Abstract
This article is devoted to the problem of translating bad language in cases when the target audience recipient has direct access to the source text and the impact translational and editorial choices have on the overall meaning of the work. As an illustration of this point, it discusses a voice-over translation, in which case it is common practice to censor vulgarities, mainly by means of under-translating certain phrases, which are considered taboo, or omitting them completely. Such choices are justified for a number of reasons, including protecting vulnerable audiences or reducing semantic density because most taboo words exercise a phatic function. However, in certain cases censoring bad language has an impact on the semiotic make-up of the work and thus, changes the meaning intended by the original author. A good illustration is provided with the analysis of particular scenes from the Canadian drama American Heist.
References
Andersson, L. and P. Trudgill. 1990. Bad language London: Penguin Group.Search in Google Scholar
Baines, R. 2015. “Subtitling taboo language: Using the cues of register and genre to affect audience experience?”. Meta 60(3). 431–453.10.7202/1036137arSearch in Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M. 1986. Speech genres and other late essays (Ed. by Michael Holquist and Caryl Emerson, transl. by Vadim Liapunov.) Austin: University of Texas.Search in Google Scholar
Barthes, R. 1977. Image, music, text (Transl. and ed. by Stephen Heath.) New York: Hill and Wang.Search in Google Scholar
Bednorz, M., P. Fąka, M. Fleischer, M. Grech, K. Jankowska, A. Siemes and M. Wszołek. 2011. Słownik polszczyzny rzeczywsitej (siłą rzeczy fragment) [A dictionary of real Polish (necessarily, an excerpt).]. Łódź: Primum Verbum.Search in Google Scholar
Burridge, K. 2017. “Taboo words”. In: Taylor, J.R. (ed.), The Oxford handbook of the word Oxford: Oxford University Press. 270-283.Search in Google Scholar
Chen, C. 2004. “On the Hong Kong Chinese subtitling of English swearwords”. Meta 49(1). 135–147.10.7202/009029arSearch in Google Scholar
Díaz Cintas, J. and A. Remael. 2007. Audiovisual translation: Subtitling Manchester, UK and Kinderhook (NY), USA: St. Jerome Publishing.Search in Google Scholar
Eco, U. 1976. “Articulations of the cinematic code”. In: Nichols, B. (ed.), Movies and methods: An anthology Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 590–606.Search in Google Scholar
Fernández Fernández, M. J. 2009. “The translation of swearing in the dubbing of the film South Park into Spanish”. In: Díaz Cintas, J. (ed.), New trends in audiovisual translation Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 210–225.10.21832/9781847691552-017Search in Google Scholar
Gambier, Y. 2002. “Les censures dans la traduction audiovisuelle”. TTR 15(2). 203–221.10.7202/007485arSearch in Google Scholar
Garcarz, M. 2007. Przekład slangu w filmie. Telewizyjne przekłady filmów amerykańskich na język polski [Translating slang in film. TV translations of American film into Polish]. Kraków: Tertium.Search in Google Scholar
Greenall, A. K. 2012. “The non-translation of swearing in subtitling: Loss of social implicature?” In: Serban, A., A. Matamala and J-M. Lavaur (eds.), Audiovisual translation in close-up. New York: Peter Lang. 45–60.Search in Google Scholar
Grochowski M. 2008. Słownik polskich przekleństw i wulgaryzmów [A dictonary of Polish swearwords and vulgarities]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.Search in Google Scholar
Hjort, M. 2009. “Swearwords in subtitles: A balancing act”. inTRAlinea Special Issue: The Translation of Dialects in Multimediahttp://www.intralinea.org/specials/article/1718 (Accessed 10 Dec 2018.)Search in Google Scholar
House, J. 1997. Translation quality assessment. A model revisited. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.Search in Google Scholar
Jay, T. 2000. Why we curse: A neuro-psycho-social theory of speech Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.91Search in Google Scholar
