internet 227
- Issues of quality in screen translation: Problems and solutions 241
- References 257
- Filmography 285
- Index 289
