Abstract
Chinese subtitling of English trailers is essential for marketing foreign films in China, and there is a need to focus on audience reception. Ideal subtitles are expected to provide a necessary aid to the audience but to attract as little attention as possible. Paralinguistic factors like punctuation can influence the audience’s attention and reception. Therefore, this study aims to explore the impact of punctuation on a Chinese audience’s attention distribution between subtitles and visuals via the eye tracking technique. We recruited 62 participants and selected ten English trailers for films to be released. We prepared two parallel Chinese versions for each trailer, one using punctuation marks and the other using spaces. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups to watch the two versions respectively and filled out a questionnaire afterwards to rate their desire to watch those films. Data analyses show that, while punctuation does not have a significant impact on participants’ attitudes towards the films, the version without punctuation causes less fixation on subtitles, implying that omitting punctuation marks can ensure more attention to the visual and hence a better viewing experience.
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Articles in the same Issue
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- Authorities at play in Indigenous language reclamation: tensions and possibilities in the Yucatan Peninsula
- “Purement Amazigh”: investigating embodied ideologies and linguistic practices in Morocco
- The representation of multilingualism in dubbing and subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH)
- The role of social networks in academic discourse socialization: insights from degree-seeking multilingual international students in China
- Attention-consuming or attention-saving: an eye tracking study on punctuation in Chinese subtitling of English trailers
- “I’ll be there for you”: affective production of a “hyper-real” cultural-consumption space
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Authorities at play in Indigenous language reclamation: tensions and possibilities in the Yucatan Peninsula
- “Purement Amazigh”: investigating embodied ideologies and linguistic practices in Morocco
- The representation of multilingualism in dubbing and subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH)
- The role of social networks in academic discourse socialization: insights from degree-seeking multilingual international students in China
- Attention-consuming or attention-saving: an eye tracking study on punctuation in Chinese subtitling of English trailers
- “I’ll be there for you”: affective production of a “hyper-real” cultural-consumption space