Working with tradition in Sicily: subtitling La Cardata, a documentary by Giuseppe Angileri

openIl mio lavoro di tesi esplora le varie tipologie di traduzione audiovisiva (TAV), con particolare riferimento al sottotitolaggio. Verranno descritti i vari standard da seguire a livello tecnico e linguistico e l'ambiente lavorativo dei traduttori audiovisivi. Tutti questi principi verranno poi applicati in modo pratico nella traduzione e il sottotitolaggio del documentario "La Cardata", diretto e girato dal regista messinese Giuseppe Angileri. Il documentario si concentra sulla pratica della pesca del pesce spada, attività tipica svolta nella zona dello Stretto di Messina.My thesis work explores the various types of Audiovisual Translation (AVT), with particular reference to subtitling. I will offer an overview of the history and different modalities of AVT. I will then focus on subtitling, describing the different technical and linguistic standards and the professional environment of audiovisual translators. All these principles will then be practically applied in the translation and subtitling of the documentary La Cardata directed and filmed by the Sicilian director Giuseppe Angileri. The documentary explores the practice of swordfish fishing, a typical activity carried out in the area of the Strait of Messina

The Arabic (Re)dubbing of Wordplay in Disney Animated Films

Although audiovisual translation (AVT) has received considerable attention in recent years, evidence suggests that there is a paucity of empirical research carried out on the dubbing of wordplay in the Arabophone countries. This piece of research sets to identify, describe and assess the most common translation techniques adopted by translators when dubbing English-language animated films into Arabic. The focus is on the special case of dubbing Disney animated films into Egyptian Arabic (EA) and their subsequent redubbing into Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), during the 1975-2015 period. The ultimate goal is to ascertain the similarities as well as the differences that set the two versions apart, particularly when it comes to the transfer of wordplay. To reach this objective, the methodological approach adopted for this study is a corpus of instances of wordplay that combines a quantitative phase, which has the advantage of identifying correlations between the types of wordplay and particular translation techniques and results and is then followed by a qualitative analysis that further probes the results and determines the different factors that contribute to the way wordplay is translated. The analysis reveals that, in their attempt to render this type of punning humour, in both Arabic dubbed versions, Arabic translators resort to a variety of translation techniques, namely, loan, direct translation, explication, paraphrase, substitution and omission. The examination of the data shows that achieving a humorous effect in the target dialogue is the top priority and driving factor influencing most of the strategies activated in the process of dubbing wordplay into EA. Dissimilarly, there is a noticeable lower amount of puns crossing over from the original films to the MSA dubbed versions, highlighting the fact that the approach generally taken by the dubbing teams seems to give priority to the denotative, informative dimension rather than the socio-pragmatic one. By shedding light on the intricacies of dubbing, it is hoped that this study would contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the translation of wordplay in the Arabophone countries and, more specifically, in the field of dubbing children’s programmes

Serbian language acquisition in communist Romania

The paper analyzes a unique linguistic phenomenon characterizing Romania’s western border areas for almost a decade, in the 1980s: the acquisition of the Serbian language by Romanians in Timişoara under the communist regime, primarily through exposure to Yugoslav television programmes. It gives a necessarily sketchy overview of private life under communism, notably the situation in the Banat province, whose privileged position as a result of being closest to the West both geographically and culturally was reflected in the acceptance of pluralism and a critical attitude towards authoritarianism. Taking into account the literature on foreign language acquisition through exposure to television programmes, the study is based on a research involving Romanian natives of Timişoara who, although lacking any formal instruction in Serbian, intensively and regularly watched Yugoslav television programmes in the period in question, and on evaluating their competence and proficiency in Serbian, through language tests, narrative interviews in Romanian and free conversations in Serbian. The conclusion is that most respondents, despite the varying degree of proficiency in Serbian depending on their active use of the language before and after 1989, showed a strong pragmatic competence, which appears to contradict the author’s initial hypothesis