Jay, T. 2009. “The utility and ubiquity of taboo words”. Perspectives on Psychological Science 4(2). 153–161.10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01115.xSearch in Google Scholar
Kowalikowa, J. 2000. “Wulgaryzmy we współczesnej polszczyźnie” [Vulgarity in modern Polish]. In: Szpila, G. (ed.), Język trzeciego tysiąclecia [The language of the third millennium]. Kraków: Tertium. 121–132.Search in Google Scholar
Kozloff, S. 2000. Overhearing film dialogue Berkley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar
Leeuwen, T. van. 2005. Introducing social semiotics London and New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203647028Search in Google Scholar
Looby, R. 2015. Censorship, translation and English language fiction in Poeple’s Poland Leiden and Boston: Brill/Rodopi.10.1163/9789004293069Search in Google Scholar
Maliszewski, J. 2007. “Wulgaryzmy – tabu w pracy tłumacza. (Na przykładzie angielskich tłumaczeń intralingwalnych)” [Vulgarity: A taboo in a translator’s work. (On the example of English intralingual translations)]. In: Fast, P. and M. Strzelecka (eds.), Tabu w przekładzie [Taboo in translation]. Katowice, Częstochowa: Śląsk i Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Lingwistycznej. 41–59.Search in Google Scholar
McEnery, T. 2006. Swearing in English: Bad language, purity and power from 1586 to the present. London and New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Partridge, E. 2015. The world of words. An introduction to language in general and to English and American in particular New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315696324Search in Google Scholar
Pinker, S. 2007. The stuff of thought: Language as a window into human nature New York: Viking.Search in Google Scholar
Plewa, E. 2015. Układy translacji audiowizualnych [Systems of audiovisual translation]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Komunikacji Specjalistycznej i Interkulturowej UW.Search in Google Scholar
Roffe, I. and D. Thorne. 1994. “Transcultural language transfer: Subtitling from a minority language”. In: C. Dollerup and A. Lindegaard (eds.), Teaching Translation an Interpreting 2: Insights, aims and visions. Papers from the Second Language International Conference Elsinore, 1993 Amsterdam: Benjamins. 253–259.10.1075/btl.5.36rofSearch in Google Scholar
Stępniak, K. and Z. Podgórzec. 1993. Słownik tajemnych gwar przestępczych [A dictionary of secret criminal slang]. Londyn: Wydawnictwo Puls.Search in Google Scholar
Toury, G. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/btl.4Search in Google Scholar
Zarzeczny, G. and M. Mazurek. 2009. “Co komunikują polskie wulgaryzmy (cz. 1)?” [What does Polish vulgarity communicate (Part 1)?]. In: Ruta, K. and K. Zalejarz (eds.), Procesy rozwojowe współczesnej polszczyzny. Część 1. Najnowsze zjawiska w polszczyźnie [Developmental processes in modern Polish. Part 1. The newest phenomena in Polish]. Poznań: Wydawnictwo “Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne”. 174–183.Search in Google Scholar
© 2020 Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The linguistic construction of sentiment expressions in student opinionated content: A corpus-based study
- Syntax meets discourse: Locative and deictic (directional) inversion in English
- A cognitive approach to semantic approximations in monolingual English-speaking children
- Shifting genres: Rendering bad language in the Polish voice-over of the Canadian drama American Heist
- Verb valency in interlanguage: An extension to valency theory and new perspective on L2 learning
- Introducing corpus-based translation studies
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The linguistic construction of sentiment expressions in student opinionated content: A corpus-based study
- Syntax meets discourse: Locative and deictic (directional) inversion in English
- A cognitive approach to semantic approximations in monolingual English-speaking children
- Shifting genres: Rendering bad language in the Polish voice-over of the Canadian drama American Heist
- Verb valency in interlanguage: An extension to valency theory and new perspective on L2 learning
- Introducing corpus-based translation studies