Subtitling quality assessment from a relevance-theoretic perspective
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Łukasz Bogucki
Łukasz Bogucki is Full Professor of English Linguistics and Translation Studies. Formerly Head of the Institute of English Studies at the Faculty of Philology (2012-2020), since 2020 he has been Vice-Rector for International Relations at the University of Lodz (Poland). He is also Head of the Department of Translation Studies and Language Pedagogy. Łukasz Bogucki has published extensively on audiovisual translation as well as computer-assisted translation. He has founded the Polish audiovisual translation research group Intermedia. He co-edits the Peter Lang series Łódź Studies in Language. Apart from audiovisual translation, his research interests are the theory and methodology of translation and interpreting.
Abstract
Assessing the quality of translation is never straightforward and rarely objective. Context, audience, text type, function and lexis are only some of the criteria that need to be taken into account. In the case of constrained intersemiotic translation, subtitling being a prime example thereof, determining universal criteria for assessment is particularly testing. Often referred to as “necessary evil”, audiovisual translation (AVT) needs to avoid distracting the audience, while aiding their comprehension of the audiovisual message. This is particularly the case for additive AVT, for instance subtitling, where the translation does not replace the original, but coexists with it. Relevance Theory, a controversial but flexible approach to communication, may provide a viable framework for gauging subtitling quality. The interplay between relevance, communicative intention and processing effort can help explain the rationale behind the process of decision-making in the practice of AVT. This paper provides a theoretical foundation for the application of Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory to interlingual subtitling, followed by an analysis of selected examples from a large corpus of mostly English-language movies, series and documentaries streamed on Netflix with Polish subtitles. Though the corpus is Polish-centred, the research conclusions are intended to be universal enough to apply regardless of the language pair.
About the author
Łukasz Bogucki is Full Professor of English Linguistics and Translation Studies. Formerly Head of the Institute of English Studies at the Faculty of Philology (2012-2020), since 2020 he has been Vice-Rector for International Relations at the University of Lodz (Poland). He is also Head of the Department of Translation Studies and Language Pedagogy. Łukasz Bogucki has published extensively on audiovisual translation as well as computer-assisted translation. He has founded the Polish audiovisual translation research group Intermedia. He co-edits the Peter Lang series Łódź Studies in Language. Apart from audiovisual translation, his research interests are the theory and methodology of translation and interpreting.
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© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Typographical iconicity and the communication of impressions: A relevance-theoretic perspective
- Reflections of gender and address in language use: The culturally driven motivation of the uses of Spanish oblique pronouns le and lo
- Request realisation strategies in Italian: The influence of the variables of Distance and Weight of Imposition on strategy choice
- The principle of cooperation as an application of the cooperative principle in some recent rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding Romania
- Subtitling quality assessment from a relevance-theoretic perspective
- Pragmatics of proverb translation: The case of English and Persian
- Figurative language and persuasion in CPG sermons: The Example of a Gĩkũyũ televangelist
- Discursive-manipulative strategies in scam emails and SMS: The Nigerian perspective
- In my professor’s eyes: Faculty and perceived impoliteness in student emails
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Typographical iconicity and the communication of impressions: A relevance-theoretic perspective
- Reflections of gender and address in language use: The culturally driven motivation of the uses of Spanish oblique pronouns le and lo
- Request realisation strategies in Italian: The influence of the variables of Distance and Weight of Imposition on strategy choice
- The principle of cooperation as an application of the cooperative principle in some recent rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding Romania
- Subtitling quality assessment from a relevance-theoretic perspective
- Pragmatics of proverb translation: The case of English and Persian
- Figurative language and persuasion in CPG sermons: The Example of a Gĩkũyũ televangelist
- Discursive-manipulative strategies in scam emails and SMS: The Nigerian perspective
- In my professor’s eyes: Faculty and perceived impoliteness in student emails