Subtitling Gender Stereotypes into English: The Case of Comedy Italian Style

Building on the research framework of the Descriptive Translation Studies, this thesis discusses the ways in which gender stereotypes in the cinematic genre of Comedy Italian Style have been subtitled into English. Developing from the late 1950s to the early 1970s and reaching its climax in the 1960s, the Commedia all’italiana is a cinematographic genre which centres on the satire of a rapidly changing society by targeting booming consumerism, entrenched religious and civil institutions, old gender stereotypes and new sexual mores. Comedy Italian Style therefore constitutes an ideal audiovisual corpus to explore the potential manipulation of gender that can result from the subtitling activity and this study focuses on the seven films released by the Criterion Collection. The analysis pays special attention to the strategies used by professionals when dealing with gender representation, and avails itself of a taxonomy of translation strategies for culture-specific references, modified and adapted for the translation of gender stereotypes. Ultimately, the main goal of the study is to gauge the degree of similarity or discrepancy that can be found between the way gender stereotypes are conveyed in the original and in the subtitled versions, and to assess whether the subtitled versions transmit the same, or different, gender stereotypes. The main questions addressed in the analysis are whether the gender stereotypes are kept, modified or deleted and whether the gender representation in the subtitled versions is similar, reinforced or softened. One of the principal trends highlighted in this thesis is the tendency to maintain source culture and intercultural gender stereotypes through the use of literal translation, although the extent to which other gender stereotypes are deleted, manipulated or even added to the subtitled versions of the films is also noteworthy considering the traditional perception of subtitling as a translation mode which remains closer to the source text

The social relevance of research to practice : a study of the impact of academic research on professional subtitling practitioners in Europe

The relevance of research to practice has long been debated and in recent years, the topic has returned to prominence as academics are increasingly required to demonstrate the impact of their scholarly activity outwith the academy. As the field of Audiovisual Translation is now firmly established as a sub-discipline of Translation Studies and digitalisation has fundamentally transformed subtitling practice, it is timely to explore the contribution that academic endeavours in subtitling make to its professional practice. Work to date has been based on argumentation, with scant empirical evidence and lacking the practitioner’s perspective. This study aims to investigate the extent to which academic research in subtitling impacts on professional practice. This mixed method, participant-oriented research surveyed subtitling practitioners in Europe to generate empirical data on the topic for the first time. Drawing on the sociology of the professions and the emerging field of Research Impact, this thesis deconstructs the relationship between research and practice to provide a systematic analysis of the impact of research on practice, based on the professional reality of subtitling practitioners. It highlights shortcomings in previous conceptualisations of research relevance to practice and the findings move the debate from a falsely dichotomous ‘theory versus practice’ argument towards a revised definition which accounts for a wider, more nuanced understanding of impact. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for academia, practice, industry and pedagogy

The social relevance of research to practice : a study of the impact of academic research on professional subtitling practitioners in Europe

The relevance of research to practice has long been debated and in recent years, the topic has returned to prominence as academics are increasingly required to demonstrate the impact of their scholarly activity outwith the academy. As the field of Audiovisual Translation is now firmly established as a sub-discipline of Translation Studies and digitalisation has fundamentally transformed subtitling practice, it is timely to explore the contribution that academic endeavours in subtitling make to its professional practice. Work to date has been based on argumentation, with scant empirical evidence and lacking the practitioner’s perspective. This study aims to investigate the extent to which academic research in subtitling impacts on professional practice. This mixed method, participant-oriented research surveyed subtitling practitioners in Europe to generate empirical data on the topic for the first time. Drawing on the sociology of the professions and the emerging field of Research Impact, this thesis deconstructs the relationship between research and practice to provide a systematic analysis of the impact of research on practice, based on the professional reality of subtitling practitioners. It highlights shortcomings in previous conceptualisations of research relevance to practice and the findings move the debate from a falsely dichotomous ‘theory versus practice’ argument towards a revised definition which accounts for a wider, more nuanced understanding of impact. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for academia, practice, industry and pedagogy

Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard-of-hearing: A Reception Study in the Turkish Context

This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of subtitling for people with hearing impairments and to improve the accessibility to audiovisual material for hearing-impaired viewers in Turkey. It starts by providing a detailed general overview of the current state of accessibility and includes a detailed discussion on existing legislation, an outline of the limited practice of subtitling for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing (SDH) in Turkish and a profile of the assumed target audience. The ultimate goal of this research is to create a set of guidelines that can be used in the production of quality SDH in Turkey. In order to achieve these aims, the study adopts a product-oriented descriptive approach and first investigates the guidelines applied in countries where SDH has long been established as a professional practice in an attempt to reveal some of the shared values of good practice as well as potential divergences. Following this descriptive analysis, some of the key contradicting practices in the guidelines – speaker identification, reading speed, indication of sound and paralinguistic information – are tested on an audience of (37) Turkish hearing-impaired viewers so as to unveil their needs and preferences within the framework of Audience Reception Theory. Quantitative data on the preferences of Turkish viewers was collected by means of questionnaires filled in by the participants after they had watched different sets of subtitles, each of them testing a different feature. Further qualitative data was obtained through interviews conducted with four participants who took part in the experiment so as to generate more in-depth information regarding their preferences. The results yielded by the statistical analysis of the quantitative data and the interpretive phenomenological analysis of the qualitative data culminated in the drafting of a set of guidelines that can be used in the production of SDH in Turkey